Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 648 Domestication
The rooster crows, and a new day begins.

Someone is already watering the well-combed vegetable bed.

A very strange vegetable was planted in the field. The agricultural students brought it from Lingzhou. It looked like a sable, but it was a little different.

Wang Yong, who had just been promoted from the prime minister of Heqing County to the magistrate of Wangwu County, sent the seeds in person. He urged thousands of people, saying that they were bought from Hu merchants by King Xia at a huge expense. Agronomy cultivated a batch of them, and now they are distributed and expanded. Planting area.

This dish was named by King Xia himself: "Sea Beet".It is said that it is produced on the seaside of the Great Western Qin Dynasty, and it is really not easy to get here.

It is estimated that those Hu merchants who brought the seeds were also confused. How could there be a "monarch" in the Tang Dynasty who spent a lot of money for more than ten years to obtain seeds of horses, cattle, sheep, and even vegetables and fruits?Picture what?
Is there a big difference between Dashi Niu and Daqin Niu and Tang Niu?You gather different kinds of cattle in your hand, is it possible that you still want to learn from each other's strengths and crossbreed a new kind of cattle?

Although Hu merchants don't know the concept of "gene" or the benefits of collecting multiple genes, they can vaguely deduce the general context.

But it doesn't matter, it's a fool to have money and not make money.If someone wants it, just find a way to bring it there.The sovereign is truly generous in this respect, and has all the fine brocades that please him.

Plant seeds were sent batch after batch because they were portable.

Livestock are difficult, especially horses, which have been robbed several times by Uyghurs. This is really difficult.Recently, the monarch has increased the reward, but I don't know if anyone is willing to take the risk.

Liu Jingxuan rode his horse from a distance, and when he approached, he said to the little eunuch who greeted him, "Don't forget to send some fruits and vegetables to those who are close to the military commander in the afternoon."

"Father really thinks highly of those soldiers." The little eunuch said.

"Your skin is itchy, right?" Liu Jingxuan scolded with a smile: "Last year, I was almost beaten as Ximen Zhongsui's party. It was hard for me to gain King Xia's trust, so I begged for such a position. Those who are close to the military department are all servants of King Xia. Qu, you can't be regarded as an outsider, so you can't offend him."

"I know." The little eunuch smiled.

Liu Jingxuan, who was originally a Mesozoic eunuch, was implicated in Ximen Zhongsui's resignation.In desperation, he begged his grandpa to tell his grandma, but no one dared to save him. He was about to be doomed to death by a saint. In a flash of inspiration, he begged the Shuofang Army to enter the Zouyuan, and finally got in touch with Shao Shude, and was able to be released as a Luoyuan Make.

In fact, Wang Yanfan, the envoy of the Sixteenth Palace, wanted to compete with him.

No one in Chang'an now knows that Li Sheng is not good at speaking, and Shao Sheng is the one who has the final say.The Sixteenth King’s House Envoy is in charge of guarding the royal family’s neighboring kings. It was originally called the Ten King’s House Envoy, but later changed its name to the Fifteen King’s House Envoy. This will be called the Sixteenth King’s House Envoy. In fact, they all mean the same thing, helping the emperor look after his relatives.

The envoy of Luoyuan, apparently an official of the North Division, is in charge of Luoyang Linyuan, but actually serves the Jinxian Temple in Wangwushan.

As soon as the news came out, the eunuchs in the inner court were gearing up one after another, and Wang Yanfan was not the only one who was interested in this job?All the envoys of chicken workshops (those who raise fighting cocks for the court), envoys of dog workshops, and cattle and sheep all jumped out, and the competition was fierce.

In the end, Shao Shude made a decision to let Liu Jingxuan, who was almost killed by the saint and Han Quanhui, be the envoy of Luoyuan, and in fact help him control the Golden Immortal Temple.

The vast forests and river valleys near Jinxian Temple are now also classified as Dongdu Linyuan, which nominally belongs to the imperial court and is managed by eunuchs sent by the imperial court, so there is nothing wrong with it.

The Jinxian Temple, which has been expanded for a round, is the core building of this forest garden.

The mountains are cool in summer, and Shao Shude spends his summer here recently.Apart from the five hundred guards, there are only two thousand warriors selected from the private tribe under his name, that is, the guards.

There are a lot of land attached to Jinxian Temple, and they are all good land in the river valley.Liu Jingxuan rented it to the party members of the Tuoba tribe who moved nearby to cultivate it, and the pasture was also given to them to graze, which was the biggest income of Jinxian Temple.

But these money and food belong to Jinxian Temple. Except for the owner of the temple and Tuobapu who can share the benefits, other people have to work, such as the Chu family, the Su family, the Xie family, and the new Jiang family. , Lu's family, and even Zhang Quanyi's youngest daughter, who is not very old, has to help gather firewood.

Those who will be watering the sea beets are Xie and Jiang, one is Xie Bin's daughter and Zhang Quanyi's eldest daughter-in-law, and the other is Jiang Congxu's younger sister.

"Has Hua Niang ever done farm work before?" Seeing her clumsy appearance, Mrs. Xie asked.

"No." Jiang's eyes turned red when he heard that.

The daughter of the Shouzhou Emperor's family is deeply loved by her father and brother, so how can she go to work in the fields?Not to mention her, sister-in-law Lu was born in a scholarly family, let alone work, but now she has to wash and cook, which is miserable.

"Then use more dim sum." Mrs. Xie said bluntly: "Sea beets are highly valued by the King, who said that they can produce sugar and benefit the common people."

Sea beet (Beta vulgaris var. maritima) is native to the Mediterranean coast, and later spread eastward into Asia and Arabia.This is actually a relatively primitive wild beet, which may be somewhat different from the original version. It has undergone preliminary domestication and cultivation by humans, and the sugar content in the rhizome has increased.However, compared with the sugar content of sugar beets cultivated in later generations, there is still a big gap, and it needs to be continuously purified and solidified for certain characteristics, and further breeding.

The domestication and cultivation of plants has always been the focus of the work of agricultural students. For this reason, a large-scale botanical garden has been established in Lingzhou to preserve the collected seeds and further optimize the breeding.

On the Wangwushan side, it is very likely that a second botanical garden will be built. After all, the climate here is different from Lingzhou.

In different climates and soil environments, breeding may have different results, so this is very necessary.

"Yes." Jiang replied with his head down.

Seeing that she was pitiful, Mrs. Xie also sighed, and said, "Let's go, let's go to the carrot and vegetable patch."

After finishing speaking, the two arrived at another vegetable border, one behind the other.

Carrots were also bought from Hu merchants in the Western Regions.

This is actually an ancient "artificial" plant. The ancestors originated from the "wild carrot" in Europe and the "giant carrot" in the Mediterranean region. After long-term cultivation and cultivation by humans, a new variety was born, which is today's "carrot". It is widely planted in West Asia.

The carrots were actually just planted.This kind of plant likes cold weather. It is usually planted in July and August and harvested in winter.It is not impossible to plant in spring, but the growth is not good and the harvest is not high.

Some people in Lingzhou have already started to grow carrots. This stuff is relatively resistant to drought and barrenness, and its yield is extremely high. Absolutely, growing carrots does not require pest control. In the era of no pesticides, this is really an unparalleled advantage.

Like beets, carrots are excellent livestock feed.

Shao Shude plans to gradually popularize these two crops in the Central Plains to benefit the world.

The common people are willing to call him "Shao Sheng", not only because he can win the battle, but the main reason is that Shao Sheng has really greatly improved people's lives, at least when it comes to eating, everyone respects Shao Sheng.

Food is the most important thing for the people, and it can solve or partially solve the problem of eating. This contribution and prestige cannot be compared with anything else.

This is what Shao Shude has been pursuing that "will not disappear".

If you invent the steam engine, without the existing soil, it will slowly disappear from people's sight like the waterwheel of the Sui Dynasty.

However, the efficient agricultural production method of the three-crop rotation system will not disappear, because everyone can use it.

The introduced and cultivated seeds will not disappear, because everyone loves to plant.

It is also difficult for the excellent breeding stock bred to disappear, because it is really good and everyone loves to raise it.

The students of the agronomy system also learned the word "gene" from Shao Shude, and they now have some concepts.Knowing that the so-called genes correspond to traits, their job is to make permutations and combinations of genes to breed better livestock and crop varieties as much as possible.

Wang Yong has been writing a book recently, intending to extract this knowledge and raise it to theory.

There is an essential gap between empirical technology and theoretical science.

This habit of Wang Yong is very good. He made a very good start, refined and sublimated his experience, and provided theoretical guidance for future work.If other walks of life also have this motivation, it will be a completely new situation, and you don’t need to invent anything yourself. This kind of atmosphere or ethos is the most precious thing, compared with steam engines or iron smelting. Steel is more than a hundred times more valuable.

The carrots in the vegetable bed have sprouted, and they look very gratifying.

Xie Shi and Jiang Shi walked around and found that there was no problem, so they breathed a sigh of relief, put the tools back in the woodshed, and went to the back together.

Mrs. Chu leaned on the window sill, her gaze fell on the courtyard without focus through the pane, as if she was carefully appreciating the dust in the air.

Mrs. Xie and Mrs. Jiang walked into the yard while they were talking, Mrs. Chu's eyes suddenly focused, and she struggled quietly.

"Don't move." Shao Shude patted, and said: "Zhang Quanyi spent all his family wealth in Ruyang, rewarded the army generously, encouraged the soldiers to defend the city, and killed my son. I heard that his bride, Mrs. Jiang, also sold the dowry. As a military reward."

"You really did a good job!" Shao Shude gasped.

Mrs. Chu turned her head, half of her face was covered by her disheveled hair, and she begged in a low voice, "Don't let outsiders see it."

The peripheral vision from the corner of Xie's eyes seemed to turn this way, and Chu almost crouched down in fright, but she couldn't move at all.

Footsteps sounded outside and stopped at the door.Chu's heart, which was about to jump out of his chest, retracted again.

After a long time, someone opened the door and walked in.

"Who is looking for me?" Shao Shude sat on the bed with a ruddy complexion.

Chu hid behind the screen with her skirt in her arms.

"Your Majesty, it's Heyang Song Situ who is here." Tuoba Pu threw himself into Shao Shude's arms and said in a tired voice.

Shao Shude felt a little guilty, and said: "Could it be that Zhu Quanzhong commanded a hundred thousand troops to cross the great river to the north and invade Heyang? It must be! Invite him to Lin Zhongyuan, and I will go there in a while."

Reluctantly, Tuobapu left Shao Shude's embrace and went to deliver the order.Guanzhong was still short of staff, she planned to pick some maids from the Tuoba Department, but Shao Shude didn't respond.

It would be great if there were more people, there are not many people to call at the moment.

(End of this chapter)