Three days after Hong Chengchou officially descended.

On the first day of April, Wuchang Mansion.

Chongzhen's fifteen-year-old God, he really didn't spare his face at all, the land south of the Yangtze River is ushering in two consecutive years of uneven floods and droughts-

Either the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are waterlogged and silted, but the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are drought, or the rainfall in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is intercepted in advance during the flood season, and the middle and upper reaches are dry.

Even if there is a Shenshu man now, the potential of building water conservancy and improving irrigation and storage in several prefectures around Wuchang will not completely solve the harm of natural disasters, and at best it will only be slightly alleviated.

And at this point in history, in addition to floods and droughts, plagues have occurred one after another in several provinces south of the Yangtze River, but fortunately, this kind of man-made disaster has not happened now-

According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen should be a place where complete thieves are rampant. After Zhang Xianzhong temporarily broke through Xiangyang and killed King Xiangwang last year, he should rely on the gold and silver scattered in several palaces to buy people's hearts and expand the army, and then he will cross the river from Xiangyang, go to Sui and Huang to wreak havoc, completely merge with the five battalions of Gezuo, and subdue one of them.

The slaughter and looting of Zhang Xianzhong's troops obviously caused a large number of corpses to be unable to be buried and disposed of, which was also an important reason why the Jiangnan region was also spread by the Great Plague in that year in history.

But all this has obviously been completely changed by the butterfly effect, the fifth battalion of the left was completely wiped out by the Shen Shu people, and after the short loss of Xiangyang, it was also blocked by the Shen Shu people, causing certain losses to Zhang Xianzhong, forcing Zhang Xianzhong to shrink in the Shennongjia Mountains at the junction of Sichuan and Hubei and cannot develop.

Zhang Xianzhong didn't come, where did the great plague come from Jiangnan.

Without the plague and the drought was slightly alleviated, the Wuchang Mansion in the twilight of spring, and even the surrounding prefectures, looked quite angry, and it seemed out of place at the end of the Ming Dynasty, even compared with the land of Wu Yue, it could be much better.

The Jianghan Plain, which is full of lakes and swamps and wetlands, is now lush and green, and the crops are growing happily.

As early as when Shen Shuren returned to Nanjing for the Chinese New Year, he left Zhang Huangyan and others, who were in charge of civil affairs, to diligently persuade farmers to ensure that spring plowing was carried out in an orderly manner.

After Shen Shuren and his entourage returned in early March, they even checked and filled in the gaps, stepped up efforts to rectify agricultural production, and were anxious about the people's urgency.

Shen Shuren knew very well that if Zhang Xianzhong had crossed the border, a considerable part of the people here would have been coerced into being thieves. But this kind of thing can only be blamed on Zhang Xianzhong, not the people, the people are just short of food and clothing, only by solving the productive forces and turning these poor places into barely able to survive, can Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's military source be cut off from the root.

Fortunately, the people under Shen Shuren are also very powerful, not only in terms of administrative efficiency, but also in science and technology, scientific management, but also quite helpful.

For example, Fang Yizhi, the newly elected prefect of Wuchang by Shen Shuren, is himself a combination of a civil official and a scientist. Historically, he was able to write "Physics", which shows that he is still very good at summarizing the laws of nature, which is far from being comparable to Confucianism.

A few years ago, Shen Shuren took him to tinker with the shuttle loom and made several small inventions, which seemed to distort Fang Yizhi's skill tree, so that after he took office in Wuchang, he continued to spend his leisure time dealing with these civil affairs gadgets.

The dignified prefect actually made some slightly optimized agricultural tools for promotion within a few months. And Shen Shuren invited Song Yingxing's family to sit in Daye County, in addition to opening iron mines, steelmaking, and researching machinery, Song Yingxing would also occasionally learn from Fang Futai.

Fang Yizhi is interested in scientific laws, and Song Yingxing is interested in engineering application technology.

So much so that Fang Yizhi can spare one or two days a week to discuss practical techniques with Song Yingxing.

Although the price of doing so was that Song Yingxing would be distracted and delay the progress of developing new steelmaking technology and gunsmithing, Shen Shuren did not hinder them.

Shen Shuren knows very well that the most important thing for scientific research and exploration is a relaxed ideological environment, and we can't always use engineering problems to force R&D personnel to catch up with the schedule.

Catching up with the schedule can only "fill the domestic gap", which is an imitation of copycat research and development, and is not suitable for exploring unknown areas.

The management of scientific research in uncharted territory must be like Google, allowing employees to allocate 20% of their time and energy to work on whimsical ideas that interest them, even if they do not produce any benefits in the end, they cannot be punished.

So at the beginning of the month, after learning that Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing often learn "useless learning" together, Shen Shuren said very generously:

In the future, the projects arranged for Song Yingxing will be added with an additional 20% of the scientific research funds, which can be used to study other things at will, and in the same way, it is also allowed to spare two days every ten days to do private work. But only if the accounts are still clear.

It's acceptable to spend money on useless things, but it's not okay to be greedy directly. If researchers feel that the treatment is poor, they can raise the treatment separately, which is another problem, and the same thing is the same thing.

This kind of treatment was absolutely unique in the late Ming Dynasty, and neither Chinese nor foreign capitalists could do it. Shen Shuren trusted Kuanren so much, which also made Song Yingxing feel the incomparable grace of knowing him, and he became more and more motivated.

When Song Yingxing first wrote "Tiangong Kaiwu", he also involved some agricultural technology, after all, Song Yingxing was the first scientist in history to record that "cotton picking stars inhibits the top advantage".

Now Shen Shuren has given a more relaxed environment, and it just so happens that March and April are the season for farmers to be busy and persuade farmers, and under the collision between him and Fang Yizhi, plus Shen Shuren also occasionally comes to a few words of genius, and he really came up with something.

For example, according to the original plan made by Shen Shuren at the end of last year, corn can only be vigorously promoted in a few provinces north of the Yangtze River, and the main promotion place this year is Liu Guoneng's Xinyang Mansion.

In Wuchang, Hanyang and other places in the south of the Yangtze River, because the growth cycle of rice cannot be perfectly connected with corn like winter wheat, this year's plain fields are still dominated by double-cropping rice. There are only some slopes and mountains where you can find ways to grow potatoes as a supplement, but corn has little chance to play in Jiangnan.

But this year's events are coming, because the time is not right, the plan is not as fast as the change - in the early spring of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the rain in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is relatively dense, and the state of the drought in Zhejiang the year before last seems to be to make up for the lack of rain in the previous year.

There was a slight flood in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but the warm and humid air flow clouds were depleted early in the lower reaches, and the precipitation in Huguang and other places in the middle reaches was significantly reduced.

Although it is not yet a full-blown drought, it will at least lead to some fields with poor irrigation conditions, which will not be able to grow rice and early rice.

Of course, the farmers do not wait for the spring rain to rain before planting rice seeds, and they must have sown them before the rain falls, so there is no way to waste some of this batch of seeds in vain.

Fortunately, Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing also have a good understanding of agricultural science, so they suggested that they could find a way to temporarily replant peas with a very short growth cycle on these fields where irrigation is insufficient, so as to barely make up for a season's rations.

If it is confirmed that this year will continue to be relatively dry, some fields will not be able to grow rice, and after the pea harvest, it will be too late to switch to corn in the second season - the peas have a very short growing season, and they will mature in a little more than two months, which is a full three months shorter than winter wheat, just enough to ensure that they are planted in early spring and still ripen at the same time as winter wheat and are connected to corn.

After learning of this situation, Shen Shuren of course did not hesitate to go to Hanyang, Wuchang, and Jiujiang in the south of the Yangtze River to persuade farmers to inspect and understand the agricultural situation, and then the government organized a seed trade, borrowed peas for farmers to grow grain, and let peas be replanted.

As for Huangzhou, the nest of the Shenshu people, although it is located in the north of the Yangtze River, there is a similar situation in some parts of it, and peas are also promoted.

After Shen Shuren first heard Song Yingxing say that when early rice irrigation is insufficient, peas can be replanted to save the emergency, he couldn't help but ask Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi to the bottom of the matter:

"Since we knew that the pea growing period was so short and so flexible, why didn't it be promoted in previous years? Is the yield too low? Is it lower than edamame/soybeans?

As long as it is higher than edamame, it should be promoted well in the future, after all, planting beans can fertilize the field, and planting other crops in the future will be good. ”

For this question, Song Yingxing answered at the time: "The yield of peas is much higher than that of soybeans, of course, it is not much after drying.

Peas are more tender and wetter than soybeans, and there are some oils that are easy to rancid, which cannot be stored for a long time by simply drying, and the imperial court cannot collect peas for tax under any circumstances, but soybeans can be reluctantly collected as a supplement to rice and wheat. ”

Shen Shuren originally just asked casually, but after getting this answer, he also moved in his heart: it seems that after entering the 19th century, canned green beans and freeze-dried pea products in the West became very popular.

Even when he played "Red Dead Redemption", which is known for its realism, the cowboys who went west to pioneer in the United States had a large number of canned green beans in their supplies.

It seems that this problem can be solved by pre-cooking and sterilizing and putting it in cans.

Of course, now that it is the end of the Ming Dynasty, the cost of canning tin is too high, and the food itself is not worth the money. But you can also find a way to encapsulate it with a porcelain jar with good airtightness.

Just like the Sichuan people in later generations made kimchi, the mouth of the jar was upside down with a bowl, and water was poured into the gap to isolate the internal and external air circulation, so that the airtight effect of the canned food could be realized.

For canned military rations to be moved, the mouth of the jar can also be sealed with molten paraffin wax after pre-cooking, and the paraffin wax is sealed after cooling.

Wuchang is close to Jiangxi, and Jiangxi's pottery and porcelain industry has been very developed, are overcapacity, get some craftsmen to make porcelain jars to make canned peas, promote to the people, can also prevent drought years can not plant rice, the people starve to death too much, when the time comes to plant a season of peas, even if you can't pay taxes, you can have food to save your life.

And peas have a little advantage over edamame: when the bean seedlings are more tender, the husks of peas can barely be eaten, unlike the husks of edamame, which are all itchy fluff and cannot be eaten with the shells.

(Note: The peas at the end of the Ming Dynasty are not the current sweet beans, and the shell is still relatively hard, but relatively smooth.) When you are going to starve to death in a famine year, you can eat it with your shell, at least it is better than eating grass. ）

Historically, the origin of canning technology in the West was first during the Napoleonic Wars, and it was not difficult to put it bluntly. It is nothing more than the two ideas of "pre-cooking sterilization" and "ensuring air tightness", the specific material of the canned food is not important, and it can be airtight without iron sheet.

Therefore, throughout the three months, Shen Shuren traveled all over the prefectures under his rule, supervising the work of persuading the local officials to persuade farmers, and found that where the drought caused the early rice to fail to germinate, they urgently requested that the corresponding land be replanted.

In this process, the canning technology was also invented by the way.

At the end of March, when Shen Shuren was on his way back to Wuchang, the last stop was on the other side of the river and passed through Huangzhou, and the people of Huangzhou saw that Lord Futai was so diligent and loved the people, and they couldn't help but kneel on the dock of Huangqikou Town to see him off, and wanted to send him an umbrella.

Shen Shuren reluctantly put away the umbrella of the people, and a local old man who was highly respected and had been a lot of years old praised on behalf of the people with a cane:

"Lord Futai doesn't know that the most beloved magistrate in Huangzhou, who has been loved by the people for hundreds of years, was originally Master Su of the Northern Song Dynasty. Therefore, according to legend, now we can grow two crops of rice a year, which is the '100-day ripening' introduced in the Song Dynasty.

The reason why the 100-day ripening was promoted at the beginning was that when Mr. Su was in Huangzhou, he encountered a drought, and when the rain came, the early rice seeds were rotten and did not germinate, and they needed to be replanted, so Mr. Su got the '100-day ripe' that grew very fast. Later, Su learned that Hangzhou encountered another drought, and it was also dealt with in this way.

This year's drought is worse than in previous years, that is, the '100-day ripe' can't be saved, but the adults can think of persuading me to plant peas and corn to connect, and also specially for the people to study the method of 'sealing cans' to store peas, and the merit is by no means under Master Su.

In the future, the adult will definitely be a famous and famous Wenqu star in history, and my Huangzhou father can be a clean official like an adult for three years, which is really a blessing for one party! ”

When Shen Shuren is touted, he also feels a little like a world away. When he came, it was already more than half of March, and the lunar calendar had already passed the Qingming Festival and cold food.

As soon as he heard that the people compared him with Su Dongpo, he couldn't help but think of Su Dongpo's poem, which is called the third book in the world, "Since I came to Huangzhou, I have passed three cold foods".

He can be regarded as having passed three cold foods from beginning to end, but he just came to be an official the year before last, and this year, he has to return to Wuchang, just passing through Huangzhou. His official fortune is much stronger than Su Dongpo.

He is an all-rounder in civil and military affairs, Su Dongpo can compare one side of his literature, and the other sides naturally need to be compared with other heroes to fill in.

……

Because Shen Shuren returned to work in civil affairs and his patrol trails were erratic, when he returned to Wuchang, he found that the people who wanted to find him had already lined up in a long line.

He had to ask his staff member Gu Yanwu to arrange the sequence and meet them one by one.

"Why are so many people coming to look for it all at once? Is it all urgent business? Shen Shuren had just sat down when he returned home, and after washing his face, he couldn't help but ask Gu Yanwu, who was in charge of staying behind.

Gu Yanwu also shrugged helplessly: "Some are official business, and some are here to pat the horse, and they all say that Futai will be used by His Majesty." ”

"Useful?" Shen Shuren was stunned for a moment, and had a bad premonition.

Gu Yanwu said as a matter of course: "What? During Futai's inspection in Huangzhou and other places, did he not know that your book "The Theory of Thieves" that you made last year had just been fulfilled? Just a few days ago, Li Zicheng hijacked Wang Qiaonian's power, killed Luo Rucai, Ma Shouying, and annexed his subordinates.

Now there are rumors all over the world, saying that you are definitely more than a Wenqu star, you have to be Zhang Liang's reincarnation and Zhuge resurrection, and the enemy is thousands of miles away, and the enemy is counted a few months later. It seems that Elder Yang Ge is also going to send someone to discuss military affairs with you. ”

Shen Shuren suddenly had two heads: "How can there be half-heartedness in doing things, Yang Ge Lao sent someone here, it must be for Li Zicheng to be in a hurry." Alas, I want to kill Zhang Xianzhong first, why did I get involved with Li Zicheng again? ”

——

PS: The map has just switched back, and it's been a bit long. The timeline on Shen Shuren's side has also passed for a month, and the timeline needs to be re-leveled, so this chapter is more fluid.

Now that the timeline is bridged, the plot will be normal from tomorrow.

The new revision and upgrade address of the mobile station:, data and bookmarks are synchronized with the computer station, and the ad-free fresh reading!