Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"Mr. Jiang has heard the best advice, why don't you just tell me the next best thing?"

Zhu Gaoxu was silent for a moment and suddenly said.

"Out of order?"

“Out of order, listen to what the worst-case scenario is.”

After all, according to the stinking problem of ancient Chinese strategists, both the best and worst strategies were put out for elimination. The best strategy is perfect in theory but difficult to implement, while the worst strategy is neither perfect nor easy to implement, and usually has serious side effects. So it’s not impossible to hear the worst first.

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and said four words.

“Fight fire with fire.”

Li Jinglong felt a little confused: "What do you mean?"

"Let me ask you, the Little Ice Age will lead to the demise of the country. Is the fundamental reason why the temperature dropped, which led to a series of consequences that affected agricultural production and life?"

"If what Jiang Lang said before is right, then of course it is." Li Jinglong nodded.

Jiang Xinghuo said with a smile.

"Then just find a way to make the temperature rise."

"What?"

The two were stunned: "How is this possible?"

"Why not?" Jiang Xinghuo asked.

Li Jinglong shook his head and smiled bitterly: "This is a change in the weather, not something that happens overnight! And how can we change the temperature?"

"Then I'll tell you another way."

Jiang Xinghuo narrowed his eyes slightly and said slowly.

"Although the Little Ice Age will lower the temperature, it is not insurmountable. There is a way, as long as you persist, you can make the temperature rise."

"oh?"

Li Jinglong's interest was immediately aroused, and he quickly straightened up and asked.

"any solution?"

"Just find a way to change the temperature, for example."

Jiang Xinghuo paused and continued.

"For example, if the world as a whole is getting colder, wouldn't it be enough if we artificially remove the hot air?"

Of course, in fact, industrial waste gas actually causes global warming. It is definitely not because the hot air is exhausted and cools down in the air, but because industrial waste gas blocks the sun's radiation to the ground, and a large amount of long-wave thermal radiation increases the temperature of the atmosphere.

The former uses the simplest common sense as an example. Under the scorching sun in summer, if you stand under a tree, you will feel very cool. This is because the transpiration produced by the trees being irradiated by the sun will have a lowering effect on the ground temperature. If the sun shines on the ground, If the amount of radiation is reduced, the transpiration of plants will be greatly reduced, and the resulting effect will be an increase in temperature.

The latter is because the atmosphere can make the short-wave radiation of the sun reach the ground, but a large amount of long-wave thermal radiation emitted after the surface is heated is absorbed by the atmosphere. This makes the surface and low-level atmospheric temperatures act like a greenhouse for cultivating crops, hence the name greenhouse. effect.

If the Ming Dynasty started its industrial revolution in advance, the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emitted by humans into the atmosphere would increase year by year, and the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere would also increase.

If the greenhouse effect is not taken into account, the ice and snow will melt too much, and the reverse absorption of heat will temporarily cause cooling, and the greenhouse effect does not always increase the temperature, but actually decreases the temperature in some places.

In short, the Little Ice Age cooled down, while the industrial revolution heated up. One rise and another fall, fighting fire with fire. Isn’t this a solution?

How perfect.

At least that's the theory.

Jiang Xinghuo probably explained the principle clearly to them, and then said: "Just like the coke ovens used for refining fertilizers, if we take this path, we will use machines to form another 'iron plow and oxen' type of manufacturing revolution." , then the coal or other resources that power the machines will definitely emit a large amount of waste gas that heats up the air in the sky. Once the two are neutralized, if they do not rise or fall, the impact of the Little Ice Age will be offset, right? .”

The air became a little quieter.

Zhu Gaoxu said: "So... why does it sound like you are forced to take chronic poison every day, and at the same time, you are inserting worms into your body every day, so that the worms can absorb the toxins?"

"Absolutely, I have a similar feeling." Li Jinglong said, fanning himself.

"Mr. Jiang, let's talk about the right strategy." Zhu Gaoxu advised.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't hesitate and simply said.

"The central strategy is the internal and external medicine."

Before the two of them said "oh", Jiang Xinghuo took out two pieces of paper from his arms.

"The two medicines prescribed for Daming Agriculture are both on these two pages. One is called "Five Simple Methods for Preparing Soil Fertilizers" and the other is called "Twenty-eight Combinations of Crop Rotation and Interplanting."

Obviously, Jiang Xinghuo had written this in advance.

Of these two, the first one he knew in his previous life was that only a rural kid who had studied for a master's degree and a Ph.D. could cross social strata. However, when his father's generation had a large-scale production, everyone had a copy of it. When he was a child, he knew everything by heart, but it was not because he became a university student. The lecturer forgot about it.

The second one is from the hungry people in the prosperous times. After getting money, they bought a few books on their way back home.

"We are the Qing Dynasty", among other things, are synonymous with decadence and backwardness, but there is only one thing that Jiang Xinghuo feels he has done fairly well.

——Promote agricultural books.

Although the essence of this matter is also to allow the people to cultivate intensively and maximize the use of the fields, and to make a living without rebelling and threatening the rule.

But in any case, it still has certain positive value.

At that time, there were about a hundred agricultural books available on the market in big cities. In different regions, there were also small agricultural books written by private individuals that specifically discussed the characteristics and techniques of agricultural production in a small area according to local conditions.

For example, Wu Bangqing's "Zenong Yaolu", which specializes in Hebei Zedi agriculture, Shanxi Qijiaozao's "Mashou Nongyan", and Shaanxi Yang Wei's "Zhiben Outline" and "Xiu Qi Zhizhi" are all based on regional needs. It is written with characteristics and has great significance for local production guidance.

And those agricultural books almost without exception recorded how to rotate crops and intercrop.

Crop rotation means that several crops are planted in turn. This can be due to different regions or planting times. On the same field, different crops or multiple cropping combinations are planted sequentially between seasons or years. It is also a planting method. A measure that combines land use and land cultivation.

Interplanting is a planting method designed to save land and improve sunlight utilization, such as planting peanuts under saplings or planting beans in corn fields.

Although crop rotation is a matter of practice, it is said that leisure crop rotation has been implemented as early as the Western Han Dynasty. In the "Qi Min Yao Shu" of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there are "Grain fields must be changed every year", "If you want to get good land, you don't need old ruins", "Every grain field, mung beans , adzuki beans are at the top, hemp, millet, and hemp are at the second place, and turnips and soybeans are at the bottom. Records such as these have pointed out the necessity of crop rotation and recorded the rotation sequence at that time.

But it did become popular on a large scale in the Qing Dynasty.

The rotation and multiple planting of autumn crops such as wheat and beans were used, and then the rotation and intercropping technology was widely used. After the Yongzheng Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty, Shandong, Hebei, Shaanxi and other places in the north generally implemented the four-crop system in three years or the three-crop system in two years. Multi-crop farming system, such as harvesting winter wheat, peas, lentils, rapeseed, etc. in Guanzhong area, then planting wheat again in autumn after summer slack, forming a four-crop farming system in three years.

The multiple-cropping farming system is more common in the south. After the Yongzheng Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, double-cropping of rice and wheat has become the main farming system in the Jiangnan region. For example, in Suzhou, Jiangsu, "one wheat and one rice are planted throughout the year"; in Laian, Anhui, "summer wheat and rice are planted, and two crops are harvested every year"; in some areas, such as Guangdong, Fujian and other places, wheat, rice, rice, or rapeseed are also formed. The three-cropping system of , rice and wheat has greatly improved the multiple cropping index.

Compared with single-cropping rice, multi-crop planting can increase the yield by between one-quarter and one-third, and most areas can increase the yield by more than half.

In addition, during the time when Jiang Xinghuo was prosperous and the people were hungry, we also saw various forms of intercropping in agricultural books, such as wheat and bean intercropping, grain and vegetable intercropping, rice and bean intercropping, rice fertilizer intercropping, wheat and cotton intercropping, mulberry and vegetable intercropping, etc. , it is said that the Sanyuan area of ​​Shaanxi Province has even created a two-year and thirteen-year vegetable and grain intercropping technology. The crops involved include spinach, radish, garlic, indigo, millet, wheat, etc. It can be said to have reached the peak of multiple cropping technology in northern drylands.

For Jiang Xinghuo, this is just the knowledge he accumulated before and after time travel.

But for farmers in the early Ming Dynasty, it probably took countless years of exploration before they could sum up the rules through the most primitive practical experience, and these pathfinders often ended up starving to death.

Why?

Just like exploring new routes, no one wants to take risks, or in other words, cannot afford to take risks.

If you grow rice and wheat honestly, you may still starve to death.

If you mess around in the fields, one plus one will definitely be greater than two. Maybe it will damage the main crops? The whole family, young and old, would have to be buried together for this mess.

Big landowners don't have the leisure to do so. They can stably collect rents, so why bother? Besides, keeping the farmers well fed is not a good thing for them.

Therefore, when Li Jinglong got these two pieces of paper, he immediately realized that the value contained in these two thin pieces of paper was as heavy as Mount Tai!

After reading carefully, Li Jinglong said almost without thinking: "Mr. Jiang's words are true. It is not clear how effective soil fertilizer can be, but this crop rotation and intercropping can really increase the upper limit of the population that Ming Dynasty can support out of thin air." Thirty percent!”

As soon as these words came out, unlike the previous exploration of a new and unknown sea route, the eldest prince Zhu Gaochi and the minister of household affairs Xia Yuanji in the secret room next door immediately became excited!