this novel is healthy

Chapter 1527 Eighteenth Birthday

In the fourth year of Zhenguan, Yuwen Chan personally went to the Taimiao to pay homage to his ancestors, and then announced the attack on Chen.

Yuwen Chan himself led the army to the Huai-Si area, while Yang Su was appointed as the governor of Jiangnan, fully responsible for this battle against Chen. The specific generals were naturally Li Jing and other Yuwen Chan's absolute confidants.

There is not much to say about the entire process of the attack on Chen. It was a complete crushing of the national strength. With a navy that was several times larger than that of the Chen Dynasty and six armies pushing forward, the Chen Dynasty had no room for resistance. It only took 43 days to capture Jiankang and capture Chen Shubao, which was four years earlier than in history.

The Great Zhou Dynasty unified the country, and all the subjects of China submitted to the 12-year-old emperor... Throughout history, perhaps only Fulin of the Qing Dynasty could be compared to this 12-year-old emperor who unified the country.

But Fulin had a good stepfather, while Yuwen Chan relied entirely on his own abilities.

In the tenth year of Zhenguan, Yuwen Chan was eighteen years old. Although no one dared to propose to crown the emperor who unified the world, the entire Zhou Dynasty still held an unprecedented celebration. Yuwen Chan even arrogantly announced a year of tax exemption for the whole country. During this year, no taxes were collected in the entire Zhou Dynasty, and the people relied entirely on the money and grain accumulated in the past to survive.

As soon as this policy was announced, everyone in the country, from the nobles to the common people, was stunned. Then countless literati cried for joy, shouting that the era of the Three Sovereigns ruling the country had returned. The whole of China had reached an unprecedented peak. The Great Zhou inherited the Zhou Mandate and was comparable to the Three Sovereigns.

Although Yuwen Chan felt a little embarrassed by the bragging from the people, even the Guanlong nobles had to admit that the Great Zhou had reached an unprecedented level under Yuwen Chan's leadership.

Especially when Yuwen Chan led them to visit the newly formed Shenji Camp, and the 100,000 soldiers of the Shenji Camp held flintlock rifles, formed three formations, and performed a line-up shooting, the Guanlong nobles showed unprecedented respect for Yuwen Chan.

It was in this context that Yuwen Chan’s 18th birthday arrived.

Because it was Yuwen Chan's eighteenth birthday and there was an unprecedented one-year tax exemption policy, all the provincial and county officials across the country, except for a few who really could not leave, gathered in the West Garden of Taiye Lake.

At this time, the imperial garden, which was originally used for the royal family to enjoy, was filled with various tables and chairs. Yuwen Chan himself celebrated his 18th birthday with all the officials in this garden.

However, some officials noticed that this garden, which should have been planted with all kinds of exotic flowers and plants, was now plain, with only countless ordinary green grasses with small flowers and no ornamental value at all.

It is precisely because of this that the tables, chairs and benches around us are actually placed in the green grass. Otherwise, if they were just placed in the aisle, even the huge imperial garden would not be able to accommodate so many tables and chairs and would not be able to accommodate thousands of officials from all over the country.

I won't go into detail about the various formalities that went on after the banquet began. Anyway, all the officials knelt on the ground to congratulate Yuwen Chan on his 18th birthday, and then they should have eaten and drunk, and then dispersed.

But Yuwen Chan obviously had no such plan. After all the officials finished their congratulations, Yuwen Chan did not ask anyone to serve the dishes. Instead, he smiled and said, "I know that all of you ministers are very hungry, but since this is my 18th birthday, I will not treat you to those delicacies that you are already tired of. Today, I want to treat you to something unusual."

"May I ask your Majesty, what is an unusual food?" someone asked. "Of course it is food that cannot be found anywhere else in the world and is grown by me personally!" Yuwen Chan said with a smile.

"What? Food grown by His Majesty himself!" The ministers were surprised at first, and then they suddenly felt extremely honored.

To be honest, judging from Yuwen Chan's current achievements, although he cannot be regarded as the emperor of Qin and Han in the entire history of China, he is definitely an emperor of the next level. It is a great honor for everyone to be able to eat food grown by the emperor himself.

But the problem is that there are thousands of officials on the scene. If they all eat, it would require at least hundreds of dan of grain, plus a variety of dishes. Even if His Majesty the Emperor no longer is an emperor and becomes a full-time citizen, I'm afraid he can't grow so much grain!
"I guess he just sowed some seeds with his own hands..." Everyone complained in their hearts. No one believed that Yuwen Chan really grew so much grain.

Then they heard Yuwen Chan laughing and saying, "I think you ministers still don't quite believe it. In fact, the food I planted with my own hands is right here in the West Garden, right under your feet. You ministers, why don't you take the trouble to pull up all the flowers and plants under your feet? This is the food I planted for you!"

When everyone heard this, they could no longer suppress their curiosity. They immediately bent down, briefly transformed into hardworking farmers, and began to pull the vegetables. Yuwen Chan, who was standing by, also reminded them, "My fellow ministers, this vegetable is not easy to pull. The roots are thick and big. You'd better dig up the soil first, and then dig out the vegetables!"

Thus, with the efforts of thousands of civil and military officials, all the flowers and plants that had originally decorated the entire West Garden with lush greenery were pulled out and placed on the table.

The ministers also found that this seemed to be a plant they had never seen before. The green leaves on the surface looked ordinary and nothing special. But the root system under the soil was very special, a big yellow thing like a big pear. No one knew what it was and whether it was edible.

Yuwen Chan on the stage smiled and introduced, "My Lords, this plant is called potato. It is a crop that our Great Zhou navy took great pains to find from America after spending three full years."

"It turns out that it is a plant found from America!" The ministers suddenly realized that in the fifth year of Zhenguan, with the unification of the north and the south, a large number of naval forces used to attack the Chen Dynasty suddenly became useless.

After all, the enemies are gone, so what are we doing with so many naval forces?

Therefore, many ministers believed that most of the warships should be destroyed immediately and all the naval soldiers should be dismissed to save the court's expenses.

However, Yuwen Chan ignored the opposition and ordered that all naval warships be converted into seagoing ships. The entire navy, including all officers and soldiers, were transformed into a navy to guard the coast of the Great Zhou.

In the seventh year of Zhenguan, after the entire navy was completely transformed, Yuwen Chan directly ordered the formation of an unprecedented ocean-going fleet to search for the legendary American continent. This legend originated from a dream of Yuwen Chan himself. He dreamed of this American continent, which had a land area several times larger than that of China, and was rich in species and resources. More importantly, there was no one there, and it was a territory given to China by God.

When Yuwen Chan told his dream in the court, all the ministers thought that the emperor was just being romantic. But when Yuwen Chan ordered a huge fleet consisting of hundreds of warships and tens of thousands of crew members to go to America directly according to the nautical chart, everyone realized that the emperor was serious. He was really going to look for a non-existent place just for a dream, and the price was that tens of thousands of people might die in the sea.

(End of this chapter)