After entering November of the lunar calendar, the north of the Ming Dynasty turned completely cold. Especially in the morning and evening, you must wear thick clothes. The climate in China is more extreme, and it is cold in winter and hot in summer. Only on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, due to the low latitude and high altitude, can it be considered that the seasons are like spring. Of course, there are higher Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which cannot get hot in summer, but most people have difficulty breathing and are also very cold in winter.

Except for the two plateaus and the tropical southern region that are hot all year round, most other regions have a climate of cold winter and hot summer. The difference is that in the south, it is wet and cold winter and wet and hot summer. In the north, it is dry and cold winter and dry and hot summer...

But strangely, this extreme climate of cold winter and hot summer is very beneficial to agriculture. The hot summer in summer can bring enough accumulated temperature to crops. The cold winter in winter can freeze pests such as locusts to death. If you encounter a rare warm winter, insect disasters will easily break out in the second year. But generally, winter is cold and the land is still harvested...

In most parts of Europe, especially in Western Europe, the temperature is very pleasant, but it is not suitable for crops. Fortunately, the current staple food for Europeans is rye with tenacious vitality like wild grass (in fact, rye is a hybrid variety of wild grass and wheat, so it is naturally "wild" enough), but it is not so high. If it were replaced by more delicate rice and wheat, it would probably be a famine in every three days.

Of course, this refers to the situation where the backward agricultural era is. The modern agriculture carried out by Marin is not afraid of such situations. For example, the temperature in Europe is mild and the pests that may not freeze crops. But this doesn't matter. Marin knows how to use simple pesticides such as Bordeaux liquid and sulphur mixture, and also knows how to configure pesticides with pyrethrilles, and is not afraid of insect disasters at all. Only drought and flood disasters are the will of heaven, even in the era of advanced technology in later generations, there is nothing to do. As for ancient times, it depends on the sky even more.

Therefore, feudal emperors of all dynasties would sacrifice to heaven for good harvest and pray for good weather. Xuanwu, the god of turtle, is the god who is responsible for good weather. Only the big turtle presented by Malin is regarded as a top auspicious.

...

However, compared with the sweet potatoes presented by Marin, the big tortoise is simply not worth mentioning...

At the morning meeting on November 15th of the lunar calendar, Zhengde and his ministers discussed the sweet potatoes that were about to be harvested, and the monarch and ministers made an appointment to attend the sweet potato harvesting ceremony together after 11th and 20th.

To be honest, because sweet potatoes are buried deep underground, even though the yield is very high, neither the monarch nor the ministers can see it. Therefore, although many ministers have visited it, they have not seen any signs of a bumper harvest. Moreover, in order to ensure the yield of sweet potatoes, Malin also pinched off all the flowers of the sweet potatoes to avoid the blooming and fruiting of the roots and stems to compete for nutrition. However, this makes the ground part of the sweet potato look even more withered.

Therefore, when the Ming Dynasty monarchs gathered at Xiannongtan on November 20, only Malin was full of confidence. As for the Ming Dynasty, most of the monarchs and ministers did not believe that sweet potatoes can produce high yields. Even if they believed in Marin's Zhengde, they believed that Marin might be bragging. Of course, Zhengde believed that although Marin exaggerated the yield of sweet potatoes, it should not be a problem to exceed ordinary rice and wheat per mu. Before the harvesting ceremony began, Zhengde was even considering that Marin's promise had not been fulfilled, so how should he help him escape from his crimes...

After all, the "black turtle", plate armor and war horses offered by Ma Lin are quite practical. If you take advantage of others, you can't turn your back on others...

...

Before the harvest ceremony, Yang Tinghe found the soldiers guarding Xiannongtan and asked carefully whether Malin had made "small moves" these days.

Xiannongtan belongs to the royal sacrificial place, and the soldiers stationed for a long time. If Ma Lin made small moves, he would not be able to hide them. After receiving the denial reply from the soldiers stationed at the garrison, Yang Tinghe signaled that the harvesting ceremony began...

Because sweet potatoes have been raised to the height of "sacred grain", the harvesting process cannot be taken lightly. Before harvesting, Zhengde, as the emperor, first led his ministers to bow to heaven and ask God to bless the Ming Dynasty to truly harvest the divine grain. Then, everyone came to the edge of "one acre and three-point land" and surrounded the three-point land to watch the results...

...

After the important monarch and ministers in the court stood still, Ma Lin began to direct the full-time farmers in Xiannongtan to dig sweet potatoes with short wooden sticks...

Yes, it is impossible to dig sweet potatoes manually with sharp iron tools. Otherwise, it is easy to damage sweet potatoes. Therefore, when digging sweet potatoes, Marin asked farmers to use short wooden sticks with slightly sharp sharpness (the head is still relatively blunt, so avoid poking bad sweet potatoes) to dig sweet potatoes.

Under the guidance of Malin's parent-child, these farmers carefully started from the side with short wooden sticks, gently pushing away the soil, revealing the pink sweet potato skin in the soil...

In order to protect the sweet potatoes as much as possible, the farmers will pick them up directly after seeing them to avoid the wooden sticks from mashing the sweet potatoes...

...

Just as the farmers were digging sweet potatoes carefully, Marin felt a little nervous. Although he usually took good care of the sweet potatoes in this area and used enough fertilizer, he was afraid of accidents...

Fortunately, Marin said the conservative figure at the beginning - the yield per mu is more than a thousand kilograms, but he did not dare to say a few thousand kilograms according to the standards of later generations. Otherwise, if something unexpected happens and the output is not reached, it would be a crime of deceiving the emperor.

What is the consequence of the crime of deceiving the king? That is to be beheaded! If something happens, even if Zhengde has a good relationship with him and is exempted from his own death penalty, he should not even think about commerce and trade...

So, when the farmers were digging sweet potatoes, Marin stood by the side and sweated coldly on his forehead, looking very guilty...

...

In addition, Malin had discovered something that made him very depressed - the acres in ancient times were smaller than the acres in modern times...

After measurement, Malin found that the Ming Dynasty had a man of only 580 square meters per acre, not 667 square meters in later generations. Therefore, using the yield of later generations of Daming, Malin was at a disadvantage. If the output did not meet the standards in the end, he would have committed the crime of "deception of the king"...

...

Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened in the end. When the farmers put the cleaned sweet potatoes into the box, they visually measured the amount, and Marin felt confident...

...

"Scale!"

The chief assistant Li Dongyang shouted, and suddenly, several strong officials from the Ministry of Revenue came over with large scale poles.

Then, after several minor officials asked the hook of the big scale to hook the top of the basket, they started to lift the two of them to weigh...
Chapter completed!