In the evening of that day, a small dirt pit was dug in a clearing dozens of steps outside the mulberry grove of the Black Husband family, and inside was a black dung heap that was half a person high.

There are chickens, ducks and dog dung that two children in the family picked up with backpacks on their backs, large pieces of cow dung from ploughing cattle, and even some dung...... Seeing that many flies were already attracted and flying around, there were also many villagers watching from afar, pointing and snickering at the Heifu family's pile of dung here.

Holding a wooden shovel, he was shocked by the smell and showed a suspicious expression.

"Brother Zhong, can this really work?"

"Do as I say, yes." As he spoke, Heifu poured the dry manure full of dustpans on top of the dung heap, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, the development of agriculture is really inseparable from fertilizer.

Thousands of years ago, when agriculture first appeared, the whole world was slash-and-burn. The ancients drilled wood to make fire in the forest or meadow, and burned all the plants, leaving only ashes all over the ground. Then use a stone knife and a wooden stick to poke holes in the ground, throw the seeds into them, and then bury them with your feet.

This is the end of slash-and-burn farming, and there is no longer any management, allowing drought and flood diseases, insects and weeds to invade. It's so extensive, but it's also artificially cultivated. However, the yield is very low, and it is good to harvest seven or eight buckets of millet per mu.

Now it seems that the ashes of "slash-and-burn" farming are the original fertilizer, but the ancients did not understand this. After a few years of planting on a piece of land, when the land is exhausted and the harvest is decreasing, they abandon the land, move with their clans, find a new site, and then cultivate new land in the same way, and so on......

The three generations of tribes in Tang Yuxia are always running around, and Yin Shang has moved the capital five times, all of which are related to this way of nomadic farming. At that time, the farmers did not have the concept of relocate, and it was the norm to run away after planting. In this way, the cultivated land in the Central Plains has gradually expanded.

In the Spring and Autumn Period of the Western Zhou Dynasty, after the role of manure was discovered, the real settled farming had the possibility to be realized, and the Chinese savages cultivated the land with ploughing, and the well field system came into being, until the ravines pulled out by the ox ploughshares were completely torn......

Nowadays, in rural areas, dung is the most common thing, on the roadside, in the ditch, in the toilet, outside the pig and cattle pens, everywhere. The people of the city would frown when they saw it, but the peasants would not dislike its filthiness, because the people of this era had already understood that fertilizing with manure could relieve the fatigue of the soil and make the crops grow more pleasantly.

As Mencius said more than 100 years ago: "What the cultivator gets, one husband and one hundred acres, and the dung of one hundred acres, the farmer eats nine people." This means that one person cultivates a hundred acres of land, fertilizes all of them, and produces enough grain to feed nine people! Even the ashes burned during the slash-and-burn period are not as fertile as manure.

Therefore, in the eyes of farmers, "dung" is not a derogatory term that can be discarded at will and cannot be put on the wall in the rhetoric of literati and doctors, but a precious treasure.

The reason why cattle are so expensive is not only because they can play the role of several laborers during spring ploughing, but also because in other seasons, cattle are also a continuous supply of fertilizer machines, and a soak of cow dung is enough to fertilize a large piece of land.

Rural slang: Dung is real gold, urine is silver. Although vulgar, it makes perfect sense. Don't think it's dirty and filthy, this is the truth of the material cycle, like the sun, moon and stars high above, eternal and unchanging.

However, despite the invention of fertilization, the yield per mu has only increased to a few tens of catties. Among them, there are kinds of crops and cultivation techniques, but from Heifu's point of view, a big reason for the low yield is that the farmers' use of manure in these years is too extensive!

So after finishing the pile of dung in front of him, Hefu leaned against the door of the house and explained the principle of composting in a heartfelt manner.

What uses microorganisms and fungi to decompose organic materials into humus and other truths, he himself does not understand, let alone explain it from the bottom of his heart.

Hefu can only cite the simplest examples around him.

"Uncle did you find such a thing in previous years, the same use of manure to fertilize crops, use fresh human and animal manure, and urine and feces that have been soaked in my toilet for a long time, who is more vigorous?"

As soon as he said this, he suddenly realized: "There is indeed such a thing, and the crops watered with toilet manure seem to be really better!" ”

"Yes!"

Heifu slapped his palm: "Although fresh manure, or dry manure, has fertility, it is limited after all, and it is necessary to use some means to ...... their fertility Unleash it completely. It is a method to put it in the pit of the toilet to rot, and it is also a way to put it in the pit outside for a period of time, which is manure and composting. ”

In later generations, even a child in the countryside could understand the truth, but in the Warring States Qin Dynasty, it was an initiating achievement. Because composting seems simple, it can be recorded in agricultural books, at least until the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, following the stepping on the mill, Heifu once again threw out the idea of being hundreds of years ahead of the times.

"Just follow what Brother Zhong said, give it a try!" Listening to what my brother said seemed to have some truth, my eyes lit up and I became interested, and there was nothing more exciting for a farmer than to make his crops more productive.

At this time, a few neighbors passed by and greeted Heifu and the three brothers kindly.

With Heifu as the pavilion chief, he was promoted to the top of the building, and even the whirlpool was appreciated by the county officials and went to the county seat, and Heifu's family became the hottest family in the sunset, and the neighbors were respectful to them.

However, this did not prevent a few stubborn old farmers from laughing at their family to their faces, looking for manure everywhere to play with, and planting Zhuzhe in the field.

Because it does look silly.

The village is closed and ignorant, and any new affairs are initially regarded as jokes, and only after seeing the real benefits and tasting the undoubted sweetness will they change their views and follow with envy.

This is true of cattle ploughing and composting at present, and the same is true for building roads and bridges, sending children to school, and going to the city to work in later generations, the densely populated cities are always the engine of new ideas, while the marginal villages are always the tail end of the tide of the times, suffering the most and benefiting the least.

So Heifu was not angry, but smiled and said loudly: "The second and third sons are optimistic, until October, when Tiandian evaluates the yield of crops per mu, my family will definitely be able to get the 'most'!" ”

The neighbor farmers didn't take it seriously, thinking that Heifu was joking, and happily answered a few times and walked away.

Heifu was serious, and he said that in addition to the traditional human manure and manure, even straw and weeds can be piled into it together, and they can slowly decompose into humus.

"This year, I will definitely make my family's grain yield the highest per mu to scare them!"

After that, because they felt that the pile of manure was too dry and not easy to ferment, the three brothers also untied their belts on the spot and sprinkled urine on the dung pile......

The silver arcs and falls into the pile of real gold, making them truly a farmhouse treasure with a touching smell.

"These things are all listened to the Guanzhong merchant, I don't know how long to pile the best, first pile up for a month and then apply it to the ground, remember to turn and turn more, and often breathe. Don't forget, uncle, help me take care of those Zhuzhe! When it comes to autumn, I'll be of great use! ”

After leaving this sentence, Heifu lifted his belt, went home to wash his body, ate a few mouthfuls of food, said goodbye to his mother, and hurriedly packed his bags and went back to work in Huyang Pavilion again.

The county officials of the Qin State have a rest on five days, and the head of the fighting food pavilion like Heifu has a rest on ten days, and he generally saves a month and rests for three days.

When leaving the sunset, looking back at his wide field that was neatly plowed, Heifu couldn't help but sigh:

"Ploughing in spring, ploughing in summer, harvesting in autumn and hiding in winter, it is really an unchanging life for a hundred years."

But sweet sugar cane and stinky compost, these two things are added to life, maybe it will bring a different taste to this autumn......

Although spring has just arrived, Heifu is already looking forward to the arrival of autumn.

……

"The third day is in 耜 (sì), and the fourth day is toe-raised. With my wife and son, 馌 Bi Nanmu (yè), Tian Qi to the joy ......"

Time flies, and the last days of January pass in a busy spring ploughing amidst farming songs.

February is still busy, it is the solar term of rain, peaches and plums begin to bloom, orioles chirp, eagles spread their wings in high school, cuckoos walk through the fields, reminding the people not to miss the agricultural time......

Heifu also stepped up his patrols, mainly to see if there were any lazy idlers in the various places in the security area. The Qin State attaches great importance to spring ploughing, and in January and February every year, even the battle of the guards is canceled, but whenever there is a project, priority is given to conscripting prisoners, merchants, and sons-in-law to do it.

Fortunately, except for some trivial things, there were no major cases in Huyang Pavilion throughout February, perhaps because of the reputation of the black man for capturing the tomb robbers, which deterred those young people. For small cases, the head of the Heifu Pavilion does not have the responsibility of mediating the shortcomings of the parents, and just sends them to the township and hands them over to the villagers.

During this period, he also took advantage of the rest to go back to his home, and together with Zhen and Zhen, four hired farmers, and two servants who were assigned to help, he diluted the composted manure and applied it to the field.

Because their family has a lot of land, and a hundred acres of it are fallow. At the suggestion of Heifu, he applied 100 acres with compost, 100 acres with manure from the toilets, and 100 acres with ordinary fresh cow and horse manure...... Good to make a comparison.

In this way, the peaceful and leisurely life was not until the late spring of March, when duckweed began to grow in the pond and the spores of the crops in the fields gradually poked out, and a new case was assigned to the village......

What Heifu didn't expect was that this seemingly small case left an indelible impression on him......

Unforgettable!