Li Xiao was lying on his back in the water, his body not moving, but he was floating on the water. The water had covered most of his body, leaving only a small piece of his belly and half of his face on the water's surface.

Floating on your back is actually a technical job, and the key is to be calm and not to be afraid. People are actually buoyant, as long as you don't struggle, you can float on the water if you flatten your body. But if you struggle, you're going to choke.

The summer is scorching, and the weather is getting hotter and hotter day by day, Li Xiao, who is constantly running around Chang'an Beiyuan, Tongzhou Shayuan, and Lantian Lanxi, has obviously tanned a lot, and even lost a lot of weight. However, when he took off his clothes, he could see that his body was actually stronger.

With less fat and more muscles, he rode all day, and even his inner thighs were calloused.

From the end of the year to this time, it has only rained a few times, and each time it is like a spider peeing, just feeling a little bit of rain, and then it is gone.

In many places, crops have long since died of drought, and with the summer harvest imminent, many farmers who have failed to harvest have begun to flee to Kanto in despair.

The situation in Lanxi is much better, thanks to Li Xiao's original arrangement, with the unified planning and command of the township covenant hall, the water of Lanxi has been used to the greatest extent, and after the early strong man broke his wrist and took the initiative to give up the fifty percent of the field, the remaining fifty percent of the riverside land is rescued by everyone's full strength, although this year's output is difficult to compare with previous years, but at least it can ensure that there is at least fifty percent of the grain harvest.

The Yutangyi Warehouse in Lanxi Township, which was built on the edge of Lijiazhuang, was already full of 5,000 stone millet and 5,000 stone rice bran, and there was grain in the warehouse, and I didn't panic.

Compared with the people in other areas of Guanzhong, the people of Lanxi are full of happiness in their hearts.

In the late spring of this year, the corn supervisor planted one acre of experimental fields in Shayuan, Beiyuan, and Lanxi, with more than 30 plots of land, one cent for the big one, and more than one cent for the small one.

According to Li Xiao's arrangement, there were all kinds of terrain, all kinds of fat and thin land, and even different planting methods, and the officials of the corn prison squatted in the field all day long, holding pens and rolls, and kept recording the situation of each experimental field day and night.

Every day, the corn supervisor reported a summary report to the imperial court, and the emperor and the prime minister were paying attention to these auspicious rays that grew stronger and stronger, and grew longer and darker green.

It's actually quite tiring to be busy with these things all day, but watching the corn grow as much as possible, Li Xiao is in a good mood.

"San Lang, I've eaten watermelon."

On the bank of the Weishui River, Zhao Zhiman shouted to Li Xiao.

This was once the idol of the children of the nobles of Chang'an, a warrior in the border army, but now he has become the loyal captain of Lijiazhuang. Although Li Xiao has always treated him as a brother, he has always adhered to his attitude. He is now a degraded slave, and he is no longer what he used to be.

Like a piece of dead wood floating on the water, Li Xiaomeng stiffened, rolled his body, and then a fierce man, drilled into the bottom of the water, and dived under the water for a while and his head surfaced.

He swam gracefully to the shore with his arms waving at each other.

"San Lang's swimming is getting more and more powerful, it's really a white strip in the waves!"

"It's hot and irritable, and the second brother also goes into the water to swim."

Zhao Zhiman shook his head, stretched out his hand and pulled Li Xiao, and then handed over half a watermelon.

"I, I'm good at horseback riding and archery, but if I talk about swimming, I can't, a natural landlubber, I'm a little afraid when I see water." He shook his head and said, "Let's hurry up and eat a melon to cool off." ”

This watermelon was planted in the sand garden by the corn supervisor, and it is not a novelty. Some people in later generations thought that watermelons were introduced to China during the Southern Song Dynasty, but in fact, they were not, as early as the Han Dynasty, watermelons had been transmitted from the Western Regions.

However, it used to be called cold melon.

As early as the Western Han Dynasty, in addition to the land Silk Road opened up by Zhang Qian, in fact, a sea passage was also opened, starting from the coast of Fujian, passing through the Nanyang Islands, then passing through Sri Lanka, and finally reaching the African continent.

At that time, watermelons were brought to China by sea from the African continent, but at that time, watermelons were only enjoyed by members of the royal family and princes and nobles.

By this time in the Tang Dynasty, watermelons and cucumbers were quite common.

The sandy soil of Shayuan is very suitable for growing watermelons, and the watermelons planted in the Gobi in Ningxia in later generations are both hot and delicious, and Li Xiao has such a large piece of land in Shayuan, how can it be wasted. I planted a lot of watermelons and cucumbers in the sand garden, and even planted a lot of peppers there.

The early-ripening watermelon, the Dragon Boat Festival has not yet arrived, and it is already ripe.

The round green-skinned watermelon, with a flick of his finger on the melon, has cracked a big hole with a click, and under the green melon skin, the red melon sac has already appeared.

Use both hands to force one petal, and one watermelon in half.

Li Xiao handed the other half to Zhao Zhiman, and took half of it himself and gnawed on it.

No need to cut with a knife, no need to dig with a spoon, this is the real way to eat watermelon, refreshing.

The melons grown in the sand are much sweeter.

"I didn't eat a lot of cold melons before, but if you want to talk about deliciousness, it's really the melon you planted that San Lang is delicious." Zhao Zhi finished half of the watermelon in a few bites, and sighed while wiping his mouth.

"Second brother, it's not that my Lao Li sells melons, he sells himself and boasts, how can other people's melons be compared with my melons. Ordinary melons have to be eaten after the Dragon Boat Festival, but this one of mine is ripe before the Dragon Boat Festival. Again, are their melons as big and sweet as mine? ”

"So, to buy melons, you have to identify the watermelons grown in Shayuan from the corn prison."

"Why did you change the name to Watermelon?"

Of course, Li Xiao will not say that he is used to it, "Shayuan watermelon, in order to highlight the difference of our melon, brand effect, understand?" ”

Zhao Zhiman nodded.

Corn was planted in Shayuan, but the corn has not yet been harvested, but the watermelon, cucumber, and pepper grown in Shayuan are now famous in Chang'an.

A bowl of hand-rolled noodles, sprinkled with a layer of chili noodles, then poured with hot rapeseed oil, and sprinkled with green onions, a bowl of popular oil noodles in Chang'an is ready.

The ministers who went up to the political hall and the Hu businessmen on the street, who in Chang'an now doesn't like the oily noodle restaurant opened by Li Xiao in Chang'an.

It is said that now Hu businessmen have spread the word of mouth that if they have not eaten oily noodles when they come to Chang'an, they are not called to have really been to Chang'an. And when eating oily noodles, if you have another plate of cold cucumbers, it is a perfect match, especially in this increasingly hot day, not to mention the sour and crunchy cold cucumbers.

And after Shayuan's watermelons went on the market, a whirlwind soon blew in Chang'an.

Every morning, the watermelons from Shayuan in Tongzhou were transported into the East and West Markets through the city gate, and these watermelons were picked from the ground overnight and transported to Chang'an by horse-drawn cart overnight.

With the advantages of Shayuan watermelon being big, sweet and exceptionally early, Chang'an people ate watermelon in advance, and also ate particularly delicious watermelon, and Li Xiaoding's price is very common, which makes hundreds of people in Chang'an can eat watermelon, resulting in Shayuan watermelon is simply in short supply.

"This year, I have earned this 100 acres of melons." Others only think that Li Xiao's melons are particularly cheap, but they don't want Li Xiao's melons to have a very high yield, although they can't reach the average yield of four or five thousand catties per mu in later generations, but there are more than 1,000 catties per mu.

This more than 100 acres of melons is in short supply, and although the price is close to the people, it can make a lot of money.

The money was included in the small treasury of the corn prison, and dozens of officials and more than 100 farmers in the prison could share the money several times, of course, Li Xiao was sent in the form of bonuses, and even brought the superior department Sinong Temple to be filial.

The other yamen in the capital are quite red-eyed, but they didn't expect that where the birds in Shayuan don't, they can all become cornucopia cash cows.

"I can pick another watermelon in the field, but the weather is getting hotter and hotter, and everyone must love watermelon more. We have to plant some more, this time by hundreds of acres, and peppers will also be planted. "Li Xiao is still very happy to make money, and he makes money by the way when he is doing things, so he doesn't delay.

"A lot of people are already growing peppers." Zhao Zhiman reminded Li Xiao.

Chili peppers are unique to the Li family, but as chili peppers become more and more accepted, some people have begun to plant chili peppers, after all, it is not difficult to grow chili peppers, and the Li family can buy some dried chili peppers and get some seeds to grow by themselves.

"It's okay, I never thought about making chili peppers something that can only be enjoyed by princes and nobles, good things have to be shared by everyone, how can you be happy alone." Li Xiao didn't care, and the chili pepper couldn't be prevented, although he also thought that if he controlled the production of chili peppers and fried them to be as valuable as pepper, he would make a fortune.

After all, in Chang'an, pepper is a hard currency with a price higher than gold, and some people even hoard hundreds of stones or thousands of stones of pepper to make a fortune.

When others followed Li Xiao to grow chili peppers, Li Xiao was already selling noodles.

Chili noodles, vegetable oil, noodles, bowls of red, spicy and fragrant oil-splashed noodle restaurants are expanding everywhere in the form of chains.

Because of the popularity of the Li family's oily noodles, even everyone has become accustomed to calling soup cakes noodles.

After all, there is no dried noodles in this era, noodles are not called soup cakes, everyone eats noodles and then kneaded and rolled and then cut into strips.

"I don't know how the third brother is doing in Goguryeo now?" Zhao Zhiman looked at the river and couldn't help but say.

The Eastern Expeditionary Army has been set off for a while, and according to the news, after the Eastern Expeditionary Army arrived in Luoyang, the troops were divided into two routes, and the water and land were concurrent. Cheng Yanjin and Cheng Mingzhen led their troops out of western Liaoning, and approached the thousand-mile Great Wall of the Goguryeo people in eastern Liaodong by land.

However, Xue Rengui and Su Lie, two fierce generals, went to sea in Dengzhou by warship, led the two armies of 40,000 horses to cross the sea east, and landed on Tamna Island, a large island in the southeast sea of Baidu.

Tamna, also known as Jeju Island in later generations, was a small country at this time, dependent on Baekje, with few people and few strength.

Xue Rengui and Su Lie put the first battle here, unexpectedly, but it was completely implemented in accordance with the strategy set in advance by the imperial court, and the capture of Tamna was to obtain an advance base in Baijinan and prepare for the next landing in Baekje, and at the same time, it would also become the rear base camp of the navy and army, and the grain, grass and ordnance of the Central Plains would be transferred here first to ensure safety.

"Tamna Island has been captured, the next step is to land in Baekje, everything is going as planned, and it is very smooth, I believe that the second brother who is also on the sea route this time will definitely be able to make meritorious contributions." Li Xiao is very optimistic about Xue Su and their soldiers.

Although the army is divided into 10 armies and 200,000 people, Cheng Mingzhen's Yingzhou battalion should keep 60,000 people from the three armies, and Cheng Yanjin will command the 100,000 troops of the five armies.