After boiling, Sun Xiangfu split it in half with a knife, and a few little guys ate it well, and after eating, they also like to put the shell on their fingers to make cat's paws.

"Be careful, don't catch anyone."

After a few little guys put their five fingers on the water chestnut shell, they scared and teased each other, but they looked like Sun Xiangfu when he was a child.

"Husband, this water chestnut is not available in the north, let's take some to Shanyang and give it to our younger brothers and sisters to try it!"

"Well, when you turn around and set off, pick some more large, plump, insect-free water chestnuts to dry, and then bring them over to live for them, and in two years, they should be able to find a more productive planting method."

The edible history of water chestnut is very long, but the real large-scale planting, but it was only implemented in later generations, people in this period, basically eat wild water chestnut, the amount of harvest, completely depends on the nature to give face.

Of course, even in later generations, only China and India have tamed and cultivated water chestnuts, and both countries have a characteristic, that is, they have a large population.

And why do the two populous countries plant water chestnuts on a large scale?

Because of its large production.

Only in this period of the two-horned water chestnut varieties, with the traditional planting methods that can be done now, its yield per mu can reach 800 to 1,000 kilograms, and the later generations of professional greenhouse planting water chestnut, the annual output per mu can reach 2,500 kilograms to 3,000 kilograms, its water chestnut leaves can also be used as green fodder for breeding, or green manure for planting, which is considered to be a crop that is completely comparable to sweet potatoes and potatoes among the native species.

Water chestnut pulp has a good effect of replenishing qi and anti-cancer, losing weight and relieving hangover, and has many other medicinal effects, which is a very good medicinal diet.

Sun Xiangfu had officials from the Ministry of Agriculture teach the villagers more scientific picking methods in the local area, which made their output increase by two or three times in an instant.

As in the past, the people rowed the water chestnut boat into the pond, and after scooping up a water chestnut object, they would pick all the water chestnuts on it regardless of size.

Later, the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture asked them to pick once every five to seven days, and only pick the water chestnut on the crop that has grown to the fullest, so that the whole picking period can last for more than a month, although picking six to seven rounds, it will take a lot of time, but its yield has been magnified too much, and the fruit picked out is all a water chestnut that grows to the fullest state, and the taste is better when eaten.

"Master, can this water chestnut also be planted in the north?"

"There are some places that can, the climate in the southwest of Guanzhong, there is no problem at all, as long as they develop a set of dense planting methods that the people can easily do, it is also possible to produce 1,600 catties to 2,000 catties per mu, so that the edible pulp part is not less than the rice produced by the rice field, and it is now higher than the price of rice, which is also a high-yield cash crop."

Water chestnut is not expensive to sell in the north, and the wholesale price of the local merchants who collect water chestnut to the markets of various states and counties is only two pennies a catty, and the reason why there is this price is mainly because the merchants who buy water chestnut earn a small amount of price difference and bear a certain transportation cost.

In the past, the people used unscientific harvesting methods to pick wild water chestnuts, and the yield per mu was only five or six hundred catties, and the price of selling them to traders was one penny and one catty, so that it was basically about the same as the income from planting rice.

And if the people can grasp its growth needs, like the later generations into a scale of dense planting, one mu of water chestnut pond, even if the yield can not reach a relatively high 2,000 catties, 1,7800 catties is still no problem, after all, even in later generations, there is no greater research and reform of this crop.

Such an acre yield can allow the people to earn an income of 17,800 wen per mu, which is more than three times higher than the income from planting paddy fields, and after its output is gradually enlarged, there is no price drop, because after the current economic conditions are getting better and better, even if the vendors in the northern vegetable market set their retail price at three or four cents a catty, it is still in the seller's market, because there is no production in the north, and everyone loves to eat fresh food that tastes good.

Moreover, after harvesting the water chestnut leaves, there is also some economic value, as for the in-depth development of water chestnut meat, the production of more easy to preserve water chestnut food, its commercial value is also higher, if you calculate it, but compared to wheat and rice, it is too cost-effective.

This is the benefit of domesticating crops and planting them scientifically.

Wu Meiniang is not like Li Tai and others, when she saw water chestnut, she just thought of eating, and she also saw its benefits for the country and the people.

"In that case, why don't we plant more water chestnuts in Guanzhong?" Wu Meiniang continued to ask her own questions.

"This is what our peasant disciples have to do!

Previously, the specialty spices of the Western Regions, our people in Datang did not think about planting themselves, but asked them to buy spices at a high price, Gaochang is rich in cotton, our people in Datang did not think about planting, but bought their cotton, and even, for a long time, it was used as landscape flowers to make bonsai for nobles.

And what cantaloupe, courgette, grapes, etc.

Everyone thinks that where this thing originates, it is only suitable for planting somewhere, but in fact, it is not, we can find a way to tame them, plant them, and teach all the people to plant, you look at it now, but there are Hu merchants in the Western Regions who dare to use these things to cheat us out of money. ”

Wu Meiniang nodded when she heard this, "So, we should study the planting method that makes water chestnut more productive, and then teach the people to plant, right!" ”

"Yes, we don't just want to see alien species, our native species, planted and spread, can also greatly increase the output of the people and make them rich."

Mei'er understood. If those foreigners also learn our planting techniques, and return our crops to farmers and produce their own crops, won't they buy our things? ”

"Well, what you said has a certain amount of truth, but it is not so easy for these planting techniques to be implemented by the people in our country, and it is still too early to worry about them spreading abroad.

If it is implemented in the future, it can be opened to other countries for introduction, and we can charge a certain amount of technology patent fees.

After all, if we Datang want to continue to make their money, we can't just sell things to them, but let them not eat, this kind of business will not last long.

Only when the people of these foreign countries can eat their stomachs can they have the strength to help us mine the gold, silver, copper and iron we want, and exchange goods with us. ”

Hearing this, Wu Meiniang looked like she had been taught, the master is really the master, and the thing she thinks about is to be in the long run.

Sun Xiangfu is not born to think too much, this is because he grew up in later generations and has seen it through many examples, and the problem of most teenagers is that they don't think things are long-term enough, such as Li Tai and their eleven or twelve-year-old half-grown children, not how stupid they are, but they are still just at the age of caring about their heads, and some things, once they form an idea, they especially want to do it.

For example, Li Yuanjing's escape plan.

They want to go to Dingxiang's first event in the world too much, and they don't want to tinker with feces and other things, which is the same as some students studying in closed schools in later generations, going out to play video games and surfing the Internet.

Therefore, he decided to find a way to touch the cargo ship going to Chang'an on Shannan Road, as long as he arrived in Chang'an, or went to the place where their mother's mother's maiden family was located along the way, and got financial support, he was afraid that he would not be able to go to Dingxiang, anyway, they were princes who had not yet become vassals, could the emperor still punish them heavily for such a trivial matter?

As for the lighter punishment, it should be better than going to get a lot of!

"Grandpa, the inner guard came to report, saying that the princes have prepared a lot of boiled water chestnuts and packed up their luggage."

"What, are they trying to sneak away?"

"It should be."

"Li Tai and Li Ke too?"

"They've packed their bags, too."

"Hehe, it will take a few days for the straw in the field to rot and dig the draining pond, you can go down for me to make arrangements, so that these boys can have a long memory."

After Sun Xiangfu finished speaking with a smile, he asked Zhang Ke to come over with his ear and told him about his strategy, and after Zhang Ke listened, he went down to arrange it with a smile.

"Master, is there anything interesting?"

"It's really fun, it's night, you go back and have a good rest, and look back and wait to see the big show."

Sun Xiangfu sold a pass, but Wu Meiniang, who was very curious, didn't fall asleep in the middle of the night, and when it was close to the third watch, she heard some movements in the courtyard next door.

On the third watch, in the courtyard where Li Tai and other kings lived, all kinds of creaks sounded when the door opened, and then, fourteen ghostly guys poked their heads out of the door.

Because Sun Xiangfu wanted them to become more independent, after coming to the village, the internal servants and secret guards who were originally responsible for serving their lives would only ensure their safety when they traveled, so they generally slept by themselves, and there was no one else in this courtyard except them.

"Come one by one, let's climb up to the roof first, go down on the bamboo ladder prepared in the morning and afternoon on the back wall, don't make a noise, as long as we avoid the guards at the door and the roadside, and walk the ridge, we can go all the way to the dock unimpeded."

"I know, you've said this many times, and besides, you're fat, don't crush the roof tiles and alarm the guards, the guards of the Sun Mansion are fine!"

"Li You, you kid dare to say that I'm fat? I've lost a lot of weight here, and the roof tiles are very thick, and I can't step on them······"

"Stop talking nonsense, let's go! I don't want to stay here anymore······"

A dozen dark shadows whispered to each other, and within a few minutes, they really walked from the roof to the back wall, and followed the ladder to the field outside the back wall.

In the distance, Zhang Ke, who was looking at this side with a telescope, could be regarded as a breath of relief, in order to prevent these princes from falling off the roof and injuring themselves, after he received Sun Xiangfu's task, he also found his subordinates, and put a thick layer of sand and soft soil along the back wall, if he didn't want them to slip away, he actually only needed to remove the ladder they had secretly placed here before, these little guys, they could only look at the back wall more than a foot high in a daze.

However, using means to lock them up here is not the effect Sun Xiangfu wants.

More than half an hour later, the princes, carrying a few clothes and a large bag of cooked water chestnuts, finally arrived at the dock.

"When I saw that there were no boat lights on the river, I said! Now the water transport business of the Yangtze River is so developed, there must be boats at night, let's light torches, call them to dock, take us a ride, big deal, take our brocade clothes to the boat money, we bring more than a dozen pounds of water chestnut, enough to eat for two or three days, down the river, two or three days, enough to Yangzhou, at that time, we will go to my uncle's house to ······"

A few little guys, wishful thinking, with excitement flashing in their eyes about the successful escape, watched the cargo ships on the river slowly approach the dock.