Autumn is a season of abundance.

The corn and rice harvests around Chang'an have already begun.

And Li Shimin has already received the recitals from Jiangnan Province and Shannan Province, and knows that this year's grain harvest in these places is set to far exceed that of last year, so Li Shimin's mood is very relaxed now.

The newly promoted Nanyang rice in these places has not yet been harvested for one season.

"Li Zhong, I heard that today is the cotton picking day of various families in Chang'an City?"

When Li Shimin returned to the Xuanzheng Hall after the next dynasty, he couldn't help but ask.

Normally, this cotton does not mean that it will be picked on the same day.

Not to mention that the growth of cotton in each field is not exactly the same, even if it is exactly the same, it will not have any effect if it is harvested for a few days.

However, Li Kuan doesn't think so.

In order to let everyone fully feel the impact of cotton, Wang Fugui specially asked Wang Fugui to say hello to the cotton planters and chose to pick them uniformly today.

After the picking, the wool workshop of the Chu Wangfu was responsible for the unified purchase.

Of course, the issue of cotton seeds that the nobles are concerned about will also be returned in a certain proportion according to the cotton purchased.

There are five or six cottonseeds in each cotton ball, and if it is only one or two baskets of cotton, these nobles can arrange for someone to remove it by hand.

However, for these dozens or hundreds of acres, manual removal of cottonseeds will be arranged......

Is it true that there are so many idle people waiting in Datang?

"That's right, it is said that His Royal Highness the King of Chu specially asked Li Chunfeng to choose the auspicious day, calculate the time, and it should start picking soon."

Tens of thousands of acres of cotton have been planted around Chang'an City, which is already a new scenery recently.

Li Zhong naturally knew it.

"You arrange for someone to remind Kuan'er again, although this cotton is good, but Guan Zhongdao doesn't have so much fertile land for him to plant, if he really wants to promote cotton, then give a reason to convince me."

Li Shimin has not waited for Li Kuan to come to him, now that the cotton has come to pick, the nobles should also be thinking about whether to plant cotton next year, how much cotton to plant, and where to plant, right?

"My subordinates understand!"

……

Cotton cultivation does not particularly require water.

However, because the Chu Wangfu took the lead in planting cotton in the fertile fields on the edge of Weishui, the cotton of all the nobles this year was concentrated in this area.

Standing on the edge of the Wei River, the white patches of cotton, embellished with brown-green cotton leaves, show a different kind of beauty.

Many bees buzz around the cotton fields, giving a sense of tranquility and serenity.

Diagonally opposite the cotton field is the Guanshishan Academy.

There is already a student named Wenguang in the College of Agriculture, who has been thinking about bee breeding for two years.

Just on the edge of these cotton fields, a row of beehives is placed around a suggested thatched hut.

"Senior Brother Wen, this cotton has been picked, is it time to harvest today's honey?"

Di Renjie rarely followed Wen Guang to the side of the cotton field, watching the industrious little bees keep going back and forth.

It's hard to imagine that the amber honey is made up of tiny bees flying out to collect nectar and pollen, and then flying back to the hive, where the bees spit out the honey and store it in a hexagonal nest grid to accumulate day by day.

"Huaiying, don't worry, this cotton honey will be baked in a few days, and I will leave two boxes at that time, and all the others will be sent to the Chu Palace."

In Guanshishan Academy, everyone knows that Xiaocorn likes to eat sweets, especially sweets made of honey.

However, the honey of this year is basically based on the gifts of nature, and it is not so easy to obtain.

This is also an important reason why Wenguang had the idea of researching bee breeding in the first place.

According to the words of His Royal Highness the King of Chu, the research of the Agricultural College is not only the cultivation of corn, wheat, and rice, but also not limited to vegetables such as weed, courgette, and laiphane, not to mention fruits such as pomegranates, peaches, and plums.

But everything related to animals and plants can be studied by the Faculty of Agriculture.

Even if you go and study when and where the geese fly south, you can do it.

Naturally, the study of how to raise bees and how to produce honey is also within the scope of the college's support.

"Cotton honey? Senior Brother Wen, isn't it all honey? How do you still distinguish cotton honey? ”

Di Renjie is known for his studiousness and curiosity at Guanshishan Academy, and everyone loves and fears him.

I'm afraid he will be speechless when he asks himself.

"Of course there's a difference. Cotton honey, flower honey, jujube honey, black locust honey, all kinds of honey are different in color, the taste is also slightly different, and the honey produced in spring, summer, autumn and winter is also different......"

Speaking of the honey he studied, Wen Guang, who had always been wooden, also had his eyes shining, and his mouth was gushing.

"So, if bees are to be bred in large quantities, they need a large number of flowers nearby to provide a source of nectar?"

"That's right, the cotton honey I cultivated this time was very successful, and the nectar next to the flower field in the Chu Wangfu was also very good. I heard that the prince is going to promote cotton planting, and then the spring of bee farming will come. ”

Wen Guang is the concubine of the family, and it is the same with him or not in the family.

In addition, his mother passed away early, and the other brothers and sisters in the family were not close to him, so he rarely went home, and basically took Guanshishan Academy as his home.

Well, to be more precise, he is accompanied by bees, and where there are bees, there is his home.

"No matter what kind of flower it is, it doesn't bloom all year round, so you can't wait for only one kind of flower as a bee, right?"

Di Renjie's question was immediately to the point.

"Huaiying, you asked this question so well, I only realized this question at the end of last year. However, these bees are all flying, and they will go around looking for flowers on their own. If a large amount of cotton is in full bloom in a cotton field, the bees will collect a lot of honey, and the honey will soon be harvested.

If there are not a large number of flowers to collect honey, then there is basically no honey left in the honeycomb, and it is basically eaten by the bees themselves. I think this problem can only be solved by constantly taking the bees to the places where the flowers are in full bloom to collect honey. ”

"Constantly changing venues with bees?"

Di Renjie listened to Wen Guang's idea, and his eyes lit up.

If bees had a lot of flowers to collect every day, a swarm of bees would definitely produce several times as much honey in a year.

I don't have to worry about the lack of honey in the Chu Palace.

Honey sauce chicken wings, honey sauce pork ribs, honey sauce roasted Kunlun melon, honey sauce barbecued pork......

Honey is not only used for flushing and drinking, but also has a great demand every year.

Especially after Dude learned the dishes of the Chu Palace, the demand for honey in Chang'an City immediately soared many times, and now honey is getting more and more expensive.

"That's right, I'm going to start trying it next year. In addition, how to breed bees, I have basically summed up some rules, the so-called learning to apply, I plan to start next year, such honey technology to teach nearby farmers, training the first batch of beekeeping farmers in Chang'an City. ”

"I fully support Senior Brother Wen's idea. Whether it is the method of improving grain production, the method of increasing the fruit hanging rate of fruits, or the method of breeding bees, Senior Brother Wen, is essentially for the benefit of our Datang people and the improvement of our Datang's comprehensive national strength. In this way, I applied to Xu to join the army, and asked him to arrange two four-wheeled carriages for you to use, which were specially used to transfer beehives. ”

"It's the best way to place more beehives and move them the fastest."

When Wen Guang heard this, his face bloomed with joy.

……

"Lord Wang, this year's cotton output is no worse than last year's, and the cotton from a few acres of land that has just been picked is now on the way to the wool workshop."

Wang Fugui followed behind Li Kuan, with the same smile on his face as ever, so that Li Kuan couldn't find his eyes.

"What happened to the other plants?"

Li Kuan is not worried about the cotton production of the Chu Wangfu, these are all personally guided by the students of the Agricultural College of Guanshishan Academy, and there is no problem at all.

On the contrary, some of them may be self-righteous and follow their own methods, but the output is not as expected.

"Judging from the growth of the cotton fields before, they are all very good. The cotton field of Yang Benman's family, who had just supervised Yushi, had also been harvested two acres, and the yield was not much different from what we expected. ”

"Yang Benman also planted cotton?"

Li Kuan asked in surprise.

This guy, I really don't know how to describe him.

In the past, Li Kuan was impeached every once in a while, although he suffered a lot of losses, and now he has been impeached less often, but he still has a head from time to time.

However, this person, when he was doing things, he looked like he would do what the Chu Wangfu did.

Look at the tea plantations around Chang'an City, in addition to the Chu Wangfu, Yang Benman's family is the largest, and he has made a lot of money in recent years.

Even for the cultivation of rice, I heard that Yang Benman specially arranged for people to go to his hometown and let people plant Nanyang rice in the paddy fields at home.

Now that the Chu Wangfu has just begun to promote cotton, he has followed.

"Lord Wang, when cotton seeds were sold, there was no restriction on who could not buy them, so ......"

Wang Fugui glanced at Li Kuan a little apprehensively, thinking that he was dissatisfied.

"Why are you nervous, this Yang Benman has planted cotton, this is a good thing. Who in Chang'an City doesn't know that he doesn't deal with this king, and even he chose to plant cotton, and other people will naturally weigh it in their hearts, so should they follow up quickly. ”

Li Kuan's measurement is not that small.

This Yang Benman is the supervisor of the imperial history, and it was originally his power to hear about it.

If you really want to say it, he didn't deliberately get along with the Chu Wangfu.

Now, Li Kuan thinks he's a little cute.

"Lord Wang, someone in the palace has specially reminded me that in addition to the research cultivation of the academy, cotton is not allowed to be planted in other places in Guanzhong Dao."

Wang Fugui heard Li Kuan's intention to continue to promote cotton planting, and hurriedly reminded him.

"I know, I'll talk about that later."

……

As night slowly fell, a whale oil lantern was lit in the eldest grandson's mansion.

Changsun Chong came to Changsun Wuji again as before, and explained what he learned today.

"Aya, today the Chu Wangfu has purchased all the cotton picked by each family, and the price is also very attractive. The child roughly calculated, and the output of the cotton field in this scene was actually more than ten or twenty times the amount of corn, so that the cultivation of cotton was promising. ”

The eldest grandson's family and the Chu Wangfu have always been at odds with each other, and they originally thought that they would follow the trend and plant dozens of acres of cotton fields this year, but because they hesitated for too long, by the time they made up their minds, there were no cotton seeds.

"It is precisely because of the particularly high profits of cotton cultivation that His Majesty has made it clear that he does not support the conversion of fertile land into cotton in the prefectures and counties of Guanzhong Province. I don't believe him, Li Kuan dares to go against His Majesty. ”

The eldest grandson Wuji was still a little interested in cotton planting before, and after learning about Li Shimin's thoughts, his heart immediately calmed down a lot.

According to the current situation, this cotton does not like to grow in places with very abundant rain, and the imperial court has already promoted Nanyang rice in various parts of Jiangnan, and it is impossible to continue to promote cotton cultivation in Jiangnan in a short time.

So where can I find a large area of land to grow cotton?

"Aye, I heard that the Chu Wangfu, Fang Fu and Cheng Mansion have arranged for people to plant a large amount of sugarcane in Lingnan Road, and now Li Kuan seems to have the intention of promoting cotton planting on a large scale. lest the limelight be stolen by Guanshishan Academy. ”

"This can be had, agriculture is the foundation of the Tang Dynasty, Your Majesty has always attached great importance to it, besides, setting up an agricultural college will not cost much money every year, it is completely worth it."

Eldest Sun Wuji glanced at Eldest Sun Chong with satisfaction, feeling that he had finally grown up in the past two years.

……

Liao Zhang's came home late today.

"Didn't you say you're going to dinner at your neighbor's house tonight? Why did you come back so late? ”

Uncle Liao complained a little dissatisfied.

"Today is probably early, and in the next period of time, I will only come back later, and I may even sleep directly in the dormitory in the workshop."

Liao Zhang stretched his waist, and then sat on the edge of the bed.

"Wasn't it very idle some time ago, why did you suddenly become busy?"

"Starting today, cotton is being picked in cotton fields all over Chang'an City, and the workshop I am in charge of is responsible for cotton deseeding and spinning, why do you say I have become busy recently?"

"Didn't you say that you have been teaching some helpers these days, and the number of people has expanded several times?"

"The manpower has expanded several times, but if you look at the cotton fields in Chang'an City, it is far more than several times, just us people, we can't be busy for a while. The side concubine has already spoken out in person, and wants to separate us from the wool workshop and set up a cotton workshop. ”

"Cotton workshop?"

"That's right, that cotton, but it's a good thing, I don't know when we'll be able to afford it."

Liao Zhang looked at the linen clothes on his body, and then thought about the cotton cloth spun in the workshop before, and couldn't help but look forward to it.