The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 581 World Map

Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and the others entered the study and took their seats, while Guan Xing, being sensible, stood in the middle of the tent waiting to be questioned.

Without further ado, Liu Bei tossed the bamboo tube Fu Shiren had brought back to Guan Xing and asked directly, "How is this rice different from the Champa rice of your later generations?"

Guan Xing shook his head and said, "I don't know. I've never seen Champa rice and don't know what it looks like. But this rice is much smaller than the rice we usually eat, and its color is not as white as our rice. But that's normal. The rice of later generations has been improved and hybridized over nearly a thousand years, so it must be much better than the rice of the Han Dynasty."

Liu Bei frowned and said, "What is this 'improvement and hybridization'? Can rice really evolve?"

Guan Xing said, "Grains definitely evolve over time. Take millet, for example. The earliest millet was actually the common foxtail grass by the roadside. It took countless generations of cultivation and evolution for the foxtail grass to gradually grow into palm-sized ears of grain. Although this statement has not been verified, it proves the importance of grain evolution."

"The same goes for rice. The current Champa rice is certainly not as amazing as we said before, but if it is carefully cultivated in the Great Han for several generations, or even crossbred with our native rice, it will definitely grow into an irreplaceable national treasure one day."

Liu Bei asked, "How do we crossbreed?"

Guan Xing spread his hands and said, "Don't ask me about that. I don't have the ability to cultivate hybrid rice, and the Great Han doesn't have the equipment for it either. Don't even think about it for the next hundred years."

Liu Bei rolled his eyes as he listened, and after thinking for a moment, asked, "Since there is already mature Champa rice in later generations, why bother cultivating hybrid rice? What exactly is hybrid rice, and what is its yield per acre?"

Guan Xing tilted his head, lost in memories, and said slowly, "Hybrid rice was cultivated by a Shennong named Yuan in later generations. Initially, there wasn't enough food for everyone, so the purpose of cultivating hybrid rice was simply to increase the yield per mu. But after getting started, he discovered a new world. Hybrid rice continued to evolve, and the yield per mu kept increasing, from the initial yield of only 800 jin to 1200 jin..."

"What?" Before Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhuge Liang could finish speaking, they all stood up in shock, pointing at Guan Xing and asking, "How much did you say? Eight hundred to twelve hundred catties, and you only have that much?"

With a yield of around 1,000 jin per mu, what an incredible yield!

It should be noted that the highest yield of rice per mu in the Han Dynasty was only about 150 jin, and even the best land could not yield more than 200 jin. Moreover, the jin in the Han Dynasty was different from the jin in later generations. Converted to the units of measurement in later generations, it was estimated to be less than 100 jin.

And you tell me that in later generations, rice yields were 1,000 catties per mu, which was six or seven times higher than in the Han Dynasty and still far from the limit?

No wonder you said you throw away every steamed bun you eat; I would do the same.

Seeing that Guan Xing remained silent, Liu Bei sat down helplessly and sighed, "You just said that this was the initial yield per mu of hybrid rice, so what about later? What was the highest yield?"

Guan Xing pondered, "Let me think, when Yuan Lao passed away, the highest record for hybrid rice yield per mu seemed to be 2769.8 jin, that's right, but that's experimental data, I'm not sure if it was widely used."

Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhuge Liang were all stunned by this number, their eyes glazed over as if they had lost their souls, and their arms trembled as if they had Parkinson's disease.

Their limited understanding makes it impossible for them to imagine what rice with a yield of nearly 3,000 jin per mu would look like.

Even if the Han Dynasty only produced half of this amount of rice, there would still be so much grain that there would be nowhere to store it.

Zhuge Liang was the first to react, and said in a trembling voice, "That old Yuan was able to achieve such success; he was truly a divine being. Since you lived in the same era as Shennong, you must have heard some news about hybrid rice. You should be able to offer some suggestions on how to increase rice yield. We don't need to increase it to a terrifying three thousand catties; three hundred catties would be satisfactory."

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei were all jolted awake, their eyes burning as they stared intently at Guan Xing, wishing they could split open Guan Xing's head and search it thoroughly to find all the information about hybrid rice.

Guan Xing sighed, “I only have one way, which is to fertilize the land. The so-called fertilizer is human and animal excrement. Excrement is garbage to us, but it is the best nutrient for the land and vegetation. There is no problem in increasing the yield per mu by 10% after fertilizing the land. But be careful not to apply too much fertilizer, as it is easy to burn the vegetation.”

Zhuge Liang exclaimed excitedly, "Even excrement has this use? That's great! I'll try it later. Do you have any more?"

Guan Xing pondered for a moment and said, "Here's another suggestion, but please note that it's just a suggestion. I don't know if it's feasible, and it might even have the opposite effect. I can only say let's give it a try."

"According to later research, plants also have male and female parts and need to mate to reproduce. Therefore, I suggest selecting a farmland and planting the Champa rice that Fu Shiren brought back in the same field with the native rice of the Han Dynasty. We can use the wind to spread pollen to achieve the purpose of pollination and hybridization, and see if we can cultivate a better variety. Note that this is just a suggestion. I will not be responsible if it fails."

Zhuge Liang rolled his eyes and said, "Leave this matter to me. I will personally take charge of cultivating this land. By the way, you must know which month of the year to cultivate Champa rice, right?"

Guan Xing nodded and said, "Take Wu County for example. The climate in Wu County allows for two harvests a year. Sowing is done in March and April, and harvesting is done in May and June. Sowing is done in July and August, and harvesting is done in October and November. The climate in Jiaozhou is even more humid, allowing for three harvests a year."

Zhuge Liang nodded and said, "I've got it, Your Majesty. I'm all right here."

Liu Bei gazed at the ceiling and sighed, "A yield of three thousand catties per mu... I can't even imagine how prosperous your descendants will be. If the Han Dynasty had half that yield..."

Guan Xing rolled his eyes and said, "Your Majesty, don't even think about it. There are 1.4 billion people in the future, while the Han Dynasty only has a few people. It's not even a fraction of the population in the future. What would we need so much grain for?"

That being said, who would complain about having too much food? They'd rather have too much and let it mold than face an emergency and have nothing to eat.

Liu Bei didn't dare to think about the so-called hybrid rice. After a moment's thought, he said, "Anguo, the emergence of Champa rice confirms the truth of what you said. Although the current Champa rice is far inferior to that of later generations, with patient cultivation, its effects can definitely be gradually improved. I have confidence in you on this point, but..."

"Since Champa rice can be found in Linyi, are there any other places with crops comparable to Champa rice?"

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Liang perked up and quickly asked, "That's right. Since we can't cultivate hybrid rice for the time being, how about we collect all the crops in the world?"

Guan Xing: "..."

He realized that these people were exceptionally greedy.

Why do they want to keep all the good things for themselves?

Guan Xing went to the table, picked up a piece of paper, dipped a brush in ink, drew a few strokes on the paper, and wrote a large Chinese character in the blank space, saying, "This is a world map. Take a look at it first."

Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhuge Liang quickly ran to Liu Bei's side to look at the map together. Upon seeing it, their expressions changed drastically, and they exclaimed incredulously, "The Han Dynasty is only this small? It's not even half the size of the entire world?"

Thanks to Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, the Han Dynasty had already opened its eyes to the world and knew that the world was vast, but it never imagined it was this vast.

Compared to the rest of the world, the Han Dynasty was truly too small; its territory was seriously inconsistent with its self-proclaimed status as the number one power in the world.

With such a small area, how dare they call themselves the Celestial Empire?

Guan Xing was speechless. Half the size of the Earth? You really dare to dream.