It's midsummer, and Xiaojiazhuang is about to enter the busy harvest season. Even old Li Yuan, who fishes all day long, feels that the atmosphere in the village is not right recently.
Aren’t there still some days before the autumn harvest? Why is Xiaojiazhuang busy harvesting more than a month in advance?
Pei Ji replied: "Third Master, you went back to the Daming Palace in Chang'an City to celebrate the New Year, and were not there during the spring plowing, so you don't know about it. The things grown in Xiaojiazhuang don't seem to be the current corn in the Tang Dynasty, but a kind of... Grow food you’ve never seen before.”
"I haven't seen food before? What is it?" Old Li Yuan asked curiously.
"It's not that I haven't seen it before. It's the potato we usually eat. It's just that I haven't seen how it is grown."
Potato? Old Li Yuan ate potato stewed chicken and fried potato shreds every three days. The food in Xiaojiazhuang was more delicious than the one in the Imperial Kitchen. How could Old Li Yuan not know? But after asking the cook, she said that the potatoes were just an ordinary vegetable, nothing special, so Lao Li Yuan didn't care, thinking they were wild vegetables. Unexpectedly, Xiaojiazhuang actually grows such wild vegetables on a large area?
"Isn't potato a vegetable? And it can't be used as a staple food, so why are there so many grown? What will Zhuangzi do when the tax comes?"
Pei Ji smiled: "With these few thousand acres of land, the Prince Consort will probably bring food from elsewhere. If not, he can spend money to offset the food tax. There are so many customers in the restaurants in Chang'an City every day, and these potatoes are the only ones here. Planting, presumably to supply the restaurant for a year.”
This explanation was quite reasonable, so Old Li Yuan did not continue to investigate further. The two continued to play chess and fish. The environment of Xiaojiazhuang could be called a summer resort, and even Pei Ji was used to it.
But then, when they saw the potatoes harvested at the farm, the two of them became uneasy. What were they? ? ? One truckload and one truckload of return transportation? The warehouses in the village were no longer sufficient, and many farmers had to vacate their houses and live in temporary shacks.
Old Li Yuan came to the village chief and asked, how many kilograms of potatoes can be produced per acre?
"As far as the third master is concerned, it's not much, just three or four thousand catties. For a better piece of land, it's five thousand or more, but it also depends on God's mood."
"Oh... three or four hundred, eh? How much? How many did you just say? Three or four hundred or three or four thousand?"
Pei Ji ran back from the field panting, waving and shouting from afar: "Third Master, Third Master, this is incredible, auspicious, auspicious... The yield per mu is five thousand, five thousand catties!"
Old Li Yuan fell directly from the fishing chair, and the village chief quickly helped him up, "Third Master, before last year, the young master would have given a fatal order to prevent it from being leaked. The warehouses that are usually kept are guarded by Dabai and Erhua. Guard to the end and never let any outsider get close. The young master made an announcement before he left this year, saying that he would not hide this matter from you."
Old Li Yuan calmed down and asked calmly: "So, Xiao Rui is hiding something from me?"
The village chief nodded, "This potato is not only a vegetable, but also a food that can be used as a staple food!"
What? ? ?
Pei Ji, who had just ran to his side, couldn't bear the shock and squatted on the ground. What did I hear? Can potatoes be used as a staple food? Crazy? The current staple foods of the Tang Dynasty are corn, wheat, and rice. Based on the highest yield per mu of rice, one acre of land can only produce one or two hundred kilograms of staple food. Now you tell me, there is a staple grain yield of 5,000 kilograms per mu? WTF? Fairy food?
The village chief also went over to help Pei Ji up and let the two of them sit down before continuing to speak.
"The young master said that the Tang Dynasty is surrounded by enemies. Once the news of such a major event comes out, it will definitely bring disaster. At least it will be coveted from outside and come to destroy it, or at worst, it will summon Jieli's 200,000 troops, so we Xiao The people in the village were ordered to die, and the whole village didn’t have any contact with their relatives out of town for a whole year and a half.”
Pei Ji wondered: "Why not leave it to the imperial court? Such a big matter should be closely guarded by the army."
Li Yuan waved his hand to stop Pei Ji, "No, Xiao Rui did the right thing. If this thing only exists in Xiaojiazhuang, no one will care. If the imperial court mobilizes a large number of people to protect it, it will attract the attention of others. When the time comes, I can’t even hide it. Village chief, why doesn’t Xiao Rui hide it from me anymore?”
Pei Ji also asked: "Since this thing is so precious, we shouldn't eat it on weekdays. These are all life-saving seeds."
The village chief said: "We don't eat much on weekdays, and the more we don't care, the more it seems that this thing is ordinary and no one pays attention to it. Except for the people in Xiaojiazhuang, no one knows the yield of potatoes per mu. In order to do this The young master has decided to plant seeds for three consecutive years in Xiaojiazhuang, with a total of six crops, in order to supply the seeds for the entire north, and now it is the third crop."
"But we only have a few thousand acres of land in the entire village. We can no longer plant the next crop. We don't have that much land. Even if we have land, we can't work it. So I need to tell you. The young master said that he is out on business. , from now on, the confidentiality and planting plan of these potatoes will be subject to your arrangements."
Old Li Yuan laughed and scolded: "This bastard is quite strict with his mouth. It turned out that he only spoke to me when he couldn't hold himself back. When he comes back, I have to take care of him."
The village chief smiled and did not answer. Old Li Yuan glanced at the busy villagers, turned to Pei Ji and said: "Xuanzhen, bring a basket of potatoes into the palace and explain the matter clearly to Erlang. Then approve the 10,000 acres around Xiaojiazhuang." , No, isn't Xiao Rui Viscount of Xinfeng County next door? Give him a promotion and promote him to Xinfeng County Bo. The Lantian County where this place belongs will also be assigned to his title. In addition, the area of 20,000 acres around Xiaojiazhuang, The farming tax is exempted and everything is at Xiao Rui's disposal."
Pei Ji nodded, "The prince consort has quietly accomplished such a great feat, a count should do it. Third Master, the villagers are too busy with these thousands of acres of land, and the entire village has been used as a warehouse, and everyone lives in shacks." This is not a long-term solution. Should I ask His Majesty to ask for more help?"
Li Yuan nodded: "That's the reason. We don't worry about using others. Let's mobilize the Xuanjia Army. All three thousand people will change into ordinary clothes and come to help for a few days to hide their eyes. By the way, if I remember correctly, Li Junxian, the guardian of the Xiao family, is a general from the Xuanjia Army, right? Does he know about this?"
The village chief wanted to hide back in embarrassment, but Old Li Yuan understood and scolded with a smile: "Xiao Rui is so cunning. It turns out that even Li Junxian is on guard."
The village chief laughed, "Where is it? Li Huwei is responsible for the martial arts training of the villagers. How dare you trouble others with the affairs of these farmers?"
In the small study room of Taiji Hall, Li Er listened to the report from the people below and kept rubbing his eyebrows. If nothing unexpected happened, Yuan Tiangang's words would come true. It rained heavily in Luoyang for days and the water in the Yellow River surged.
Asking the chamberlain Lao Gao to take out the letter from Xiao Rui, Li Er's face was as deep as water, "This kid just said that if there is a flood, you must save Xiaojiazhuang, there are life-saving things there. Humph, this bastard, who is lighter?" Can’t you pick it up again?”
"Your Majesty, Duke Wei wants to see you."
"Who? Duke Wei? Pei Ji? Isn't he spending the summer with the Emperor?"
Not long after, Pei Ji was summoned. The old man was very cautious and personally carried a vegetable basket across his body. It was tightly wrapped in red cloth and contained two whole potato plants with seedlings. This made it easier for the emperor to believe in the potato yield.
