Chapter 41: Turning Stone into Gold (Part 1) Update
It is difficult to reclaim wasteland.
The first difficulty is that the fields are neglected year-round, allowing weeds to grow unchecked. Simply mowing and weeding is incredibly physically demanding. The second difficulty is that the soil is unmanaged, with gravel and other debris making it extremely difficult to clean. The third difficulty is that even after clearing the weeds and large debris, the soil quality and fertility remain unpredictable, making it difficult to grow a harvestable crop.
Liu Ziye had previously surveyed the soil of the plain outside Yucheng.
There are sandy soils and clay soils.
Clay soil is naturally the best candidate. In the first year of land reclamation, she must start with these clay plots.
Fu Baosi was sent to follow Fu Zhener and be responsible for the land reclamation work this year.
At this moment, he was driving a lawn mower himself, working on this wasteland, ridge by ridge, according to the planned length and width.
The oxen walk in front, pulling the wheel behind them. The rotation of the wheel drives the chain of cutters to rotate continuously through the connecting rod.
These scythes cut the weeds one by one as the oxen move, crushing them and throwing them on the ground. Then, the oxen are harrowed behind them and neatly gathered together.
Fu Baosi was standing behind the lawn mower, and the ground under his feet was bare and free of weeds.
The weeds had been thinned into haystacks, and then other people, holding sickles and hooks, followed closely behind and cleared them away from the wasteland.
For every acre of weeds cut, another rolling stone harrow truck would drive in.
This stone rolling rake cart consists of an iron triangular rake frame with copper rollers embedded at the bottom.
As the oxen pulled the plow ahead, small stones in the wasteland were squeezed into the gaps between the rake teeth, and large stones were pried out of the ground. In the end, these large and small gravel were neatly combed into rows like cut weeds and cleared out of the field.
The next thing to appear is the serial clearing plow truck!
This linked plow was pulled by two oxen, with three light plows following behind.
The front plow breaks up the soil, the middle plow loosens the soil, and the back plow breaks up the soil.
After the pears were plowed, the soil that had been hidden underground for many years surged out, allowing them to see the light of day for the first time.
Fu Baosi squatted down and checked the broken soil that was plowed out.
He grabbed a handful of soil, and the lumpy soil crumbled into pieces in his palm, but there were still some small particles of gravel mixed in.
This kind of soil is not suitable for growing crops.
However, Fu Baosi was not worried.
He still has one step to go!
The oxen mooed as they stepped on the soft ground again. A vibrating screen truck was pulling the soil from the ground, sending it to the bamboo screen bed through an iron plow and a conveyor belt, where it vibrated up and down.
The three-layer screen slides the larger stones and grass roots into the stone disposal trough, the small gravel in the middle layer is flipped sideways into the collection bucket, and the clean soil sieved out from the lower layer is directly backfilled onto the field.
After this kind of farming, the entire wasteland looked brand new!
Fu Zhener and Liu Ziye gathered at the edge of the field, but were concentrating on doing another thing at this time.
“The organic matter content is acceptable.”
Liu Ziye was holding a piece of pottery. She had just taken out some of the plowed soil, soaked it in prepared vinegar, and then placed it on the pottery to observe the coloring and grading of the pottery.
Fu Zhen'er: "So, can this piece of wasteland be used for planting directly?"
Liu Ziye shook his head and pointed to several other soil samples. "This row is all wasteland soil samples we dug up today. So far, it seems only the organic matter content is acceptable. However, the soil is too porous, the microbial activity is insufficient, and the soil is alkaline. We need to improve the soil first."
Fu Zhen'er frowned slightly and thought. He didn't quite understand these words, but he didn't express any objection.
Liu Ziye pointed to another row of samples. "These were sent by Liu Bing and Uncle Fu. They're soil samples from the cultivated land in Yucheng. After all, this is land that's been cultivated year-round, so the soil quality is much better. However, after years of depletion, the organic matter content and microbial activity have declined significantly. Some are deficient in nitrogen, and some are deficient in phosphorus."
"So... the soil isn't fertile enough?"
Fu Zhener converted Liu Ziye's words into understandable terms and asked tentatively.
"That's right."
Liu Ziye smiled and nodded. "Brother Fu, the reason I want to do this test is because the term 'lack of soil fertility' is too general and vague. To improve soil fertility, we need to know exactly what it's lacking. Only then can we supplement it accordingly. It's like a doctor taking a patient's pulse and then prescribing precise medicine."
Fu Zhen'er suddenly realized, "I understand! But before this, I never thought that I could accurately diagnose the land in this way."
"Our biggest problem in Xiguan County is a shortage of manpower. Although we now have these various pear-growing machines, which have greatly expanded our manpower, Ziye believes that increasing revenue is only one aspect. Only by cultivating the land we have already cultivated and increasing the yield per mu can we maximize the benefits of our manpower investment."
"Ziye is right!"
Fu Zhen'er couldn't help but exclaim in admiration from the bottom of her heart, and then said, "Right now, my father and Liu Bing are already plowing the land with a curved plow. As in previous years, they will then add manure to the plowed fields. What should we do this year?"
Liu Ziye took out the booklet and charcoal pencil he carried with him and recorded the results of the soil test one by one.
"Brother Fu, come here."
Fu Zhen'er stepped forward and looked at the booklet with Liu Ziye, then pulled out the "form" and wrote down the records.
This was not the first time Fu Zhener saw Liu Ziye using this method to record, so she was not surprised.
Since last winter, he has been learning Liu Ziye's method to record and plan clan affairs.
Liu Ziye listed her recommendations at the end of the test results for different plots: "For Liu Bing and Uncle Fu, in addition to using manure to supplement phosphorus, they also added fermented fish offal to produce ammonia."
Fu Zhen'er thought for a moment and said, "That's not difficult. With the fish and offal I gathered from last winter's hunting and fishing at Qiansai Lake, even if I had twice as much land, it would be enough."
He couldn't help but glance at the focused Liu Ziye and said, "Ziye, no wonder you asked us to save all the fish offal from the catch and put it in the 'fermentation tank' in winter. Is that in preparation for this?"
Liu Ziye smiled complacently: "Brother Fu guessed right."
In this world, she worked hard to earn points, calculating and planning step by step.
Most of the time, in order to avoid visits from Yanjing, he had to use Fu Zhener as a cover at any time, so that outsiders would think that these achievements were achieved by Fu Zhener, who has always been "smart and quick-witted".
The Xiguan Marquis Mansion is just taking advantage of the situation to make profits.
But being recognized and praised for her achievements still makes her feel fulfilled.
After all, she wasn't just sticking to the limited mechanical drawings provided by the system!
Not only were most of the drawings for practical applications designed by herself as best she could in order to save points, but the soil analysis and improvement methods were also designed one by one by reading and exchanging books every day, as well as recalling the biochemistry knowledge she learned in her previous life!
Fu Zhen'er smiled knowingly and took the opportunity to praise Liu Ziye a few more times.
After enjoying himself for a moment, Liu Ziye continued, pointing to the paper. "We've just opened up this wasteland today. We need to use the fermented fish offal, wood ash, manure, and soybean root soil. It sounds troublesome, but we've already stockpiled these for the winter. Also, Brother Fu, look, this is the manure spreader I designed. I've calculated that the entire manure spreading process is three times more efficient than plowing the wasteland, but it's the key to achieving a good harvest on our first crop..."
The two continued to look at the booklet and discuss each next step of the implementation plan one by one.
Liu Ziye showed and explained every link and principle, as well as the systematic methods of analysis and experiments in later generations, to Fu Zhener as detailed as possible.
Fu Zhen'er understood his intention and concentrated on receiving every message Liu Ziye tried to convey to him.
The endless spring wilderness is their classroom for teaching and learning.
The system she was bound to claimed it would reward her with a reward that would surpass that of this world's civilization. However, Liu Ziye was certain that no matter what, the rewards offered by that system would never include the ability to 'turn stone into gold.'
But she knew that there was a way to turn a person into gold.
Education and knowledge can turn a person into gold.
What's more, the candidates she chose for the first gold echelon, such as Fu Zhener, are not ordinary stones.
·
Marquis' Mansion.
In the courtyard where the young marquis of Xiguan lived, after Ah Huan and Ah Bi finished taking care of all the trivial matters in the hall today, they looked at the time, looked at each other, and silently walked into a small room about seven or eight feet square in the east wing of the courtyard.
Last winter, one day when their young master was tinkering with the so-called "five-spindle foot-operated spinning wheel", he called the two of them to help.
The two listened to the instructions and were busy for a while. They just looked at the spinning wheel a few more times, but for some reason, the young marquis...
Suddenly he looked at the two of them with a strange smile on his face.
Whenever Ah Huan and Ah Bi think of the young marquis's expression at that time, they still feel a chill down their spines.
From that day on, this small room in the courtyard became their "study room".
The young marquis made a "daily timetable" for them that day, requiring them to set aside at least three hours a day to put aside their current affairs and come here to study quietly and consciously.
The two sat down in their respective seats, Ah Huan holding a copy of "Kao Gong Ji" in his hand, and Ah Huan holding a copy of "Elementary Mechanics Principles" in his hand, staring at each other's book covers in a daze.
Ah Huan cleared his throat and tried to read the large characters on the cover: "Kao, Kao Gong Ji."
Ah Pi straightened his back and read the words one by one with great effort: "刀、及、几、木、原...原、里..."
Then he raised his head and looked at Ah Huan blankly and helplessly.
Ah Huan came over, looked at Ah Pi's book cover carefully and said, "You're reading it wrong. It's '初、及、几、戒、原、里'."
Ah Bi nodded: "Oh, thank you, Sister Huan. What does this mean, sister?"
"Well, maybe... maybe the young marquis still dislikes our lack of manners and wants us to learn some more rules, just like the Buddhist rules and regulations of the Yanyun Temple in the north of Yucheng..."
As Ah Huan spoke, he weighed the two-inch thick notebook in his hand, and then looked at Ah Bi's huge book that was three or four pages thick.
For a moment, I felt extremely heavy-hearted and the future was bleak.
Aren’t there too many rules for the young marquis?
Although the young marquis had a bad temper, he actually had no clear control over the two of them.
Basically, it's one thing today and another thing tomorrow, with a hammer here and a stick there.
After waking up from this serious illness, he became even more unpredictable. Ah Huan and Ah Bi hardly dared to say a word without permission.
But it turns out that the real reason is that the young marquis has too many rules in his mind, which makes it difficult for them to grasp it?
"I see. Then, Abi must study hard!"
After hearing this, Ah Bi did not feel intimidated, but clenched his fist and made a promise.
She opened the bound book with great ambition, ready to chew on all the hundreds or thousands of rules in it. As long as she could remember them well, she wouldn't be disdained by the young marquis anymore, right?
However, the moment the page was turned——
With a "bang", Ah Bi knocked over the feather dusters in the hands of the two men in shock.
The pages inside were not, as she had imagined, marked with rules and precepts in a specific order. Instead, every few lines of text were interspersed with bizarre images. Each image had a thin line connecting it to the side, with dense annotations in small characters that made her eyes go dark.
Even among those seemingly serious texts, there were some strange characters that she could not understand.
For Abi, whose literacy level was not yet enough to recognize an entire children's enlightenment book, it was like opening a heavenly book.
Ah Bi's devastated look made Ah Huan even more uneasy. She took a deep breath, opened the book in her hand, and prepared to face the blow head-on.
The same thing happened with her own book. The pictures were pictures and the words were words. She was dazzled by it and had no idea whether the young marquis had given them such a thing just to play a trick on them!
Ah Bi asked bitterly, "Sister Huan, what should we do? Can we go ask the master at the mansion?"
"no."
Ah Huan refused without hesitation, "The young marquis said that no one else can see these two books except the two of us."
"Then...then should we copy down a few of the words above and ask them separately?" Asi racked his brains.
Ah Huan heard her say this and really thought it was a good idea. Although little Ah Bi was a little young, he was usually very smart.
"I think so!"
"We can't bother the young marquis with the problem of not recognizing all the characters, so we'll just break the characters up and copy them down. Mr. Du is busy, so we'll go find Mr. Hao and ask him to teach us how to recognize the characters. As for these pictures and symbols... well, we'll have to ask the young marquis for his opinion."
Ah Huan had decided on the matter, and Ah Bi also had an idea.
They immediately ground ink, dipped their pens in it, took some straw paper, and copied down all the words in the book one by one, in random order.
Two hours later, A'bi, whose wrist was sore, put down his pen with a snap.
"One more word and I won't be able to copy it!"
Ah Bi shouted, "Come on, come on, Sister Ah Huan, the young marquis is probably going back home soon, let's go see if dinner is ready!"
Ah Huan was not in much better condition either. The chairs in this "study room" seemed to be pricked by needles. The two of them jumped up in a hurry, packed up their pens, inkstones, and rushed straight to the kitchen of the Marquis' Mansion.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the two of them walked out of the young marquis's yard, they met Xiying running towards them.
Xiying saw the two of them and asked, "The young marquis is back! I've already asked in the kitchen about dinner. The young marquis went to the study to discuss something with Mr. Du. He asked me to tell you that when he comes back, he wants to ask about the tasks he assigned you and how your day went."
After saying this, Xiying saw——
Ah Huan and Ah Bi on the opposite side, who were relaxed and happy just a second ago, instantly turned into an expression of anger at the over-pickled dish.
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