roccoschili Chapter 129 Planting Sweet Potatoes
Chapter 129 Planting Sweet Potatoes
When Su Qin was extremely busy, Zhao Liangchen was also overwhelmed and had no time to ask Su Qin about the progress of the matter.
Recently, the King of Liang contacted him through Zhao Jian. Not only did he not refuse, he actively cooperated and even went to visit the King of Liang under Zhao Jian's guidance. The King of Liang did not directly win him over, but his words were full of encouragement and support. This gave Zhao Liangchen the illusion that with the support of the King of Liang, his career would be smooth sailing.
Indeed, with the help of Prince Liang, Zhao Liangchen privately met with many of his allies, including high-ranking generals in the Imperial Guards. Although they had long since pledged their allegiance to Prince Liang, they were naturally resentful of Zhao Liangchen's actions, which not only disrupted their plans but also allowed him to rise to prominence and rise above them. However, they dared not neglect Prince Liang's instructions in the slightest.
With their tacit cooperation, Zhao Liangchen's work in the imperial guards went smoothly and gradually got on the right track. He also secretly got a clear understanding of those imperial guards who defected to King Liang.
Su Qin was constantly busy with the auction, as the foreign goods needed to be meticulously processed. The Marquis of Wuning's wife recruited talented individuals and hired a number of workers to meticulously craft the goods in a house within the Marquis of Wuning's mansion.
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it's already the twelfth lunar month. Shangjing City is greeted by a heavy snowfall, blanketing the ground. Su Qin stayed in her room with Zeng Lao, sitting around a red clay stove, leisurely brewing tea and savoring roasted sweet potatoes and green tangerines, as if she were in a secluded paradise.
She bought the sweet potatoes from foreign merchants. She found that people here would buy seeds from foreign merchants to grow some rare and fresh plant varieties, but most of them were rich people who had a lot of land and pursued novelty. They wanted to grow all kinds of plants, whether they were edible or just for show, to try something new.
However, ordinary people have little land, and the little land they have is the source of food and tax for their family. Therefore, they will not take the risk of planting plants they are not familiar with. As a result, food crops such as sweet potatoes, which have a strong sense of satiety and high yield, have not been promoted at all. Ordinary people generally regard sweet potatoes as a kind of fruit and vegetable, not as food.
After Su Qin discovered the sweet potatoes, she bought them all and stored them in the cellar of the Wuning Marquis' Mansion, preparing to send them to Zhao Liangchen's farm and Chanzhou in the early spring of next year.
The fields in Chanzhou were covered with thick mud and sand after the flood, and the soil fertility was very low. There was no modern chemical fertilizer here, and it would take two or three years for the land to recover to its pre-flood production. If the land production decreased in these two or three years, the people would definitely starve.
Sweet potatoes are a plant with relatively low requirements for land and high yields, and can be grown in large quantities as a post-disaster transition crop.
The green oranges were sent by the Wuning Marquis Mansion. There were no fresh fruits and vegetables to eat in the dead of winter, but the Wuning Marquis Mansion had them. The vegetables were grown in their own greenhouses, and the fruits were sent from the south at a high price.
Ever since the wife of Marquis Wuning met Su Qin, she would send over any delicious food from the Marquis's mansion, so Su Qin's life is quite comfortable now, even better than when she was in Chanzhou, except that she needs to use her brain more.
Zeng slowly picked up the teacup and took a sip of the steaming hot green orange tea. The refreshing tea aroma and sweet and sour taste instantly filled his mouth, making him squint his eyes involuntarily, his face revealing an expression of immense enjoyment.
After a long while, Zeng Lao slowly opened his eyes, let out a long sigh, and said contentedly, "Girl, ever since you came to my side, my life has become more and more comfortable day by day! Compared to now, those long decades before were simply a waste of time!"
Su Qin, who was standing nearby, couldn't help but chuckle when she heard this. She said in a sweet voice, "Grandpa, you're just joking! With your prestige and status, if you had wanted to live a comfortable life like you do now, I'm afraid those high-ranking officials would have been vying to treat you as a guest of honor. It's just that you are indifferent to fame and fortune by nature and don't want to be involved in the complicated disputes of the world."
After hearing this, Zeng Lao snorted in disdain, shook his head slightly and said, "Humph! If I really became a guest of honor in someone else's house, how could I still be so free and easy? I'm afraid that by then I'll become a sharp weapon in their hands to attack others!
You know, it’s not easy to eat at other people’s homes. Now it’s so good, I am at home enjoying the filial piety of my granddaughter, how comfortable…”
After saying that, Mr. Zeng picked up the teacup again and sipped the tea leisurely.
When the two were enjoying themselves comfortably, Zhao Liangchen came in, feeling cold. He stood at the door and shook off the snow on his body, dispelling the coldness before entering the east room.
Zeng Lao glanced at him and asked, "Are you here for the scent? You always come here when I have something good."
Zhao Liangchen smiled and said, "I definitely smelled something fragrant. What's that smell? It's so fragrant."
Su Qin had already poured him a cup of tea and handed it to him: "Are you back from outside the city?"
She hadn't seen Zhao Liangchen for a long time. Only servants lived in the west house, and he usually didn't come.
Zhao Liangchen took the tea and drank it, praising it before nodding: "Yes, it's snowing heavily today, so we can't train in the camp. I'll come back to take a look during the day off."
Su Qin: "You haven't eaten yet, right? I'll ask Aunt Zhang to make you some noodles."
Zhao Liangchen pointed at the sweet potato on the stove and asked, "What is this? It smells strange. Just eat this."
Su Qin picked one up for him with tongs: "This is a sweet potato, bought from foreigners, it's very sweet. Although it fills your stomach, you can't eat too much. It's hard to digest. I'll let Aunt Zhang cook noodles for you."
Zhao Liangchen reached out to stop her: "It's cold outside, don't go out, I'll go by myself."
Aunt Zhang was sweeping snow in the yard. Zhao Liangchen walked to the door with a sweet potato, opened the curtain, and said loudly, "Aunt Zhang, make some noodles."
Aunt Zhang quickly put down her broom and responded, "Hey."
Zhao Liangchen went back and sat by the stove. The sweet potato was very hot, but he seemed not to feel the heat and ate it with relish: "This is delicious. Why haven't I seen it before?"
Su Qin: "It was brought here by foreigners, so not many people grow it. But it has many benefits. It has a high yield and a strong sense of satiety. It can be used as a staple food or as a cooking dish. It doesn't require much land, and it's best suited for places with limited or poor soil. I plan to have you plant more on your farm next spring, and give some to my father so he can grow it in Chanzhou..."
She explained the benefits of sweet potatoes to Zhao Liangchen in detail, and also analyzed his future plans for him in detail: "King Liang's idea of improving his reputation among the people is correct, but his temporary performance in front of the disaster victims will not have much effect, and the people will soon forget it.
What can truly move the people and make them grateful is people's livelihood. Only when the people truly feel that they have better food and better clothes will they be grateful to those in power.
Food is the most important thing for people. Eating food is a big deal for people.
As long as the Emperor ensures that the people have high-yield crops and can eat every day, even if Prince Liang schemes and plots, he will not be able to change the Emperor's image in the hearts of the people."
Zhao Liangchen: "Do you mean to ask the emperor to order the people of Chanzhou to plant sweet potatoes?"
Su Qin nodded: "It's not enough to simply issue an order. The emperor needs to find someone special to make various ways to eat sweet potatoes, let them know the benefits of sweet potatoes, and that they are also a kind of food. He also needs to hire someone to teach them how to grow them.
And it's not just sweet potatoes. I've been in Chanzhou for so many years, I'm very familiar with the climate and terrain there, and I've also selected a number of seeds suitable for growing there."