When it comes to tobacco, it seems that ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, young and old, know it. In fact, for the vast majority of countries, tobacco is a foreign product, not a local specialty, and it is not ancient.

Tobacco originates in and around Ecuador in Latin America, and its range may stretch from Mexico in the north, Bolivia in the south, and Venezuela in the east.

After the beginning of the Age of Discovery, after the Spanish entered the Americas, they found that tobacco was refreshing and spread quickly.

In 1565, it was introduced to Germany from France, and then to Russia, Japan, England, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines.

After the 17th century, smoking spread all over the world. Tobacco was introduced to China around the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (1573-1620), from Luzon Island in the Philippines to Xiamen, so it was called "Luzon tobacco" at that time. The earliest cultivation was in Zhangzhou. However, some people believe that it was first introduced to Taiwan, and then to Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. The exact time and year of the introduction are no longer known, but the earliest theory is that it was in the third year of Wanli (1578).

In the 25 years between Wanli and the fall of the Ming Dynasty, smoking was already prevalent in China. Otherwise, Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, would not have strictly banned tobacco cultivation and smoking. Tobacco is an annual herbaceous plant, and the part used to make tobacco is tobacco leaves. Products before the 17th century are mainly cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff and chewing tobacco.

Taiwan is a newly opened land, has been busy planting rice and sugarcane, Yan Changwu and focus on the military, while Chen Xinji is both military and political, others, because of the shortage of manpower, there is a lack of work, as a result, Liu Zhifeng is also idle, hollowing out his mind, and let him have a unique opportunity.

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Tobacco is better than opium, although tobacco will bring all kinds of problems, but if you don't grow tobacco, others will grow it, and after planting, your people will give the silver to outsiders.

If you grow tobacco, you will collect some taxes on your own tobacco and a heavy tax on foreign tobacco, and the local people will smoke local cigarettes.

Otherwise, if you don't grow tobacco, people from other places will grow tobacco to sell locally, and no matter how heavy your tax is, local smokers will smoke tobacco from other places, unless you completely ban smoking.

How is this possible? Thinking about the tobacco financial income of my Great Heaven/Dynasty, Yan Changwu had red eyes and immediately supported Liu Zhifeng to grow tobacco!

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So Liu Zhifeng got busy, and the people of Taiwan were also busy, and they got 20 acres of land from the southeast government to develop a variety of businesses for them: in addition to planting sugarcane and rice (these two items have a guaranteed area), the people planted tobacco, vegetables, sweet potatoes, potatoes, fruits, fish, livestock and poultry, and so on.

After Yan Changwu and Chen Xinji inspected, they felt that the economy was more dynamic.

Some matters were handed over to Liu Zhifeng to handle, and he did his best, busy running forward, and soon saw results.

Breeding and raising seedlings, inviting masters and experts from the mainland to pass on experience, and mobilizing the people to work.

More pond fish, more fruit trees, and more tobacco!

Liu Zhifeng is very busy, but fortunately, there is another county official on the mainland, but it is Liu Zhifeng's own family, called Liu Guangshi, the word filial piety, and he was born in Yongan.

The status of lifting people is high, and the "dedication" of the local people can often make people eat inexhaustibly, but Tingzhou is not close to the sea, there is no benefit of fish and salt trade, and there are many mountains and ridges in the place, and it is not easy to planing food on the mountains, and the master is also in a miserable situation, plus his level is not up or down, he can't get in the jinshi, and he has no money to honor his boss, and he still wastes time when he is more than 50 years old, and he has achieved nothing.

Although Taiwan's den of thieves has a good reputation, Liu Guangshi thinks that it is even more miserable than his current situation, gritted his teeth, and handed in his resume to Fu Ya, and then Fu Ya issued a license order to let him go to Taiwan to take up his post.

It's really good, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Chiayi three counties to choose, let him go wherever he wants, after all, he chose Tainan, the county government and the government government in the same city.

When he arrived in Tainan, he was immediately assigned a task by Liu Zhifeng to catch the ducks on the shelves, and later he recalled this experience and felt unbearable, but he finally survived.

And Liu Zhifeng also thanked Liu Guangshi for coming to share the responsibility for him, otherwise he would not be busy alone...... The administrative center of the southeast province is not enough to help him, first, the administrative center has few people, and second, he is not waiting to see him.

In those difficult days, the two Ming officials were in the "den of thieves" and made extraordinary achievements, and they did indeed do practical things.

The increase in pond fish and the improvement of people's lives make it possible to eat sea fish, but after all, it is better to fish on the shore than to fish on the shore.

When you go out to sea to fish, you will encounter wind and waves, and safety is a big problem.

And watch the sky to eat, sometimes the fish are full, and sometimes the catch is very small.

Fruits were planted everywhere, and the market was not a problem, and the army introduced a large number of them, and finally formed a system of food consequences!

Whenever possible, the soldiers must have fruit on their tables, which is not a problem in the military port, and when they are in the open sea, they are supplied with dried or candied fruit.

And under the guidance of public opinion, the people of Southeast Province generally like to eat fruits, which greatly enriches everyone's table.

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The bigger change comes from the tobacco industry, which is located in the tropics, which is suitable for tobacco cultivation, and the production is increasing year by year.

And Yan Dashao made two big moves in a row:

The first is cigarettes, which are smoked by wrapping tobacco in paper, and a convenient, fast and easy-to-carry way of smoking was born.

Yan Dashao deliberately built a paper mill!

In addition to providing paper for the military and political aspects, it is mainly for the production of cigarettes.

The cigarette paper from the southeast province has been tested many times to find the most suitable paper, there is no peculiar smell, burned out, and no one can compare with other papers!

The second is flue-cured tobacco, which uses charcoal to roast tobacco leaves, resulting in golden color and better taste, and a softer tobacco is then widely spread.

Because of its color, the tobacco industry is known as the golden industry.

With a two-pronged approach, cigarettes are in!

With Yan Dashao's knowledge, he immediately let Taiwan's tobacco form a brand, and promoted the three major cigarette brands of "Special Alcohol Southeast", "Jianpai" and "Coconut Tree Taiwan" with upper, middle and lower quality to ensure quality.

The "mountain peak", a "deer" and a "coconut tree" in the logo of the southeast province were printed as trademarks, claiming that "a cigarette after a meal is as happy as a fairy"!

Growing tobacco has become a "noble crop", and the income obtained once a year can make the family live comfortably, and some farmers who do not grow tobacco are jealous of those neighbors who grow tobacco and say that they are "your family grows tobacco a year, which is higher than the income of my family growing vegetables for three years", and Taiwan's tobacco has entered a glorious period.

Since he had a stronghold in the north, he exported cigarettes, rum and silk to the north in exchange for ginseng and furs from the north and shipped them back to the mainland for sale.

The second poison was his old friend ---- the Edo Shogunate, and the next time he met with the Great Imperial Palace, Tokugawa Hidetada, he found that this highness was holding a cigarette between his fingers and spitting out smoke, Yan Dashao secretly applauded, and immediately gave him a large package of top-grade special alcohol southeast.

The third poison was his old friend----- the British, who sold cigarettes in large quantities all over the world, believing that Taiwanese cigarettes were comparable to Caribbean cigars!

In this way, the southeast province has another fist export product, which earned cramps and turned into a source of wealth for Yan Changwu to expand arms warfare abroad.