Li Zhi was proud, and threw the corn kernels he had just picked off directly into his mouth and chewed them like pine nuts, shocking the eunuch next to him.

This is corn that I haven't tried yet, so what if this corn is poisonous?

The emperor waved his hand at the chamberlain, "It's okay, I have actually eaten this corn several times, and I ate it once in Li Qing's mansion a few days ago." As he spoke, he smiled at Li Xiao, who was sweating on his forehead, and introduced the way to eat corn to the chamberlain and Li Ji and other prime ministers.

"I told you, Li Qing is a master of cooking, this auspicious corn is in Li Qing's hands, but the way to eat is changeable, and there is no repetition of ten kinds of variety. When I am not yet fully elder, I can stew soup and drink, or I can eat it directly by steaming, and I like to eat steamed food. ”

"Freshly picked tender corn, but not too tender and not too old, just put it in the pot and steam, after steaming, just hold it in your hand, take a bite of more than ten grains of corn in your mouth, soft and sweet, even the corn cob can be chewed and eaten."

"You can also take off the tender corn kernels and stir-fry vegetables, which are fragrant, sweet, and have an excellent taste."

·······

Li Xiao watched Li Zhi triumphantly boasting to the officials and ministers about the eighteen ways to eat corn, and the spit was flying, and the 100,000 grass and mud horses in his heart roared by again.

This damn old king, no, it's the emperor's child, has teased Lao Tzu for so long. From time to time, I came to his house to eat and drink, and it turned out that I was hiding it deeply, and it turned out to be today. It's no wonder that when he had a few court meetings, he was a little familiar with the voice of the dragon robe emperor above, but he just didn't think of going there at all.

Pretend to be a pig and eat a tiger.

Li Xiao's eyes moved to Taifu Li Ji, and thought to himself, old marshal, you are not kind, you have not eaten less food in my family, and even I have honored you and my Li Jiazhuang's latest research of perfume and soap, and the medicinal wine has been sent bottle after bottle, you are always like this to me.

Li Ji was very thick-skinned, and he just pursed his lips at Li Xiao's questioning gaze, revealing a smile like an old naughty boy.

Li Zhi was still there saying that corn kernels can be made into popcorn, and if you put it in a hot pan and fry it, the corn kernels will eventually expand and burst·······

"Your Majesty."

Yushi Dafu Yuwenjie can't listen to it anymore, you are the king of a country, in front of hundreds of officials, you always say that this is delicious and that is delicious, how can you look like a Ming Jun.

Li Ji also coughed twice.

Now Li Zhi finally came back to his senses from the excitement, and there was not only Li San here.

"Well, I want to tell you that corn and Li Xiao have tried it many times." Li Zhi stretched out his hand and asked Li Xiao to walk in front of him, "Li Qing, you talk to everyone about the problem of corn storage." ”

Li Xiao walked over helplessly, but the emperor, who was not a few years older than him, insisted on holding his arm and caressing his back with one hand, just like an elder to a junior.

Goosebumps are up.

"Back to Your Majesty, corn embryos are large, easy to heat up, and have strong hygroscopicity. Therefore, the stability during storage should be poor, and it is easy to heat and mold, which is not as good as millet and millet in this regard. However, compared to wheat and rice, it is not bad. ”

"How do you store it?" Li Ji looked at Li Xiao and asked.

Everyone has seen the yield of corn with their own eyes, and the emperor also said that after he tried it, it proved that corn is not only edible, but also delicious, no worse than wheat and rice. Now the key is whether it is easy to store, you must know that among the staple foods of the Tang people, it will soon be wheat, rice, millet, soybeans, sorghum and taro.

Taro is also a staple food, and the yield is not low, in Jiangnan Province, Lingnan Province can be many slang Yue people mainly grow taro, and taro is the staple food, but taro has a disadvantage is also very obvious, that is, it is not easy to store.

If corn is the same as taro, although it has many advantages that are not inferior to wheat and rice, it will greatly limit the popularization and cultivation of this crop if it is not stored well.

"Corn storage is mainly based on the ear storage method and the grain storage method, and the so-called ear storage method is naturally not to thresh, and the whole ear is stored and stored."

Speaking of this, Li Xiao is naturally an expert, even if he is actually just a second knife, but there is no more professional person than him here.

Haven't you ever eaten pork and never seen a pig run?

Take a trip to the Great Northeast, where you can see corn cobs stored in farmers' homes all year round.

"The ear storage method is mainly based on the stacking method, after the corn is harvested, the buds are removed, and then put into a warehouse that can be ventilated, so that after the air drying for one year to remove the water, and then threshing in the second year, or even when it is to be eaten, it can be removed."

"There is also a way to hang the bracts, first tear the bracts of corn, then weave them into braids, and hang them with ropes, as long as they are well ventilated and avoid being caught in the rain."

"It's as simple as that?" Li Ji couldn't help but ask, his family used to be one of the top landlords in Henan, with thousands of acres of fertile land and thousands of servants. Although he mixed with society at a young age, he was still familiar with farming. According to what Li Xiao said, this ear storage method is actually quite simple, take off the sticks, remove the bracts, either directly pile up and air dry, or hang up directly to air dry, without rain and ventilation, how simple, even better than wheat and rice millet is better to harvest, and it is good to store.

After all, corn and rice still have to be harvested, but also threshing, corn and rice threshing is much more difficult than corn, time-consuming and laborious, but also have to grab the day, can not rain can not wait, or it is easy to heat and mold spoiled.

But how simple this corn is, several taels of one, one petal will come down, and the bracts will be removed at home.

"Yes, that's how simple it is." Li Xiao nodded.

Corn storage without threshing is actually beneficial, without threshing then the pores are large, the air circulation is good, and the temperature and moisture in the storage pile are easy to dissipate with the air.

Sometimes the weather is bad and it is too late to dry in time, so the only way to pile up the ears for the winter, so that the moisture in the corn kernels can be reduced to a safe standard range, and then threshing and storage can be carried out at the right time.

The whole ear of corn has tight grains, and the corn grains are arranged tightly on the cob, the cortex is bright, and the peel is hard, which is more conducive to storage, and can also prevent insects and mildew.

Even the corn of the ear storage method can continue to maintain the delivery of nutrients to the corn kernels, which can increase the fullness of the corn kernels and promote the ripening of the grains.

"The Sui-Tibetan method is more suitable for places with dry weather, such as the Guanlong area. But there are also shortcomings, which take up more space. ”

Li Ji waved his hand, "What kind of shortcoming, small problem." You can follow your method, after the people harvest, they can first hide and dry, and then thresh. The government collects dried corn kernels, isn't it? In this way, the corn kernels are put into the warehouse, which is not only convenient for collection, but also convenient for granary storage. ”

"Tai Fu Ming. However, if corn is planted in the southern region, the weather there is humid and hot, and the ear storage method is not as good as the grain storage method. ”

The weather in the south is hot, so the corn is dried directly first, and then threshed, and then stored in the warehouse. The man's temperature is high, and the corn is dried very quickly under the sun.

"However, if you store corn in the southern region, you have to prevent moisture."

"How long can it be stored if it is well stored?" Yuwenjie asked, this is also a key question. Millet and millet, which are the easiest to store, can be stored for ten years. Many of the imperial court's large transshipment granaries are dug directly in the ground and stored in underground grain cellars, as long as they are not opened, there is no problem in storing them for ten years.

"The key to corn storage is to be able to survive the first winter, as long as the first winter, or the second year is in the summer, then at least it can be stored for more than three years, and even in a properly managed granary, it is no problem to store it for five or six years. It's just that after a long time, it will definitely be old, and it will be worse in terms of taste and nutrition. ”

Yuwenjie's eyes widened, and his beard shook with excitement.

"Five or six years, are you sure?"

"Of course, five or six years is no problem, even if it is an ordinary farmer's family, it can be saved for two or three years." Li Xiao is still very confident in this, the people of Northeast China can hang corn under the roof for two or three years.

"Don't say five or six years, it's enough to save for three years." Laiji couldn't help but marvel. In addition to millet, which is easier to store, wheat and rice are more difficult to store and are very susceptible to mildew. And corn is easier to store than wheat and rice, which is not exciting.

This is so easy to store, which means that corn has a higher planting value.

Several prime ministers were all red with excitement, and the old minister Yuwen Festival even knelt on the ground excitedly and shouted that God favors him, and Gaozu Taizong blesses him.

"Your Majesty, this kind of auspicious corn must be varied, comprehensively promoted, and the more you plant, the better."

Si Nongqing Liu Xiangdao even told the emperor that corn far surpassed millet in all aspects, whether it was yield, drought tolerance, and easy storage, the imperial court could fully promote the cultivation of corn in the north, especially in the mountainous areas where there was no irrigation conditions in the past, which was not suitable for wheat planting.

In this way, the area under grain cultivation can be greatly increased, as well as the grain production. Even if only the original spring millet is changed to corn, even if the yield of one stone is only increased by one mu, then the increase in grain output in the Guanlong area alone is extremely amazing.

Hubu Shangshu also immediately calculated that if the millet was really changed to corn, then the amount of grain production alone would be enough to meet the needs of Guanlong, and Chang'an would no longer need to transport grain from the Kanto region to Beijing in the future.

As the Guanzhong region, where the imperial capital is located, the Han Dynasty can no longer be self-sufficient. In particular, the territory of the Tang Empire is vast, and there are many enemies around Guanlong, such as Tubo, Tuyuhun, Turkic, and even Qiang, Fang and other barbarians in the southwest.

In addition, there are huge court personnel and bureaucrats and nobles, and every year there is a large food shortage in the Northwest Frontier Army and Chang'an, and they all need to rely on the Kwantung region to transport grain. The transportation of grain is extremely expensive, especially from the eastern part of the country to the Guanzhong, there is a section of road in Shaanzhou, and it is not even possible to transport it by ship at all, so it can only be transshipped by land.

The cost of transporting more than 2 million stone of grain from the Kanto region in a year was actually a bottomless pit for the imperial court. Not to mention, there is also the same huge amount of grain brought into the customs by private merchants.

Li Ji also said to the emperor, "Corn has so many advantages, so Hezhong, Longxi, Shuofang, and even Xizhou can completely implement military tun, and use corn to solve the problem of military food on the spot, and there is no need to transport it from Chang'an to the end." ”

A group of prime ministers went crazy with excitement, the officials followed with ecstasy, and Li Zhi couldn't stop laughing from ear to ear.