Xia Ji wanted to learn farming, because she wanted to combine some of her previous bits and pieces of modern agricultural knowledge with the current situation of ancient cultivation, to see if she could find a place to improve, if she could not increase the yield, it would be difficult to improve the situation of famine and poverty. Chen's low crop yields allowed her to see room for improvement, which people at the time were unaware of.

Xia Ji summoned several maids around her and asked, "Girls, which of you has ever planted rice?" ”

At this time, Xia Chan stood up and said, "Mrs. Huixia, I have planted rice at home. ”

Xia Ji said to her, "Okay, you will be my farmer in the future." ”

"Master, how dare a slave be the master's master." Xia Cicada said in fright.

"Xia Chan, the capable person is the teacher, you don't have to be nervous." Natsuki comforted her.

"Yes, master."

"You first talk about how to grow rice, from fertilization, sowing, to harvesting, one by one."

"Yes, master. After each harvest, the land is burned, one to make the fields more fertile, and the other to burn the seeds and eggs of weeds. Xia Cicada said.

"This is called slash-and-burn, right?" Natsuhime asked.

"Master, that's what it means. In the spring of the following year, the fields were ploughed, water was released, and seeds were sown. ”

"Wait, sowing directly in the field?" Natsuhime asked.

"Yes, master, spread the rice seeds evenly in the field."

"Isn't it about breeding, raising seedlings, and then planting seedlings?" Natsuhime asked.

"Master, what you said is not what our Chen Guo did." Xia Cicada said.

"What if the seed is sown before it sprouts and rots in the ground? Isn't it going to be wasted? Xia Ji said, thinking that it is no wonder that the output is low, so extensive production.

"Master, you are right, many seeds do not germinate when sown, which is related to the weather after sowing seeds. It is inevitable that the seeds that rot in the ground will be a large part, and when there is a sudden bad weather, all the seeds will rot in the ground, so they can only be replanted. Rice seeds grow naturally after germination, and when they reach the height of chopsticks, the rice field is flooded to half of the position. Xia Cicada continued.

"Why is the water being released at this time?" Natsuhime asked.

"Because rice seedlings and grass grow at the same time, but rice seedlings grow faster than weeds, that is, higher than weeds, irrigation at this time drowns the grass." Xia Cicada replied.

"Oh." Natsuhime remembers that the rice paddies she saw when she was a child were all neat and free of weeds.

"When weeds are drowned, the seedlings grow faster, and in the summer they will head up, bloom and produce rice, and they will be ready to harvest in the autumn." Xia Chan said again.

"You're saying that you don't care about flooding the grass until the harvest? No need to apply fertilizer? Xia Ji remembered that she had learned about crop fertilization in middle school biology class, what nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - the knowledge of leaves, fruits and stems, that is, nitrogen fertilizer to grow leaves, phosphate fertilizer to grow fruits, and potassium fertilizer to grow rhizomes, but there was no chemical fertilizer in ancient times, and fertilization may not be possible.

"Yes, master. Just let the seedlings grow on their own. Xia Cicada said.

"When will the water in the field run dry?"

"Usually there is no water when the flowers are raised, but the ground is still moist."

"Oh, I see."

Xia Ji listened to what Xia Cicada said and summed up the reasons for the low yield of rice: the primitive farming method of fire cultivation and sowing instead of deep ploughing and transplanting caused soil compaction and fertilizer to be easily absorbed by the root system, and the way of sowing seeds instead of breeding caused rotten seeds and insufficient fertilization.

Xia Ji thought again: because it is sowing, the field cannot be soaked in water, so the germination of rice seeds and the germination of weeds are synchronized, and if the method of planting seedlings in the paddy field after raising seedlings is used, the grass seeds do not have the environment to germinate in the flooded rice field, so there is no weed production from the beginning.

Xia Ji suddenly remembered that it was the Bronze Age, and there was no iron plough before there were no iron tools for farming tools, and there was no way to talk about deep ploughing; Expensive and rare copper, except for the creation of much-needed weapons and currency, has no reason to make it a massively used agricultural tool. In addition, the hardness of copper is lower than that of iron, so it is not suitable for making agricultural tools.

How to use the existing conditions to increase the yield of rice and other crops has become a problem that Xia Ji needs to face. Xia Ji asked Jiang Lu to open two plots of land in the backyard of Zhuyuan, another suburban palace in Xia Mansion, to plant rice, one of which was planted with traditional methods, and the other was to experiment with planting according to her own ideas, and then compare them when harvesting.

To solve the problem that the land can not be deeply cultivated and the fertility is insufficient, a small piece of land can be solved by manpower, but it is obviously not suitable for large-scale promotion, the purpose of Xia Ji's experiment is to make a method that can be promoted, and the way to think of is to use biological methods to improve, that is, to stock loaches, so that they can not only loosen the soil, but also increase fertility, loaches can also be eaten to improve life, killing three birds with one stone.

But Xia Ji knew that this was just her own idea, and whether she could actually operate it or not had to master the habits of loaches to succeed.

Xia Ji summoned Xia Cicada again and asked her if she knew about the loach.

"Yes, master. I've caught loaches. Xia Cicada said.

"Then do you know how to raise loaches in rice fields?" Natsuhime asked.

"Master, do you mean that the rice fields have been changed to loaches?"

"No, I mean that there are loaches in the rice fields, and the rice planting and loach raising are carried out in the same field at the same time."

"Master, it's not that there is no pond to raise loaches, why do you need to raise them in rice fields?" Xia Chan didn't understand what Xia Ji wanted.

"Can you find loaches now?" Xia Ji didn't want to explain more to her, she felt that the ancients had no concept of deep ploughing and loosening soil.

"The loaches are hibernating in the dirt, and they won't end their hibernation until the weather is warm, and it's almost now; Loaches hibernate in winter, and when it is too hot in summer, they will not come out in the mud to escape the heat. Xia Cicada said.

"Can you dig up the loaches now?" Natsuhime asked.

"You can dig next to the pond." Xia Cicada said.

Xia Ji asked Xia Chan to find Jiang Lu, and asked him to find a large vacant room in the backyard of the suburban palace - Zhuyuan, find someone to dig a pit in it, tamp the soil inside and fill it with water, and then asked Jiang Lu to find more people to dig loaches, put them in this indoor pool to stock, put in the bait in the aquatic plants that loaches love to eat, raise and maintain the room temperature of this room, to help the loaches grow and reproduce.

Jiang Lu didn't know why the hostess wanted to raise loaches, but since he had given the order, he could only carry it out, and completed the construction of the indoor loach pond according to Xia Ji's requirements, and sent people to dig out more than a hundred hibernating loaches in the mud field by the pond.

Xia Ji asked Jiang Lu to arrange a special person with experience in fish farming to manage and feed these free-range loaches, and strive to let them breed earlier.

Natsuki herself wasn't sure if it would work, but she knew that if she didn't do it for fear of failure, she would never succeed.