There are not many iron ore resources in the Jiangnan area, so their iron tools have always been relatively scarce.
But iron resources are too sensitive for this era!
In the age of cold weapons, only iron can provide weapons.
As soon as these words were said, the entire Xiande Hall fell silent.
When things have reached this point, Li Shimin is the only one who can make this decision.
After Li Shimin pondered for a while, he slowly said: "Contact Dongyue Kingdom as soon as possible and exchange it for them."
"Your Majesty!" Hou Junji took a step forward. He was the Minister of War. He should have said something at this time, but he didn't know how to say it.
Li Shimin nodded, knowing what he wanted to say: "I know what you want to say, but if I don't even have food, how can I have the strength to guard the border? How can they feel at ease if they don't have food at home?" Going into battle to kill the enemy?"
Li Shimin was of course a little aggrieved by such a decision. Thinking about the globe in his bedroom that he had to look at every day while sleeping, his desire to conquer the surrounding countries became even stronger.
"Wei Chen understands!" Doulu Kuan saluted and said, "I will contact the envoy of the East Yue Kingdom right away."
In fact, as long as Datang is willing to trade ironware, Dongyue has no reason to hold on to its ducks.
Even for them, if ducks can be exchanged for iron ore, that would be a great thing.
After all, it is not just the Tang Dynasty that is under external pressure. Nowadays, all the Chinese countries are on guard against other countries and maintain a delicate balance.
For East Vietnam, they are rich but lack iron ore and horses. This is their disadvantage.
Even if this matter is settled, if people raise more ducks, it will not only suppress the locust plague, but also provide another kind of meat after the locust plague, which in itself is considered a good thing.
"Second, I want to promote it nationwide and grow potatoes."
If the duck was acceptable, this potato made all the courtiers in the Xiande Palace a little confused.
"Potatoes? What's that?"
"I've never heard of it. Why does Your Majesty want to grow potatoes across the country?"
Seeing that Xiande Hall was as noisy as the vegetable market, Li Shimin frowned: "Quiet!"
Everyone quickly shut up and looked at Li Shimin, knowing that he would definitely give an explanation.
"Potatoes are a new type of crop that can be used as a vegetable or as food. The most important thing is that the yield of this crop can reach about one thousand kilograms per mu."
"Impossible!" As soon as Li Shimin finished speaking, Dai Zhou, Minister of Civil Affairs, yelled loudly. After he finished yelling, he realized that he had behaved inappropriately before the emperor.
But this number is really incredible.
One thousand catties, that’s one thousand catties per mu!
If there was such a crop, why didn't he, as Minister of Civil Affairs, know about it? Don’t you know about Sinong Temple below? Even the supervisors below don’t know?
And if there is no such thing, if the whole country starts to plant it, then it will be very painful.
Of course he knew that such a thing would not appear in the hands of Li Shimin, who had lived in the palace for a long time, for no reason, so someone must have deceived his majesty.
"Your Majesty, it is absolutely impossible for a crop to produce a thousand kilograms per acre. I don't know who is making these slanderous remarks. His heart is to be punished. Please kill this official!"
This is actually a normal reaction in this era. If Li Shimin hadn't firmly believed that Tang Ping was his nephew and that he was a descendant of heaven, he would probably have been similar to Dai Zhou's reaction.
So at this time, he was not angry at all. Instead, he found Dai Zhou's ignorant appearance very interesting.
"Dai Aiqing, don't make a decision in a hurry. I have eaten these things called potatoes twice. They are indeed very good as food."
He did not respond to Dai Zhou's question about the yield, but just said that this stuff is very good as food.
However, Dai Zhou didn't have time to think about it. He just heard that Li Shimin had eaten it and asked curiously: "Where did your majesty eat it? And if it is to be promoted nationwide, where does this seed come from?" "
When he heard that potatoes have beans, he thought it was something similar to soybeans. To promote it on a large scale, it would be like raising ducks, which also requires a large number of seeds.
"Don't worry about where to eat it. As for the seeds, well... these things are not grown from seeds, but someone will send seedlings in a few days. In fact, in the garden behind, a piece of land has been planted to plant some. I want to wait until After everyone sees its true output, we plan to promote it nationwide, but now it seems that it is too late.”
Then Li Shimin gave a general introduction to potatoes. The main reason is that the edible part of potatoes is buried underground. Even if the upper stems and leaves are eaten by locusts, the lower tubers are mature and can still be used as food.
It can be said that this is the best food to fight the locust plague.
All the ministers were amazed after hearing this. They didn't expect that there were such miraculous crops in time.
Dai Zhou, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, suddenly asked: "Your Majesty, is the person who presented the potatoes the same person who presented the Tang plow and the keel waterwheel?"
When he asked this question, many ministers remembered that in the past two months, hadn't the emperor been able to come up with some good things for no apparent reason? I didn't think about this just now.
"Yes, it is indeed this person!" Li Shimin thought about it and there was nothing to hide. As long as he didn't say who it was, they wouldn't be able to guess it.
Dai Zhou was moved: "Could this man be the legendary peasant boy?"
Farmers were originally one of the hundreds of schools of thought, but after the Eastern Han Dynasty, Confucianism emphasized agriculture and business, so it quickly declined.
To be able to find such miraculous crops now, it must be the legendary farmer's son.
"I think this person might be a descendant of the Mohist family!" Duan Lun, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, disagreed. Farmer? How could it be possible? The more the craftsmen from their Ministry of Industry studied the Tang plow and the keel waterwheel, the more frightened they became.
Not to mention anything else, they don't know how to make the fine steel plowshare on the earliest Tang plow.
The people and ministers below were very interested in this mysterious person. It is human nature to gossip, so the building under the Xiande Palace soon became crooked.
"Ahem!" Li Shimin coughed twice to indicate that they were still in a meeting, and then continued: "What does Dai Aiqing think about the nationwide promotion?"
Dai Zhou said: "I think that if there are not too many grains, it is better for Sinong Temple to arrange the planting."
Because this thing is different from ducks, if you promote ducks, everyone knows that this thing can be eaten when fattened, and it can eat pests when it is young, so it will definitely be raised with all your heart.
But no one has ever seen potatoes, and they are afraid that they will be popularized. Some people will do this in a shady manner and not take care of them.
After all, the idea of a thousand kilograms per acre is too shocking, and you might think it is fake, so you will give priority to taking care of your own crops before focusing on potatoes.
