After watching the potatoes and sweet potatoes, Zhu Daming, who was excited, soon saw Wang Chengen handing over something again, and recognized it before he got his hand, it was corn. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In later generations, corn was extremely popular and commonplace, but seeing corn, potatoes and other common things in later generations in this time and space, Zhu Daming was more excited than seeing gold.

Corn, also a crop originating from South America, was also brought to Southeast Asia by Western colonizers, and then introduced to China through Southeast Asia and other places.

According to historical records, as early as 1531, corn had been introduced to Guangxi.

Li Shizhen completed the "Compendium of Materia Medica" in 1578 There is already a record of corn, but until the Qianlong period, corn cultivation in China was still relatively scarce, has been used as a royal thing, and has not been popularized throughout the country.

Looking at the Ming Emperor who couldn't hide his excitement, Xu Guangqi also breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. What he is most worried about is that he has worked hard to successfully grow new crops and will not be valued by the emperor, so not only will his hard work in the past few years be in vain, but there will be no good way to recover from the famine in the northern border of the Ming Dynasty.

The sweet potato that Xu Guangqi finally took out was the sweet potato of later generations, which is also called sweet potato in the south. This thing is also a very productive crop.

In the ordinary mountainous dry land in later generations, the yield of corn per mu was about 1,000 to 1,500 catties, and some later management was in place, it could reach 2,000 catties.

The yield per mu of sweet potatoes is higher, about 3,000 to 5,000 catties, and the yield per mu of potatoes is particularly high, ordinary farmland can reach between 4,000 catties and 6,000 catties, which is much higher than the yield per mu of wheat, rice, and sorghum.

In this era, there was no common chemical fertilizer in later generations, and the yield may not be so high, but even without chemical fertilizer, compared with millet and wheat in this era, the yield is not known how many times higher.

Now, as long as the planting area of these coarse grains is on a larger scale, the historical famine problem can be slowly solved, and at least in a short period of time, the serious social problems caused by the famine can be greatly alleviated.

Seeing what Xu Guangqi brought, Zhu Daming was very happy, and this was also the happiest time he came to Daming.

Seeing that the emperor was so happy, the eunuchs and palace maids in the palace were also happy from the bottom of their hearts. Although this emperor rarely gets angry at them, this emperor is not a good man who can talk, and the purge of the Inner Court, Dongchang and Jinyiwei has left a deep impression on these people.

These eunuchs and palace maids who serve in the Qianqing Palace every day are afraid that the emperor will get angry again one day and bring death to themselves and countless other people.

Zhu Daming didn't think about it so much, he just wanted to popularize the planting of potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes as soon as possible, hoping that by next summer and autumn, he would be able to have another bumper harvest, and seize the opportunity to alleviate the famine in the north, and at the same time make the scope of the rebellion of the hungry people a little smaller, and the intensity of it a little lower.

Thinking of these, Zhu Daming said to Xu Guangqi: "Xu Aiqing's dedication of these three crops, in my opinion, can be said to be a merit in the present and a benefit in the future. I plan to promote cultivation in the world, and all three crops can be grown in mountainous areas, slopes, dry lands, and saline-alkali lands. In the future, the evaluation and selection of officials by the Ministry of Officials should also take the planting area of these three high-yield crops as a content. ”

When Xu Guangqi heard this, of course he was happy, and he had a feeling of meeting a soulmate, but after a while, he said: "Your Majesty, although these crops have high yields and are very easy to grow and survive, there are not many good varieties cultivated by the ministers at present.

"The minister suggested that next spring, Your Majesty can first set aside a grange near Gyeonggi to plant, and in the autumn, these two kinds of things are dozens of times the current one, and in the year after next year, they can be gradually promoted and planted in Zhili, Jiubian, and even Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places."

Zhu Daming also knew that this kind of thing could not be rushed, but after the first year of Chongzhen, the whole world began to be chaotic, so Zhu Daming was not in a hurry.

Xu Guangqi looked at Zhu Daming and was silent, and then said: "Your Majesty, this thing has been planted for many years in southern Fujian, northern Guangdong and other places, and the imperial court may be able to go to the state capitals of Wenfujian, Guangdong and other places to offer good seeds. ”

Since there was no other way, Zhu Daming had no choice but to accept this reality, and asked Xu Guangqi to draft an excerpt as soon as possible, write clearly the matter of requesting trial planting and popularizing the planting of corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, and then forward it to the world

Speaking of this, Zhu Daming said: "Since Xu Aiqing thinks that it is very important to cultivate improved seeds, I think it is better to open an agricultural institute in Tongzhou, near Gyeonggi, to settle the talents who have followed Aiqing in Tianjin in the past few years, and at the same time recruit more people to take on the responsibility of promoting the cultivation of potatoes, corn and sweet potatoes while cultivating improved varieties for the imperial court."

"As for the silver for opening the Agricultural Academy, I will take out 100,000 taels of money from the treasury every year, and then I will order the household department to allocate 100,000 taels every year for the study and use of the secretary and others."

As for the candidate to take charge of the Agricultural Academy, at present, it can only be Xu Guangqilai himself.

There is also a suitable candidate, that is, Song Yingxing, who wrote the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", but this person is still studying in Jiangnan, and he will not come to Beijing to participate in the examination until next year, and Zhu Daming will of course keep him at that time, but now, he does not want to get too involved in the growth process of these people.

Xu Guangqi listened to the emperor's thoughts, and immediately received the order to thank him, which was also his dream for many years, and now the emperor has given him a broad stage to display his life's ambitions, what reason is there not to do his best.

The day after meeting the emperor, Xu Guangqi met with the cabinet ministers and officials of the Ministry of Rites, and then, accompanied by the eunuch Bingbi, the chief of ceremonies, went to the Shuntian Mansion and met with the new Shuntian Mansion Yin Yanghe.

Then, accompanied by Yang He and others, they rushed to Tongzhou non-stop, and according to the emperor's idea, they found Yang Yingqian, and wanted to come to a grange that was originally allocated to the Juntun Division to recruit people from the tuntian, which was considered to have finalized the address of the agricultural institute, and after a few busy days, he finally settled down and began to arrange and handle the task of persuading farmers assigned by the emperor.

Of course, Xu Guangqi, as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, could not spend too much time and energy in the Agricultural Academy, considering the responsibility of persuading farmers in ancient times, it originally belonged to the Ministry of Rites, as long as Xu Guangqi, who was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, paid attention to it, it was not important to Zhu Daming who was in charge.

Fortunately, Xu Guangqi also has a group of followers and assistants to arrange, including many outstanding agricultural experts, such as Xu Guangqi's son Xu Ji, grandson Xu Ermo, etc., who are not good at engaging in Bagu Wen, and later took the road of miscellaneous learning, as Xu Guangqi's assistant, in arithmetic, physics and agriculture, it can be regarded as making some achievements, and now these people brought from Tianjin have also been arranged in the Agricultural Institute in Tongzhou, which is considered to have a good home.