Before the discovery of America, the most important thing was all kinds of exploration ships and navigators, but after the discovery of America, the most important thing was, first of all, only botanists.

That's right, it's a botanist, the Americas have a lot of resources, to a certain extent, precious metals, and various resources are the top priority, but in Zhao Xin's eyes, plants are the most important place at the beginning, and the three major crops all have the power to change the world, but at this moment, he, they have not yet fermented.

Historically, as evidenced by the history of Europe and China, the promotion and spread of the three major crops have further promoted the growth of world food output, and the absolute value of the population has continued to grow to a high level.

Even the world will be affected, not to mention China in this era, maybe the Americas, with such an outstanding species, but there is no corresponding civilization, Zhao Xin led the Dingjun, once this is obtained, it will become a population multiplier, when the three major crops, popularized in China, or rather, only a part of the popularization, for China's grain production, the growth of basic rations, will also be very critical, a large increase in population, there is no need to worry about food troubles.

From the very beginning, the Dinghai Navy has attached great importance to the issue of grain, grain is the fundamental, it is the red line, there is not enough food, all prosperity is a mirror.

At the end of the Song Dynasty, some climatologists said that it was caused by the severe cold climate and the climate of the Xiaoice River, and the barbarian races in the north, driven by the climate, gradually went south, in order to fight for living space and produced inevitable turmoil, resulting in the establishment of a unified Mongolian tribe on the steppe, which is also the source of turmoil in China and Europe in which era.

At the end of most dynasties, internal and external contradictions accumulate and reach a critical point, and then with the help of natural disasters and the like, they erupt, and the water can carry the boat and overturn the boat, and when the waves are raging, the dynasty will collapse.

From the beginning, when developing the Dinghai Navy, Zhao Xin's measures were to develop industry, and the Dinghai Navy had such a large area, even if it could make agriculture to the extreme, how much influence could it have, and how much profit it would generate.

Only the development of industry is the most suitable, in the square inch of the navy, the use of industry can accommodate a large enough population, in the square inch of the land, to create the maximum effect, this has been recognized.

However, while developing industry, Dinghai has never let go of the road of agriculture, and has always spared no effort to invest in agricultural research.

Although there is not enough land in the Dinghai Navy, even if it is suitable, it is reserved for industry, that is, after taking the Ryukyus and owning more land, it gradually became richer.

However, the Northern Song Dynasty has a huge land, and Zhao Xin has always regarded the Northern Song Dynasty as his own people, at least, these people in the Northern Song Dynasty are not wrong, maybe increasing food production will not change anything, but even if the total amount increases a little bit, it will reduce the possibility of losing the country a lot, at least it will be delayed.

Improved plants, using various scientific methods, searching for seeds, cultivating improved seeds, and most importantly, the development of water conservancy, increasing the area of irrigated land, and popularizing the use of fertilizers.

Under these multi-pronged measures, the grain output of the entire Northern Song Dynasty skyrocketed, from the original average of 2 to 3 stones per mu to an average of about 5 stones, which is a very terrible increase in output, to a certain extent, it is equivalent to the premise that there is no breakthrough growth in the area of farmland, the total amount of this grain has doubled.

This may not solve most of the problems, most of the increased grain has gone into the hands of landlords and nobles, but even a little leakage is enough for more people in the Northern Song Dynasty to live.

The most important thing is that for these people at the bottom, if they encounter a disaster and have no money to buy food to eat, their final result is often death.

It seems that in the process of the rise of the Dinghai Navy, so many people were absorbed from the Northern Song Dynasty, but if you really think about it, if there is no Dingjun, at least 3 million to 5 million of these people will not survive, once they leave their hometown to escape the famine, in the eyes of the mainstream of the entire court, they will become homeless, they will not be taken seriously, and even how they died, they will not know.

It is precisely because of the emphasis on food that the Dinghai Navy was creative, and the agronomist was born, which began to sprout from the Dinghai Navy, and began to influence the agriculture of the entire Northern Song Dynasty, and then, after occupying Ryukyu and Jeju Island, began to study the plants of the entire East Asia, and then after taking the Liao State, it began to appear on a large scale, becoming the industry with the highest investment in addition to industry.

At the level of large bases, they are qualified to distribute agronomic experts, but they have always been relatively idle, and on the islands in the ocean, how many animal and plant resources there are, most of them are ordinary plants, these plants, widely distributed throughout the North Pacific, these into the Pacific Ocean, it has been observed, it is already quite familiar.

Among the weeds, there may be pearls in the sea, but why is it called the pearl in the sea, it is a place as big as the sea, and it is not so easy to find a pearl.

They came on a special mission, but before the discovery of America, their role was almost zero, and Zhao Xin had made it clear that on the island, there were no three major crops, so they could only wait.

This has always been very busy plant experts, very boring, you know, from the beginning, their tasks are very heavy, to take the Liao State, even more so, whether it is food, a variety of cash crops, or even pasture, they need to get involved, to improve the efficiency and yield of the entire planting, it can be said that the food security of the entire Dinghai Navy, and the hard work of such a huge number of plant experts, is inseparable.

In the midst of busyness, the sudden leisure time is a little unaccustomed to them, and some people are even bored to study aquatic plants.

Aquatic plants, to be exact, are marine plants, they are called algae, which is also a direction, and even in the 21st century, some people have proposed that the plan to cultivate aquatic plants such as algae on a large scale has even attracted the attention of some venture capital.

Aquatic plants are very important, the world's oceans occupy the vast majority of the entire earth's area, but for the production of fish, almost only the continental shelf, there are very few other places, the reason is that only the continental shelf has sunlight, where there is sunlight, algae and other things can grow, these are the roots of life in the sea.

Outside the continental shelf, there are also some life, fish in the deep sea, or creatures are strange, but without exception, these quantities are relatively rare, seaweed is the root of all animals, just like the food chain in nature, grass, herbivores, carnivores such a simple distribution, grass is the most inconspicuous amount, but it is also the most important amount, if there is no grass, the foundation of the entire food chain does not exist.

In the sea, too, the more algae flourish, the more fish there are, and this is a basis, as for the hedging of ocean currents, and the abundance of fish in the estuaries of rivers, it is also the result of plankton and a large number of algae.

According to research results, if a variety of algae can be planted on a large scale, so that the fish have a sufficient food, the density of the fish can be increased by more than 10 times, in terms of the area of the sea, let alone 10 times, even if it is one or two percent, this total amount is an astronomical amount.

The plan is huge, but no one wants to invest in the project, for the simple reason that it is too long.

Relative to an acre of farmland, the difficulty of planting an acre of algae is very large, less, does not form a scale, there is no ability to resist at all, in the sea, will soon be eliminated, only after becoming a scale, it will be terrible, conservative estimates, may also be 10,000 acres, 100,000 acres, or even millions of acres as a unit, to have a certain ability to grow and recover themselves, and have a certain ability to expand.

The reason why this project is proposed is very simple, although it is difficult to complete the planting at the beginning, but once the planting is completed, the economic efficiency generated is extremely high.

It is not easy to raise with the land, the water surface is the same scene, but the underwater is not just an acre, he has space, even if it is the continental shelf, at a depth of 200 meters, it also has a lot of space, as long as the algae can grow, it can grow a lot.

When the algae are all over the sea, and then fish breeding, the fish resources produced are very terrible. Such a move, why no one is willing to do it, the reason is very simple, that is, this method, timeliness, like ten years of trees, a hundred years of tree people, planting such seaweed, not only the initial time is very difficult, it needs a long time of care and replanting, if it does not form a certain scale, it is easy to have problems before planting, and it can really be multiplied all the time, that is a few, it may take 20 years, 30 years, or even 100 years, it may not be effective, but once the planting is completed, This time a thriving biome is formed, which can even cause a large number of fish throughout the ocean, forming a semi-natural fishing ground.

This, perhaps in the future, under the premise that the navy is more powerful, this aspect will definitely be done, whether it is the development of science and technology, or the funding of the navy, it is abundant, and there is even enough time to wait for the completion of these seaweed planting.

Even terrestrial plants have not been studied, and the three major high-yielding crops in North America have not been obtained, not to mention these seaweeds, these studies are just a way to pass the time in boredom.

There may not be as many species of seaweed as there are plants and trees on land, but in the Pacific Ocean, for example, there are thousands of species of seaweed.

For the economic value of seaweed, most of it is the value of eating, there may be dozens of kinds of seaweed with edible value, those that cannot be eaten, there are many economic value, one or two hundred kinds, this is still common seaweed, these are still a small number of the kind through research.

Planting seaweed is like planting a forest, and once the forest coverage rate increases, there will be more animal and plant resources.

The seaweed thing can be put aside first, that is the future, and the three major crops in North America are now, after the three major crops are harvested, cultivated, and popularized in China, so that the whole of China does not have to worry about the comparison of population and food, and then we can do these things one by one.

The news has been reported, this is a huge island, suspected to be the American continent, not only a large number of base personnel, ships, began to concentrate on that place, even these plant experts, also began to set off, even if this possibility is very small, but there is a little possibility, all have to pay efforts, not to mention, these plant experts, have been idle panic.

When more than 2,000 Spanish galleons and nearly 700 clippers arrived next to the Americas, at least 30,000 people landed on the islands, and 5,000 troops went to the islands to build a relatively solid base.

Not only are there the army to follow, but also a large number of diplomats, and a very small number of plant experts to follow, diplomats, can liaise, responsible for the contact with the tribes, in order to achieve the purpose of smooth communication.

Maybe the language is not comprehensible, this language may not be, you can communicate with each other, but some simple things, you can still do,

In the Northern Song Dynasty, even in the more ancient feudal era, it also relied on a series of diplomatic envoys to keep in touch with the outside world, whether it was Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, or some other famous diplomatic experts.

In Dinghai, there have been studies in this area, and some established plans have been formed, with the use of which simple exchanges can be carried out.

With the initial contact and communication, there is the possibility of continuing, and if you are lucky, you may be able to find the North American crop, one of the three major crops of North America, or all of them, after meeting the first tribe.

If it is found, relying solely on pictures, the early personnel may not be able to find the crops, and even the communication with these tribal personnel will have a certain deviation because of the different words on both sides, the things they represent and the meanings are different.

But plant experts keep up, it's different, they are familiar with plants, they will summarize some characteristics from the pictures, and then compare them with the real things in real life, even if they are similar, they will take it back and say, in case they really find it, it is not the best of both worlds.

The 2,500-strong troops, most of whom were armies, set out with no trains, no other means of transportation, and only a small number of carriages and carts, and began the exploration of North America, which was very slow and difficult.