When Yang Hongzhang was proud of the spring breeze, Song Yingxing came to lose. On this day, Song Yingxing, the old man, came to Yang Hongzhang with a sad face, and Yang Hongzhang saw that the great scientist was shouting in his heart what made him do this, but Song Yingxing said simply, Yang Hongzhang was not calm.

It turned out that Song Yingxing has been working hard to eliminate the impact of the epidemic since he took office, and as Yang Hongzhang's parent official who has carte blanche to handle the affairs of the prefect's yamen, Song Yingxing is naturally most concerned about agricultural production. Song Yingxing has considerable research on rice production in the south.

He recorded the case of farmers cultivating new varieties of rice and barley in "Tiangong Kaiwu", studied the influence of soil, climate and cultivation methods on the changes of crop varieties, and noticed the mutation caused by the hybridization of different varieties of silkworm moths, and explained that through human efforts, the characteristics of animals and plants can be changed, and he came up with the scientific insight that "the soil veins vary from time to time, and the species are divided with water and soil", which advanced the understanding of ecological variation of ancient scientists in China and put forward a theoretical basis for the artificial cultivation of new varieties.

The movement of life is presented to human beings in an extremely complex form, and how many species came into being has long haunted people's minds. Song Yingxing took a big step forward in science in understanding this issue. When talking about the influence of soil slopes, climate, and Wei Pei methods on the changes of crop varieties, he said: "If rice loses water in ten days, the death period will come, and a kind of early rice will be conjured, and the one that is small but not sticky will be inserted in the high mountains, and it will be different." When talking about the cultivation of silkworm seeds, he pointed out: "If the white male is matched with the yellow female, the use will become a cocoon." "Today's Han family has an early male with a late female, and the illusion is a good seed, and it is different." Here, Song Yingxing is ashamed of the important scientific idea of species variation. In particular, it is worth pointing out that the species variation recorded by Song Yingxing seems to be caused by changes in the environment; Some result from the crossing of different breeds, which involves a deeper understanding of species variation.

As one of the few scientists in this era, his research on agriculture, especially rice, surpassed everyone else, and as a parent official, he was also very competent, he soon found that after the epidemic, there was a large number of ownerless wasteland, so he discussed with the parents of six counties and one state, and after a lot of basic work, he finally decided to open those ownerless wastelands to the people who fled and let them reclaim them. Among them, there are a large number of family members of the people who are building the city wall in the Tianjin Acropolis who are cultivating land nearby.

This was originally a thing to be happy about, but the weather was not beautiful, and after the epidemic, there were already few people, and as a result, there has been no rain since the beginning of summer, and it looks like the wheat in the field will be harvested if it doesn't rain again.

Song Yingxing is a person with a sense of crisis, so it is natural that such a big matter should be reported to Yang Hongzhang as soon as possible.

Yang Hongzhang naturally didn't dare to slack off, so Yang Sheng took dozens of people and followed Song Yingxing around Tianjin Wei. The situation was even more serious than Song Yingxing seemed to say, and the wheat in most of the fields began to roll their leaves. However, to Yang Hongzhang's surprise, the water in the canal is sufficient, and the water level of several rivers near Tianjin does not seem to have dropped much compared to previous years.

"Why don't the people jump into the water and water it?"

"My lord, now more than half of the people in the entire Tianjin Mansion are building the city wall. Even if the manpower at home can be solved by those who don't go, those who are close to the river and farther away can't be taken care of at all. ”

"Sir, have you ever heard of a fire water lifter?" Yang Hongzhang suddenly turned his head and asked Song Yingxing to arrive.

"I have heard that it seems to have been mentioned when I read Mr. Xu Guangqi's writings before, and later it seems that some Western missionaries in Fujian have talked about it."

"Hehe, there's a way, it just so happens that those guys are eating and drinking where I have been eating and drinking all day and they're about to get moldy, let's go back and let them figure out the water lifter, sir, you can also help refer to it." Then I asked the engineer battalion and the other three infantry battalions to start digging irrigation canals in the prefectures and counties, and as soon as the water lifter was ready, I began to carry water, and I asked the gentleman to give instructions to go down, and the people in the villages would either dig their own branch canals or pick them up by manpower when they saw the water in the main canals. In addition, there are a lot of jade wheat and sweet potatoes in the yamen of the General Military Mansion, and I asked Mr. to organize the families of those soldiers to plant some in the nearby fields, first, to reduce water consumption, and second, to make up for the loss of wheat in case there is no harvest. ”

"It's really a treasure chest in the yamen, what kind of talents are there, what kind of treasures are there, and now even jade wheat and sweet potatoes are available." Song Yingxing sighed happily.

"It's not worth mentioning, it's not worth mentioning, I saw a lot of it when I was in the West last year, and then I bought more of these things when they were better stored. However, the north is really suitable for the promotion of these crops, and I would like to ask you to be more distracted in these areas in the future. In particular, Yumai can be planted on hillsides and rock crevices, and its value is relatively high. ”

"Sweet potatoes can't be ignored, I heard that there should be two kinds of Western potatoes, one is called potatoes are white, and the other is red called sweet potatoes?"

"Pretty much, the yields of these two crops are also very high, and it is a good choice to feed the hunger. In short, sir, you have bothered a lot! ”

"It's nature!" Song Yingxing's agricultural research has cost him a lot of effort, and now Yang Hongzhang wants to promote new crops in Tianjin, and he naturally supports it.

As soon as Yang Hongzhang gave the order, three infantry battalions and one engineer battalion were dispatched, and they began to dig along the canals and rivers near the farmland. After Song Yingxing returned to the Tianjin Acropolis, he was surrounded by a group of Western missionaries, which is said to be two physicists and two craftsmen who made machinery, and Yang Hongzhang gave them a death order to get a water lifter as soon as possible, otherwise they would be thrown into the sea.

Especially the two physics sisters Xu's family, they claim to be physicists, but in fact, they are at an average level in Europe, and they know more scientific principles than ordinary people. But after arriving in the Ming Dynasty, they soon discovered that the Ming Dynasty did not have a system at all about these natural science researchers, so they regarded themselves as physicists for the past six months.

Unlike Ma Han and other musket craftsmen, Ma Han and others have always been treated as guests, and after arriving in Tianjin, they even had independent mansions, and the young general of the Ming Dynasty also bought them female slaves, which made these people envious. However, Yang Hongzhang also said that he had a great credit for getting the water lifter, and maybe he would buy them an independent house, and even build a church.

Costa was excited after hearing this, this is the first time he has come to Daming for more than half a year, the former Oriental captain has spoken so well, if he can build a church less than three hundred miles away from the capital of Daming, he Costa should be the first person to come to the East to preach, you must know that it is said that the capital of Daming is more prosperous than the former Roman city.

However, what surprised Costa even more was that Song Yingxing's research on machinery was no worse than his, and this second-in-command, who was said to be appointed by the Ming Dynasty in Tianjin, was a bit like a Roman research madman, more like a scientist than a young general.

So a team of seven or eight people was established, and Yang Hongzhang gave them the task of making sure to get a water lifter before the wheat died. The other Yang Hongzhang himself knows that the so-called fire water pump is a steam engine, but he only knows a general principle, and how to make it is better to let these madmen have a headache.

Song Yingxing, Costa and others did not let Yang Hongzhang wait too long, Yang Hongzhang gave them a lot of inspiration, plus Costa had participated in the production of such a machine when he was in Spain, and soon the first firepower water lifter was successfully made. When it was installed and placed by the canal, the people of the neighborhood came to see the behemoth.

When a large amount of firewood was burned, when the water in the canal was brought up, the onlookers scattered and fled, shouting as they fled and shouted youkai, youkai who can spray water.

However, there were also those who were bold, or who knew Yang Hongzhang, turned back, because they saw that Yang Hongzhang and those who were soldiers did not run, especially those who were soldiers were also ordered to lead water to the canal that had been dug. So they had the courage to come to ask about the situation, and after learning that it was the water lifter that the chief soldier personally ordered to make, they knelt on the ground and shouted, long live the chief soldier, and praised the chief soldier for being worthy of being the apprentice of Taishang Laojun, it is really omnipotent! Yang Hongzhang didn't have the heart to explain this.

In the next few days, monsters were installed along the canals and major rivers such as the Hai River. After the initial panic, the people were told that this was a water lifter made by the chief soldier and the Western monks, and now that there was water in the main canal, the rest was their own diving for irrigation. It is clear that they need water more than the monsters to irrigate their wheat fields. So more people bowed to Yang Hongzhang, and pointed to the sky and said that Yang Dashuai is worthy of being the apprentice of Taishang Laojun, Tianjin is really thanks to him, the bubonic plague just passed is all thanks to this handsome, and now the problem of drought has been solved by the water-absorbing monster subdued by Dashuai!

However, there are joys and sorrows, those whose own land is close to the main canal is naturally happy, but the area covered by the main canal is also very limited, and those who do not cover it gather in the county government every day to complain. Parents and officials in various states and counties are also anxious, although compared with the previous drought in the whole territory, it is now alleviated a lot, but it does not suffer from poverty and unevenness. Those people said conclusively that the magistrate of the county did not give them a report to the prefect's yamen, or that the magistrate of the county received the benefits of a certain township and a certain village, so he specially dug a dry canal for them.

Yang Hongzhang is also helpless in this regard, although the people's soldiers work hard, but there are few people to stomp on, and they are in a hurry, and there are naturally many problems in the planning of the line. In addition to urging Costa and others to work hard as soon as possible, Yang Hongzhang could only force the soldiers to fight day and night in the fields.