Hundreds of civil and military officials, naval officers and soldiers who were sailing in Beijing, their families, and senior citizens of the capital came in droves.
Under the guidance of the etiquette officials, more than 3,000 people were properly placed.
Originally, Chen Xingshan, the Minister of Rites, wanted to offer sacrifices to heaven before digging sweet potatoes to pray for a good harvest, but Zhu Yunwen refused. The reason was: If there is no good harvest, it is not a slap in the face of God. If there is a good harvest, it will not be too late to offer sacrifices.
Regarding the new harvest, Luo Guanying, Shen Wei, Zhao Shiyu and others also arrived in the capital in advance and were waiting nervously with Zheng He, Zhu Neng and others.
Li Zhigang came from Peiping to pay homage to the Imperial College, and he brought the Imperial College Secretary Hu Hu and a group of doctors and professors to prepare to witness this historical moment.
Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Wenkui arrived, and everyone saluted.
For the sake of a single crop, thousands of people were organized to watch. This situation was considered a formality in later generations.
But at this time in the Ming Dynasty, this form was indispensable.
The people lacked understanding of the new crops and did not know how much they would yield. They were unsure.
There are only two crops a year. Who is willing to take the risk of growing new food? If this thing doesn't work, the family's food rations will be problematic. This kind of risk and concern is real.
Even literate and knowledgeable officials don't believe that potatoes can yield ten shi per mu, and sweet potatoes can yield 15 shi per mu. Do you expect the people to believe it?
The judgment method of simple people is very simple, that is, they give the truth and falsehood according to their own knowledge and experience. If you have never seen or heard of high-yield people, then it is a lie. Don't talk so much, you want people to believe it. Take it out and look at it later.
Therefore, the harvesting of new grains is indispensable during this period. Only by creating momentum and letting more people know about the yield of new grains can we lay the foundation for larger-scale sowing next year.
Zhu Yunwen looked at the quiet crowd and pointed to the three pieces of land in front of him: "Since Zheng He's navy returned, the imperial court began to sow new grain seeds. These three acres of land are all planted with sweet potatoes. Today's autumn harvest, I invite you to witness the yield. . Sun Cheng, Mr. Sun, Mr. Wang Bo, Wang Bo, you are the most respected elders in the capital. Are you willing to dig out the first sweet potato with me?"
Sun Cheng and Wang Bo were both over seventy-five years old, which was considered to be a long-lived person in the capital. In addition, they were charitable and virtuous, so they were very popular in the capital.
Mr. Sun and Mr. Wang were walking on crutches, the wrinkles on their faces deepened by laughter.
Wang Bo pushed away the courtesy officer who was trying to help him, and walked towards Zhu Yunzhen with a smile: "It is an honor to be invited by the emperor."
Mr. Sun was trembling and his body was a little stooped: "Being able to personally participate in the harvest of new grains can be said to be an honor to our ancestors..."
Zhu Wenkui stepped forward to support Mr. Sun, Zhu Yunwen supported Mr. Wang, and Sheng Zhong sent someone to hand over a small shovel. Zheng He and Zhu Neng also stood aside.
Harvesting sweet potatoes naturally requires a three-tooth spade, but the elders only participated symbolically. They were asked to use the spade. They probably couldn't bear it, so they had to use a small shovel instead.
"Then let's dig."
Zhu Yunwen bent down, picked up the shovel and dug the soil along the roots of the vines. Zhu Wenkui was obviously faster. The two elders carefully shoveled the soil without much movement. It was difficult for them to bend down due to their age.
Sheng Zhong and Zheng He carefully guarded the two elders. Before the sweet potatoes were dug out of the soil, they were buried first.
"Father!"
Zhu Wenkui felt that the shovel had touched something, and he quickly became careful, pushing aside the soil and saw a little red sweet potato.
"There is fruit!"
Zheng He and Zhu Neng glanced at each other with bright eyes.
Zhu Yunwen shoveled away the soil and looked at the spindle-shaped palm-long red sweet potato with a few slender roots at the root. He carefully took it out and said with a pleased smile: "This is a sweet potato. Look, the land of the Ming Dynasty can also be fed." These new grains.”
Zheng He, Zhu Neng and a group of naval officers were completely relaxed.
The most worrying problem of food not being able to survive and bear fruit does not exist. Things from South America can take root, sprout and bear fruit in the Ming Dynasty!
"Your Majesty, this sweet potato should be more than two taels."
Sheng Zhong sighed.
Zhu Yunwen weighed it and nodded slightly: "It's almost the same."
Sheng Zhong calculated that there were three thousand plants planted in this acre of land, and each plant produced two taels, which was only six hundred kilograms, or only four stones. This was far different from the fifteen stones advertised by the court, but The yield of four stones exceeds that of rice and wheat, and it is still a high-yielding product.
Just when Sheng Zhong was making wild calculations, Zhu Wenkui shouted: "There is more."
Another sweet potato was dug out, this one was obviously larger, at least three or two, and as the digging continued, three more sweet potatoes were dug out.
Five sweet potatoes!
Mr. Wang and Mr. Sun were a little dumbfounded. This one sweet potato seedling actually produced five sweet potatoes. Look at the heads. The small one has more than two ounces and the larger one has three. Two more!
Sheng Zhong was already prepared. He personally picked up the scale beam and weighed the five sweet potatoes. His fingers kept moving the weight rope on the scale beam until the scale beam was balanced and slightly tilted, and then he shouted with bright eyes: "One pound and three taels!" It weighs one pound or three taels!”
"OK!"
Zheng He was very excited.
Zhu Yunwen was also quite satisfied with the result. He said to Luo Guanying and others who were already eager to try: "I have made a start, but the yield per mu needs to be dug out before we can calculate it clearly. Let's get started."
Luo Guanying grabbed the three-tooth planing shovel and walked over. Zheng He was not to be outdone. Zhu Neng even snatched Shen Wei's planing shovel. Shen Wei had no choice but to take away Zhao Shiyu's planing shovel. shovel……
Navy soldiers are digging!
The scene was simply unsightly, and howling sounds continued to be heard.
"Yes, yes!"
"My long!"
"My big!"
"I'm longer!"
"I'm bigger!"
One sentence almost made Zhu Yunwen choke to death. Those who didn't know thought that you guys were playing hooligans and digging for something. Could you please be quiet?
Song Yu, a supervisor at the Agricultural College, knelt on the ground, holding sweet potatoes in both hands, with tears streaming down her face.
A bumper harvest, this is definitely a bumper harvest!
With this food, countless people in the Ming Dynasty will be freed from hunger, famine will no longer take away people's lives easily, and there will no longer be any need for tree bark or Guanyin soil!
Sheng Zhong looked at the piles of sweet potatoes, his eyes a little red.
The elders, family members of soldiers, and civil and military officials who were watching were a little shocked when they saw this scene.
"Don't be stunned, the officials will go dig another acre."
Seeing that a bunch of people had nothing to do, Zhu Yunwen gave orders.
At this time, there is no distinction between big and small officials. Those who have grabbed the shovel use the shovel, those who have not grabbed the shovel, and those who have not grabbed anything, use their hands.
A group of officials were busy in the fields without any appearance. Some officials knelt on the ground and dug up the soil. They carefully picked up the sweet potatoes and caressed them like beautiful jade. They had smiles that were inappropriate for children. I don’t know what this group of people were doing. What to think.
The first acre of land was excavated by navy officers. Each one was in good shape and strong, and there were many people. In less than an hour, the entire acre of land was completely turned over, and the search was completed only after it was completed. "Excessive title!"
Sheng Zhong shouted at the top of his lungs.
The sergeant put the sweet potatoes into sacks one after another and weighed each sack. As the weighing continued, the officials who had just been digging came over and gathered around to watch.
"Sixty-three pounds! Next bag!"
"Seventy-two pounds! Next bag!"
Luo Guanying, Zhu Neng and others are powerful and are responsible for weighing. Sheng Zhong and other Imperial College students read the readings, and the supervisors from the three Imperial Colleges specially recorded the calculations to ensure that there were no errors in every calculation.
As the bags were weighed, the scene became quieter and quieter.
After the last bag of "fifty-eight pounds" was read out, everyone turned their attention to the three supervisors who recorded the data.
The three supervisors handed all the calculation results to Sheng Zhong. Sheng Zhong read it, did the calculation again, and handed it to Zhu Yunwen.
Zhu Yunwen looked at the waiting people, smiled slightly, and shouted loudly: "The first acre of sweet potatoes yields 3,536 kilograms, which is equivalent to twenty-three stones and five buckets!"
"Twenty-three stones?!"
The amazing output completely shocked the quiet crowd!
Zheng He looked at Zhu Neng, and the two of them punched each other in the chest!
Okay,???????????????Okay!
Luo Guanying raised his sleeves, wiped away the sweat, grinned and asked, "Where is the wine?"
Shen Wei used the shovel, nodded his head, and secretly sighed, after all the hard work of getting the seeds, he finally had a good harvest.
The two elders Sun Cheng and Wang Bo looked at each other and were so excited that they burst into tears. What kind of sweet potato is this? This is the auspiciousness of the world, the great auspiciousness of rescuing the people in distress!
Who would have dared to believe the astonishing yield of twenty-three stones if he had not seen it with his own eyes?
When the imperial court said that sweet potatoes could produce fifteen shi per mu, countless people questioned it, but now the results came out, not fifteen shi, but twenty-three shi, which was a full eight shi more!
Compared to the yield of rice and wheat, which is one to three tonnes, the yield of sweet potatoes is simply astonishing!
Xia Yuanji grabbed the sweet potatoes and said to Xie Jin and Yang Shiqi on the side: "With such a large output, why worry about the people in the world being hungry again?"
Yang Shiqi weighed a sweet potato and sighed: "This yield is so amazing. If I hadn't just smashed my foot, I would have thought it was an illusion." Xia Shangshu, seeing these sweet potatoes, do you still feel sorry for the reward for the naval officers? "
Xia Yuanji said with some shame: "We didn't understand the courtesy the emperor gave them at first. Now it seems that giving three salutes to the navy officers and soldiers is far from enough. Offering them incense and kowtow are all worth it."
Xie Jin did not make fun of Xia Yuanji. This undisputed yield and these freshly harvested sweet potatoes told everyone that this yield was absolutely not false.
Twenty-three stones. Faced with such a high-yielding sweet potato, it would not be shameful to kowtow to Zheng He and the others.
"Don't be stunned. The land may be fat or thin, and the harvest of one acre of land will inevitably be inaccurate. Dig the two acres of land together."
Zhu Yunwen ordered.
Everyone took action and was in full swing.
Over weighing.
The second acre of land yielded 3,627 kilograms, equivalent to twenty-four stones per bucket.
The third acre of land yielded 3,568 kilograms, equivalent to twenty-three stones and seven buckets.
The three acres of land add up to a total of 10,731 kilograms, seventy stones and five buckets!
The harvest from three acres exceeded 10,000 catties!
This is simply unimaginable, but it actually happened in front of everyone.
The officials cheered, the naval officers and soldiers twisted up, and the elders even sang loudly: "It's a good harvest, lift up your arms and pick up the burden..."
