Chapter 828 Take away a few broken jars in Baoshan
In ancient times when food and clothing restricted the population, Liu Zhang was very concerned about farming. He took the tubers and looked at them carefully, his eyes widened: "Red sweet potato? Is this impossible?"
"Red sweet potato?" Huang Yueying looked at Liu Zhang's face and knew that Liu Zhang seemed to know him again. It was really embarrassing. She also claimed to be skilled in farming, and she also helped develop new farming methods, hybrids, and spacing, which increased agricultural output. However,
Now he lost to Liu Zhang, who came from a royal family and seemed to have never worked in the fields.
Liu Zhang carefully observed the tubers. If they said they were red potatoes, Liu Zhang would never believe them. Red potatoes, also known as sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes, were brought back from the Americas by Columbus after he discovered them.
Red potato has strong disease resistance, drought tolerance, and adaptability to soil. The reason why the population in the Ming Dynasty expanded from tens of millions to 200 million has a lot to do with the introduction of high-yielding crops such as red potato, potatoes, and corn.
It is generally accepted that red sweet potato comes from the Americas. Where did this red sweet potato come from? No, this does not seem to be red sweet potato.
Liu Zhang pried open the outer layer with his hands, revealing a dark gray fruit inside. Liu Zhang frowned. The red sweet potato fruit was white, but the tuber he took was not white, but he didn't know if it was because it had been stored for too long.
Liu Zhang suddenly remembered an allusion. He had seen a plant atlas before, which listed plants from ancient times. There was one species in it that aroused Liu Zhang's interest. It was not for any other reason than that the plant was called sweet potato, which is similar to the sweet potato introduced from Europe.
Same name.
In fact, the name of sweet potato comes from that offering.
The offering is called "Southern Grass and Trees", and it records a kind of crop.
Sweet, covered with yam and the like, or taro. The roots and leaves are also like taro and are as solid as a fist. Some are as big as an ou. The skin is purple and the flesh is white. When steamed and eaten, it tastes like yam and is not very cold in nature.
In the land of Jiuzhuya, the people in the sea did not cultivate crops, but dug the ground and planted sweet crops, harvested them when they were ripe in autumn, steamed and dried them and cut them into pieces like rice grains.
Here we talk about a crop called "Sweet Potato". The description in it is sweet, mild and non-toxic, which are consistent with the red potato. The method of planting is described as casual, which also echoes the rudimentary cultivation of red potato.
It can be used as a staple food and requires no management, which are all characteristics of red potato.
Only the description of the stems and leaves is different from that of the sweet potato. But it is roughly the same. It is just that this sweet potato is closer to the shape of a taro, but it is definitely not a taro.
Most of the characteristics are consistent with the red potato, but only a few are different from the red potato. Therefore, when the red potato was introduced to China, it was called sweet potato, but in some places it was changed to sweet potato. Not only does the red potato taste sweet.
"Southern Grass and Trees" was written in the Jin Dynasty, much earlier than the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Zhang speculated that the "sweet potato" described in "Southern Vegetation and Trees" may be a crop similar to red potato. It also said that it was grown by "the people of the sea in the land of Old Pearl Cliff".
"Old" means that it was in the past, probably before the book "Southern Grass and Trees" was written, or even disappeared a long time ago, but the author just learned that there was such a crop.
As for people in the sea, in the era of the ancient city of Haitou, wasn't Haitou also a sea city? People in Zhuya can grow this kind of "sweet potato", why can't people in Haitou grow it?
It is very possible that this "sweet potato" is an ancient crop that has disappeared for thousands of years, and only a few fragments remain, which cannot be verified.
If the tuber in this jar is really the "sweet potato" recorded in "Southern Grass and Trees", then it has at least several characteristics. The first is that it is easy to grow. It is not sure whether it is drought-resistant, flood-resistant, or both.
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The second is that the output is large and can be used as a staple food.
Based on these two characteristics, whether it was red potato or not, whether it was the sweet potato described in "Southern Grass and Trees" or not, Liu Zhang felt that it was worth a try. If the try was successful, it would definitely be an outstanding contribution to the Chinese nation.
The average yield of hybrid rice is 1,000 jins per mu, that of pumpkins is 3,000 jins per mu, and that of red sweet potato is 4,000 to 6,000 jins per mu. In general, the yield can reach 5,000 jins per mu.
Such a huge yield per mu is why pig raising became popular after the introduction of red potato, and why rural areas used red potato to fatten pigs, even in the 1980s when food was not abundant.
If the planting is successful, this jar of tubers will be worth ten thousand times more than a jar of gold. Liu Zhang didn't know whether his guess was right or whether he could grow it successfully, so he immediately asked the soldiers to seal it and named it Hongyao.
Then I found some seeds in the temple, but there was no surprise. Hu beans and winter melons have been planted, but only peanuts. Now the peanuts in the big man are gray-skinned and have small particles, but the peanuts here are dark red, indicating that in
It should have been red a long time ago and the particles were large.
Liu Zhang ordered his people to carefully take away the pumpkin seed jars, red sweet potato jars, and peanut jars.
Wandering to the back hall, in addition to some houses, there was only one hall with many spiritual tablets placed in it. Huang Yueying recognized the characters on it. It turned out to be the character Sanmiao. This was the real character Sanmiao, not the "Numbers of Sanmiao" and "Science of Sanmiao" made by Liu Zhang.
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From these spiritual tablets and the hexagrams on the side, Zhan Hailan and other Loulan people knew that they were also descendants of Sanmiao and had migrated from the Central Plains in the past.
Although the palace is very splendid, it is only a small country after all, and cannot be compared with the palaces in the Central Plains. The tour was quickly finished, and Liu Zhang led the people to the front hall.
It was amazing to see that after such a long trip, only a few jars were taken away. He was very angry and said to Liu Zhang: "My lord, I think we should move all these gold and silver jewelry. At worst, we can leave some for the Loulan people.
We can buy a lot of food."
"Do you think that if there is gold and silver, there will be food?" Liu Zhang asked.
"Isn't it? Apart from other things, the gold masks that are hung in the statues here. According to the current highest price for our big men, one gold mask can be exchanged for several thousand tons of grain. They are still sold in pieces. I think the artistic content of those gold masks is very high.
It’s high, it might be worth hundreds of thousands of shi of food.”
Liu Zhang looked at him in surprise. This guy still understands art. He smiled and said: "The market price of grain is determined based on supply and demand. Farmers produce so much grain. Why is the price like that now?
This is because gold and silver are not flooding, and not all of them are flooding into the grain market.
If we melt all these gold masks to buy grain, then gold and silver will be overflowing, and all of them will flow into the grain market. Not to mention the price of the grain will rise sharply, and people will not even have enough to eat. How much will they sell to you?
?”
"This..." He was so stunned that Huang Yueying looked at Liu Zhang in surprise. She thought she was omnipotent, but her lord was really omnipotent. How could someone from a royal family understand so many different religions?
thing?
Liu Zhang shook his head and said: "Our Sichuan army came with more money and less food. Now we have purchased Cao Sun's food in large quantities, which has pushed up the price, and the two parties have controlled the sale of food.
If we spend more gold and silver to buy grain, it will not do us any good, it will only be wasted money and given to Cao Cao and Sun Quan in vain."
"Oh." He rubbed his head, feeling ashamed.
"Forget it, these statues, masks, golden cranes, jade steps, reliefs, and jade are all things left by the ancients. Let's preserve them and leave them as a memory for our descendants."
"Oh." I can't exchange for food. I don't know what these gold, silver and jewelry are used for.
Liu Zhang walked towards Zhan Hailan and said to Zhan Hailan: "Your Majesty, the things here are extremely rare. They are the wealth left to you by your Loulan ancestors and to the entire Chinese nation. Except for the gold and silver in the left hall, the rest are from
You Loulan people will keep it safe."
In the narrow sense, Huaxia refers to the descendants of Yan and Huang, but anyone with a little common sense should know that Chi You should also be classified as Huaxia, so the Sanmiao people are naturally Chinese, and the wealth left by the ancestors of Loulan can also be regarded as the common wealth of the Chinese people.
After hearing Liu Zhang's words, Zhan Hailan breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since he saw these gold, silver and jade articles, Zhan Hailan was worried that Liu Zhang would take them for himself. Unexpectedly, Liu Zhang was willing to hand them over to the Loulan people. Zhan Hailan was very grateful to Liu Zhang.
As for the gold and silver in stock, Zhan Hailan certainly wants it, but the Han army first restored Loulan and rescued so many Loulan people in this landslide. This place was also opened by Latia. Even if it is because the Han army is now
Even though Loulan was the complete suzerainty, it was impossible to give the Han the benefits without giving any benefits.
You can't really just give people a few bad things.
The people of Loulan care more about the relics of their ancestors. The gold and silver in stock can only be equivalent to currency, so they don't care that much. Liu Zhang's conditions are acceptable to Zhan Hailan.
But Zhan Hailan soon ran into trouble again. How could the Loulan people protect so many priceless relics? Although the Western Region was now pacified by Liu Zhang, if the news that the Loulan people possessed so much wealth spread, the country would not be subjugated in ten years.
The country will surely perish in a hundred years.
Moreover, Loulan's soil erosion is becoming more and more serious. It is certain that the national power will become weaker and weaker. Even if no one takes Loulan's advice, Loulan will disappear on its own. What will happen to the wealth then?
Seeing Zhan Hailan frowning and saying nothing, Liu Zhang said to Zhan Hailan: "Is Her Majesty worried that the Loulan people don't appreciate the wealth? Or is Loulan about to disappear?"
Regarding the demise of Loulan, no one here is more aware than Liu Zhang. Even those Loulan people who are currently struggling on the edge of water shortage cannot imagine that the city they live in now will turn into thousands of miles of yellow sand in a few hundred years.
Loulan is bound to perish. Liu Zhang remembered that during the Jin Dynasty, Loulan needed water supplies from the Han Dynasty and Gaochang in the north, and its population dropped sharply.
Zhan Hailan nodded.
Liu Zhang said: "Many countries in the Western Regions have relocated their countries due to desertification. This time, Yarkand has also been relocated to Luntai due to the war. I heard that the Loulan people have been living here because you are looking for the ancient city. Now that the ancient city has been found, you are still here."
Is there any mission?”
"Ah?" Zhan Hailan looked at Liu Zhang, shook his head, and suddenly thought, yes, now that the ancient city has been found, but apart from a lot of precious works of art, what else do Loulan people have?