Ji Qingwen saw that the old man was about to close the door, so he hurriedly said: "Old man, what I am going to find in your mansion is a priceless treasure. If the old man doesn't believe it, I still have a letter from Xu Ge here, just look at it. ”

As he spoke, Ji Qingwen handed a handwritten letter from Xu Guangqi to the old man, which was specially written by Xu Guangqi after drinking before Ji Qingwen left Beijing.

Xu Guangqi is very old, and when he writes letters, he is slightly drunk, and he writes a few words tremblingly, but the charm in the stroke is still there.

The old man has grown up watching Xu Guangqi's characters since he was enlightened decades ago, and he is of course very familiar with this very distinctive calligraphy.

Therefore, he didn't even see the payment, so he had already concluded that the letter was Xu Guangqi's handwriting, so he hurriedly put the letter back into the envelope, and said: "This gentleman turned out to be a friend of the old man, and I don't know what to call it." ”

Ji Qingwen had already reported his name once, just because the old man didn't hear it clearly, so this time he deliberately amplified his voice: "In Xia Ji Qingwen, he is the weaving admiral of Suzhou, and the emperor just named me the Ji Qingwen who was Fu Lubo." ”

"Oh! I see, I see! It turned out to be Lord Ji, and I don't know how many times I mentioned Lord Ji when I brought a letter to my family. I'm really old and dizzy, old man, and the more I live, the more I go back. The old man suddenly came to his senses and said a series of polite words, and then Ji Qingwen and his party were welcomed into the old mansion of the Xu family, and they were entertained with tea and water.

Ji Qingwen ran all the way from Suzhou to Shanghai, not to drink this tea, only took two sips, and then introduced the topic to the topic: "Old man, this time I was entrusted by Xu Ge to come to the backyard of your mansion to find a crop, can you bother the old man to lead the way?" ”

The old man had no reason to refuse, and while getting up to lead the way, he babbled and said, "Our master has loved to tinker with these crops since he was a child, and not only the things from the nearby fields are brought to the house to be planted, but even those from other places are also planted. For this matter, the old man doesn't know how many times he has taught the old man. It wasn't until the old man passed the Jinshi exam and became a big official that the old man had nothing to say. Without the supervision in the ears of the master, it is even more powerful, and even foreign crops are planted, saying that it is to benefit the people of the world...... I said, plant a pound of grain, and eat a pound of grain yourself; If you plant a stone of grain, you will eat a stone of grain, and you can't eat enough yourself, what does it matter to others? I also said that foreigners who have mustaches and eats their crops will also turn their hair red and their eyes blue, and they will not become ghosts? ”

Ji Qingwen heard that the old man was a "self-cooked", and he chattered endlessly, so he hurriedly interrupted: "I didn't expect the old man to have seen foreigners, it's not easy to ......."

The old man took over again: "Of course I have seen it." My lord loved to make friends with foreign missionaries, and of course I have seen a lot of foreigners coming and going. However, these foreigners are quite polite, and their sitting and standing behavior can be regarded as a person. ”

While talking, everyone had come to the backyard of Xu's house, and saw that this yard was very large, but it was overgrown with grass, which looked very messy.

Ji Qingwen scratched his head: "Old man, is this the backyard that Xu Ge said in his old letter?" ”

The old man's face turned red and said, "This is it." Let Lord Ji laugh. A few years ago, when I was young, I also helped my lord take care of it. But last year I had a serious illness, and my body and bones were not as good as in previous years, and I could no longer do farm work. However, when the old man entered Beijing, he explained that the things planted in this yard could not be moved, so I didn't dare to let the tenants come in and clean up, and gradually it was deserted. ”

Ji Qingwen nodded and said

"Then today is just right, I can help the old man tidy up, but I don't know if the old man is at ease." ”

The old man immediately smiled: "Don't worry, of course I'm relieved." It's just that this kind of rough work is asked to be done by a noble person like Lord Ji, and it's no wonder that he can't do it. ”

Li Yan immediately interjected: "The old man's words are biased, the dynasty is based on agriculture, the so-called 'first-class people are loyal and filial to their sons, and they study and farm for two things', fishing and farming are the means for a gentleman to make a living, so why not go away?" ”

Everyone said they would do it.

Huang Degong, Li Yuanyin, Yang Zhan and others that Ji Qingwen brought with him this time were all from crop families, and working in the field was a skill brought out by beating his mother's womb. As for Ji Qingwen and Li Yan, although they have never done crop work, they also look like they are learning, and they are busy with their sleeves rolled up. Only Liu Ru was powerless and helped pour water on the side.

But the problem came again, what Ji Qingwen wanted to find was a sweet potato, but including him, no one knew what the sweet potato looked like in the ground, so how could he look for it?

However, although Ji Qingwen has never grown sweet potatoes, he has eaten sweet potatoes and knows that this thing does not eat the stems and leaves that grow outside, but the tubers that eat in the ground.

So Ji Qingwen pretended to be clever and ordered his subordinates to pull up all the plants that looked similar, no matter whether the leaves were big or small, yellow or green, and sent them to him to see.

Although this method is rude, it is extremely effective, but after a while, I heard Huang Degong shout: "Owner, this thing looks weird, it looks like a single seedling, and the root below actually grows like an egg." And there's more than one, it's a whole list! ”

Ji Qingwen was overjoyed when he heard this: "Okay, let's stop, Huang Degong is lucky, he won the jackpot and found a sweet potato, I want to reward him heavily." ”

As he spoke, Ji Qingwen walked quickly to Huang Degong's side, attached himself to it, and sure enough, he saw that he was holding a plant that was not big or strong, and there was a large string of earthy yellow things hanging on the roots—it was indeed the sweet potato that Ji Qingwen had eaten before he crossed.

Everyone also wanted to see what the sweet potato that Ji Qingwen was looking for looked for looked like, so they surrounded him, pointed and said, "Sir, this is the sweet potato?" Can you eat it? ”

Ji Qingwen smiled and said: "It doesn't matter if you can eat it or not, you first follow the appearance of this plant and find out if there are other places." ”

Everyone was ordered, and each picked a leaf as a template, and searched for a while in the small yard.

Fortunately, Xu Guangqi made a backup when he introduced sweet potatoes, and he didn't plant only one, but now there are still seven or eight alive, and a few of them are particularly strong, and he is a successful person in the sweet potato industry.

Seeing that there were so many back-up plants in Xu Guangqi's yard, Ji Qingwen was immediately relieved, and asked Huang Degong and others to select the strongest sweet potato and dig up three plants.

These people listen to Ji Qingwen talk about the importance of these sweet potatoes every day, and they are all light-hearted when they work, and they are more careful than holding their wives, for fear that they will be broken or broken, so they hold the whole plant in front of Ji Qingwen.

Ji Qingwen was a programmer living in a big city before he crossed over, and he had never done farm work in the field, but he also knew the method of cultivating sweet potatoes from the nature class in elementary school, and he also knew that this plant, which was widely sown in later generations, was not very valuable.

So he stretched out his hand and dragged a few egg-sized tubers from the root of a sweet potato, handed them to the "big wife" Liu Rushi, and said: "Big wife, it's your turn to show your skills, boil these sweet potato eggs and eggs, and let everyone taste them." ”

Liu Ru took these sweet potatoes as if she had taken a gold ingot, but her face was full of blankness: "This...... How do you cook this? ”

Ji Qingwen also recalled his memories in the 21st century and replied: "You can cook it however you want." You first peel the skin with a knife, cut it into slices, and cook it in the soup. If you don't like boiled food, you can cut it into fingers and fry it in a hot oil pan. ”

Liu Ru had never seen Ji Qingwen cook and cook, so he held these sweet potatoes in his hands and borrowed pots and pans from the old man in the Xu family's old house, and he was busy for a while.

When she returned, she had two dishes in her hands—the first, sweet potato chips boiled in water; The other is a plate of sweet potato fries that have been fried in oil.

Liu Ru's cooking skills are getting better and better, Ji Qingwen took one from each of the two plates and put it in his mouth to chew, and he felt that it should be soft and crispy, which is much better than the mashed potatoes and french fries that came out of the assembly line of the Golden Arches and Kaifeng Vegetables in later generations.

So Ji Qingwen beckoned the others to taste it together.

I don't know if they think these two things are really delicious, or because of Ji Qingwen's face, they all shouted that they were delicious in the world, and they finished eating the food in three or two clicks.

Li Yan took out a handkerchief and wiped his mouth, and said, "Brother Ji, I didn't expect this sweet potato to taste so good, but I don't know how easy it is to promote." If you only serve the climate and soil of Jiangnan, the land of fish and rice, and do not adapt to the loess of Shanxi, Shaanxi, it will not be good. ”

Ji Qingwen smiled: "Brother Li is too worried. Sweet potatoes are not so delicate, you see that Xu Ge Lao planted these sweet potatoes many years ago, no one has weeded, dewormed, or fertilized for so many years, don't they also grow very well? If it is moved from the south of the Yangtze River to Shanxi and Shaanxi to plant, the yield will be reduced at most and the taste will be unpalatable. ”

Li Yan nodded, reminiscing about the taste of sweet potatoes, and didn't speak again.

Huang Degong said: "Dongjia, I am a farmer, and I have a lot of stupid strength to grow rice, wheat, and sorghum...... Anyway, there is nothing I don't know how to grow, but I don't know how to grow such foreign things. ”

Ji Qingwen laughed twice when he heard this: "Meritorious, it seems that you, a farmer, are not as good as me, the landlord's young master dog." You won't plant? Won't I plant yet? ”

Huang Degong didn't know if what Ji Qingwen said was true or not, he just kept nodding his head, just resigned.

Ji Qingwen saw that the time was not early, so he asked people to bring back these few uprooted sweet potatoes, and gave the old man who was looking after the house a few dozen taels of silver.

The old man refused to accept it at first, but Ji Qingwen said that this was the capital for him to take good care of this vegetable garden, which made him willingly accept the silver.

In order to prevent extraneous branches, Ji Qingwen was reluctant to bring these precious sweet potato samples back to the crowded city of Suzhou, but lived nearby at the Dianshan Port Wharf, which he could fully control.

Near the wharf, Ji Qingwen sent people to choose a rich and moist land, remove the tubers of a few sweet potatoes that he had picked, put them in the humid air and let them germinate naturally, and then plant them in the soil.

When Ji Qingwen planted, it was the moment when the cold winter was approaching, and the weather was very cold.

Ji Qingwen was afraid that a few young seedlings that had just sprouted would be frostbitten, so he sent someone to order dozens of pure white silk horses from the weaving workshop under the Suzhou Weaving Yamen, made into a semi-transparent and impermeable tent, and supported it on the top of the sweet potato field - whenever the sun was right, he took it away and let it receive the sun, and in rainy weather, it was supported to shelter from the wind and rain......

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