At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 547: Requests from the New World Princes and the Popularity of Off-Season Vegetables
On October 3rd, the 30th year of the Han calendar, Chang'an City, Prince's Palace.

Xu Aimin called Zhang Pijiang to entertain Chen Mai, who had rushed over from the New World to offer his advice.

Xu Aimin smiled and said, "Come here, this is the stewed beef with potatoes that I specially hired from Jin Yu Man Tang's chef. It's a specialty of Chang'an City. I remember that you especially liked this dish in the New World. Let's see what the difference is between the stewed beef with potatoes in Chang'an City and the New World."

Chen Maiyou looked at Xu Aimin with resentment and said, "Your Highness, I have been eating stewed beef with potatoes for several years in the New World. When I came to Chang'an City, I wanted to eat something different, but you made a stewed beef with potatoes!"

Xu Aimin apologized and smiled, "It's my fault. I forgot that this is not the New World."

There is almost nothing good to eat in the New World, and only bison meat can be considered a delicacy comparable to that of the Han people.

Then he took the initiative to pick up some food for Chen Mai and said, "This is Hulin pressed duck, a genuine Guanzhong specialty. Try it."

Zhang Pijiang looked at Chen Mai and said, "Look at your figure. The soil and water of the New World nourish people. You are starting to gain weight."

The last time Zhang Pijiang saw Chen Mai was almost ten years ago. When they met again, he felt that Chen Mai had gained dozens of pounds.

Chen Mai said helplessly: "The best thing to eat in the New World is bison meat. If you eat too much, you won't get fat."

Then he looked at Zhang Pijiang and asked in surprise, "You should have been enjoying yourself in Chang'an City these past few years. How come you are even darker than me? Who among us went to the New World?"

Zhang Pijiang said: "I have been supervising the renovation of Yangshuli for the past six months. I often have to go to the construction site. You are also aware of the sun in Guanzhong. If you get too much sun, you will naturally get darker."

Chen Maiyou said enviously, "You are really lucky. You can stay in Chang'an City to do things and stay with His Highness. On the contrary, I can only go to the New World to suffer alone."

Xu Aimin immediately said, "I have applied to the court to recruit you to come to Neishi Prefecture. I want to make great achievements in Neishi Prefecture and I need your help."

Chen Mai thought for a moment and shook his head, saying, "Your Highness, forget it. According to the court's decree, if I stay for another four years, I can be promoted one level and transferred back to the Han Dynasty. By then, I will be a senior official with a salary of 2,000 stones. If I return to Chang'an now, all my efforts will be wasted. I don't want others to say that I, Chen Mai, am a vain official who took shortcuts."

Xu Aimin said: "Then I will wait for you for a few years."

Chen Mai said, "Your Highness, I have already brought back the fertilizer you asked me to buy, a total of 10 dan. It should be at the Linzi County dock now. The first batch may have been loaded onto the train to Chang'an."

Xu Aimin said excitedly: "Chen Mai, you have helped me a lot."

It is obviously more difficult for Neishinongshe to gain a foothold in Guanzhong than in the barren Shangjun, and fertilizer is the helper that Xu Aimin found for Wu Yue and others.

Xu Aimin continued, "Chen Mai, you must prepare 20 shi of fertilizer for me every year in the New World."

The agricultural technology and breeding technology in Guanzhong Village are basically the benchmark of this era. If farmers want to go deeper into Guanzhong countryside, Wu Yue has found two tools to break the deadlock. One is the tractor manufactured by Tianzi, which has now begun production. One unit costs 15 yuan, which is not a machine that a single farmer can afford. But if hundreds of farmers join an agricultural cooperative and buy it together, it will not be a big problem.

The second is fertilizer. Due to freight costs, potash fertilizers and guano from the New World and Southeast Asia are relatively expensive when they arrive in Guanzhong. It is not cost-effective to use them to produce grain, but they can greatly increase production capacity and income if used to produce cotton, fruits and vegetables, these cash crops. Both of these new types of productivity require an organization to maximize their effectiveness.

The New World is Xu Aimin's base. The entire Northern Yinzhou Governor's Office was built up by him bit by bit. It is naturally not a problem for him to get some fertilizer.

Chen Mai nodded and said, "Yes!"

Peihou Mansion.

Cao Qiu ate and drank heartily in front of a table full of sumptuous dishes.

Liu Fei frowned and said, "You should go slower too. No one will snatch it from you."

Liu Chang was even more curious and asked: "Brother, don't you even have food to eat in the New World? Are you guarding a mountain of silver without any food to eat?"

Cao Qiu swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "There is no shortage of food, but it's not as good as Chang'an. It's really a wild place. There is a kind of turkey that is ten times bigger than ours, but the meat is too tough. It tastes like eating wood. What I miss most in the New World in the past few years is the food in Chang'an."

After saying that, Cao Qiu continued to eat as much as he could.

After the meal, Liu Fei asked, "Why did you come to Chang'an City in person for this meeting of princes?"

Cao Qiu said: "It's not just one person. Most of the princes of the New World have come. They all came to ask for support from the court."

Liu Chang was surprised and said, "Brother Qiu, there are silver mines in your fiefdom. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the richest land in the world. You actually asked the court for support. How are we living in Chang'an City supposed to survive?"

Liu Chang felt that his elder brother was too greedy. The fiefdom was already a first-rate place in the world, and yet he still needed support from the imperial court.

Cao Qiu rolled his eyes and said, "Only after going to the New World did you realize that silver is not money at all. The prices in the New World are several times higher than those in the Han Dynasty, and the price of silver has dropped several times. As a result, I lost almost 10 times of my income. I can't make much money even if I have a silver mine. And the key is that you need manpower to mine silver. The population transported to the New World by the court every year belongs to the Governor's Office. In order to transport a few people, we are so poor that we are about to mortgage our pants to the bank."

Now the Han Dynasty transports 5 to 6 people to the New World every year. A small half of them are transported by the Han court and belong to the Governor's Office. The rest are transported by the major vassal states. But the ticket price to the New World is too high. They have not been able to fool anyone in the past two years. If they want to let people go to the New World, they have to pay a resettlement fee, which makes the cost even higher.

The cost for these princes to transport a thousand people to their own vassal states might be as high as 10 or million. Even someone like Cao Qiu who had a mountain of silver could not afford it. Without population, the vassal states could not develop. Now they have been in the New World for nearly years, and most of them have only built a small city, which is not as good as the small county town of the Han Dynasty. These princes want to live a decent life, and they don’t know how long they have to struggle. They can’t endure such a long time, so they can only come to Chang'an City collectively and ask the court to help them solve this problem.

Liu Chang said: "That shouldn't be the case. The New World has gold, silver, and fertilizers. Everything is priceless."

Cao Qiu rolled his eyes and said, "You haven't calculated the toll for a journey of more than 2 miles. All the priceless treasures are consumed in the shipping fee. We can only ask the court to build more ocean-going ships, or even reduce the shipping fee. If that doesn't work, we can only ask the court for a loan. I don't want to live in poverty in the New World. After this meeting of princes, I will stay in Chang'an for a year first."

Liu Fei was a little worried and asked, "Then nothing will happen to your vassal state if no one is in charge, right?"

Cao Qiu said: "It's okay, I have arranged everything in advance."

Liu Fei said: "It is better for you to manage the vassal states yourself."

Although he did not say the rest, he was worried that Cao Qiu's vassal states would be usurped by others. When vassal kings left their fiefdoms, eight or nine out of ten would not have a good ending. This kind of thing was too common during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. October 15, 30th year of the Han calendar.

The Han Dynasty began a new round of leadership changes. Prime Minister Zhou Bo, Acting Prime Minister Li De, Zhang Cang, and Imperial Censor Wu Jun retired.

The new Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty was the veteran Li Shang, the acting Prime Minister was taken over by the Shaofu Ling Yang Xiong, the Tunken Ling Zheng Qu, and the Imperial Censor was taken over by Zhang Qiang. The four of them presided over the new ruling team of the Han Dynasty. The Han court was still dominated by the founding veterans. At the same time, the original Nei Shi Ling Zhou Chang retired for health reasons, and the crown prince Xu Aimin officially became the Nei Shi Ling. At the same time, Wang Ling of the Rail Department also retired due to health reasons.

Although Xu Fan attached great importance to the renewal within the court, because the founding period of the Han Dynasty destroyed the tyrannical Qin Dynasty with great ease, the county governors in the early Han Dynasty were very young. There were many county governors who were 20-30 years old and had a salary of 2000 stones. The Han Dynasty in the founding period was full of vigor and vitality.

But now the Han Dynasty has been founded for thirty years, and the original batch of young people have gradually begun to grow old. Now it is normal for the two thousand stone prefects of the Han Dynasty to be 50 to 60 years old, and among the nine ministers, those who are 60 to 70 years old are the majority.

This caused Xu Fan's concern, so many new faces who were not meritorious officials appeared among this session of the Nine Ministers. For example, the new Shaofu Ling was appointed by Zhou Mo of Bashang Iron and Steel Plant, the Tunken Ling was appointed by Jiang Zhi, the Magistrate of Wuling County, the Da Si Nong was appointed by Dian Qing, the Prefect of Chen County, the Tingwei was appointed by Zhang Hui, the Prefect of Jiujiang County, and the Minister of Rail was appointed by Yin Qun.

These people were all in their early 40s, strong and young Han officials, and most of them entered the court after the founding of the Han Dynasty. Only the Minister of Agriculture Dian Qing was a soldier at the founding of the Han Dynasty, but he was not considered a veteran. He had retired and served as a pavilion chief. He was appreciated by Zhou Bo and became a Han official, county lieutenant, and county magistrate. This was almost his limit, but ten years ago, Zhou Bo reformed Chen County and needed a confidant to preside over it. Dian Qing was promoted to the governor of the county with a salary of 2000 shi. Later, because of his achievements in reform, he became the Minister of Agriculture. It can be said that his promotion speed in the last ten years was even faster than his first 20 years.

Starting from the fourth prime minister of the Han Dynasty, the veterans of the Han Dynasty began to gradually withdraw from the officialdom of the Han Dynasty.

Chang'an City has experienced a plan, and wise men will attend the court to change terms, just after the meeting of princes.

This year's Han Dynasty's conference of princes was extremely lively. The princes of the New World, led by Cao Qiu, cried to the court about the difficulties of opening up the New World and asked the court to support them.

Xu Fan could only ask Development Bank to loan 50 billion to these New World princes as funds for them to build ocean-going ships and solve the problem of insufficient transportation capacity from the New World to the Han Dynasty.

After these New World princes finished crying, envoys from the Xiongnu Kingdom also came to complain, saying that the Han Dynasty's maritime merchants were just out of brotherhood between the Han and the Xiongnu, and were shipping large quantities of steel to the Parthian Empire. They asked the emperor to stop their behavior and punish them.

What the Hun envoys never expected was that this time the emperor rejected the Hun envoys' request for punishment at sea on the grounds that it was normal business dealings.

After the emperor made his refusal known, even the Xiongnu envoys were stunned. This also caused the gossip party in the Han Dynasty to talk a lot. After all, even the princes were punished in the past two years, but now these sea merchants are not punished. Is the court going to change its attitude towards the Xiongnu?

However, the popularity of the Huns did not last long. After November, the glass greenhouse became the new hot spot in Chang'an City.

Although off-season vegetables are not uncommon in Chang'an City, there are very few people selling off-season vegetables on a large scale. At the beginning, Xu Fan made some off-season vegetables and sold them. Later, he directly rewarded them to meritorious officials. There were 20,000 Han officials of all ranks in Chang'an City alone. Even if he rewarded one pound of vegetables every day, that would be 20,000 pounds. Xu Fan didn't want to neglect the meritorious officials because of a mere sum of money, so most of the glass greenhouses he built became welfare for officials.

However, it is very rare to see large-scale off-season vegetables entering the market in Chang'an City this year. Being able to eat fresh and delicious vegetables on cold days is an extremely rare enjoyment for the people of Chang'an City, although these vegetables cost thirty coins per pound, which is higher than the price of beef.

But the extravagant people of Chang'an were still willing to eat it once or twice a month, and then show off to their neighbors: "These off-season vegetables are just so-so. They look lush and green, but they are ultimately against the laws of nature, and they don't taste as good as those in spring and summer."

Once these words are spoken, the neighbors around will look at you with envy, and the people who grit their teeth to sell off-season vegetables will feel proud for several days.

Compared with other small-scale glass greenhouses, Xu Aimin built a 10-acre glass greenhouse. Under the care of farmers, it can produce several thousand kilograms of vegetables every day, greatly satisfying the winter vegetable needs of the people in Chang'an City.

At the beginning of December, a large number of watermelons came on the market, causing a sensation among the people of Chang'an City. They had only heard of this thing but had never seen it. It was said that the emperor only rewarded one or two such watermelons to high-ranking officials.

Of course, its high price also stunned everyone. 50 coins per pound, twice the price of beef, one watermelon cost six or seven hundred coins, and a larger one even cost thousands of coins, which was almost one-third to half of the salary of a craftsman in Chang'an. It was no longer expensive, but a real luxury. Most people could only stare at the watermelons tied with red ribbons.

But in this cold season, no one can resist the green watermelon. The stripes on the watermelon can attract countless people's attention. If you can hold a watermelon in your hand, the attention of people on the whole street will be attracted.

As a result, watermelon became a hot spot in Chang'an City in winter. Every resident of Chang'an City who bought a watermelon had to walk around his home three times before going home.

After returning home, the watermelon will be cut into small pieces and eaten. In order to increase the sweetness, the people of Chang'an City learned from somewhere that adding a little salt to the watermelon can increase the sweetness. Every Chang'an citizen who buys watermelon eats it carefully. After eating all the watermelon rind, they will wash it and make a cold watermelon rind dish. In short, nothing is wasted.

The neighbors around saw this scene and could only say angrily: "It's nothing to be stingy when it comes to eating watermelon. I always eat watermelon with a spoon."

Then I secretly made up my mind to eat a watermelon every day in the summer.

The craze for off-season vegetables and fruits continued until the Spring Festival, during which time Xu Aiming's reputation continued to rise. The people of Chang'an believed that the prince had finally done a good thing for them.

After the Spring Festival, Xu Aimin brought his whole family to pay New Year's greetings to Xu Fan, and the most eye-catching gifts were various vegetables and six big watermelons.

Xu Fan asked curiously, "You've been selling these for a month, and they're not sold out yet?"

Xu Aimin smiled and said, "It's all thanks to Master Wu and his team. They added various fertilizers to the glass greenhouse, and the production capacity of vegetables and watermelons has skyrocketed several times. I estimate that the glass greenhouse will pay for itself in two years at most, and then it will be pure profit. I didn't expect that the production capacity of this glass greenhouse combined with fertilizers would be so high."

Xu Fan understood and said, "Farmers once produced 20 dan of grain per mu, but this required a lot of compost, which was extremely uneconomical. Farmers usually only use a lot of fertilizer for grain breeding. But now it is used in off-season vegetables, which has found a way to make money for farmers in Guanzhong. You should cooperate with farmers to popularize this model and strive to solve the problem of winter vegetables for the Han people as soon as possible."

Xu Fan seemed to remember that it was them who really solved the vegetable problem in later generations. In the past, no one knew the great significance of the vegetable basket project. After the Internet was opened up, eating watermelons and vegetables became luxuries in the so-called developed countries, and everyone realized the importance of this point.

Xu Aimin said: "I understand!"

Even if Xu Fan didn't say it, Xu Aimin would do it. He has planned to build a glass greenhouse base of 1000 acres in Guanzhong. Judging from the hot off-season vegetable market this year, 10 acres of vegetables can definitely supply the entire Chang'an City. At the same time, a -acre glass greenhouse will be built in the other counties in Guanzhong. With the addition of fertilizers, the profit margin of off-season vegetables has skyrocketed, which is already a very profitable business.

Then Xu Fan continued, "Remember to give some of these off-season vegetables and watermelons to the Han officials in the Internal Affairs Bureau as a benefit. You have been in charge of the Internal Affairs Bureau for a year and have only been showing off your power. Now you should also give them some benefits."

During the year that Xu Aimin was in charge of the Internal History, the construction of greenhouses, the Yangshuli renovation project and the backward farming projects in Guanzhong went smoothly. However, the industrial transfer that he was most concerned about, the establishment of satellite cities with industrial clusters outside Chang'an City, had not been smooth.

At the end of July, Xu Aimin simply overturned the table and set up a reporting box under each notice board of the Nei Shi, saying that if the people of Chang'an City found any Han officials doing evil, they could write letters to report them.

These things caused a sensation in the Han Dynasty. After the people of Chang'an City hesitated for half a month, someone finally secretly reported some Han officials.

Xu Aimin basically caught every Han official based on the clues in the letters of complaint. He arrested hundreds of Han officials that month and dealt with them according to law. This ignited the enthusiasm of the people of Chang'an. Soon the several reporting boxes set up by Xu Aimin were filled with letters of complaint. In the second month, he arrested more than 300 Han officials.

(End of this chapter)