The Rise of the European Emperor

After eating three different breakfasts, Emperor Zhengde burped and asked:

"Master Ma, I have tasted the three ways of eating sweet potatoes, and they are indeed good. However, is it true or not that you say that the yield per mu is 1000 catties or even 2000 catties? If it is true, it will be a blessing to the people of Ming Dynasty!"

A group of ministers also nodded one after another. If it is really like what Marin said, who will be hungry in the future? In Daming, even the poorest family has a few acres of poor land. According to Marin, even if the land is thin, the yield per mu is more than a thousand catties. With 5 acres of thin land, wouldn't it be necessary to produce at least 5000 catties of sweet potatoes? Even if half of it is used to pay rent and tax, there is still 2500 catties left over, which is definitely enough for a family of five to eat hard.

The most unbelievable thing is that Ma Lin actually said that the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi is also very suitable for growing sweet potatoes. This is terrible, northern Shaanxi belongs to the trilateral governor's jurisdiction, and it is one of the worst agricultural areas in Ming Dynasty.

To describe northern Shaanxi in one sentence, it is "troublesome people come out of poor mountains and bad waters". Because the loess is barren, wheat is basically not grown there, but millet. The main reason is that it is difficult to irrigate there, and it is difficult to grow wheat that requires a lot of water.

However, the yield of millet per mu is already low, coupled with the barren loess, the average yield per mu in northern Shaanxi is only a few hundred catties. Even if the family has 20 acres of land, they are still poor.

If sweet potatoes are really suitable for planting in the loess high slope area of ​​northern Shaanxi, even if the yield per mu is 1,000 catties, 20 mu of dry land can produce 20,000 catties, which will definitely keep the local people away from hunger.

Therefore, not only Zhengde, but also others do not believe that sweet potatoes have such a high yield per mu. Moreover, everyone suspects that Marin is bragging...

...

Marin thought for a while, and now it has just entered the late June of the lunar calendar, which is summer. In later generations, sweet potato has a branch called autumn sweet potato {according to harvest period}, or summer sweet potato {according to planting period}. The autumn sweet potatoes are planted in July and harvested from October to November.

So Marin replied directly:

"Your Majesty, I can personally take care of the planting and show everyone the effect!"

"Plant now? Is it too late?" Zhengde hesitated, as it will be autumn in a few months, it seems that there is not enough time.

"It's not too late. Sweet potatoes have a short growth period, up to 4 months. Plant them now, just in time!"

Then, Marin found hundreds of catties of fresh sweet potatoes, washed them, put them in a hot and humid environment, and let them sprout...

When you see a certain piece of sweet potato sprouting, cut it off and cultivate it as a seed of a plant alone...

Then, the parts of the sweet potatoes that sprouted one after another were planted in the soil and fertilized...

The place where Marin planted sweet potatoes was arranged on the "three-acre land" used by the emperor to plow the fields...

The so-called "one mu and three parts of land" originally refers to the small piece of land that the emperor personally plowed in front of the viewing platform near Xiannongtan in Beijing when he presided over the spring plowing ceremony. Of course, the emperor's plowing of the land was just a symbolic meaning, and he only went back and forth four times, and then he left and taught full-time farmers to cultivate it.

In order to express his emphasis on sweet potatoes, Emperor Zhengde asked the farmers who usually manage "one-acre-three-point land" to free up three-point land to plant autumn sweet potatoes for Ma Lin.

Then, Marin became a professional farmer. While cultivating sweet potato sprouts, he asked people to plow the land so that the sprouted sweet potatoes could be planted in the ground...

After planting the ground, Marin did not relax, but was busy. In order to ensure the yield of sweet potatoes, the most basic manure is essential. There is also plant ash, which is also indispensable as soil potassium fertilizer.

The only thing that troubles Marin is that phosphate fertilizer is not easy to handle, even if it is the phosphate fertilizer of the local method...

For a long time, ancient China's agriculture was very developed, and the use of manure became popular in the Han Dynasty, resulting in high grain production. Later, it was found that plant ash containing potassium can also fertilize the field.

Therefore, although Chinese farmers don't know what "three kinds of fertilizers are complete", they have learned to apply nitrogen fertilizer {manure} and potassium fertilizer {plant ash} by mistake, and the only difference is phosphorus fertilizer.

But phosphate fertilizers are really rare, except for the phosphate rock in nature, only bone powder with some phosphorus...

The effect of metaphosphate fertilizer is quite large.

It can shorten the growth cycle of crops, increase crop yield, improve crop quality, etc...

But Marin didn't want to reveal the secret of phosphate fertilizer to Daming, because the officials of Daming couldn't hide things in their hearts. If there is something good, they must be eager to show it off, and they especially like to "declare the world".

The people of the Ming Dynasty knew these secrets and Marin was not worried. After all, the agriculture of the Ming Dynasty was already developed. But it would be bad if the Europeans knew this...

Marin's ability to become a top rich prince who can support 60,000 troops in Europe has a lot to do with his use of advanced agricultural technology unknown to other countries.

If he told the Ming Dynasty about these tricks, if other countries accidentally obtained these technologies from Ming Dynasty in the future, it would definitely lead to a revolution in European agriculture.

Like the Netherlands in the original history, didn't it have an "agricultural revolution" in the 17th century. The reason why the Dutch engaged in an "agricultural revolution" in their native land was that after occupying Taiwan Island, they learned a lot of oriental agricultural technology through immigrant Han Chinese in Tainan, and promoted the development of Dutch agriculture...

Of course, Taiwan Island now belongs to Marin. As for the Dutch, it’s better to go wherever it’s cooler...

However, the Portuguese had conflicts with Ming, and they invaded the capital of Ming’s younger brother, the Malacca Kingdom, which just aroused the dissatisfaction of the emperor and ministers of Ming, and they could not have good contact with Ming Dynasty for a long time. And this time is the most precious for Marin. As long as you spend this period of time, you will make enough money by then...

Moreover, the use of manure and plant ash in the Ming Dynasty was already very mature, so he couldn't say no. Instead, he should pay attention to the use of manure and plant ash.

But if no phosphate fertilizer is applied, four months from the seventh month of the lunar calendar to the beginning of November. At that time, it was already early winter, which was very unfavorable for the growth of crops.

Therefore, in order for the sweet potatoes to bear fruit smoothly, Marin must hurry up. The best way to do this is to look for alternatives to phosphate fertilizers. Otherwise, the growth will be slow, and it is estimated that the emperors and ministers of the court will not be able to see the harvest of sweet potatoes.

In the end, Marin finally thought of a way - to fish the mud from the pond where there are many fish...

In a river where fish live, after the fish dies, the bones must sink to the bottom of the river and merge with the silt. In this way, the silt at the bottom of the river with many fish must have a high phosphorus content. Although it is far less than normal phosphate fertilizer, it will definitely be fine if you get more. After all, river mud is not like an expense, it will burn if you use too much...

So, Marin asked Liu Jin to ask Jin Yiwei for help to find out which river in the capital has more fish. Then, they sent people to dig river mud, which was used as phosphorus fertilizer for the sweet potatoes on the "one-third of an acre of land". Although the phosphorus content is low, Kesheng has no side effects in the river mud, just pile it hard...

At the same time, manure {processed} and plant ash are also used in large quantities. Anyway, they are all natural green fertilizers, so you are not afraid to use more. Unlike chemical fertilizers, it is easy to burn the roots if used too much... 6

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