My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 410 Wu Qingbo Wins the Championship

"Breaking news! Breaking news! The final battle of the grain yield competition! The competition will be held at the Crystal Palace Expo!"

Su Ze had been promoting this grain-growing competition for a long time.

He had Luo Wanhua prepare a column a month in advance, introducing several "seed players".

First, there was Li Wei, the Wuqing native, who used "Feitianfen" (a type of fertilizer).

The fertilizer powder has shown promising results, and with Li Wei's meticulous care, it has always been a favorite to win the championship.

Secondly, there was British President Zhang Rong.

This man was also Li Wei's old rival. His farm was next to Li Wei's farmland. The Duke of Yingguo had always looked down on Li Wei, who was related to the Duke by marriage, and the two would quarrel every now and then.

The relationship between the two became even more strained after Li Wei suspected that the British Duke had stolen his family's sweet potato seeds.

This time, the British also have a secret weapon.

The seeds in his family's home were high-yield winter wheat seeds collected by Su Hanlin, originally bred for the development of Liaodong.

It was only after Duke Zhang Rong of England personally visited Su Ze's residence that Su Ze gave the Duke a bag of seeds.

Furthermore, the Duke of England promised that all the wheat seeds he produced this time would be returned to Su Ze to be distributed to the people who were developing Liaodong.

Besides these two heavyweight contenders, the nobles, relatives, and gentry outside the capital city also displayed their unique talents.

After personally inspecting the site, Luo Wanhua interviewed several households that indeed had high yields per mu, collected their high-yield experiences, and published them in the newspaper.

This matter even attracted the attention of the emperor and the cabinet.

Agriculture has always been the foundation of a nation.

In the past, these nobles would compete in wealth in the capital, which gave the emperor and the Grand Secretaries a great headache.

But this time, the emperor and the Grand Secretary were delighted by their display of wealth.

Upon learning of this, the Longqing Emperor personally wrote the award certificate and sent it to the office of the Yuefu Xinbao newspaper as a reward for winning the competition.

Several senior officials even published articles in newspapers to encourage this method of growing grain using new technologies.

Luo Wanhua was also adept at seizing hot topics this time. He submitted another memorial to the emperor, requesting that the experiences of the winning grain growers be compiled into an agricultural book and published in various places after the grain yield competition.

Luo Wanhua's request was approved by the emperor and the cabinet, and was immediately granted and promulgated.

Today is the day of the final competition and awards ceremony for the grain yield per mu (unit of land area).

To amplify the event's impact, the awards ceremony was specifically held in front of the Crystal Palace Expo venue.

The reporters personally visited each participating farm to supervise the harvest and then transported the harvested wheat to the Crystal Palace.

Then, the latest agricultural threshing machine is used for on-site threshing. Finally, the grains are weighed, and the winners are judged on-site and awarded certificates handwritten by the emperor.

July 10th is the end of the ten-day holiday.

Because the competition has been in the works for a long time, and because last year's Lantern Festival was only held hastily due to the emperor's health, the capital has not had a large-scale event for a long time.

Of course, there was another important reason why the people of the capital paid so much attention to it—that is, all the major gambling dens in the capital offered odds, and many people in the capital placed bets.

It is said that the total betting odds for this grain-growing competition have surpassed those for the last time betting on a cabinet member's entry into the cabinet, making it the largest betting odds in history.

Unfortunately, the question of who gets into the cabinet is too far removed from ordinary people's lives; only scholars who understand politics would care about it.

But anyone can grow grain!

These days, the reports in the Yuefu Xinbao newspaper are like a constant warm-up for the betting market. People are holding the newspaper and analyzing the agricultural techniques of various households. Some people even go out of the city to investigate. All kinds of news are flying around, and many people are taking out money to place bets.

If we win, we'll treat ourselves to a better meal; if we lose, we'll just consider it a fun game.

On the day of the competition, the newspaper's reporters left the city before dawn.

Sun Wenqi, who was studying in the preparatory course at the Imperial Academy, also served as a field surveyor. He and his companions arrived at the estate of Li Wei, the Earl of Wuqing.

Marquis Li Wei of Wuqing specially wore his official robes befitting a marquis. He stood on the ridge of the field, directing the tenant farmers to harvest the wheat.

Seeing several tenant farmers accidentally drop wheat into the field, Li Wei kept shouting.

He tried several times to rush into the field to harvest the crops himself, but was stopped by the person in charge.

If it weren't for the fact that the dress he was wearing was so precious, Li Wei would have really done it himself.

He looked around, and finally his gaze fell on his son, Li Wen.

"You, go to the fields and supervise them."

Li Wenquan pointed at himself, looking at his elderly father in disbelief.

Father? Your son is the chairman of a company that manages nearly a million silver dollars. Is he going to the fields to supervise tenant farmers harvesting wheat?
Li Wenquan wore an expression worse than crying; he wished he could just pull out a thousand silver dollars and give it to his father to beg him to give up the idea.

However, Li Wei was stubborn, and Li Wenquan had been afraid of his father since he was a child, so he had no choice but to take off his silk coat and jump into the field to supervise the tenants' harvest.

Sun Qiwen gazed at the boundless wheat fields, lost in a daze.

He fled to the capital with his parents because of a famine in his hometown.

His parents died on the way to escape famine, and what he remembers most vividly is the sparse farmland along the way.

Famine years are terrible.

When people have nothing to eat, they have no choice but to flee the famine. And when even more people flee the famine, they will eat everything along the way.

Later, when he was begging in the capital, Sun Qiwen's only goal was to have enough to eat.

When did we stop worrying about food?
It seems to have started when I became a newspaper boy.

What followed was a dreamlike journey, and now he was a student in the preparatory course of the Imperial College, where he could not only eat his fill every month, but also study.

This is a beautiful dream that I wouldn't even dare to imagine on the road of fleeing famine!

My friends won't go hungry anymore; the capital hasn't seen any major fluctuations in grain prices for three years.

This is all thanks to the teacher!
Looking at the wheat fields outside the city, Sun Qiwen recalled a sentence that Su Ze had once told him: "People are politics."

Politics is made up of people, and it concerns the vital interests of every individual.

Every policy will ultimately affect every single person.

Every step forward ultimately benefits people.

This is why Sun Qiwen went to the Imperial Academy's preparatory course; he hoped to personally participate in this political reform that could change everything through the imperial examination!

The entire plot of land was only one acre, and the harvest was completed quickly. Under Sun Qiwen's supervision, the wheat was packed into special bags, sealed, loaded onto horse-drawn carts, and transported to the Crystal Palace.

The area in front of the expo venue was packed with people, all waiting for the results.

In addition to the common people, Emperor Longqing also sent Duke Dingguo, Xu Wenbi, to observe the ceremony.

It was originally Xiao Pangjun who wanted to come, but given the Emperor's current health, the Crown Prince naturally couldn't leave the Forbidden City, so the Duke of Dingguo had to go in his place.

Although Xiao Pangjun was dissatisfied, he was much more mature this time, only uttering a few verbal complaints before giving up. On the cabinet side, it was Grand Secretary Gao Gong who came in person.

Whether it's fertilizer powder or high-yield wheat seeds, these are both very important to the Ming Dynasty.

Gao Gong needs to personally inspect the results before deciding how to promote these things.

In addition, officials from the capital and those involved in agricultural administration also came.

The officials sat on the reviewing stand, watching the carriages arrive at the square.

"Luo Wanhua!"

At Su Ze's command, the threshing machine sprang into action.

This is a threshing machine driven by a steam engine. The steam engine roars and spews out white steam, and the threshing machine starts to roll.

The field researchers put ears of wheat into the machine, and the wheat grains were pulverized. The blower then blew away the impurities, and finally the plump wheat grains fell into the bag.

The surrounding people marveled at it. In fact, the principle of the threshing machine is very simple, and it is similar to manual threshing.

The fan used to sift wheat grains had already been invented long ago.

However, this was all done manually, which was inefficient. This machine combines the two, and the threshing speed is very fast, which amazes farmers.

Gao Gong was also very interested; this kind of agricultural machinery could greatly increase efficiency. He asked Su Ze:
Can this machine be mass-produced?

Su Ze nodded and said:

"This was originally a mass-produced model, made by the craftsmen of Fan's Coal Mine."

"The craftsmen of Fan's Coal Mine? The ones who first used railways to transport coal and steam engines to pump water, right?"

Su Ze nodded and said:

"Prime Minister, the Fan family's coal mine has now developed steam-powered mine carts, though they are a bit slow. Who knows, one day the railway will no longer need horses."

A railway without horses?
This statement left Gao Gong completely bewildered.

The Fangshan Railway is commonly referred to by ordinary people as a horse-drawn railcar.

If even the horses are no longer needed, is it still a horse-drawn railcar?
But that makes sense. Since a steam engine can pump water, it's not impossible for it to drive a carriage forward.

Gao Gong was even somewhat dazed. How did the Ming Dynasty become like this?
Thanks to the use of the new threshing machine, the wheat ears of each household were separated into grains, and bags of wheat were tied up and placed in front of each household.

The air was filled with the fresh scent of new wheat, but even more so with a heavy sense of anticipation.

At this moment, a minor official brought over the official scales, and the most exciting moment of weighing had arrived!
Marquis Wuqing, Li Wei, looked rather grim.

After being bagged, our wheat was one bag less than that of the Duke of England!
This is not a good sign. Although the weight of wheat varies from generation to generation, the number of bags is the decisive factor.

The good news is that their wheat yield is far ahead of others, and in terms of the number of bags, their yield per acre is 40% higher than that of other farmers!
This is already an extremely alarming number!
It's important to know that grain production is very large.

On such a large base, what does it mean to increase production by 40%?
Li Wei already regretted it. Why didn't he use fertilizer powder on all the land on his own estate?

Wouldn't this mean a 40% increase in this year's harvest?

Because he had the most bags, the British duke Zhang Rong's face was full of pride.

He deliberately glanced at Marquis Wuqing, Li Wei, and only looked away when the other man's face turned ashen.

Luckily, I used Su Hanlin's high-yield wheat seeds!

Zhang Rong felt the same regret, wondering why he hadn't planted more and why he had promised Su Ze to give the wheat and bean seeds to the Liaodong development area.

Now, their own farm will need one season of breeding and one season of sowing before they can harvest high-yield wheat.

Each bushel of wheat grain passed through the official scale, and the exact weight was recorded.

Each time the weight was measured, the clerk would shout out the weight loudly.

The other contestants were quickly eliminated, leaving only the Earl of Wuqing and the Duke of Ying.

The two teams were neck and neck in terms of weight, and Luo Wanhua deliberately had them take turns weighing themselves. The total weight of the two teams was accumulated on the blackboard behind them, and each time the number was announced, the surrounding crowd would cheer, and everyone would stare at the side they had bet on.

With the weight settled, the wheat yield per mu of Wuqing Earl Li Wei's family's wheat field surpassed that of the Duke of Yingguo!
The old man's wrinkled face broke into a wide smile.

However, the British Duke looked very grim.

If it weren't for the presence of the Duke of Dingguo and Gao Gong, and Zhang Rong's supervision throughout the entire process, he would have denounced the conspiracy!
But as some of the bettors who had lost their bets began to riot, Zhang Rong also gained courage. He rushed over, grabbed the wheat, and began to inspect the wheat of the two families.

Zhang Rong quickly discovered the problem.

In contrast, Li Wei's wheat was fuller and each bag weighed more, so although he was one bag ahead, his total weight was lower.

Zhang Rong confirmed there were no problems and showed a dejected expression, realizing she had still lost.

He also began to regret why he hadn't used the "Fat Field Powder" (a type of herbal supplement).

If high-yield wheat seeds are combined with fertilizer powder, how high will the yield per acre be!?

Zhang Rong realized this, and her dejected expression vanished!

The Duke of Yingguo is a duke who shares the fate of the state, and his landholdings are far greater than those of the Marquis of Wuqing, who is a relative of the emperor!

If everyone could use new wheat seeds and fertilizer powder on their own land, how much could the farm increase its yield in a year?!
Compared to this increase in grain, what is a thousand silver dollars!
The Duke of England also gave up resistance, and finally, Duke Dingguo, Xu Wenbi, announced the victory.

Amid cheers from the crowd, Marquis Li Wei of Wuqing stepped forward shakily to receive the certificate of merit handwritten by the emperor and a heavy thousand silver dollars.

This top spot was earned through his tireless efforts, day and night, and by investing heavily in his "fat field fans."

Immediately afterwards, Luo Wanhua announced that the imperial court would put fertilizer powder on the shelves of the East Palace shops in the city.

The fertilizer powder will be sold at a price that benefits farmers, but it must be purchased in limited quantities according to one's own land title, as production is limited and it will be sold out every day.

To make it easier for people outside the city to buy fertilizer, special agricultural technology shops are set up next to the patrol stations in various villages and towns to sell fertilizer powder.

In addition, the British government's high-yield, cold-resistant wheat varieties will be given priority to the Liaodong development area. However, Luo Wanhua also announced that after the Liaodong harvest next year, these wheat varieties will be sold in agricultural technology stores.

The people of the capital cheered and shouted "Long live the emperor!"

He Xinyin, standing in the crowd, looked up at the high platform. His disciple, He Suxin, beside him had a grim expression.

This time, the Yuefu Xinbao is making a big splash, and its sales are about to surge again.

With Su Ze as an outsider, the Yuefu Xinbao always manages to produce some attention-grabbing stories. This time, the yield per mu competition is so grand that it's hard not to pay attention.

However, He Suxin also admitted that the yield per mu competition was still well organized.

They promoted fertilizer powder and new seeds, and also summarized their farming experience.

The experience of these large-scale grain growers is invaluable, encompassing aspects such as fertilization, care, and pest control. If it can be widely adopted, the grain yield of the Ming Dynasty could be significantly increased.

This year's summer planting has begun.

(End of this chapter)