Zhu Xiang thought for a long time but couldn't figure out who King Zhuangxiang of Qin was. But even though he couldn't figure it out, he could infer it.
"He must be Zheng'er's biological father." Zhu Xiang guessed.
In order to avoid stepping on taboos, Zhu Xiang memorized the genealogies of royal nobles from various countries over the years.
Children of noble families had to memorize these when they were first educated, so as not to offend others unintentionally. Zhu Xiang believed that as a commoner who had mixed into the noble family, he should know these in detail.
Traveling back to this era of transition from slavery to feudalism, he could never be too careful.
Therefore, Zhu Xiang naturally bore the posthumous title of the Qin kings of all dynasties. At present, there is no Qin king with the posthumous title of "Qin Zhuangxiang Wang".
But even if Zhu Xiang could not bear the posthumous title of the previous Qin kings, he had no place to improve his favorability with the dead Qin king. Even if the old Qin king knew that he could farm, he would not have a high favorability towards him.
There are five hearts for favorability: one heart means "slightly appreciative", two hearts means "willing to make friends", three hearts means "a bosom friend", and four hearts means "a sworn brother".
The system did not give a name to the five-heart favorability, it only said that the five-heart favorability is the feeling of entrusting everything.
The system manual explains that the favorability naming is only to help the host understand the degree of favorability and has nothing to do with the actual friendship situation.
It is possible that Zhu Xiang had never met the other party, but the other party had a unilateral liking for Zhu Xiang because of Zhu Xiang's reputation; it is also possible that the other party's liking for Zhu Xiang reached the level of "soulmate" and he recognized Zhu Xiang very much, but because of their different positions, he hoped that Zhu Xiang would die quickly.
When Zhu Xiang saw the explanation in the system manual, his heart sank.
Why does he feel that this favorability display is a bit of a trap
King Zhuangxiang of Qin was now half-hearted about Zhu Xiang, more like a soulmate than a willing one. When Zhu Xiang saw this level of affection, his eyes turned into dead fish eyes of disgust.
This is what the system manual said, "The degree of favorability has nothing to do with the actual friendship situation", right
"Zheng'er's father has such a good impression of me, probably because he already knows that Chunhua left Zheng'er to me to raise." Zhu Xiang locked himself in the study and analyzed in a low voice.
This is his bad habit. When more complex thinking is required, he has to say something so that his thinking will be clearer.
"Zheng'er has only been at my house for ten days, and his father is far away in Qin, but he has already learned about the events in Handan, Zhao? How is this possible? No, things have already happened, so we can't think about whether they are possible or not. Judging from the time of 'ten days', Zheng'er's father may be near Zhao."
Zhu Xiang took out a piece of paper and drew a map on it.
This map was created based on maps he collected from traveling merchants and by adding to and modifying modern maps he knew.
At that time, civilians who kept overly detailed maps in their homes would be beheaded as spies. When Zhu Xiang practiced and used maps, he burned them after use. Even Xue didn't know that Zhu Xiang could draw detailed maps - he was not only worried that Xue would let the cat out of the bag, but also worried that Xue would have psychological pressure.
He only drew a map of the western part of Zhao State. As soon as the map was drawn, he knew that the future King Zhuangxiang of Qin was there.
The Qin State was attacking Shangdang County of the Han State. Perhaps this hostage, who had just returned to the Qin State, was visiting the troops in Shangdang in order to gain political capital.
"Besides him, he is at the border of Zhao State. He may have placed spies around Chunhua and Zheng'er." Zhu Xiang continued to analyze, "But is this spy from this Prince Yiren or Lu Buwei?"
According to common sense, these spies should be Lu Buwei's.
Prince Yi was only one or two years old, not only was he young, but he was also sent to Zhao as a hostage at an early age, and had almost no royal education. Even the people of Zhao began to spread rumors that he was able to return to Qin because of Lu Buwei, and he himself had no ability.
Zhu Xiang scrolled through the list of favorability and did not find a name that looked like Lu Buwei. Why did he say "looked like"? Of course, the unreliability of this system lies not only in the pixelated style of painting, but also in the completely inconsistent styles of titles.
"Lin Xiangru" is a name; "Xunzi" is a respectful title in later generations; who is "Gang Chengjun"? Is "Juzi" the same respectful title as "Xunzi"? And what about "General Lian"... System, are you too perfunctory to General Lian Po?
There are only a few people on the list of good impressions. Zhu Xiang can barely match everyone by elimination. There is definitely no Lu Buwei among these people.
I wonder if Lu Buwei is unaware of my existence, or if he knows of my existence but doesn't like me
If it is the former, then Zheng'er's father has cultivated his own power in a place that Lu Buwei does not know. This "puppet hostage" is probably not as simple as others think.
Zhu Xiang messed up her hair which she had just combed.
Whether it is that Lu Buwei has already known of his existence but has no good feelings towards him, or that Zheng'er's father is deeply scheming, both are threatening to his future.
"Alas, what's the use of analyzing these now? Can I still stop the threat from coming?" After Zhu Xiang figured it out, he was instantly discouraged.
He looked at the map in silence for a while, then tore it into pieces and scattered it into the brazier.
He knew exactly what kind of fight he would be involved in, but because of his weak strength and humble status, he could only passively accept it. Zhu Xiang really didn't like this era.
"Look at it in a better light. Maybe King Zhuangxiang of Qin is a good man. He likes me so much simply because I saved his most precious child, not because he thinks he can push me to the front to compete with Lu Buwei." Zhu Xiang smiled bitterly, "I am a farmer, so I am probably more popular in Qin than Lu Buwei, the businessman."
Zhu Xiang tried to deceive himself and make himself feel a little better, then he checked the system functions again.
Although Zhu Xiang was worried about King Zhuangxiang of Qin's favorability, he was slightly comforted by the fact that his favorability contributed three better varieties.
After that, Zhu Xiang fell into depression again. To obtain the improved species, you still need to draw cards. Not only do the card pools with different favorability have different rarity, but the card pools of each character also have different rarity, and you may draw the same thing.
Zhu Xiang's face turned bitter. How can this be a test of luck? My luck has always been bad.
"Let's take a look at other people's first." Zhu Xiang decided to collect everyone's favorability points before drawing together.
Lin Xiangru and Gang Chengjun both have a three-star favorability rating, but Lin Xiangru, a very famous person in history, is actually less rare than Gang Chengjun.
Zhu Xiang thought for a long time and his eyelids trembled.
Gang Chengjun... is Cai Ze? Cai Ze is not well-known in history, but he has a greater influence on this period of history than Lin Xiangru. There is only one possibility, that is, Cai Ze was highly valued by the Qin State and made great contributions when the Qin State unified the world.
Although Lin Xiangru was very talented and famous, he was trapped in the State of Zhao and was not a military general, so he had little influence on the entire historical process.
After realizing this, Zhu Xiang couldn't help feeling melancholy.
The current King of Zhao no longer listened to Lin Xiangru's advice, and the future King of Zhao was even more incompetent. How could Lin Zhi leave a ripple in history if he stayed in Zhao
There were many names of people Zhu Xiang didn't know on his favorability list. As the system suggested, perhaps his reputation as a farmer had spread to these people, and they had a favorable impression of him.
Some of these people are not nobles, and may be nameless in history books, but they are all systematically evaluated as people who will influence the course of history.
It turns out that these "celebrities" are not the ones who have left their names in history, but the ones who have left traces in the long river of history, even if the later generations do not remember their names.
Zhu Xiang had a vague feeling that the system was trying to tell him something. For example, the cards he wanted to "collect" as a time traveler were different from the cards the system wanted him to "collect".
Just a favorability system made Zhu Xiang think about so many things, and gave rise to so many worries and emotions. He even lost interest in the lottery, and he didn't burn incense, bathe, wash his hands, or change clothes, and just drew the lottery.
The pixels were shaking. Zhu Xiang had drawn all the favorability rewards for one heart, and there were more star anise, cumin, fennel, and other seeds. They were all spices and none of them could be eaten directly.
Zhu Xiang's mouth twitched. These spices are worth a fortune, right? In the eyes of the system, those that can't fill your stomach are just garbage to fill the card pool
He drew two more hearts of favorability rewards, and they were all spice seeds, and repeated spice seeds. He thought, he could make a barbecue with five-spice powder for Xue and Zheng'er.
The only people who offered Zhu Xiang three hearts of favorability rewards were King Zhuangxiang of Qin, Cai Ze, Lin Xiangru, Juzi, and a man named Xu Ming whom he did not know.
Xu Ming's card pool has the lowest rarity, and Zhu Xiang drew Sesame;
Juzi and Lin Xiangru have the same card pool rarity, and Zhu Xiang draws two types of wheat with higher yields;
Cai Ze's card pool was obviously of a higher rarity, but Zhu Xiang actually drew Sesame. He thought it must be Cai Ze's fault for having bad luck.
Finally, only three hearts of favorability of King Zhuangxiang of Qin were left to be drawn. Zhu Xiang took desperate measures and a yellow pixel block pretending to be golden light flashed, and finally formed two words, potato.
Zhu Xiang was stunned.
After a while, he stretched out his hand and a potato appeared in his hand.
He took a bite and said, "It's really a potato."
Zhu Xiang covered his eyes with one hand and held the potato with the other hand, and ate all the raw potatoes bit by bit.
Although raw potatoes can be eaten directly, they are difficult to digest and are very unpalatable. Zhu Xiang even shed tears while eating them.
Sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes are the three legendary artifacts. It is said on the Internet that the 300 million people of the Qing Dynasty were brought up by sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes. As long as the time traveler returns with these three artifacts, he can create a prosperous era.
Of course Zhu Xiang knew this was fake.
Modern sweet potatoes, corn and potatoes can easily produce thousands of kilograms, thanks to the use of modern technology for breeding high-quality seeds and the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
The records of grain yield per mu in ancient documents are not very accurate, and some are even deliberately exaggerated. For example, "Si Sheng Zhi Shu" records that the yield per mu is 100 dan, which is more than 10,000 jin, which is not achieved now.
However, during the Republic of China period, there were relatively scientific statistics on grain yield per mu. According to records, in the 1930s, when Shandong was in a good weather and without war, the yield of winter wheat per mu was about 150 kilograms, the yield of corn per mu was about 180 kilograms, and the yield of sweet potatoes per mu was about 1,400 kilograms.
The potato yield was also about 1,000 kilograms, but in reality it was not that high. The yield per mu of modern potato varieties such as "Super White", "Zhongshu No. 4", and "Zhongshu No. 10" is only more than 1,000 kilograms. In ancient times, potatoes were not planted on good fields, and the yield per mu was about 500 kilograms.
It seems that the yield of sweet potatoes and potatoes is still very high. However, anyone with a little agricultural knowledge should know that because crops such as sweet potatoes and potatoes reproduce asexually, they are very easy to accumulate viruses, resulting in yield degradation or even total crop failure. They need to be detoxified during planting. All of this is thanks to modern technology.
The Irish famine was caused by potato degeneration and disease.
The working people in ancient China also discovered this problem. Coupled with different eating habits, according to statistics from 1914 to 1918, the planting area of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn was only 9%. Sweet potatoes and potatoes were not cultivated on a large scale in ancient China.
The reason for the population explosion in the Qing Dynasty was simple.
When the Qing Dynasty entered the Shanhai Pass, it carried out multiple massacres, leaving nine out of ten houses in the rich lands empty, thus "easing" the land annexation indirectly; after the land tax was distributed among the land, the new household registration statistics included a large number of hidden households; the actual control area in the middle of the Qing Dynasty included the Northeast, Northwest, grasslands, and southwestern minority areas, and the people reclaimed these places, and the cultivated land reached twice that of the previous dynasty; due to population pressure, the working people racked their brains to intercrop and increase production, and even came up with a unique skill such as "two years and thirteen harvests"...
Sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn certainly have their share of contributions. More staple crops have given farmers more choices. Farmers can plant a wider variety of crops during years of famine and make use of poor land. Intercropping techniques can also replace low-yield crops with these three high-yield crops.
But as an agronomist, Zhu Xiang would naturally not make the mistake of attributing the miracles created by the working people of the Qing Dynasty through their hard work, intelligence and diligence to just three foreign crops.
But even though he knew that potatoes were not some magical artifact that could bring about time travel, and that even if they were promoted, they would not be able to save all the hardworking people from starvation, he still burst into tears.
Indeed, without the blessing of modern technology, potatoes are just a famine relief crop.
But in the Warring States period, there were no "famine relief crops", and even the staple food and vegetables were extremely scarce. If there was a famine and no harvest, farmers had no way to remedy the situation and could only dig weeds, gnaw on tree bark, and eat soil.
Relieving famine can save lives!
Even if we can't save everyone, saving a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand... or even hundreds of thousands of people, they are all lives!
Zhu Xiang recalled the tragic scenes he had seen when he and Lin Xiangru were traveling around Zhao State to provide famine relief.
He had a lot of knowledge, but he was powerless and could only close his eyes and ignore the farmer's desperate look.
If there were potatoes at that time, how many people could I have saved
With the hard work and intelligence of the common people, as long as they are told the advantages and disadvantages of potato planting, they can figure out how to maximize the use of potatoes and avoid the risks of potatoes.
As recorded in ancient books, large-scale planting occurs during disasters, but becomes scattered planting after disasters. This is the experience summed up by the common people themselves.
"That's great. It's really great."
Zhu Xiang, who had hardly shed tears since his "resurrection", buried his face in his arms and sobbed.
(End of this chapter)