In the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, a royal family banquet has reached the time of full wine and food.

From the time when Emperor Chongzhen was in power, the food of the first family in the world took a simple and homely route. It is rare to go to a large table of delicacies from the mountains and seas, usually three or four pots of fried fresh and green vegetables, plus a small meat and a large meat, a large bowl of fresh fish, fat sheep or old hen boiled fresh soup. Compared to the royal family, this kind of food is not luxurious at all, but every side dish is cooked with care, and it is delicious and delicate.

And after Zhu Cihong took power, although the conditions at home have improved a lot, he still has to live a careful life!

Therefore, the table of wine and food placed in the Wuying Hall today is still in the style of an ordinary family banquet. Because Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfeng, Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Sen, Zheng Jiangong, Zhu Yousong, and Zhu Changshu were invited, a few more dishes were added.

Among them are the French fries that are said to be cooked by Wu Sanmei herself, with chili fried chicken...... The fried fries fried to golden brown are crispy on the outside and glutinous on the inside, accompanied by dried chili powder (Sichuan and Hunan people don't eat chili peppers in this era, but Jiangnan people, Zhejiang people and Hu Jianren can eat some spicy seeds in small amounts) The fried chicken nuggets made Zhu Cihong taste a little bit of hometown, but the spiciness is still not enough, and the spicy is not strong!

"This yellow strip is good, what is it?" Fat King also likes French fries, and even ate more than a dozen of them, and he still felt that he was not addicted, but he was embarrassed to wrap a large pot round, so he sounded.

"Lord Wang, these are french fries." It was Wu Xiang who answered him.

Although it is a family banquet, it is still divided into men's and women's seats. The women's seat is placed in the Xinuan Pavilion of Wuying Palace, in addition to Zhu Cihong's concubine, there are also Empress Zhoushang, Empress Zhang (the queen of the Apocalypse), Princess Kunxing and Zhaorengong, so there can only be Wu Xiang to teach the secret skills of french fries.

"French fries?" Fat Fu Wang continued to inquire, "It's sweet fries?" ”

The roasted sweet potatoes are also very delicious, and the fat king also likes them, and he has tried fried sweet potatoes.

"It's sweet fries." Wu Xiang explained, "Sweet potatoes are called by Fujian people, Jiangnan people call them soil potatoes, and in the north they call potatoes. There are not many crops on the market from the New World in the West, and these are all grown in my Zhuangzi. He put down his chopsticks and used his two palms to form an oval, "It's about this big, a bit like a taro, buried in the ground, and the ground is like flowers and plants." ”

"How much does this thing produce? Hungry for possibility? Emperor Chongzhen habitually asked.

"The emperor, the yield of this taro is not low, the yield per mu is said to reach 2,000 catties, and the first time the minister's family planted it, it produced 1,000 catties," Wu Xiang said, "It is also very simple to plant, cut the taro into the size of an egg according to the bud eye, and place it in the warm and humid soil." ”

"Then it's better to talk about sweet potatoes." Emperor Chongzhen also knew about Zhu Cihong's cultivation of sweet potatoes in Tuntian, Shandong.

"It's true that the yield is not as good as sweet potatoes," Wu Xiang said with a smile, "but this thing is more hungry than sweet potatoes...... Although it is not as white as rice, it is much stronger than sweet potatoes. ”

Chongzhen said: "There are as many as eight stones for 1,000 catties, and it would be better if it could reach 2,000 catties. ”

"Emperor, sweet potatoes are not very drought tolerant, nor are they very heat resistant," Zheng Zhilong took over the topic, "Sweet potatoes are relatively frost-resistant, but they are not resistant to drought and heat." If there is no shortage of water in the Northland, it can be planted in large quantities...... Sweet potatoes can be harvested in 100 days, even in the cold northern regions, sown in March and harvested in July. After harvesting, it can be processed into potato flour and stored for a long time. ”

Zhu Cihong had already finished eating a chicken leg and turned his head to look at Zheng Zhilong, "Old Taishan still knows how to farm?" ”

Zheng Zhilong smiled, "You can't farm, but the Chen's family has hired a lot of old farmers who are proficient in farming in Taiwan. The minister often talked to them, so he knew some farming matters. These sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes, as long as they are planted in the right place, can survive. ”

"How much wilderness has your family opened in Taiwan?" Zhu Cihong asked.

The Dutch have now withdrawn from Taiwan, and the Zheng family is now the lord of Taiwan - Taiwan will later be known as the treasure island, but in the 17th century it was still in a state of wilderness, and there was a "black water ocean" (a very fast ocean current) to block it, if it were not for a pirate family like the Zheng family, it would not be easy to get in and out of the island.

Therefore, the development of Taiwan is almost a bottomless pit for the Ming Dynasty, but it is more appropriate to entrust it to the Zheng family to develop.

"Back to the emperor," Zheng Zhilong said, "the minister's family has invested heavily in Taiwan in the past two years, cultivating as many as 300,000 mu, half of which is planted with sugarcane, and the rest is planted with taro, sweet potatoes, rice and various fruits and vegetables.

Sugar cane can be used to boil sugar and can be sold for a lot of money. Rice can feed people, but the yield is not high, so some sweet potatoes have to be planted to make up for the shortage, and as for taro, it can be eaten by people and fed to pigs. ”

"Taiwan's rice production is not high?" Zhu Cihong asked, "Why?" Taiwan's climate is humid and warm, so it is not a problem for rice to grow twice a year, right? With the addition of two crops, how can there be three or four stones of white rice per mu, right? ”

Zheng Zhilong shook his head again and again: "It's not that good, it's really that good, Taiwan is so good and so barren until now?" Your Majesty doesn't know that Taiwan is very windy, and every summer is a gust of wind, which can often blow down the rice that has grown halfway. All the people who went to the island to cultivate the land had to stop sweet potatoes and taro so that the food rations could be guaranteed. ”

Taiwan was rich in rice in later generations, but that was based on generations of improved rice varieties and hybrid wind-resistant rice. In the 17th century, all that could be grown on the island of Taiwan was rice brought over by Fujian, which was easily blown down by typhoons and the yield was unstable. Therefore, it is necessary to have sweet potatoes and taro to be planted in order to ensure that the food supply is safe.

As for cane sugar, it is a specialty introduced to the island of Taiwan by the Dutch, plus a deerskin, which is the source of profit for the island of Taiwan.

After Zheng Zhilong took over the island of Taiwan from the Dutch, he also invested heavily in the sugar industry.

However, what he put down was not blood, but mortgages, which were issued by the Maritime Bank to Fujian farmers who dared to go to the island of Taiwan, and then mortgaged the farms developed by the farmers on the island. At the same time, the Zheng family's Taiwan sugar store will also sign sugarcane package purchase agreements with Fujian farmers who have come to Bo Fugui to buy their sugarcane.

The loan interest rate and the purchase price of sugarcane were carefully calculated by the Zheng family's profiteers, which on the one hand allowed farmers who worked hard and had good luck to make "a lot of money"; On the one hand, the risks of developing Taiwan will be passed on to the greatest extent.

The farmers who make a lot of money are just the wealth effect that the Zheng family shows to those Fujian farmers who are empty-handed and want to make a fortune.

Behind a wealthy farmer, there are at least four unlucky farmers who have worked hard in vain, and even lost their lives on the island of Taiwan...... Proper 28 effect!

And the Zheng family is firmly seated in Diaoyutai in this adventurous activity of developing Taiwan.

Twenty percent of the farmers who have made money can repay the loan and can continue to supply cane sugar to the Zheng family's sugar factory. And eighty percent of the peasant households who have lost nothing have nothing, as long as they do not die, they have to work for the Zheng family to earn money to pay off their debts - otherwise how would the proletariat on the island of Taiwan come?

Moreover, the farms they worked so hard to open will also be bought by the Zheng family, and then resold to newcomers from Fujian to take over...... As long as there is a wealth effect, there will be people who will go to the island one after another to pursue their dreams.

Whoever made Fujian have eight mountains, one water and one field, since ancient times, there are few fields and many people, and there has never been a shortage of poor people who dare to go to sea to find a way to live. Zheng Zhilong himself was also one of them in his early years!

"Now the people who go to sea to Taiwan to find a way out are all poor people from Fujian?" Zhu Cihong then inquired about going to sea to make a living, of course he wanted to plant the banner of Daming all over the world, but he also knew that this kind of thing was not so easy. The current Ming Dynasty can't be colonized like a bottomless pit, so you have to listen to the opinions of experts.