In Europe, when wars break out between countries, often all the attention of the whole country is focused on the war. But in the East, such events are different. Since July 25, the Chinese army launched another round of attacks on Russia, but there have been few reports in China, and many newspapers even have only one sentence: Our king and the army have won successive victories in the west.

The ministers of the great powers did not understand why, and even more incomprehensible was that on the day when the Chinese army launched the attack, the Chinese government actually had a day off, because all members of the government needed to participate in the summer harvest.

Yes, farming has been the most important thing in China since ancient times. Qingming needs to give officials a holiday to sow seeds, and when it comes to the summer harvest, they also need to take a holiday to participate in the summer harvest. Of course, due to the different climates and crops, the holiday time varies slightly across the country.

When it comes to spring planting and summer harvest, summer planting and autumn harvest, as the emperor, he needs to lead his ministers to the south of the Old Summer Palace and the east of the Summer Palace to the Imperial Academy. This land is the experimental site of the Department of Agriculture of the Royal Academy, who collect various excellent seeds from all over the country, such as high yield, drought resistance, insect resistance, disease resistance, etc., and cultivate and hybridize them here in the hope of cultivating excellent crops with higher yields and resistance to diseases and pests. After nearly ten years of cultivation, the effect is still not obvious. Li Ming's poor knowledge of biological genetics has long been exhausted, and no matter how many times he fiddles with AABB blocks, he can't make students or teachers understand genetics. Maybe the scientific foundation is not enough, Li Ming thinks. When the academy asked to abandon this kind of experiment, only Li Ming continued to insist on this kind of experiment. Because he knew that hybrid rice and hybrid wheat would definitely succeed.

Since the emperor insists, then listen to him. We have a lot of land in China, and hundreds of acres of land are wasted. Gu Hongming, president of the Royal Academy of Letters, said.

The rice has been harvested. Today is the day of the wheat harvest. The summer harvest of wheat is generally around July 25, and it happened that the former enemy headquarters also confirmed that a new round of attacks would be launched on this day, so Li Ming set the summer harvest labor on the 25th. On this day, the court stopped for a day, and all the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty went to work in the field, so let the foreign devils go in a hurry.

Li Ming got up and went to the wheat field early on a hot day, and it was cooler to work. After breakfast, Li Ming changed into a green coat and a short fight under the service of Meizi, and went to the wheat field with more than a dozen guards. Emperor Li Ming's predecessor. It's just a matter of plowing it twice and making a look, and the old farmer will do the rest. Then everyone went to the spring banquet and lived the life of the wine pond and meat forest that the nobles should live. But since Li Ming became the emperor, this rule has changed, and nearly 500 acres of land here are all completed by the emperor and the noble ministers. Five hundred acres of land is an extremely heavy task for officials who have been pampered for a long time, not to mention the unbearable work under the scorching sun. After Li Ming's first labor in the 22nd year of Guangxu, the Manchu ministers fiercely opposed this, and the Han officials also complained about it. In desperation, Li Ming could only transfer students from a department in the academy as the main force of labor, which eased the opinions of the ministers. Since the founding of China this year, this voice of opposition has suddenly disappeared, and the ministers are even advocating that the emperor's behavior is setting an example for the world. As for the reason, Li Ming thought about it for a long time and didn't figure it out. The only possibility is that everyone is showing their loyalty to the emperor? If you don't understand it, you don't want to, and it's not an important thing. As long as everyone is willing to work with their own hands, Li Ming's goal has been achieved.

Li Ming has always believed that as a person raised by the loess civilization. Forgetting the cultivation of the land is the greatest betrayal of Chinese civilization. And the emperor, who was the largest landowner in China. Li Ming did not allow himself to be unfamiliar with farming. At the same time, the princes and princesses also have to participate after they reach the age of three, even if they are picking up ears of wheat. Because the prince also participates in such events. The ministers would also bring their children to participate, and although they were more trouble-making than helpful, Li Ming always insisted on taking them with them, and they had to be familiar with the future of the empire. This year is no exception.

There is a lot of land under the name of the Royal Academy of Letters, a large part of which is official land allocated by the imperial court, and of course, there are not a few who "encroach" on the royal land. That's right, it's "encroachment", Li Ming insists on that. Li Ming was very annoyed by the Royal Academy of Letters' use of the royal lands without handing over any proceeds. The peasants had to pay taxes according to the regulations when they collected grain in the field, so why didn't the Academy of Letters hand over a grain of grain grown from Lao Tzu's land to the Ministry of Internal Affairs?

When they arrived at the wheat field, the ministers and students had already arrived, and when they saw the emperor coming, they all stepped forward to say goodbye. Li Ming also responded with a smile one by one, but when he passed by Gu Hongming's side, facing Gu Hongming, who was asking for peace, Li Ming's eyes were white and he didn't look at him. Gu Hongming laughed indifferently, and the ministers were busy with their own things as if they had nothing to do. Everyone is used to it, since Gu Hongming became the dean, every spring planting and summer harvest is an inevitable scene.

This land is still in the period of the Beijing Normal University Hall, it was President Rong Hong who borrowed the land from the emperor in response to the emperor's experimental field and self-sufficiency requirements, and later with the needs of the various disciplines of the University Hall, especially the needs of agricultural and animal husbandry experiments, more and more land was borrowed from the emperor, and nearly 5,000 acres of land were borrowed from the suburbs of Beijing alone. In the past, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was poor and couldn't come up with more funds to subsidize the university hall, so naturally it didn't ask for any income. But now it is different, with the large-scale sales of civilian products such as fountain pens, electric fans, electric heaters, coal stoves and other civilian products in the domestic and foreign markets, in addition to creating a group of wealthy people, as a R & D investment side of the university hall has a revenue share. But the emperor, who is the largest investor in education, not only did not see the benefits, but also continued to subsidize the university hall, which was very annoying. So after Gu Hongming became the principal, the emperor immediately summoned Gu Hongming to discuss the matter of profit sharing, and did not want to be resolutely rejected by Gu Hongming. So in order to ensure his legitimate interests, Li Ming officially summoned Gu Hongming at the court meeting as the emperor, not wanting Gu Hongming to put on a righteous attitude in the Spring and Autumn Period, accusing the emperor of competing with the people for profit, and not letting go of the wealth of rice grains as a heavenly family, so that the Chinese empire would be humiliated.

What kind of person is Gu Hongming, he is a scholar of Chinese and Western, known as the "strange master of the late Qing Dynasty", proficient in English, French, German, Latin, Greek, Malayan and other 9 languages. He received 13 doctorates, and was the first person in China to be proficient in Western science, language, and Oriental Chinese studies during the Manchu Dynasty. Fighting a war of words with such a person is not a matter of losing a hundred battles. Gu Hongming saw that the emperor was speechless, and it didn't seem to be enough. On the spot of the court meeting, he actually asked the emperor to allocate all the funds for the university hall that year, and then said "by the way": Please ask the emperor to send the title deed of the 5,000 acres of land to the university hall as soon as possible. In order to reflect the heart of our emperor. The angry Li Ming brushed his sleeves away on the spot.

Gu Hongming is a well-known scholar at home and abroad, and he is respected enough at home and abroad. However, he confronted the current emperor at the court meeting, but he really scared the ministers into sweating, and the emperor is not an open-minded lord. Just when the ministers were still persuading Gu Hongming to apologize to the emperor, the emperor ordered the internal affairs office to allocate all the arrears of university hall funds, and then issued a decree: instruct the courtiers not to interfere in education in politics, and to firmly teach the principle of governing the school, and set an eternal example.

Things have come to this point. The ministers realized that this was a political performance, and it was made for officialdom everywhere. In recent years, there have been more and more incidents of local governments appointing principals, which has led to more and more intense conflicts between literati and officials. In this incident, the officials also considered the emperor, and after all, the officials asked for more publicity of the emperor's wisdom and martial arts in the textbooks. The literati, on the other hand, are thinking about the long-term development of the country, and too much political intervention will inevitably lead to ideological conflicts. So it's not good for either side, but after such a move, a new balance will inevitably be formed between the government and the school.

Since it's a political show. Then it doesn't matter, it's just that the emperor didn't send the title deed over. But since then, when the emperor saw Gu Hongming, he didn't want to see him. In fact, this is also a performance, showing that the emperor still cares about the income of this land. The other ministers naturally didn't care, but Wu Tingfang, who was the left waiter of the Criminal Department at the time, wrote to the court. He has made every effort to advocate the comprehensive introduction of the legal systems of Western countries and the formulation of national constitutions and various legal provisions. His ideas were supported by Shen Jiaben, who specializes in traditional Chinese law. When his transcript was quickly approved, politically astute ministers read out a message again. The emperor is going to renew the law. This is why Wu Tingfang went abroad to investigate the laws and regulations of various countries.

There is no way, the person who becomes the emperor has to perform all kinds of performances all the time. Especially in China, a country that has an upward and downward effect, as the country's top leader, every word and deed is every move. They are all objects that the whole country learns and imitates, so participating in farming is one of the important performances of the performance.

Li Ming took the sickle, waved it at everyone present, and then bent down to cut the first ear of wheat, and then the other ministers and students started to harvest the ears of wheat. Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong are old and can't do farm work. They could have avoided such an event, but they persisted. Unable to do farm work, they took over the task of directing the students to build pergolas. For a time, the whole wheat field was in full swing......

"Sister, sister, this is going." Meizi, who was dressed as a peasant woman, said with a smile.

"My sister is also familiar with these things, so let's go when you're ready." Yang Zao'er, who was holding her son who was not yet a month old, smiled and said a few words.

Meizi respectfully retreated, and Yang Zao'er came to the window with her son in her arms. The ladies downstairs were also dressed as peasant women, hugging Miko and carrying baskets, chattering and laughing and leaving. Yang Zao'er watched them leave in front of the window, and also saw Meizi who was embraced and smiled like a flower. Yang Zao'er smiled indifferently, a foreign woman can't fight with herself no matter what, why do you have this idleness?

As in a normal farmhouse, the men worked in the fields, and the women brought food to the fields. In previous years, Yang Zao'er, who was the queen, took the ladies to deliver food, but this year she gave birth to a child who was not yet out of confinement, how could she go out in this weather. Qimuge was the most reluctant to do these things, so he avoided the errand on the grounds that he needed to go to the Xishan Ruijian Camp to inspect. The matter of delivering food naturally fell to Miko.

Miko was a princess when she was in Japan, and she was favored by her father and queen mother, and the palace people took care of her in every way. But since marrying in China, I have been very cautious in my actions, for fear of angering anyone. But today, the feeling of being surrounded by stars is back. Of all the women, she was the most noble, and she no longer had to walk behind the queen to be a foil. Today she can walk at the front and stride with her head held high.

"It's time to eat—" Miko, who came to the wheat field, shouted, and the busy summer harvest suddenly stopped.

"Pull me, my waist is broken." Bend over for a morning of work. I really can't stand this waist. Li Ming stood up with the support of the guards, beat his waist and eyes, and beckoned the children back to the pergola to rest.

"Wash your hands. Otherwise, you are not allowed to eat. Miko smiled and beckoned the children to wash their hands. The water pipe leading from the academy opened, and cool water meandered down the small ditch. The children washed their hands and ran towards the largest shed. The sound of forty or fifty children babbling came from the shed.

There were no tables and chairs in the pergola, only a mat, and everyone sat down after washing their hands and faces. Drinking a bowl of cold sour plum soup on a hot day, the cool breath went straight into the heart and spleen, and the hot breath full of body seemed to leave in that long breath.

The ladies carried small baskets filled with delicate and sweet snacks, but they were all children's lunches. The ladies all greeted their children, and the old men had to take care of themselves, and how much the ladies could hold in their little baskets. So the men's food was loaded in the cart and brought in by the guards. Some cold dishes, a little braised pork and a few big white steamed buns. A bowl of chilled mung bean soup after a meal is the menu for today's lunch.

The ancient precept of eating without saying anything is over after Li Ming appears, and talking while eating has become the norm. However, the civilian officials are still a group, and the military attaches are a group of their own. Of course, the military attachés were talking about the war in front of them, the victory of the army was determined by the overall situation, and the naval expedition was the action of showing the world the Chinese armed forces. This is especially true of Wu Deren.

As an emperor. Li Ming naturally wouldn't get into that group of rough men at this time. Talk to the civil servants about the acres of land and the harvest. In the farmland, it is natural to talk about farming.

"Since the battle of Omsk was won by our army, the matter of emigration to Siberia has suddenly become much smoother. It seems that the people were still worried about the war before. Li Ming regretted it a little, he knew it was so. It should not have been so high in the first place, and now it seems that it is a big loss.

"Siberia is a fertile land, albeit in a cold location. But as long as the people are willing to emigrate to Siberia. A hundred years later, it will naturally be a prosperous place. "Li Hongzhang is a picture of optimism.

"What Li Xiang said is very true. The Chinese nation has been known for its industriousness since ancient times, as long as the imperial court can keep one side quiet. I believe that the prosperity of the future may not be lost to the Central Plains. Yan Fu's words were a bit exaggerated, but they still attracted praise from everyone.

"But there's an important issue to be aware of." Li Ming once again reminded the ministers: "The Yellow River has nurtured the Chinese nation. However, the entire Yellow River basin has been barren after thousands of reclaimed land, and the focus of this resettlement should still be on the Yellow River basin, and the depopulation reduction, afforestation, and land closure must also be on the agenda. ”

"The emperor can rest assured that the Ministry of Agriculture, together with the Ministry of Households, has gone to the field for inspection, and many students have also participated. I believe that a bill will soon be submitted to the emperor for review. ”

Li Ming didn't speak but nodded, from Li Hongzhang to Yan Fu to the next Tang Shaoyi, these backbones of the court are still very reassuring. So everyone chatted while eating, and they were also happy.

After a morning's work, all the wheat has been harvested, and the main work in the afternoon is to load the wheat that has not yet been transported to the college playground to cool down. After lunch, the ladies cleaned up and took the children back, the students of the academy also left, and Li Hongzhang and other old courtiers and most of the middle and low-level officials also said goodbye. The rest of the big guys can finally lie down and take a nap shirtless.

But there was still important work to be done, and while everyone was napping, two huge boxes brought from the town of Ming Tombs had already entered the field, and then the gendarmerie and the royal guards took over the security of the place, and counted the people one by one until there was no suspicious person.

The sun streaked across the sky and set in the west, and the hot air began to cool down. The people under the pergola woke up early and gathered together to whisper and laugh, and disturbed the others who were sleeping. Although they all had questions about the two huge boxes, they were very conscious that no one took the initiative to mention them. Until the last one woke up, everyone worked together to load the last ears of wheat and send them away.

After the farm work was done, everyone sat down to drink herbal tea and waited for the emperor to speak. Li Ming just waved his hand, and the two huge boxes opened a door.

After a burst of "......" a loud burst of black smoke came out of the box, and then a huge iron guy rushed out, but he quickly stopped. A group of soldiers hung a huge pendant on the back of the car, and then stood up for some people. As the iron guy raced up on the harvested land, the pendant behind it pressed the dirt under the force of gravity. The sloping curved surface easily turned the dirt over.

The civil officials watched excitedly as the iron guy turned around easily, and more than an acre of land had been turned over.

"The name of the thing is Tractor. Now only the tools for ploughing the floor are designed. According to legend, the name of the Quyuan plough made by Zhao Guo in the Han Dynasty is called the cocoon car, and a cow is enough to plow, and one hectare is planted every day. Unfortunately, it has been lost in the past, and I have ordered the college to start developing such a joint seeding equipment. Of course, it is natural to rely on machine harvesting to plant it, and the development plan of the combine harvester has also begun to prepare, but it will take time to wait for the real object to come out. Li Ming's face was calm.

The Chinese nation has never lacked wisdom, but how much of the brilliance of wisdom has been annihilated under the iron hooves of foreign races. From the dog Rong of the Zhou Dynasty, to the Xiongnu to the Turks. Until the Mongols and Jurchens, every time Chinese civilization developed to a certain height, they would encounter robbers, who wantonly ravaged the greatest people on the planet with iron hooves and sabers. Every time a foreign race arrives, it is a pain for the Chinese nation. We are good at building mansions from the ruins, which is our pride and our sorrow, because a nation that is good at creating is not good at fighting. The car is gone, and the legendary multicolored glass is gone. The most recent one is how many documents Kangxi destroyed by taking the opportunity of repairing the collection of classics. The Yongle Canon, known as the world's largest encyclopedia ever, is no longer one in ten.

The ministers may not have thought about Li Mingduo, but what they saw was the efficiency of tractors in cultivating land. In their opinion, if the tractor can be built on a large scale. Siberia can be opened up as much as it wants.

The military attachés also looked at the tractor in a daze, but they didn't care about the tractor, they all stared at the wheels. It is a tractor with eight wheels. Driving back and forth in uneven wheat fields, ditches, wheat ridges. None of them could stop the tractor from moving forward, and all uneven ground was pressed under the wheels. The first reaction of military attachés, especially army generals, who saw all this was armored vehicles. The battle for Omsk has proven the military importance of armored vehicles. But it also exposed a very serious drawback, that is, the requirement for the flatness of the ground. Potholes, trenches, deep ditches and large holes after shelling can affect the maneuverability of armored vehicles. Since the beginning of the war, not a single armored vehicle has been destroyed by enemy attacks, but it has been damaged a lot due to rollover and potholes while driving. If these eight-wheeled devices are installed on armored vehicles, the power of armored vehicles will definitely be even higher.

"A civilian version of the tractor makes you excited like this, and the senior generals of our Chinese Empire are cultivated?" Li Ming was very dissatisfied with the performance of the military attachés, and asked people to open the second giant box with a look of contempt: "Look clearly, this is the military version of the tracked armored vehicle." ”

Due to the use of tracks, the cross-country ability was noticeably stronger than that of a wheeled tractor, and the nose end was equipped with diamond-shaped armor, which rushed directly into the empty pergola and crashed through a makeshift pushed earthen wall. Combat capabilities were immediately demonstrated during the tests, but alas, it moved slowly and quickly stopped.

"There is no way, the engine is not powerful enough, and the weight of the whole vehicle is too heavy, and the speed cannot be raised at all. The point is that there are still problems with the track structure, and the materials are not up to par. High-intensity work will lead to the current phenomenon, track detachment. It is believed that with the development of science and technology, once the problems of power and materials are solved, the new armored vehicles will be on the battlefield as smooth and invincible. That's why I named him Tank. Li Ming smiled helplessly, because his appearance began to develop tanks nearly ten years earlier than history, but because of the limitations of technical ability, he could only take it out and make a show.

"Your Majesty, can you produce some in small quantities for training and testing?" Feng Guozhang was courteous with a flattering face: "Your Majesty, rest assured, the War Department can be responsible for the production cost of tanks." ”

"A tank that can only run for about ten minutes is meaningless, there are enough armored vehicles on the North-Western Front for training. Now that you've seen the performance of new equipment, let's study new strategic and tactical ideas. Li Ming said solemnly to the generals: "The army combat concept of infantry and artillery coordination, infantry and artillery coordination, and infantry and artillery coordination also includes air-ground coordination, sea and air coordination, sea and land coordination between various armies, and so on. Remember, it's better to let the mind wait for the equipment than for the equipment to wait for the mind. ”

"Whoa." All will agree.

"Now Lao Tzu wants to sell armored vehicles, you have no opinion." Li Ming asked with a smile.

The generals laughed. Chief of Staff Wang Shizhen said with a smile: "Your Majesty is deliberately trying to mislead other countries into going down the wrong path." Your Majesty, you're so bad—"

"Generally average, third in the world."

The tank was reattached to the tracks and drove back into the box, and the tractor was loaded and transported away after turning over the ground, by which time the sun had sunset. While everyone was laughing and discussing where to go for dinner in the evening, the waiter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over an urgent telegram sent back by the minister in Japan: An hour ago, King Meiji of Japan died of illness.

"This damn old Japanese man, it's really not the right time to die. I can't eat tonight, so have fun for yourselves. (To be continued.) )