was sad in his heart, but Li Yuanjia was helpless.

He does have a lot of money, and if he uses it to repair the houses, buy clothes and food for those poor people, it can really help many people survive this harsh winter!

However......

How many people can be saved by scattering all the wealth?

Of the hundreds of thousands of people in Chang'an City, more than half are poor, and Li Yuanjia can save a thousand people? Or two thousand?

Besides, this kind of thing is really something that he, the king of Han, can do?

Even if Emperor Li Shimin is far away in Luoyang, it is not his turn to do the disaster relief in Chang'an City, if he really hardens his neck......

"Huh."

With a wry smile, Li Yuanjia sighed and decided to completely dispel these unrealistic thoughts in his mind - instead of pondering these things, it is better to pay more attention to Sun Zhan's cotton planting!

So early the next morning, Sun Zhan braved the heavy snow and rushed to the Han Wangfu.

"Little Sun Zhan, participate in the king!"

"Well, get up!"

Looking at Sun Zhan, whose hands and face were a little bruised, the corners of Li Yuanjia's mouth twitched, and an apology rose in his heart. Just because of his mood fluctuations yesterday, this young man braved the heavy snow to rush here from outside the city, which is indeed a bit too impersonal.

However, this apology was well buried in Li Yuanjia's heart, and there was not even a trace of fluctuation on his face.

After all these years of rebirth, especially in the first few days, in order to hide from the people around him, Li Yuanjia's ability to hide his mentality has already reached its peak. After all, it was in the Imperial Palace, and if you are not careful, God knows what the consequences will be.

So suppressing the apologies in his heart, Li Yuanjia asked indifferently: "Sun Zhan, how much cotton is left in this year's harvest?" How many acres can be planted next year? ”

At Li Yuanjia's insistence, this new gadget was called cotton.

The farmers who got the cotton seeds and the Gaochang country at the beginning of the year will naturally be able to harvest a batch of cotton at the end of the year.

As an annual herbaceous plant, the growth period of cotton is not very long, more than 100 days is enough. Although the number of seeds from Gao Changguo's tribute is not large, it is still possible to plant a few acres of land. Under the careful service of Sun Zhan and the Gaochang farmers, a total of three acres were planted, and sixty-nine catties of cotton were harvested in October......

This number, to be honest, Li Yuanjia doesn't know whether it is high or low.

Even if he used more than 69 catties of cotton from childhood to adulthood for more than 30 years in his previous life, Li Yuanjia really didn't know how cotton was grown and how much yield an acre of land could have...... No, before that, he didn't even know that cotton was an annual herb!

So he was quite satisfied with the sixty-nine catties of cotton on three acres of land.

If Li Yuanjia knew what the future cotton output would be, he would not know whether to cry or laugh when he looked at the yield of more than 20 catties per mu at this time......

In any case, Sun Zhan and the others finally succeeded.

Although more than half of the seeds that were planted died, a small half survived after all, and produced dozens of catties of cotton and more seeds - for him, these seeds meant hope!

Therefore, the first thing after harvesting is to carefully preserve those seeds, and then the processing of more than 60 catties of cotton.

"Back to the king, there are still more than 20 catties of cotton left!"

After making a salute, Sun Zhan said respectfully: "As for seeds, it should be no problem to plant ten acres next year, and twenty acres can be sparse." ”

"Hmm......"

After listening to Sun Zhan's words, Li Yuanjia raised his eyebrows, and after a moment of silence, he asked, "What about the reeling car?" There are only twenty catties of cotton left, how are you spinning with a reeling wheel? ”

Reeling car, a tool used to reel silk.

Li Yuanjia didn't know when this thing was invented, but he knew that as early as thousands of years ago, the ancestors had already known how to use silk, and tools for spinning silk had appeared in the Han Dynasty.

It's definitely a bit inappropriate to spin cotton yarn with a reeling wheel, but it shouldn't be difficult to transform it, right?

"This ......"

After hesitating for a moment, Sun Zhan smiled bitterly: "If you go back to the king, if you spin the reeling car...... Not yet! We haven't found a way yet, and the cotton yarn spun is uneven in thickness and very easy to break. ”

When he said these words, Sun Zhan's heart was pounding.

Of course, he knew how much the king attached great importance to these cottons, and he gave a hundred acres of the best land alone, and in order to allow Sun Zhan to serve these cottons well, Li Yuanjia also specially gave five strong laborers to be sent by him! What's more, the king even had a house built for them, two cows, and a hundred yuan for daily expenses!

This kind of treatment made Sun Zhan flattered and apprehensive at the same time.

Originally, when he was assigned to this 100 acres of land to be responsible for planting cotton, Sun Zhan was still quite unconvinced, but when he received this 100 yuan, and was about to return to the palace every three or five times to report the major and minor affairs of cotton to Li Yuanjia, Sun Zhan had gradually understood one thing, that is, he was probably inseparable from cotton in his life.

Therefore, Sun Zhan's mentality has also changed from unconvinced at the beginning to uneasy.

He's a little scared!

He was afraid that he was not good enough, the yield of cotton was too low, or the cotton he planted could not be spun smoothly into cotton yarn with a reeling car, and of course he was more afraid that he did not take care of those seeds and let them all die!

In fact, it almost became a reality.

Fortunately, after more than half of the seeds died, the remaining half succeeded after all, and now they have more seeds in addition to the cotton harvested......

Just when all the thoughts in Sun Zhan's heart were turning, Li Yuanjia's mood had calmed down, and he nodded: "It's okay, what we have is time, just do it slowly." ”

He has never lacked time.

Only one or twenty acres of cotton can be planted next year, and even if the yield of one acre of land is fifty catties, it will not add up much in the end, and even the cotton planted on the 100 acres of land is an insignificant number.

The transformation of the spinning machine, just take your time.

Compared with this kind of trivial matter, in fact, Li Yuanjia is more worried about the large-scale planting and promotion of cotton in the future!

As for persuading Li Shimin or the ministers of the court to promote cotton planting in the Tang Dynasty, to be honest, he really has no confidence at all. After all, in this era of low productivity, the reclaimed land is not enough to grow food, and you want them to grow more cotton?

No matter how you think about it, Li Yuanjia finds it difficult.

The nobles had silk and furs, and there was no shortage of warm clothing, and they were quite comfortable and luxurious; The poor survived the cold winter with linen cloth, and their hunger for food far exceeded that of warmer cotton......

If it hadn't been forcibly promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang later, when would cotton become mainstream in China?

"Hoo ......"

Thinking about it, Li Yuanjia let out a long breath.

In the final analysis, the future of cotton is still in him.

During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, it was the time when the population of this dynasty was the most scarce and the land was the most abundant......