Chapter 44

Zhu Yijun led the gathered officials to his seedling nursery. At this moment, he stood in the light, letting the Great Ming become great again, starting from the seedling nursery.

Zhu Yijun led the gathered officials to a container filled with water. This was a device with a somewhat strange shape.

It was only half a foot in size. At the bottom was a glass bulb the size of an egg. The glass bulb was in the water. Above the glass bulb was a glass tube the thickness of a finger. Above the glass tube was a wooden stopper, and a thin, long glass tube was inserted into the wooden stopper, about the thickness of three or four needles.

The entire device was filled with water, and the thin, long glass tube above the wooden stopper was marked with scales.

"This is a thermometer, specifically for measuring temperature. I had people record the temperature of the glass bulb immersed in an ice-water mixture, measured the water level in the thin, long glass tube, and recorded it as 0; immersed the glass bulb in boiling water, measured the water level in the thin, long glass tube, and recorded it as 100. Then it was divided into one hundred equal parts." Zhu Yijun introduced his first small invention, measuring temperature.

This device was extremely crude, but it was already the best thermometer Zhu Yijun could make in the first year of Wanli. He could not record temperatures below zero because water would freeze below zero, cracking the test tube. This device was temporarily sufficient. If there were high-concentration alcohol in the future, he could replace the water in the glass bulb with alcohol and try to measure temperatures below zero.

It was not that Zhu Yijun hadn't thought of mercury, which is quicksilver. The imperial family was not short of this stuff, but Zhu Yijun didn't have a very good way to solve the problem of mercury volatilization. Mercury vapor not only poisoned people but could also cause harm to the seedlings.

Regarding the research and development of the thermometer, Zhu Yijun would not stop his steps, but he would also move forward steadily, one step at a time.

This not-so-precise thermometer accurately recorded the temperatures at which potatoes and sweet potatoes turned green and sprouted, which provided a reference for the planting of potatoes and sweet potatoes in the north. When promoting the planting of potatoes and sweet potatoes in the future, it would also be possible to have a rationale to follow.

The fire room was a seedling nursery, and there was also a thermometer outside the fire room. With Qingming approaching, potatoes began to sprout. The one outside the fire room was a control group. Under the correspondence of the two, the Great Ming obtained the sprouting temperature of potatoes and sweet potatoes, which was five to eight degrees. Sprouting is just sprouting; only when the temperature rises further to about fifteen degrees will they grow vigorously.

Zhu Yijun talked eloquently to the gathered officials, introducing the harvest of the glass fire room seedling nursery.

Ge Shouli's jaw almost dropped in surprise. He stared blankly for a long time and said sluggishly, "Your Majesty's whimsical ideas are truly ingenious."

Thermal expansion and contraction are actually not strange. As early as the pre-Qin period, Li Bing and his son used thermal expansion and contraction to split mountains and crack rocks when controlling floods. But using this thermal expansion and contraction to this extreme was completely a whimsical idea, and the Great Ming craftsmen realized the young emperor's whimsical idea.

Actually, this is a mastery of principles, and more precisely, mathematical thinking.

The thermometer was just one of his small designs, and inside the fire room of more than half an acre, there were thousands of small glass-covered boxes. In each of these small glass boxes, there was a seedling, and these seedlings were lush and green, looking full of vitality.

"Scholar Xu." Zhu Yijun called out, signaling Xu Zhenming to introduce what these small boxes were for.

Xu Zhenming never expected that the Emperor would lead the Great Ming court officials over to visit. He had no preparation at all. When the Emperor called him, he was still observing the seedling situation. He turned his head blankly, hurriedly came before everyone, and only then remembered to pay respects to the Emperor.

"This is seedling cultivation, pinching the tips, on the tips..." After a flurry of confusion, Xu Zhenming got stuck. He was completely unprepared, so he didn't know how to make a summary at all.

Zhu Yijun looked at Xu Zhenming's honest and simple appearance, and he was so angry that he couldn't speak. He was usually eloquent, but when given the chance to perform, he was useless.

Zhu Yijun interrupted Xu Zhenming's words and signaled Xu Zhenming to step aside. He would answer it himself. He said with a smile, "This is a seedling box. Crops that use tubers for planting, such as water chestnuts, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, accumulate toxins generation after generation, leading to lower and lower yields generation after generation. How to detoxify?"

"The old farmer who grows water chestnuts told me that you can pinch the tips. If you pinch the tips and cultivate seedlings for planting, the yield will be much higher. The seedlings on the left are all pinched, and then sent to the fire room over there. After growing for fifteen days, they are taken out."

"The soil in this seedling box is soil that has been steamed, which is to prevent the pinched tips from being poisoned."

Zhu Yijun did not enter the fire room. The temperature inside was about thirty-eight to forty degrees. This was high-temperature passivation. This was Xu Zhenming's idea. It was actually the killing-green process in the green tea production process. In the process of preparing green tea, in order to stop the fermentation of green tea, it would be killed-green through various methods such as steaming, blanching, baking, and sun-drying.

Xu Zhenming felt that since they were all toxins, could they be reduced through killing-green?

However, if the temperature was too high, the seedlings would die; if the temperature was too low, it would be useless. Finally, after repeated experiments and determination, the specific range was determined.

Xu Zhenming succeeded. The new seedlings grown in the seedling box were fuller in leaves than the old seedlings outside that had not been killed-green, and there were no symptoms such as yellowing or ulceration, which made Xu Zhenming particularly excited.

Zhu Yijun held a seedling box of seedlings, and then picked up another box. This box had not been killed-green, that is, it had not been high-temperature passivated. He held it up and placed it on the table. The young emperor said with a smile, "The difference is huge."

The court officials surrounded the two seedling boxes, pointing and discussing. The young emperor's personal engagement in farming had actually produced so many results. Looking at this posture, he really intended to grow them, not just for show.

The court officials thought that the Great Ming Emperor's Hall of Auspicious Grain was just a symbol for the emperor to show his importance to farming. Even when it was time to harvest, if there wasn't much harvest, wouldn't the eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial buy some? Buy potatoes and sweet potatoes, plant them in the fields, and when it was time to harvest, shout about auspicious signs?

Song Renzong's Hall of Auspicious Grain, "Qi" means two, which means two ears of wheat growing on one stalk of wheat, which was regarded as an auspicious sign.

During the time of Song Renzong, those eunuchs, in order to please the emperor, collected double-headed wheat ears from the people and secretly planted them at night in the fields in front of Song Renzong's Hall of Auspicious Grain. When it was time to harvest, all the fields were full of one wheat with two ears, and everyone submitted congratulatory memorials praising that Heaven blessed the Great Song.

The Great Ming court officials had all climbed to the position of high officials step by step. Everyone was a thousand-year-old fox. Of course, they could see through this little trick.

Therefore, in the eyes of most court officials, this matter of personal engagement in farming was just a replica of Song Renzong's "Qi Wheat Auspicious Sign."

It was just fooling the emperor. If the ministers fooled the emperor, wouldn't the eunuchs also fool him?

What the court officials didn't expect was that the Great Ming Emperor actually didn't play this kind of trick, but played with personal practice! And the two boxes of seedlings placed in the sunlight in front of them, which could see the difference at a glance, were the result of personal practice.

Zhang Juzheng and Xu Zhenming were talking on the side. Most of the time, Xu Zhenming was talking, and Zhang Juzheng was listening.

Xu Zhenming mainly talked about what the young emperor did. Ninety-nine percent of the heavy and tiring work, before the young emperor came to Hall of Auspicious Grain, Xu Zhenming had arranged for people to finish it. Only a little bit of work, after the young emperor practiced martial arts, would be specifically left for the young emperor.

Not dangerous, not dirty, not tiring, and very participatory.

"Does Your Majesty come here every day?" Zhang Juzheng asked a very strange question.

Xu Zhenming didn't know why the Grand Secretary asked this, and he said quite definitely, "It rained the day before yesterday, and Your Majesty also came. Your Majesty comes every day."

Zhang Juzheng folded his hands, his fists clenched tightly, looking at the young emperor's back. The young emperor was not fooling around, and even less intended to give up halfway. "Great perseverance, caring for the world and persevering," is a wise monarch, a virtuous master, a warrior.

For the first time, Zhang Juzheng had the feeling that the Great Ming's resurgence was not a mirage. This feeling was extremely certain and real.

"You have done very well. This is the waist token of the Quanchu Guild Hall. Keep it well and don't lose it, and don't lend it to others. In the future, if you have anything, come to the Quanchu Guild Hall to find me." Zhang Juzheng took a waist token from his waist without a trace and handed it to Xu Zhenming.

"Thank you, Grand Secretary, for your appreciation!" Xu Zhenming was extremely surprised. To be under Zhang Juzheng's tutelage, it wasn't just about money; one had to have ability. Having ability wasn't enough; one had to have connections.

To this day, Xu Zhenming didn't know why he was recommended by Zhang Juzheng to the emperor's side to be a lecturer, and now he was even under Zhang Juzheng's tutelage.

Zhang Juzheng said very gently, "Ice gifts and charcoal gifts, don't worry about finding ways. You don't have that path. Just do your job well by His Majesty's side and grow the land well. You absolutely cannot let anyone destroy His Majesty's farming affairs, whether it is eunuchs, embroidered uniform guards, military nobility, sword-carrying attendants, or old farmers, absolutely not."

Zhang Juzheng knew that there were people who didn't want to see the emperor get great results from farming. If he played the trick of "Qi Wheat Auspicious Sign," no one would stop him. But if the emperor practiced it personally and really wanted to grow results, some people would be unhappy and would make trouble.

Because if there really were results, it would consolidate the foundation of imperial power.

Xu Zhenming was actually not good at drilling, and even less good at corruption. For the two filial piety gifts a year, he needed two thousand taels of silver. Where could Xu Zhenming, a scholar who carried a bamboo book box, find two thousand taels of silver a year to pay filial piety?

Zhang Juzheng exempted him from filial piety, as long as he did what he was best at: farming and watching over these ten acres of land.

If he could really grow potatoes and sweet potatoes to a yield of over a thousand catties per acre, the Great Ming's weak national affairs could also increase a bit of vitality.

Zhu Yijun glanced at Zhang Juzheng and Xu Zhenming, and did not speak to stop them, let alone interrupt. If Xu Zhenming wanted to do things, he had to be under someone's name. Zhang Juzheng was willing to accept him, which was Xu Zhenming's opportunity.

To mix in the world, one must have strength, and even more, one must have power. At least for more than ten years, Zhang Juzheng would be the Great Ming's biggest backer.

Zhu Yijun pointed to the roots in the seedling box and said, "There is a lot of attention in this seedling cultivation. After the tubers sprout, cut a potato or sweet potato into two or three parts, then dip them in some plant ash, and let them dry for a quarter of an hour before putting them into the seedling box. This step cannot be omitted. If you omit the plant ash, the seedlings are very easy to get sick."

"When we cut the pieces for the first time, we had no experience, and as a result, we cut more than a hundred pieces, more than two hundred seedlings, and more than a hundred died."

"Fortunately, we found the right method."

"The Grand Secretary taught me that if you do things without determination, doing everything only halfway, and retreating when encountering difficulties, you will lose the courage to face difficulties and become timid. This is lack of perseverance. Once a person becomes timid, nothing will be accomplished."

Yang Bo had been silent. After His Majesty showed off some of his results with a bit of complacency, he said quite sincerely, "Liu Liu Zhizhi is the beginning of action, and action is the completion of knowing! Where knowing is true and earnest, it is action; where action is clear and precise, it is knowing. Liu Liu Zhizhi and action are one. Your Majesty's knowing and action are one. Your subject congratulates the Great Ming, your subject congratulates Your Majesty!"

Zhu Yijun was stunned and asked seriously, "What do you mean?"

Everyone looked at Zhang Juzheng on the side. The Imperial Lectures were Zhang Juzheng's exclusive domain. At this time, the Emperor asked, and he asked the leader of the Jin faction, Yang Bo. But looking at Zhang Juzheng's posture, he didn't seem to intend to stop him.

Zhang Juzheng's expression was extremely peaceful.