In the farm manor outside the city, Zhao Kuo was taking his concubine to plant cotton with Chen Xin and others in the field, and the two little guys, Bin and Zhao Zheng, were running around in the field, extremely excited.

Zhao Zheng has never seen such a scene in the palace since he was a child, and it feels extremely fresh, Bin has often seen it before, and he has no chance after entering the palace.

The broken slave lay in his mother's arms, looking around curiously. Tian Shu's stomach bulged slightly, and her face was filled with a happy smile.

Zhao Kuo's harem is quite stable, the main reason is that there is no saying that women are forbidden to leave the palace in this era, and Zhao Kuo is even more lenient with them, and they can do what they want.

Everyone has something to do, so they won't think about Gong Dou all day long. Of course, a little jealousy is inevitable, as long as it is not too excessive, Zhao Kuo will not care.

In the past two years, Zhao Kuo has continued to stuff people into the farmhouse, and the number of farmers has broken through from double digits to triple digits, and the farmland is full of young people who are busy.

There is no way, a few old men in the farmhouse are powerful, but they are too old, maybe they will hang up at some time, Zhao Kuo must be prepared, and cultivate more talents to keep for backup.

This is just one of the experimental fields, millet, millet, rice, wheat, soybean, hemp, ...... Each food crop, as well as some fruits and vegetables, is studied by a dedicated person.

The farm house also served as a daily transport base for fresh fruit and vegetables in the royal palace...... In addition to seasonal fruits and vegetables, there are also out-of-season ones, such as peaches and leeks that appear at the court...... Zhao Kuo, who couldn't finish eating, sent it to the ministers in the capital, although Zhao Kuo didn't feel anything himself, but those ministers were excited after receiving it.

Especially every time Zhao Kuo sent them fruits and vegetables that were not in season, some ministers were reluctant to eat them, so they kept them at home, and they were all rotten.

Even if Zhao Kuo sent someone to tell them that these were just ordinary fruits, and the farmer planted them were not fairy peaches, some people didn't believe it...... In fact, don't talk about them, even the farmers were very surprised when they first saw it, and then gradually accepted it.

It stands to reason that every year in the spring ploughing season, the monarch will personally plough and plough an acre of land, and the queen and later the queen will personally pick mulberry and feed silkworms, in order to show that the country attaches importance to agriculture and mulberry, and also symbolize the tradition of male ploughing and female weaving.

Then the literati wrote some splendid articles to promote the benevolence and diligence of the monarch, and by the way to increase their own popularity, which has been the case since ancient times, and Zhao Guo is no exception.

It's just that this time Zhao Kuo planted not millet and millet, but cotton.

"When will it be promoted?" Zhao Kuo put a cotton seed into the dug pit, then used his feet to drive the soil and bury the seed, followed by the green lotus to water it.

"It's about the same time next year, and now there are still a little little less seeds, so they can't be wasted, and in two years, cotton can be grown all over the country. However, it is somewhat difficult to remove the seeds of cotton, and it can only be picked out one by one, which is time-consuming and laborious. Chen Xin arched his hand and said.

"The widow asked the craftsmen to think of a way to see if they could use machinery instead of manual seed removal." Zhao Kuo thought for a while and said.

In later generations, cotton seeds were deseeded by machines, but he didn't know what the specific principle was, so he left it to the craftsmen.

In addition, he remembers that cottonseed can also be squeezed for oil, and the oil yield is not low, which can relieve the pressure on soybeans to a certain extent.

Of course, hemp seeds can also be used for oil. The status of hemp in ancient times was very, very high, and mulberry, there was no cotton before, although the commoners raised silkworms and weaved cloth, but they could not afford to wear silk, and all had to be sold to the nobles.

In some places, silk is directly counted as a tax, and how many pieces of silk must be handed over every year. The so-called 'people everywhere are not silkworm breeders'.

Only clothes made of linen were worn by them. The countries of the Central Plains even have special mulberry fields and hemp fields, and there are also pools used for hemp outside the city.

Because after the hemp has to rot, only the coarse fibers are left before it can be woven. In addition, hemp is also edible, and one version of the five grains has hemp.

In addition, there is also a raw material for weaving cloth called kudzu, but kudzu is a wild vine grass that does not need to be specially cultivated.

After the popularization of cotton, the status of hemp will inevitably decline significantly, and cotton is much better than coarse linen in terms of warmth and comfort.

Silk will also be affected, but not too much, because the comfort of silk is irreplaceable, and those nobles wear silk tulle in the summer to be cooler.

"It would be great if it could be deseeded mechanically." Chen Xin said happily.

"Maybe one day in the future, you can directly use machinery to plow the land, and you can plow hundreds of acres of land a day." Zhao Kuo said with a smile.

"Don't laugh at the king, even a strong ox can't plough five acres of land in a day, what machinery can plough hundreds of acres of land?" Chen Xin waved his hand and found a wooden stake to sit down, at his age, according to the etiquette law, he was supported by the state, and he didn't have to salute when he saw the king.

"Hahaha, the widow is just kidding." Zhao Kuo laughed.

"Father, look." At this time, Zhao Zheng ran over from a distance, holding Zhao Kuo's thigh with one hand and an earthworm with the other, wanting to hand it to Zhao Kuo.

Seeing this, Zhao Ji hurriedly knocked out the earthworm in Zhao Zheng's hand. Zhao Zheng didn't cry either, picked up the earthworm from the ground, ran to Chen Xin, and said crisply: "Grandpa, what is this?" ”

"Hahaha, these are earthworms that loosen the soil, just like we plough the land." Chen Xin was stunned for a moment, then laughed.

"Can I eat it?" Zhao Zheng raised his little face and looked at Chen Xin expectantly, and raised his right hand in the air, as if he wanted to put it in his mouth.

"It's full of mud, do you want to eat it?" Chen Xin couldn't help but smile.

"No, the mud doesn't taste good at all." Zhao Zheng shook his head, threw the earthworm to the ground, and ran back to Zhao Kuo's side.

"Hungry?" Zhao Kuo picked up Zhao Zheng and asked.

"Not hungry." Zhao Zheng shook his head.

"Then why did you suddenly remember to eat...... Earthworms are up. Zhao Kuo asked, the first emperor in history was not a foodie!

"Didn't my father tell those cooks that there is nothing that can't be eaten, that there is no poison and that they should find a way to make it delicious, and that if they are poisonous, they should try more and dare to try?" Zhao Zheng blinked his eyes and looked at Zhao Kuo cutely.

Zhao Kuo was stunned for a moment, three black lines suddenly appeared on his forehead, and he looked at Zhao Zheng speechlessly.

When Chen Xin heard this, a smile suddenly appeared on his face, Handan has been rumored that King Zhao has raised a lot of cooks in order to study delicious food, and even opened a kitchen academy, he has always thought that it was a joke, there must be other reasons for opening a kitchen academy, but he didn't expect it to be really just to study delicious.

It is no wonder that in the past two years, new dishes have been flowing out of the palace. Even the peasant disciples who were cultivating in the distance had a smile on their faces, they didn't expect the monarch they had always admired to be like this.