Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 558 Imperial Memorial
Wang Zhen, courtesy name Boshan, was a native of Dongping, Shandong. He was an agricultural expert, mechanical expert, inventor, inventor of movable type, and inventor of the Yuan Dynasty. He also invented a set of "movable type rhyme wheel diagrams," which is equivalent to modern Pinyin input methods. It is a typesetting technique that selects movable type based on ancient rhyme books.

This old gentleman is 85 years old this year. As the saying goes, "At seventy-three and eighty-four, even if the King of Hell doesn't call, he'll go on his own." This old man has survived the two major hurdles of old age and is still quite healthy. In the original history, he even lived to the year the Ming Dynasty was founded, living to the age of 97. In ancient times, when the average lifespan was not high, it was not easy to live to such an old age.

In his youth, he served as magistrate in Jingde County, Anhui Province, and Yongfeng County, Jiangxi Province. He later resigned and returned to his hometown. Although his official position was not high, his contributions to Chinese history are enough to be recorded in history. Among the four great agronomists of ancient China, he can be ranked at least third.

Moreover, when he was a county magistrate, his contributions during his tenure were mainly focused on promoting agriculture. He also lived a simple life and donated his salary to establish schools, build bridges and roads, provide medicine, and encourage agriculture and sericulture. He was a truly good official. It's just a pity that he was born in the Yuan Dynasty.

This old gentleman had repeatedly criticized Yuan Dynasty officials, saying that when he went to the countryside, he was there to encourage agriculture and sericulture, while other officials only took the opportunity to extort money from the people. He also said that those officials were only extravagant and dissolute, and did not think that their meals were made from the people's hard-earned money. They only knew how to levy exorbitant taxes and enrich themselves at the expense of the public. Perhaps it was because he saw the state of affairs that he resigned and returned to his hometown in a state of disillusionment.

However, Wang Zhen did not remain idle after resigning from his official post. In addition to writing agricultural books and making a small invention of movable type printing, he also went to Jiangxi, Jiangnan and other places every year to conduct on-site investigations of agriculture and guide the agricultural production of the people. Of course, this was just his hobby and not a task of the court.

It wasn't until after the Red Turban Rebellion, when transportation between the north and south was cut off, that the old man stayed in his hometown in Shandong and stopped wandering around.

The old man had mixed feelings about Lu Jin, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, he was from Shandong and was recognized by the Yuan Dynasty as a northern Han Chinese, that is, a Khitan.

Shandong was lost by the Song Dynasty two hundred years ago and became the territory of the Jin Dynasty. After the Jin Dynasty fell, the Mongols came. He grew up in Shandong under the rule of a foreign ethnic group and did not have much of a sense of identity with the Southern Song Dynasty. In fact, he was only eight years old when the Mongols destroyed the Song Dynasty. What could he possibly understand?

In addition, he was a Confucian scholar who had been taught loyalty to the emperor and patriotism since childhood. So, from the bottom of his heart, he believed that Lu Jin and other rebels were wrong. How could they rebel?
On the other hand, he also disapproved of the tyrannical practices of other Yuan Dynasty officials who levied exorbitant taxes and believed that these corrupt officials were also wrong. He also felt great sympathy for the people in the south who were suffering from exploitation. However, given the general circumstances, he, as a mere county official, could not change anything.

He then became even more engrossed in agricultural technology, using it to numb himself and pretend not to see the brutal rule of the Yuan Dynasty. Perhaps if he spread more agricultural knowledge, the people could live a better life.

After that, the Holy Martial Army marched to Shandong. This was his first encounter with the forces of the rebels. At first, he thought Lu Jin's troops were alright, at least they didn't harass the people, so they were considered relatively good rebels.

However, not long after, the rebel leader showed his cruel side. Lu Jin ordered the extermination of the entire Confucius family in Qufu, leaving no one alive, including men, women, and children. Even the Confucius Temple, which had been passed down in Qufu for thousands of years, was razed to the ground. He also ordered the local officials to erect a warning stele on the site of the Confucius Temple, which read: This is the fate of those who become traitors!
This move terrified Wang Zhen, because according to Lu Jin's definition, anyone who had served as an official for the Tartars was considered a traitor, and Wang Zhen was also among those who would be purged.

Although Lu Jin immediately posted notices throughout Shandong explaining that only the ringleaders among the traitors would be punished, and that the Confucius family of Qufu had been high-ranking officials under the Manchus for generations, enjoying wealth and honor during the Jin and Yuan dynasties, and had acted as accomplices to the Manchus, using their special status to advocate for the foreign race, while the other people of Shandong had not enjoyed wealth and honor and were also victims of oppression by the foreign race, so they were not included in the purge and there was no need to worry.

Despite this, the impression of Lu Jin's 'cruelty' remained in Wang Zhen's mind. At the same time, he also believed that Lu Jin, the leader of the rebels, did not respect Confucianism and scholars. The Confucius family of Qufu was, after all, the same family as Confucius. Even if they were to be punished, this was going too far.

However, the very next year, someone brought Lu Jin's foot-operated threshing machine to Shandong. Although Shandong is located in the north, it also grows rice, but it is relatively rare, and most of it is concentrated in the Qingzhou area.

Wang Zhen was the most outstanding agricultural expert of the time. Among the agricultural books he wrote, the "Agricultural Implements Catalogue" included 105 kinds of agricultural tools from all over the world. Each one was illustrated with pictures and text, and the uses and structures of various agricultural tools were explained in detail. It is no exaggeration to say that there was no agricultural tool in the world that he did not recognize.

But now, a threshing machine he had never heard of before suddenly appeared, which immediately caught his attention. After asking around, he learned that it was invented by that ruthless rebel leader, who also ordered it to be promoted all over the country. This immediately changed his impression of Lu Jin.

An emperor who values ​​agriculture, understands the hardships of farmers, and even personally invents farming tools to alleviate their burdens cannot be considered a bad person, no matter how cruel he may be. Putting aside his identity as a rebel, he could even be regarded as a wise ruler.

From then on, the old man's impression of the emperor changed greatly. He even had his family make a replica of a foot-operated threshing machine. Hearing that this thing could only be used to thresh rice, he wanted to experiment and improve it himself to see if it could be used to thresh other crops.

Then came Lu Jin's founding of the country and the Northern Expedition. Until the end of last year and the beginning of this year, another major event occurred in the court. It turned out that before the founding of the country and the Northern Expedition, His Majesty had sent people to sail out to sea to find good seeds from overseas. They did not return until the winter of last year and successfully brought back many overseas crops.

The emperor not only bestowed the title of Marquis of Bowang upon the envoy who went to explore the ocean, but also ordered the establishment of three new crop agricultural technology promotion bases. He also ordered that every town in every prefecture and county must recommend two literate and skilled military officers from the Imperial Guard to go to the nearest promotion base to learn new crop planting techniques. Once they had mastered the techniques, they were to return to their hometowns to promote them.

This matter was circulated among the people in a mystical way. They all said that His Majesty sent people to find the celestial food on a fairy island deep in the East Sea. There was also something else, which was said to be corn eaten by immortals. This corn could be grown in dry fields in the north, with a yield of 210 catties per mu, which was almost twice as high as the yield of wheat per mu.

More importantly, it is said that this crop can be rotated with winter wheat, allowing for two harvests a year in the north. Once everyone learns how to grow corn, the harvest in the fields will more than double, and people's lives will be much better.

It is said that there are other celestial foods, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, sunflowers, and peanuts. Judging from their names, they are not ordinary things. Therefore, people from all over the country are looking forward to this matter and hope that the seeds of the celestial foods can be delivered to their homes as soon as possible.

Wang Zhen was skeptical about this matter. As a top agricultural expert of the time, he was certainly aware that superior varieties existed in foreign lands. After all, his own agricultural book included more than a dozen varieties of Champa rice, and these superior varieties from overseas often proved very useful.

But some people actually said it was some kind of divine food, or even corn that immortals ate. He didn't believe it, but he also didn't think that an emperor who could successfully rebel and establish a country would be so muddle-headed and easily fooled. So it was probably just a rumor spread by the common people.

There is also the practice of rotating corn and winter wheat to achieve two crops a year. In the dry fields of North China, it is not impossible to achieve two crops a year, but it is generally customary to call it three crops in two years. For example, millet is planted in March of the first year and harvested in July of the same year. Winter wheat is planted in October and harvested in May of the following year. Then soybeans are planted in June and harvested in October of the same year. This can barely be considered two crops a year, but apart from winter wheat, soybeans can only be considered miscellaneous grains.

If there really were a new crop that could be rotated with winter wheat for two seasons and also serve as a staple food, it would be a great boon for the people north of the Yangtze River. Wang Zhen immediately became interested. The old man, already 85 years old, still personally went to Xuzhou to see the superior seeds from overseas. He happened to meet Li Zhen, the Left Vice Minister of Agriculture, who was in Xuzhou on business. Li Zhen was also a scholar and a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Agriculture. Of course, he knew that Wang Zhen was the author of his agricultural book, and he often read Wang Zhen's books himself.

Moreover, Wang Zhen was quite old; in ancient times, he would have been considered a centenarian, the kind of person who wouldn't even need to bow to the emperor. Li Zhen naturally dared not be negligent and quickly invited the old man to his residence for a chat.

Wang Zhen finally understood the truth of the matter. The so-called fairy island and fairy food in the East Sea were all fake. It was indeed a rumor spread by the people. However, there was a real Lizhou across the East Sea, which was said to be the place where the descendants of Chiyou's Jiuli tribe migrated. Corn was not a fairy food, but such food did exist. Li Zhen even showed him the actual product, and Wang Zhen had no more doubts from then on.

However, he also heard that not all the seeds of the Lizhou crops were sent to Xuzhou, and some were left in Jiankang. It was said that these were things that were not suitable for planting in the north. Wang Zhen was very curious about this and immediately suggested that he go to Jiankang to take a look.

Li Zhen immediately smiled happily and said, "Whenever Your Majesty discusses agriculture, you always mention the old gentleman and his agricultural book. It is truly a book that the Emperor cares about. If Your Majesty did not know that the old gentleman is already in his eighties and it is inconvenient for him to travel around, Your Majesty would definitely have appointed him to the court. Perhaps he would have been the first Minister of Agriculture of our Great Ming Dynasty."

"If His Majesty finds out that the old gentleman is willing to go to the capital, he will be overjoyed. His Majesty has been looking forward to meeting the gentleman for a long time."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhen stroked his long white beard and sighed before saying, "Your Majesty's reforms to the bureaucracy, abolishing the Three Departments and Six Ministries and establishing the Two Academies and One Cabinet, are things I never expected. However, Your Majesty's establishment of a dedicated Ministry of Agriculture demonstrates your emphasis on agriculture. With such a wise ruler in court, I am quite gratified."

Li Zhen immediately added, “Actually, Your Majesty’s reform of the administration is not too outrageous. Although previous dynasties did not have so many departments, they still had all the necessary officials, such as the Nine Ministers. The predecessor of the Ministry of Agriculture was the Ministry of Agriculture, one of the Nine Ministers, as well as the former Grand Minister of Agriculture.”

"The many ministries that have been established now are simply a matter of changing the name of the Nine Ministers and redistributing their powers with the Six Ministries. In the past, the Six Ministries and the Nine Ministers together comprised fifteen ministries. Now, the State Council of our new Ming Dynasty also has fifteen ministries, no more and no less, which is about the same as before."

After listening, Wang Zhen simply nodded and didn't say anything more. He wasn't an official of the Ming Dynasty, and he was an old man over eighty-five years old with his neck almost buried in the ground. He should worry less about the affairs of the court. If it weren't for the fact that Lu Jin had brought back grain from overseas that really interested him, he probably wouldn't have gone to Jiankang to see the emperor.

So in February of that year, after delivering the seeds to Xuzhou and selecting a farm to test the new crop, and explaining the precautions for promoting the technology, Li Zhen took Wang Zhen back to Jiankang. Accompanying Wang Zhen were his two great-grandchildren.

This was all the idea of ​​his eldest grandson, Wang Hui. Upon learning that his ancestor was going to the capital and might meet the emperor, he immediately sent his two children to accompany him. Firstly, to show filial piety—after all, his ancestor was quite old, and it was normal to send two younger relatives to serve him—and secondly, in case they had the opportunity to meet the emperor, his children could gain some exposure before His Majesty, and perhaps His Majesty would be pleased and bestow upon them an official position.
Wang Zhen naturally knew what his eldest grandson was thinking, but he just sighed and took the two children with him to the capital. Children and grandchildren have their own blessings, and he didn't mind bringing two younger generations along, but what the outcome would be was up to their own fate.

Meanwhile, in Jiankang, in the second month of the lunar calendar, Lu Jin was indeed farming. Firstly, it was because the emperor was personally tilling the land, setting an example for the people. Secondly, Lu Jin did own an imperial estate. Of course, he didn't set up the estate for the sake of the grain from the land like Zhu Yuanzhang. His main purpose was to ensure food safety. He grew vegetables, raised pigs, and grazed cattle and sheep on the estate to provide food for the imperial palace.

In ancient times, pigsties were often built together with dry toilets. Pigs grew up eating human excrement, and when they grew up, they were eaten by humans. In this way, parasites from human excrement would transfer to the pigs and then back into the human body, causing cross-infection between humans and animals. Lu Jin certainly wouldn't dare to eat such pork. If he were to get infected with parasites, it would be a disaster. That's why he set up a royal farm to raise clean and safe pigs.

In addition, many American crops were brought in this year, especially tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and sunflowers. Lu Jin had been craving these things for a long time, so he came to Huangzhuang to give some instructions. He not only personally cultivated several acres of land, but also personally divided the vegetable plots and told what to plant in each plot this year. He said he would come to check on them often in the future, since it was just outside the city and not far away.

It was at this time that Li Zhen returned to Jiankang with the old man Wang Zhen. Ye Dui also happened to arrive from Taizhou, so Lu Jin summoned the two of them directly to the imperial estate for an audience.

Neither of them expected that the emperor who drove out the barbarians and rebuilt China would be so young. Lu Jin was only 28 years old this year. In addition, he was a modern person, so he ate better than people in ancient times and had not suffered much hardship, which made him look even younger. He did not look like someone who was almost 30 years old at all.

What surprised the two even more was the emperor's vast knowledge. Whether it was agriculture, machinery, astronomy, geography, or military affairs, Lu Jin could respond to anything they said, and many of his views were things that neither of them had ever heard before. This made them even more amazed by the emperor's extraordinary abilities.

Plants and crops also have male and female varieties. How to hybridize them to obtain high-yield and high-quality varieties? Wang Zhen's agricultural book records all kinds of fertilizers, but Lu Jin summarizes them as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. He also says that the types of fertilizers summarized by Wang Zhen are just a drop in the ocean. To really solve the problem of insufficient fertilizer, we need to find a way to synthesize ammonia.

The two of them couldn't understand these things, and Ye Dui asked curiously, "When I came down, I saw that the east of the city had become a construction site, with piles of bricks and tiles, and many craftsmen working there. Is His Majesty going to build a new palace?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin immediately corrected him, "That is not corvée labor, but the residents of Jiankang City. I paid them to do the work, not to use them as laborers for free."

Ye Dui immediately apologized, saying, "It was a slip of the tongue on my part. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."

Lu Jin waved his hand before saying, "What's being built outside the city is an academy. Of course, it's not wrong for you to call it a palace. Once it's completed, I do intend to use it as the imperial palace and the office of the court, but that's only temporary."

"After the capital is moved in the future, this academy will be transformed into a university in Nanjing, just like the former Imperial Academy or National University. However, there will not be only one National University in the future."

Wang Zhen immediately said, "The most important things in governing a country are agriculture and education. Your Majesty attaches so much importance to agriculture and education, you are truly a sage emperor."

Ye Dui, however, asked in surprise, "Your Majesty wants to move the capital, but where to?"

(End of this chapter)