Seeing Fang Jun posing as if he was a guest, with his dark face flushed with excitement, Pei Xingjian took two steps forward, took a closer look at the seeds, and asked curiously: "This is what Mr. Hou said." Say, high-yielding grain seeds?”
Fang Jun took a few deep breaths, put the seeds back into the sack carefully, and then carefully tied the mouth of the sack with a rope. He looked back at Pei Xingjian and said in a deep voice: "With these seeds, as long as we use our full strength, If we promote it across the country, in five years, the number of people who die of hunger every year will be reduced by 90%!"
"Ninety percent?!"
Pei Xingjian was speechless.
During the Daye period of the former Sui Dynasty, due to the large-scale liquidation of Ding households hidden by wealthy families, the household registration increased significantly. In the fifth year of Daye, the country's population reached nearly 9 million households and 50 million people. In the last years of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the world was in chaos, with wars and warlords fighting and bandits causing trouble, which led to a large reduction in the population. In addition, aristocratic families began to crazily eat up small households, causing a large number of people to quickly disappear from the imperial household register. In just over 20 years, During the year, the population decreased by more than half. According to the census in the early years of Takeru, there were only more than two million households in the country and no more than 15 million people...
When His Majesty Li Er came to the throne, the country was stable due to light corvee and low taxes, and the population increased rapidly. It is still only 3 million households and 20 million people.
Of course, this is only the registered population on the court's household list. The number of hidden households in the world's aristocratic families will definitely not be less than this.
And of all these nearly 40 million people, not even half can live without starvation, and probably not even one-third can be called "sufficient in food and clothing"...
With the seeds in front of you, you actually dare to say that you can reduce the number of hungry people in the country by 90%?
Even though Pei Xingjian always respected Fang Jun, he still couldn't believe it...
"Haha, just wait and see. From now on, not only the food grown in the Tang Dynasty will undergo earth-shaking changes, but even the farming methods that have lasted for thousands of years will also be completely changed! Pass the order and ship all these food seeds. , shipped to Guanzhong, I will start cultivating it immediately after reporting it to Your Majesty, and then plant these seeds after spring!"
Seed cultivation is a big deal, and the Tang Dynasty has a vast territory. If you want to obtain enough seeds for cultivation, you must not delay even a moment!
Every second counts!
The purpose of transporting these seeds to Guanzhong was to attract the attention of His Majesty Li Er, obtain a reward for Tian Yunlai and others, and buy horse bones with thousands of gold, so that those who have the strength and ambition to open up the sea can see the benefits of sailing and exploration. The benefits are bound to come in droves.
Furthermore, we must start cultivating seeds quickly so that we can start farming in spring and save a year.
Although Jiangnan has a warm climate and abundant rainfall, which is more suitable for the growth of crops, Fang Jun does not dare to let these seeds suffer even a single loss due to unexpected natural disasters! Only when the greenhouse in Guanzhong is controlled by oneself can the survival rate be guaranteed to the greatest extent!
"Here!" Although Pei Xingjian was doubtful, he quickly obeyed the military order, exited the cabin, arranged for the ship to take over the grain, and immediately transported it to Guanzhong.
"After you recover for a while, you will go to Chang'an with me to see His Majesty. I will definitely ask for a reward for you warriors who braved the wind and waves and risked their lives to explore the new land!"
"Thank you, Lord Marquis!"
The soldiers in the cabin full of scars were filled with tears at this moment.
No matter how great the sacrifice is, it is all worth it. If you can get the emperor's praise, you will die without regrets! Not to mention that they saw with their own eyes the grand occasion when these plants were planted in the Americas, as well as the warehouses full of food in the annihilated indigenous tribes, and understood that what Fang Jun said was true. These seeds can really feed too many people!
Maybe, history will also record this ocean expedition. Although Fang Jun was the one who pushed for it, and his far-sighted vision must have taken the first credit, everyone struggled to make their way through the roaring and boiling ocean through life and death. , bringing these grain seeds back, after all, you have to write a note with them, right?
Mother!
We are just a big-headed soldier, but we can actually go down in history...
All the pain seemed to have disappeared, and all the injuries seemed to be getting better. Everyone was in high spirits, their eyes were shining, and the decadence they had just returned to the Tang Dynasty was gone!
*****
"Above the sea, the winds are high, the waves are strong, and it is extremely humid. Why can these grains be preserved so dry, without any moisture at all?"
"Returning to the Marquis, although the general went astray and became a pirate, his family was once a farmer, and he is quite proficient in farming. Naturally, he knows that once seeds get wet, their survival rate will be greatly affected, let alone sea water. , if it submerges, it will be all over... Therefore, when sailing on the sea, whenever it encounters rainy days or strong winds, the general will order people to seal the door of the cabin with oilcloth to ensure that not a drop of seawater can If it flows into the cabin, there is nothing you can do if it hits the rocks. Even the ship will sink, and the seeds will naturally not be saved... And every sunny day, the general will instruct his soldiers to take the food out of the cabin and spread it out on the deck to dry. "
"well-done!"
Several brand-new warships cut through the waves and sailed upstream on the river. Fang Jun sat in the cabin and looked at Tian Yunlai with approval.
After the doctor's diagnosis and treatment, Tian Yunlai's mental recovery was excellent. He only suffered from nutritional deficiencies and great physical and mental damage due to the long voyage, but he did not have any fundamental injuries. The rest of the people are not so lucky. Most of them are disabled. There is a lack of medical treatment at sea, and seawater corrodes them. Once injured, they are easily infected and easily lose their lives. Even if they survive, the chance of being disabled is very high.
Fang Jun praised: "You have done a good job, better than I imagined! It takes a lot of perseverance and energy to collect so many seeds bit by bit. Although I have never been there in person, We also know how dangerous a strange continent is, with unknown wild beasts and unknown diseases... It is really too difficult and difficult. You are well-deserved warriors and heroes of the Tang Dynasty!"
"Master Marquis, to be honest, it's not as bad as you imagined..."
Tian Yunlai grinned, looked at Fang Jun with a smile, and said: "Actually, it's just the opposite. In our opinion, the most dangerous thing is when sailing on the sea. The power of the sky is like a prison. Every time the wind rises, the sea is full of It was like a boiling water pot. No matter how big the ship was, it became like a tiny ant at this moment. Waves dozens of feet high hit the head, and the entire fleet seemed to be swallowed up in one gulp. After the waves, some ships When the hurricane came out, some ships were smashed into pieces and sank to the bottom of the sea forever. The majesty of the sky was beyond the power of human beings. Almost every time a hurricane hit, all we could do was to stay silent in the cabin. I prayed to Taiyi God for blessing, but other than that, there was nothing I could do..."
He seemed to think of those robes swallowed up by the waves and hurricanes again. He looked a little depressed, then raised his eyebrows and smiled, and continued: "But when we discovered the land, it was completely different. We just found a harbor and landed, and we encountered The local aborigines... The Marquis may not believe it. Although the skin color of those aborigines is slightly darker and they speak words that Jili Gulu cannot understand, their appearance and body shape are not much different from us Han people. They use Bows and arrows made of bone spurs and bamboo branches cannot penetrate our armor at all. The weapons are more of knives made of gold. They are soft and of little use. They have no bronze, let alone iron... but they are good at using poison. , the weapon was smeared with poison, and a slight scratch on the skin could kill someone. Many soldiers lost their lives underestimating the enemy. The last general led his men to attack their tribe, and the young and strong soldiers They were slaughtered and the old, weak, women and children dispersed. They wanted to use it as a base to start looking for the plants that the Marquis told them, but they found that the plants that the Marquis mentioned were planted all over the mountains and plains. Although they did not grow well, they were obviously planted randomly. How big the harvest will be depends on God's providence... but the yield is still very high! Then, the general discovered a large number of seeds in the cave where the indigenous tribes piled food..."
Fang Jun sighed.
The purpose of sending field transport across the ocean was to find seeds for food. However, it seemed that it had brought disaster to the Native American Indians. How could those Indian savages who drank blood and raw hair resist the well-equipped Tiger Tigers of the Tang Dynasty?
Although they cannot wreak havoc with firearms like European bandits, they can easily destroy any Indian resistance.
