Chapter 185: The Greatest Arrangement of His Current Life! (1/2)

“Gon-gong… Gongzi, are you serious on this matter?”

Zhang Munian could not keep his composure anymore.

The reason why he had to embezzle twenty thousand gold taels, which eventually resulted in his imprisonment, was due to the lack of financial support. If he were to possess sufficient financial ability and support from the authorities, how could he have landed in such a state?

As such, Wang Chong’s suggestion left him moved. In an instant, his agitation vanquished all of his unease from having his secret exposed.

“Of course. If I didn’t intend to help you, I wouldn’t have gone to the extent of saving you.”

Wang Chong said calmly.

Regardless of whether it was his previous life or his current one, Zhang Munian had always been an inconspicuous figure, and there weren’t much news on him. In truth, all Wang Chong knew about him was that after his death, the crops that he created slowly appeared all over Great Tang.

His crops were of a much higher quality than the others. Even though it failed to reverse the ultimate fate of the Central Plains and Great Tang, at the very least, Wang Chong learned that there was a martyr known as Zhang Munian who had been silently devoting his strength for the empire.

He didn’t enjoy fame and prestige in his lifetime, and even upon death, his accomplishments continued to remain unrecognized.

Even so, his contribution to the empire was immense.

From Shang to Xia, then from Zhou to Han, and eventually, Sui and Tang, the main reason why humans could sustain themselves without hunting, and maintain a steady population growth was due to the contributions of martyrs like Zhang Munian.

The current prosperity of the Central Plains was only possible due to their silent contributions.

If one were to compare the quality of rations, those of Xia surpassed Shang, Zhou surpassed Xia, Han surpassed Zhou… and eventually, when it came to Great Tang, the quality was already far beyond that of all previous dynasties.

Even so, the current food supply was still far from enough to sustain the immense population of the Central Plains.

Wang Chong’s goal was to build upon the current foundation and stimulate a huge growth in the agriculture production of the Central Plains.

However, there was no one in this present world capable of achieving this feat.

Wang Chong’s only hope lay in the knowledge he obtained from another time-space continuum. That being said, Wang Chong didn’t specialize in this field, and his strength as an individual was far from sufficient.

“Great! Wang gongzi, as long as you grant me sufficient support, I’ll… I’ll definitely cultivate crops reap much greater yield than the present ones!”

Zhang Munian didn’t think into the matter too deeply, and he had no idea what Wang Chong hoped to achieve either. All he felt at this very moment was just elation after learning that someone was willing to support him.

“Mister Zhang!”

Wang Chong poured Zhang Munian a cup of tea while organizing his thoughts.

“… Having worked in the agriculture industry for so long, have you noticed that there are some crops that grant a significantly greater yield than the others?”

“Of course!”

Zhang Munian was surprised. He didn’t expect a wealthy scion like Wang Chong to know about agriculture as well! However, considering that Wang Chong was offering to finance him, it should be expected that he would at least know a thing or two about the subject..

“The job of our Bureau of Agriculture is to find these high-yield crops, obtain their seeds, and find a way to propagate their growth. However, this turned out to be futile. Many of the seeds we found did possess high yield when we first found them, but upon being replanted, their yield became no different from that of ordinary plants. In fact, some of them even failed to germinate.”

“Finding a single true high-yield crop among ten thousand others can be as a stroke of fortune already.”

In the previous few dynasties, the responsibility of the agriculture officials was to visit fields and search for high-yield crops.

However, the hereditary traits of crops, in general, didn’t seem to be stable; sometimes, a crop could bring about great yield in the first generation, normal yield in the second, below average in the third, and possibly another great yield in the fourth.

It would have been pointless if that was the case. People could have already starved to death in between the first and the fourth harvest.

Besides, it was also a huge uncertainty whether one could obtain a great yield in the fourth generation or not.

Thus, the Bureau of Agriculture’s seed selection process was fraught with difficulties.

Zhang Munian had grown up in the fields, and under the influence of his family, he realized the importance of a sufficient supply of food. Thus, he devoted his entire life to searching for high-yield crops.

For that, he was even imprisoned and nearly executed.

“So the gold that disappeared was used to compensate the farmers with low yield, right?”

Wang Chong asked.

“That’s right!”

There was no need for Zhang Munian to hide anything before Wang Chong.

The selection of seeds was an extremely risky affair. If he wanted to continue the experiment, he had to reimburse the farmers who suffered from low returns in the season.

Zhang Munian didn’t spend the twenty thousand gold taels in the span of a single day; it was slowly consumed over a period of two decades.

The twenty thousand gold taels, down to the very last copper coin, had gone into reimbursing the farmers.

“Mister Zhang, regarding the high-yield crops, have you ever wondered why some crops can maintain their yield while others result in lower or even no yield at all?”

Contemplating over the matter for a short while to sieve out the appropriate words, Wang Chong carefully presented a different perspective to Zhang Munian.

“Ah?”

Zhang Munian was taken aback. He had never considered this matter before so his selection process had never been any different from the other agriculture officials. Crop yield had been unstable since time immemorial, and he was already accustomed to the sight.

As such, he had never considered the reason behind the matter.

“This… I have never really considered this problem.”

Zhang Munian shook his head. This was the first time someone had proposed this question to him.