The reason why he wanted to stay here for a few days first was because Chen Deng and Taishi Ci were in charge of Guangling at this time, and there was no war, so he was not in a hurry to go there.
Then there was another person in Haixi City besides Zhen Yao whom he wanted to see.
Zang Hong.
At first Yuan Xi asked Zang Hong to take people to Guangling, but later he tried his best and found that it was not appropriate to ask Zang Hong to go to Guangling.
As the leader of the Jujube Alliance, Zang Hong is technically the same generation as Yuan Shao, while Chen Deng and Tai Shici, as a subordinate of Yuan Xi, are inevitably a little constrained when facing Zang Hong, a local powerhouse.
It would be fine if Zang Hong is a man who knows how to advance and retreat, but he has a history of rebellion. If he really gets mad and does something outrageous, he will be in trouble.
Guangling City is Yuan Xi's most important strategic seat in Xuzhou, so he did not hesitate to put generals like Tai Shici here to guard it. Finally, Yuan Xi thought about it again and again and sent an urgent letter to Chen Deng, asking him to properly arrange for Zang Hong and his other
Soldiers and people under his command.
Chen Deng understood this and immediately sent out soldiers to lead the way and relocated Zang Hong and others to Haixi.
After Yuan Xi learned about it, he was quite satisfied. As Haixi is a port, many people go to sea to do business, and the people's customs are strong. This is somewhat of a restriction for Zang Hong.
Moreover, accidents occur frequently in maritime trade, and the personnel attrition rate is very high. The advantage is that they can make a fortune quickly. The nearly 10,000 people brought by Zang Hong want to make a living, and there is a high probability that they will choose this path. This will undoubtedly also provide benefits for Haixi maritime trade.
Add new blood.
But Yuan Xi was also a little worried. As the guardian of Haixi City, could Zhen Yao be able to suppress Zang Hong?
For Yuan Xi, this important port in Haixi cannot be lost, so he must come over in person and have a good talk with Zang Hong.
He took the people down to the pier and found Zhen Yao greeting him on the shore, with uncontrollable joy on his face.
Zhen Yao has already learned that Zhen Mi gave birth to a son, which is also a reassurance for him. After all, among the great families of the century, there are many cases where the male heir has another wife.
Nowadays, Yuan Xi's power is getting stronger and stronger, and the status gap between him and the Zhen family is getting wider and wider. If another wife gives birth to a son first and Yuan Xi establishes another heir, the Zhen family will actually have no ability to resist.
So after hearing the news that Zhen Mi had given birth to a son, everyone in the Zhen family was relieved.
Yuan Xi walked a few steps quickly, held Zhen Yao's hand and said, "Thank you for your hard work, brother."
When Zhen Yao heard this title, he felt even more happy. Just as he was about to speak, he saw a heroic female general following Yuan Xi with two short halberds on her back. He quickly calmed down and said, "I have seen the envoy."
He thought in his mind that this was the legendary only daughter of Marquis Wen. Not only was she the daughter of a general, but her status would be higher after becoming a king. She was also closely related to Yuan Xi, so she was obviously very favored. The younger sister had a strong rival.
.
Yuan Xi was in a very good mood, because he saw that there were extremely frequent ships on the Haixi Pier. It was obvious that Zhen Yao was running the place well. He asked: "Have overseas merchant ships found any new goods?"
Zhen Yao quickly took out a few bamboo slips and said: "In the past year, five ships have returned from overseas, and the goods they brought have all been written on them."
He looked ashamed, "I bought the cotton you mentioned, but there are some problems."
Yuan Xi was originally full of expectations, but when he heard this, he said, "What's going on?"
Zhen Yao sighed: "A ship arrived in Tianzhu and got the cotton and seeds that the young master said."
"But on the way back, we encountered wind and waves. The goods were completely damaged and almost all were lost."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on him.
Sea trade is very risky, and it is not easy to get cotton from Tianzhu. Later, sea ships can be sent there again according to the same trade route, but even if it goes very smoothly, it will take at least one or two years.
Even if you get the seeds, you have to find suitable soil and area for cultivation. These things are suitable for Tianzhu, but they may not be very suitable for the soil of the Central Plains. No one knows what conditions are most suitable. We can only keep trying to cross-breed, and finally select the soil suitable for the local area.
Climate plants come.
This may be a very long process. If you are unlucky, you may get nothing for a long time. After this, it is still unknown when large-scale planting will be achieved.
Although Yuan Xi was in his prime and could afford to wait for a few years, ten years, or even decades, the world could not afford to wait.
The late Han Dynasty entered the first of the two major ice ages in Chinese history. As a result, people had no experience in dealing with it. As a result, the population declined on a large scale.
Some research shows that the population of the late Han Dynasty probably shrank by at least 30 million, of whom less than one-tenth actually died in wars.
Nine out of ten of the remaining people died of plague, hunger and cold.
Not to mention hunger, if cotton can be promoted, it will be extremely effective in protecting against plague and cold.
Clothing comes first when it comes to food, clothing, housing and transportation. In Yuan Xi’s view, cotton is one of the key items that helped China survive the Ice Age!
Now, when his ambition took the first step, he suffered a devastating blow. How could this not make him feel uncomfortable?
Zhen Yao saw it and whispered: "The warehouse at the dock still contains the goods that were rescued at that time. Would you like to go and take a look?"
Yuan Xi regained a glimmer of hope and said, "Okay, let's go together."
Everyone arrived in front of several large warehouses. Zhen Yao ordered the maritime officer to open the door of the warehouse. Yuan Xi looked inside and saw hundreds of boxes piled scatteredly inside.
Zhen Yao said: "These are all the damaged goods after the ship was hit by the disaster. I collected them all and stored them here."
Under his leadership, everyone found several huge boxes.
As soon as he opened the box and took a look, Yuan Xi knew there was no hope.
The dense piles inside were indeed cotton seeds, but now they were covered with withered buds and leaves.
Zhen Yao sighed: "The merchant who came back said that he specifically asked the locals how to plant. He said that cotton seeds are first exposed to the sun, then soaked in water before sowing, and finally sown in early spring when the sun is sunny, and a small amount of water is applied.
It can sprout.”
"This merchant ship encountered a storm and huge waves when it came back. Water entered the cabin and flooded the entire cargo hold."
"The ship drifted for more than half a month before it was drained out of the warehouse, repaired, and then returned to Haixi."
"But the goods inside are almost ruined, including these seeds."
Yuan Xi opened a box next to him, which contained cotton bolls, indicating that these were indeed cotton seeds.
But this box of cotton bolls can only spin half a piece of cloth even if it is stretched to death. What use can it be used for?
Yuan Xi looked at these broken seeds and sighed. After soaking in sea water for such a long time, there was basically no hope.
He was unwilling to accept it and said: "Find some farmland, soak it in water and plant it. Let's treat it like a dead horse and treat it alive."
After hearing this, Zhen Yao quickly accepted the order and found someone to make arrangements.
In fact, Yuan Xi also understood that these seeds were basically useless. Even if there were a few plants in stock, what could be done? How many years would it take to grow them to a large scale?
But he was really unwilling to do so. He was about to succeed, but an accident happened. Moreover, cotton was promoted a year or two late, and many people in the world might die.
He suppressed the annoyance in his heart and inspected other goods, and found that some goods were indeed very useful.
For example, valuable items such as spices, woolen shawls, tin blocks, silver jewelry, ivory, etc. can make a lot of money if sold to the Central Plains nobles. But compared with cotton, these are icing on the cake and are not important at all.
, you can just defraud the rich out of their money.
He suddenly blinked, pulled out a tightly sealed iron box from the corner, and said, "What is this?"
Zhen Yao quickly found the key, opened it, and said: "This is the seed that the Zhen family merchant bought in Siam. It is said that after it is planted, it will grow into a sapling, and it will grow into a tree in seven or eight years."
"There is white water in the tree, which can be cut and stored in bowls. After solidification, it can be used to make utensils."
"The seeds are not easy to preserve and need to be sown as soon as possible, so the trader specially found an iron box to seal and preserve them."
"Fortunately, there was no water in the wind and waves, so the seeds should still be usable."
Yuan Xi was startled, isn't this just rubber?
He then cursed secretly, why the iron box did not contain cotton seeds!
Although rubber is good, its use in this era is quite limited. More importantly, China is not suitable for growing rubber at all!
There was initially a conclusion for rubber planting that the area north of 15 degrees north latitude is not suitable for planting rubber. The area north of 17 degrees north latitude is even known as the "rubber planting restricted area". Hainan, the southernmost part of China, is located between 18 degrees north latitude and 20 degrees north latitude.
between.
It was not until two thousand years later that the Chinese people broke through this restricted area and allowed large-scale planting of rubber trees in Chinese territory. But how can Yuan Xi have this technology now?
He put down the box without interest, hesitated for a moment, and then handed it to Zhen Yao, "I remember that this thing can be planted in February or March. Find a piece of land and try it. If it doesn't work, it's okay."
Zhen Yao agreed, thinking that seeing Yuan Xi acting like this, he seemed to have no confidence. Could it be that he had already seen this thing?
Yuan Xi felt a little uncomfortable, but when he saw Zhen Yao's uneasy look, he immediately came to his senses, took Zhen Yao's hand and said, "Brother did a good job."
"Haosheng compensates and appeases those merchants. After all, it is not easy to be in danger at sea and still save one's life. After all, they are working for us."
"Don't chill their hearts."
Zhen Yao quickly accepted the order, and Yuan Xi asked again: "Where is Zang Hong now?"
Zhen Yao replied: "Now I have made a house for him to live in."
He lowered his voice and said, "This man is also strange. He often stays at home. Even when he goes out, he goes to the seaside to look at it. I don't know how to deal with him."
Yuan Xi nodded, "You and I will go there."
Not long after, everyone arrived at a nearby mansion. Zhen Yao stepped forward and spoke to the gatekeeper. After a while, two women opened the door and welcomed everyone in. They said, "Master, you would like to invite your distinguished guests."
Zhen Yao felt unhappy when he saw that Zang Hong did not come out to greet them in person. Yuan Xi took a look at the two women. Judging from their clothes, they should be Zang Hong's concubines.
I just don’t know if these two were the concubines of later generations who were cooked by Zang Hong and given to the common soldiers in the city to make food when Dongwuyang was besieged and food was deprived of food?