At the beginning, Emperor Wanli was a little apologetic to Liu Haojia, because he felt that he owed Liu Haojia a grand victory ceremony. But when he heard that Liu Haojia had held a ceremony in Tianjin, he felt that the boss was unhappy! Because in his opinion, grace comes from above! Only what he gives is yours, you can't take it yourself!
But when he heard that the person who reported the report said that Liu Haojia only gave them a small amount of silver reward, and did not go beyond himself, and only gave those meritorious personnel a medal called something, he didn't care at all!
He even said to Zhang Jia: "When did this Wu Ninghou become so stingy, actually holding a bronze plaque to coax others?"
Seeing that Emperor Wanli didn't care, Zhang Jia breathed a sigh of relief and said, "This is also the meaning of Wu Ninghou's unwillingness to overstep! After all, Long Live Lord has already rewarded him, so he can't go beyond Long Live Lord! So he got some kind of medal." I fooled those Qiu Ba! Anyway, those Qiu Ba are easy to fool!"
The two people discussed the medal for a long time and concluded that Wu Ninghou was fooling people! But the two of them had no idea that the Wu'an Army was very different from other armies of the Ming Dynasty! Other soldiers of the Ming Dynasty probably regarded being a soldier as a job. They also had the intention of protecting their home and country, but they may not have such a clear conceptualization.
But Wu Anjun is completely different! Liu Haojia emphasized the sense of honor and responsibility of soldiers at the beginning of the founding of the army, making everyone in the Wu'an Army regard themselves as the future hope of the Ming Empire! So they have a very strong recognition of honor!
Take the officers, for example. If they were asked to choose the same thing between medals and bounty, they would definitely choose the medal first. This is the biggest difference between the two armies!
When the news spread throughout the capital, Liu Haojia received a lot of ridicule! In the eyes of the scholars and officials, those Qiu Ba people only need to give money, so why hold the ceremony with so much fanfare!
However, they were very interested in Liu Haojia's issue of medals. They didn't think this method was easy to use, but they felt that if it could be adopted, it might save the court a lot of money! Many civil servants are even thinking about imitating Marquis Wu Ning and giving more medals to other soldiers, so that maybe they can deduct some more money!
But they also don't think about it. The most basic thing for a military with a sense of honor is that the soldiers can be fed and clothed, and their families can be fed and clothed accordingly. Only on this basis can there be room for the pursuit of honor! If, as they think, they give medals to some soldiers who have a difficult life and expect them to suddenly become brave and good at fighting, that would be a joke!
After the awarding of honors, Liu Haojia started to be busy again because he had too many things to do! First of all, Wu'an Army has discovered many areas in urgent need of improvement during its two battles. He wants to make a relatively large-scale adjustment to Wu'an Army.
The first thing to be purchased is the sword and shield soldiers. The number of spear soldiers should be reduced as appropriate, and the length of the spears should also be shortened. We need to increase the number of gun carriages, especially those equipped with Franco cannons which are really useful! In short, the bits and pieces of things are enough to keep him busy for two or three months!
At the same time, he also sent a group of people to Zhang Zhi and others to inspect coastal locations and draw drawings. Finally, the drawings of the salt field were produced.
According to Liu Hao's family's plan, the salt farm will be built in three phases. He wants to build a very large salt farm that will produce enough salt to meet half of the needs of the Ming Dynasty! However, in order not to alarm too many people, the first phase of the salt farm project was not large and was more experimental.
At the same time, news came back from various places in Jiubian. Some of Zhang Shunping and others rushed to Jiubian in person, while others sent their confidants to go. With the cooperation of military attachés from various places, they obtained a large amount of land! Especially a lot of land that was once cultivated but was abandoned!
Unlike the mainland, Jiubian is located on the border and has frequent wars, so the military attachés there are much more independent. Especially since these military attachés are from local prominent families, even civil servants have to give them some face. What's more, these civilian officials also relied on the military attachés to communicate with the caravans outside the Great Wall to make money, so they turned a blind eye to many things, which allowed them to obtain a large amount of land quite smoothly.
And after getting the land, they immediately organized the refugees and hired workers to rest and prepare for the land before winter, and prepare for spring.
Then the first batch of food will be planted.
At the same time, what excited Liu Haojia the most was that a merchant actually ran out of sweet potato vines! When talking about sweet potato vines, we have to mention the man known as the father of Chinese sweet potatoes: Chen Zhenlong!
Since sweet potatoes were brought to the East by white colonists, they were first cultivated in Southeast Asia. As sweet potatoes gradually adapted to the local climate, they gradually regained their high-yielding nature. However, the local white people stipulated that export was not allowed and smugglers would be executed!
In 1593, when a great famine occurred in the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese businessman Chen Zhenlong risked his life to steal a sweet potato vine from the Philippines and saved tens of millions of people in our country. Today, this "Father of Sweet Potatoes" has been forgotten by many people!
Chen Zhenlong is a businessman from Fuzhou, Fujian Province. He often goes to the Philippines (called Luzon at the time) to do trade and export business.
He was attracted by this novel food when he first arrived in the Philippines! Sweet potatoes can be eaten raw or steamed and roasted. It's soft, glutinous, sweet and delicious, and makes you feel full. Just one can make up for a full meal! Locally, people call sweet potatoes "sweet potatoes".
Sweet potatoes have very long vines and the fruits grow in the soil. They are not only big in size but also bear many fruits. One root can produce a large bunch. More importantly, they are easy to grow. So when Chen Zhenlong saw these sweet potatoes, it was like seeing the life-saving food for people in China. .
That year there was a famine in the country. There was a severe drought in central Fujian and there was no harvest. People had to eat bark, grass roots, and Guanyin soil to satisfy their hunger. Especially in Chen Zhenlong's hometown, many people starved to death.
At that time, even if there were no disasters, the domestic yield of rice and wheat was only 200-300 kilograms per mu, while the Philippine sweet potato yield was as high as more than 2,000 kilograms per mu.
Chen Zhenlong also learned that sweet potatoes in the Philippines were introduced by the Spaniards. He was very excited and wanted to introduce sweet potatoes into the country. However, food is the key to the survival of a country. As the staple food of the Philippines, sweet potatoes are required to be banned from export.
Chen Zhenlong thought of the starving people and their families in China, so he made an astonishing move and planned to risk his own life to smuggle sweet potatoes back home!
He found local farmers and began to study cultivation methods seriously. After a period of study, he became familiar with the growth rules of sweet potatoes and mastered the basic planting methods. What's more, he learned that sweet potatoes only need one vine to survive.
