Smuggling Daming

In the back garden of Zhou's mansion in Songjiang Mansion, Zhou Zhong was picking peppers in a reclaimed vegetable field. In order to cultivate sweet potatoes and peppers, Jinxuan, Lingyun, and Zhuan'er reclaimed several acres of land at home to cultivate. As a result, it has become a habit now. No matter where you live, you will cultivate a small field in the garden and grow some vegetables such as peppers and cucumbers. The main reason is not for food, but for Jinxuan and the others to find something for themselves. Do it, and exercise your body by the way. This has also received strong support from Zhou Zhong, and it is also because of the hard work of Jinxuan and the others that the vegetables in the vegetable field are growing very well, and the peppers that are produced are like baby carrots. , the green look makes people appetite.

Zhou Zhong was very free during this period. The last native kingdom in Nanyang was finally destroyed by Qu Lie, and the layout of Nanyang was basically completed. Next, it will take time to slowly consolidate.In addition, there is still a lot of fighting in Wa Kingdom, but Edo Bay and Iwami Yinshan have completely fallen into the hands of Daming. Iwami Yinshan has begun to produce silver, and it has attracted the attention of the court, and a large number of troops have been stationed to guard it. , Absolutely nothing can be lost, Edo Port has almost been built, and Zhou Zhong has already given a memorial to Zhengde, hoping that the imperial court can form an ocean-going fleet, at least go to the Americas, find out the route, and prepare for the future. The foundation has been laid for the development of the Americas, but Zhengde has not yet received a reply.

In addition to these territorial expansions above, Ming's sea trade has also reached a peak, and the various ports that were abandoned due to the sea ban in the past have slowly returned to their original vitality one by one under the stimulation of sea trade.Especially in the ports south of Songjiang Prefecture, boats and boats come and go every day. Shuangyu Port, which used to dominate the sea trade, is no longer so conspicuous among many competitors. Even the port next to Shuangyu Port Ningbo Port has also gradually surpassed Shuangyu Port in scale. Now Ningbo Prefecture is discussing the merger with Shuangyu Port. If the two ports can be merged, Ningbo will form a huge seaport area, and all Leap over Guangzhou.Become the largest port in Ming Dynasty.

But now the maritime trade of Daming has also reached a bottleneck. What restricts the development of maritime trade is that the domestic industry of Daming cannot keep up with the development of Shanghai trade. For example, take porcelain and silk as an example. Now most people try their best to get these two kinds of goods , and then shipped overseas to make huge profits, and even the domestic supply is somewhat insufficient.As a result, domestic silk and porcelain prices have risen again and again.

In other words, the domestic productivity of Daming can no longer keep up with the development of commerce, and the goods that can be provided in the country have reached the limit, so no matter how prosperous the sea trade is, the goods provided by Daming every year are certain, resulting in domestic demand and export There was a contradiction.Therefore, the most important thing for Ming Dynasty now is to develop domestic agriculture, industry and commerce, and to increase the output of commodities is the right way.

As for the domestic affairs of Daming.Zhou Zhong can't get involved for the time being. At most, he will use the influence of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce to open some cotton textile workshops, encourage craftsmen to invent new textile tools, and vigorously develop the cotton textile industry. After all, cotton cloth is an important commodity in the sea trade. The price is lower than silk and porcelain though.But the output is huge, and even the Portuguese like Daming cotton cloth.I heard that Daming's cotton cloth is very popular in Europe.

However, no matter whether it is the cotton textile industry or any other industry, the speed of progress is still too slow only relying on Zhou Zhong's private influence. Without a development of more than ten or twenty years, there is no great effect at all.But Zhou Zhong is not in a hurry now. Anyway, he has already done everything he can do as the governor of the world, and the layout of Da Ming in the sea has also been completed. As long as there are no major changes in Da Ming, one day he can make adjustments according to his own needs.

It is precisely because of this that during this period of time Zhou Zhong can be said to be very leisurely. He even specially gave himself a holiday, planning to use this rare leisure time to accompany his family. Jinxuan and Lingyun gave birth to him respectively. One son, the eldest daughter Xia Xia is almost five years old, and it is time to pester others. In addition, Meng Wan is also pregnant and expecting to give birth.

Regarding his family members, Zhou Zhong still feels a little guilty. After all, he has been busy with the affairs of the Governor's Mansion in the past few years, and he rarely has time to accompany his family members. It's okay to be busy taking care of the children, but as Xia Xia grows up, she looks forward to being with her father every day, but unfortunately Zhou Zhong doesn't have much time to accompany her, which makes Xia Xia already do this to him. My father complained a bit.

It is precisely because of this that Zhou Zhong is ready to make good use of this free time, without thinking or doing anything, and spend it all with his family, especially now that Xia Xia is getting bigger and bigger, just in need of a father When it comes to caring, Zhou Zhong doesn't want his daughter to lack fatherly love during her growth.

Zhou Zhong accompanied Xia Xia around the streets of Songjiang Mansion for a long time this morning, bought her many gadgets, and made this little girl very happy.Speaking of which, although Shanghai New City has attracted many merchants to buy land and do business, but after all, the popularity has not yet risen, and the streets are not very prosperous. In addition, houses are being built all day long, and there is a smell of dust everywhere. , so Zhou Zhong did not move his home there. After finishing his work every day, he would ride a horse back to the Zhou family's old house in Songjiang to accompany his family.

After playing all morning, Xia Xiafei was eating a meal made by his father.Speaking of which, since Zhou Zhong became governor, he has rarely been in the kitchen, and Jinxuan and the others will not let him cook, thinking that he has a job, so these days, Zhou Zhong can only go to the kitchen except for the busy Chinese New Year. Outside of his hands, he couldn't get within ten meters of the kitchen at other times.However, it was the two hands that were exposed during the Chinese New Year that made Xia Xia never forget his father's cooking skills. Zhou Zhong was too busy before, and Xia Xia didn't see anyone all day, so naturally he didn't have the chance to bring it up. Now he finally has a chance, naturally. They clamored to eat Zhou Chong's braised pork.

Speaking of which, except for her gender and appearance, this girl Xia Xia is like Zhou Zhong in other aspects, especially in terms of food, as long as it is something that Zhou Zhong likes to eat, she must also like it, such as braised pork, ancient meat, etc. Wait, there are also spicy dishes, which she and Zhou Zhong both like to eat, and today they specifically asked Zhou Zhong to cook a chili scrambled egg for himself. Although it is a very common home-cooked dish, it is a father-daughter duo A dish that you can never get tired of eating.

In order to cook a meal for his daughter, Zhou Zhong personally went to the vegetable field to pick vegetables, especially the chili peppers, which are big and green chili peppers. This kind of chili peppers are not so spicy and can be cooked just right. cook.

Speaking of chili, it used to be the exclusive product of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce. In the entire Ming Dynasty, only the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce planted peppers on small overseas islands, and they were not allowed to spread the seeds.At the beginning, Daming people were not very used to chili, but after a year or two, more and more people liked chili. When it is expensive, it can be sold for three taels of silver, but its cost is only more than a dozen pennies, which is like stealing money.

It's a pity that the good times of chili only lasted for two years. Later, Zhou Zhong gave Zhengde an idea to relocate the victims overseas. In order to give these victims more money, Zhou Zhong gave the chili seeds to those The disaster victims who settled overseas did allow many victims to earn a fortune by planting peppers at first, but then more and more peppers were planted, and even spread from overseas to the mainland of Ming Dynasty. As a result, within two years, all of Ming Dynasty Those who grow chili peppers, especially those in Sichuan and Huguang, grow better chili peppers than other places. As a result, the chili peppers are as bad as the later generations. When you go to a noodle restaurant to eat a bowl of noodles, people will take out a chili oil Pots, let you eat as you like, no money at all.

However, although the price of chili has come down, the taste has not changed, and with the spread of chili, more and more people like spicy food, which also makes more and more dishes using chili as a seasoning, such as what kind of water Dishes such as boiled fish and spicy tofu have appeared now, but the taste is not as authentic as in later generations, but it is barely edible.

In order to make Xia Xia her favorite chili scrambled eggs, Zhou Zhong personally selected the chili peppers, removed the seeds inside, washed them, cut them into thin strips and soaked them in cold water for a while before rinsing them again. Prepare to cook. The reason for brewing with cold water is mainly to remove some of the spicy taste from the chili peppers. The fried dishes are not particularly spicy, which is suitable for children. After all, Xia Xia is still young, so it’s right to eat too spicy. Poor health.

After the chili scrambled eggs were ready, Zhou Zhong made braised pork and ancient nei respectively, as well as two vegetarian dishes, sweet and sour cabbage and stir-fried mung bean sprouts, and finally added a bowl of sweet corn soup, and a few freshly steamed vegetables. Good steamed buns, these are Zhou Zhong's father and daughter's favorite food. As for rice and the like, neither of them like it. They prefer to eat pasta, but in places like Songjiang, flour is much more expensive than rice. Wealthy families in China only eat a little pasta during the holidays.

Although Zhou Zhong didn't cook a lot of dishes, the amount was enough for his family to eat. When Xia Xia saw her favorite home-cooked dishes on the table, her big eyes turned into crescent moons with a chubby smile. The little hands grabbed the chopsticks and ate non-stop. Although the two little ones were only two years old, they were not to be outdone. They climbed up the table and reached out to grab a large piece of braised pork and gnawed it. It seemed that they were meat eaters just like their father animal.

The family managed to have a comfortable meal, and it seemed that they were about to finish eating, but at such a moment, Zhou Zhong saw Wu Shan poking his head outside the restaurant. It seemed that he wanted to find someone else for something, but he didn't Dare to disturb at this time, which made Zhou Zhong secretly sigh, it must not be a good thing to let Wu Shan come here alone at this time, maybe his leisurely life is coming to an end. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)