Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 177: Transforming the Landform, Hybrid Rice! [Subscription Request]

The video produced by the Planetary Research Institute is much better than the first video.

The video begins with a shocking scene of a huge earth hanging in the starry sky. Then the camera moves down and lands somewhere on the prairie in northwestern China, and a man's voice is heard.

“Not everyone’s home is born with green mountains and clear waters.”

Then a short-haired man appeared on a strange red land.

"This is a magical land, appearing three-dimensional, colorful, and magnificent. However, it also hides an extremely deadly 'cancer of the earth.'"

"It's difficult for plants to grow here, and there are countless ravines and gullies all over the land. Is there any way we can change this?"

"Of course. Please work with the Planetary Research Institute to jointly launch this 'Planetary Transformation Project'. Codename: Jungar Banner!"

After the opening credits, the main content of the video begins.

First, the characteristic of the Jungar Banner sandstone that disintegrates into mud and sand when it comes into contact with water was introduced. Then the reasons for the formation of the sandstone, the harm caused by the sandstone, and even its impact on the Yellow River were explained.

"Looking at the overall situation, the entire Pisha Sandstone region, located at the junction of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, accounts for only 2% of the Yellow River basin, but has contributed nearly a quarter of the total historical sediment deposition in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, severely endangering the river!"

Just now, Zhu Yuanzhang and others saw that the sandstone area was basically located on the border of today's Ming Dynasty, and they did not pay much attention to it.

But now, after hearing these words, those who knew the harm caused by siltation in the Yellow River suddenly became serious.

Next, the video explains how China in later generations explored how to transform the sandstone areas, and how it took forty years to slowly control this "cancer of the earth."

Liu Kuan did not cut any of the video, but it is only 12 minutes long.

The Zhu family was so engrossed in watching the video that they didn't realize it had only been a short while.

Here, the video summarizes the transformation process of the sandstone area through a 3D animation.

People first used large-scale blasting to uncover the sandstone surface, and then sent in a variety of heavy machinery to carry out excavation operations to dig out the coal stored under the sandstone.

Then, the sandstone solidified by special potions was filled back into the mine where the coal had been dug out, and hills with the rudiments of terraces were built on them. Loess was then dug up to cover them, and finally, grass and trees were used to stabilize the soil and water, ultimately changing the sandstone landform.

Not only can it be used to grow fruit trees, but it can even be used to farm and raise fish, creating green mountains and clear waters!
For a moment, no matter whether it was the elder ones like Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, or the younger ones like Zhu Zhi and Zhu Yunwen, they were all shocked.

"People transform invisible wind and ever-lasting light into inexhaustible clean electricity. This electricity is then used to produce hydrogen, storing and transferring energy for use in even more places where it's needed – the cycle continues endlessly!"

As the last part of the video ends, another line of text appears on the screen that has been transformed into green water and green mountains.

“If God doesn’t give you a perfect home, then make it one with green mountains and clear waters!”

There's an Easter egg at the end of the video.

That is the video producer, who used apples grown on the sandstone landform in Jungar Banner as prizes and called on viewers to participate in a lottery.

This clearly proves that the transformation of the sandstone landform has been truly successful.

After the video ended, Lao Zhu came back to his senses and couldn't help but sigh: "To transform a place that was once barren into green waters and lush mountains, the ability of future generations is truly amazing."

"But where exactly is this Jungar Banner located on the prairie north of Shanxi and Shaanxi?"

Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted to ask Li Wenzhong, but when he turned around, he realized that Li Wenzhong had spent the New Year in Dengzhou Prefecture this year in order to supervise the navy and did not return to the capital.

So he looked at Zhu Yi.

Zhu Xing was cheered up - he actually knew where the sandstone landform in the video was.

He immediately replied, "Your Majesty, there is indeed this type of sandstone landform in the northwest direction, across the Yellow River from Hequ and Piantouguan in Taiyuan Prefecture. Just as the video shows, it's all red rock, crisscrossed with ravines, and no grass grows."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "When the Ming Dynasty conquers the grassland in the future, we can learn from some of the methods in this video and govern it."

"We don't aim to transform the area into green mountains and clear waters. As shown in the video, using sea buckthorn and psammophila to block some of the silt as water flows through will greatly benefit the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River."

"Father, there is still a lot of coal under that sandstone." Zhu Yi couldn't help but remind him.

He knew that there was an abundance of coal in Jin before he was sealed there, but he didn't take it seriously at first. After all, people at that time preferred to burn firewood and charcoal rather than coal.

But now we have honeycomb coal and coal stoves, and there is also a considerable demand for coal in trains and smelting. Zhu Ying thought about it and knew that there would be great money to be made in coal in the future.

He would need a lot of money to establish a fiefdom overseas in the future, so he naturally couldn't bear to leave the coal buried under the sandstone.

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted and said, "Isn't there enough coal in other places for us? Why bother using the coal there now? If you do, will you have the means to turn it into green mountains and clear waters like in later generations?"

Liu Kuan was quite impressed by what Zhu Yuanzhang said and immediately said, "Your Majesty is wise. The coal mines under the sandstone are indeed not suitable for mining now. Without any management measures, rash mining will only cause more severe soil erosion and further desolation in the future."

After hearing that both Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Kuan did not support digging the coal mine under the sandstone, Zhu Ying had to give up the idea - after all, even if the coal mine there was really dug, he might not be able to get a share of the profits.

It would be better to mine coal near Taiyuan City.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang thought of something and asked, "Liu Kuan, in the future, even those sandstone lands can be transformed into green mountains and clear waters. Is there a better way to transform saline-alkali land?" Speaking of which, the Huaishui area was a fertile land before the Northern Song Dynasty, and even one of the granaries of the world. Yangzhou before the Song Dynasty was also extremely prosperous because of this.

But since the Yellow River took over the Huai River and flowed into the sea, for hundreds of years, not only have floods occurred frequently, but there has also been an increase in saline-alkali land, and the people have become increasingly poor.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in this land. When he was begging with a bowl, he mainly traveled around the Huanghuai area. He was quite familiar with the situation of this land.

Although China has been studying how to manage saline-alkali land since ancient times, it has obtained many useful methods.

For example: dredging diversion canals to reduce the salt content in the soil through drainage; building embankments to prevent floods and prevent further salinization of the land; using saline-alkali land to produce salt and saltpeter to increase the income of local people; planting a few crops that can survive in saline-alkali land, etc.

But after watching the video, Zhu Yuanzhang still hoped that future generations would have better governance methods. If the Ming Dynasty could learn from them, it would make life easier for the people in the Huanghuai region.

However, under Zhu Yuanzhang's expectant gaze, Liu Kuan looked apologetic and shook his head, saying, "Your Majesty, the methods used to manage saline-alkali land in later generations must have been more advanced than they are now. Unfortunately, I don't know about them. When I found this video just now, I tried to find information on how to manage saline-alkali land, but I couldn't find any."

"I only know that later generations, through scientific methods such as hybridization and breeding, developed a salt- and alkali-tolerant rice, which they called sea rice."

After hearing Liu Kuan's previous words, Zhu Yuanzhang was originally disappointed, but when he heard the last sentence, his eyes lit up.

He immediately asked, "This selective breeding should refer to the selection of improved varieties for cultivation, right? What does hybridization mean?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, this involves the science of biology. If I were to explain it clearly, I'm afraid it would take a lot of time. I can only give a brief account."

Old Zhu said simply, "Then I'll tell you briefly."

"In fact, most plants, like humans and some animals, have male and female sexes, which is mainly reflected in the stamens."

"Some plants have both pistils and stamens on the same plant, which is called monoecious, while the opposite is called dioecious."

"The process of plant fruiting is similar to that of humans and animals; male and female must mate to produce fruit."

"Of course, plants are very different from humans and animals. They can achieve sexual intercourse simply by exchanging pollen from their stamens."

After hearing what Liu Kuan said, most of the younger concubines and princesses of Zhu blushed, but also showed surprise.

They never imagined that flowers, plants and trees also have male and female characters, and they need to mate to reproduce, and the key to their mating is the stamens and pollen.

Thinking about how they always like to put flowers close to their mouths and noses to smell them, those who are shy feel even more shy.

On the contrary, men like Lao Zhu, Zhu Biao, etc. were just surprised and did not associate it with matters between men and women.

Liu Kuan continued, "Plant pollination mainly relies on wind and pollen-collecting insects such as bees and butterflies. Of course, some experienced farmers and other growers will also perform artificial pollination when necessary."

"Since plants reproduce in a similar way, it's natural that their offspring will exhibit some of their parents' characteristics, just like humans and animals. This is called heredity."

"Inheritance in nature is random. For example, some people inherit the advantages of both parents in terms of appearance and personality, and thus exhibit more outstanding talents in many aspects than their parents."

"But some people inherit their parents' shortcomings but not their strengths, and as a result, they are less talented than their parents in some aspects."

"As humans do, so too will plants. Breeding improved varieties means selecting and cultivating those that meet the grower's needs from the many varieties of crops naturally produced."

"Hybridization, on the other hand, involves human intervention, selecting two similar plants with different characteristics, pollinating them, and then selecting the desired variety from their offspring."

"This is actually similar to breeding war horses. For example, the horses in one area are tall and good at charging, but lack sufficient endurance; while the horses in another area are short and not good at charging, but are hardworking and good at running long distances. If these two types of horses mate and produce enough offspring, it is possible to produce excellent war horses that are both tall and enduring."

If Liu Kuan had previously talked about plant hybridization, Lao Zhu and others seemed to understand it vaguely, but when he used the breeding of war horses as an example, Lao Zhu and others immediately understood it.

Because the breeding of war horses has been around for a long time and has been a major issue in all dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, as the emperor and the crown prince, had some understanding of this aspect.

"Later generations, through hybridization and other methods, not only cultivated salt- and alkali-tolerant seawater rice, but also cultivated other excellent rice varieties."

"For example, the reason why China was able to feed 1.4 billion people in later generations, in addition to using various scientific and technological means, was because it cultivated hybrid rice, which greatly increased its yield."

"Before I came to Ming, the latest super hybrid rice had already achieved a high yield of over 1,200 kilograms per mu."

Rice yield over 1,200 kilograms per mu?!

Old Zhu, Zhu Biao and others were all stunned and shocked for a moment.

After a moment, Old Zhu came back to his senses and immediately asked, "Liu Kuan, is what you said true?!"

"Every word I have said is true."

"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Old Zhu couldn't help but show a hint of blame, and then asked, "Can the Ming Dynasty develop hybrid rice?"

Liu Kuan pondered for a moment and said, "I'm afraid my understanding of rice hybridization technology is barely scratching the surface... The Ming Dynasty should be able to develop it, but it's hard to say how many years it will take to see results."

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)