Chapter 17: The Essential Art of Ruling the People

  "Guess what I've brought back for you, kiddo?" said Old Dad mysteriously, pulling out a cloth bundle.

  "I knew you wouldn't guess, look." Old Dad excitedly untied the bundle, "These are paintings." Yang Heng felt curious, what was Old Dad doing bringing some scrolls of paintings.

  "What painting, this is a book you don't even know, how did you go learn it by yourself." "Book, isn't a book just one volume after another?" Yang Heng was somewhat perplexed, he had indeed made a mistake, for in this era books were measured in scrolls, whether they were bamboo slips, silk books or paper books, they were all rolled up.

  "What's this thing, it's a book, but I got it in exchange for several hunting trophies. Don't believe me? Take a look." Old Dad picked up a scroll and untied the red cord on top of it, slowly unrolling it. "Look, aren't these all words? Where are the pictures?"

  "Volume 6: Raising Sheep and Making Butter...". This is a handwritten copy. What is this? Yang Heng started flipping through the scrolls, oh, this is the first one. On the outside of the scroll, there was a large character written in one stroke. He untied the binding strings and slowly unrolled it.

  "Qimin Yaoshu, Xushi Ji said Qimin has no cover... Shennong is a plow... " This is actually Qimin Yaoshu, an agricultural book, but it only has one volume. Yang Heng recognized few characters on it, which were all complex characters.

  "Grandpa, where did you exchange this book from? This book is really something, it's a book that teaches how to farm! Grandpa, you're too good, and you still thought of exchanging a book for me to read." Yang Heng was somewhat excited, and for a moment, he was incoherent.

  "It's useful, so it's fine. Old man was afraid it would be useless. This is something an old soldier brought back from a visit to another veteran's home. He took it out to show me and said it was a spoil of war from a certain battle. At the time, he hadn't looted anything else, and only this bundle of books was left in that place. He didn't know how to read, so he just brought it back and left it there. It almost got burned, but I remembered you like listening to people talk about books, so I traded a few hunting trophies for it. If you can use it, then good. That way, I won't have wasted those hunting trophies."

  "It's useful, it's useful, thank you, Grandpa, thank you, Grandpa." "What are you talking about? You're my son, I'm your father. You like to read books, so I'll exchange them for new ones for you. Isn't that what a father should do?" The old man scolded.

  It can be seen that Yang Heng's understanding of Lao Die has taken another step forward. Lao Die is not so heartless after all.

  "Grandpa, what else did you bring back? You didn't just bring back this one book, did you?" Yang Heng was very curious.

  "You little stinker, are you thinking about the food I brought for you? Don't worry, there's enough to eat." Old Dad turned around and walked out, then carried in a very large bundle of cloth, "Dad, why did you bring back so much food?" Yang Heng was surprised.

  "What's this, a small cloth package for you, and a piece of cloth for me?" Yang Heng said with some disappointment.

  "This is a pancake, you've had it before and said it was delicious, what's wrong, don't you like it anymore?" "I like it, I like it, how can I not like it? It's just that I haven't had it for a long time." Yang Heng quickly explained, no matter if it's good or bad, this is his father's kind intention. "If you don't like it then you don't like it, your grandfather bought this because it's easy to carry, isn't it? You little brat, you can't even lie properly, didn't he often buy it for you to eat when we were in the city?" The old lady scolded with a smile.

  "Look, I've bought some seeds. Whether the land is successful or not, these seeds still need to be bought." Then Old Dad took out a few more packets of seeds from his cloth bag.

  "This is millet, this is glutinous millet, and this is rice, as well as some other types of bean seeds. It's said that they can be used for fertilizing the fields, but I don't know if they can actually be planted." Old Dad really wasn't a farmer, and now he didn't even know how to buy seeds. This rice should be paddy rice. Yang Heng seemed to recall that in this era, there was no such thing as dryland rice (although at this time, Yang Heng made a mistake - dryland rice did exist, it's just that not many people planted it). Looking at the barren hills here, how could they possibly plant paddy rice? But what were millet and glutinous millet? Yang Heng opened up the cloth package to take a look, and only then did he discover that millet was actually yellow rice, while glutinous millet seemed to be some kind of crop similar to sorghum in later generations, but also somewhat different from it.

  Beans, looking like green bean seeds, are used for fertilization? After Yang Heng reviewed the Qimin Yaoshu, he realized that these green beans were indeed used for fertilization. The Qimin Yaoshu states, "The best method for fertilizing fields is to use green beans, followed by small beans and sesame... For spring wheat fields, the yield per mu is 10 dan, with a quality similar to that of mulberry leaves and mature manure."

  It can be seen from this paragraph that the green beans are used as fertilizer, and Yang Heng also remembered that he had read some online articles in his previous life, which mentioned using green beans as fertilizer. It seems that the origin is here.

  Even Yang Heng in his previous life had a set of farming methods, which was intercropping soybeans and corn. The corn could utilize the rhizobia on the soybeans to increase production. It seems that mung beans also have this effect. However, in this place, mung beans are not harvested for their fruit, but instead, the bean seedlings are plowed into the field after they grow up, and then grains are planted again next year. According to Qimin Yaoshu, this method is quite effective, and can even reach a yield of 10 dan per mu. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's worth trying out. After all, it only takes 2-3 sheng of mung bean seeds, and the land doesn't matter much. In this era, due to the lack of fertilizer, people usually plant a field for one year and then let it rest for a year, rotating crops to allow the land to rest.

  As he thought of this, Yang Heng suddenly remembered something - when they were opening up the land, they had collected a lot of weeds and even tree leaves in the field. Originally, Yang Heng was going to pile them all into a big pit to prepare for composting. However, if the compost wasn't done well, it would be easy for bugs to grow in the field and for weeds to sprout everywhere. Yang Heng recalled that in his previous life, he had once thought of using crop stalks from the fields to manufacture mechanical charcoal. He had looked up information about mechanical charcoal online, which included grinding it into powder and using it in the fields to add nutrients, even increasing the field's ability to absorb heat, thereby improving crop yields and quality. So, could these weeds and tree leaves be carbonized? That way, they could not only be used as fertilizer but also kill off insect eggs and weed seeds.

  Since he has come to this era, developing technology is Yang Heng's primary goal, but increasing grain production cannot be abandoned. In fact, only high-yielding grains can promote technological development and industrial transformation. Having come here, he cannot live a life of mediocrity.