The Rise of the European Emperor

1.5 billion pounds of rye! To be more precise, it should be 1.518 billion pounds. Among them, East Frisian counties have 120,000 Eugrams, and Marin owns 80,000 Eugrams. The remaining 40,000 Ugrams were all awarded to meritorious soldiers, some of them belonged to the supporters of the Bullock family, and some belonged to the old aristocrats such as Geoffrey who took refuge in Marin.

The local 120,000 Ugram land has an average yield of about 520 pounds per mu, with a total output of 750 million pounds. Of this, 500 million pounds belonged to Marin's estate, and 250 million pounds belonged to nobles and officers.

The 160,000 Eugram rye fields in Oldenburg and Schleswig have a total output of 768 million pounds, with an average yield of about 400 pounds per mu. And Marin forcibly managed 120,000 Ugram arable land. Excluding planting costs (such as seeds and draught power) and serfs' expenses (including food), as well as the 50 pounds of rye per acre paid to the entrusted nobles, Marlin received an average of 250 pounds of rye per acre. After all, on the 120,000 Eugram entrusted land, Marin also received 360 million pounds of rye. Counting the 500 million pounds of rye produced by the 80,000 Ugram cultivated land in the country, the new grain obtained by Marin's autumn harvest has reached a terrifying 860 million pounds.

In addition, in the Yevre area, Marin changed all the 8,000 eugrams of local arable land to grow oats to meet the needs of horses. At the fall harvest, those oat fields, yielding about 200 pounds per mu, yielded 19.2 million pounds of oats. In this way, the horses in the territory and the alfalfa grass that Marin vigorously promotes and grows will not have to worry about feed.

What's more, in the twin islands of North America, soybeans are also produced in large quantities. At that time, the war horse will enjoy the high treatment of soybeans and oats.

Because of the bumper harvest every year, now the nobles and officials under Marin's hands have become very rich. Become a rich man, naturally also pay attention to the quality of life. Rye bread has been disliked by nobles because of its average taste and a bit bitter taste. Now, the nobility of East Frisian counties, as soon as the autumn harvest ends, send grain to Marin, and let Marin's shipping company sell the rye abroad. In addition, they proposed - want to exchange rye for wheat.

Because the nobles are addicted to white bread. After eating soft white bread with cream, the nobles under Marin's command were less willing to eat brown bread.

White bread is made of wheat flour that has been sifted out of wheat bran, fermented with brewer's yeast, and added with spices, butter and honey, and it tastes very sweet. Well, there is probably the level of the later bakery.

From frugality to extravagance is easy, from extravagance to frugality is difficult. Because the money is not bad, today's East Frisian aristocrats have switched to white bread, and no longer see the rustic and bitter brown bread.

You know, in the early Middle Ages, white bread was also called Queen's bread, and only the great nobles could afford it. If any soldier is rewarded by the king with "Queen's Bread", that is a very high honor.

Wheat bread is so expensive because wheat yields are so low…

If more than 100 pounds of rye per mu is considered real estate, then the yield of wheat per mu is only a few dozen pounds in most parts of Western Europe. Even in many areas, the harvest ratio of wheat is only 1 to 2. What does this mean? That is to say, if 30 pounds of wheat seeds are planted on an acre of land, only 60 pounds of wheat can be harvested in the fall...

According to the records seen by Marin in the previous life, in the Middle Ages, the yield of wheat per mu (here refers to the acre) was 8 to 9 bushels. And a bushel of wheat is 58 pounds. Converted, the output of one mu of wheat is only between 77.3 and 87 pounds.

Because of low yields and a preference for warmer climates, wheat was very expensive in Europe at this age, about five times as expensive as rye.

The reason why wheat yield is low, Marin, a pseudo-agricultural expert, has studied and believes that there are two main factors. The first is the lack of fertilizer. Without fertilization, where will there be high yields? The second is the low level of irrigation in Europe.

Wheat and rye are different,

Rye itself is a hybrid product of weeds and wheat, with weed genes and tenacious vitality. Wheat, on the other hand, is much more delicate.

During the growing period of wheat, especially in the early stage, the water demand is large. If not artificially irrigated, it will lead to water shortage, which will greatly affect the yield. Because, if water is deficient in the early stage, it will cause the wheat to stunted.

As it happens, Europeans seriously lacked trap irrigation technology in the Middle Ages. In fact, as early as the Roman Empire, the Romans already had advanced irrigation technology, and they even came up with such advanced things as volcanic ash cement.

However, after the fall of Western Rome, many trap technologies in Europe were lost, and the technology went back hundreds of years, almost returning to the level before the establishment of the Roman Empire.

Therefore, European peasants in the Middle Ages did not know how to dig irrigation canals, let alone dig the moisture ditches used for flood irrigation. Therefore, for wheat that requires a lot of water, Western Europeans can't plant it well.

On the other hand, because rye has weed genes, it requires little management and requires little water, so it is very suitable for low-tech Europeans to plant. So, in the Middle Ages, rye became the mainstream, while wheat was cultivated by only a few people. In this context, the price of wheat is expensive, and it is reasonable.

A few decades ago, the Italians introduced advanced irrigation technology from the Arab region, that is, the technology of digging irrigation canals and moisture ditches. So, on the Italian side, began to look at growing wheat. Because of the sufficient water supply, the wheat production in Italy is very high, and it is about the same as rye.

Therefore, Italy is said to be a treasure land. For example, Sicily has the title of "Golden Basin".

However, Europeans of this age are stupid. Europeans in other countries do not know that this is because Italy has introduced advanced irrigation technology from the Arab region, but they think that the soil in Italy is fertile.

In order to occupy this fertile land, the two great powers, France and Spain, set their sights on Italy, intending to annex this fertile land.

Then, there was the "Italian War" that lasted for decades...

If the Italians knew that because they had introduced the advanced irrigation technology of the Arabs, they would have been coveted by the magician and the banya, and they would have regretted it. Or, they will offer advanced irrigation technology to the two great powers. However, this matter, let alone the demon and the banya, are not clear, and the Italians themselves can't tell, and they really think it is the credit of the volcanic ash soil. Although, the volcanic ash soil is indeed more fertile than ordinary soil, but this is not the only reason...

...

Hearing that all the nobles asked him to quickly exchange rye for wheat in the south, so that he could make white bread for them, Marin was dumbfounded. Isn't it just wheat bread, so what?

Originally, Marin planned to grow wheat locally. However, considering that it has now entered the early stage of the Little Ice Age, and the northern part of Germany is colder, rye is easier to grow.

Therefore, Marin plans to open up a large number of wheat fields in the North American Twin Islands, where the temperature is higher in summer, and grow wheat there. Moreover, it is the cultivation of winter wheat.

The reason why winter wheat, not spring wheat, is because winter wheat tastes better...

Right now, the autumn harvest is over, and it is the season for planting winter wheat. To this end, Marin sent a ship with a large amount of wheat to Shuangdao, and asked the new governor of Shuangdao to open up a large area of ​​land for the cultivation of winter wheat on the newly developed Columbus Island. By the summer of next year, the winter wheat will be almost ripe, just in time to be shipped back for consumption by the nobles in the country.

Moreover, Da Vinci has successfully developed the Archimedes screw pump in accordance with Marin's requirements. With steam engines and screw pumps, it is not too easy to irrigate farmland. No matter how large the water demand of wheat is, is there still a problem with the steam engine and the Archimedes screw pump?

That's why Marin didn't choose to grow wheat locally. The steam engine cannot be exposed at present, otherwise, if Marin wants to win the Ruhr area rich in coal in the future, there will be many competitors, and the difficulty will be greatly increased. After all, knowing the great use of coal, the coal mines in the Ruhr area will become a fragrant pastry, attracting many people to fight for it.

In North America, the two islands are different. It is very remote here, and no people from other countries come here. The use of steam engines and pumps here is something no one has seen, and it does not affect Marin's capture of the Ruhr area. When the Ruhr area is in hand and the steam engine is available in Europe, it will be fine. Moreover, in this era, with the technological level of other countries, if you don't use the real thing as a reference, if you want to imitate it, the difficulty is absolutely hell...