There is a special sense of comfort in the capital in autumn.
Zhu Houzhao couldn't see the outside scenery in the palace city, but the sky was blue and cloudless, which always made people feel calm.
When communication can only rely on letters, information is like a wave. It comes and hits you, then calms down, and the next wave comes again with another wave of impact.
The emperor sat down and governed amid this wave of information.
At the beginning of the year, he promoted Yang Tinghe to the cabinet and made him responsible for the cultivation, planting and promotion of sweet potatoes.
The seedlings were planted in the spring, and now there are grown sweet potatoes.
Zhu Houzhao was very interested in this, so he even got on a carriage and went out of the palace to see it in a polite manner.
After Yang Tinghe heard that the emperor was coming, he made great preparations. He built a temporary pavilion next to the land and smoothed the road leading here from the city.
But in fact, Zhu Houzhao didn't ask for these details. He walked down the main road and along the field path.
Moreover, since he was not the kind to sneak out of the city, he brought a lot of people with him.
Shenwu Guard Xu Guan accompanied him to protect him, and a team of 200 people stood along both sides of the road.
There is no need to say more about Liu Jin.
In addition, there are three other cabinet ministers.
So strictly speaking, this is an emperor's tour.
Yang Tinghe led Meng Qiuzhong, Meng Ying and his daughter as well as other carefully selected farmers to stand at the edge of the field and kowtow to greet them.
The conditions here are of course not as good as the palace, but Zhu Houzhao likes the environment here very much.
The land in front of us is surrounded by a fence. If you look up from a distance, you will see waves of golden wheat. Wheat is about to be harvested this season.
However, there are no common people here, so the place Yang Tinghe chose was naturally official land, and the nearby areas were also owned by official families.
During the process of planting sweet potatoes, Zhu Houzhao gave some hints at first, but he remembered that he didn't have much, and he didn't know exactly how much he could grow on half an acre of land.
Furthermore, the yield of modern crops is high because of the use of pesticides, weeding, and insect removal. Sometimes a single insect infestation can ruin an entire season. So it’s not just that once you insert sweet potato seedlings into the ground, all the sweet potatoes will burst into bloom. grow out.
Basically, with half an acre of land and one or two thousand catties, he is already satisfied.
Yang Yiqing, Wang Hao and Wang Bing who followed had never seen this kind of crop. When the emperor squatted down to touch it, they were still afraid, "Your Majesty, be careful!"
Liu Jin also had quick eyesight and quick hands, "Your Majesty, these things are dirty, so I'd better ask your servant to get them for Your Majesty."
After being the emperor for a long time, Zhu Houzhao gradually entered the role of being served, which actually made others comfortable and accustomed to him.
So he nodded and said, "Dig out a piece and see how big it is."
"yes."
Then he told his minister: "These leaves should be edible, but I don't know how they taste."
"How could such coarse food enter His Majesty's mouth?" Liu Jin flattered him with a smile.
"If it's edible, Wei Chen would like to try it." Wang Hao said.
In Zhu Houzhao's impression, his parents had eaten it in his previous life, but... it seemed that it didn't taste good, and he couldn't get used to it anyway. In fact, every household that raises pigs feeds pigs.
But how to say it, he also said it on purpose. For the people at this time, there is no good or bad food, only what they can eat or not.
On the other side, Liu Jin worked hard and followed Yang Ting and the people he commanded to dig up the soil and pull out one.
Yang Yiqing had heard about the magic of this thing early in the morning, and couldn't help but go up to take a look. In fact, it looked ordinary: a long oval shape, with an irregular surface shape, without the slightest sense of beauty, and in terms of color, it was not covered with soil. The place is a kind of rose red, the smell... no one can smell it.
"Those who brought water should wash themselves off."
There was a bit of excitement in Zhu Houzhao's words. Unlike others, his eyes were still confused, because no one else recognized it, but he was the only one who understood the great significance of this thing.
Liu Jin took matters into her own hands and carefully rubbed the mud into the basin brought by the waiter. When one basin of water was dirty, she washed another basin.
"This is the sweet potato your Majesty said." Wang Hao was also a little curious. He couldn't see clearly just after digging it out of the mud, but now that he had washed it, he was really covered in red.
"Bring the knife! Cut it open!" Zhu Houzhao couldn't wait.
The skin is red, but the flesh inside is yellow when cut open.
Liu Jin looked at the emperor's eyes and acted without stopping, until he cut off more than a dozen pieces. Then he saw the emperor reaching out to the table to eat.
"Your Majesty!" Liu Jin panicked, "This is the first time I've seen this thing. I should find someone to try it!"
"Exactly." Yang Yiqing also handed over his hand, "Your Majesty is connected with the country, how can you take the test lightly?"
Zhu Houzhao said to himself, why is it so troublesome?
"Let the folk girls eat first!"
Everyone was attracted by this voice, it was Meng Ying.
When she said this, there weren't many people present who objected. Anyway, for most people, as long as it wasn't the emperor and themselves eating, it didn't matter.
Zhu Houzhao was too lazy to argue with his ministers on this point.
Let Meng Ying take the credit.
As for her father, Meng Qiuzhong, he is not in a hurry at all because he has seen people eating it overseas.
Meng Ying didn't hesitate much, walked a few steps to Liu Jin's side, reached out to twist a piece, put it in her mouth, chewed it, and then swallowed.
The elders and chamberlains all focused their eyes on her, as if they were waiting for some magical change.
In fact, except for the sound of 'click' and 'click', there is nothing else.
"Miss Meng, how do you feel?" Liu Jin also became anxious.
Meng Ying ate it without any discomfort on her face during the process, "It's crunchy, sweet, and delicious. There's no discomfort at all."
This makes everyone feel at ease.
"Slave, I will also try a piece for Your Majesty." Liu Jin also wanted to take credit for this, so she moved a little quickly.
"Eunuch Liu, this...this is a bit hard..."
Meng Ying's words were delayed for a moment, and then she saw Liu Jin holding her hands and screaming in pain, "Ouch!"
Zhu Houzhao sneered, "I am getting older and have lost my good teeth. I can't eat these raw sweet potatoes anymore."
"Your Majesty, can this be cooked and eaten?" Yang Yiqing asked.
"Give it a try. You can bake, steam, boil, or even grind it into powder to make porridge. Xu Guan."
"I'm here."
"The elders of the pavilion have bad teeth. Let the brothers of the Shenwu Guard come and try it, one bite at a time."
Yang Tinghe was not that old. He had waited for so long, so he couldn't help but take a small piece and slowly took a bite. The pressure in his heart suddenly eased. He said in surprise: "It's really sweet and crispy, different from ordinary fruits and vegetables." !”
"Arrange for people to harvest all the sweet potatoes in this half-acre of land and see how much the harvest will be."
"Yes, Weichen obeys the order!"
So the farmers outside the pavilion got busy, and inside the pavilion, the soldiers of the Shenwu Guard lined up to eat this new thing.
One person talks about the taste, but doesn't feel it. When everyone who has eaten it says the same thing, the cabinet ministers no longer doubt it.
"Your Majesty said that this thing is edible, and it seems that it is true. It is not sour or bitter, but has a sweet taste. It will be easier for the people to accept it."
Wang Hao felt itchy and uncomfortable. He couldn't help it and had someone cut a thin slice with a knife.
Yang Yiqing and Wang Bing also eat this way.
As soon as you take it into your mouth, you immediately know that the taste is authentic.
"It depends on how big the harvest is." Zhu Houzhao stood tall in the pavilion with his hands behind his hands. "The yield of sweet potatoes is extremely high overseas. If it is still like this in the Ming Dynasty, it will be popularized... The four pavilion elders can slightly imagine, what will happen? What a benefit.”
"Yes! What your Majesty said is absolutely true."
So be patient with this number.
It's just that Yang Tinghe didn't dare to keep the emperor waiting for too long. He went straight to the "Human Sea Tactics", digging, washing, and weighing, and everything was ready, so it took more than half an hour to basically get everything done.
In fact, during this process, people watching basically already have a rough idea, because the quantity is there... piled up into a small mountain, and it is not light even by visual inspection.
Yang Tinghe was busy and busy. At a certain moment, he finally added up the numbers and immediately turned around.
The three pavilion elders were not calm and stood up one after another.
"Your Majesty, I have finished calculating the yield of this half-acre sweet potato field."
"How much in total?"
"A total of ten stones, five buckets and seven liters!"
In the Ming Dynasty, one stone weighed about 150 kilograms. The figure Yang Tinghe mentioned was nearly 1,600 kilograms.
This figure really shocked everyone, "There are ten stones in half an acre! That's twenty stones in one acre!"
In fact, Zhu Houzhao felt that it was a little low. In his impression, sweet potatoes should not behave like this, but it was his first time growing it, with no experience and no pesticides. It was all about luck, so it was normal for it to be slightly low.
However, even so, it still made the people present feel incredible.
These days, one acre of top-quality paddy fields only yields about three stones, but this humble sweet potato has seven times the yield!
"Your Majesty! I think this crop should be promoted quickly. If this happens within three years, there will be no hungry people in the Ming Dynasty! Since ancient times, no emperor has been able to achieve this feat!" Wang Hao was a little excited, and his words were a bit exaggerated.
"I second the proposal!" Yang Yiqing and Wang Bing had no objections at all.
Zhu Houzhao knew that there would be room for improvement in the future, but he could say this in private. The current results were pretty good, so he mainly focused on encouragement. "Three pavilion elders, I would like to reward the old farmer Meng Qiuzhong who brought this thing back, and his What do you think of my daughter who just tried it for everyone?"
"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"
"Jiefu."
"Wei Chen is here."
Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "You should understand at this time why I am entrusting you with this matter, right? In the next three years, you must be careful to let these old farmers grow several crops and accumulate experience. For example, you can open a few more fields, Try planting with different methods to see which method is the best, so as to form a mature method. Only with mature planting methods and seeds can we promote it on a large scale. In three years, I will see results. The people of Ming Dynasty I have been hungry for many years and I cannot continue to be so hungry."
All the ministers knelt down and worshiped sincerely.
When it was bustling, three military horses came on the main road next to it, and the visitors looked like they were dressed in the palace.
They rushed over in a hurry and shouted: "Your Majesty! There is a military report in Ningxia!"
Zhu Houzhao frowned and said in a deep voice: "Go back to the palace."
