How powerful are sweet potatoes? In ancient times, without the use of chemical fertilizer, this thing yielded at least a dozen stones per mu. This is still the yield in the barren mountainous area, if it is replaced with a ripe field in the south of the Yangtze River and carefully planted, the yield per mu can reach twenty or thirty stones, that is, three or five thousand catties.

This number may not be much in modern times. However, in ancient times when there was no chemical fertilizer and careful breeding, it was normal to produce 200 catties per mu. A yield of 300 per mu is definitely a bumper harvest. Of course, this refers to wheat. In the case of rice, the highest yield per mu of the high-grade paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River can reach 500 catties.

Of course, the production capacity of rice per mu reaches 500 catties, as mentioned earlier in this book. In addition to the fertile paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River, there is also a large amount of phosphorus in the silt and river water because of the carcasses of fish and shrimp in the rivers and lakes in the south of the Yangtze River, that is, natural phosphate fertilizer.

Rice, the plant of which is soaked in water for a long time. The rivers and lakes in the south of the Yangtze River are vertical and horizontal, and there are many fish and shrimp. After the fish and shrimp die, they will precipitate phosphorus, which becomes fertilizer for crops.

There is manure, and if you have nothing to do, you can pile up some grass ash (potassium fertilizer), and then soak it in phosphate fertilizer water with fish and shrimp carcasses for a long time, and it is not to blame that Jiangnan rice has a high yield.

But even so, a yield of 500 catties per mu was very rare in ancient times. Generally, the yield per mu of rice is only about 300 catties, and the ordinary yield of wheat is about 200 catties.

Therefore, something like sweet potatoes that can easily yield 1,000 or hundreds of catties per mu, or even 35,000 catties per mu, is definitely a nuclear bomb in ancient agricultural society.

However, no matter how powerful the crop is, because it is a new foreign variety, the people may not be able to accept it quickly. And Marin had spent his previous life in the countryside and knew that there was something called "official promotion......

How powerful is the official promotion? It can allow 10,000 acres of fertile land to be replanted with another strange cash crop in a short period of time, as long as the government makes a big effort.

In later generations, Marin did not see some thoughtful but unreliable officials pat their heads and make decisions, blindly directing farmers to plant some novel crops, one moment to plant blueberries, and the other to plant kiwifruit...... In the end, because of the low market acceptance, farmers suffered a lot......

This is modern, though. Moreover, what those officials promote is generally cash crops, which may not be accepted.

But sweet potatoes are different, this thing is grain. For the ancients, being able to eat was a big thing. Unlike modern people, it is not a problem to be well fed, the question is how to get rich......

If you want to make a fortune, sweet potatoes really can't meet this requirement. But if you want to eat enough, sweet potatoes are absolutely fine......

On top of that, sweet potatoes are definitely the best choice in the mountains, as well as in the barren lands of the north. For example, the Loess Plateau......

The loess of the Loess Plateau is not good for planting rice and wheat, but it can be planted with sweet potatoes, no matter how bad it is, there is an output of more than ten stones, that is, more than 1,000 catties.

What is the concept of more than 1,000 catties per mu? In later generations, because of the large population in the countryside, a family could only get a few acres of land, but because the yield of rice per mu was 1,000 catties, the yield of wheat per mu was also about 1,000 catties. Therefore, although there are only a few acres of land, the family can still eat enough and sell a lot of grain. As long as the yield per mu is 1,000 catties, basically, as long as two or three acres of land, the whole family can be fed. Of course, if you want a house, clothes, or something, you have to produce more......

The amount of land in ancient times is not comparable to that of modern people, and generally speaking, no matter how poor a family is, they must have a few acres of thin land. In the northern region, because of the low yield per mu, it is never a problem for a family to have more than 10 acres. Of course, most of it is thin ground.

But sweet potatoes don't matter, even if it's thin land, the yield per mu is more than 10 stones. If you have ten acres of land, you can harvest at least 10,000 catties of sweet potatoes! There are more than 10,000 catties of sweet potatoes, how can you starve to death? It's a conundrum......

If the Loess Plateau is full of sweet potatoes, then it is difficult to have a famine in northern Shaanxi. Even at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the climate was abnormal and there were sweet potatoes, they could withstand it. Then, there will be nothing to do with Li Zicheng - everyone has something to eat, and the ghost will rebel with you......

……

Of course, if you want the Ming Dynasty to accept sweet potatoes, it is not so simple. At the very least, you have to make people like sweet potatoes. It doesn't matter if the people like it or not, only when the emperor and ministers like it, can this thing be promoted.

But it's not that difficult for sweet potatoes to be eaten by people. For example, roasted sweet potatoes, which were very popular in later generations......

This thing was very popular in later generations, and almost every city had an uncle who sold baked sweet potatoes. Moreover, the annual income of these uncles generally has tens of thousands of a year, and the better ones have hundreds of thousands a year. Of course, the premise is that you are setting up a stall, not opening a store. Otherwise, all your profits of hundreds of thousands a year will be given to the landlord. Therefore, to sell roasted sweet potatoes, you also need to fight with the chengguan to save the store rent of hundreds of thousands of yuan per year. Young people can't do it, they will definitely be beaten by the chengguan. The old man is different, most of the chengguan still want to be faced, and they dare not be ruthless to the old man. The few who dared to be ruthless to the old man were all in the news. As for the young man, hehe, it's not negotiable to beat you......

Far away, roasted sweet potatoes were popular in later generations, in fact, they were rarely seen in the city and felt rare. In fact, in the countryside, if you grow an acre or half an acre of sweet potatoes at home, you can eat roasted sweet potatoes until you want to vomit.

However, in this era, the people of the Ming Dynasty and later generations of people in the city were almost the same, and they had never seen sweet potatoes much. Even, never saw sweet potatoes. And the roasted sweet potato tastes acceptable, as long as the bear child in Zhengde loves to eat it, and the ministers think it is good to eat it, then it has the value of promotion. What's more, the yield per mu is still so high.

……

In addition to roasting sweet potatoes, Marin also plans to come up with another powerful application of sweet potatoes – sweet potato vermicelli......

Vermicelli is also called vermicelli, and in later generations, it is a common food for northerners. In Tohoku, pork stewed vermicelli is a signature dish, which can be called the main dish of Tohoku along with sauerkraut on the emerald flowers.

Although Ma Lin lived in the Jianghuai area since he was a child in his previous life, he did not eat less vermicelli. Because, the area north of the Yangtze River and south of the Huai River in the Qinling Mountains belongs to the north-south confluence zone. Rice and glutinous rice balls from the south, noodle flatbread from the north, and vermicelli are all common in the Jianghuai region. Moreover, this area is a rice-wheat rotation area. That is, wheat is planted in winter and harvested in summer. Rice is planted after harvest and harvested in autumn. There is rice and wheat, so people in this area are used to eating rice and pasta. Ma Lin remembered that in his previous life, when he was celebrating the New Year, dumplings and dumplings were served together at home. It is because of this that after crossing over to Europe, Marin was able to quickly adapt to European pasta. Otherwise, a pure southerner, accustomed to eating rice, will be very uncomfortable when it comes to Europe, where pasta is eaten.

Therefore, Ma Lin planned to make a classic pork stewed vermicelli for Emperor Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty and several important ministers. Moreover, chili peppers will be added to let the emperors and important ministers of the Ming Dynasty taste in advance the food that will dominate the Northeast hundreds of years later......

Of course, in addition to this way of eating in the Northeast, Ma Lin also plans to recommend a southern way of eating vermicelli to the monarchs of the Ming Dynasty - duck blood vermicelli soup......

It should be noted that this is not the ordinary duck blood vermicelli soup on the streets in later generations, but intends to use the old duck soup that has been stewed for a long time as the soup base, supplemented by duck blood soup. After all, duck blood soup is a folk way to eat, and if you want to impress these Ming monarchs who are accustomed to eating delicacies from the mountains and seas, it is better to raise the grade......

……

Roasted sweet potatoes, pork stewed vermicelli, duck blood vermicelli soup, these three famous people eat and sacrifice, and if you don't believe it, you can't impress the Ming monarchs. As long as he impresses them, Marin will be able to exchange sweet potatoes for enough benefits. At the very least, we need to get a free trade. Can't you pay tribute only once every two years like other countries, and the profit is not enough......

Writing this chapter, I actually wrote myself hungry......