Established a thousand-year family from the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 704 Great Voyage (23)
Republic 490 Spring (700)
Chang'e City

The expedition to the "Roman Continent" returned, bringing a large number of new crops, and they speculated that the "Roman Continent" might not be Rome, but a new continent.

At the same time, they also brought back a new disease (syphilis).

In the past few years of exploring the "Roman Continent", an explorer had in-depth exchanges with many "Roman girls (Indians)" and unfortunately contracted a new disease.

However, the expedition team did not know this new disease or how it spread. Therefore, the first thing they did after returning to Chang'e City was to get into a brothel and relax.

Those "Roman girls" had rough skin and not fair enough complexion, so naturally they were far inferior to the girls in brothels.

"The New Continent? Is it a wild land that is difficult to cultivate like the Southern Continent? Or is it a fertile land that can be cultivated?"

Emperor Shitian took this news very seriously, because if the news was true, it meant that they had discovered a fertile land isolated overseas.

This land is not contested by other forces, it only belongs to them.

Emperor Shakti also attached great importance to these new crops.

Because there are some barren lands that cannot grow rice and wheat, but can be used to grow romaine (corn), romaine (sweet potato), and pumpkin (pumpkin).

Although the yield of Roman potatoes is relatively high, they are not suitable as a staple food. There was once an expedition team that was extremely hungry and relied on Roman potatoes to satisfy their hunger for several months, and then died of malnutrition.

This is a crop that can simply fill the stomach, but has very low nutritional value, similar to eating weeds.

Therefore, the Republic positions Roman potatoes (sweet potatoes) as feed.

What does that mean?That is to say, in corners where rice and wheat cannot be grown, Roman potatoes (sweet potatoes) are planted to make full use of the land without wasting the land. The grown Roman potatoes (sweet potatoes) can be used as refined grains to feed war horses and horses. Wasteland slaves.

Ordinary livestock ate wild grass, while precious war horses and slaves ate Roman potatoes and Roman beans.

As for ordinary people, they still rely on wheat, rice, and salted fish as their staple foods.

The Republic does not intend to specifically plant new crops from the New World, nor will it take the initiative to use rice and wheat producing areas to grow new crops. Instead, it will plant new crops in barren areas where wheat and rice cannot be grown.

In other words, in the Republic, the new crops brought by the New World were only a supplement to the traditional staple foods.

"New World?"

Emperor Shitian was 80 years old. He looked at the Roman continent on the globe and the Yan Kingdom across the sea, and murmured to himself.

Is there a new continent between Yan State and Rome?A new continent we never knew existed?
After Emperor Shitian became emperor, he proposed to the parliament that he should make peace with the Tang Dynasty, become a vassal, and pay tribute, so as to restore trade with the Central Plains.

"In order to develop, you can give up your backbone!"

This incident caused dissatisfaction and panic among many people, but those who admired Tang were very happy.

"Embracing civilization is our truly right choice."

The State of Yan's submission to Dashi as a vassal and tribute was only nominal, a pretense of submission. The State of Yan did not even send a single envoy to Dashi.

But the Tang Dynasty (Wu Zhou) was too close, and it was impossible to say that he was pretending to be a vassal. The Central Plains Dynasty was not a fool, and he could see that the Yan State was pretending to be a vassal, but was really opposed to it.If it were just like that, it would be nothing more than a loss of spine and face.

The key is that the Yan State envoy who went to Luoyang brought back even more outrageous news.

That is the empress Wu Zetian, who asked all the Wang nobles to immediately go to Luoyang, the sacred capital, to plead guilty, and to abolish the country's name of Yan and change it to Han (because the capital of Yan's capital, Chang'e City, is in the Sanhan area), abolish the imperial title , the emperor was demoted to a vassal, and at the same time he had to return Liaodong. Otherwise, Yan would not be allowed to become a vassal.

This is a big deal. I want to be a dog to Zhongyuan, but Zhongyuan still refuses.

At first, Dong Zhuo took the initiative to kneel down and lick the Kwantung nobles, but the Kwantong nobles still teased Dong Zhuo as a fool, which made Dong Zhuo intolerable and went on a killing spree, slaughtering the Kwantung nobles until they were bloody.

Faced with such humiliation from the Central Plains dynasty, the people of the Yan state were extremely excited, but those who admired the Tang Dynasty were still advocating that this was a blessing from civilization to barbarism, and the people of the Yan state should know how to be grateful to the Central Plains.

"It was the Central Plains that gave us civilization. We should be grateful to the Central Plains instead of being deceived by the nobles into fighting against the Central Plains."

The person who said this was a female scholar from Mutang. This female scholar from Mutang was even a branch of the aristocracy and the sister of a nobleman of the Wang family.

The nobles were not united, and the emperor did not have much power, so in the face of such remarks, the Yan government was helpless.

The disorganization of Yan State is the main reason for the internal ideological confusion of Yan State.

If you scold a specific Wang noble, you will definitely be punished, but if you scold the entire Wang noble class, you don't have to worry and you can speak freely.

Because the nobles are not a united whole, if you scold their entire class at once, they will think you are scolding other nobles, so it doesn't matter.

In the Yan Kingdom, only when you name and criticize a certain noble will you really be doomed. That noble will never give up.

Emperor Shitian, his private treasury is not even as good as a guild.

Even Emperor Shakti's Royal Expedition was established by borrowing money from nobles and wealthy businessmen in guilds.

His majesty, the emperor, actually wanted to borrow money from nobles and wealthy businessmen, and he also had to pay interest.

As for defaulting on debts, Emperor Shitian would not dare to do it unless he wanted to be guillotined like Wang Ting.

There was a Wang Ting, which caused generations of the Wang family to be very wary of monarchy.

No matter how much the admirers of the Tang Dynasty advocated an enlightened monarchy, and no matter how favorable public opinion was towards the monarchy, the Wang nobles would not do it, because the Wang Ting Rebellion really left a psychological shadow on all the Wang family members.

Once bitten, twice shy!
In terms of pure damage to the Wang family nobles, Wang Ting undoubtedly ranked first. Even during the invasion of the Tang Empire, the number of Wang family nobles killed was far less than that of Wang Ting alone.

During Hou Jing's Rebellion, Hou Jing killed only more than 100 Wang nobles.

Wang Ting alone killed more than 400 Wang nobles. This was an unprecedented and terrifying achievement.

"We can claim vassal status, pay tribute, and even make a marriage alliance. We can also remove the imperial title and be demoted to vassal kings, as long as the Central Plains is willing to resume trade. But if you want us to cede Liaodong, we absolutely cannot!"

Emperor Shitian gave his bottom line and asked the envoy to go to Luoyang for the second time, hoping to restore normal trade relations with the Central Plains dynasty.

(End of this chapter)