Two sea-going ships flying tiger flags slowly left Phi Island.
Xu Xuewu stood on the side of the ship, looking at the wharf that was gradually receding. Through the monocular in his hand, he watched the people from Pidao busy going back and forth on the wharf, carrying materials to the island that were unloaded from the ship to the wharf.
Li Yao said: "This time it's really surprising. I didn't expect the people in Dongjiang Town to really dare to attack us, and they also wanted to rob our ship."
"Mao Wenlong is an ambitious person. He doesn't dare to really quarrel with our Tiger Flag. At most, he just scares us and wants to take greater advantage of our Tiger Flag." Xu Xuewu smiled lightly.
Through a series of events in Pi Dao, he finally figured out some of Mao Wenlong's thoughts.
Li Yao said: "That's suspenseful enough. When I saw you, captain, being arrested, I almost couldn't help but lead people to rush to Pi Island. Later, Captain Duan made a decisive decision and ordered the gunners to bombard Pi Island."
"Duan Ping did the right thing this time. If you don't scare Mao Wenlong, Dongjiang Town will only make further progress in the future." Xu Xuewu put away the monocular telescope in his hand.
Li Yao said: "When our Tiger Flag first cooperated with Mao Wenlong, it was quite pleasant, and we used real things to exchange for their worthless trees. It can be said that Dongjiang Town took advantage. Now It seems that the human heart is not enough for a snake to swallow an elephant."
"Mao Wenlong's status has changed, so he naturally thinks he is qualified to challenge our Tiger Flag." Xu Xuewu said, "Mao Wenlong is no longer the isolated and helpless guerrilla general he was when he first arrived in Pidao. He is now the powerful deputy commander-in-chief of Dongjiang Town. , the number of people under his command has also increased from about 200 to over 10,000, and the number of people under his rule has long been beyond counting."
Li Yao sighed and said: "Fortunately, the task assigned by the boss has been completed. Dongjiang Town promised to let us, Tiger Flag, send people to Kuangduan. However, this time Mao Wenlong has lost such a big face, I am afraid he will not let it go."
"Don't worry, Wei Zhongxian's name is relatively easy to use, and Mao Wenlong won't mess around for the time being." Xu Xuewu said calmly.
Li Yao thought for a while and said, "Actually, we don't necessarily have to use big wood from Liaodong. There are also big trees available in other places. It will be a little troublesome at most."
"The big trees in Liaodong are very suitable for shipbuilding." Xu Xuewu said, "There are not so many big trees available in the south. The big trees in Nanyang are occupied by the red barbarians. It will cost a lot of money for our Tiger Flag to get the big trees from the red barbarians. And it’s very troublesome, but here in Liaodong, big wood is cheap and plentiful. With the support of big wood here in Liaodong, we can build more ships.”
Li Yao said: "I have offended Mao Wenlong this time. In the future, the people sent by our Tiger Banner to Kuandian will probably not be taken care of by Dongjiang Town. It is good if they are not targeted."
"Raise the sails!" Duan Ping's shout came from afar.
A huge sail was raised, the sea wind blew on the sail, and the speed of the ship immediately increased.
The ship cut through the waves on the sea, and the hull swayed left and right with the waves. The people on the deck also swayed with the hull, and the sailors ran steadily back and forth on the deck.
Xu Xuewu stood on the board of the ship, holding the side of the ship with one hand, and said: "We can't rely on Dongjiang Town for all the big trees we need. This time Tieshan deliberately blocked the big wood, which is a lesson for us, so the boss is Asking to send people to Kuandian means not putting eggs in one basket."
Li Yao nodded.
If you want to build a ship, you can't avoid big trees. Most of the big trees in the south have been cut down for shipbuilding. However, there are many old forests in the deep mountains of Liaodong, so there is no shortage of big trees.
……………………
With the arrival of another New Year, every household is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and the streets are much busier than usual.
Liu Heng stood in front of the door, looking at the snow that had not yet melted in the shade on the ground, and occasionally took a bite of the steaming roasted sweet potato in his hand.
Sweet potatoes are no longer a rare thing in the households under the jurisdiction of the Tiger Banner. Almost every household will grow some. Moreover, the yield of sweet potatoes is high and the weather and land requirements are not as high as that of rice. Even if you can grow it in your own yard kind.
The extra sweet potatoes are used by Tiger Flag to make wine, and the brewed sweet potatoes are sold on the grasslands or sold to poor people for drinking. The price of sorghum wine is still too expensive for many poor people, and few are willing to spend money to buy it. Although sweet potato roasting doesn't taste very good, it is cheap and is loved by poor people and coolie bars.
However, sweet potatoes are not the only crop grown in the fields of Huzi Banner.
Although sweet potatoes can be used to satisfy hunger in disaster years, they are not as good as grains such as rice. Therefore, the Tiger Banner only uses sweet potatoes as a supplementary grain, and the main food is traditional grains such as rice.
"Happy New Year, Mr. Master." Zhao Yutu walked in from outside the courtyard and greeted Liu Heng from a distance.
Liu Heng said with a smile: "Happy New Year, do you want to eat some together? I asked Zhao Wu to bake some sweet potatoes. They taste very good."
"My subordinates became greedy when they smelled the roasted sweet potatoes." Zhao Yutu rubbed his belly with his hands.
Liu Heng turned around and shouted into the custody room: "Zhao Wu, bring Mr. Zhao a piece of roasted sweet potato."
After a short time, Zhao Wu came out with a piece of sweet potato in his hand and handed it to Zhao Yutu.
The sweet potato was still steaming. Zhao Yutu held it in his hand, switching hands back and forth, and finally broke the sweet potato in his hand into two halves.
"It's delicious." Zhao Yutu took a bite of the sweet potato and said with the heat in his mouth, "My subordinate loves roasted sweet potatoes and can't get enough of them."
Liu Heng said with a smile: "Eat more if you like. If it's not enough, I'll ask Zhao Wu to bake it again. This year's potato harvest is very good. You can eat as much as you want."
"With these sweet potatoes, you don't have to worry about going hungry even in a disaster year." Zhao Wu said, "The court doesn't know how to promote such a good thing as sweet potatoes. If the people of the Ming Dynasty all have sweet potatoes to eat, where will the people be?" Hungry."
The Tiger-Character Banner has been promoting sweet potatoes for more than a year. Many places in Datong have begun to imitate the Tiger-Character Banner in growing sweet potatoes. However, outside Datong, sweet potatoes are rarely grown.
Some officials in Taiyuan and Xuanfu have long known that the sweet potatoes grown in the Tiger Banner have high yields and can feed more people, but they have never thought of letting the people under their control grow sweet potatoes. The local people still grow traditional crops, and because The weather is not good and production is reduced every year.
Liu Heng shook his head slightly and said: "Without parents and officials who are willing to make decisions for the people, even high-yielding crops will be useless."
"That's right." Zhao Yutu said, "Fujian has long started growing sweet potatoes, but after so many years, the imperial court has not seen the imperial government promote sweet potatoes to the north."
When he said this, he looked quite disappointed.
As a scholar, he was completely disappointed with Ming's incompetence.
