Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

The farmer hurriedly responded. Zheng Kezang gave a comprehensible smile to the farmer's reaction, and the eldest brother naturally stopped barking -- of course, the other party couldn't stand it -- he just carefully looked at it in a relatively peaceful manner. Asked: "Looking at your appearance, I'm afraid you are also from the army. What is your identity?"

"If you come back to the grandson, you once followed the king to conquer the son Zheng Xi who pretended to be the king." The farmer reported with a trace of pride. "Later, the king of Meng granted [-] mu of land, so I went home to farm." In this way, Zheng Kezang understood that this person should be at most the class of the foreman, and he was the leader of the army in Yizhen. The card is long, otherwise at least there should be an official status. "Now I'm a card leader locally."

Seeing that his guess was right, Zheng Kezang couldn't help but feel a little secretly proud, so he asked further: "I'll ask you, are there veterans like you on the local deck now? How do they live? Are there any children among them? Enrolled?"

The farmer replied cautiously, not daring to go too far: "If you go back to the grandson, there were originally 25 households in this armor, all of whom were veterans in the army. It was just that the officials came in to say something, so eight households were selected from them. I went to Xintunli to become the card leader and Jiashou, so there are only seventeen households left. Thanks to the kindness of the king, each family is doing well. Mr. Chen has set up Mengxue. Among the children, there are those who go to school."

Zheng Kezang raised his brows, of course he heard the mystery, that he had entered the school, not all of them, but this matter is not something he can solve right now, so he is not going to ask the bottom line , so I turned to ask: "There are eight households who have gone to Xintun. Who will cultivate the fields left by these families now?"

Since Zheng Kezang’s questions were all insensitive things, despite his trepidation in his heart, the card manager still gave a straightforward answer: “The officials took back the land to plant sugarcane, and recruited labor, but as long as sugarcane is planted It’s done, and you don’t need to ask too much on weekdays, it’s just that it’s time to harvest, and then the local card armor will do labor to help harvest.”

"That's right." Zheng Kezang replied knowingly, and then the topic returned to farming: "In addition to growing grain, what else do you grow, mulberry trees? Castor beans? Vegetables on weekdays what?"

The farmer was dazed by Zheng Kezang's series of questions, and he murmured an answer after a long time: "In my family, no, we don't grow mulberry trees in Jiajia, but I heard that there are in Jiajia, but they only sell mulberry leaves. I don’t raise silkworms myself.”

Silk is an extremely valuable foreign trade product in this era. Although it is not as expensive as gold as before, it is better because of stable demand and continuous energy production. His face changed suddenly, and his eyes swept towards Liu Chongxi like a sword.

Liu Chongxi hurriedly came over and explained: "Grandson, silkworm raising is an extremely hard and time-consuming job. There are as many as ten times of feeding silkworms every day. Now tens of thousands of young adults are transferred to the west. Originally, the man Now women and children are responsible for farming in the fields, but few people can spare time to do it.”

Zheng Kezang didn't fully accept Liu Chongxi's explanation: "It's reasonable to say so, but why don't you plant mulberry trees anymore?"

"Grandchildren, food." Liu Chongxi made a look of helplessness. "The key lies in the food. In order to ensure the supply of the army, President Chen ordered to change the mulberry into food. Of course, the supply from Qiongzhou has relieved the Dongning people a little, but the people are so stupid that the government doesn't care about it." Encouragement, they rarely resume planting mulberry and hemp.”

"In that case, Mr. Chen is responsible for it." Zheng Kezang was very dissatisfied with Liu Chongxi's use of Chen Yonghua to suppress him, and it was obvious that the people below continued to use administrative orders to suppress the people in order to claim credit. On the road to getting rich, what Liu Chongxi said was in the end a lie. "Forget it, after returning this time, Yu Zi will discuss with Yue Zhang how to correct the past mistakes." The gong does not need a heavy hammer, and when Zheng Kezang said this, Liu Chongxi's face seemed to be drawn by an invisible hand , quickly became popular, yes, he is the son-in-law Weng, what kind of tongue was he chewing in the meantime, but before he regretted it, he heard Zheng Kezang asking. "Don't you plant castor beans?"

"Castor is a kind of plant." The whole plant of castor can be used as medicine, its stem bark is rich in fiber and can be used to make paper, cake meal and oily meal can be used as fertilizer and feed, and the castor oil can be used as a laxative. The best lubricating oil for hydraulic machinery, with such treasures, it is impossible for farmers not to plant them, but they will not deliberately plant them. Usually there are only a few trees in front of and behind the house. "There are two at our door, planted together with potatoes."

Potato?Zheng Kezang was still wondering why the potatoes were not planted in the field, but by the side of the house. Liu Chongxi thought it was an opportunity, and hurried over to explain: "Shisun, the so-called potatoes in Dongning are actually groundnuts, which are common to the people. It is mostly used to extract oil, of course it can also be boiled and used as vegetables, and there are also dried fruits in the wine shop of Chengtian Mansion."

Nani?Potatoes are peanuts?Zheng Kezang is really dizzy. He can accept the change from sweet potato to sweet potato just now—after all, everyone has a word for potato, but the name is slightly different—but what is the relationship between potato and peanut? How embarrassing.

However, Zheng Kezang did not show his depression. Instead, he continued to ask with a pleasant face: "Since there are sweet potatoes and potatoes, are the tomatoes from Lu Songyi also planted in Dongning?"

"Tomato?" Now it was Liu Chongxi's turn to be confused, he thought for a while and confirmed to Zheng Kezang. "Did the grandson say it was a tomato?"

"Tomato? It should be. Yu remembers that there is another name called Tomato. It should be Tomato."

"Tomatoes are called mandarin honey in Dongning." Liu Chongxi smiled and asked the farmer a few words, and sure enough, the farmer answered yes, but the amount of planting was still not much, and Liu Chongxi had his own explanation for this. "My grandchildren don't know that this persimmon was originally used as an ornamental flower when it was introduced to the Ming Dynasty, but it has only become a fruit and vegetable in recent years."

Liu Chongxi thinks he is knowledgeable, but Zheng Kezang seems to be smiling but not smiling. In fact, he knows everything Liu Chongxi said, and he knows what Liu Chongxi doesn't know.What is a tomato?Isn't it the prototype of the vermilion fruit that is said to increase one's power for decades in the novel of Huanzhuzhuzhuzhu?Of course, Zheng Kezang is not an Encyclopedia Britannica, and there are things he doesn’t know, such as when the forbidden fruit that Europeans mistakenly thought Eve ate became food in China, but now there is obviously an answer.

The self-cultivation was excellent. When Liu Chongxi finished speaking, Zheng Kezang asked another question: "Is the potato introduced from Luzon grown in Taiwan?"

"What's a potato?"

Liu Chongxi really didn't know what a potato was, and Zheng Kezang couldn't explain it, so he had to describe the shape of a potato. At this time, the farmer reminded: "Could it be a potato?"

Only then did Liu Chongxi suddenly realize: "That's right, it's Fanyuzi."

So Zheng Kezang asked, "Does Dongning have any seeds?"

"Yes, but not many people are willing to grow this thing."

Zheng Kezang was stunned when he heard it. Didn’t it mean that potatoes have a short breeding period and high yield, and even saved Ireland in the Great Famine?How come no one is willing to grow this high-yielding crop after it arrives in Taiwan? Could it be that there is some truth in it?

So Zheng Kezang consulted the brand leader surnamed Ning, and he heard the other party say: "Although you don't need to worry about fan taro after the middle and lower classes, it is said that it likes cold and not hot. It needs a lot of fertilizer and water to grow well. After it grows, it will germinate and rot if it is not eaten quickly. Famine, ordinary people are not willing to plant."

Zheng Kezang suddenly realized that he remembered that the Little Ice Age has passed now, and the average temperature in Dongning is 24-16 degrees, which has exceeded the optimum growth of potatoes at 22-10 degrees Celsius, and the nighttime temperature is even higher. The temperature beyond tuber formation is 13-16c (soil temperature 18-[-]c), so the slow growth is far less than that in the colder northern regions.

"It's not delicious, but at least it won't kill people. If it's not grown well, it will always have a shorter planting period and a bigger harvest than rice and wheat." Of course, Zheng Kezang knew that Taiwan would face a severe drought for three consecutive years in the future. Compared with rice and wheat, which require the same amount of water, his high yield is enough to fill the stomachs of most people, but he cannot publicly make such predictions, so he can only hint implicitly. "Pan yam is a treasure, we must rely on it to save lives at critical times."

Liu Chongxi was quite disapproving, and the farmer was even submissive and didn't know what he was thinking. At this time, Zheng Kezang was advocating: "In fact, sweet potatoes can be cooked, such as vinegar, fried, and can also be used to make starch like sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes Flour and potato flour can also be used to make pasta, which is no worse than wheat flour."

Zheng Kezang was talking eloquently, when the guards guarding the side came and interrupted Zheng Kezang's preaching: "Grandson, it's getting late, if you don't leave, I'm afraid I'll miss my boss."

"That's good, this is the departure." Zheng Kezang responded with remonstrance, took only two steps, and then returned to the farmer, stretched out his hand to ask the guard on the side for something, and stuffed it into the farmer's chest hand. "It took you a long time to work, and this silver medal for meritorious service will be rewarded to you, which can be regarded as a little compensation."

The farmer picked it up and turned it over and over again. Although he didn't know what it was, he knew it was a good thing when he saw the silver light. But before he knelt down on the ground to thank him, Liu Chongxi, who was passing by, paused beside him: "This is a good thing. It was originally used by the grandchildren to praise the righteous people. It is cheap for you. Put it away and make it a family heirloom."