It’s mid-July, it’s midsummer, the sun is scorching and the heat is rolling.
The criss-crossing bluestone palace corridors were burned by the midday sun, glowing brightly, and the lush flowers and plants in the imperial garden were even more lifeless and curled up by the sun.
At the end of the afternoon, the golden afternoon sun shines through the glass window into the imperial study, forming round light spots on the wall.
Kangxi was wearing a light silk summer dress, sitting at his desk in the imperial study, reviewing memorials. Even though there was an ice basin with white steam standing nearby, he still felt that the room was stuffy and uncomfortable.
After approving the last memorial, he closed it with a snap and threw it on the imperial desk. He put the red pen in his hand on the jade dragon pen holder and stood up from the armchair. He twisted his sour waist from side to side while facing
Liang Jiugong, who was standing beside the imperial case, complained:
"Well, as summer comes, living in the Forbidden City is indeed extremely difficult. No wonder Xiao Sihui said with disdain that the summer palace is just a big airtight steamer. Everyone is a steamed bun, and the steamed buns stay here to be steamed and roasted by the heat.
Woolen cloth."
With the country stabilized, the emperor naturally began to consider the comfort of his residence.
When Liang Jiugong heard the emperor's complaint, he did not answer first, but took a step forward, leaned slightly and opened the memorial that Kangxi had thrown away. When he saw that the ink on it was not blurred by the emperor's movements, he lowered his head to read the memorial again.
After blowing a few breaths on it, after the ink dried, he gently closed the tall pile of memorials placed in the corner of the imperial case, turned to Kangxi and smiled:
"Your Majesty, you can bear with me a little longer. When you get down to the south of the Yangtze River, you will be able to see the beautiful scenery of the waterside gardens there."
When Kangxi heard this, he raised his eyebrows noncommittally.
At this time, a young eunuch who was guarding the door walked in briskly. After seeing Kangxi and Manager Liang standing on the imperial steps, he hurriedly bent his legs and reported to Kangxi who was standing beside the imperial case:
"Your Majesty, Prince Yu has come to say hello to you."
"Brother Yi has returned to Beijing?"
When Kangxi heard this, his slender red phoenix eyes lit up, he hurriedly turned around and stepped down the imperial steps, and ordered to the little eunuch kneeling on the carpet:
"Please invite brother in quickly."
The little eunuch nodded, stood up from the floor tiles, bowed and left.
The prince in the clan was not allowed to leave the capital without any reason. Last time he had a brief meeting with the old monk Xing Chi at Qingliang Temple. Fuquan had been thinking about him, Khan Ama, and went to the palace after the wheat harvest to apply to Kangxi for permission to leave the capital for a trip to Mount Wutai.
Kangxi was also thinking about Xing Chi, so he nodded in agreement.
Hearing that Prince Yu was coming, Liang Jiugong also hurriedly followed Kangxi out, planning to go to the teahouse next door to make two cups of fine Pu'er tea and bring them in.
After a while, when Liang Jiugong returned to the imperial study with the mahogany tray with the tea cup, he saw that the emperor and Prince Yu were already sitting on the carved armchairs under the glass window on the east wall. The afternoon sun covered the shoulders of the two brothers.
The two brothers were talking and laughing, and there was a bulging blue cloth bag at Prince Yu's feet.
Liang Jiugong took his eyes away from the blue cloth bag, stepped forward, and quickly placed the two tea cups firmly on the small square table with high legs between the brothers, and said with a smile:
"Your Majesty, please have tea."
"Thank you very much, Eunuch Liang."
Fuquan came all the way and felt unbearably thirsty. He found that the tea cup was warm. He quickly opened the lid of the cup and drank a few sips of the tea with the saucer. It felt so hot that it was almost smoking.
After his son's throat felt comfortable, he placed the tea cup on the small square table next to him, bent down and untied the blue cloth pocket at his feet, and took out a stick with a green skin and a short light yellow beard on the head.
.
"Brother Yi, what is this?"
Kangxi lowered his head and took a sip of tea, put down the cup in his hand, looked at the strange thing in Fuquan's hand, and asked curiously.
Liang Jiugong also looked directly at Fu Quan's hand. Inexplicably, he felt that the blue bag in front of him looked familiar. Before he could figure out where he had seen this bag, he heard the words "Prince Yu" in his ear.
Rich laughter:
"Did the Emperor forget? Last year when we were in the meditation room in Mount Wutai, the master took out a golden corn cob from the blue cloth bag. The cob in the slave's hand is the corn that the master planted this year.
"
When Kangxi and Liang Jiugong heard Fuquan's explanation, they also remembered what happened on Mount Wutai last year.
"This corn smells a little sweet. Could it be that it matured in midsummer?"
Kangxi took the corn cob from Fu Quan across the high square table, put it under the tip of his nose and smelled it, then twirled the short whiskers at the tip of the corn with the fingertips of his left hand and asked without raising his head.
Fuquan shook his head, recalling what his Khan Amma told him in the Zen room of Qingliang Temple, licked his dry lips and replied:
"Your Majesty, what I heard from the master is that this kind of food is not difficult to feed. The temperature in the mountains is low and it is only ripe now. What if in an area with a suitable climate, it can be grown twice a year?"
"Two crops a year?"
When Kangxi heard this, he suddenly looked up at Fuquan, shook the corn cob in his right hand, and asked again in surprise:
"Then how should we eat this kind of food? How much is the production?"
Fuquan bent down again and took out a piece of corn from his blue cloth bag. He peeled off the husk and replied:
"Your Majesty, the master said that the corn at this time is very tender. Just peel it off, wash it, boil it in a pot, take it out and eat it. The boiled soup is still sweet. I ate two of them when I was in the mountains.
It tastes really good.”
"The corn in this bag is all carefully selected by the master and brought back by the slave. There are about thirty cobs in it. The specific yield is not yet clear because it is grown in the vegetable field in the back mountain.
The corn is not old yet. The corn kernels have to grow long and become so hard that they cannot be pinched with fingernails. Only then can they be considered as fully grown seeds. Only then can they be weighed. Now, if you break them off, you can only eat them."
"That's it."
Kangxi nodded, and imitated Fu Quan's movements, peeling off the green outer skin of the corn, revealing the tender yellow corn inside.
The corn kernels are arranged neatly, the tentacles are smooth, and the color is beautiful. From a distance, it looks like smooth jade, and its appearance is more eye-catching than potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Except for the outermost skin, which is green, the inner skin is yellowish white. Kangxi touched the inner skin with his fingers and found that it felt similar to paper, but it was a little bit more than paper.
Strength.
He then poked his head into the open blue cloth pocket at Fu Quan's feet, handed the corn cob in his hand to Liang Jiugong next to him, and said in a loud voice:
"Liang Jiugong, you personally deliver the corn to the dining room and watch the imperial chefs cook it. After it is out of the pot, send a portion of the corn to the empress dowagers of the two palaces, the concubines, and Baocheng's brothers and sisters. Let's
Let’s all have a taste of this corn.”
"Yes, I will go right away."
Liang Jiugong nodded hurriedly, respectfully took the corn from Kangxi and Fuquan's hands, then bent down, picked up the blue cloth bag, and walked out quickly.
After Liang Jiugong went out, Kangxi rubbed the armrest of the armchair and asked Fuquan:
"Brother Yi, Master, how are you in health?"
Fuquan smoothed the short beard growing on his chin with his hand, and said with a smile while gesticulating:
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, the master is very strong. Knowing that you are planning to build the Academy of Western Studies and the Qing Academy of Sciences, the master was very happy. He rolled up his sleeves and took his slaves to break corn in the vegetable field in the back mountain."
"You haven't seen the corn field, so you don't know the situation. This corn can grow quite well. The leaves grow very long. The corn stalks are almost as tall as the slave. The master even broke off a small piece of green for the slave.
I let my slave taste the sweet sticks, and the taste is as good as sugar cane."
"Don't look at the corn in Butou. Last year, the master peeled the corn in Butou into kernels and planted it in the mountains in the spring. A large piece of corn grew out. From this point of view, this corn
The output should be pretty good.”
Kangxi looked at the satisfied smile on his first brother's face, and when he heard that their Khan Ama was breaking the sweet stick into his first brother's mouth, he felt a little sour in his heart. Then he picked up the tea cup, sipped the tea and said with a smile:
"The mountainous land is not as fertile as the land in the Imperial Village on the outskirts of Beijing. You can grow a large area of it. It seems that corn is really easy to grow. There are so many seeds growing on one cob. Even if you exclude those that don't.
Germinated seeds, if you take good care of them, this corn can be a grain that can yield thousands of gold per acre."
"Your Majesty is right."
Fuquan nodded his head and said with some emotion:
"Although the West is a barbarian, the food there is indeed very productive. At least our rice and wheat yields are far from being as high as they are. They have such high-yielding ingredients. No wonder Westerners are so tall.
Being so tall, the servants are a little curious about the situation in the west, and don't know what the situation is like on the other side of the ocean. It's daytime here, but they don't know if it's daytime over there..."
The two brothers were talking and laughing. In a blink of an eye, the sunlight coming in from the window slowly began to slant to the west, and the light spots on the wall gradually moved to the side.
About half an hour later it was three o'clock in the morning.
Liang Jiugong, with a thin layer of Western sweat on his forehead and a three-layered yellow rosewood food box in his hand, crossed the threshold and hurried into the imperial study.
The two brothers, who had already talked about food from the West and whether the sea ban could be lifted, immediately shut up and turned to look at the door.
Liang Jiugong raised his sleeves to wipe the sweat from his forehead, quickly walked forward with the food box, placed the huanghuali wood food box on the small square table with high legs between the brothers, and put the boiled corn in the food box.
An ice bowl of yogurt sprinkled with chopped fruit, a clear yellow corn soup, and several plates of jerky and snacks were placed on the table one by one.
"Brother 1, let's go wash our hands and eat something, and then you can go back to the palace after we've rested our stomachs."
Kangxi glanced at the corn cobs in the white-glazed chrysanthemum plate. The imperial chef had carefully cut them into small pieces with a kitchen knife. He smelled the fragrance wafting from the tip of his nose, and he also felt that there was a odor coming from his abdomen.
A bit hungry.
Fuquan saw Kangxi getting up and hurriedly stood up from his armchair.
When the brothers finished cleaning their hands under Liang Jiugong's service and began to taste the corn, everyone in the Chuxiu Palace was also enjoying afternoon tea leisurely.
When the imperial concubine and her three little ones were eating yogurt and fruit made by Bai Yuchu, the little palace maid in the imperial kitchen happened to bring a food box filled with fresh delicacies.
When Bai Lu opened the food box, Qingyan was also shocked when she saw the boiled corn.
"Where did this come from?"
"Returning to your Majesty, I heard from Mr. Liang that this is a kind of food called corn, which is a fresh ingredient brought down by Prince Yu from Wutai Mountain. After the emperor asked the dining room to cook it, he distributed some to each palace to taste it.
"
The little palace maid in the imperial dining room leaned over and said softly.
Qingyan nodded, understanding that the corn was probably grown by the old monk Xing Chi.
After the little palace maid left, Qingyan distributed the corn to Bai Lu and the three little guys.
The one-year-old and eight-month-old twins "squeaked" the corn kernels that E Niang put into a small bowl for them. After eating, the two brothers drooled brightly and looked at Brother Ten and E Niang eagerly.
Nibble on some pieces of corn.
"Um, cool, I still want it."
Xiao Shisi licked his mouth, stretched out his two short hands and grasped it twice, and said with a purr.
"Mother Huang, I haven't eaten this yet. How about peeling off the seeds and feeding them to them?"
Xiao Shi held a small piece of corn in his right hand and chewed most of the corn, then presented the corn piece in his left hand to the twins.
When Little Thirteen and Little Fourteen saw the gift brought to their lips by Brother Ten, their big eyes lit up and they hurriedly stretched out their little chubby hands to catch it. Little did they expect that their fingertips had not even touched the corn.
E Niang stretched out her hand to stop her.
"No, Xiao Shi, you can eat it yourself. They are too young. Just eat less and taste it. If you eat too much, it will not be digested and you will have a stomachache."
Qingyan smiled and blocked Xiao Yiner's left hand, raised her right hand, and gently wiped away the corn crumbs stuck to the corner of Xiao Yiner's mouth.
When Xiao Yiner heard what Huang'e Niang said, he had no choice but to take back the corn in his hand.
"Uh, uh, cool~~~"
The twins watched helplessly as the corn spun before their eyes and disappeared, and they immediately stopped working!
The two brothers shook the imperial concubine's legs from side to side, making wavy little milky sounds in a coquettish manner.
Qingyan didn't react at all to the "sonic attack" of the two younger sons. She picked up a large bowl of yogurt and fruit without ice and used a white porcelain spoon to stir some into the brothers' small bowls.
He handed the small bowl with golden ink lines in the shape of a tiger head to the twins and said:
"You two eat this. When you grow up, my mother will not limit the amount of corn you two eat. If you want to have a stomachache and insist on eating corn, then my mother will not stop you.
But if you have a stomachache, you have to drink a bitter medicinal soup. Whether you want to drink medicine later or not, you two can choose for yourself."
The twins looked at the "iron-hearted" and "unchanging-faced" Niang, and had no choice but to blink their big, watery eyes. They held their tiger-headed bowls aggrievedly, put their little fingers in their mouths and sucked a few times.
, I felt that having something to eat was better than nothing, so I bowed my head and ate the fruit.
Seeing the twins' pitiful pouty looks, Xiao Yiner almost burst out laughing on the spot, and tacitly ate the few boiled corns with Huang'e Niang in a tacit understanding. When the twins saw that there was no more corn,
No longer greedy.
"Mother Huang, this corn tastes really delicious, but there is too little. I don't know when I can eat it again."
Little Yoonge leaned on the back of the carved chair, like a fat cat who was full of food, touching his slightly bulging belly with his two chubby hands, savoring the taste of corn in his mouth, and making expectant milk sounds.
Milky said.
Qingyan lowered her head and took a sip of the clear yellow corn soup. She found that the soup had a small amount of sweetness, and when she tasted it carefully, it also tasted like pears. It seemed that the imperial chef had added snow pears to it.
She fiddled with the corn soup with a spoon and smiled at the three brothers:
"I think there will be more corn around this time next year. After you, Khan Ama, get a taste of it now, you will definitely find a way to get the seeds. When the corn is planted in the imperial village, we will be able to achieve corn freedom."
When the three brothers heard this, they nodded their furry little heads in understanding.
When the twins saw a small amount of broken corn kernels in the corn soup that Aunt Bailu poured into their little tiger-head bowls, their big eyes shone together, as if they were thieves, they turned around holding the tiger-head bowls,
Drink the soup inside with a gulp.
Qingyan saw the two younger sons hiding their ears, but she really didn't want to say that the two brothers were too short. Even if they turned around, she could still see the corn kernels at the bottom of their bowls.
Looking at the satisfied expressions on the two brothers' faces, as if they had taken advantage of them, they had no choice but to twitch the corners of their mouths and glance away.
Just as Qingyan expected, if Kangxi wanted to promote potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn among the people, the first problem before him was the "seed problem". He could only rely on the few acres of land planted on the imperial village as seeds.
I don’t know in what year of the monkey and horse month I have to plant.
Although sweet potatoes cannot be harvested until frost occurs in winter, the precise yield per mu cannot be calculated until then.
However, the yield of potatoes was promising, and the good taste of corn was yet to come. After talking with Fuquan, Kangxi decided to impose a sea ban.
There are troops stationed on the treasure island.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, Kangxi announced a sea ban in the court, and planned to build a multi-story ship equipped with firearms and cannons. He would send Prince Chun Longxi, who was good at dealing with Westerners, to go to sea next year to have a look.
The autumn mood is getting stronger in September, and the autumn breeze is blowing.
Concubine An's six-month-old belly was already very swollen. It was not easy for Mrs. Li to get pregnant. She was very overjoyed in the early stages. Mrs. Li vomited whatever she ate, and she also faced Concubine Xuan and Concubine Yi.
joked:
"I don't know what kind of naughty nature this child was born with."
Qingyan smiled and said nothing, and used her powers to gently comfort the fetus in An Fei's belly. She secretly thought that if the fetus was her elder brother, she would be Xiao Fifteen, but the twins were calling the fetus sister. What if this fetus was her elder brother?
If the child is a little princess, then according to the sequence, wouldn't it be the fifth princess who was raised by the empress dowager in history, and later became the only fifth princess who stayed in the capital and married into the Kangxi mother clan - Wen Xian?
Half a month passed in a flash.
On September 15th, Kangxi decided to take the eldest son Yinti and the crown prince Yinreng to the south of the Yangtze River.
When the emperor went on a tour, he would definitely bring one of his concubines to receive the wives of officials along the way.
The imperial concubine is not going, Concubine Niu Hulu is lying down, and Concubine An, the first of the four concubines, is pregnant.
Concubine Yi wanted to take care of her youngest son and nephew, so she refused to go.
Kangxi didn't want to take Concubine Hui and Concubine Rong with him, so after going round and round like this, Concubine Tong finally found a chance.
Early in the morning on September 16th, Kangxi took his two sons, the eldest Tong concubine, the sensitive Zhang Jia family, and the two Chang Zai, and set out from Shenwumen to patrol the south.