46 Chapter 46
◎Grandchildren's wheat◎
Cheng Mi now has more than 100 acres of land under cultivation. The Zhao Datian brothers planted corn after harvesting 40 acres of winter wheat, potatoes on the hill behind the mountain on 16 acres, rice on 60 acres by the Santou River, and spring wheat on 30 acres near Zhengzhuang, which were newly harvested this year.
Spring wheat is a hybrid variety that Cheng Min tested in space. It has high stability and a short harvest period, and can be harvested in more than three months. It was planted during the seedling-raising period, and 35 stones were harvested in July.
In order to solve the problem of two insufficient seasons and one surplus in Yanbei, in addition to arranging three harvests in two years for the existing crop types, she is also studying how to achieve two harvests with one sowing for the same crop.
When she was a graduate student, she participated in the research on regenerated rice. Regenerated rice uses the axillary buds on the rice stumps after the first rice crop is harvested to germinate into rice ears and grow for another season, allowing the harvested rice stumps to grow into grains. Therefore, when she was regenerating rice plants through tissue culture, she also conducted experiments on wheat.
There have been many successful experiences in regenerating rice in later generations, but wheat regeneration has always been a challenging topic.
Monocotyledonous plants such as wheat and rice have strong genotype dependence, which limits the genetic improvement of excellent varieties using transgenic technology.
If rice can do it, she believes wheat can do it too, because she has an excellent space laboratory.
There are differences in the regeneration ability of wheat callus tissue. She selected mature embryos of wheat of multiple different genotypes as explants for tissue culture, screened out the high-frequency regeneration wheat genotype as the recipient, and introduced genes with other strong regeneration abilities (such as alfalfa, switchgrass and other forage grasses) to create new transgenic wheat varieties.
The principle is simple, but the experiment is not easy. This research took more than a month. If she were to study it under the conditions of later generations, it would take 20 to 30 years.
Because the research focus is on regeneration ability, the yield is not as good as that of winter wheat. When the winter wheat was harvested in early June, the yield per mu reached nearly three dan, nearly twice that of the first year, which has reached a level that has astonished the farmers in Shang'an Township. They thought that the summer wheat in early July would set a new record, but the performance was mediocre. Yes, now the yield of more than one dan per mu is also mediocre in their eyes.
During the harvest, Zheng Lizheng asked her why she left such a long stubble. As a farmer with many years of experience, he noticed the difference immediately.
To regenerate wheat stubble, a certain length of plant and root system must be preserved. Cheng Mi said, "There are records from the Jin Dynasty that in the south there was white rice planted under cover, planted in the first month and harvested in the fifth month. After the harvest, the stems and roots would regrow and ripen in the ninth month. This was called 'Baosun Gu', and ours is 'Baosun Mai'."
Zheng Lizheng had never heard of this before. "Can I be resurrected and hold my grandson?"
Mrs. Cheng always amazes them. She says, "We can harvest again before winter."
Strange, this is really strange. Without wheat seeds, without tilling the soil and spreading it, a new crop can grow on the leftover wheat stubble?
Because it is close to Zhengzhuang, Zheng Lizheng pays great attention to the 30 acres of wheat stubble field. He visits it every day and sees the withered and yellow wheat stubble turn green and ear. He only applied fertilizer during this period, and the growth is still good.
On the day of the beginning of autumn, the palace indeed arranged for people to purchase wheat seeds.
Cheng Mi sold them 100 dan of wheat seeds, enough for them to plant nearly 700 acres of land.
Cheng Mu specifically instructed that this wheat seed could yield three to four dan per mu, had excellent characteristics, was drought-resistant and disease-resistant, but that the seeds must not be saved. She would need to come back to buy them next year. If anyone secretly saved the seeds, even if they didn't harvest even one and a half dan per mu, it would have nothing to do with her.
The palace officials were shocked by the high yield of the wheat seed and were also skeptical about her claim that it was impossible to save the seeds. They specifically asked local farmers who had switched wheat seeds and had saved their own seeds, but had not seen any results yet.
The farmers who were asked were panicked. They believed what Madam Cheng said that saving seeds would result in low yields. Why didn't Madam Cheng tell them?
Moreover, why can't the seeds be preserved? Is this an exaggeration?
Someone came to ask her, and Cheng Mu said, "Two dan per mu can be used for seed, while three dan per mu cannot be used for seed. Which one do you choose?"
This is the high return that comes with high risk. In comparison, the high return is more attractive. After all, the money earned from buying seeds and selling millet is nothing compared to it. Word spread, and many farmers came to her to buy seeds that could yield three dan per mu.
Cheng Mu refused to sell it, saying that she had already sold it all to the royal palace.
Cheng Mu had pretentiously built several seed-processing rooms on the hill behind her, believing that the seeds she had processed in various ways would have such and such excellent properties. She was just showing off. Of course, she never let anyone in, as there were five or six people guarding the room year-round, so no one could have peeked into her "secret recipe."
Not long after the officials of Prince Yanyun's Palace transported the wheat seeds away, the owner of Shangguan Horse Farm came to visit in person.
Cheng Mu was still wondering why Shangguan Duan had come to visit her in person. The man who came was not as tall as Shangguan Duan, but with a well-defined body and a lean and strong build. He introduced himself: "My surname is Xu, and my given name is Fang."
Xu Fang is the owner of Shangguan Horse Farm? Cheng Wei confirmed again, "The Shangguan Horse Farm near the mountain?"
Xu Fang admitted generously, "That's right. The previous owner of the horse farm was surnamed Shangguan. Madam Cheng should recognize him. He sold the farm a month ago and returned to his hometown. Now I am in charge of the farm."
Xu Fang came to find Cheng Mu because of his relationship with County Magistrate Huang. The two had some friendship. After he took charge of the horse farm, he was also worried about fodder. County Magistrate Huang suggested that he ask Madam Cheng for a solution.
Last time, County Magistrate Huang asked her if there was any way to increase alfalfa production. Cheng Mu said that she had been breeding for the past two years and had made some progress.
Now that County Magistrate Huang had introduced a new horse ranch owner to her, Cheng Mu had no choice but to give Huang County Magistrate his favor and continue selling seeds. The price of seeds was not high, about the same as wheat seeds. But she had one request: the corn stalks, leaves, and seeds could be used as feed, so if the farmers wanted to exchange them for horse manure, they had to do it.
At the beginning of the year, Cheng Min taught each household the composting technique, but the practical results were not ideal. Some families did not pay attention to it, and some families did not have a suitable semi-open space, resulting in a lot of stench and mosquitoes and flies in the summer. Now Cheng Min wants to build a unified composting area, and the horse manure from the horse farm is a very good raw material.
Horse farms usually collect horse manure, dry it, and use it as fuel, which is especially useful in winter for heating. Cheng Mu even asked him for the ashes from burning the dry horse manure.
In order to get more feed, the owner Xu agreed to all of Cheng Mu's requests, and it was also beneficial to him.
This autumn is really busy.
First, corn and potatoes were harvested. All the straw farms were harvesting corn, and every household was rushing to harvest. The drying yards were always full of people every day.
In order to make good friends, Cheng Mu did not spend any money to hire anyone this year. Many people had already inquired about their rice harvesting time and came to help voluntarily and free of charge.
After harvesting the rice, they harvested the regenerated wheat, which still produced nearly one dan per acre. Zheng Lizheng was amazed and told this story to his brother-in-law who worked in the county government office. "Mrs. Cheng is really a wonderful person. She can even accomplish such a thing."
Cheng Mu was very busy every day. She always kept the changes at the horse farm in mind and asked Widow Xu to contact her third brother to inquire about it, but there was no news from Widow Xu's third brother again.
Winter came in a blink of an eye, and the snow fell one after another.
Widow Xu reported to Cheng Mu that her third brother had not yet arrived. "He did something like that last time and everyone wanted to punish him. How could he have the nerve to come?"
Cheng Mi was not so optimistic.
After all, Shangguan Duan's affair involved the Second Young Master Xu, which meant that the entire stable was implicated in this matter. Now that the stable owner has changed, shouldn't the people in the stable also change? Cheng Xi guessed that he might not only lose face, but also his life.
There is a high possibility that Shangguan Duan is dead. Could he be the one who transferred the horse farm? This is the last hope for the rise of his Shangguan family, and this hope is likely to be realized.
Yu was asking Widow Xu how the selection of the adopted son was going.
Widow Xu shook her head and smiled, "It's been delayed for so long, they're not stupid. We can't delay it any longer. We need to inform our ancestors during the winter solstice ancestral worship. This needs to be decided before then."
Yu asked, "Have you made up your mind?"
Widow Xu asked Cheng Mu, "What do you think, Madam Cheng? I've received your advice on this adoption plan. Why don't you also point someone to me?"
Cheng Mu was playing with Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi using glue to apply flowers, and she didn't even look up. "I choose people based on my personal impression. Choose your own son. Whoever you like is the one you choose."
"They're too much of a bully. I don't like any of them."
Yu sighed and said, "You have to choose one."
At this time, Xiao Qi brought a piece of flowered paper over to Widow Xu. Widow Xu looked at his chubby face and hands, and a gentle look spread across her face. "Then I'll choose the youngest one. The young one can still be taught."
In the end, Widow Xu chose a three-year-old child and formally adopted him to Zhao Shu. She gave him a new name, Zhao Badou.
It's not that they hope he will become a genius in the future, it's just that his family used him to exchange eight buckets of corn seeds.
As the twelfth lunar month approached, Mu Yun began his traditional activity before the end of the year: practicing calligraphy.
This time, it wasn’t just people from Zhaojia Village and Zhengzhuang Village who came to ask for couplets. People from all over the place, as long as they wanted to meet the immortal Madam Cheng and have the opportunity to plant high-yield seeds in the future, came to ask for couplets.
No matter how heavy the snow is or how thick the snow is, the shop is always crowded with people.
Cheng Mu only managed it for about ten days and was extremely exhausted. Besides, there were so many people and it was noisy. Her head was buzzing during the day and her brain nerves were still excited at night. Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi couldn't sleep well at night.
Cheng Mu finally couldn't stand it anymore, so she asked Gui'er to clean up a room on the hill behind the mountain, and they took Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi out to hide.
Let’s call Zhao Datian and Zhao Shitou to come over and take care of things.
Mu Yun buried his head in writing all day. With Cheng Mu and the two children not around, the days felt extra long.
The next day, he put down his pen and went to the hill behind the mountain to look for them. The hill behind the mountain was also quiet, with no children's shouting and no soft and fragrant smiles to greet them. Only Qi Bo, Sao Hu, Chou Gou and Wu Yong were there.
Sao Hu said, "A few days ago, County Magistrate Huang sent someone to pick up Madam Cheng, Xiao Liu, Xiao Qi and the others to go to the Shangguan Horse Farm. Gui Er, Chen Hu, and Li Yu escorted them."
Mu Yun: ...
I won’t write anymore! What kind of bullshit couplet is this!
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