Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

Jinyang.

Ma Chao finally got his ten-day-off day. Early in the morning, without even having breakfast, he rode his horse hurriedly to the earthen building outside the city to ask to see Lu Bu.

The guards got a headache when they saw him and stopped him, saying, "The king has ordered that no one is allowed to go in and disturb us before the sun rises unless it's urgent."

Ma Chao said, "I just have something urgent to report."

The guard obviously didn't believe it and reminded him, "Young General, you are also a soldier. You know that lying about military intelligence will result in beheading."

Ma Chao shouted impatiently, "Why do you care about my head? Just go in and report."

"Okay! Wait!"

The guard turned and went back into the earthen building. When he came out a moment later, he said to Ma Chao unhappily, "The king told you to wait outside!"

Ma Chao looked depressed, and he still didn't dare to force his way in. The last time he tried to break in, if he hadn't reacted quickly and retreated in time, the corpses would have become a hornet's nest. This group of guards was as reckless as Xu Chu, and they dared to kill anyone who broke into the building.

Ma Chao sat on the stone block outside the door, waiting bored, until Xu You came to pay his respects, and then he followed him in.

Lu Bu came down from the second floor and started cursing at Ma Chao when he saw him. "You brat, how many times have you come here as soon as it's your turn to rest? Why not come a little later? And you even lied about being in a hurry. Who gave you the guts?"

Ma Chao stood in the courtyard, looking up at him with a stubborn expression, "Let me lead the troops to pacify Liangzhou, and I promise not to bother you again."

"How many times have I told you, if you have no food, how can you fight for peace?"

Ma Chao snorted, "Don't try to trick me. I've been all over Bingzhou these days, and not a single one of the people is hungry. How could there be no food?"

He walked straight to the pavilion and sat down on the stone bench. "My mother and brother are both held hostage in Jinyang. Your Majesty, what is there to worry about?"

Lü Bu was too lazy to explain too much and said, "When you defeat Zhong Kang and can outsmart him in military strategy, I will allow you to go."

Speaking of this, Ma Chao lost his arrogance all of a sudden. Xu Chu, that rough man, was not only a martial arts expert, but he could also quote various military strategies from books at will. Although he had learned a little in the past, he was still far inferior to him. He could not win in a debate or a fight, which made him extremely depressed.

Not only Xu Chu, he also competed with Yan Xing and found that this very low-key young general who used to be by Han Sui's side was also a master. He could not even beat Hua Xiong. He, who was the best in Xiliang, became the third after arriving in Bingzhou. Ma Chao was very dissatisfied.

Lü Bu ignored Ma Chao and said to Xu You, "Ziyuan, you're here early. Go sit in the hall first. Amo will be here soon."

Xu You bowed and went inside to drink tea and read the newspaper while waiting. Ma Chao pestered Lu Bu to practice martial arts with him again.

"Where do I have the free time?" Lu Bu shooed him away like a fly. "Go away, go play with Ying Wei!"

"Yingwei doesn't know how to teach. Zhongkang said that you were the one who taught them before." Ma Chao shamelessly refused to leave.

"That was in the past. How can I have the time to teach you now? Martial arts are acquired through practice. If you let Zhongkang and Yingwei beat you up a few more times, you will naturally improve."

Lu Bu said perfunctorily, and when he looked up, he saw that Tangyuan's door was open. He quickly climbed upstairs and brought his daughter down. A servant brought warm water, and Lu Bu personally fed his daughter a glass of water, washed her face, and took her to ride the carousel.

The wooden horse could only be rotated by human power. Lü Bu patiently spun it over and over again, enjoying himself with his daughter. Ma Chao, watching from the side, was furious. Who could have imagined that this so majestic and awe-inspiring Prince of Tang was actually such a daughter slave? Every time he came over, he would see him holding his daughter tightly.

At this time, Zhang Mo also came down from upstairs with her two sons. Knowing that Ma Chao must have not eaten breakfast again, she came over and invited him to go in and eat together.

After breakfast, Lu Bu entrusted Lu Zhen and Lu Xuan to Aunt Xu, and went to inspect the experimental fields with Zhang Mo, his eldest son Lu Qian, and Xu You. Xu Chu followed with a few guards. Ma Chao was bored, so he simply went along to join in the fun.

In addition to Xu You, Sima Yi and several others also heard the news and came, waiting at the intersection outside.

It is now mid-May, and the rice that was planted for the first time this year has entered the heading stage. Zhang Mo must go to see the results.

Due to the severe food shortage, Zhang Mo has been thinking about how to survive this year's famine since she subdued the Black Mountain bandits last year.

The first thing that came to her mind was naturally to rob, but the year was too bad. After thinking about it, she realized that apart from a few southern states, there was really no place to rob in the north. The south had a wide network of waterways, and it was simply unrealistic to go there to rob food without a navy. There was really no other way, so she wanted to advance the planting time this year.

However, every crop has its season, and arbitrarily advancing the time would result in all of them freezing to death. So she thought of the later seedling cultivation method, which was to use a greenhouse to grow the seedlings first and then plant them.

There was no such thing as raising seedlings in this era. When the season came, the seeds were simply sown in the fields and allowed to germinate and grow freely.

The seedling cultivation is to cultivate the seeds in a greenhouse about a month in advance, so that the seedlings can be directly planted in the paddy fields when the time comes. Compared with scattering, the time is one month earlier, and the harvest period is naturally earlier as well.

How many people would starve to death in a month without food? So after the success of the rice seedling experiment, Zhang Mo had people build several greenhouses in sunny, windward, low-altitude places with sufficient water sources, so that Jinyang and several surrounding counties could use them for planting rice seedlings.

Everyone rode horses and took cars to the experimental field on the banks of the Fen River. Looking up, they saw the lush rice seedlings stretching as far as the eye could see like a vast grassland, which made people feel particularly relaxed.

Xu You said with a happy face, "I visited the fields yesterday and heard from several farmers that this method of planting not only brings the harvest earlier, but also produces better yields than broadcasting."

"Can production be increased further?" Zhang Mo wondered.

She didn't know much about agriculture, and the few methods she knew were learned from working with her mother in her previous life. If it weren't for the severe famine this year, she wouldn't have thought of using the seedling raising method to grow rice. Because even if the harvest was to be carried out a month in advance, in the absence of sufficient fertilizer, the north could only grow one crop of grain a year. Add to that the cost of building a greenhouse and burning a stove, and there was no point in doing it in advance.

Xu You squatted down and held up a rice plant for everyone to see. "This seedling is strong and has a strong tillering ability. It will produce more effective ears than the scattered plants. I did a preliminary assessment. Judging from this number of ears, the yield per mu can be increased by about 30% under the same fertility."

"Yesterday I visited several rice fields and saw the same thing. I also asked several farmers, and they told me that in previous years, when they sowed the rice, weeds would often grow wildly before the seeds even germinated. Not only did the weeds take away the soil's fertility, but many seedlings were covered and even stopped from growing. But now, farmers pull out the weeds when they plant the rice, and the seedlings are obviously growing stronger.

Then there's the issue of plant spacing. When sowing, seeds can be unevenly dispersed, clumped together, or spaced too far apart. Some seeds simply don't germinate, or even germinate too long before and after, resulting in uneven plant heights. Transplanting rice seedlings avoids these issues, which is why raising seedlings early can increase yields."

Xu You pointed at the vast expanse of farmland and said with a smile, "Although transplanting rice seedlings is more labor-intensive, with the princess's invention of the curved plow, waterwheel, and ear-thresher, adding an extra step of raising and transplanting the seedlings actually saves more labor than before. Furthermore, the yield per acre can be increased by 30%. For the entire world, how much grain can be produced each year?"

He bowed respectfully to Zhang Mo and said, "Princess, you are truly the reincarnation of an immortal. My reverence for you is like this vast sea of ​​rice, endless and boundless. This year's famine problem can be largely solved."

Zhang Mo couldn't help but burst out laughing, "When did Ziyuan learn to flatter?"

Xu You said, "It's not flattery, it's sincere submission!"

Lu Bu smiled and said, "It's right that you are convinced. My A-Mo is an immortal who has come here specially to save the people..." Save me.

Sima Yi followed up, "That's right. Every citizen of Bingzhou speaks of my sister with reverence. Anyone who dares to say a bad word about her will be in great trouble and will be drowned in everyone's saliva."

Zhuge Liang said, "With this method of raising rice seedlings, if we can also find a way to improve the fertility of the soil, we can grow two crops a year, one for rice and one for winter wheat. Then we won't have to worry about famine anymore."