At first, when Lao Cai found Shuan Zhu and Blind Deer, the two tenant farmers were quite happy. They thought they would be allocated one and a half acres of paddy field to grow some rice this year. Unexpectedly, the young lady was going to Qingyuan to pick sugarcane seedlings and asked Do these two old men have any experience in planting sugarcane?
The two of them inserted a few sugarcane seedlings into the ground a few years ago and didn't pay much attention to the weed-like sugarcane. Unexpectedly, the sugarcane seedlings grew up and matured. The two were asked by the old housekeeper, it was also to earn some money. Feeling, I just casually said that this is not easy, patting my chest and saying that this matter is easy to handle.
As a result, when I was picking sugarcane seedlings in Qingyuan County and saw the twenty-plus truckloads of sugarcane seedlings, the two old tenant farmers were so shocked that a goose egg could fit into their mouths. You two looked at me and I looked at your heart. What a joke, the lady didn’t just want to plant two sugar cane plants on a whim, but she really wanted to plant dozens or hundreds of acres of sugar cane!
On the way back, the two of them were like slugs in a box, dejected and kept muttering in their hearts about how to explain to the eldest lady that these sugarcane seedlings cost a lot of money, and telling them to pack up and get out was a trivial matter, and they would have to pay for it later. .
The two men hid timidly behind the convoy, chewing grass stalks with dead faces on their faces. Lao Cai beat them both for a long time, and their hearts sank to the bottom when they saw the stinky faces of the housekeeper Lao Cai when he found them. The grass stalks in his mouth spat out on the ground. Shuan Zhu was older than Blind Deer and said cruelly: "I'm afraid of you, just die. At worst, your work has been in vain these past few years. I'll plant all these sugarcane seedlings for my lady." .”
Blind Lu usually had no idea, but now he was confused and followed numbly behind Shuan Zhu.
What Lao Cai hates the most is when his servants are disobedient or resentful when doing work. Who can show him his stinky face? Do it or not, get out at any time! At this moment, the expressions of the two sharecroppers were as miserable as the ashes after burning in the middle of the night. Lao Cai became angry and said: "You two old guys, the eldest lady thinks highly of you and plans to re-employ you. You are crying and crying." Who's watching? Cheer up for me! If you miss the important event of the eldest lady, let me see how I deal with you!"
Zheng Ruoying followed Liang Chuan, one behind the other. Liang Chuan held a hoe in his hand, and the two of them headed to the designated sugar cane field of the Zheng family.
Liang Chuan looked at the vast wasteland, which looked even more desolate under the winter gloom. It was said that the Song Dynasty was a time of great prosperity, but right in front of his own eyes, tragedies of being left without food, clothing, warmth, and homelessness were often happening. , all this is because the productivity of the land is too low, farmers have few options, advantageous resources are in the hands of a few people, and most people can only watch helplessly. How much can he change? Alas, Liang Chuan let out a long sigh.
Zheng Ruoying followed the man and was startled by the man's sudden sigh. Why did he sigh suddenly? Is it because I don’t have confidence or the land is too bad?
"Do you think the life of ordinary people in this era is good or bad?" Liang Chuan seemed to be asking Zheng Ruoying, but also seemed to be asking himself.
Zheng Ruoying replied without a trace of hesitation: "Emperor Taizu conquered the country, and this life is much more comfortable than the previous dynasty. The world in the previous dynasty was too dark, parents sold their sons and daughters, and people competed with each other for food, let alone a bowl of full rice. , it would be great if you don’t have to worry about whether you can survive until tomorrow. Of course, you are living a good life in this life!”
Liang Chuan was noncommittal and said, "It would be too tiring for people to live."
Lao Cai led the two tenant farmers to him and said to Zheng Ruoying: "Miss, Shuan Zhu and Blind Deer are here."
Zheng Ruoying nodded towards Lao Cai, who naturally stepped aside. Zheng Ruoying said to Liang Chuan: "Liang Daguan, I brought you the people. You can tell me how to refine the management method."
The two old men walked up to them tremblingly, burying their faces low, ready to show their feet and bear the eldest lady's wrath.
Liang Chuan glanced at the embarrassment of the two old men and asked respectfully: "Don't you know what to call these two old men?"
The two old men had lived their whole lives and no one cared what their real names were. They had been called Shuan Zhu Blind Lu all their lives. Now when asked what their names were, the two people forgot about the code name and opened their mouths. After saying a word, he was stunned and didn't know how to reply to Liang Chuan's words.
Lao Cai stood behind him and coughed. The two of them just turned around and glanced at Lao Cai without making a sound.
Zheng Ruoying saw her two old tenant farmers being so rude, so she came out to smooth things over and said, "Master Liang, just call this the older Shuan Zhu. This one is Blind Deer. We all call him that at home." Theirs. The two of them have not seen much of the world, and the first time they saw Liang Chuan’s official style, they made the official laugh. "
These two names are good for fertility and come from farmers. Liang Chuan saluted the two old men and said: "I invite you two old men to come here today. We are going to discuss how to grow these sugar canes so that we can have a good harvest next year. I have a few humble opinions. I hope you can tell them. Two experienced experts corrected me."
In the old way, two old men who had already stepped into the loess with one and a half feet were frightened by this claim. Two people who have spent half their lives digging in the yellow earth, no one has ever taken them seriously. At most, they are just treated as nothing. The eldest lady in charge of the house was kind to the two of them, but she didn't behave like this. The two of them had never received such a big courtesy from any big shot or official, so their backs were slightly hunched, more like a shrimp, and they didn't dare to raise their heads. After receiving Liang Chuan's gift, his lips trembled, but he couldn't make any sound.
When Liang Chuan saw that the two people were silent, he laughed and said, "You two old guys who don't express their opinions will treat it as if they agree. Then I will first talk about some key points of growing sugar cane in my hometown."
Liang Chuan wanted to laugh a little. He had acquired all this knowledge about agriculture and became a monk halfway. He majored in liberal arts in high school and later chose this major that was more science and engineering. During class, he was always in a daze, and he only knew a little bit of the theoretical knowledge taught by the teacher. I don’t know why, but fortunately my mentor was kind and rewarded him with a degree certificate. Later, police work and agriculture became even more incompatible. This knowledge was given back to the teacher a long time ago. Today, I still have to use this knowledge reluctantly to make a living. Alas, I don’t know if I will not be able to survive. .
Several people looked at Liang Chuan eagerly. Liang Chuan cleared his throat and began to say: "Growing sugar cane requires four essentials: deep plowing, shallow planting, wide rows, and dense planting. If you master these four essentials, if you don't encounter any major disasters, You can get a good harvest just by planting sugar cane in the ground."
"Please explain these four tips carefully. We don't understand them clearly, so how do we plant them?" Zheng Ruoying asked anxiously.
Liang Chuan smiled and said: "Miss Zheng, don't be impatient, let me explain slowly. The so-called deep plowing means that before planting seedlings, the land needs to be plowed deep enough, and the soil must be raked into fine pieces. It is best to allow it to be exposed to the sun. One day of sunshine, this sunshine can remove the soil poison, and the sugarcane will be less susceptible to insect pests during the growth process."
The two old men heard Liang Chuan talk about farming, and what he said was reasonable and well-founded. They grew up in the fields, so they knew what these jargons meant. This young man obviously knew how to farm, and he didn't need the two old men to embarrass themselves. Suddenly, a big stone weighed on their hearts fell to the ground!
Blind Deer asked submissively: "Officer, do you know how deep the deep plowing you are talking about is?"
Liang Chuan said: "According to your standards, it is about two feet deep! The plow is two feet deep. Of course, a little less is fine, but it must be at least a foot and a half deep."
Shuan Zhu saw that Blind Deer, a coward, started to speak. He couldn't be too cowardly. Man Bu said, "Is two feet too deep? It requires a lot of animal power."
Liang Chuan said: "A serious problem with sugarcane is that it will fall when it grows up. The sugarcane grows tall at the back, and the root system of the sugarcane is very shallow. It is heavy on the ground but does not have enough grip in the soil. In the summer, there are many typhoons in this place. When there is a lot of rain, the soil will easily soften, and the sugarcane will fall down and rot, which will affect the harvest, so the cane furrow below must be plowed deep to facilitate the sugarcane roots."
Liang Chuan's words were very easy to understand, and the two old men nodded repeatedly. Although Zheng Ruoying was not very expert, she couldn't help but smile with joy when she saw that her two tenants agreed so much with Liang Chuan's methods.
Liang Chuan continued: "The next step is wide rows, but in fact wide rows and dense planting can be explained together. We often think that the more crops we can plant in the field, the more we will harvest, but this is not the case."
Liang Chuan originally wanted to explain to them that crops also need sunlight and air, but he was afraid that they would not understand, so he changed his mind and said: "According to the experience passed down by our ancestors, the land also has soil fertility. If the soil fertility is not enough to grow too many things, then On the contrary, it will reduce production, so sugar cane cannot be planted too densely. Just like rice in the field is planted too densely, the yield will not be high. The best distance between two rows of sugar cane is three to four feet, with the middle Furrows need to be dug so that they can be drained when it rains in the summer, and water can be diverted for irrigation in autumn and winter. Seven to eight sugarcane seedlings can be planted within three feet of each row of sugarcane. This will achieve the best results!"
Generally, up to five or six sugarcane seedlings can be planted in one foot of sugarcane field. However, in this era, there is no way to provide enough fertilizer to the crops, which will also damage the yield. In order to make up for the lack of quality, we can only rely on quantity. Achieve the most productive results!
Liang Chuan was chatting away, and the two old men couldn't get a word in at all. They could only say um, ah, ah from time to time. How could Zheng Ruoying know that her two old men were just a little better than herself? , Although Liang Chuan is not good at practice, he talks about it in theory, which is completely based on the experience that others have worked hard to sum up. They are all tempered and tempered, so there is no mistake!
