……

At the end of August, the sesame seeds planted by Chen Xu matured and entered the harvesting stage.

Compared with food crops, Chen Xu prefers all kinds of cash crops, so there are many kinds of melons, fruits and vegetables, onions, ginger, garlic peppers, beef, sheep, pigs, ducks and fish in Chen Xu's fiefdom, and there are fewer and fewer ordinary grains.

The two bags of wild sesame seeds that Li Shun brought back last year were screened and transplanted with seedlings, and more than 10 acres were planted.

Because these sesame seeds are wild seeds collected by the Yueshi people, they have not been selected and artificially cultivated, so they grow out of good and bad, the height and thickness of the sesame stems are different, and the sesame fruit pods on them are also of different sizes, some are dense and a lot, and some are sparse and only two or three, so this time to harvest sesame seeds, Chen Xu will personally come to direct the harvest, and the stalks are thick and the fruit pods are more preferred, and they will be used as seeds for backup at that time, as for those with bad quality, they can be used to squeeze oil and make sesame sugar and other snacks.

Chen Xu first rode around the large sesame seeds, and then walked into a few pieces of the ground to break some sesame pods and take a look, feeling that except for the number and color of the sesame seeds inside, there was no difference in the others.

Hundreds of servants of the Hou Mansion, farmers from the farm, and students from the Agricultural College stood outside a few sesame fields, looking at these strange crops with great interest.

Almost no one had ever heard of these small flax like corn before, let alone seen them, and everyone had just carefully cultivated and weeded and watered them according to Chen Xu's instructions, and they had also heard that this thing could be used to squeeze oil or make delicious pastries, and the taste was extremely fragrant, but no one had really tasted it until now.

And the more than ten acres in front of me seem to be a lot, but it can be seen that the yield of this crop is not good, the yield per mu is at most one stone, or even less than one stone, that is to say, this is a very low yield crop, just like pepper.

This year, the pepper planting area on the fiefdom has expanded several times, reaching nearly twenty acres, but the yield is also very low, one acre of land can only get three or five buckets, but pepper is a precious spice, the value is comparable to gold, most of the harvest on the fief will continue to be promoted and planted as seeds next year, and there are not too many things that can be left for food, so the market is still in a state of no price, there is no place to buy money, Chen Xu only allocated some to the palace and some princes and princes, People like Chen Ping who are familiar with each other can only supply a small amount of one and a half catties, and as for other unfamiliar people, even if they are senior officials of three or four grades, they can only stare dryly and drool thinking about pepper steak.

"At the beginning of the harvest, the College of Agriculture is responsible for harvesting the high-quality sesame seeds that we just mentioned, harvesting them separately into stacks to dry, and the rest of the unified harvest is concentrated to dry, and after a few days the pods are dry and cracked, they are threshed and collected."

After Chen Xu gave an order, everyone spat at at the palm of their hand, picked up the sickle and began to harvest, and soon a few sesame fields were full of people and noisy.

Ji Tong, the editor-in-chief in charge of the agricultural sector, personally accompanied by two reporters to watch the harvest, and prepared to write a few press releases about sesame seeds and publish them in the Daqin Metropolis Daily, so that the people of the world can know this crop called flax first.

After the sesame seeds are harvested, they should be tied vertically into stacks to dry for a few days, and the seeds can only be poured out after the pods are dry and cracked, and there can be no rainy weather in this process, otherwise the sesame seeds will rot, but now it is the mid-autumn season, and Guanzhong also belongs to the northwest, so the weather has been fine after autumn, and Chen Xu is not too worried.

"We Central Plains people have always thought that the northwest is a bitter cold land that does not produce crops, but I didn't expect that there are such good things as flax and pepper, but these crops are too low!" Ji Tong said with emotion.

"There is not only flax and pepper in the Western Regions, there are better things than these two, there is a kind of grape near the Tianshan Mountains to the west of Yueshi, the particles are huge, not only delicious and juicy, but also used to make wine is much better than the mountain grapes of the Central Plains, and near the desert there is a fruit called cantaloupe that is extremely sweet, more than ten times more delicious than the melon in the Central Plains, and the most important thing is that there is a thing called cotton, which produces an extremely soft and snow-white velvet, which can be directly spun and woven without any treatment, and the clothes made are extremely soft. It's a hundred times better than linen......"

Idle and bored, Chen Xu began to popularize the knowledge of the Western Regions to Ji Tong again, and Ji Tong's eyebrows trembled when he listened, and his eyes flickered.

For every word Chen Xu said, he would not have anyone doubt.

"Hou Ye knows everything about astronomy and geography, Ji Tong admires the five bodies to the ground, now General Meng Tian is already sitting in Xitui, General Li Xin's 10,000 army has been stationed in the Yue Clan, I want to wait until next year, my Daqin will be able to capture a large area of the Western Regions, and I will definitely get back these melons, fruits and cotton that Hou Ye said!" Jitong was excited.

"There are many tribes in the Western Regions, but they are all small countries, commanded by General Li Xin and Jiang Hu, plus King Liang is in control of the Yue Clan, as long as a few servant armies are trained to assist, it should be possible to control all the Western Regions within two years, by the way, after you go back to the newspaper hall, let Secretary Chen publish advertisements in the newspaper, encourage the caravan to go to the Western Regions to buy all kinds of specialties that I do not have in the Central Plains, and at the same time arrange for reporters to accompany the army to record the situation in the Western Regions, and then publish it in the newspaper so that the people of the Central Plains can understand the Western Regions!"

"The newspaper has made arrangements for this matter, and more than a dozen reporters have been dispatched, but because of the language barrier, many things are not going well!" Ji Tong shook his head with a wry smile.

"Language is indeed a big problem, what you said reminded Ben Hou that it seems that a translation hall must be prepared!" Chen Xu pinched his chin and nodded.

Language has always been a big problem in the communication of human civilization.

The Hun Hu Yue clan and other tribes around Daqin are adjacent to the Central Plains and still have contacts with each other, so most of the people on the border and the soldiers on the border are still very good enough to understand some Hun Hu and Yue languages, and there are also many Hun Hu and Yue clans who are fluent in the Central Plains dialect, and there are even many who are very proficient, just like Wen Bupo, but as Daqin continues to expand further, then language will become a great obstacle to communication with each other.

The language of the Yueshi people is similar to the Xiongnu language, but it is very different, and the Chinese language of the Central Plains is not the same system at all, and there is only sound and no words, it belongs to the language that cannot be recorded at all, the Central Plains has some written records about the Huns, but it is also limited to a few words, such as Shan Yu, Yanshi, Gu Tu, Ju Ji, etc., most of these words are only the official position or the title between relatives, as for the daily communication language is almost blank, and they are all based on the transliterated records, The real meaning is only known to the Hu people themselves, such as the Xiongnu and Yueshi.

With the development of human civilization, various civilizations continue to collide and communicate, and languages are constantly developing and changing, absorbing and integrating with each other, but if no one forcibly intervenes, the process will be very slow.

And when he thought of foreign languages, Chen Xu had a headache and his face darkened.

It is said that Chinese is the most difficult language in the world, which Chen Xu definitely disagrees with, in his feeling, except for Chinese, any other language is the most difficult, regardless of each other.

When I was in college, I failed my English course countless times, and it was an unbearable past.

Of course, except for Japanese, he can understand seven or eight words without a teacher with his eyes closed, and he can also think of detailed scenes in person, the sound of the pulse pressure belt sounds, and his head is full of white flowers.

"Hiss~" Thinking too far, Chen Xu couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

In half a day, more than ten acres of sesame seeds were all harvested, and the bundled neat stacks were placed in the ground to dry, and to get the sesame seeds out, it would take several days, so Chen Xu also put this matter down for the time being after returning home.

If we are about to go to India, we must at least train a group of interpreters who are proficient in Sanskrit.

With these interpreters, they were able to go to Western countries to preach and instill the Central Plains culture into those Western barbarians.

The book has the same language as the text, and it is a beautiful ideal for all people of different races to shake their heads and ask Shiyun if they have eaten anything when they meet, but this is very difficult, and some deep-rooted habits cannot be eradicated.

Western languages have their special advantages, Chinese cannot be completely replaced, especially the numbers and letter symbols commonly used in chemistry and physics, Chen Xu has been used to it, let him make a new set of Chinese is neither necessary nor in line with the habit of Chinese take-it-ism, it will make him feel awkward, so this awkwardness is best to let others be awkward, and he can use it himself.

What's more, in the future to promote the popularization and literacy of the Chinese language, Hanyu Pinyin is also a good medium, and the phonetic cutting method of Chinese characters is too complicated.

"Daddy~~"

As soon as he walked into the backyard, Chen Xi, who was already one year old and two months old and began to learn to walk and babble, slipped down the slide and stumbled over, and a group of maids hugged the little girl in the middle like a baby.

"Haha, good boy!" Chen Xu smiled and picked up his daughter and kissed her fiercely on her tender cheek, "Where did your mother go?" Why didn't you play with you? ”

Xiao Chen Xi grabbed a few sparse beards on Chen Xu's chin with his little hands and looked back at the study, Chen Xu walked into the study with his daughter in his arms, and saw Shui Qingrou, Ying Shiyan and Wanwan were huddled in front of the desk and talking about something.

"Husband~"

"Master Hou!"

Hearing the footsteps, the three women turned around at the same time, and when they saw Chen Xu, they quickly stood up and saluted.

"No courtesy, it turns out that there are distinguished guests coming to the door, how can the girl come to the house to play today?" Chen Xu waved his hand.

"A few days ago, I heard that Concubine Hou said that Hou Ye told a new mythical story, and Hui specially came to watch it, and also wanted to adapt it into a few new plays with the two Hou concubines to perform at the Qinghe Theater!" Wanwan hurriedly said.

"Okay, this is a good thing, Ben Hou hasn't been to the theater for a long time, and after the rehearsal of these eight immortals across the sea, Ben Hou must be notified to watch it at that time!" Chen Xu nodded with a smile while teasing his daughter.

"Hou Ye rest assured, when the time comes, you must invite Hou Ye to watch, since the White Snake Legend and Tianluo girl finished, the theater has not had a wonderful repertoire for a long time, and now there are some singing and dancing skits, the audience is a little dissatisfied, if there is no good new play, I am afraid that Hou Ye's Qinghe Theater will be closed?" Wanwan said with a slightly wry smile.

"Ben Hou has very little leisure on weekdays now, and it is true that he hasn't told new stories for a long time, but for the theater, you have to collect more legends and stories from the folklore to adapt, and now the Faculty of Arts has sorted out a complete set of ancient myths and stories, you ask the steward of the theater to borrow a few books from the Faculty of Letters, and the music and dance can be rehearsed and ......written by yourself," Chen Xu reminded.

"What Hou Ye said is that we also tried to adapt some of them, and also invited some folk families to write some small stories, but they are always not as wonderful as the songs and dances rehearsed after Hou Ye's guidance!" Wanwan picked up a book of Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea written softly on the desk, "These Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea are wonderful, the story is vivid and very attractive, the stories of these fairies and demons are the audience's favorite, I am begging Concubine Hou to help adapt it into a script, but I am afraid that I will often disturb the married life of Hou Ye and Concubine Hou, hehe!" Wanwan covered her mouth and chuckled.

Shui lightly blushed and gently pinched her waist on the waist.

Chen Xu was not shy at all, and quipped: "You and Dean Shi are now living with their husbands and wives, and Ben Hou is still envious, you can discuss this matter with Gentle Shiyan, by the way, what has Dean Shi been busy with recently, I haven't had tea and chatted together for a long time, in a few days...... Well, let's be on August 15th, and then come to my house to enjoy the moon and taste tea, and we will have a music dinner in my house! ”

"Thank you Lord Hou for the invitation, Huihe Shilang will definitely come to join in the fun!" Wanwan saluted excitedly.

After chatting for a few words, Shui Qingrou and Ying Shiyan knew that Chen Xu might have something to do in the study, so they took Chen Xi and Wanwan to the courtyard to continue to discuss the script of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, while Chen Xu calmed down and began to write a piece about the formation of the Interpretation Hall. ()

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