Xu Guangqi's words were very plain, but the shock that brought to Zhu Shun and Sun Yuanhua was very huge.

For the country and the people, with the world in mind.

Eight words are easy to say, and there are a few people who can really do it, and there are few people who are willing to work hard for these eight words, let alone do it.

After saying this, Xu Guangqi left here on crutches, followed by Sun Yuanhua, who was carefully waiting on the left and right.

Zhu Shun continued to study the second-generation steam engine and the steam distribution mechanism of the slide valve, as long as this device could be studied, it could not only reduce coal consumption by three-quarters, but also increase the efficiency of the steam engine to an astonishing 96 revolutions.

Further refinement of the second-generation steam engine, the closer to the high-pressure steam engine.

At noon, the people who delivered the food used to be kitchen women, but today I don't know why, Song Shihui personally brought the wooden plate over.

Zhu Shun took the black and thin Song Shihui to sit on the steps of the corridor in the study, pulled the food inside, and glanced at the silent senior disciple: "Shihui, if you have anything to say, just say it." ”

Song Shihui put down the half-eaten meal, picked up the cigarette pouch pole placed on his waist, and lit a pot of tobacco: "Teacher, Xu Shangshu's idea is good, but there is a problem involved. ”

"Even if potatoes are promoted, Xu Shangshu's ideas will be in vain."

The eldest disciple Song Shihui has always been silent, and today he is so talkative, it seems that he has really studied agriculture in recent years.

It's not just cotton.

Zhu Shun also put down the half-eaten meal, and said with a very serious look: "Go on." ”

Waiting for the teacher's attention, Song Shihui, who has never shown any emotions, smiled mellowly: "Pasta." ”

"Teacher, my disciple has been studying potatoes as early as last year, and he has also eaten potatoes, and potatoes can indeed be eaten as cooking after they are cooked."

"But for ordinary people who have eaten pasta for thousands of years, it is okay to eat it for a day or two, or a year or two, but it is definitely unacceptable to only eat potatoes for a lifetime."

"Therefore, potatoes can only be a supplementary food, not a staple food."

The difference between the word complementary food and staple food, the meaning is too different, supplementary food can only be used to relieve famine in disaster years, anyway, there is no food, you can eat anything.

If this problem is not solved, even if the yield of potatoes is high, it will be difficult to be fully promoted, after all, the common people still crave pasta from the bones.

However, since the eldest disciple Song Shihui mentioned this problem, there must have been a solution to it, and Zhu Shun really attached importance to it: "Hui'er, go on." ”

Song Shihui smiled more mellowly, smoked three puffs of dry tobacco in a row, and continued: "It's actually very simple, just turn potatoes into flour. ”

"If it is made into flour, the common people can make potato flour into flowers, fry and cook, fry Qin juniper, sugar cake, steamed buns, Hu Louzi and other winter wheat flour can be made, and potato flour can be made."

Speaking of this, Song Shihui's words turned again: "But the problem of flour is very difficult. ”

"The yield of potatoes is too high, and the cost of making flour in the way of artisanal workshops is too high, and the price of flour will go up again."

"As a result, the price rises to about the same level as winter wheat flour, and the point of growing potatoes is lost."

"If every family has a pair of grinding discs, this problem should be solved, but it is a problem for ordinary people to even eat, where is there money to buy grinding discs, they can't afford to buy them at all."

Song Shihui suddenly put down the cigarette pouch pole in her hand, and her black and yellow face became much more serious: "There is also the most critical problem, which hinders the promotion of potatoes." ”

"The common people rarely own land, and the land of the Ming Dynasty is basically concentrated in the hands of the bureaucrats and gentry."

"The bureaucratic squires don't worry about eating and drinking, collecting rent, either grain or money, and they will never ask for potatoes like chicken ribs."

Song Shihui suddenly clenched her fists, as if she was reporting to her mentor the results of her hard work this year: "So, as long as the problem of potato flour is solved." ”

"Potatoes can complete a qualitative leap from supplementary food to staple food!"

Zhu Shun knew that his eldest disciple didn't seem to speak, but he had been holding his breath in his heart.

The second disciple Song Shiyi invented the shuttle loom and realized the initial industrialization of weaving.

The third disciple Jiao Miao studied the extraction method, which opened the beginning of modern chemical industry.

Even Zhao Doumi, the fourth disciple who had just arrived not long ago, also researched the Dongfeng Type 1, which was amazingly powerful.

He, as the eldest disciple of his brother, has not had any research results for a long time, although Song Shihui also knows that choosing agriculture is not an overnight thing, and it needs to be studied persistently for a long time.

But he also has a youthful spirit and wants to make some achievements.

After Song Shihui finished speaking, his mood rose a lot, and he took a puff of dry cigarette and said: "Just like the initial industrialization of the cotton textile industry, only the initial industrialization of flour milling is carried out. ”

"Only then can potato flour be produced in large quantities, and potatoes can be transformed from supplementary grains into staple grains."

The black and thin Song Shihui stood up, the whole person was much more energetic, looked at the vast sky and said.

"Only then can we realize the mass production and cheapness of food!"

Zhu Shun thought of something more far-reaching, thinking of a field that went beyond research and involved temple politics.

Since then, the grain has been controlled.

Zhu Shun remembers a sentence said by a world-class strategist, which Zhu Shun agreed with very much.

Whoever controls oil controls all countries, and whoever controls food controls humanity.

It is impossible to control the land, the land is all Ming's, but mastering the flour is equivalent to indirectly controlling the land.

Mastering flour is equivalent to mastering the price of grain.

And the person who masters the flour can only be himself, or his own people, because there is a precondition for mastering the flour, that is, the steam engine.

Song Shihui finished saying that sentence in high spirits, sat next to his teacher again, smoked a few puffs of dry tobacco and said: "Teacher, about the structure of the steam mill, the apprentice has been researching it, and it has been successful, and the second-generation steam engine is missing." ”

"With the second-generation steam engine, one steam engine can drive 25 pairs of grinding discs, and it only takes seven days to produce 432,000 catties of flour."

"A month is 1,728,000 catties of flour, and if the output of potatoes is calculated at 2,000 catties, you can mill 864 acres of potatoes in a month."

"It's just a mill."

When Zhu Shun heard the last sentence, his first reaction was not to be shocked by the output of the steam mill, but to deeply understand that Song Shihui said that potato flour is a big problem.

With the high output of a steam mill, it can grind more than 800 acres of land in a month, and I am afraid that there are more than 800 acres of land in a village.

This is still a steam mill, if it is replaced by a handicraft workshop, I don't know that it will be milled until the year of the monkey.

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