A few days later, the capital city of Qingzhou.

Early in the morning, Wang Weizhen stood at the door of the shogunate yamen with an anxious face, looking at both ends of the street, and asked his subordinates from time to time: "Have you said okay, are you here today?" ”

"Don't worry, my lord, I have already sent someone to ask, I arrived today, and it is estimated that I have entered the city now."

"That's good."

Wang Weizhen turned his head to Zhang Lei, the minister of agriculture beside him, and said: "Zhang Bu, don't you know, this Du Feng, oh, is the old farmer we are waiting for, but the person who thinks about the town day and night has taken over the task of the town earlier, and went to the sea by boat, and now he can be regarded as coming back alive." ”

Zhang Lei said with a little dissatisfaction: "It took a long time to hand me over here, just waiting for an old farmer?" What is his ability to turn stones into gold? ”

"Hehe, don't believe it, Zhangbu, the town sent Du Feng to Nanyang to find a treasure, if he finds it this time and brings it back, the affairs of your Ministry of Agriculture will be easy to handle, maybe this drought in various places can be smoothly passed."

Zhang Lei's eyes suddenly lit up, during this time, in order to fight drought and provide disaster relief, Zhang Lei's almost all ran around Qingzhou Prefecture, and all the people from the Ministry of Agriculture were scattered to various prefectures for disaster relief.

"Is what Lord Wang said true? I don't read much, don't lie to me! ”

"Rest assured, rest assured!"

While speaking, a carriage came, and Wang Weizhen saw at a glance that it was the official carriage of the Ministry of Government Affairs, and said with a smile: "Look, isn't this coming!" ”

The carriage came to a steady stop, and an old peasant in shabby clothes and a haggard face got out of the carriage, followed by three other men walking down one after another.

Wang Weizhen

recognized that those three people were among the dozen or so entourages that Du Feng had taken away.

"Oops! Du Laohan, you're finally back! ”

When Du Feng saw Wang Weizhen, he immediately cried, and the three men behind him also wiped their tears, and the four of them knelt directly on the ground, as if they wanted to cry out all the grievances that had arisen during this time.

"My lord, my journey is not easy, the sea is huge, the South China Sea is full of Zheng Yiguan's fleet, and the sea ship we are riding on is like a thief, and it was almost sunk!"

"Finally arrived in Little Luzon, the Francophone over there seized our sea boat again, and the dozen or so people accompanying him also died and fled, and after several tosses, only a few of us were left, and finally got on a smuggling ship to Fujian, and came back with nine deaths......

Wang Weizhen first comforted Du Feng and a few others, and now Du Feng has experienced this series of changes and dangers, and his already not tall figure is even more rickety, and the wind and frost on his face and his dark skin make him look like an old man in his sixties or seventies.

"Alas! It's not easy. ”

Wang Weizhen immediately asked: "What the Lord of the Town asked you to do, has it been done?" ”

"Who's the Chief, the Chief?"

Wang Weizhen was stunned for a moment, and then said with a smile: "It was Lord Liu Yan, the original commander of Lingshan Guard, and now he is the chief military officer of Qinglai Town. ”

"Ahh

Du Feng opened his mouth wide in surprise, and then was pulled by Wang Weizhen and asked again: "Have you found it?" ”

Zhang Lei also came over curiously, wondering what he was looking for.

"I found it, and I brought back the sweet potato seedlings that the lord of the general and general town asked me to find."

said

, Du Feng lifted his shirt, revealing a hemp rope-like belt, and the other three did the same.

"Look, my lord, this is a sweet potato seedling."

While speaking, Du Feng carefully dismantled the "belt", pulled out several plant stalks from the hemp rope, and said: "My lord, this sweet potato seedling will live as it is planted, as long as it does not die." ”

"Now those Francophiles in Little Luzon are very cunning, and it is strictly forbidden for sweet potatoes to be taken out, Xiao Lao and others have no choice but to cut out some stems and leaves from the sweet potato seedlings, and then cut them into small pieces, and weave such a small section of sweet potato vines into hemp rope, so that they can be brought back without danger."

"Okay, you've done a great job!"

Wang Weizhen then pulled Du Feng and others, called Zhang Lei, and went to the General Soldier's Mansion together.

When the sweet potato seedlings brought back were placed in front of Liu Yan, Du Feng and the three entourages were feasting in the main hall of the General Soldier's Mansion, and several people had not eaten a serious meal for a long time.

At this time, seeing a few people gobbling up, Wang Weizhen directly asked the servant to get some more food.

Liu Yan was very happy and said loudly: "Du Feng's contribution is indispensable, and the town has decided to appoint Du Feng as the consultant of the Reclamation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, and issue the Yulu according to the rank of the secretary, and the other three will be incorporated into the Ministry of Agriculture. ”

"In addition, Du Feng will be rewarded with 300 silver coins, and each of the three retinues will be rewarded with 100 silver coins!"

At this time, Du Feng and the others heard about the silver coins in Qinglai Town on the way here, and knew that three hundred or one hundred silver coins were actually three hundred taels of silver and one hundred taels of silver, and Du Feng and the four of them were excited

put down the dishes and chopsticks, and kept kowtowing to thanks.

Liu Yan smiled and asked a few people to get up, and said, "The four of you will go down to rest for a few days first, and Minister Wang has already arranged the residence." Three days later, you will report to the Ministry of Agriculture to assist Minister Zhang in promoting sweet potatoes. ”

"Yes!"

Liu Yan said to Wang Weizhen again: "Minister Wang recommended meritorious service, and also rewarded one hundred silver coins, and this year, your salary in the Ministry of Government Affairs has also increased by one percent." ”

"Haha, Mr. Xie!"

Wang Weizhen smiled and took Du Feng and the others down to settle down, while Liu Yan left Zhang Lei.

Sweet potato is also known as potato, sweet potato, sweet potato, etc., the leaves and stems of this thing can be eaten, almost everyone in the country knows it in later generations, but at the end of the Ming Dynasty at this time, there are very few people who know this thing.

Liu Yan remembers that the person who introduced sweet potatoes to China in history was named Chen Zhenlong. This Chen Zhenlong is a native of Qingqiao Village, Changle County, Fuzhou Prefecture, and he was selected for Xiucai before he was twenty years old, but he did not pass the township examination, so he abandoned Confucianism and went to Luzon to do business.

Chen Zhenlong saw that there were sweet potatoes grown locally, that is, sweet potatoes, and that this kind of thing was drought-tolerant and easy to live, edible both raw and cooked, and had "six benefits and eight benefits, and five grains", so he wanted to bring it back to the motherland, so he ignored the ban of the Francois entrenched in Luzon Island, hid the sweet potatoes and took them out of the country, but he did not expect to be found by the customs, severely tortured, and almost killed.

Then Chen Zhenlong used a method similar to Du Feng, twisted the sweet potato vine into the water absorption rope, and then smeared it with sludge, and finally took it back to Fuzhou without telling the world, and quickly reported it to the then governor Jin Xuezeng, fortunately, the governor Jin Xuezeng attached great importance to it and ordered it to focus on cultivation.

Sweet potatoes are getting more and more crops in Guangdong and Fujian

People like it, one acre of sweet potato can produce dozens of stones, the yield is equivalent to more than 20 times that of rice, and there are various ways to eat, and the barren land can also be abundant. The name of sweet potato soon became a household name in the north and south of the country. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the floods in the south of the Yangtze River were serious and the grain output was greatly reduced, Xu Guangqi brought sweet potatoes back to Shanghai from Fujian and promoted them to Jiangsu for planting, achieving good disaster relief results.

It's just that in the late Ming Dynasty, Chen Zhenlong's descendants don't know where they went, and there are not many farmers left who grow sweet potatoes in Fujian, and they are controlled by Zheng Zhilong, and other places have not even heard of the word sweet potato, so Liu Yan had to refocus his eyes on Luzon.

Fortunately, Du Feng lived up to his mission and really brought back sweet potato seedlings!

"My lord, this is a sweet potato? Can this thing really replace food? ”

Liu Yan said with certainty: "That's right, this is a grain crop with a higher yield than rice and wheat, and it is very drought-tolerant. However, to prevent locust plagues, it is necessary to prepare more chickens and ducks to feed around the farmland, and find ways to prevent and control them. ”

Zhang Lei curiously picked up a section of seedlings and said: "These seedlings are all section by section, can they really be planted?" ”

Seeing Zhang Lei's suspicious look, Liu Yan said: "Believe me, the specific planting technology, let the technicians that Du Feng taught the Ministry of Agriculture, and deploy it as soon as possible." ”

"There are basically no traces of locusts in Qingzhou's Fucheng, and now a farmland has been designated around Fucheng as a test field, and these seedlings will be planted as soon as possible to prevent these seedlings from dying."

"The town will be guarded from the pro-guard

The battalion dispatched soldiers and horses, stationed around the experimental field day and night, you also temporarily handed over the disaster relief to your subordinates to do, you took Du Feng to nail in the experimental field, this stubble of sweet potatoes, must be planted successfully, this can be related to Qinglai Town, and even Shandong, the world's hundreds of millions of people ration problem, too much attention! ”

"Don't worry, don't worry about the town, look at the subordinates, Du Feng and they don't have to rest for three days, tomorrow we will go out of the city to find suitable farmland, and start working first."

"It's fine."

Liu Yan said: "You tell Du Feng and the others, as long as the sweet potatoes are planted smoothly and survive, the town will reward Du Feng with one hundred silver coins, and the other three will each reward fifty silver coins." When it is time to harvest, for every ten stones of sweet potatoes, they will be rewarded with fifty silver coins, and there is no upper limit! ”

"In addition, everyone involved in the Ministry of Agriculture will also be rewarded, twenty silver coins for every ten stones!"

Zhang Lei, who heard such a high reward, was also taken aback, and said: "Don't worry, after they hear these rewards, it is estimated that they will be more attentive than taking care of their father, as long as the seedlings are fine, the harvest will be fine." ”

"Well, that's good."

"In addition, the brothers who went to sea with Du Feng and were killed, you asked Du Feng to draw up the lists, and after checking them with the shogunate's archives, they immediately issued a bereavement pension, and they were given preferential and fast!"

"Yes."

Then Zhang Lei carefully collected all the sweet potato seedlings, and hurriedly led people to find Du Feng and others.

Liu Yan looked at the yellowing sky outside, which matched the drought and locust plague at this time, which made Liu Yan's heart very heavy.

According to the experience of later generations, sweet potatoes need to be planted around March every year, and around three to four months

You can harvest on the right. Shandong can achieve one crop a year, while the south has good conditions and can do two crops a year.

Liu Yan estimated the sweet potato seedlings brought back, and the four of them probably brought back dozens of sections, and there were not many to plant, and it is estimated that this year's harvest will be used as seeds for the next year.

"I hope that the sweet potato harvest season can be in time, and I hope that it can be promoted to all parts of Qinglai Town within a few years."

Liu Yan knew that natural disasters continued at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and if there was no high-yield crop like sweet potatoes as a guarantee, under the disasters for many years, even everywhere in Qinglai Town, people would starve to death!