"B, Ye, you dig it out." Su Yan said to the two people behind him.

"No."

Yi Heye stepped forward, squatted down and dug the soil with stone chips, preparing to dig out the herb completely, Su Yan's target was placed elsewhere and continued to explore.

Spring is coming to an end, and Su Yan's exploration team has exceeded 500 meters, or even 1,000 meters, in this area, Su Yan led the exploration team to find traces of crops and metal veins, and at the same time collect some herbs.

In the third month of spring, Su Yan's exploration team had a very good harvest, Su Yan found a crop that was not considered a crop, it was a medicinal herb and a spice, and its name was Sichuan pepper.

Zanthoxylum bungeanum is a small deciduous tree of the Rutaceae family, Zanthoxylum bungeanum is up to 7 meters high, short spines on the stem and branches, the annual branches are pubescent, the leaf axis often has very narrow leaf wings, the leaflets are opposite, ovate, oval, sparsely lanceolate, the leaf margin has fine lobed teeth, there are oil spots in the tooth gap, the leaf back is pubescent, the leaf dorsal stem has reddish-brown markings, the inflorescence is apical or born on the top of the side branches, the tepals are yellow-green, the shape and size are about the same, the flower column is obliquely bent back, the fruit is purple-red, scattered slightly raised oil spots, the flowering period is 4-5 months, and the fruiting period is 8-9 months or October.

The function of Zanthoxylum pepper is very many, the solitary plant can be used as a protective thorn hedge, its peel can be used as a seasoning, and can extract aromatic oil, and can be used as medicine, the seeds can be edible, and can also be processed to make soap.

Zanthoxylum pepper is used as a medicinal material, which has the effects of warming and circulating qi, chasing cold, relieving pain, killing insects, etc., and treating cold pain in the stomach and abdomen, vomiting, diarrhea, schistosomiasis, roundworm and other diseases; Sichuan pepper is used as a spice, the smell of Sichuan pepper is fragrant, it can remove the fishy odor of various meats, change the taste, promote saliva secretion, and increase appetite.

Although the functions of Sichuan pepper are very many, but in Su Yan's eyes is not a must, Sichuan pepper can not solve the problem of food, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, wheat, rice, these crops that can solve the food problem are what Su Yan really wants to find, Sichuan pepper can only be regarded as an unexpected harvest.

Something is better than nothing, Su Yan made the next mark in the place where the pepper was found, and then picked it after the pepper was ripe, and the pepper will be planted on a large scale in the future, after all, the pepper is a very important spice or seasoning, and now there is only salt in the dragon tribe.

Otono dug up the herb intact and carefully placed it in the rattan basket on his back, and the exploration team continued to move forward.

Dozens of steps forward, a small plant with small yellow-green flowers in front of the left attracted Su Yan's attention, and Su Yan approached the plant to observe.

It is an erect herbaceous plant, all over one meter in height, with longitudinal grooves on the branches, densely covered with gray-white hairs, palmate leaves fully lobed, lobes lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, the middle lobes are the longest, the apex is acute, the base is narrow wedge-shaped, the surface is dark green, slightly coarse hairs, the back is densely covered with gray-white paste-like hairs when young, and then becomes glabrous, the margins are coarsely serrated inward, the midrib and lateral veins are slightly sunken on the surface, and the back is raised.

Hemp!

Su Yan had already recognized the plant.

Hemp is one of the ancient crops in China, because its seeds can satisfy hunger, so it is listed as a cereal, once one of the five grains, and later withdrawn from the field of staple food, but still used for a long time in the autumn sacrifice ceremony.

Hemp is mainly used for agricultural production, hemp seeds, can be eaten, just like fried soybeans to eat, slightly smaller than mung beans, mainly used to squeeze oil, the oil is light green, is a good edible oil; Its stem bark, which can be made into rope (hemp rope), linen clothes, hemp paper, etc., is very durable; The peeled stems can be used as firewood to build houses, which has a bit of a woody feeling; Even the skin and rod of hemp can be refined into fibers to make various high-grade papers such as rice paper.

Looking at the small piece of hemp in front of him, a joy arose in Su Yan's heart, if it weren't for himself as the king of the Dragon Tribe, there were still ten clansmen around him, Su Yan really couldn't wait to look up to the sky and laugh a few times.

Put hemp and pepper together can only choose one, there is no doubt to choose hemp, the function of hemp is much more than pepper, food, clothing, housing and transportation cover three aspects of food, clothing, clothing, building a house, and the main use of pepper is spices.

Hemp seeds can be used as food, but the yield is not high compared to other crops, and it is best to use hemp seeds to extract oil.

What Su Yan values most is the stem and skin of hemp, which can be made into hemp rope and hemp clothes after being made.

Hemp rope is better than straw rope, you can use hemp rope to weave fishing nets to catch fish in large rivers, and you can catch more fish under one net, while fish cages are not suitable for fishing in large rivers, and straw ropes are not suitable for making wide fishing nets.

As for Mai, Mai's effect on keeping out the cold is relatively poor, and it cannot replace the status of animal skins, but when the weather is hot in summer, the people of the Dragon Tribe will replace the animal skins on their bodies with leaves and the like, and if they have Mai, they don't need to wear clothes made of leaves.

Su Yan carefully took two turns around this small area where hemp grows, and after making sure that he was not mistaken, he carved obvious marks on the big trees in this area.

"Today's mission is over, let's go back." Su Yan said with a smile to the ten clansmen who were guarding him.

"No."

Embarking on the way back to the Dragon Tribe's residence, Su Yan has been thinking about hemp in his heart, thinking that the seeds of hemp can be eaten and squeezed for oil, thinking that the stem and bark of hemp can be used to make hemp rope and linen clothes, and thinking about planting hemp on a large scale in the future, although he did not laugh out loud, but the smile on Su Yan's face became deeper and deeper, and anyone who saw Su Yan's face could feel that Su Yan was in a very good mood now.

However, after walking a few hundred meters, the smile on Su Yan's face disappeared and turned into a silent expression, and Su Yan suddenly thought of a very serious problem.

What has been found now is only wild pepper and wild hemp, their taste is unknown, if you want to get the kind that Su Yan needs, I am afraid it will take years of optimal cultivation.

The seed yield of wild hemp is lower, the oil yield will be low, and the taste of wild pepper as a spice will not be too good, the only thing to be thankful for is that the stem bark of wild hemp is not too influential when used to make hemp rope and hemp clothes.

But for a foodie like Su Yan, eating seems to be the most important thing.

From the first salt, now to the broth with wild vegetables, to boiled eggs and scrambled eggs, and to the medicinal diet made by adding various herbs to stew meat, Su Yan has been working hard to improve his food.

Su Yan's constantly changing facial expression was seen by Jian and the others who protected Su Yan, and they didn't know why their king's facial expression changed so quickly, they were not qualified to ask the king, so they could only silently protect the king.

Approaching to return to the Dragon Tribe's residence, Su Yan's mentality finally got rid of his disappointment, although the taste of wild hemp seeds and wild peppercorns would be a little worse, probably barely able to use it, Su Yan could only comfort himself like this.