Although I fought with my daughter-in-law many times last night, I talked for a long time. But Guan Yi still woke up on time at the beginning of the hour.

Washing, in the narrow yard of the backyard of the Taishou Mansion, I practiced the knife for a while. At this time, Qian Qiang also got up. The husband and wife have used morning food. Then Chen Qiang went to see her little tiger, and Guan Yi called Guan Xiaoqi and a dozen other domestic servants who grew up together to walk to the mountainside behind the Taishou Mansion together.

"I haven't been home for more than ten days, there's nothing wrong with the field, right?"

"Rest assured, the brothers are all on duty these days. In the middle of the night, there were people crouching. No one could come near it except the birds of the sky. ”

"Well, what is buried in this soil is enough to change the food dilemma of the Han Dynasty for thousands of years. You can't be too careful. ”

The two were chatting, but a figure hurriedly ran on the mountainside, and when they got closer, Guan Yi recognized it, this was another son of his Guan family, Guan Datou.

Everyone could see that Guan Datou's huge head was covered with sweat, and the expression on his face was extremely frightened. Guan Yi and Guan Xiaoqi couldn't help but feel nervous: "What's the matter?" ”

"Steward Seven, oh, the head of the house is here too. Master, those green grasses in your test field...... When we woke up this morning, we found a lot of white flowers......"

"Good! It's blooming! Hahaha, big head, don't be nervous. That's a good thing! ”

When he came to the test field and looked at the white flowers all over the ground, Guan Yi's mood was so refreshed. He counted them one by one, well, one hundred and twenty-five potato seedlings, and they were growing well. More than 70 of them have bloomed.

"Good! Good! One more month at most, and you'll be ready to harvest! If we can do it faster this year, it is estimated that we can sow a season! ”

Potatoes on the ground will enter the rapid setting stage after flowering. It usually lasts up to 30 days. But only if the soil temperature does not exceed 25 degrees. Otherwise, the underground tubers will stop developing. Thanks to the high mountains of Fuling County, many places have the advantage of an altitude of more than 1,000 meters. The potatoes grown here generally last for a long time. As a result, the potatoes produced here have large tubers. In fact, even in later generations, although China's most famous potato production was in Gansu, the mountainous region of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing was a widespread potato growing area.

"Very good! Big head, you guys take good care of these potato seedlings! Xiao Qi, give each of them an extra hundred dollars! ”

"Thank you, master!"

"Well, the next month is key! I have to work hard and everyone continues to work. Apply farm manure every five days to keep the soil moist and breathable at all times...... If there is a good harvest in a month's time, I will not be stingy with the reward! ”

"Obey the orders of the head of the family!"

and very nostalgic and satisfied stroked each potato seedling, Guan Yi said to Guan Xiaoqi: "Go to the oil mill." ”

Rape flower is a plant native to Western Europe, and there is no such plant in Shu Han today. Guan Yi said that the oil mill produced in it is not rapeseed oil for consumption. Rather, it is tung oil used in industrial production.

Speaking of which, the largest tung oil production area in China in later generations was Xiushan County in Chongqing City. It happens to be in the territory of what is now Fuling County. In fact, soon after Guan Yi arrived in Fuling County, he found that there were many tung oil trees here.

Unfortunately, limited by the times. People in this era have not fully understood the role of the tung oil tree - for people who have not solved the problem of food and clothing, the value of a thing is not great, the first thing to ask is whether this thing can be eaten? Although the tung oil tree wants to bear fruit, the fruit is very toxic and cannot be eaten at all. Therefore, although the tung oil trees are all over the mountains and fields in Fuling County, the locals have not made effective use of them at all: it is too much smoke to take them back and burn them as firewood!

When he came to the oil mill and smelled the unique smell of tung oil, Guan Yi's eyes were full of golden light: This is all money!

"How much can you produce in a month now?" The head of the newly established Fuling County Oil Mill is also a servant of the Guan family, called Guan Xiaoji.

"Return to the head of the family. To produce this oil, it is extremely labor-intensive to pick, press and filter. At present, there are only about 20 people in the oil mill, so the output is not much. It's only about 10 stones in January. If there are enough manpower, the slave and maid guarantee that they will produce at least 100 stone per month. ”

"How many people do you expect to need to achieve this kind of production?"

"Well, the head of the house, it takes about two hundred people to pick and transport. There are two shifts of people for oil crushing, and each shift requires 50 people. Fifty people are needed for filtration. So at least three hundred and fifty people are needed. ”

"Thou hast miscalculated. It should be known that if the scale is large, the nearby tung trees will not be available at all. Then you need to go further afield to collect avocals. The distance and time of transportation will become longer. There will be a shortage of manpower. ”

"The head of the family sees that it is true. The slave owes it to consideration. ”

"Well, I'll solve the manpower problem for you sooner or later. How about the finished product? You know, I'll have to sell it to get the money to add more people to you. ”

"Master of the house, when it comes to this slave, I have to talk about it well." Guan Xiaoji put on an excited look: "This thing is very magical." Brush on a wooden board and it will air dry quickly. After drying, the plank is not permeable to water at all, and it is also reflective. The smell and stuff were gone soon. In this regard, I don't know how much better than lacquer. If this thing can open up sales, sooner or later, my Han's paint will be squeezed into no market by this thing! ”

"In addition to waterproofing, there is also the maintenance of weapons that the head of the family said. Two months ago, after we made the first batch of tung oil, we used it to brush a batch of tips. Then bury it in the soil with the same number of unoiled tips. A few days ago, I took it out and saw that the unoiled gun head was rusty, but the oiled gun head was not rusty at all! ”

As an industrial raw material, tung oil has a wide range of applications. It's a pity that Guan Yi is just an agricultural student: he only knows how to plant and produce, but it is not very clear how to process and use tung oil after it is produced. Even so, just replacing paint to brush furniture and animal fat as lubricating oil preservatives is enough to generate considerable profits.

The last stop is the pig barn.

In such an era when people can't get enough to eat, except for the northern grassland areas, animal husbandry in most parts of China is not very favored - let's raise livestock, this is not an endless grassland, but the Wuling Mountains with high mountains and dense forests, and it takes a lot of manpower to take care of the free-range livestock - otherwise the free-range livestock will either be eaten by fierce beasts or run away on their own. You say don't breed in captivity, it's still the same sentence, people can't eat enough, and they are busy finding food for themselves every day. How can I have the time and energy to find food for my livestock?

In fact, wild boars in captivity in China began very early. At least in the oracle bone data, there is a clear record that piglets in captivity must be castrated first. So after Guan Yi came to Fuling County, he saw the wild boar herd running all over the mountain and wondered: Why don't you go to catch piglets, and practice captivity after castration.

As a result, when Guan Yi raised this question, Ma Guo and a group of Taishou Mansion members were stunned: Why do you want to be castrated and then kept in captivity?

Well, although Ma Guo came from a prominent background, because of Ma Yan, his life was actually very hard. Such a down-and-out boy who is full of fireworks in the world disdains to learn and understand agricultural knowledge. Can you expect Pang Hong, who has completely inherited Pang Tong's arrogance, to know these "last learning paths"?

When Guan Yi captured many piglets, except for a few piglets that looked relatively robust to be used as breeding pigs, all the rest of the boars were castrated and kept in captivity. Ma Guo actually objected: people can't eat enough, and they still have to raise pigs?

So it's a matter of perception. Pigs are all treasures. Pork and offal are edible. It can give people more energy than rice and wheat or something.

Bristles are the main ingredient in all brushes. In the gunpowder era, bristles were a strategic material.

Pork bones can effectively improve the symptoms of insufficient bone calcification in the population of this era, so that children can grow taller and stronger.

As for lard, it's a big killer for all the time-travelers who know a little bit about chemistry: soap, candles, glycerin, all from lard!

I saw the castrated piglets eating or sleeping in the pigsty. Guan Yi only thought that these steers were unprecedentedly cute. Fat pork, a lot of money and food in exchange for soap and candles......

"The head of the family, the brother under the mountain came to report, saying that the head of the Mi family has arrived."

"Well, bring me some tung oil, bristles or something, and go down the mountain!"