When exactly potatoes were introduced to China, there are many opinions in later generations, but Zhu Yuanzhang, who has personally watched the history of hundreds of years, is very clear, the period when potatoes were introduced to China, in fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the name at that time was not called potato, but called taro. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi, a famous scientist, wrote a book "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", which recorded such a paragraph: "Tu taro, a potato, a Huang Du." The vine leaves are like beans, the roots are round like chicken eggs, and the inner white skin is yellow...... Cooking or steaming. He boiled taro juice again, washed his clothes, and was as white as jade......"

Xu Guangqi's "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" began to be written in 1607, and within a few years it has been added and supplemented, writing chapters such as "Sweet Potato Shu", "Turnip Shu", "Jibei Shu", "Cotton Planting Law" and "Bamboo Planting in the Garden", etc., adding a lot of relevant materials to it, until Xu Guangqi's death in 1633, he was adding things to it. In other words, potatoes must have been introduced to China before 1633, that is, before the sixth year of Chongzhen...... And this year happens to be the spring of the sixth year of Chongzhen, that is, the year of Xu Guangqi's death, so Zhu Yuanzhang came to Xi'an this time and had considerable expectations for it, but he didn't expect to really find it here.

At this time, potatoes were still a very rare crop for the farmers of the Ming Dynasty, and only a very small number of farmers dared to try to grow this crop, and most of the farmers still planted rice and wheat according to tradition, and did not dare to plant this thing.

Actually, this is understandable!

You must know that the peasants at that time attached great importance to the land, they all relied on the land to eat, some poor people only had one or two acres of thin land at home, and the family's life depended on this little field to live, let them plant crops that they had never seen before, they did not want to, and did not dare, even if they changed to modern people, they may not have the courage to do this kind of attempt. If you fail, you won't get anything within a year. Suppose you work well in one company and dare to switch jobs to another small and emerging company that doesn't even have a guaranteed income? And I can't go back for a year after changing jobs.

In short, potatoes are a crop that cannot be tried by the people's own will, and must be promoted by administrative forces in order to be accepted by the general public. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was in a hurry, and the administration was almost paralyzed, so how could it have the strength to promote new crops? Therefore, potatoes were not valued until the seventeenth century, when the regime established by the Manchu Qing Dynasty was basically stable, and this crop began to become popular, and later became one of the four major food crops of our Celestial Empire.

Some people sang about the Manchu Qing Dynasty, what Kangqian was prosperous, and people could not die of hunger, in fact, it was not because the administrative ability of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was stronger than that of the Ming Dynasty, but because the Manchu Qing Dynasty had potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, and the Qing court was a piece of, and the people struggled to survive under the rule of the!

It can also be seen that these crops are really strong.

Zhu Yuanzhang took Xu Renjie and Xue Hongqi and slowly walked towards the merchant who sold potatoes, feeling a little happy in his heart, but before he walked in front of the stall, a group of people suddenly rushed out next to him and stood in front of the potato stall first.

"Huh? Someone is going to grab this batch of potatoes? Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly curious, there should not be many people in this era who have the vision to recognize the benefits of potatoes.

He was afraid that the good things would be snatched away, so he hurriedly took two steps, but when he got closer, he found that the person who came out first was actually an acquaintance! Who is this man? The second master of the Ma family, Ma Zhibin!

Ma Zhibin is thirty years old this year, and he is half a year older than when he met him in Baishui, but he still feels the same, and he is still a hanger, idle and not doing his job. Wearing a brocade robe, holding a fan in his hand, and a group of idlers around him, at first glance, he knew that they were all unlearned and unskilled.

"What is this guy doing out there?" Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly.

I saw Ma Ershao standing in front of the potato stall, laughing, suddenly stepped out, stepped on a potato, and a very good potato was flattened by him, and there were a few ugly traces on it, and a little pale yellow juice flowed out of the cracked place: "You can eat this broken thing?" ”

"Oh, what do you do?" The petty merchant selling potatoes jumped up: "How can you trample on my goods." ”

Second Young Master Ma smiled arrogantly: "No matter how you look at this thing, it looks like some kind of broken flower and grass root!" When will our Ming Dynasty be able to sell the bark and grass roots for money? Hurry up and get out of the stall for me, this position master wants it. ”

Hearing this, the small potato merchant understood that a landlord was coming to rob his stall...... Zhu Yuanzhang, Xue Hongqi, and Xu Renjie next to him naturally understood it.

"Strange, why didn't this snake occupy the stall in advance? But you want to rob it from merchants from other places? Wouldn't locals have more time to find a spot in advance? Xue Hongqi said curiously.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said nothing, but he guessed in his heart. It is estimated that Ma Zhixiong, the eldest young man of the Ma family, handed over this matter to the second brother, but the second young man is a careless person, he may have run somewhere to play a few days ago, and now he wants to get a stall, but the market is full, so he picked a small businessman from other places who seems to be easier to bully and forcibly seize the position of others.

As soon as the little businessman jumped up to protest, he was bullied forward by a dogleg behind Ma Ershao, slapped him in the face with a "snap", and then kicked hard in the lower abdomen, kicking and rolling all over the ground. The small merchant was also followed by a few small guys, wanting to step forward to protect the master, but as a result, there were many people on Ma Ershao's side, and they rushed up, and within three or two rounds, the guys on the small businessman's side were all lying on the ground.

"Bring you bark and grass roots!" Ma Ershao stepped on the potatoes with his feet, stepped on one and stepped on the second, as if these things were really worthless, but the hardness of potatoes was not low in food, Ma Ershao was a virtual shelf, and after stepping on it a few times, he clucked on the soles of his feet, screaming in pain.

"These are not bark grass roots! These things are called soil potatoes, and they are good things! The little merchant cried on the ground with his head in his hands: "Don't trample on them...... I broke my family to make such a business trip...... Don't step on it......"

"Bankrupt and sell grassroots, laugh to death!" Ma Ershao really didn't step on it, not because he didn't want to step on it, but it was really hard to step on the potatoes, he stepped aside, waved his hand and said, "Stop it, children, show me this dirt bun and leave the stall." ”

The gangsters stepped aside, and the little businessman got up, knelt on the ground to clean up his stall, picked up the potatoes that were kicked away, and wrapped them, his tears flowed loudly, and he was inexhaustible about his grievances, but people have been floating in the rivers and lakes for a long time, and they have to learn to bow their heads.

Xue Hongqi was suddenly furious, and he was about to rush forward as soon as he pinched his fist.

Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly reached out and pulled her sleeve and dragged her back: "Don't go......"

"Why not? This kind of ruffian, I don't feel happy if I don't beat him. ”

"You're a maid, don't you use punches to knock down a group of thugs?" Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and sighed: "And neither I nor the generalissimo can show our faces in front of Ma Ershao, he recognizes both of us......"

"What?" Xue Hongqi pouted: "This thug actually recognizes the two of you?" Wait a minute...... Brother Zhu, you are a famous hero, and it is not strange to be recognized. But the generalissimo, the monkey, is covered all day long, why does Ma Ershao recognize him? ”

Xu Renjie didn't want to hide it from Xue Hongqi anymore, so he snorted and laughed: "I took off the masked scarf, it is the rice merchant master known to everyone in Baishui, this gangster is also a rice seller in Baishui, named Ma Zhibin, we all know each other." ”

Xue Hongqi: "......"

No wonder this guy asked me to pretend to be a rice merchant to attack Dali, at that time he knew everything about the price of rice, the grain transportation team and something, it turned out that this was the reason, Xue Hongqi suddenly realized.

"It's pitiful, but we can't interfere!" Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Let's go, go to the corner of the street outside the market and wait for this little merchant to come out." ”

"But...... Don't the wicked be punished? "Xue Hongqi was seriously unhappy.

"No...... The wicked must be punished! But you don't have to punch him in broad daylight in front of countless people. Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Let's go back and deal with this matter, in fact, ...... I also want to settle some old accounts with Ma Ershao. ”

If jealousy is like hatred, in fact, there are few people in the world who can compare to Zhu Yuanzhang, even people like Wang Er who have an excessive sense of justice, and they may not be able to hate and be more ruthless than Zhu Yuanzhang! After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in the previous life, he really killed the blood of the wicked people in the world, and put the name of a wicked person on his body, but Xue Hongqi didn't know his essence yet.

The three of them left the bazaar and waited at the corner of the street outside the bazaar.

After a while, I saw the little potato merchant and a few of his fellows coming over with huge packages, and several of them were crying, and the tears drew two tear marks on their dark faces, which was quite sympathetic.

"Sir, the stall has been robbed...... The taro can't be sold...... What should we do? ”

"Uh......h The cost of the journey has also been spent...... It's hard to even return to your hometown......"

Several men felt very miserable and couldn't help crying, but the little businessman wiped his tears and said: "Don't be afraid, there will always be someone who knows the goods, this taro is not afraid of drought, not afraid of cold, not afraid of barren land, the most suitable for planting in this kind of place in Shaanxi * West, I will bring it to Xi'an to sell, as long as we can find a person who knows the goods, we can make a lot of money, and then you can marry a daughter-in-law." ”

As soon as he said this, he suddenly felt someone tap him on the shoulder, and a voice sounded in his ears: "Congratulations, the person who knows the goods is here." ”

(To be continued)