At the beginning of 1493, Ferdinand and Louis de Santonger discussed obtaining an ore from North Africa.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is not appropriate, to do business with infidels...... His Holiness the Pope will be unhappy. If you must get it, you can go from the Canary Islands to the Atlantic coast and go around to the southern side of Morocco, where you say there is also this ore anyway. ”

"Alas, if it is naturally okay in normal times, but now is the critical moment, that guy of João II, who has always wanted to move that meridian up so many hundred leagues to the west," Ferdinand waved his hand, "he really dares to think of it, hundreds of leagues!" ”

"Your Majesty," said Santang Hull, considering this, "if the ore you are talking about, and those agricultural techniques of the Ming Empire, can really increase the yield of wheat so much, it is worth moving the demarcation line to the west, anyway, just give up some sea and sea routes, there is no land there, and we don't need to compete with the superior Portuguese for the African coast." ”

"Louis, you're still so short-sighted," Ferdinand was a little anxious, "the demarcation line moves hundreds of leagues to the west, probably cutting through the southern part of the new territory discovered by Columbus. ”

"Agricultural technology will eventually be learned from the Ming Empire, but the territory is permanent, and I will not give up three million square miles of land for wheat."

Ferdinand was also desperate, originally according to a certain novel, he was going to let Santang Hull go to southern Morocco or Western Sahara to find a stupid chieftain to make a deal, only to remember, now Portugal is still the enemy, although not to do it for the stone, but the "Tordesillas Treaty" is being negotiated, if the matter of the deal with the infidels is exposed, it will be difficult for the Pope to cover himself, the loss of Brazil is still light, if you lose more land, even the worst case- Britain and France used this excuse not to recognize the validity of the treaty, and the dream of a superpower was about to say goodbye to him.

"Three million square miles? Is it that big? Sandhonhel didn't dare to say this, so he could only reply: "Okay, I'll secretly arrange for someone to come over and try not to let the Portuguese find out, but you have to be mentally prepared to be exposed, or you can give up ......"

"No," said Ferdinand suddenly, and Sandon Hel thought he had changed his mind and was happy, but Ferdinand's next sentence made him almost fall to the ground, "We will go in the open!" Let the countries of Europe know! ”

……

In the city of Tunisia, Abu Yahya Zakaria, the twenty-third king of the Hafs dynasty, was lying in bed, in a trance, looking sick, and did not have to live for a few hours.

Throughout 1493, Abu Yahya al-Zakaria spent time in fear.

On April 1, 1493, the fleet of the Mediterranean power of Aragon, carrying army soldiers, suddenly arrived near the city of Tunis, threatening to land. This frightened Abu Yahya Zakaria. After the Castilian and Aragon armies regained Granada, they did not stop, but crossed the sea and captured the city of Melilla, which once again threatened the Berber dynasties of North Africa after the Portuguese.

In 1270 the Hafs dynasty defeated the Crusader invasion of King Louis IX of France, but that time it was a narrow victory. Although the invasion of King Charles VI of France in 1390 was defeated by Ahmet II, the Hafs dynasty was already mired in disputes between the three Maghreb kingdoms. Aragon's navy had been harassing and plundering the Tunisian coast, and the North African pirates and the Ottoman Empire had not given the religion a good look.

Abu Yahya Zakaria hurriedly sent someone to inquire and learned that the Aragonese had asked to find an ore that had a blue-green flame when it was roasted on the fire, and had asked Tunisia to pay tribute for many years.

That's right, it's a tribute, not surprising at all. When the Kingdom of Granada was weak, it also had to pay tribute to Castile, and then Isabella fought for the throne and a civil war broke out, and the power of Castile after the war seemed to decline, and Granada stopped paying tribute and took the initiative to attack, and the result was already clear.

Historically, after the recovery of Granada, Tunisia and even the three Maghreb countries have been constantly threatened and attacked by Spain. In 1535, it became a vassal state of Spain, which arbitrarily occupied Tunisian land, monopolized local commerce, and forced Christianity. Now it's just ahead of time.

Aragon did not want the Hafs dynasty to be a vassal state, but only asked for some stones, and Abu Yahya Zakaria dared not agree. The other side threatened, they had already negotiated with the Zayanid dynasty in the west, and if they did not agree, they would support the Zayanid dynasty to seize Annaba. The Ottomans sat idly by and hoped that the two sides would fight in order to capture Tripolitania.

Abu Yahya al-Zakaria immediately accepted the Aragonese terms, allowing them to send men to find the ore, and then he would organize his own men to help deliver it. Aragon's prospecting teams soon arrived at Starx, Annaba, Dejerda, Sarakotani, and other places, bringing back large quantities of ore.

Although Aragon only asked the Hafs dynasty to pay tribute to an unknown ore, Abu Yahya Zakaria was still very afraid and worried about watching the Christians and the fleet come and go, for fear that the Aragonese would turn their faces and start a war one day, so his health was not good, and he should have fallen in 1494, but now it is advanced, and on December 24, 1493, Abu Yahya Zakaria died in his hospital bed.

Before he died, Abu Yahya al-Zakaria summoned his son Muhammad IV and his ministers: "After I die, you must not forget the Aragonese, you must ......"

Muhammad IV's face was righteous and awe-inspiring, resolute and strong, and he swore revenge for his father, but his heart had already become a bitter melon, father, you don't want to make this kind of will in front of so many people, you don't dare, how dare I, how can you tell me to step down in the future? Oh, the Aragonese called, and I really stepped down.

"You have to ...... them well, don't let them go to war against our country......"

Abu Yahya Zakaria swallowed his breath, and Muhammad IV breathed a sigh of relief, and sure enough, I knew that my father was a cheap ...... But I like it!

———— Dividing Line————

"You see, how can I, such a brave and powerful king and devout Catholic, do business with infidels!" Ferdinand didn't care about the second butterfly effect of his actions (the first was Juana's marriage), who cared about the butterfly effect of a small North African country, and besides, Lao Tzu died his son, and there was no big change.

Ferdinand was telling the truth, he really had no intention of doing business with the Moors, although the innovation of agricultural technology and phosphate fertilizer were the icing on the cake, and Morocco and Western Sahara were the world's largest apatite mines, but Western Sahara was located on the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa, which was under the influence of Portugal, and Ferdinand did not want to break the treaty. And if you do business directly with the Vattas, it will obviously damage your reputation, not conducive to the competition with Portugal for the New World and the game with France in Italy, and you will lose the support of the pope. As for robbing the Moroccans, he was confident that he could win, and he would not be like the unlucky Portuguese who were beaten to death, but the development of the New World was imminent, and France was eyeing Italy, and he did not have that force, and he held on for a long time for phosphate rock, and the gains outweighed the losses.

Then go and rob someone else! Ferdinand's way was quite simple and crude, I bought pagan things to damage the reputation of Catholicism, and I was able to rob pagan things to increase the prestige of Catholicism! If I force them to pay tribute, I will still be a hero of Catholicism......

So the Tunisians were in tragedy, but Ferdinand did not feel guilty, anyway, they did not lose anything, they would not use it if there were phosphate mines, as for scaring the old king to death, and frightening the new king. Pope Alexander VI was very appreciative of this, and at the negotiating table with Portugal, Castilian diplomats also raised their eyebrows.

The Portuguese sourly ridiculed Ferdinand for his involvement in the precious stones, but did not know how to obtain commercial benefits, and the Ottomans condemned on the surface, but lamented in their hearts that Aragon's appetite was too small, and they did not have the opportunity to fish in troubled waters.

Only Ferdinand knew that with Tunisian apatite, agricultural technological innovation was the final link.

Ferdinand took out a pen and paper and began to write the text silently, then translated it himself, and then turned it into Spanish (Castilian), with some notes, such as "why not manure", if translated, it should be fertilized, but the Europeans did not know that it was really necessary to fertilize with manure......

In the Mediterranean, winters are mild and rainy, summers are hot and dry, and wheat is ...... a year Ahem, cooked.

“…… Wheat fields should be pre-fertilized with sufficient basal fertilizer (manure can be used) and should not be fertilized after sowing. In the Luoshui basin of Shaanxi and Henan in the Ming Empire, for fear of pests eating wheat seeds, arsenic was used to dress seeds, while in the south of the Ming Empire, only grass ash (commonly known as ground ash) was used to dress seeds. When spring wheat or barley is still in the green seedling stage, they will be ploughed and crushed in the field, and used green manure to improve the soil, and the yield of rice will be doubled during the autumn harvest.

After the wheat harvest, the gaps can be planted with other crops. From the beginning of summer to the end of autumn, there is nearly half a year, and it is completely possible to select some other crops according to local conditions. In the south of the Ming Empire, late-maturing japonica rice was planted after the barley was harvested. Farmers will always be rewarded for their hard work. Buckwheat is grown after harvesting beans or millet. Buckwheat is characterized by the fact that it absorbs more fertilizer, which makes the soil thinner. But it yields more than half of the original grain, so why not fertilize the hard-working farmer......

As for Ferdinand's "agricultural guidance" that he had taken as his own after a little annotation on the basis of Ming Dynasty agricultural books, Isaac Abravanel was suspicious and used manure to fertilize it? Plant ash? Food for the Saracens (of course, buckwheat is mainly suitable for cultivation in the mountains, but Sardinia also has mountains, and the icing on the cake is it)? Is the Ming Empire's method so peculiar that it is feasible? There was also salt that I don't know where to come from, and he was given the seeds to select the seeds, and the price was really high. At this time, Isaac did not know about the drying of salt in the Canary Islands.

Soon he received news that an ore that the king had extorted from the Hafs dynasty had arrived, and he thought that the king wanted to make some gems from this ore, but the king had let him grind the stone directly into powder and sprinkle it in the fields.

Of course, direct mechanical grinding is of course the most primitive method, but now it is also imposed.

In any case, Isaac Abravanel followed the king's orders and led the officials and serfs to begin intensive cultivation in accordance with the king's instructions, and carried out the sowing work in September-October 1493.

In homage to a novel, Ferdinand learned that wheat was so profitable that it could be exchanged for rye at a ratio of 1 to 7, and that all the land in Sardinia was in the hands of the crown. There are 3,000 square kilometers of arable land on the Capitano Plain, which was originally an important agricultural area, and under the full development of the previous two years (Ferdinand had ordered Sardinia to pioneer at the beginning of 1492, and Isaac was appointed at the beginning of 1493), the reclamation rate was 40%, and the wheat planting area accounted for 90%, if calculated according to the yield of 600 catties per mu, after deducting impurities, moisture, etc., the output could reach about 874.8 million kilograms, and the price was 34.44 million ducats! This is also because the price revolution did not begin, resulting in lower profits in Spain at the end of the 15th century when prices were only a quarter of what they were a hundred years later.

However, Ferdinand's land and total output are much more than the protagonist of a certain novel, so this time the profit is several times higher, and no one has robbed him yet. In the future, it can be expanded to the Iberian Peninsula and even parts of the Americas, of course, the Americas cannot engage in a small-scale peasant economy, but must engage in large farms.

However, by the time the wheat was harvested, it was already the summer of 1494, and Ferdinand could not see it, so he could only make Isaac, Sandonhel, and Isabella drop their jaws.