There was a bumper potato harvest, and both the northern and mainland regions had a bumper harvest. Emperor Haojing was helpless.
Every year he calls on everyone to eat potatoes, and the audience has long been tired of eating them.
The cheapest dish in restaurants is shredded potatoes, which is almost cheaper than pickles.
It takes time to pickle the pickles, but it only takes a cup of tea to make the shredded potatoes.
When you arrive at the restaurant, as long as the customer orders a meat dish, the boss will give you a large plate of shredded potatoes.
As a result, there is an additional snack in the teahouse - potato chips!
If you ask for a cup of tea, even the cheapest one, the boss will give you a small plate of potato chips as an accompaniment.
The expensive part of potato chips is not the potatoes, but the oil used to fry the potato chips.
There are several sources of edible oil, one is land and the other is ocean.
The latter is very simple. If Yu Min goes to sea, if he is lucky, he can catch an adult whale directly.
The price of refined raw oil is 100 yuan per catty, and the price of processed edible oil ranges from 150 yuan to 250 yuan per catty.
The reason for the large gap is that it is divided into animal oil and vegetable oil. Among the former, processed whale oil is the most expensive, reaching 200 yuan per catty, which is close to the price of sesame oil at 250 yuan per catty.
The raw material whale oil can also be purchased for 100 yuan per catty. If you catch an adult whale, you can get 5,000 catties of whale oil at least, which is discounted to 500 taels of silver or 750 silver coins.
Including the money from the sale of whale meat and the total cost of going to sea, one whale can earn the ship owner four to five hundred taels of silver.
Compared with catching small fish, the benefits of whaling are naturally very high, and it is very popular on the market, so there is no need to worry about selling.
If you can catch the most valuable sperm whale, you can make a net profit of at least two thousand taels of silver.
Sperm whales are rare tributes. Zheng Zhilong will find ways to pay tribute to at least six sperm whales every year.
If any ship owner in the north can harvest something like this, he can use it as a stepping stone to open the door of the local government.
The rival of the sperm whale, the giant squid and its family are all good on the table.
Under the influence of a certain emperor and a certain prince, this family has long become the favorite of the royal family.
Using the Teppanyaki method to cook the food makes everyone never get tired of it.
Yuchu uses cooking oil, which naturally comes from Qiongzhou’s native product—olive oil!
From a health perspective, olive oil is certainly much better than animal oil.
The reason why people like animal oil is very simple, that is, cooking is more fragrant.
The same goes for soybean oil.
In the area from Guandong to the south of Blackwater, only five main crops, namely rice, soybeans, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, are allowed to be grown according to local land conditions. The cultivation of other crops must be approved by the imperial court.
Rice and soybeans are the top priority and have absolutely limited rights. The rice produced in the area south of Luwei has already become a tribute...
In good years, Emperor Haojing encouraged farmers in the north, except for the northeastern region, to plant corn and potatoes that were easy to store to prevent mold and insects from growing in old grain.
Ever since, eating corn in the summer and eating rice porridge in the other three seasons have become the main ways for people in the north to satisfy their hunger.
The main non-staple food is naturally various potato-derived dishes, and even the children's snacks are baked potatoes.
Due to the season, people can also enrich their dining tables with seasonal fruits and vegetables in summer.
In winter, most poor people can only start eating fish.
In winter, especially after freezing, whether it is river fish or sea fish, it is easy to keep fresh.
Especially the people in Jifu area followed Emperor Haojing to borrow money.
Seafood caught from the sea is first used to supply the Kisuke Market because the purchasing power here is very strong.
The tribute seafood is the same as before, only 100,000 catties, not too much in quantity, but of high quality.
The smallest abalone shell must be as big as a palm.
The conch is the smallest and must be as big as an adult man's fist.
Tuna all start at fifty pounds, and only yellow croaker can be reduced to six pounds each.
Like the Yangtze River saury that dies when it comes out of the water, Emperor Haojing disliked the fish because it had too many spines, so he never asked the South to pay tribute.
As for the Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, they are obviously not as satisfying as the Kamchatka king crabs, which are as big as a basin.
In comparison, Emperor Haojing even came to Liaodong for three delicacies—sea cucumbers, abalone, and crickets!
The three delicacies of the South are tuna, grouper, and shark fin!
For the current Ming Dynasty Yumin, especially the Southern Yumin, it is impossible to catch a shark, cut off its fins, and then throw the shark back into the sea.
Shark fins can be bought at a good price, and the shark itself can also be sold to ordinary people for consumption, and no part of it is wasted.
If there is another one, Emperor Haojing would be quite satisfied with the forearm-sized tiger skin prawns.
For these four items, plus some other seafood, Zheng Zhilong had previously paid a tribute of 100,000 catties every year.
After moving to South Africa, Ben worried about this, thinking that it would be very difficult to catch some of the seafood tributes from that year.
Unexpectedly, the waters of the Cape of Good Hope are rich in great white sharks, and their fins are much larger than those of sharks in the East China Sea and the Southern Ocean.
After Yu Min caught the great white shark and presented it to the shore, Zheng Zhilong ordered the chef to make it into a god jumping over the wall. After tasting it, he was very impressed.
This kind of shark fin was specially named "Good Hope Fin" and served as a tribute. That year, 666 fins were presented as tribute.
Still don't want a reward, because the emperor has already rewarded him with a good fiefdom with every inch of land and every inch of gold.
Emperor Haojing could only tell the vassal king that he must insist on sustainable fishing, and don't catch everything in one catch, otherwise there will be nothing to eat in the future.
Considering that South Africa was also nervous about whale oil, Emperor Hao Jing did not intend to be picky about food.
You can do whatever you want, but where can you find such a kind emperor?
In view of the extremely rich fishery resources in South African waters, Zheng Zhilong plans to order at least one hundred iron-clad steam fishing boats every year.
If there is surplus production capacity in local shipyards, Zhenhai Wangdu plans to use it all to build ocean-going trawlers.
The fellow countrymen who followed Zheng Zhilong to South Africa never imagined that there was such a wonderful place in the world.
There are so many animals on land that you can’t even count them with your eyes.
After the Dutch retreated, no strong enemies were found except for some black-skinned barbarians.
Isn’t this a heaven-sent treasure?
As a result, the people knelt on the ground in large numbers, offering incense and praying to Emperor Haojing who had descended from heaven...
Zheng Zhilong originally planned to land a large group of troops in Maputo and build it as a capital.
However, after actual inspection, it was found that there were too many swamps in the area and there was no prerequisite for building a big city.
According to the map provided by Emperor Haojing, currently only Maputo, Durban, Elizabeth, and Cape Town have the conditions to establish deep-water ports.
Durban is much closer to the giant gold mine called Johannesburg than the latter two places. There is only one big mountain nearby, but this also shows that the geological structure here is relatively stable.
After comprehensive consideration and listening to the opinions of his son Zheng Chenggong, Zheng Zhilong decided to make his capital in Durban and name it Zhendong City.
In the future, if they are built in Elizabeth, Cape Town, and Johannesburg, they will naturally become Zhennan City, Zhenxi City, and Zhenbei City.
The Zhenhai State was isolated overseas and there were no other vassal states nearby. The territory could be extended significantly to the north. With Emperor Haojing's permission, it could be called the "Western Land".
In this way, the "four places" outside the Ming Dynasty were finally gathered together.
"Eastland" is located in the western part of North America, which is Zhang Tianbao's Dadong Empire.
"Southland" refers to Southeast Asia and Australia, including many vassal states and areas under the jurisdiction of the general army within this range.
"Northland" borders the Ming Dynasty itself and is currently the largest known territory with the richest resources.
Zheng Zhilong's "Western Land" is far away from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty and farther than the "Eastern Land" in terms of voyage.
The advantage is that there is no Xiyi Kingdom nearby, and there are no strong local enemies. From the founding to the expansion, there is almost no resistance.
When fighting in Myanmar, he felt that there were many elephants there, but after arriving in South Africa, Zheng Chenggong's eyes were opened again.
The local elephants are not only numerous in number, but also much larger in size than the elephants in Myanmar.
Not only elephants, but also rhinos.
Zheng Chenggong immediately ordered that people could hunt these two animals under necessary conditions, but the ivory and rhinoceros horns must be handed over unconditionally, otherwise they would be regarded as private possessions of the vassal king.
According to the emperor's decree, everything on and under the land of the entire "Western Land", whether dead or alive, belongs to Zhenhai King Zheng Zhilong, and the people are absolutely not allowed to detain it privately without permission.
This is equivalent to protecting elephants and rhinos in disguise. Even if the people are given 10% of the benefits, they will hunt these two animals crazily.
Carnivores such as lions and hyenas are no longer included in this list, but leopards are protected because their spotted fur is valuable.
After traveling deep into the interior, no matter what kind of meat, it must be cooked before eating, and drinking water must also comply with the requirements to prevent parasites from invading the body.
Under the cover of tanks and airships, Zheng Jun's advance was extremely smooth, and it took him a month to reach Johannesburg.
Zheng Zhilong did not move lightly, because mining also takes time, and just sent Zheng Ju to lead 5,000 troops to occupy this place.
The top priority is to build a railway from Zhendong City to the mining area. Otherwise, even if a gold mine is discovered and the ore is excavated, there is no railway and carriage transportation alone will only be a drop in the bucket.
The process was to first transport many of the equipment and machinery required for railway construction from the mainland, and then use Zhendong City as the starting point to lay the rails as quickly as possible.
Then a smelting plant must be built in Zhendong City to smelt ore. Gold ore cannot be smelted in the mining area to reduce the chance of enriching one's own pockets.
After arriving in South Africa, Zheng Zhilong experienced for the first time in his life how comfortable it was to have no one caring about him.
Even in Fujian, which I control, it seems that I am not as relaxed and happy as I am in South Africa.
No wonder those vassal kings wanted to move overseas even if they exchanged money.
Not only that, all vassal kings could have their own yamen and armies.
As long as you are willing, you can also create your own cabinet and six ministries, and you can even appoint the first assistant, second assistant, and cabinet minister.
Emperor Haojing, who had always been open-minded, was too lazy to care about these matters, as long as he did not upgrade himself to the emperor.
Zhang Xianzhong was an exception, but he also demoted himself to the son emperor and did not dare to openly stand on an equal footing with Emperor Hao Jing, even if that was what he thought in his heart.
Zheng Zhilong knew that he was being taken over, which meant that the title of the king with a different surname could definitely be kept.
Not only can it be preserved, but it can also be inherited hereditary. The problem is that two kings come out of one family, which is really too much...
He changed from Zhenhai Gong to Zhenhai King, and his eldest son became Dinghai Gong.
The emperor had spoken first, and after his eldest son went to North America and made a triumphant victory, he would definitely be promoted to the vassal king.
After passing the throne to the second son, it means that the eldest son and the second son are both Ming vassal kings.
Thinking of this, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but feel that fate was playing tricks on people.
Once upon a time, I was satisfied to be the chief military officer conferred by the imperial court.
From the time Hao Jing arrived in South Africa in the twenty-sixth year (1669), to the thirty-first year (1674) of Hao Jing, the railway to the mining area was completed and opened to traffic.
Thanks to Zheng Zhilong's efforts, more than one million fellow Fujianese have moved to South Africa along with combat troops and their families.
Only here is the ultimate long-cherished wish of every family’s local leadership truly realized.
Back home in Fujian, let alone landlords, even tenants couldn't make money because there was so little arable land.
If they don't make a living at sea, some poor people will basically have no way to survive.
When it comes to South Africa, there is so much land that you can't see it at a glance. As long as you have the strength, you can get enough land to cultivate.
Considering the actual situation in South Africa, in order to solve the food problem as soon as possible.
Zheng Chenggong ordered that even the combat troops must participate in the spring plowing, including himself and his generals.
Only by achieving self-sufficiency in food can the army have sufficient food security as it advances northward.
Fortunately, Zheng Jun's mechanization level is ranked first in the world, and the tanks can also be used as tractors when not fighting.
With the top and bottom working together, it took only three years for all settlements to achieve their set goals and produce enough surplus.
By the thirty-seventh year of Haojing (1680), the number of immigrants in the West had exceeded two million, and the first batch of children born there had learned to recognize 500 characters and the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
This was all due to Zheng Chenggong's order. Zheng paid for the teachers. Every household only needed to send their children to class, and the school did not charge tuition fees at all.
If both the Ming people and the local black barbarians are illiterate, then there really isn't much difference apart from skin color and language.
It is easy to establish a foothold in southern Africa. If you want to develop, you must make the descendants of the people literate.
Without culture, it means cutting off the way to develop science and technology.
The construction and use of ironclads cannot be completed by illiterate people.
The more literate people there are, the stronger the West will naturally be, and the West will not dare to come and take advantage easily.
In the future, even if you are farming, you will need to be able to drive and repair tractors, because to reduce costs, you must implement mechanized operations.
Needless to say, you need to be literate to join the army, and to work as a yamen errand.
After seeing the situation in France, Zheng Chenggong believed that in another hundred years, the national power of the West might rival France.
Twenty million people can immigrate from Fujian in one hundred years. Adding in the 10 million people born in South Africa, the total population can reach 30 million.
This is definitely the population of a French-level country. Except for the Ming Dynasty, it can compete with any Western country in the world.
Zheng Chenggong believed that his master would not harm him. He could even own the latest model of armored ship.
With the support of science and technology, the development of the West will be extremely rapid.
As time goes by, it will be just around the corner to catch up with or even overtake France...
