Except for the artillery, the rest of the gifts are not very large, and after Gu Dayong personally inspected them, they have all been sent to the big tent, so when he saw Zhengde asking about corn and sweet potatoes, Zhou Zhong immediately took out a small one-foot-long box from the pile of gifts, and after opening it, there were a few corns and a few sweet potatoes inside.

I saw Zhou Chong first take out the corn cob inside and put it on the table, but before he could speak, Zhengde reached out and picked up the corn and played with it in his hand: "This kind of grain is also unusual, it grows so big, and the color is so gorgeous, it looks like gold." ”

Seeing that Zhengde only noticed the bright color of the corn, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but smile bitterly, Zhengde was not an emperor who was diligent in government affairs, and he grew up in the deep palace since he was a child, and he had not been in contact with the suffering of the people, so when he saw corn, he naturally did not think of the yield and planting of this crop.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong said to Emperor Zhengde with a solemn face: "Your Majesty, this crop in your hand is called corn, and the appearance is only secondary, the key is that this crop is more drought-tolerant, very suitable for planting in the northern part of my Ming Dynasty, and the yield of corn is extremely high, the grass people opened up a piece of land in Shuangyu Port for trial planting, and the result was only half a year, the yield per mu reached more than 500 catties, in contrast, the yield per mu of wheat in the north is more than 200 catties, if you can ......"

Before Zhou Chong's words were finished, Emperor Zhengde, who was sitting opposite him, suddenly stood up, his face was also full of excitement, only to see him holding the table with both hands, leaning forward and asking eagerly: "Zhou Chong, what you said is true?" Can the yield per mu of corn really reach more than 500 catties? ”

Although Zhengde doesn't like to deal with the government, it doesn't mean that he really lets go of the government completely. Quite the opposite, actually. Every day, the cabinet sends a batch of music into the palace. After these twists and turns were processed by the celebrant supervisor, Emperor Zhengde had to see them again in person, so he was also very familiar with all aspects of the situation in the Ming Dynasty, and now when he heard about corn, a crop that was against the sky, he naturally understood what it meant, so he couldn't help but be excited.

"Under His Majesty, Zhou Zhong dared to guarantee with the head of the item that there was absolutely no moisture in the yield per mu of corn. And when the corn was harvested, Wu Shan and Ma Liang were on the spot, they watched the corn be dried and weighed with their own eyes, so if Your Majesty doesn't believe it, you can ask Wu Shan for verification! Zhou Chong had already made preparations, and he asked Wu Shan and them to participate in the harvest of corn in order to make a personal certificate for himself.

"Of course, the grass farmers only planted one crop in Shuangyu Port in the south, because the soil and environment are different, and if the corn is transplanted elsewhere. Yields should fluctuate, but the grass farmers believe that no matter how much they fluctuate. It's also a little higher than the yield of wheat! Zhou Chong added later, he didn't dare to say it to death, after all, the person in front of him was the son of heaven of the Ming Dynasty, and talking to him at least left a way back for himself.

"Good! That's great! Since Wu Shan and the others have seen it with their own eyes, I naturally won't doubt it! I saw Zhengde's excited tent walking back and forth a few times, his face also showed a little excited flush, and at the same time muttered to himself, "If corn can be popularized, then in Beizhili, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and even Shaanxi, a large number of grain production can be increased every year, and even the entire north no longer relies on transporting grain from the south, which not only saves a lot of expenses, but also has the grain and the people's will be stable, even if there is another Anhua king in the future, I don't have to worry that the people will follow these rebels and thieves! ”

No matter how foolish Zhengde is, he is also the emperor of a country, and he cares more about his own country than anyone else, whenever there is news of rebellion in the country, he is also very concerned, and he also knows that if the people of the Ming Dynasty are not really alive, they will not risk rebellion, so if you want the country to be stable, you must have food, and the corn sent by Zhou Zhong just solves this big problem, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the role of corn can be compared with the army of millions.

Seeing that Zhengde was so excited when he saw the corn, Zhou Chong also smiled secretly in his heart, and at the same time decided to hit the railway while it was hot: "Your Majesty, don't be too excited, although the yield of corn is high, but compared with another crop in the hands of the grass people, it is a small thing!" ”

"What?" Zhengde, who was excited, heard Zhou Chong's words, and stood there in shock all of a sudden, and it took a while to react, but there was a bit of doubt in his eyes and said, "Zhou Chong, are you kidding, is there a crop in this world with a higher yield than corn?" ”

Zhou Zhong smiled slightly when he heard this, reached out and took out an inconspicuous sweet potato from the box and put it on the table and said: "Your Majesty, please see, this thing is called sweet potato, its rhizome is very fat, and it can be used for consumption, because the rhizome grows underground, so it has a strong resistance to some natural disasters and insect pests, and it can grow in most fields, even if it is saline-alkali land, as for its yield, Your Majesty might as well guess it!" ”

Zhou Zhong said that he deliberately sold a pass after the most embarrassing thing, and there was a mysterious expression on his face. Zhengde was also on the rise at this time, and when he heard Zhou Zhong let him guess the yield of sweet potatoes, he thought about it for a moment and said: "Just now you said that the yield of sweet potatoes is higher than that of corn, and the yield of corn per mu has reached 500 catties, could it be that this kind of sweet potato can reach 600 or 700 catties?" ”

Hearing that Zhengde only increased the yield of sweet potatoes by one or two hundred catties compared with corn, Zhou Zhong smiled proudly and said: "Your Majesty guessed wrong this time, I asked people to bring back only a few of these sweet potatoes from overseas, and later added some, but it was only planted one point of land, but even if it is a point of land, it has reached more than three hundred catties, and if it is planted one acre, it can definitely reach the yield of three thousand catties." ”

"Three...... Three thousand pounds? Emperor Zhengde was immediately stunned when he heard this number, he couldn't believe it anyway, this thing called sweet potato was so against the sky, if the yield per mu was 3,000 catties, then the Ming Dynasty's grain might not be eaten at all, and it was even likely that the grain would be fed to the pigs.

However, before Emperor Zhengde was happy, Zhou Chong coughed and explained: "Of course, Your Majesty, you have also seen that sweet potatoes are not dried like corn and wheat, and sweet potatoes contain a lot of water, so if the produced sweet potatoes are dried into dried sweet potatoes, the yield will definitely shrink by half, but in the general field, it is not difficult for sweet potatoes to reach a yield of 1,000 catties per mu!" ”

"Huh?" Zhengde heard that three thousand catties suddenly became a thousand catties, and his heart was also distressed, as if someone had stolen a lot of money, but then he woke up, although the yield of sweet potatoes could not reach three thousand catties, but the yield of one thousand catties was already very good, at least one acre of sweet potatoes was planted, it was equivalent to planting five or six acres of wheat.

"Great! That's great! I saw that after Zhengde heard the high yield of sweet potatoes, he couldn't sit down anymore at this time, and the whole person walked around in the big tent excitedly, thinking about the changes brought by these two crops to Daming, and even he could predict that if he could successfully promote the two crops throughout the country, then maybe he would also become a generation of famous monarchs in history.

Thinking of this, Zhengde was excited and proud in his heart, and at the same time sighed that he was really lucky, he didn't go to court every day to stay in the palace to play, and he could still encounter this kind of good thing that benefited the country and the people, just by virtue of the promotion of corn and sweet potatoes, maybe future generations would have a higher evaluation of him than his father, Emperor Xiaozong.

However, after the excitement, Zhengde immediately calmed down again, because he thought that it was not easy to promote corn and sweet potatoes, and if it was forcibly promoted by the imperial court, it might also cause dissatisfaction among the people, and it might even turn a good thing into a bad thing, so this matter must be well planned.

"Zhou Chong, how many corn seeds and sweet potato seeds do you have there now, if I want to promote them, do you have any good suggestions?" Zhengde suddenly thought of Zhou Zhong at this time, so he wanted to hear what the other party had to promote?

In fact, even if Emperor Zhengde didn't ask, Zhou Zhong had to say his opinion, so he bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, the grass people got these two crops at the beginning of this year, after a year of planting, the corn has been harvested thousands of catties, and the next year can all be used as seeds, but the planting area is still not very large, as for the number of sweet potatoes is less, but sweet potatoes do not need to be planted with seeds, its vines are cut into small pieces and preserved for winter, and they can be directly inserted into the ground to survive in the next year, and the grass people have saved a lot." ”

When he said this, Zhou Chong paused, looked up at Zhengde, and then said: "Corn seeds and preserved sweet potato vines, the grass people only left a small amount to plant by themselves, and most of the rest were brought to the capital with the ship. ”

Huangzhuang began in the Ming Dynasty, as the name suggests, the so-called Huangzhuang is the grange directly operated by the royal family, a month after Zhengde ascended the throne, even added seven Huangzhuang, the total field area reached more than 37,000 hectares, the origin of these Huangzhuang is not very glorious, and even some are occupied by some eunuchs, and these eunuchs who manage Huangzhuang are harsh on the Zhuang households, so that the Zhuang people live in difficulty, and even some people often rise up to resist.

Zhou Zhong proposed to plant corn and sweet potatoes in Huangzhuang on a trial basis, and also wanted to increase some income for those Huangzhuang households who were living in poverty, although they could not change the situation of being oppressed by eunuchs, but they should be able to have more food to live on in the future.

"Okay, this method is also exactly what I want!" Zhengde also nodded when he heard this, although he also knew a little about the affairs of the palace, but he couldn't help it, first of all, the expenses in the palace were too large, and there was no money in the treasury for him, so he could only let the eunuchs of the palace find money for himself, and the palace was a major source of wealth in the palace, so he didn't want to change it for the time being. (To be continued......)