Chapter 219: A Surprise from Heaven

The first sweet potato finally emerged. It was called huge because it was about as thick as a typical child’s forearm.

Of course, it could not compare to those massive sweet potatoes of later generations. Fang Jifan gradually dug away the soil, and the long, lotus-root-shaped sweet potato was fully exposed before their eyes.

Huff…

Several commandants widened their eyes.

Actually, they had dug up sweet potatoes before.

But at that time, most sweet potatoes had not yet formed properly; they had only been dug up to record and observe their growth habits.

This was one.

He continued digging…

Under this same vine, connected to this sweet potato, another sweet potato began to take shape.

This sweet potato… looked more like a potato. If compared to a person, it and the first long sweet potato would be like the Pan teacher among men.

Fang Jifan comforted himself: Pan teacher wasn’t bad either. After all, good things come in small packages.

When the second one was completely unearthed, there was still more…

One seedling had a large cluster. Although it wasn’t like grapes, where one vine could yield dozens of fruits, this one seedling still managed to produce five sweet potatoes.

Some were big, some were small. One was even smaller than an egg—this one… eh, clearly had no hope.

But the big ones were as thick as lotus roots and over a foot long.

Fang Jifan’s eyes gleamed as he lifted them all up and shouted, “A scale!”

The commandants were prepared, having brought a scale with them. They quickly fetched it and weighed the potatoes.

A commandant carefully adjusted the scale weights, his eyes shining as he said, “Bai Hu, it’s three jin.”

Three jin…

If these were sweet potatoes from later generations, a few of them would likely weigh no less than five jin.

But Fang Jifan was still delighted. The result had far exceeded his expectations.

This large plot of land had hundreds of plants.

So, everyone stared wide-eyed at each other. Fang Jifan’s mind went blank. He used to be good at math, but now he had to constantly convert units. Most importantly, in his excitement, his mind was muddled. He gritted his teeth and said, “Calculate!”

“One five is five, two fives are ten…”

The commandants didn’t dare delay and began counting on their fingers.

Just then, someone took a backpack off their back and exclaimed excitedly, “I brought an abacus! I brought an abacus!”

They pulled out the abacus from the backpack, and the beads clattered noisily.

After a long while, Fang Jifan grew impatient. “Have you calculated it?”

…

Silence was his answer.

Fang Jifan almost rolled his eyes. Even students taught by a gym teacher could do math better than this.

Gritting his teeth, his mind still in chaos, he gave up on calculating and decided to wait.

After a while, someone finally said, “Twenty-five dan… for this one mu of land, it’s twenty-five dan.”

“Wrong,” another person exclaimed excitedly. “It’s twenty-six dan. Probably twenty-six dan.”

Their voices trembled as they spoke.

The world had gone mad.

This was five or six dan more than Fang Jifan’s conservative estimate. However, Fang Jifan was quite skeptical of their math skills, so he suppressed his excitement and waited for the final result.

Zhang Xin, who had been silent all this time, was also stunned. He gazed blankly at the distant ridges and the endless vines. The lush green sweet potato leaves seemed especially dazzling under the warm sunlight, blurring his vision.

“No mistake, it’s twenty-six dan.”

Finally, a commandant with decent intelligence confirmed it after calculating twice.

They knew exactly how many seedlings were planted per mu, especially in the fields of the Western Hills. Zhang Xin had taken them to record which seedlings were damaged by pests and which had withered every few days.

So, everyone was very clear about it.

Twenty-six dan.

The Great Ming followed the Song dynasty’s measurement system. In the Song system, one dan equaled one hundred twenty jin.

Twenty-six dan…

Fang Jifan’s head was still a bit fuzzy. He frowned and said, “Almost three thousand jin? Ah, no, it should be two thousand five hundred jin.”

In the Ming system, one jin was about six hundred grams, and one jin equaled sixteen liang. Hence, the saying “half a jin and eight liang,” meaning half a jin and eight liang were equally important and no different.

Madness.

Although the yield of sweet potatoes in later generations was around six thousand to ten thousand jin per mu, that was the result of countless improvements and the use of large amounts of fertilizer.

These sweet potatoes, though carefully tended—especially those in the Southern Foothills field, which was the most important experimental field of the Baihu Station—might have a higher yield, but… twenty-six dan still far exceeded Fang Jifan’s expectations.

He thought sixteen or seventeen dan would already be quite good.

Then, based on his personality, he could exaggerate a bit, round it up, and call it twenty dan.

Back when he had boasted about twenty dan, Fang Jifan had wanted to draw the world’s attention to sweet potatoes and promote their cultivation as quickly as possible.

But now…

Fang Jifan looked at Zhang Xin.

This guy really treated the sweet potatoes like his own children.

There was no other explanation.

“Haha… thirty dan!” Fang Jifan shouted gleefully.

A commandant couldn’t help but say, “Bai Hu, it’s not thirty dan, it’s twenty-six dan…”

Fang Jifan promptly slapped him. Luckily, it wasn’t too hard, but the sound was crisp. Fang Jifan bared his teeth at him and said, “How many dan is it now?”

The commandant hurriedly covered his cheek. “Twenty-six… no, thirty…”

Thirty dan…

They had to claim thirty dan. He couldn’t be bothered with messy, fractional numbers. To promote sweet potatoes, the first step was to advertise their enormous yield. Such a high yield would surely move everyone.

Once such a high-yielding crop was introduced to thousands of households, whether they could actually grow ten, twenty, or thirty dan had nothing to do with Fang Jifan. If they couldn’t grow it well, that was their problem. In any case, they had to stick to thirty dan—not a single jin less!

Compared to the average yield of wheat on northern land, which was only two or three dan, this was ten times more productive.

Fang Jifan laughed heartily. The commandants also exclaimed excitedly, “Bai Hu is wise!”

“Bai Hu is the Shennong of our time!”

“We are overjoyed to serve Bai Hu, even as pigs or dogs…”

Just then, a loud cry interrupted everyone’s chance to show their admiration.

Zhang Xin could no longer hold back his tears. He raised his hands to the sky and roared, “Xiao Jie… I’ve done it… I’ve done it… All the hard work these days wasn’t in vain, it wasn’t in vain…”

He plopped down, kneeling in the soft mud, tears streaming down his face, his shoulders trembling.

“Should we call a doctor?” Fang Jifan asked with concern.

He suddenly felt that Zhang Xin’s status in his heart had risen. The high yield of the sweet potatoes was largely thanks to Zhang Xin. A guy from a noble family had honestly become a farmer, even quarreling with his family over it. Every day, he rolled up his pants and dug in the dirt, never slacking from morning till night.

In truth… while sweet potatoes were important, Fang Jifan, as a time traveler, had the advantage of recognizing their importance. But… without someone capable and dedicated, who treated this Military Farming as their very life, it might have taken three to five years to achieve such results.

Even if the direction was right, success wasn’t guaranteed. Success depended on people’s hearts and whether they were willing to put in the effort.

Now, watching this guy wallow miserably in the mud, Fang Jifan sighed inwardly, feeling both moved and a slight pang of heartache.

After his crying fit, Zhang Xin gritted his teeth and said, “I’m fine. Let’s dig them up, all of them. We’ll harvest this one mu of land today!”

Right. Calculation was one thing, but the actual harvest could only be determined by digging up all the sweet potatoes.

Seeing that Zhang Xin had regained his spirit, everyone didn’t hesitate and immediately started digging up the sweet potatoes.

They didn’t dare use tools. Every sweet potato was precious to them, the fruits of their labor. Using tools might damage the roots, so they used their hands.

In no time, many people’s hands were filthy.

Zhang Xin’s eyes were bloodshot.

His once fair face now resembled that of an ordinary old farmer. Not only was he tanned, but his skin had also become rough. He used to wear loose fish-scale uniforms, with a Silver Belt gifted from a military examination around his waist, making him look handsome and tall.

But after some time at the Military Agricultural Colony, the commandants began to realize that the loose fish-scale uniforms, stylish boots, waist belts, and even the swords slung at their waists had become obstacles to farming.

So, gradually, some started wearing short outfits—just a short shirt paired with riding pants. They stopped wearing boots because once mud or water got in, they became unusually heavy. Besides, they had to wrap their feet in Foot-Binding Cloth, which made them uncomfortable after a day’s work. They switched to cloth shoes instead, which were convenient and didn’t matter if they got dirty.

Zhang Xin’s appearance was mostly like this: he rolled up his sleeves, revealing his arms, wore riding pants with never-clean cuffs below the knees, and cloth shoes covered in mud. His once well-maintained hands were now calloused. Like all noble young men, he used to have long, well-groomed nails. Now, his nails were worn down, uneven, and had no aesthetic appeal.

Under the sun, the weather wasn’t hot, but many were sweating profusely. They were a group of “dirt moles” skilled at rolling in the mud. With many people helping, the one mu of sweet potatoes was harvested in less than two hours.

“Twenty-six dan, no mistake.”

Fang Jifan was now brimming with confidence. Looking at the mountain of sweet potatoes piled on the ridge, he finally made up his mind and declared with vigor, “Find someone to report the good news! Go to the Ministry of Revenue and report the good news!”