Steel is the country!

Although in this era, no one mentioned this sentence, but when Qian Lei mentioned that iron is fundamental, it is undoubtedly a warning word for this era, and this is the first time that iron is placed in the fundamental position.

When the times could not understand the importance of iron, his words were undoubtedly ahead of the times. When everyone was thinking about the supply of iron in Jiangbei because of the few figures he gave, Zhu Mingzhong had already nodded in agreement.

Perhaps people in this era can't understand why steel is the foundation of industry, but Zhu Mingzhong knows the importance of steel. There was even a time when steel was elevated to the status of a nation after the Industrial Revolution – "steel is the state".

Without steel, there is no country!

The same is true now!

The Industrial Revolution needed a lot of steel!

In fact, when Qian Lei mentioned iron, Zhu Mingzhong's mind immediately came to mind Hanyeping Company, which is known as the starting point of China's modern iron and steel industry, and thought of Daye Iron Mine.

Compared with the congenital deficiency of Liguo iron ore, Daye iron ore not only has large reserves, but also easy to mine, if it is developed normally, only with Daye iron ore ore output, can meet the needs of China in the future for a hundred years, and it is just accompanied by the riverside, easy to transport products, can directly use the Yangtze River convenient water transportation, its products are transported to all parts of the country, in terms of current traffic conditions, there is no better iron ore than Daye.

If Daye Iron Ore can be obtained, Jiangbei's iron production will easily exceed tens of thousands of tons, so there is no need to worry about iron supply, and it can even be used as a base.

"Daye!"

At the moment when Qian Lei's words fell, Zhu Mingzhong said.

"Bring Daye over!"

Seeing that everyone seemed puzzled, Zhu Mingzhong deliberately explained.

"Daye is located on the riverside, and it has a smelting furnace as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, where Sun Quan made swords and Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of Sui, minted money. In the Song Dynasty, the three townships of Wuchang were merged with it to build a county, and the meaning of "Daxing furnace metallurgy" was taken and named Daye County. When Zhu traveled with his master, he once passed through Daye County, and there were exposed ore seedlings on the mountains near his county, such as Jianshan, Lion Mountain, Elephant Trunk Mountain, Jianlin Mountain, Longdong and Tiemenkan, and the master once said that there were no less than 100 million trillion iron ore buried here, and the burial was very shallow, and it could be directly exposed for mining. and then make use of the abundant water power along the river to produce ......"

If there is a "fake master" what is the biggest advantage, is that some things can be pushed to this master, after all, although there is a saying that "Xiucai knows the world without going out", but this does not explain many things, but with the master who wanders the rivers and lakes, it can also be explained why he understands the general topography of the world, and even the local minerals.

And in this regard, everyone seems to have long been accustomed to it, after all, for them, from the coal mines in Xuzhou Lieshan and other places, to the Liguoyi Iron Mine and other minerals, the master of Jingluo seems to pay special attention to this when he travels the rivers and lakes, so Jiangbei can benefit a lot from it.

Now that Jingluo has mentioned Daye's iron ore, there must be iron ore in the local area, and it is worth mining.

"Jing Luo, send the sailor to support Shao Sima, I don't think there is anything in the down, ask Shao Sima Suo in Daye to open a mine and smelt iron in the local area, but also for the sake of anti-Qing plan, and in the next opinion, since this Daye is located between Wuchang and Jiujiang, and along the river bank, because of the remote terrain, there are naturally many bandits, if it is mining iron ore, Jing Luo needs to send at least a battalion of soldiers there to ensure the safety of the iron mine......"

As soon as Qian Lei's suggestion came out, everyone was stunned for a moment, and then understood his thoughts, Daye's position is extremely delicate, if the garrison is in Daye, and Daye builds forts and fortresses, once it breaks with Zhang Cangshui, Daye is used as a barrier, it is natural to divide its forces in two places, so that they can be broken in the future.

Although this suggestion seems to have hidden evil intentions, and everyone can see Qian Lei's thoughts, but surprisingly, no one objected, and even when Qian Lei made this suggestion, Zhu Mingzhong also looked at everyone, and he was also waiting for others' answers.

The reason why they are waiting for this answer is simple, their answer directly represents the position they stand on, if they are officials of the Ming Dynasty, then they will stand on another position, and if they are officials of Jiangbei, then they will put the interests of Jiangbei first.

Qian Lei, who seemed to unintentionally threw out this "line", at this time, chose to be silent, unlike other people who regard him as a courtier of the Ming Dynasty, Qian Lei has positioned his position very simply from the beginning - he is Zhu Mingzhong's confidant, Zhu Mingzhong's courtier, as for the Ming Dynasty...... Well, Zhu Mingzhong is Da Mingzhong's courtier, but he is not!

And today, the sentence he put forward through this incident is almost equivalent to letting everyone choose a position.

"In my opinion, it is naturally not appropriate to send troops directly, if it is so requested, it will inevitably cause Shao Sima's dissatisfaction!"

Gu Yanwu, who broke the silence, only made everyone's eyes on him when he spoke out against it, and when everyone thought that he was speaking out against it, they heard his words turn around.

"Therefore, this mine can be open-minded, as for sending troops, but after the mine is finished, we can use the excuse to eliminate the local bandits a little bit, so even if we build a fortress and fort there in the end, Shao Sima can't say anything......

Gu Yanwu's words made a sentence immediately appear in Zhu Mingzhong's mind - quietly enter the village, don't shoot.

That's the way to do things!

"Ning Ren's plan is very good, it is the way to hold it seriously! I think it's settled! ”

After setting this tone, the remaining questions are naturally simple, nothing more than how to talk to Luo Lun, which naturally has a special person in charge, and finally told how many sailors can be sent, before everyone left the public house, at this time, it was late, after leaving the public house, Zhu Mingzhong returned to the back house, walking between the corridors and pavilions, occasionally meeting some young maids, including many beautiful girls, and in terms of aesthetic standards, their appearance is obviously not very in line with the "phoenix eyes and half-bent amber" of this era, The red lips are a little cherry. Looking back and smiling, Hibiscus is not as good as the traditional standard of beauty".

What is good at the top will be very bad at the bottom.

This sentence of the ancients is very reasonable, but under the influence of aesthetics in the 21st century, Zhu Mingzhong's aesthetics are more inclined to "willow eyebrows and apricot eyes, red lips and white teeth, and lovely everywhere", so most of the maids in this mansion now meet this standard.

"If it continues like this, it will definitely be uncontrollable in the future......"

Looking at those young and beautiful maids, Zhu Mingzhong secretly thought to himself, but it seems that now he is only staying at the stage of basic needs for women, and he is not the slightest obsessed with it. Of course, this is also because of the relationship between the more numerous affairs.

People are tired and out of breath, where is there still time to indulge in women?

With such a wry smile in his heart, Zhu Mingzhong had returned to the back house, but he did not enter the back house directly, but went to the small garden of the back house, which served as his testing ground and has always been a place for him to cultivate good seeds.

When I came to the experimental field, I looked at the wheat plant planted in the vat, and now the wheat was almost ripe, and under the moon, the ears of wheat were already golden.

"In a few days, it's almost ripe......"

Zhu Mingzhong looked at this wheat plant and muttered to himself, and there was inevitably some expectation in his eyes.

"A few more years of breeding, maybe ......"

Just as Zhu Mingzhong was talking to himself, suddenly, the words of the woman behind him made him look back, it was not someone else, it was Shi Zhao. Now she can be said to be Zheng Ling's best friend, the reason why the two are close is simple, Zheng Ling also likes to practice martial arts and practice swords, and she is the same, plus Shi Zhao also lives in the mansion, so the relationship between the two is completely a matter of course.

"Hey, you're here looking at your baby wheat again,"

The reason why Shi Zhao said this is because, according to his orders, the wheat plant was covered with a screen to prevent it from being eaten by small birds.

"I don't know what is going on with you, what is the precious place about this wheat, so that you will come here every day, I think, in your eyes, this wheat is afraid that everything is expensive......"

Thinking of the good sister's vague complaint a few days ago, after competing with Zheng Ling in the martial arts arena, Shi Zhao couldn't help but say sarcastically.

"Miss Shi, you don't know anything,"

With a smile on his face, Zhu Mingzhong looked at Shi Zhao, now he knew her identity, she was Chongzhen's daughter - Princess Zhaoren, out of respect for Chongzhen, he had always shown great respect for her.

"This wheat plant is not an ordinary wheat ......"

Without waiting for Zhu Mingzhong to finish speaking, Shi Zhao smiled.

"I know, I heard Ah Ling say that last month, when you accompanied her out of the house to worship the Buddha in the temple outside the city, when you saw this wheat plant in the field, you immediately dug it up, and then went back to the house directly, and then planted it here."

It's okay not to mention this matter, but when it comes to it, Shi Zhao's tone seems a little unhappy, and he has the momentum of wanting to vent his anger for his friend.

"Miss Shi, if you look at this wheat plant carefully, what is the difference between it and ordinary wheat?"

Pointing to the wheat plant, Zhu Mingzhong did not explain anything, but asked Shi Zhao to take a closer look.

No matter how you look at it, Shi Zhao didn't see anything special about this wheat.

"You see, its ears are one-thirds longer than ordinary wheat, and the stalk is much shorter, the spike length means that it produces three percent more than ordinary wheat, and the short stalk means that it is more resistant to wind and lodging ......."

When explaining the difference between this wheat plant, Zhu Mingzhong did not think that Shi Zhao could understand, in fact, as an engineering student, he did not study breeding, and he only knew a little about the breeding of improved varieties, but he knew some knowledge of "pure breeding", although it was just hearsay, but he did not mind cultivating improved varieties through long-term experiments.

"If this wheat is specially cultivated, the next generation of wheat seeds will also inherit its advantages in terms of ear length and high yield, short stems, etc., and use a few years or even more than ten years to cultivate this good seed, then the yield of this wheat will increase by two to three percent in the future, and I estimate that the yield should be increased ......by about 20 catties."

"It's only twenty pounds, not enough for one person to eat......"

Shi Zhao's words made Zhu Mingzhong ask with a smile.

"It's twenty pounds per acre, what if the wheat in the whole world increases by twenty pounds per acre? Although there are not many of this kind of wheat, there are no less than 10,000,000 mu in the north, if all of them use this good seed, won't it increase the yield by 200,000 catties? ”

"Ahh There are so many! ”

Zhu Mingzhong's explanation made Shi Zhao suddenly surprised.

"And there could be more!"

In Shi Zhao's surprise, Zhu Mingzhong explained.

"In fact, what is the most important thing in this kind of place? Good land and bad land are important, but seeds are also very important, and the "Qi Min Yaoshu" published in the Northern Wei Dynasty has a discussion on the necessity of grain selection, seed selection methods, seed storage, and purity. It can be seen that the ancients knew the necessity of this selection, this selection is selection, and more importantly, breeding, the principle of this breeding is to select the best of the best, eliminate the weak and retain the strong, and just rely on the selection of seeds, relying on the appearance of the selection is not good, if you want to select the seeds, you must directly select from the ground......"

On that day, Zhu Mingzhong found this excellent wheat plant in the wheat field in the suburbs, and the reason why he immediately picked it back was to be able to purify and breed it by using the "pure line ear row breeding method", but this is also learning, he needs to learn through continuous practice to master the breeding knowledge that only knows the fur in middle school biology, and apply it to practice.

"First select the best-performing plants from the ground, then breed them, and then select the best-performing plants to breed, so that one generation, two generations, three generations, continue to breed by eliminating the weak and leaving the strong, and finally, stabilize its advantages, so that the good seed will naturally be cultivated."

Although he only knows a little about the "pure line breeding method", or even only understands the fur, Zhu Mingzhong knows very well that the fur has been ahead of the times for at least two hundred years.

Looking at Shi Zhao, who seemed to understand whether he understood or not, Zhu Mingzhong said in a serious tone,

"When the time comes, the government will gradually spread this good seed to the whole country, and the increased production of 200,000 catties of grain will be enough for millions of people to eat.

After saying this, Zhu Mingzhong looked at Shi Zhao, who seemed to be thoughtful, and asked with a smile.

"Miss Shi, now, do you think this wheat plant is extremely valuable?"