Jin Feng immediately stopped: "Is it Lao Wang and the others who are back?"
Back in Xichuan, Jin Feng and Qing Xinyao sent an expedition team to Jiaozhi to search for Champa rice seeds.
In the first few months, the expedition team occasionally sent news back, but three months after setting off, the news stopped.
Although Jin Feng was worried, he had no choice but to secretly pray in his heart for their safe return.
Now more than a year has passed, and Jin Feng finally waited for news about the expedition team again.
"Lao Wang died on the road and did not come back..."
Xiaoyu's tone was relatively low: "The leader now is Lao Feng's third brother, Wang Laosan."
Jin Feng's heart sank and he asked: "How many people have they returned?"
"Thirty-two of our people have returned, and a total of 263 of the people sent by His Majesty and Lord Qing have returned!"
"Alas..." Jin Feng's expression became serious when he heard this.
When forming the expedition team, he sent out two platoons with a total of seventy-two people, but now only thirty-two have returned.
The casualty rate is more than half!
The people sent by Ninth Princess and Qing Xinyao had a higher casualty rate.
"Where are they?"
"When I received the news, they had already arrived at the Sichuan-Sichuan border. I sent six speedboats to pick them up. If everything goes well, we should be able to reach the dock this evening!" Xiaoyu replied.
"Eagle, prepare the airship and go to the dock to pick up the brothers from the expedition team!" Jin Feng turned around and said.
"Yes!" Eagle turned around and ran away without mentioning Li Jishan again.
Although his position has never been high, he is in charge of the flying team and is considered a core member of Jin Feng's command. He has spent more time with Jin Feng and has an understanding of Jin Feng's character.
Let alone Li Jishan at this time, even if Chen Ji comes, Jin Feng will not care about him.
"Husband, I also want to go to the dock to meet the warriors of the expeditionary force!" said the Ninth Princess.
"Okay!" Jin Feng nodded slightly.
The escorts of the expeditionary force traveled thousands of miles to find high-quality crop seeds for Dakang. They were worthy of the name of a hero. As the current emperor of Dakang, the Ninth Princess went to the dock to greet him in person, which could also express her importance.
"Xiaoyu, send someone to inform Mr. Wei and Lao Tan and ask them to go too."
Jin Feng turned to look at Xiaoyu again.
"good!"
Xiaoyu turned around and left, and soon brought Wei Wuya and Lao Tan in.
"gentlemen!"
Wei Wuya and Lao Tan first nodded to Jin Feng, and then saluted the Ninth Princess: "Greetings to Your Majesty!"
"Free gift for both of you!"
The Ninth Princess raised her right hand to indicate that the two of them were level.
"Mr. Wei, Lao Tan, thank you for your hard work!"
Jin Feng said with a smile: "You are not young anymore, you can leave the heavy work to the young people!"
Since last year, a test field has been set up in the village, managed by Wei Wuya and Lao Tan, to cultivate excellent seeds according to the hybridization and grafting mentioned by Jin Feng.
Since this was the first time for everyone to do this kind of thing, everyone was inexperienced, so this year's hybridization experiments all failed.
But most of the grafted fruit trees have survived, and if there are no accidents, they will be able to bear fruit next year or the year after.
In addition, Wei Wuya and Lao Tan followed the methods taught by Jin Feng to fertilize and plant two fields of wheat and rice that were common before Dakang, and the yields were greatly increased.
Hybridization and grafting take a long time to verify the results and promote them, but retting does not.
After being proven by Wei Wuya and Lao Tan, retting technology has now been promoted in Jinchuan and surrounding areas.
Lao Tan has lived in the mountains for most of his life, and it seems that he has not changed much. However, Wei Wuya was a famous doctor in the county before. He cannot be said to be pampered, but he is definitely a well-off family with no worries about food and clothing.
But after staying in Xihewan for more than a year, Wei Wuya's tan was even darker than that of Lao Tan.
However, Wei Wuya seemed to be in very good condition. He waved his hand and said with a smile: "Don't be afraid of hard work, as long as there are gains! By the way, sir, why did you ask us to come here?"
"Yes, there is still life in the fields!" Lao Tan followed.
Hearing what Lao Tan said, Wei Wuya couldn't help but roll his eyes at him.
This guy is really stubborn. Even if there is life in the fields, he can't talk about it at this time.
If it were normal times, Jin Feng would definitely tease Lao Tan, but now he was not in the mood and said: "The brothers from the expedition team are back. I'll call you two to come over and greet them together!"
"Both of us are farmers, so let's not go..."
Wei Wuya thought that the expedition team Jin Feng mentioned was the troops that the escort agency had returned from fighting somewhere, so he instinctively wanted to refuse.
But before he finished speaking, Wei Wuya felt something was wrong.
Since he came to Xihewan, Jin Feng has never interfered in his life. Why was he suddenly asked to meet some expeditionary force?
Something's wrong!
Jin Feng is not this kind of person!
Suddenly a flash of lightning flashed in Wei Wuya's mind, and his breathing became rapid: "Sir, was it you who told me last year about the expedition to the south to search for Champa rice and cotton seeds?"
"Yes!" Jin Feng nodded.
"They're back?" Wei Wuya's eyes suddenly widened. He grabbed Jin Feng's sleeve and asked, "Did they find Champa rice and cotton seeds?"
"I didn't ask about that." Jin Feng shook his head.
Just now he was only concerned about the casualties of the expedition team and did not ask these things.
The ninth princess was about to call Xiaoyu to ask, but found that Xiaoyu was not in the yard.
The space in the yard is limited and can only land one airship. Except for Qin'er Zhu'er Bei Qianxun who protects Jin Feng and the Ninth Princess, as well as Wei Wuya and Lao Tan who were called by Jin Feng, the rest of the entourage need to go to other landing points.
Take another airship.
Just as he was about to send someone to call Xiaoyu to ask, the airship flying team arrived.
The Eagle piloted the specially-made Xinyuan airship and landed in the yard, while other airships landed in the open space around the yard.
When Jin Feng and others all boarded the basket, the eagle slowly took off in the airship.
This was the first time for Wei Wuya and Lao Tan to ride in an airship. They both lay on the edge of the basket and looked down curiously.
Compared with airplanes, airships are very slow, but they can ignore terrain factors and walk directly in a straight line in the air. Their overall speed is much faster than that of war horses. They landed smoothly on the double humps before the sun set.
After coming down from the double hump, the group rushed to the dock under the protection of the escort.
"The one riding the white horse is Mr. Jin, right?"
"Yes, I have met Mr. many times in Xihewan, it's him!"
"Then the person riding the red horse next to you must be His Highness the Ninth Prince?"
"Still calling you Your Highness? Now you are Your Majesty!"
"Oh, it's so smooth!"
"Fortunately, both sir and Your Majesty are generous people, otherwise you would have been miserable!"
"What do you think Sir and Your Majesty are doing at the dock?"
"Looking at this posture, you must be here to pick someone up, right?"
"Who else in the world is worthy of being met by Sir and Your Majesty from Xihewan in person?"
"Yes, when King Jin came over and Master Qinghou came back, neither sir nor His Majesty came to greet him!"