Aoki turned his head and looked at Yao Shuqi in surprise.

Yao Shuqi nodded vaguely, and glanced at him again, asking him to restrain himself and not let others see it.

He had heard Du Jinning inadvertently mention once before, saying that these hybrid rice had to be constantly hybridized in order to maintain the characteristics of high yield. So after this season's rice heading, he came to Zhuangzi twice to see if the rice ears were full.

He knew that if the seeds were okay and had been reaching a high yield, the emperor and the court would forget about his young master, and at most mention the name of the young master in the history books. From now on, except for their closest people, others will never think of Du Jinning again.

But if the production is reduced and it proves that what the young master once said is right, then what will be the consequences, he is excited to think about it.

If you never have it, you can't lose it; But if there was once a yield of seven stones per mu, the emperor and the ministers in the court imagined the grand scene of a full warehouse of rice, and the common people looked forward to a better life of being full of food and clothing, but without Du Jinning, the rice was not as good as a season, and finally fell to two stones per mu, and the days returned to the past. Even if they can grow double-cropping rice, after removing the cost of fertilizer, manpower and other costs, the annual yield increase is not much, I don't know what they will feel like.

Thinking about that kind of situation, Yao Shuqi is like eating ice cubes on a June day, and his whole body is indescribably comfortable.

Throw it away when you use it! I told you not to look for the young master! Now you know it's wrong, right?

However, all kinds of things have always been Yao Shuqi's expectations in his heart. His heart hung in the air. Worried that Wu Zheng and others would find out that something was wrong, and even blamed him for the reduction in yield, thinking that he had done something wrong, so he kept suppressing his desire/desire and did not dare to come to see the rice often.

Now, the stone in his heart has finally fallen to the ground.

Wu Zheng and the others didn't have time to pay attention to Yao Shuqi and Aoki.

Wu Zheng commanded the two croppers: "Bring up the load of rice and weigh it." ”

The man hurriedly complied.

The result is still the same. The load was probably not full, only forty-three pounds.

An official who loved to pat on the back saw that Wu Zheng's face was pale, and the tendons on his forehead were bruised, so he hurriedly comforted him: "Don't worry, my lord, the basket used this time may be smaller than the last time, don't you see that several of them are new, and there are big and small?" You'll know when you're all weighed. Even if it's worse, it's pretty much the same. After all, we are not as experienced as Lord Du, so next season will be different. ”

Wu Zheng tried his best to suppress the urge to scold, pursed his lips and did not speak, but he was roaring in his heart: "Idiot, the ears of rice are so deflated, no one is blind, can't you see it?" Do you need to talk nonsense here? ”

He waved his hand and motioned for the officials on the other side to weigh together.

Because they had long found that the ears of rice were not full and there were more deflated grains, this made a person weigh a load first, hoping for a miracle. Now the weight of a load is much lighter, and he expects that, as the official just said, it is a basket problem. So simply take a two-pronged approach, weigh both sides together, so that the results will come out faster.

A load of rice was put on the scale, and the people on both sides reported the number and kept accounts. In the end, the official who kept the account "crackled" and pulled out the abacus for a while, added the two numbers, for fear of making a mistake, and calculated again, and finally reported a number in a trembling voice: "Four stones and twenty-eight catties." ”

There was a deathly silence in the rice fields.

Wu Zheng still clearly remembers that last season, the same piece of wet rice that had just been harvested was six stones and thirty-nine catties per mu.

"Your Excellency." An old official walked over and whispered, "Could it be that the yield of late rice is lower than that of early rice?" ”

"Yes, yes, very likely." The sycophant officer hurriedly chimed in.

Wu Zheng was silent for a moment, and slowly shook his head: "Over there in Gui Province, there is a saying called 'early rice is low, late rice is high'. Because early rice grows shortly, the yield is generally lower than that of late rice. ”

Because Gui Province has been growing double cropping rice for many years, it has rich experience. Now that he is ready to vigorously promote double-cropping rice, Wu Zheng also specially asked people to go to Gui Province to collect information. So he is more aware of the situation of double cropping rice.

Once again, there was silence in the rice fields.

Wu Zheng took a deep breath: "Let's go, go to Zhongtian to have a look." ”

Everyone hurriedly got up, and the group went to Nakata's side.

You don't need to choose, just harvest the piece that Jin Gonggong pointed out last season.

An hour and a half later, listening to the reported data, everyone fell silent again.

Five stones and twenty catties, compared with the seven stones and seventy-three catties in the previous season, it is two stones and fifty catties less.

Song Zhuangtou, as the person specifically responsible for the cultivation of high-yield rice, naturally participated in the harvesting ceremony. He was old, and instead of going to the field, he stood by and watched, just like the officials. However, he knew that production would be reduced this year, and he did not dare to speak out for fear of being blamed.

At this time, he couldn't help it, and said in a whisper: "That piece of lower field, which was originally improved from dry land in the spring, is relatively barren, and after half a year of improvement, it is better than the original." ”

The implication is that because the fertility of that field has increased, the yield of the two seasons is not as far as that of this field.

The official who patted the sycophants couldn't help but glare at Song Zhuangtou: "You say, did you have a bad time when you were farming, which caused the rice yield to be reduced?" ”

Shimoda is like this, and so is Nakata, who have seen the fullness of Ueda's rice early on, and naturally know that the amount of acres in Ueda can no longer be left to chance.

So, in the hands of Du Jinning, the production will be high, and in their hands, the production will be reduced, who will bear this responsibility? This year, the wind and rain are smooth, and there is a paddy field project built by Du Jinning as a guarantee, and they can't throw the pot to God. Then it is the wisest choice to let a group of croppers on the Zhuangzi be in charge.

Song Zhuangtou "chuckled" in his heart, and his original worries became a reality.

He immediately knelt down and shouted loudly: "Wronged, we just did it according to the method taught by Lord Du, and we didn't dare to make a mistake, this matter, Lord Wu is also clear." ”

As he spoke, he looked at Wu Zheng with blank eyes, hoping that Wu Zheng could give him an explanation.

This season of rice planting was the time when Du Jinning disappeared. In order to prevent these people from resenting the court because of Du Jinning and not farming well, Wu Zheng and several officials also separately went to Song Zhuangtou, Qin Laohan, Wang Laohan, and Zhuangzi to ask them how the hybrid rice was grown, and whether there were any special points to pay attention to, and wrote down their remarks.

In the end, Wu Zheng corresponded the statements of these people one by one, and found that what they said was almost the same, and they have indeed done this in the past six months, proving that they are not making trouble.

A group of honest farmers are not so bold.

Wu Zheng is quite upright. He said, "I don't blame you, get up." ”

Song Zhuang was overjoyed and kowtowed again and again: "Thank you, thank you, thank you." ”

The men who knelt down with Song Zhuangtou also kowtowed vigorously.

Wu Zheng sighed deeply: "Let's go, go to Ueda." ”