Cao Ying is a vegetarian, so she only needs to prepare leek-filled egg dumplings, Zhao Yan has eaten green vegetable tofu for more than a month before, which is like a prison sentence for a carnivore, and today the imperial doctor finally said that his body is no longer in trouble, and he can eat whatever he wants, which is equivalent to being released from prison, so he must eat meat-filled dumplings, and it is also the most satisfying pork and cabbage-filled dumplings.

Pork is easy to do, although pork is cheap meat, and most nobles disdain to eat it, but if Zhao Yan insists on eating it, the people in the palace will not dare to stop it, and even Cao Ying feels that Zhao Yan has finally recovered from his illness, and now it is nothing to indulge at all, not to mention that pork can't eat dead people, and small bean sprouts love pork very much, so she, the princess, has no objection.

According to Zhao Yan's request, the kitchen bought pork and cabbage, but when Zhao Yan saw the cabbage bought by the nurse, he picked up a cabbage with a wrinkled face and trembled: "Nurse, are you sure this is cabbage?" ”

I saw that the so-called "cabbage" in Zhao Yan's hand was about two palms long, and the long leaf stems were emerald green leaves, which looked very slim, this thing was not cabbage at all, but the commonly known green cabbage, of course, there are places to call it little cabbage, but although these two dishes are a bit similar, there is a huge difference in body shape, and people with eyes can distinguish it.

"Of course it's cabbage, don't look at its leaves are green, but the leaf stems are snow-white, that's why it's called cabbage." The nurse in charge of the kitchen took the cabbage in Zhao Yan's hand and replied while washing.

"Okay, this kind of cabbage is just a little cabbage, so is there any cabbage?" Zhao Yan asked unwillingly again, as far as he knows, Chinese cabbage is a hybrid of two different vegetables, and it has been cultivated in China since the Sui and Tang dynasties, it is said that it is now the Song Dynasty, and Kaifeng is the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, so there should be no shortage of Chinese cabbage, right?

"Chinese cabbage?" The nurse raised her head and glanced at Zhao Yan, and then said with some grievances, "King Jun, this is already the biggest cabbage on the market, and it was all picked by the slaves and maids themselves, and the slaves and maids in other vegetable markets are not sure, but in the vegetable market closest to our palace, there is absolutely no cabbage bigger than the slaves and maids." ”

"Huh? I'm not saying that this cabbage is not big, but is there a cabbage that looks very similar to this cabbage, but is much larger than this cabbage? Maybe it's not called cabbage, but it's really the kind that looks like cabbage, and it looks big and round? Zhao Yan wanted to explain clearly, but he found that his language expression skills were really weak, and in the end, he was almost confused, let alone a confused nurse.

"Forget it, if you don't have it, you won't have it, the nurse will use this little cabbage to make dumpling filling." Zhao Yan finally said helplessly, he likes to eat dumplings stuffed with Chinese cabbage and pork the most, as for the dumplings made of cabbage, he really hasn't eaten this, but seeing that it looks so similar to Chinese cabbage, it is estimated that the taste is similar, and it will be enough.

But just when Zhao Yan was disappointed, Mi Xue, who accompanied him to the kitchen, suddenly spoke: "King Jun, is the cabbage you are looking for a dish the size of a human head, all the leaves are tightly wrapped together, and it looks like a ball?" ”

"Huh?" Zhao Yan glanced at Mi Xue in surprise, and then said very happily, "That's right, it's that kind of dish, have you ever seen Mi Xue?" ”

"Hehe, I've seen it before, I used to eat it when I was a child, but now that I'm older, I haven't eaten it again." Mi Xue was a little happy at first, but when she said the last sentence, she suddenly showed a sad look on her face.

Zhao Yan was only happy, and didn't notice the subtle change in the expression on Mi Xue's face at all, but just asked eagerly: "Mi Xue, what is the name of that dish, is there anyone selling it in Kaifeng City?" ”

What disappointed Zhao Yan again was that Mi Xue shook her head and said: "The king of the county, Mi Xue is a southerner, the cabbage in Kaifeng City is called a Chinese cabbage in our place, and the Chinese cabbage is divided into big Chinese cabbage and small Chinese cabbage, and the kind of Chinese medicine you are talking about should be a large Chinese cabbage, but although the small Chinese cabbage can be planted around Kaifeng City, the large Chinese cabbage is generally only planted in the south of the Yangtze River, and few people in the north will plant it, at least the slave maid has never seen the big Chinese cabbage in Kaifeng City!" ”

What Mi Xue said is indeed the truth, the Chinese cabbage that is very common in the north in later generations, in fact, the real cultivation time in the north is not very long, some places claim to have a thousand years of history in planting cabbage, but that is the planting history of Chinese cabbage is also counted, before the Yuan Dynasty, the real Chinese cabbage has actually been planted in the south, until the Yuan and Mongolian periods, Chinese cabbage began to be introduced to the north, and in the Ming Dynasty, the custom of storing Chinese cabbage for winter was formed.

Zhao Yan didn't know that Chinese cabbage still had a history above, and he didn't expect that the Chinese cabbage, which was a specialty of the north in later generations, was still in the south, and it didn't come to the north at all. No wonder before Shangshui Zhuang Zhuangtou Wang Qi said that they were going to plant radishes and store them for sale in winter, at that time Zhao Yan thought that the price of cabbage was too cheap, so the people in Shangshui Zhuang only planted radish, and now he knew that the real reason was that Chinese cabbage had not yet been popularized in the northern Song Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yan suddenly had an idea, the tenants of Shangshuizhuang are barely half of the palace's people, Zhao Yan also went to Shangshuizhuang to visit before, but it looked like Zhao Yan only saw one word, that is, "poor", eight or nine-year-old children don't even have a pair of pants, running around Zhuangzi with bare buttocks, one is thinner than the other; The more than 100 households in the village are all adobe thatched houses, and not even a single brick or tile can be seen; Although Zhao Yan didn't see it during the meal, he heard Wang Qi say that the food in the Zhuangzi was not enough every year, especially in the spring famine, every household could only rely on wild vegetables to survive, and it was even more common for people to starve to death during the famine.

"Mi Xue, do you know how to buy some Chinese cabbage seeds from the south?" Zhao Yan suddenly said at this time, since the cabbage has not yet spread to the north, and the tenants in Shangshuizhuang are so poor, then I might as well help them, introduce the cabbage in advance, and then store it until the winter to take it out, and then it will definitely be sold at a good price, although there will definitely be others to follow suit in the future, but at least in the first two years, it can make the tenants of Shangshuizhuang make some money by planting cabbage.

"Buy seeds? King Jun, are you going to let the tenants of Sheung Shui Zhuang grow Chinese cabbage? "Mi Xue, this girl Bingxue is smart, when she heard that Zhao Yan wanted to buy Chinese cabbage seeds, and thought that most of the tenants in Shangshui Village made a living by growing vegetables, she immediately guessed Zhao Yan's intentions.

"Yes, the king of this county likes to eat dumplings made of Chinese cabbage the most, so all the tenants of Shangshui Village have to plant Chinese cabbage for this king, if you dare not plant them, this king will arrest them and kill them, hahahaha~" Zhao Yan deliberately joked, but when it came to the end, he couldn't help laughing.

No matter how smart Mixue is, she will not guess that Zhao Yan intends to use cabbage to make tenants rich, speaking of which, cabbage has been planted in the south for many years, but because the winter temperature in the south is higher and more humid, so the Chinese cabbage in the south cannot be stored for a long time in winter, and only here in the north can the Chinese cabbage be stored for a long time in the temperature of about zero degrees in winter.

If it was placed in the past, Mi Xue would probably really believe Zhao Yan's jokes, because according to Zhao Yan's character before, it was definitely possible to do this kind of thing, but now Mi Xue also felt the great changes in Zhao Yan's body, so she always felt that Zhao Yan's actions must have a deep meaning, but Mi Xue couldn't guess it.

"Hey, don't guess, hurry up and tell me how to transport the cabbage seeds from the south, and the time must be fast, no matter how late it is, it won't be able to catch up with the solar term!" Zhao Yan patted Mi Xue's little brain and said, this girl is a dead brain, and she will try her best to understand things she doesn't understand, which is just the opposite of Zhao Yan.

"It's not easy for the county king to buy something? The fastest way is to use the channels of the Cao family, many children of the Cao family are officials outside, and they are usually indispensable to contact the family, so the Cao family has a lot of carrier pigeons, and the king of the county can talk to the princess, borrow the carrier pigeons of the Cao family to send a letter to the Cao family in the south, and ask them to help buy some Chinese cabbage seeds to transport back, and even with the help of the Cao family's power to use the urgent delivery, it is estimated that it will not take long to send the seeds to the capital. Mi Xue is worthy of being Cao Ying's good helper, and she suddenly thought of the best solution.

There are three official ways to transmit information in the Great Song Dynasty, namely foot delivery, horse delivery and urgent foot delivery, among which the foot delivery is the slowest and the fastest rapid foot delivery, which can be 400 miles a day. It is said that this kind of urgent delivery is used to transmit urgent military information, and it is impossible for private individuals to use it, but the Cao family, as the first general of the Great Song Dynasty, has children all over the army, and the urgent delivery is originally part of the military system, so as long as the people of the Cao family help, borrowing the urgent delivery is not a big deal at all.

Zhao Yan was also a small citizen in his previous life, and he had long been accustomed to taking advantage of the public, and he would not feel guilty, so after hearing Mi Xue's words, he immediately nodded in agreement, and then ran to ask Cao Ying for help, of course, this time Zhao Yan did not joke anymore, but told the other party his plan as it was, but Cao Ying didn't say a word, and immediately sent Mi Xue to Cao Mansion in person, so that his father Cao Lu could help and buy a batch of Chinese cabbage seeds as quickly as possible.

According to Zhao Yan's instructions, the nurse sent the stuffing and noodles to Cao Ying's room, and then Zhao Yan and Cao Ying and Xiao Bean Sprouts made it together, and the dumplings must be wrapped in person to be delicious, and the little bean sprouts also deeply agreed, although Cao Ying felt that Zhao Yan was a little nonsense, but in the end he still did not refuse. It's just that Zhao Yan is still thinking while making dumplings that if the cabbage is successfully introduced, the tenants of Shangshuizhuang should be able to eat a meal of meat-filled dumplings on Chinese New Year's Eve this year.