Zhou Guowen, the governor of Ahan Province, is relatively young, only in his early thirties, and is currently the youngest group of governors and political envoys of the Ming Dynasty.

He was only an orphan at first, when Zhu Gaoxu was still the king of Gaoyang County.

Zhu Gaoxu asked Yang Lishan to take in young people everywhere, and then trained in Hanwangzhai to teach and read, and the current chief soldier Qu Yu was also detained by Zhu Gaoxu in Hanwangzhai at that time, teaching them horse infantry skills.

After that, Zhou Guowen has been following Zhu Gaoxu, first to Yunnan, and then following the victory of the rebel army, successively to the occupied places to serve as county commanders, Tongzhi, prefects, step by step to become the governor, can be described as an iron-clad Zhu Gaoxu's cronies.

Zhou Guowen was able to write and martial arts, and he was open-minded, and Zhu Gaoxu sent him to Ahan Province, which also valued him.

Zhou Guowen lived up to expectations, came here for more than a year, and according to Zhu Gaoxu's request, he successively brought rye, beets, onions, strawberries and other things.

Strawberries have been around in Europe since the 14th century, but most of the Europeans grew them in their own yards, and because of the small size of the fruit at that time, they were mainly used for ornamental purposes and doubled as food.

Zhou Guowen sent a caravan to the Ottoman Empire to communicate, mainly according to the emperor's intentions, to bring back all the vegetables, fruit trees, and grains that the Ming Dynasty did not have, anyway, what could be eaten, and what the Ming Dynasty did not have, had to be brought back, and I happened to encounter strawberries.

Rye is a good thing, it has appeared thousands of years ago, the origin is the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, Persia, when the Ming army came in, it was everywhere, and the local people planted rye.

This thing is much better than Daming's wheat, it can adapt to the climate and soil that other cereals are not suitable for, it can grow at high altitudes, even in cold places, even to the Arctic Circle.

Moreover, according to the sowing season, it is divided into winter rye and spring rye.

At this time, the northern Liaodong region of the Ming Dynasty, whether it is wheat or rice, is not high, affected by the local environment and climate, and a wall of Maozi, after getting rye in the original history, where to go in Siberia, where to plant, perfectly solve the logistical problem, so as to occupy these places in one step.

After Zhou Guowen arrived, he immediately passed rye back to the Ming Dynasty, and in the original history, rye did not reach China until the forties and fifties of the 20th century, in modern history.

Due to Zhu Gaoxu's westward expedition, rye came to China hundreds of years ahead of schedule, which perfectly solved the food problems of various harsh environments such as water shortage and cold in the northwest.

The Ming army planted a large number of crops in Shazhou and other northwest directions, including Gansu, Shaanxi, Liaodong, Nuergan and other places, and could also sow in spring and winter continuously, so that the grain was effectively guaranteed.

It can be said that Zhu Gaoxu's greatest achievement in the western expedition, in addition to opening up the territory and expanding the territory, was to introduce rye to Daming, which played an effective role in slowing down the grain reduction in the Xiaoice River weather and harsh environment in the future.

As for the beets, it is also terrible.

Native to the western and southern coasts of Europe, sugar beets were later transplanted from Sweden to the Mediterranean, including the southwestern Ottoman Empire, and did not spread from Arabia to China until 1500, a few decades later.

This thing is also super resistant to cold, and the main planting places in China are Heilongjiang, Jilin, Nei, Xin, Shanxi and other places.

It wasn't until 1747 that the German Margrave discovered that beetroot contained sucrose, and then his students began to breed varieties with hypertrophied roots, and by 1802, Germany had established its first sugar beet factory.

This thing is easier to grow and process than sugarcane, and it is a good role in sugar production.

After Zhou Guowen came to Han Province, he saw all kinds of foreign crops and animals, and admired Emperor Zhu Gaoxu even more.

Thinking of Zhu Gaoxu, when he left Beijing, he specially summoned him and had a word with him.

If you sit in Beijing, the Han people will only sit in the well and watch the sky, the world is endless, and there is still a lot for us to explore and learn outside.

Zhou Guowen saw strawberries here, ate rye bread, and since last year, he has gathered agronomic experts to cultivate sugar beets.

Early this morning, Liu Chuanren, an agricultural expert from the Ming Dynasty and a graduate of the Imperial University of Science and Technology, sent someone to call him.

Sugar beet varieties with hypertrophied roots have survived in patches.

Zhou Guowen was overjoyed, and immediately rode a horse, with a team of guards, and came to an experimental village in the city non-stop.

After entering, dozens of fields were painted here one by one, planting various functions, some of them came from the Ming Dynasty, tried to plant here, and some came from Europe.

Including onions and other things, a piece is already being planted.

Soon, Liu Chuanren took him to the sugar beet field, which was his newly cultivated sugar beet variety with particularly large roots.

"Lord Zhou, please look, it's ready to be harvested, hahaha." Liu Chuanren was proud and quite happy.

Because if he succeeds in cultivating, not only will he be promoted, but he will also have a reward of 10,000 taels of silver, which the emperor himself promised.

"Did you dig it?" Zhou Guowen said happily.

"Not yet, isn't this waiting for adults to come and see."

"Dig up a few plants and cut them open."

Liu Chuanren immediately arranged for people, dug up a few plants, and then used a knife to gently do everything, and suddenly the sticky juice flowed onto the board.

Zhou Guowen reached out with him at the same time, dipped it, and put it in his mouth.

A strong sweet smell comes straight to my mind.

"It's so sweet."

"Sugar is fine."

"Hahaha, it's done, it's done, Chuanren, you have made a meritorious service, hahaha." Zhou Guowen danced and was excited.

"Thanks to Your Majesty Hongfu, there should be no problem." Liu Chuanren also smiled.

This is a significant step forward.

Because before, after the Ming Dynasty occupied the countries in Central Asia, the main white sugar was transported from Malacca to Yindu by boat, and then landed, by water or land, and then traded with West Asia and European countries.

White sugar from the Ming Dynasty is quite welcome here, but it is inconvenient to transport.

Moreover, sugarcane is suitable for tropical, subtropical, and Central Asian weather with dry tides, and the temperature difference between day and night is extremely large, sometimes reaching twenty or thirty degrees.

But the Ming Dynasty had to do this, because after the Ming army occupied these places, in order to consolidate its rule, it often did not move around for several years, and then stabilized the surroundings in the name of trade, and sugar was their weapon for trade.

This made the ships that transported sugar in the Ming Dynasty all year round, with frequent exchanges and relatively large consumption.

Now when sugar beets come out, they can be grown in large quantities in the local area and sugar factories can be opened.

"What do you think about opening a factory?" Liu Chuanren said at this time.

Zhou Guowen thought for a while: "There is about to be a war, and the captured people will be raised in captivity, and they will be specially planted and made sugar, so as to prevent the method and new varieties of Epsom sweet sugar production, at least let me be Ming, and earn it for a few years." ”

Liu Chuanren nodded, and thought deeply: "This is the only way, first build a planting base and factory, and fully enclosed management." ”

"Strictly prevent new varieties from diarrhea, and let the outside world know the method of sugar production."

In recent years, all countries want to know how the Ming Dynasty made white sugar, and five years after the Ming Dynasty Hongxi, when Zhu Gaoxu decided to auction the state-owned company, many people have learned to make white sugar, and the art of making white sugar has gradually spread to Central and Western Asia, and even Europe.

However, due to the limited growing environment of sugarcane, they are unable to produce it in large quantities in Europe.

That's why Portugal, Spain, etc., later went to Dayuan and Indonesia and other places to open planting bases.

As long as Zhou Guowen controls the new beet varieties and does not diarrhea, he can at least guarantee the leading technology of white sugar for ten years or even decades.

And closed management, using captives to do this, is the best means of secrecy.

Returning from the Experimental Garden, Zhou Guowen found the governor Chen Wen and explained to him the importance of sugar beets.

Chen Wen immediately said: "How many places do you need, how many people?" ”

Zhou Guowen said: "I plan to first set up a planting site east of Kabul, about 10,000 acres. ”

"Then near the Kabul River, on the side, to build a factory, it takes 500 acres."

"About two thousand young men and some women, and their living quarters and houses, about five hundred acres."

"If successful, another 200,000 acres will be expanded next year."

Chen Wen agreed on the spot and sent manpower and craftsmen to him.

They will first enclose 11,000 acres of land, and the land requirements are not very high, and then build a five-meter-high wall, with six-meter-high towers every 100 meters, equipped with telescopes, sentinels, and fully enclosed management of sugar beet fields and processing plants.

The guards are all with the Ming army, and all the work is with the people who have been captured.

Chen Wen finally said: "I have already discussed with General Qu, and agreed with Shaharu that tomorrow will be the beginning of spring, and the Black Sheep Dynasty will be attacked first, and the manpower you want will only be more, not less." ”

"It can allow General Qu to catch more live young and strong, and in the future, it will take a lot of manpower to promote and expand sugar beets."

Chen Wen said with a smile: "Scarcity is expensive, we are here, we must also control production, mainly to sell to Europe." ”

"Governor Zhou should estimate the yield, let's prepare the suitable area."

Zhou Guowen thought for a while: "Let's get 200,000 mu first." ”

On the same day, he and Chen Wen decided to get 200,000 mu in the first two years, and then see how the market reacted, not only to ensure the supply to Europe, but also to ensure high prices and profits, and then report to Zhu Gaoxu, the master of Beijing.

In May of the sixteenth year of Hongxi (1422), Zhu Gaoxu came to the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology.

There were a lot of people here today, but most of them weren't officials.

In February of the 15th year of Hongxi, the Republic of Florence, Italy, granted a three-year monopoly on the "barge of the grand crane" invented by Nelech, which was the forerunner of the first patent law in history.

A few decades later, in 1474, Venice enacted the world's first patent law.

At this moment, the Ming Dynasty still regarded Europe as a wild and dirty place.

The news was reported to Tianfu at the beginning of this year, and the merchants who brought back the news were rewarded by the imperial court with a tax exemption of one percent for two years.

At this time, Zhu Gaoxu set out to formulate the Ming Dynasty, which was the world's first patent law.

He convened a lot of officials from the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology, as well as some important craftsmen, officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Criminal Department, and after more than two months of research, the first trial version of the Ming Patent Law was released.

Then it was serialized in the Daming Daily every day and spread to all parts of Daming.

The first patent law of the Ming Dynasty was relatively simple and used in the vernacular.

Since the establishment of Daming Daily and the school, Hong Xichao has vigorously promoted vernacular literature, which is very popular among the people.

The entire special law is only more than 10,000 words, 3,000 words a day, and it was serialized in Daming Daily for five days before it ended.

After the serialization ended, various craftsmen and technicians applied for patents in various places.

Zhu Gaoxu classified this matter as Jinyiwei is responsible for collecting, the Science and Technology Department audits, and the two departments cooperate to deal with it, mainly because he doesn't want to add a new establishment, so Jinyiwei has one more thing to review whether the patent is true.

Today is the authorization ceremony of the first batch of patent winners in Jiangnan Province, in early March, the imperial court began to accept applications, after Jinyiwei received, reported to the Department of Science and Technology for review, and finally from the twelve people who applied, four people were approved to have patents.

The first is the inventor of the new round bullet, Yang Yuanfeng.

Yang Yuanfeng is the first batch of craftsmen to follow Zhu Gaoxu, and he is currently a science and technology secretary, with an official rank of five grades.

Of course, Zhu Gaoxu reminded him of this invention, and then he led a bunch of craftsmen to trial production, and finally developed a round bullet, which made the range and power of the flintlock pistol a step further.

Another inventor of the rifling machine, it is precisely because of the invention of the rifling machine that the bullet can go to the stage.

Another is a private businessman, who developed a faster loom, which greatly increased the output of cloth and silk in the Jiangnan area.

The last one invented binoculars, the same is a private businessman, in fact, binoculars, Zhu Gaoxu has known for a long time, but he didn't think of improving it yet, because the emperor has too many things, he doesn't care about such a trivial matter, but he didn't expect it to be invented by a private businessman.

Today, taking the opportunity, Zhu Gaoxu personally came to present the award.

The four of them first visited the emperor, surrounded by officials, family members of the four people, and other people invited as witnesses.

Zhu Gaoxu said loudly, this is the Ming Patent Law, giving you ten years of monopoly rights.

In the past ten years, whether the imperial court or others do these things, they will have to give you patent fees.

Of course, in terms of military industry, because the bullets and rifling were proposed by the emperor and developed by them, maybe the court gave less money, and it would only mean something, Zhu Gaoxu was so grand, that is, to show the people of the world, you invent with your heart, and the court will not treat you badly.

The four of them were very happy when they heard it, because before the Daming Daily reported the matter of Italy, Italy only gave three years of monopoly, and the Ming Dynasty gave ten years, and it was still the Ming Emperor who was interesting enough.

Among them, the binoculars and looms of the ten years of monopoly should make a good profit.

The emperor also issued a patent certificate on the spot, and the historian recorded it on the spot, and then sent it to the Daming Daily, and then spread it all over the world.

After a complete set of procedures, everyone thanked the emperor, and some people left happily.

"Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty, long live Long live." Yang Yuanfeng is not young, he is sixty years old, he has followed Zhu Gaoxu for nearly 20 years, and his son Yang Lei is currently the commander of the Guangdong Metropolitan Command.

"Old Yang, your head is white." Zhu Gaoxu stepped forward to help him up personally, and said with a smile: "This time it's a good job, our Daming's gun is getting more and more powerful." ”

"Thanks to Your Majesty's blessing, or the idea provided by Your Majesty, the minister is just doing his best."

"You don't have to be modest, without the cooperation between your Science and Technology Department and the Craftsman Bureau, experimenting, relying on my ideas alone is still not enough." The two humbled each other.

Yang Yuanfeng said with a sad face at this time: "The steam engine that Your Majesty rowed is really too difficult, the brothers are working day and day, and the power is far from enough." ”