Li Zhi, don't be a coward

Chapter 818 Food and Population

The taste of roasted sweet potatoes made the family full of praise. As Li Qinzai said before, it melts in the mouth, soft and glutinous, with refreshing sweetness.

Each person had a baked sweet potato. After eating, everyone was still a little bit unsatisfied. Qiao'er sucked her fingers reluctantly, while Cui Jie and Jin Xiang wiped their mouths gracefully.

"Husband..." Cui Jie tugged Li Qinzai's arm coquettishly: "When will our family have roasted sweet potatoes next time?"

Li Qinzai smiled wryly and said, "At least until next year. This year's total harvest is more than 80 catties. If I can steal a few, it's a violation of heaven."

Cui Jie sighed, and said with a bitter face: "If you are pregnant, you want to eat a baked sweet potato, but you can't..."

As he spoke, he caressed his swollen abdomen with great pity, and his resentment was beyond words.

Li Qinzai smiled: "You don't want to be a monster, it's good to eat one, the emperor didn't even eat it, think about how lucky you are."

Under the corridor by the courtyard, a voice suddenly came out in the dark night: "What did I not eat?"

The faces of Li Qinzai's family changed completely. Cui Jie and Jin Xiang looked at Li Qinzai in panic, while Qiao'er silently kicked the sweet potato peels on the ground into the garden.

At the critical moment, his son was reliable. This skillful method of destroying corpses and traces must have gone through the test of blood and fire many times.

"What the heck! Put the grill away!" Li Qinzai was also a little nervous.

Jin Xiang hurriedly put away the grill on the charcoal fire, Cui Jie was so anxious that she didn't know what to do, she simply kicked the charcoal stove, with a bang, the red charcoal fire scattered all over the ground, like starlight.

In the darkness, Li Zhi's faint voice came: "Don't cover it up, I have seen it..."

The whole family froze, and then saw Li Zhi walking out of the darkness.

Li Qinzai stepped forward to salute without changing his face: "Your Majesty hasn't rested yet? I and my family are enjoying the moon in the courtyard and talking about family relationships..."

Li Zhi looked up, the night sky was gloomy, starless and moonless, the darkness seemed to be silently mocking Li Qinzai's nonsense.

Li Zhi sighed: "Aren't you even willing to use your brain to make up nonsense now? Is it so unworthy of you to fool me?"

Li Qinzai said guiltily: "Your Majesty came down suddenly, and I didn't have time to make up too perfect nonsense. Your Majesty forgives me."

Qiao'er obviously didn't clean the battlefield too cleanly. When Li Zhi approached, he found the roasted sweet potato skins on the ground, and the sweet sweet smell of sweet potatoes still lingered in the air.

Li Zhi's cheeks twitched a few times, and he said, "Li Jingchu, you really deserve to die..."

"Drinking in the hall just now, I saw you sneaking away, so I knew you must have done nothing good. I followed all the way, and I did not disappoint me." Li Zhi gritted his teeth and said, "There are dozens of catties of sweet potatoes in total. How much wasted? There are only a few dozen catties in the entire Tang Dynasty, do you want to save the seeds next year?"

"Your Majesty, I'm guilty," Li Qinzai couldn't help but said, "However, this thing is easy to grow, and it will grow all over the mountains and fields next year. At that time, Your Majesty will be very annoyed. Don't worry, Your Majesty."

Li Zhi snorted and said, "If one day the food of the Tang Dynasty spreads all over the mountains and plains like weeds, wouldn't I be crazy about it?"

Looking at the sweet potato peels that hadn't been cleaned up on the ground, Li Zhi sighed quietly: "...I didn't leave any of them for me, you really deserve to die."

Li Qinzai blinked, and pulled out a fist-sized raw sweet potato from his bosom like a magic trick, and said, "Your Majesty, I left you one..."

Li Zhi was suddenly surprised and delighted: "You, how much did you steal?"

Li Qinzai said innocently: "It's gone, it's really gone. This is the last one."

Li Zhi waved his hand in grief and indignation: "Grill it for me! You guys are enjoying it, and I'm still saving my life, why? I can't do it!"

Cui Jie and Jin Xiang laughed lightly, and after saluting, they tactfully led Qiao'er to leave, leaving the space in the courtyard for the two of them.

The charcoal fire was rekindled and the grill was set up. Li Qinzai put the last sweet potato on the grill.

Not long after, the sweet potatoes were ripe, and Li Zhi couldn't wait to peel them and eat them, screaming and screaming when they were so hot.

"Okay, delicious!" Li Zhi's eyes lit up: "As Jing Chu said, this product is sweet and glutinous in the mouth, and has an excellent taste, much better than rice and wheat."

Three times, five times, two times, Li Zhi quickly finished eating the whole sweet potato, licking his lips with unsatisfied desire.

Li Qinzai suggested with ill intentions: "If your Majesty has not eaten enough, why don't you give me a decree, how many more will I get?"

Li Zhi woke up immediately, pointed at him and said solemnly: "Remember, before the sweet potatoes are harvested next year, you are not allowed to take any more, otherwise you will be dealt with by military law. I will give the guards who guard the sweet potatoes a blow." Strict decree, all the remaining sweet potatoes are numbered, and if there is one missing, you will be punished."

Li Qinzai sighed. He knew that he might not be able to eat sweet potatoes this year.

After eating the roasted sweet potatoes, Li Zhi fulfilled his wish, and sat in the courtyard to activate the sage mode.

"Jingchu, you said that in a few years, the Tang Dynasty will really be full of sweet potatoes, and the people in the world will no longer have to worry about famine. Will the Tang community last for ten thousand years?" Li Zhi asked calmly.

Li Qinzai thought for a while, and said: "Food is an important factor in maintaining the rule of the dynasty, but it is not the only factor. Your Majesty, there are many factors that can continue a dynasty's national destiny. Food, benevolent government, military affairs, official administration, natural disasters, etc., can all affect The luck of a country."

"I can only say that with sufficient food, the Tang Dynasty's Guozuo society will be much more stable, but I dare not say that it will remain unchanged for ten thousand years. If foreign enemies invade, or the government is corrupt, and people's grievances abound, the country will still be in danger. "

Li Zhi nodded: "That's the reason. Just filling the stomachs of the people is not enough. If you want the country to last forever, those in power still need to tread on thin ice. Once you slack off, it will be the beginning of the country's subjugation."

Li Qinzai laughed again: "Your Majesty, you don't need to bother too much. With sweet potatoes, I can guarantee that the population of the Tang Dynasty will increase exponentially in the next hundred years. Maybe we can see the population of the Tang Dynasty exceed [-] million in our lifetime."

Li Zhixi said: "Really?"

Li Qinzai nodded with a smile. This is not bragging. In real history, sweet potatoes were introduced to China during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, but it was only during the Qianlong period of the braid dynasty that sweet potatoes were truly popularized in the world. Since then, there have been more people in the world. When the food source is planted, the population will explode.

In the dark age when the Han people were ruled by wild boarskin barbarians, all kinds of exorbitant taxes made it difficult for the people to survive. However, the population of the braided dynasty far exceeded all dynasties in Chinese history.

This is inseparable from the gradual diversification of food, especially sweet potatoes, a new food source that is easy to grow and has a huge yield, is the direct cause of population growth.

In the future Li and Tang Dynasty, as long as those in power don't make any big brain-dead mistakes, the dramatic population growth will be a certainty.

(End of this chapter)