NFBE Chapter 971 Growing High-Yield Potatoes
Chapter 971 Growing High-Yield Potatoes
This statement was completely beyond Gu Liang's comprehension.
Gu Liang frowned and pondered, "Forgive my ignorance, but I've never heard of such a method... Can finding a larger one really produce a larger one?"
"Whether it's big or small, we're afraid it won't work to persuade the villagers to stop growing proper grains and start growing these things!"
Bai Lu patiently persuaded, "What if we don't occupy the precious paddy fields, but instead plant them on the grasslands? The grasslands are vast and sparsely populated, and although the soil is not as fertile as the fields, it is loose enough."
"Moreover, the grasslands have little rainfall and a relatively dry climate, which is just right for this drought-resistant crop."
"Even if we fail, all we'll lose are some worthless pebbles and a piece of wasteland."
"On the grasslands?" Gu Liang frowned even more. "Lady Bai, I'm afraid that won't work. The soil on the grasslands is barren, and apart from pasture, it's difficult for crops to grow."
“We’ve tried before, but the eggs we grow are smaller than those we grow in the Central Plains. They’re also time-consuming and laborious to dig up, so we can’t even make back the labor costs. It’s not worth it.”
He pointed to the vast grassland in the distance, his tone tinged with helplessness: "In the eyes of the Jurchens, that land is of no use except for grazing."
"In our view, it's the same."
“That’s because the method is wrong.” Bai Lu’s tone was full of confidence. She took out a cloth bag from her sleeve and poured out a few carefully selected potatoes.
These potatoes were the first-generation improved variety that she redeemed with points in the store. They were noticeably larger than those commonly found in Dawu, with smooth skin and clear eyes.
“Please look, Lord Gu,” she said, picking up one and pointing to the bud.
He looked at the unassuming potato in Bai Lu's hand, and then at the undeniable confidence in her eyes, and his heart began to waver.
This Lady White Snake always comes up with some shocking ideas that seem to contain some kind of truth.
That mu of fairy rice is the best proof.
Perhaps... I should trust her one more time?
Gu Liang pondered for a long time before finally raising his head, his gaze becoming firm: "Alright! Although I don't understand the reasoning behind it, I have already witnessed Lady White's foresight."
"Since you say it can work, let's give it another try!"
His eyes gleamed with excitement: "If this succeeds, its significance will be no less than that of high-yield rice!"
"The grasslands can produce grain; this is truly a revolutionary event!"
Bai Lu smiled, a bright and radiant smile.
"Then it's settled!" Bai Lu handed the potatoes in her hand to Gu Liang. "From now on, we'll not only grow rice together, but also become grassland farmers together!"
Gu Liang took the heavy potato, as if he were receiving another heavy hope!
Gu Liang is a person of action.
Since we decided to give it a try, we immediately began making arrangements.
Under his coordination, the Pingzhou government designated two experimental plots, each occupying one mu, on a vast grassland near the border trade area outside the pass.
This land has never been cultivated; the soil is loose and overgrown with weeds—just the kind of typical grassland that Gu Liang described as useless except for grazing.
The news attracted a lot of attention, including from Wanyan Zongbi.
When he heard that the mysterious Lady White Snake and Lord Gu were going to plant eggs on the grassland, the fourth prince of the Jurchens showed an expression of confusion almost exactly the same as Gu Liang's when he first heard it.
"Farming on the grasslands? Or those small, unpalatable flatbreads?" Wanyan Zongbi found Gu Liang and asked incredulously, "Lord Gu, do you Han people have too much grain and nowhere to spend it?"
"Instead of wasting time on this, you should prepare more cloth and tea. I'll bring more cattle and sheep to exchange next time."
Upon hearing this, Gu Liang simply smiled mysteriously and patted his shoulder: "Fourth Prince, don't be in a hurry."
"In a few months, you may bring not cattle and sheep, but tribespeople who want to learn farming."
He invited Wanyan Zongbi to be a witness to the experiment. Although Zongbi was full of doubts, he agreed out of curiosity about Gu Liang and Bai Lu.
The experiment officially begins.
Experimental field A completely simulates the most traditional planting methods of the people of Dawu!
Farmers would buy ordinary potatoes from the market, which were only the size of pigeon eggs, and bury them directly in the turned soil, untouched.
The whole process was simple and brutal, a completely fatalistic approach to farming.
Many Jurchen people watching shook their heads, feeling that this was a waste of energy.
Experimental field B was conducted entirely according to the new method used during the White Dew season.
First, under the guidance of Bailu, the farmers built a simple greenhouse.
She instructed Gu Liang to have people neatly stack the larger, selected potatoes she had provided onto the moist sand to keep the greenhouse warm and humid.
"What are you doing?" Gu Liang asked, puzzled.
"To encourage germination," Bai Lu explained. "First, let it be in the most comfortable environment to awaken the buds. Once the buds grow to an inch long, we'll cut them into pieces and plant them in the ground."
"This ensures that they can start growing immediately after being planted, instead of wasting energy on germination."
A few days later, when the farmers lifted the sand and saw that the potatoes had indeed sprouted thick, purple shoots, everyone exclaimed in amazement.
Even Gu Liang was amazed; it was as if the very mechanism of the growth of all things had been artificially controlled.
Next, Bailu personally demonstrated how to cut the pieces.
She used a knife to precisely cut a potato into four or five pieces, making sure each piece had a healthy eye.
After cutting the seeds, she did not immediately have the farmers plant them, but instead dipped the cut surfaces in a layer of wood ash.
"Why is that?" Gu Liang had become a curious student.
"To prevent rot and pests," Bai Lu patiently explained, "wood ash can help wounds dry quickly, form a protective film, and also provide some potassium that potatoes need to grow."
"All of this is so that it can grow up healthy."
Finally, it's time to sow the seeds.
Unlike the random sowing in field A, the sowing in field B was extremely meticulous.
Following the standard row and plant spacing drawn by the White Dew solar term, the farmers dug pits of uniform depth and carefully placed potato pieces with buds facing upwards into the pits, then covered them with soft soil.
After all this was done, even the Jurchens, who were least optimistic about it, saw through the trick.
From the very beginning, Field B revealed a unique sense of refinement and meticulousness.
The next three months became a unique sight outside Pingzhou Pass.
The difference between field A and field B was clear from the moment the seedlings sprouted.
The potato seedlings in field A were sparse and slow-growing, with thin, yellowish leaves, looking malnourished.
In field B, almost all the potato tubers successfully sprouted. The seedlings were strong and vigorous, with thick, dark green leaves, and soon grew into a lush green sea. Their vibrant vitality could be felt from a distance.
Every time Wanyan Zongbi came to the trade market, he would go to the edge of the fields to take a look.
From initial disdain, to later surprise, and finally to shock...
Finally, the harvest season has arrived.
Gu Liang gave the order to openly harvest the crops.
On this day, not only officials from Pingzhou and managers of merchant houses came, but also leaders of many tribes outside the pass, invited by Wanyan Zongbi, came to watch.
Open field A first.
With each stroke of their hoes, the farmers unearthed a string of potatoes, the largest of which was no bigger than an egg, while most were only the size of a thumb.
After digging for a long time, I managed to fill less than three large baskets with all sorts of odds and ends from an acre of land.
After weighing, Gu Liang announced the results: "Experimental field A yields 320 jin per mu."
This number caused no stir, and was even lower than some people's expectations.
The Jurchen leaders shook their heads, feeling that the Han people were indeed wasting their efforts.
Then, it was field B's turn.
All eyes were focused on the still lush green field.
The farmer wielded his hoe and carefully dug up the roots of the first potato plant.
When the potato was pulled out intact, the scene fell into a deathly silence, followed by a thunderous gasp!
"Oh my God!"
"This is... a ground egg?"
"This is bigger than my child's head!"
Under the rootstock of that potato plant, clusters of enormous potatoes hung densely!
Each one is round and plump, and even the smallest one is a size larger than the largest one in field A!
Picking one up at random, they were all heavy, making your wrist ache.
There was no need to dig them all up; just looking at the result of this first plant, everyone knew that a miracle had occurred.
The Jurchen leaders rushed to the edge of the field, staring intently at the golden nuggets that were being turned up from the ground, their eyes filled with greed and disbelief.
Wanyan Zongbi even jumped into the field, snatched a hoe from a farmer, and started digging himself.
When he dug out a huge pile of potatoes heavier than stones, this Jurchen prince, who remained unfazed even on the battlefield, found his hands trembling slightly...
In the end, the potatoes in field B were piled up into a small mountain.
Gu Liang stood before the mountain of potatoes, his voice rising with excitement, and he announced loudly:
"Experimental field B yielded... 3,050 jin per mu!"
Three thousand and fifty jin!
This number struck like a thunderbolt into the hearts of everyone present!
It is nearly ten times the yield of field A!
This yield has far exceeded that of the best paddy fields in Pingzhou!
Moreover, this was grown on what they considered the most barren grassland!
The Jurchen leaders went completely mad.
Looking at the mountain of potatoes, they seemed to see endless granaries.
Hunger, the monster that had haunted them like a nightmare for generations, seemed to be disappearing at this moment!
Wanyan Zongbi threw down his hoe and strode over to Bailu and Gu Liang.
He did not speak, but instead bowed deeply in the oldest and most solemn manner of the Jurchen people.
"Lady White Snake, Lord Gu... please teach us how to cultivate such a divine creature!"
His voice carried a hint of reverence!
Bai Lu and Gu Liang exchanged a smile.
They knew that from this moment on, the weapons in their hands would no longer be just food and cloth.
They have something even more powerful—technology.
A technology that can change the fate of the grasslands and firmly bind them to the Great Martial Kingdom—an irreplaceable technology!
Faced with Wanyan Zongbi's request and the burning gazes of the Jurchen leaders around her, Bai Lu's smile grew even more composed.
She didn't agree immediately. Instead, she stepped forward, picked up the largest potato from the small mountain of potatoes, weighed it in her hand, and then handed it to Wanyan Zongbi.
"Fourth Prince, do you think this stuff will be enough to feed your people?"
Wanyan Zongbi solemnly accepted the heavy potato and nodded emphatically: "Yes! One potato is as good as a small basket! With this, no one on the grassland will ever starve to death again!"
"Just being full is not enough."
"This is just the beginning."
She looked around, her gaze sweeping over the dark-skinned, eager-eyed Jurchen men, then turning to Gu Liang beside her, before finally settling back on Wanyan Zongbi.
"The output that Lord Gu just announced is three thousand catties. But I must tell you, this is not its limit." Bai Lu's words were startling.
Everyone held their breath.
Is a yield of 3,000 catties per mu not the limit?
This is simply a myth!
"This is our first time trying to plant on the grassland. The soil isn't fertile enough yet, and we don't have enough experience," Bai Lu said confidently. "As long as we take good care of it, a yield of 4,000 or even 5,000 jin per mu in the future is not impossible!"
"Moreover," she changed the subject, dropping an even more shocking piece of news, "did you know that in Pingzhou, the climate is suitable, and we can achieve two harvests a year?"
"Two harvests a year?" Wanyan Zongbi was stunned.
In the Jurchen people's understanding, if crops could be planted and harvested once in the autumn, it would be the greatest blessing from God.
“That’s right,” Bai Lu answered confidently. “We can plant the Gu Shen No. 1 rice in the spring and harvest it at the end of summer. After the harvest, the fields won’t be idle; we can plant rice immediately!”
"It's the same here on the grassland... Pingzhou has a very hot climate, enough to allow this batch of potatoes to have a second harvest before winter."
"One field yields two portions of grain!"
These words caused another uproar at the scene!
Seeing their shocked expressions, Bai Lu continued, "And potatoes, as a crop, have a shorter growth cycle than rice."
"On the grasslands, as long as there's enough water, theoretically, crops can ripen three times a year!"
"Spring planting and summer harvest, summer planting and autumn harvest, no problem at all!"
The scene she depicted was so beautiful to these nomadic peoples who had been struggling with hunger for years... it was too beautiful for them to believe.
“This…this is impossible…” an elderly tribal chief muttered to himself, as if in a dream.
Bai Lu smiled slightly and pointed to the vast grassland: "From now on, this place will no longer be a barren land where only grass can grow."
“Every inch of land beneath your feet can be transformed into a treasure trove of abundant food!”
"You can grow potatoes on a large scale here and completely solve the problem of food and clothing."
"As for the rice, tea, cloth, ironware that you like... you don't need to worry about those anymore!"
"Pingzhou is your largest granary and warehouse!"