The handover of Donghai City is about to be completed, and the Confucian scholar Meng Qi temporarily replaced the Donghai County Order, and the Jixia Shizi left more than ten people to fill the positions of county Cheng, Sikong, and County Wei, first build up the management system, and then slowly improve it later.

The reason why Li Hao did not watch the competition and returned to Donghai City was because Yiwei's grain caravan had arrived in the city, and he was not at ease if he didn't take a look, so he took Yiwei back to the city.

At this time, the county had already opened the treasury in the city, and hundreds of grain trucks on the street were queuing up at the door to inspect the grain and put it into the warehouse.

Seeing this scene, Li Hao couldn't help but carefully inspect every grain truck. And Yiwei found the caravan leader and asked about some things on the way.

"Hey, no, there is a problem with this grain, and it can't be put into storage."

"Why can't it, even though there are buds, they can still be eaten when they are cut off."

"No, most of this bag of grain has rotted, and most of them have sprouts, which are no longer edible, so you better take them away."

"Why are you so stubborn, we have worked hard for several days to transport this food, you say you don't want it, and let us pull it back, but it is deliberately embarrassing?"

Because Li Hao was too far away, he didn't find the dispute at the door. Yiwei was next to her, and she walked over when she heard the sound.

"What's the quarrel?"

The county saluted and said: "The lower official has seen Lord Yi, and the official was ordered to inspect the grain here, but this bag of grain has rotted, and most of it has sprouted, basically inedible, and does not meet the storage standards." However, the transporter insisted on putting the grain in storage, and a dispute ensued. ”

Yi Wei opened the sack, revealing red lumps, most of which had sprouted, and some had rotted.

Yiwei frowned, picked up a piece and asked, "Xiao Qi, what is this?" Where did it come from? ”

Xiao Qi was the leader of the caravan, and the other party approached and looked at the sack, and said, "Last month, the caravan from the Western Regions brought back several bags of this thing. They said they were edible and tasted sweet, so they put them in the granary. This time, the adults were in a hurry to ask for grain, and the quantity was huge, and it was not enough to buy up the existing grain in the nearby big cities, so they could only transport all the grain from the grain stockpile. In a moment's negligence, the grain was also brought along. ”

Yi Wei nodded and said: "It's actually an extraterritorial product, since it has rotted and sprouted, it naturally can't be put into storage, so let's feed the livestock." ”

"Yiwei, stop, don't move anyone." Li Hao rushed over with excitement on his face.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong?" Yi Wei wondered.

The county Cheng also leaned over and bowed: "Liu Tian has seen the king." ”

Li Hao waved his hand, ignoring him, his eyes lit up and staring at the block in Yiwei's hand. Damn, yes, it's sweet potatoes.

"How many are there?"

Yiwei looked at Xiao Qi, and Xiao Qi hurriedly replied: "Back to the king, there are still five bags." ”

"Quick, find, find it all for me."

Li Hao gave the order, and everyone began to get busy.

Xiao Qi still has a general impression, and after a while, five bags of sweet potatoes have been turned out.

Sadly, all five bags of sweet potatoes were rotten.

Sweet potatoes are extremely nutritious, have high moisture and high sugar, and are extremely difficult to preserve. Transported from the Western Regions, the road is far away, bumped, once the skin is broken, the sweet potato is easy to turn black and rotten, exuding a lot of moisture, in this humid environment, the sweet potato inside the sack, actually a lot of sprouts.

Li Hao calculates the days, it is late June, a good time to cultivate sweet potato seedlings, which is really an unexpected joy.

During the Warring States Period, grain was mainly grain, wheat and rice were mainly used by the scholars, and the poor people still used soybeans, black beans, and hemp as their staple food.

How much grain was produced per mu in the Warring States period? Most people may not know that the grain yield per mu in the Warring States period was only more than 200 catties, and until the Han Dynasty, Tang and Song dynasties, the yield per mu was not more than 300 catties.

The yield of sweet potatoes is very large, and it was only promoted during the Ming Dynasty. According to different varieties, the average yield per mu is about 5,000 catties, and the high yield is 10,000 catties.

It's June now, and it doesn't affect the planting of autumn potatoes at all. Sweet potatoes are the easiest to grow, bury sweet potatoes in the soil, water them casually, and they can take root and sprout in just two or three days.

This batch of sweet potatoes has sprouted, and as long as it is buried in the soil, the vine seedlings will grow wildly. Li Hao remembers that when he was a child, there were endless sweet potato vine seedlings to feed the pigs. Moreover, sweet potato seedlings can be steamed in nests, and then cloves of garlic, which is amazingly delicious.

As long as the sweet potato vine grows, the vine is cut directly into the soil and watered casually to take root, and the vitality is super tenacious. Not to mention so many sweet potatoes, even a few dozen pieces can grow a few acres of land. With sweet potatoes in the hot land, there is no need to worry about food at all.

Li Hao was fortunate to come in person, these people don't know how to store sweet potatoes, let alone the value of sweet potatoes. If it was really fed to pigs and dogs, the sweet potatoes would have to be born hundreds of years later.

Yiwei can be described as a huge pressure to buy grain, and 50,000 gold grains is not a small amount. With the grain currently circulating in the market, it is impossible to buy it all in a few months.

At present, one gold can buy about 100 bags of grain, each bag is fifty or sixty catties, which is almost 5,000 catties, and 50,000 gold is equivalent to 250 million catties of grain.

During the Warring States period, gold was a unit of measurement, and one gold was equal to twenty taels. At this time, the price of gold was not high, if according to the price of later generations, more than 400 gold per gram, the 100,000 gold donated by Yiwei would be worth a lot.

At present, even if the purity of gold is not high, twenty taels also have thirteen or fourteen taels of pure gold, according to ten taels of pure gold, ten taels is equivalent to five hundred grams, according to modern four hundred per gram, one gold is equivalent to 200,000 yuan, how many bags of grain can be bought for 200,000? It's definitely more than a hundred bags. If we extrapolate backwards according to 100 bags of grain, the current price of gold is equivalent to more than 60 yuan per gram.

250 million catties of grain looks like a lot, but it's really not enough. The 12,000 soldiers who retired this time will have 300 catties each, and 3.6 million catties of grain will be gone.

There are also 7,000 soldiers of the Qinglong Army, each with 300 catties per month, which is a hard expenditure of 2.1 million catties of food and salary a month. Not counting the officers' salaries, the basic expenditure is 25 million catties a year. In addition, there are four city officials Yulu, according to the normal standards of later dynasties, a county order is 100 stone per year, and one stone 1200 catties is 12,000 catties, this is the Jiupin county order, not counting high-ranking officials Yulu, there are other officials at all levels.

In this way, this little food can be used for three years. If you include labor wages and the newborn incentive plan, it is estimated that it will be gone in two years. However, the army will definitely have to be expanded, the officials will definitely have to expand, the new factories will definitely have to be built, and there will only be more and more places where grain is used.

With sweet potatoes with a yield of thousands of catties per mu, Li Hao's pressure has been reduced a lot. Not only can the problem of eating the people be solved, but every household will also have surplus food, and their lives will become richer and richer. As long as the problem of eating is solved, the population will naturally explode.

"Your Majesty, but what's the happy thing?" Seeing Li Hao stunned there, Yi Wei's expression was uncertain, his expression was full of excitement, and he couldn't help asking.

Li Hao laughed and said, "Happy event, big happy event." Yiwei, you have made a great contribution again, and this gentleman will write it down for you first. This is over, we will return to Tancheng tomorrow. ”

"Don't you go to Dongyang City? What about the handover of Dongyang City? The county order also needs to be appointed by the king. Moreover, don't we also have to inspect the tea factory in Dongyang City, and by the way, the salt factory in Yucheng? ”

Li Hao thought for a while and said: "Dongyang City is handed over, let Yin Wen be fully responsible." Ordered the scholar Su Mu to temporarily take the post of county order, just like Donghai City, and asked Yin Wen to select more than a dozen scholars to fill the vacancy in Dongyang City. As for the salt factory, the workshop is now being built, and it will take at least a month to put it into production. As for the tea factory, there is no hurry, the tea will only come down early next year, and there is still a key link missing, and it is nothing to put it in the future. ”

Li Hao had already arranged this trip. It's just that autumn potato planting is a big deal, and now is the end of June, the best time to sow seeds. Time is tight and the task is heavy, and it can't be delayed for a day.

As for the selection of the Blue Dragon Army, it will take at least half a month for more than 7,000 people to compete. At that time, he only needs to come over and hold a sealing appointment meeting.

Tancheng is now very lively, since a retired soldier came to the county government suspiciously with the retirement papers, he actually exchanged it for 300 catties of grain, which immediately caused a sensation.

Then more and more retired soldiers came to receive food, and when everyone got the food, Li Hao's good name spread like a storm.

With the passage of time, what Li Hao said in the military camp was also spread. There are more than 10,000 retired soldiers who are fueling the flames, and it didn't take a few days at all, Li Hao's words have spread all over Yandi, and the people know about Yanjun Li Hao. Coupled with the previous paid recruitment of Yucheng and Tancheng, Li Hao quickly won the recognition of the people of Yandi.

After half a day's work, Li Hao finally returned to Tancheng.

"Yiwei, this time the Ministry of Commerce performed very well, the grain arrived in time, and there was no chaos. The retired soldiers successfully received food, so that the people have basic trust in us, and you should take the first credit. ”

Yi Wei was overjoyed and thanked: "Xie Junshang, the plan can be successfully completed, thanks to the overall planning of Junshang, and the Ministry of Commerce is ordered to implement it, and the credit is not monopolized." ”

"Don't be humble, it's your credit that is yours, and no one can take it away. Moreover, although it was an unintentional move to get sweet potatoes by accident this time, it was also inseparable from the Ministry of Commerce, and you have a lot of credit. After the establishment of the country, this monarch will reward them one by one. Li Hao smiled, this Yiwei is really his lucky star.

"Yiwei worships you."

Li Hao waved his hand and said, "How is the purchase of cultivated cattle going?" ”

"On the throne, the number of cultivated cattle is scarce, mainly concentrated in the hands of the scholars, and the price is high and it is difficult to buy in large quantities. Yi Wei has arranged for a caravan from the Yan State to carry Yanba to Donghu to replace the cultivated cattle. Because there were too many goods exchanged this time, the caravan was huge, and the preparation time was a little longer, and it only departed the day before yesterday. ”

Li Hao said with a smile: "The action is already very fast, the more ploughing cattle, the better." Donghu lacked salt and living materials, so it was best to form a stable trade channel with the big tribes. Not only do we need cattle, but we also need more good horses for our army. ”

"Yi Wei wrote it down."

Li Hao nodded and said, "There are two more things that you need to do." ”

Li Hao was very surprised to get sweet potatoes this time, indicating that the Western Regions already had some items from South America. At this time, there were no big ships, and seafaring trade was difficult. However, the Western Regions are close to India, India is close to South America, and the countries of the Western Regions can get sweet potatoes, which shows that the land trade there is very developed.

In this way, he thought of two more things, one was corn and the other was cotton.

The yield of corn per mu is also very high, almost nearly 2,000 catties, and the sense of satiety is very strong, which is definitely the best choice for staple food.

Cotton is even more important, and it is a hurdle for the people every winter. During this period, there was no cotton in the Central Plains, so naturally there would be no cotton clothes and quilts, and quilts were invented during the Song Dynasty.

Cotton was only introduced to China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, when cotton was used as ornamental flowers and plants. It was only paid attention to in the Song and Yuan dynasties, but it was only the private property of the powerful, and it was only widely promoted and applied in the Ming Dynasty.

In ancient winters, many people died every year. Now the houses of the people, most of them are thatched huts, not only do not keep warm but also leak wind, there is no quilt to keep out the cold at night, the body bones are slightly weaker, and if you can't resist it, you will die.

Du Fu once said: "There are tens of thousands of mansions in Ande, and the poor people in the world are happy." ”

The meaning of the Han Shi in it is obvious. In ancient times, the poor people were single-clothed and cold, and there were not many ways to keep warm.

Planting cotton a day earlier would have saved a lot of people in the winter.

Yi Wei, the richest man in the Warring States, was not given in vain at all, and the ready-made caravans in the Western Regions under his command were just used to find corn and cotton.

"Yiwei, the last thing, which is also very important, is that Benjun wants you to find three people."

"Please show me the truth."

"The first person is called Bai Qi. The surname Mi, Bai, a descendant of Bai Gongsheng, the grandson of the king of Chuping, may now live in Yi County, Qin State, and you sent people to find it. If the other party comes to Yan, Benjun will let him be the head of the military department and command an army. ”