"Our small terraced fields here are mainly planted with rice, and in addition, some vegetables, chestnuts, fruits, etc. are planted on the hillside, and other ...... There are only woods and bamboo forests left. ”

"What about potatoes and sweet potatoes? Don't...... Didn't even plant? Lin Xiao was shocked when he heard this.

He still remembers that the last time he attended He Shouxin's wedding, he ate sweet potatoes and potatoes, indicating that these two cash crops have already been introduced to China.

With the agricultural technology at that time, the yield per mu of rice was only about 500 catties, and the yield of wheat in the north was only more than 300 catties per mu.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes, as well as corn, are easy to survive and high-yield cash crops, not only yielding several times that of rice and wheat, but also growing well in the north to Ganning and Hainan in the south, especially resistant to cold and drought.

Historically, since the early Qing Dynasty promoted the large-scale cultivation of potatoes and sweet potatoes across the country, it once fed a large number of people, so that the population of the early Qing Dynasty still increased significantly during the cold Xiaoice River period.

For this reason, there are also some Manchu fans of later generations, who simply used this as a basis to blow out some "prosperous Kangqian era" and tried their best to praise their merits.

Is that really the case?

In fact, what is the credit of Kangqian, in the early Qing Dynasty, Kang, Yong, and Qian, in addition to Yongzheng was relatively diligent in government, the other two did not say that they repeatedly went to the south of the Yangtze River to travel to the mountains and rivers to work hard, and they could not talk about Qingming at all in terms of government affairs, and many of the policies introduced have turned back the clock of history.

It can be said that it was the potatoes and sweet potatoes that saved the people of Li at that time, and also covered Kangqian's face with gold.

Speaking from the heart, compared with those Manchu emperors, although most of the Ming emperors since Zhu Di are very bastard and willful, there are still quite a few who can open their mouths and govern with virtue, or make great efforts to govern and reform bad governance, but unfortunately, the strange thing is that these people often have a short life in power.

Even the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen, although he made a mess in the military and economy during his reign of 17 years, he also vigorously advocated the absorption of Western learning, advocated the development of science and technology, and did not hesitate to use national strength to promote the "eastward expansion of Western learning", which is very worthy of affirmation.

The development of science and technology is a comprehensive project. For example, the development of firearms is by no means an independent project, it needs to be multidisciplinary and synchronous, first of all, the large industrial system, such as the development of gunpowder chemistry, metallurgy and forging of metal manufacturing, and the development of a series of process technologies, to put it in detail, even need to include the development of processing tools such as turning, milling, drilling machines, etc., but the most important thing is to rely on the breakthrough development of mathematics, physics, chemistry and other theoretical systems.

In this regard, the Chongzhen Dynasty did relatively well, first, it did not exclude the introduction of Western scientific knowledge, physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc., which were relatively large-scale, and the government also maintained a relatively encouraging attitude; Second, the military also encouraged the purchase, study, and introduction of advanced firearms and manufacturing technologies and related theories from the West, and even brought in an entire Western mercenary army to train the Ming army and include it in the formation and put it into battle.

History, often regrettable, from the year before the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1643, even in the West, on the eve of the scientific and technological revolution, its scientific development is still very unclear, and the progress of practical science and technology is extremely slow.

At this time, science and technology in China has a very good development environment, if the political situation is stable, there is still a good chance to dominate the world again.

Newton and Leibniz had not yet been born, Boyle and Pascal were mere furry children, Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment, and Descartes had emigrated to the Netherlands for twenty years to escape persecution by the Church......

In terms of practical technology, for example, the flintlock pistol, which was already widely used in the seventeenth century, was equipped with the entire European army for more than 200 years, and it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that it was obsolete by the breech-loading fixed gun.

As late as 1840, the artillery used by the British army to attack China was still black powder breech guns, but at that time, the artillery technology of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had regressed significantly, and the range, accuracy and mobility were far inferior to those in the early Qing Dynasty...... Until the mid-to-late nineteenth century, the West had used advanced breech-loading firearms, and even threw Manchu China out of 800 miles......

At that time, Xu Guangqi, the representative of science and technology in the Ming Dynasty, served as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites of the Chongzhen Dynasty and a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, and the second assistant of the cabinet, and was a very popular minister.

This person devoted his life to the study of mathematics, astronomy, calendar, water conservancy, etc., and wrote diligently, especially proficient in agriculture, not only authored works such as "Chongzhen Almanac" and "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", but also worked hard to translate Western scientific and technological books such as "Geometric Originals", "Taixi Water Law", and "Surveying Law".

It is a pity that history did not give the Han people a chance to save themselves, and the Ming Dynasty was already in danger, and the hungry and screaming peasants were already wandering around to rebel.

A year before Chongzhen's martyrdom, Isaac Newton, a great scientist and founder of classical physics, was born in a homesteader family in Lincolnshire, England.

In the third year after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the German mathematician, natural scientist and philosopher Leibniz was born in 1646...... While the West finally entered the heyday of the scientific and technological revolution in the decades following the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the scientific and technological development of the Manchu Dynasty began to slump and even regress significantly.

Throughout the successive emperors of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, not only did none of them be politically clear, but even "Qingfeng is illiterate, why do you flip through books?" Such verses can be used as an excuse for the great revival of literary prison and the purge of Han readers.

Moreover, they boasted that they were invincible in the world because they had won the world on horseback, especially after the rebellion of the three feudatories was destroyed and the frontier was pacified, they felt that there was no more opponent at home, and no longer paid attention to the casting and research and development of artillery, so they were so arrogant that they regarded firearms as a burden and put them on the shelf, and implemented very strict control of firearms.

Later, it was discovered that the Portuguese firearms in the Qianlong collection of the Forbidden City were more advanced than those equipped by the Qing army during the Xianfeng period in the late Qing Dynasty.

Not only has there been no progress in the social productive forces of China as a whole, but on the contrary, their scientific and technological strength has regressed by a large margin, and their understanding of the world situation has become even more ridiculously ignorant.

Lin Xiao remembered reading an article before crossing over, which mentioned that during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Italian priest Matteo Ricci had compiled a world map for the imperial court in China called "Kunyu Wanguo Quantu", which had clearly marked the locations of the world's countries, including South America.

However, since the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, there have been strange things, some of the knowledge that the Ming Dynasty already has, in the Qing Dynasty actually became a legend of "absurd Mokao", the Qing Dynasty Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong three important ministers Zhang Tingyu compiled the "History of the Ming Dynasty", although there are "Italy", "Franco", "Helan" and "Luzon" and other four European countries related to the name, but also only known in the "Atlantic". Later, after being "verified" by officials of the Ministry of Rites, it was even said that there was only a record of "Western Zoli Country" and no "Atlantic", so this "Atlantic" information finally became "absurd......

In the 52nd year of Qianlong, Ji Xiaolan was responsible for editing the "General Examination of Qing Dynasty Documents" and "Siyi Examination", which actually believed that the Ming people were willing to be deceived by the insults of Matteo Ricci and his ilk, and that Matteo Ricci's translation of Europe as "Europa" was suspected of exaggeration; The translation of Asia as "Asia" has even more sinister intentions, and the meaning of "Asia" has the meaning of "times", "ugly", "fine", "micro", etc., which shows that this is clearly insulting the Chinese people...... I really don't know what Ji Xiaolan is touting on TV all day long?

By the time of the First Opium War, Emperor Daoguang did not think of asking people to ask where Britain was until he was defeated, but the Ming Dynasty's "Kunyu Wanguo Quantu" had already clearly marked the location of Britain and the route to China.

The Daoguang period was already so miserable, but in the Guangxu period, there were even bigger jokes.

At that time, Xu Tong, the powerful minister, never believed in the existence of Spain and Portugal, believing that it was a nonsense name made up by Britain and France, and the purpose was to use a false name to fraudulently claim more reparations at the negotiation table, which was a manifestation of the insatiable greed of Britain and France...... The efforts of Matteo Ricci, Xu Guangqi and others during the Ming Dynasty were really in vain.

(End of chapter)