big song poppi

Chapter 591 0588 [I want to eat wontons, I want to eat soup noodles! ]

After Xu Cun left, Han Zhen recruited the Yuanwailang from the Agricultural College in Beijing.

This man's name was Chen Xu, and he was also an expert in agronomy. His three volumes of "Book of Agriculture" recorded in detail the paddy field cultivation in the south of the Yangtze River. In addition, he had unique insights into land use, soil fertilizer, rice cultivation, sericulture and other aspects.

Chen Fu previously lived in seclusion in a Taoist temple on the West Mountain in Zhenzhou (Yizheng, Jiangsu), and called himself Quanzhenzi of Rushi Temple. Later, Deng Song invited him to come down the mountain in a letter to serve Han Zhen.

As a Taoist, Chen Xu was also proficient in medicine and had extensive research on the cultivation of medicinal herbs.

Nowadays, he studies the methods of growing various herbs in the capital.

"I wonder why your majesty has sent me here?"

Chen Yu was wearing coarse linen clothes, and it was obvious that he had been working in the fields before entering the palace.

Han Zhen asked, "I want to ask, how is the research on cotton and rabbits going at Shandong Agricultural College?"

"Your Majesty, we haven't fully understood the habits of cotton yet. The climate in the north is completely different from that in the south, so we need to adapt to local conditions. So if we want to promote it on a large scale, it will probably take another three to five years."

Chen Yu paused and continued, "As for the burrowing rabbits, they have been cultivated, but it seems that the people of Shandong are not very happy with it."

"Why?"

Han Zhen was stunned.

Chen Yu explained: "Although rabbits are cheap, they are not profitable and cannot feed people. Most people would rather spend more money to buy pork fat for nourishment."

"This……"

Han Zhen smiled bitterly.

His original intention was to let the people eat cheap meat, but now it seems that he was wrong.

For the common people, meat is secondary; oil and water are what are important.

The meat of the rabbit is dry and has no oil or water. Moreover, the common people don't have good cooking skills. They either boil it in water or dry-roast it. If it is not cooked properly, it will taste like chewing wood.

Han Zhen vaguely remembered that there seemed to be a disease in later generations called rabbit meat syndrome.

If people only eat rabbit meat, they will starve to death.

Because rabbit meat has no fat, has a single nutritional content, and digesting rabbit meat itself requires consumption of nutrients in the body, the more rabbit meat you eat, the weaker your body will become.

Seeing this, Chen Yu comforted him, "But rabbits are useless. Their fur can be used to make clothes, hats and gloves. Nowadays, rabbit fur is cheap in Shandong, and many people buy it to make clothes and blankets for the winter."

“Where are the laying hens?”

Han Zhen asked again.

When the Agricultural College was established two years ago, Liao Liang began to breed laying hens. Their egg production is more than three times that of ordinary hens, reaching thirty to forty eggs per year.

Of course, this cannot be compared with the laying hens in later generations that can produce up to two or three hundred eggs, but it is shocking enough today.

You know, nowadays most hens only lay about ten eggs a year.

If this policy could be promoted, Qi would not achieve egg freedom, but at least the price of eggs would drop significantly, and even poor people would be able to afford them.

Moreover, compared to rabbit meat, eggs are high-quality protein, rich in nutrients, and easy to digest and absorb.

Chen Yu replied, "Laying hens have run into some problems. They are fine in Shandong and Hebei, but in Jiangnan and Liangzhe, egg production has been cut in half. It may be a problem with the environment and feed. Minister Liao is currently working on solving the problem."

Han Zhen instructed: "The problem will be solved slowly. Cultivate more breeder chickens and promote them in the north first."

"I understand."

Chen Yu bowed and said, "Your Majesty, do you have anything else to do? If not, I will return to the fields."

"Just go."

Han Zhen waved his hand.

After watching the other party leave, Han Zhen looked beyond the palace gate and into the distance.

It is now November, and there are less than two months left until the New Year. I wonder how the ocean-going trade caravans are doing.

It was different from later times. Every time you went out to sea, you had to put your head on your belt.

Whether you can return safely depends entirely on whether the Dragon King of the Sea will favor you.

If you are unlucky, a sudden hurricane can destroy an entire fleet.

Even the merchant ships converted from Shenzhou cannot withstand strong winds and rough waves.

A wooden ship is a wooden ship. No matter how strong it is, it cannot compare to a giant steel ship.

……

……

On the blue sea, waves are rolling.

A huge caravan sailing on the sea.

The caravan was extremely large, with no less than a hundred densely packed ships.

However, this fleet looked particularly miserable, with many merchant ships damaged and some even having their masts broken.

Even the two escorting Shenzhou warships were inevitably damaged.

Just half a month ago, the caravan encountered a storm.

The strong wind rolled up huge waves two meters high on the sea, like a punishment from God.

Fortunately, the storm came and went quickly and did not last long.

But even so, more than a hundred merchant ships were still buried at the bottom of the sea.

On a merchant ship converted from Shenzhou, Zhu Da and Monkey were holding fishing rods, wearing coarse linen shorts and conical hats, and sitting on the bow deck fishing.

The city of Tokyo has entered winter at this time, but this sea area is still a hot summer.

This ocean voyage made the two men lose a lot of weight and become much darker.

While fishing, Zhu Da suddenly stood up, threw away the fishing rod in his hand, and cried hysterically: "I've had enough of this crappy fish, I want to eat wontons and soup noodles!"

Ocean sailing sounds like an ambitious and adventurous journey, but in reality, it is boring and tedious most of the time.

Zhu Da was a native inland person. After the initial novelty wore off, he began to get fed up with it.

Especially being trapped on the boat all day, facing the endless ocean, he felt like he was going crazy.

The sea is magnificent and majestic. You will be amazed and amazed at its vastness on the first day.

But watching it for a hundred days in a row will only make you feel like vomiting.

Especially the waves, every surge seems to cause the stomach to churn.

The crew was no longer surprised by the officer's sudden outbursts. He would cry for a while and then it would be over.

However, Zhu Da was particularly crazy today.

The monkey nearby saw this and said to him, "Be patient. We will reach Jiaozhi Champa in a few days. You can have whatever you want to eat then."

"You lied to me again!"

Zhu Da was like an angry child at this time. His eyes were red as he roared, "How can we have wontons and soup noodles if we can't grow wheat in Jiaozhi? I don't want to stay on this broken boat for a moment. I want to go home, I want to go home!"

As he said this, he actually grabbed the railing on the deck and planned to jump into the sea.

This scene frightened the crew members. The nearby crew members immediately rushed up and held him tightly.

"Ugh."

The monkey sighed quietly and said in a deep voice, "I still have a can of yellow peaches left. I'll give it to you later."

"really?"

The words "canned yellow peaches" brought Zhu Da back to his senses.

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"really."

The monkey nodded solemnly.

Soon, the sound of swallowing was heard on the deck.

Zhu Da held the can and ate the food with juice dripping from his mouth.

In fact, they ate a lot of fruits during these days. Whether it was India, Srivijaya (now Sumatra), Java, or Aceh, there were many rare and exotic fruits.

Many of the fruits are sweet and delicious, even better than those in the Central Plains.

But at this moment, Zhu Da looked as if he was tasting a delicacy, with a look of satisfaction on his face.

Simply because canned yellow peaches are food from my hometown and have the taste of my hometown.

"Hululu~"

Zhu Da did not miss any juice in the can and drank it all without leaving a drop.

Wiping the corner of his mouth, he said with a guilty look on his face: "Dean Yang, I am sorry to have caused you trouble."

"It's out of the way."

The monkey waved his hands and chuckled, "Since we went to sea, we have encountered danger more than ten times. We can be considered friends of life and death. After so much suffering, we are about to go home. I don't want anything to happen to you."

Speaking of this, Zhu Da hurriedly asked, "Dean Yang, how long will it take us to get home?"

The monkey replied, "I have asked the boatman, and if nothing goes wrong, we will be able to reach Jimo before the end of the year."

The boatmen on board are all experienced hands hired at high salaries. They have all sailed on long oceans, so they have a very accurate sense of time.

At this time, the speed of the ship is not fixed and mainly depends on the sails. If there is a favorable wind, the maximum speed can reach 80 miles per hour.

But the problem is that it is impossible to have a tailwind all the time. When there is a headwind, you have to zigzag, which not only reduces the speed but also increases the distance.

So on average, the speed is about thirty miles per hour.

Adding the time for resting at the shore, it will take about one and a half months to reach Jimo.

After the monkey finished speaking, he looked off into the distance and muttered to himself, "I wonder what's going on back home."

When going out to sea, Han Erge planned to launch an attack on the Jin Kingdom and take back the land of Yunzhou. The pseudo-Song Dynasty in the south also seemed to be ready to make a move.

"Your Majesty is incomparable in bravery, and the Qingzhou army under your command is also full of brave generals. The Jin people will never get away with it."

Zhu Da had great confidence in Han Zhen, or rather, he had to believe in him.

He didn't want to go back and see the mountains and rivers in ruins and foreign invasions.

"makes sense."

The monkey smiled.

No one knows better than Han Erge’s bravery.

Zhu Da asked, "President Yang, you said that we have made such a great contribution. How will the government reward us after we return?"

They didn't go too far on this ocean voyage.

After all, it was the first time, so the main focus was on accumulating experience. After arriving at the Port of Cochin in India and completing the last transaction, I headed back home and returned the same way.

But even if we hadn't gone to the Arab Empire, the trade gains along the way were still extremely astonishing.

There were a total of thirty-eight merchant ships of the House of Trade. Excluding the merchant ship that unfortunately sank, the remaining thirty-two were fully loaded with ivory, pearls, gems, spices, in addition to thousands of kilograms of gold and tens of thousands of kilograms of silver.

The government did not lie to him, the sea was indeed full of treasures.

In particular, they discovered an island on the other side of the Tianzhu Strait. There were countless natural gems on the island. The local natives did not take it seriously at all. One foot of silk could be exchanged for a basket of gems.

You heard it right, a basket!

In addition, on the island of Dongjava, all kinds of spices are everywhere. Sandalwood, which is known as the most valuable in the Central Plains, is actually spread all over the mountaintops. Wherever you look, you can see sandalwood.

According to rough estimates, the profits from this ocean trade were at least 80 to 90 million strings of cash.

With such great achievements, rewards are inevitable.

The monkey groaned and said, "Given the emperor's temperament, he will surely grant you a title."

"Conferring a knighthood!"

Zhu Da's eyes were full of anticipation.

Official positions cannot be passed down to future generations, but titles of nobility can.

Even if the Zhu family fell into poverty in the future, they were still a noble family, which was not comparable to ordinary people.

After the founding of the Great Qi Dynasty, only a few people were granted titles, and they were low-level titles such as baron and viscount.

This was what Han Zhen intended. The more this was done, the more valuable the title would be.

After all, today's titles no longer come with fiefdoms and not much fiefdom, and are entirely supported by honor, so granting titles requires even more caution.

Otherwise, once titles are conferred on a large scale and become excessive, they will no longer be valuable.

Thinking of this, Zhu Da said with a little regret: "It's a pity that we brought too few merchant ships this time. After returning to the court, I will definitely report to His Majesty and ask him to build more merchant ships. By then, we can bring hundreds of merchant ships and make at least hundreds of millions a year!"

"Take it easy!"

As Han Zhen's confidant, Monkey knows more.

Maritime trade is only part of Brother Han’s plan. The real highlight is the land called America on the other side of the vast ocean!
(End of this chapter)