eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 509 Sweet Potato Entering Beijing ([-])

"Who are you talking about?"

"Return to Your Majesty, he is the son of Haibo Ping." Liu Jin spoke carefully.

"Ping Haibo's son? What can he do when he comes to see me at this time?" Zhu Houzhao couldn't think of it for a while.

Seeing this situation, Empress Xia didn't have a good impression of Mei Huaigu in her heart.

Her relationship with Concubine Ning and Concubine Zhao is not bad, and the emperor himself did not ignore her status as empress because of this.

She is always the queen, and her future children will still be the legitimate sons. So far, no one has dared to stir up the so-called 'establishment of a prince'.

But both emperors are from the Mei family, and it is inevitable that they are in the limelight now, and their momentum even overshadows the empress's natal Xia family, which is not very good.

Of course, in the name of business, she didn't dare to offend the emperor with this.

"Your Majesty, it must not be a trivial matter for Prince Ping Haibo to be so urgent. State affairs are the most important thing, so His Majesty should go and have a look. As for the concubines, they are fine."

"Then I will come as soon as I go. Pass the meal on. When it's over, I will come to Kunning Palace."

"The minister and concubine follow the order."

Of course Zhu Houzhao’s care for the harem and these women is there, but he also has some basic bottom lines, and these bottom lines have been clearly told to them, that is, they cannot affect the affairs of the previous dynasty—not to participate, not to care, not to Add to the chaos.

Generally speaking, he is still in the prime of his youth, and there are no obvious problems yet.

"Huaigu, there is something wrong with your handling of this matter. I came from Kunning Palace. If I can't tell you one, two, three, then I don't care about it. The queen will also find you trouble."

The emperor said as he walked.

"Hey, I understand what your Majesty said," Mei Huaigu has a flattering face, he has been very discerning since he was a child, "It's just that this matter involves that strange guest in Weichen's house, my father explained This matter is related to His Majesty, so I dare not delay any matter..."

"In your house?"

Zhu Houzhao was walking fast just now and hadn't noticed the person he was leading. Turning around now, he found a man and a woman behind him. He still looked familiar with that woman, but he didn't have a deep impression on him.For the emperor, he saw many strangers and had too many names to remember.

"Meng Ying, the daughter of the people (Cao Min Meng Qiuzhong), pay my respects to Your Majesty."

"They are..."

"Your Majesty, do you still remember sweet potatoes?" Mei Huaigu reminded.

There was a pause in Zhu Houzhao's movements, and his breathing couldn't help but speed up a bit. He didn't hide his excitement, and pointed his finger and said: "Yes, yes, yes, I remembered, the girl with the sweet potato pattern on the handkerchief. Huaigu, you just now What do you mean, she has been in your residence? I thought she had left the capital."

Meng Ying pursed her lips, not daring to say anything.

At the beginning, she was going to leave the capital.But Mei Kejia wouldn't let her go.

Only when she is in the capital, will her father bring sweet potatoes to the capital.

Because her father was imprisoned at the time, and the condition for his release was to bring back the sweet potatoes. If the daughter also left, and the father also let go, who would the emperor go to?
This principle is simple and easy to understand.

But the emperor did not say so at the time.

Now, he categorically denies it.

In fact, Meng Ying is no longer surprised. She has been in the capital for several years. Emperor Zhengde ruled the court, opened the sea ban, strengthened the army, and drove the Tatars.The First World War wiped away the shame of Tumu Fortress, his scheming, means and prestige, even if you listen to it casually in the mansion, you can hear it.

As for her and her father, it is almost impossible to resist, so they can only admit it and pray that this matter will be done, and this "secret house arrest" can be lifted.

Mei Huaigu didn't care about her thoughts, but followed the emperor's words and said: "Because this matter is important, my father explained it so that he can take care of her, so Miss Meng never left."

These are the minutiae.

The point is not here, and the emperor doesn't want to hear it.

"So, what about sweet potatoes?"

After asking this, Zhu Houzhao's eyes also fell on the bag that Mei Huaigu was carrying.

"My minister, take it out now. Father Meng said that people in the south call him sweet potato. Father Meng, please report it to His Majesty."

While speaking, Zhu Houzhao had already walked down and took it in his hand to read it.

Red, oval... indeed sweet potatoes.

"Okay! Okay! You guys have done a great job!"

When the emperor said this, the three of them were a little happy, and to make the emperor happy, some rewards were indispensable.

In fact, the so-called sweet potatoes can be planted with this.

He grew up in the countryside when he was a child, and went to the neighbor's field to secretly dig.

I don't know how people in this era planted it.At that time, he was in the countryside. His parents, grandparents and grandparents would store this thing in the cellar for the winter, so as not to freeze the sweet potatoes. In the spring of the next year, around this time, when the temperature was more than ten degrees, they would plant them in the ground for cultivation. , and then it will grow green sweet potato seedlings.

When the sweet potato seedlings grow to 30 to 50 centimeters, they are cut off and inserted into the reclaimed land, and then they can be harvested in September or October.

Of course, there are many kinds of sweet potatoes, and our country has a vast territory, so some are planted in spring and some are planted in summer.

This is not the key point. The key point is that the advantages of sweet potatoes are very obvious. The most notable ones are drought tolerance, barrenness tolerance, high yield, regardless of terrain, and can be grown even on mountains.

From the perspective of normal years, one mu of sweet potatoes can produce 2500 to 3000 kilograms, which is what Xu Guangqi recorded as "ten stones per mu" (one stone in Ming Dynasty was 150 kilograms).Its output is more than ten times that of an acre of rice field.

However, there are two sides to this matter.

First, it is a joke to expect that once the sweet potatoes arrive, they will feed the people of the whole country.

Because the calories of sweet potatoes are very low, no matter what you eat, the human body always needs calories. The calories of sweet potatoes are only one-third of that of rice and other grains. Potatoes and corn are basically at the same level as sweet potatoes. To put it bluntly, sweet potatoes No matter how much you eat, 80% is water, so what's the use?

So don't talk about heat, just talk about output, this is hooliganism.

In addition, there is no oil in sweet potatoes, so eating too much will make your stomach bloated easily, which will also lead to a situation, uh, it just can’t be pulled out...

So even though sweet potatoes later became a kind of 'food', they could never become a staple food.

Therefore, it is even more impossible to rely on this to flatten the world in the imagination.In fact, in real history, sweet potatoes had been introduced to China during the Longqing and Wanli years. In the late Wanli period and the Tianqi period, there were official records that Shaanxi, Henan, Nanzhi, Shandong, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Yunnan provinces had Sweet potatoes are commonly grown.

However, it did not save the Ming Dynasty, which was full of refugees.

From this dimension, man-made disasters are always the biggest problem, and industrial countries with high productivity also have hungry people.

But then again,
When food and clothing are still a big problem, saying that the taste of sweet potatoes is not good, or eating too much pantothenic acid is like hooliganism.It is a kind of hypocrisy that cannot be understood by the victims at all.

For those who are reduced to gnawing bark, eating this is heaven.

For the people living on the food and clothing line, planting some sweet potatoes in addition to rice and wheat can solve the problem of shortage of crops, and even save a little staple food for storage or sale.

For the whole country, it is always a good thing to have one more food that can be eaten.

Then the sharp social contradictions can be greatly alleviated today, and the common people are stable. He promotes various reform measures, even if they are more radical, they will not cause earth-shaking consequences.

It means being able to feed more people and increase the resilience of society.Instead of thinking that it cannot be eaten all the time or that it cannot rely on it to hit the world, it is considered that it has no value at all. This is diode thinking.

So in Zhu Houzhao's eyes, sweet potato is a very important strategic crop.

At this time, he was holding this food that he didn't even want to eat in his previous life, so he had to be careful with it now.

"Your Majesty, you don't have to...you don't have to be like this." Meng Ying opened her mouth, not sure if she said what she said was appropriate, and she lacked confidence in the end.

"Why?"

"Because my father has already cultivated and planted sweet potatoes in his hometown, and the sweet potatoes are cut from the stems for seeds, so..."

"Oh?" Zhu Houzhao understood what she meant, "So, I don't care even if I eat it. Father Meng, is that so?"

"Return...to His Majesty, yes, the grass people know that this matter is extremely important, and if they don't cultivate and plant first, they don't have the guts to disturb His Majesty."

"It's smart." Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but praise, only with this kind of brain can we get things done, "But I won't eat it. The season is right now, so I'd better take all the things you brought with you to cultivate."

"Yes."

"Tell me, how did you bring it back, and what's the situation overseas?"

When Meng Qiuzhong saw the emperor for the first time, he was a little nervous, "Cao Min Hui... In response to His Majesty's words, these sweet potatoes were smuggled back from the Cao Min from Manga. Raja country."

"Manchurian country?"

Zhu Houzhao's geographical knowledge began to be tested.

"Is it my Ming dynasty?"

"Return to Your Majesty. No, the country of Manchuka belongs to the Kingdom of Siam. These are small overseas countries, which are incomparable with our Chinese dynasty. The local people have also heard about my Chinese emperor, and they yearn for it, but it is far away from the ocean. A businessman trying to survive, ordinary people don’t have the guts to face the wind and waves at sea.”

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help laughing,
The second half of this statement is nonsense.

But the current political correctness is like this, and he doesn't want to spend effort to correct this thing.

In fact, Manchuria was the place where Malaysia and Singapore were later. The Portuguese arrived here first, and then a war broke out, which also led to the decline of the country.

The time point was during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty.

In other words, the artillery fire of the Europeans has arrived on the heads of the Asians.

Including Luzon Island, that is, the Philippines, was also invaded by the Spaniards in this century.

Under the influence of Zhu Houzhao, the current Ming Dynasty already has an interest group for doing business in the sea. One day, businessmen from Ming Dynasty and businessmen from Europe will collide. According to the logic of these gangsters, your profitable business, they must Will grab and fight.

Maybe that day will come sooner than imagined.

These aside,
The sweet potato in front of him still made Zhu Houzhao very excited.

To say a thousand words and ten thousand is three words: to promote!

He naturally accepted this thing with a smile and asked Liu Jin to take it aside.

Then he said to the Meng family father and daughter: "Such crops will surely live countless lives in the future. Meng Qiuzhong, the contribution you have made is greater than you imagined. I have always been very clear about rewards and punishments. Tell me, is there a need?"

"This... grassroots dare not."

"Your Majesty is rich all over the world." Mei Huaigu reminded him, "Just open your mouth."

Meng Qiuzhong raised his head, was a little dazed, and said straightforwardly: "Your Majesty, the grassroots want a hundred taels of silver."

Zhu Houzhao and Mei Huaigu were stunned for a moment.

"Lack of money?"

"Yes, Caomin's daughter is not married yet, and the dowry has not been settled yet."

When Meng Ying heard that this was the case, she immediately blushed, "Father! How can you tell His Majesty these things?"

"Hahaha." Zhu Houzhao found it quite interesting. After being an emperor for a long time, such a simple person is indeed rare. "Meng Qiuzhong, I promise you this condition, and I can give you more. There is only one thing, you have to help I have a favor."

"Don't dare, please give orders from Your Majesty."

"Sweet potatoes are only grown by you. I will find a piece of land, and you will keep it and take care of it. As for the one you planted in your hometown in Fujian, I will issue a decree, specify the method, and order the local county magistrate to serve it. Do you want it?" How about next?"

Meng Qiuzhong hesitated for a moment, he originally wanted to go back to his hometown.

Mei Huaigu tapped on the side, "Father Meng, this is an opportunity given by His Majesty, why don't you thank me soon?!"

The old farmer didn't have that many ideas, and he didn't dare to refuse, so he kowtowed and said, "Cao Min is willing to listen to His Majesty."

"Okay. Liu Jin, go and get 500 taels of silver and give it to Meng Qiuzhong. Huaigu, I'll give these two people to you. You settle down. If you want to live in your house, you can live there. If you don't want to, let others Start a family by yourself and live outside. When I choose a piece of land, you will lead him there."

"Yes!"

"Okay, let's go down."

Zhu Houzhao didn't tell them too much about planting, promotion, and what will be important in the future.

He is just a farmer who wants to get a hundred taels of silver, and he doesn't care about those.

This is something he and the courtiers should be concerned about.

Looking at the sweet potatoes on the wooden plate, he couldn't help touching them. Although the sweet potatoes have various shortcomings, they can be eaten and feed more people after all, which is very important for his ambition to be an emperor. Great support.

Later generations have explored the relationship between climate and dynasty change, and found that during the Han and Tang dynasties, the Central Plains dynasties were relatively warm.

And we all know that in the struggle for hegemony in troubled times, the side with a small and barren base is always unable to win. This is the role of 'power'.Of course, rulers need all kinds of excellent qualities, but how much 'power' they hold is a more critical factor.In the era of cold weapons, this 'power' can be expressed relatively popularly as:

How much land do you have, how much food can you produce, and how many people can you feed.

No matter which way you think about it, sweet potatoes are also a major issue, and you need a special capable person.

Zhu Houzhao touched it slowly, with serious and slightly suppressed excitement in his eyes.

"Liu Jin,"

The emperor's voice was not as usual, it seemed a little heavy at this time.

"The servant is here."

"Early tomorrow morning, the cabinet, six ministries and nine officials will enter the palace. Unless you leave Beijing, you will not be absent without reason."

"Yes!"

But Meng Qiuzhong, who got 500 taels of silver, was very happy.
Now that he has money, he doesn't want to live in other people's homes. The sign of Pinghaibo Mansion is really scary. After entering, he is used to this and that rule. That's the trouble.

Mei Huaigu also let him go according to his will, and found him a clean yard outside, where he could live in without cleaning.

After the outsider left, Meng Ying began to act like a baby with her father.

"Father, it's true, why are you talking about dowry in the palace, when the whole capital will know that your daughter won't be able to get married."

"I don't understand. The emperor is so majestic and dare not lie."

"Then dad really wants to stay and serve those sweet potatoes?"

"I wanted to leave at first. Now it looks like I can't." Meng Qiuzhong walked to the door, curled up and sat on the ground. Then, as if thinking of something, he opened the small wooden box in his arms, and then Eyes start to light up.

"The emperor is really generous. I only need 100 taels, and he will give us 500 taels! Oh, now we won't suffer from the crime of being poor. When we go back, father will find you a good husband's family, and the dowry will be enough."

"My daughter doesn't want to marry yet."

Meng Ying also has a bit of beauty when she first came to Beijing. She was a bit haggard when she first came to Beijing. She was raised in a boudoir for the past two years, her face is rosy and bright, and her skin is white and tender.

If there is a bad thing, it is thin and small, and slim is slim, but what girls care about is their buttocks, so they are white and thin, and the matchmaker can't say it well.

"You're talking nonsense, don't get married? Be an old girl if you don't get married!"

"Then you can't ask your daughter to marry someone right after meeting. I haven't seen my father for more than two years. My daughter will accompany you."

"Yeah." This sounded good, and after thinking about it, Meng Qiuzhong asked again: "What kind of son, didn't he bully you?"

"Tsk. Dad, you are chewing your tongue again."

"It doesn't look like he's a good guy."

"This son is really cunning. He knows that his daughter has something to do with this sweet potato, and sweet potatoes are something the emperor cares about, so he pays attention to it. In the past two years, my daughter has eaten and slept well."

……

The next day.

Qianqing Palace.

When the emperor arrived, the hall was already full of people.

The courtiers are also experienced, and sometimes they can roughly know how big the matter is today based on their feelings. Like this time, the matter must be not small, and all of them appeared neatly.

"My ministers, see your Majesty."

"Let's be flat. Give me a seat." Zhu Houzhao walked out rubbing his hands, but he didn't sit on it anymore, and went straight to the point.

With a wave, an eunuch came out carrying a wooden tray.

"Dear dears, I invite you to come here today to share a happy event. Take a look at this thing first." He pointed, then turned sideways to let them all take a closer look, "Do you recognize it?"

During the Zhengde period, sweet potatoes had not yet entered the Central Plains.

Zhu Houzhao sent people to search for it artificially for several years before finding it.

Several ministers shook their heads.

"Your Majesty, what is this?" Wang Jia asked slowly, clasping his hands.

"This thing is called sweet potato, but it can also be called sweet potato." Zhu Houzhao made a gesture to tell the eunuch to move forward, "My dear friends, you can hold it in your hands and feel it. I brought it back from overseas. It feels a little hard, Cool, but of course a little rough."

"What is the effect?"

"You can eat it."

Yang Yiqing was the first to pick it up, and he sniffed it against his nose, "It's tasteless."

"The taste is sweet."

"His Majesty……?"

"Uh, Mr. Yang Ge, don't eat this one, I only have these few. And it's harder to eat raw, and your teeth are easy to break."

"Oh……"

After Yang Yiqing, Wang Jia and Wang Bing also took it to examine it carefully.

"Your Majesty, does this kind of fruit grow on trees or in the ground?" Wang Yan was also curious.

"It grows in the ground. The yield per mu can reach 30 to 40 shi."

The emperor said these words lightly, but all the ministers in the palace were shocked after hearing this.In a normal paddy field, the yield per mu is 2 shi or 3 shi.

"Your Majesty said thirty, not three or four?!" Han Wen stood up in shock, and suddenly paid special attention to sweet potatoes.

Zhu Houzhao put his hands behind his back and said with a smile: "If it is three or four stones, as for me so early in the morning, did I call the six departments and nine ministers here?"

Restless, the atmosphere is still a little restless.

Gu Zuo asked: "Where did Your Majesty get this thing? How do you know that it can produce thirty or forty stones per mu?"

Such things, at first glance, still sound too bizarre.

"Actually, a few years ago, I ordered Jin Yiwei to secretly plan this matter, and the code name of the operation was Sweet Potato. Yesterday, I summoned an old Fujian farmer, and he brought back these sweet potatoes. As for the yield per mu, the sweet potatoes are overseas. No country can have such an output.”

"So, can it replace rice and wheat? If the 13 provinces in the two capitals of Ming Dynasty were to switch to these crops, wouldn't the annual grain be increased tenfold in an instant?"

Gu Zuo didn't know its characteristics, so it was reasonable to infer it.

Zhu Hou would nod frequently when looking after other people.

"Things are not that simple." Wang Bing said, "This thing is called sweet potato, and it is an overseas product. Whether it is suitable for the people of Ming Dynasty is still a matter of opinion. I think it can be tried."

Although Wang Bing is not so pleasing, his words often hit the point.

"Zhen, the purpose of summoning you to the palace today is to try it out. The high yield of sweet potatoes is one of its advantages, and another is that it can be planted on land with less fertile soil, and the water required is far less than that of rice. This is a crop that can bring earth-shaking changes to Ming Dynasty. This matter is of great importance and requires the cabinet and ministries to work together to promote it."

"Veteran, I would like to take up this important task to share your majesty's worries and problems." Han Wen is the Minister of the Household Department, so please do his part in such matters.

"The Department of Accounting is required."

After hearing this, the three members of the cabinet also understood that in addition to the household department, the cabinet is also needed.

But just as they were about to say something, Zhu Houzhao had already spoken first, "I intend to appoint someone to be responsible for this matter, not only to coordinate and be responsible, but also to go deep into it. As Wang Ge said, this thing is a new thing. Why? I don’t know how to eat it. How to grow it is even more knowledgeable.”

So in this way, it is not suitable for the elders of the cabinet, after all, each of them has several important responsibilities.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao thought of one person, Yang Tinghe.

Yang Tinghe originally worked in the Military Aircraft Department, but after the war in the Northwest ended, as the emperor's confidant, he was transferred to Zhan Shifu Zhan Shi.But now there is no prince anywhere, so he needs to go wherever he needs to go, and often travels on behalf of the emperor, leaving Beijing to handle special matters.

One advantage of Yang Tinghe is that he is very clear-headed, and his order and logic are never chaotic.

Moreover, he has served as various officials in these years, and he has dealt with a lot of messy things.

So in fact Zhu Houzhao has another plan, which is to transfer him into the cabinet.With his strange experience now, he is not suitable for any other yamen except being a court elder.

Everyone in the palace was waiting for the emperor to announce, so Zhu Houzhao didn't let it go, "The cultivation and promotion of sweet potatoes is of great importance, and it is one of the most important government affairs of the imperial court. Add him to the cabinet and specialize in this matter."

In this way, it was the first time that he entered the cabinet because of a matter.

The ministers took a closer look at the thing. Your Majesty is showing his emphasis on new crops by "entering the cabinet for reasons", which is wonderful.

Yang Tinghe is also here today, his entry into the pavilion is very unexpected, mainly because there are old seniors like Han Wen in the court.

"My minister, please follow His Majesty's holy will!"

Zhu Houzhao said: "Find a suitable field, after planting and growing leaves, hand me a brochure, and I will go to see it."

This is still a continuation of the consistent style.

"Everyone who loves you, please be patient with me. In a few years, when we, the monarchs and ministers, look at it, the Ming Dynasty will definitely have the appearance of a renewal of the world."

Food, population, war horses, firearms... all of these must be available. He, the Zhengde Emperor, is not a person who defeated the Tatars and died for the rest of his life.

(End of this chapter)