Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 427 Foodie VS Hungry Ghost
The sixth year of Chongzhen was destined to be an eventful period.As early as mid-February, a large number of rogue bandits swarmed into Hebei, attacking cities and plundering territory along the way, and war broke out in Yan.Fortunately, the Tianxiong Army was well prepared. More than 4 infantry and cavalry troops lined up along the Daming Road, ready to attack one by one. They captured more than [-] prisoners in just one month, which was truly a remarkable feat.But there were too many rogues, and locusts passed through the border, killing one group after another. The powerful Tianxiong army also made them exhausted from the torment, and secretly complained.The situation in Henan was not much better. Groups of rogue bandits poured into Henan, and smoke rose into the sky in Nanyang and Luoyang. The Heluo New Army blocked the high mountains and narrow roads of the Funiu Mountains in an attempt to block the rogue bandits in the Central Plains. Outside the gate, Hong Chengchou and Cao Wenzhao from Shanxi and Shaanxi are working overtime to drive the bandits over. Aren't you Yang Menglong and Lu Xiangsheng very capable? No matter how many bandits there are, they can be properly placed and drive them away. Once we reach your territory, everything will be fine!

The officials in Hebei and Henan are all yelling, greeting the [-]th generation of the families of Shaanxi and Shanxi officials with various accents, but no matter how much they scold, there is no way to get the rogues back to Shaanxi and Shanxi, there is no way. Come on, cheer up and encircle and suppress, if the rogues break into the Central Plains and harm the place, they will lose their heads!

At this juncture, Huguang, the granary of Daming, was also in chaos, Xiangfan was breached, King Xiang was destroyed, and the entire Ming Dynasty was shocked——Daming has been founded for nearly 300 years, has anyone ever tried to break through it so easily? A majestic city full of vassal kings!The most frightening thing is that the gang of rebels did not stay after taking Xiangfan, but recruited a group of frustrated literati to preside over the division of the fields. The 10,000+ army rushed straight to Jingzhou. Then, the gate of Jingzhou was quickly knocked open.It is rumored that the leader of this group of rebels is the reincarnation of Thor, who can throw thunderous fireballs with demonic methods, and no matter how strong the city walls are, they are vulnerable to him. The more people believed this rumor, the more timid they were before fighting.Coupled with the fact that the treatment of the soldiers of the Ming army was really terrible, and the rebel army became more and more vigorous, many Ming soldiers who were going to suppress the bandits simply joined the rebel army, and the rebel army became stronger and stronger. There is a momentum of surpassing the Northwest counterparts.The imperial court has almost nothing to do about it. Why did the situation get so bad all of a sudden?Could it be that Daming's life is really exhausted?
At this critical moment of life and death, more and more people began to call for their heroes: Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Menglong, who had killed Jiannu in the Battle of Daling River.

So, what is Yang Menglong doing now?
In dealing with foreigners, to put it simply, it is to attract investment.

Nanyang agreed to the Huguang rebellion. They were the largest supplier of food and ammunition to the rebel army, and they had the most powerful and well-equipped army in the entire Ming Dynasty.Not only did they not take their ideas, the business between the two sides became more and more prosperous. Nanyang's grain, horse feed, gunpowder, cloth, iron materials, medicines and other goods were transported to Xiangfan by boats and boats, and the phosphate rock from Xiangfan was also shipped to Xiangfan. Ships are shipped to Nanyang.The harvest was extremely rich, and anyone slaughtered would earn several thousand taels or even tens of thousands of taels of silver. With so much money, the rebel army was extremely generous when paying for the goods, and the Nanyang merchants made their eyebrows smile.In their view, there is nothing wrong with Huguang being in chaos, and they wished that the rebels would occupy the whole of Huguang so that they could earn more.With such heartless subordinates, don't expect that his boss, who has always been unreliable, will have a high level of consciousness. He is the one who does business with the rebels the most!
However, right now he is busy doing business with foreigners, and took them to Tongbai Mountain to see his baby.

After three years of hard work, Tongbai Mountain has also changed. The barren wasteland is full of alfalfa and rapeseed, and those barren hills have become tea gardens. Tens of thousands of acres of tea gardens extend spirally from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, which is very attractive.A group of foreigners from Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands held binoculars in their hands to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the tea mountain, and even went into the tea garden to pick some tea leaves, chewed them, and praised them.This wonderful plant cannot be found in Europe. Before the Age of Discovery, the tea produced in China had to go through the smoky desert, the Pamirs hanging in the sky, and the Middle East occupied by the fierce Turks. , and finally cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. It is not difficult to imagine how difficult and dangerous such a journey is. It is not uncommon for nine out of ten caravans to die on the way.When crossing the Mediterranean Sea, there may be strong winds and waves. This ruthless storm will give a fatal blow to those businessmen who have gone through hardships: even if the ship is not overturned, the tea will be wet, broken, and the loss is huge. part.Now everyone knows why Chinese silk, porcelain, and tea were sold at sky-high prices in Europe in ancient times, and a few tea bricks soaked in seawater with salt frost hanging on them could sell for thousands or even tens of thousands of gold coins. It is the only one in the world, and there is no semicolon. Secondly, the rarest thing is the most precious, and the goods that can go through many difficulties and obstacles and finally arrive in Europe are too few, too few, and they have become a luxury among luxury goods.Like the kind of tea that has been soaked in sea water, in China, farmers probably would not bother to use it to rinse their mouths, but in medieval Europe, even high-ranking nobles could not drink it a few times a year... too much Expensive, and the goods are too little!What is in front of them now is a tea garden of tens of thousands of acres, which is too scary.

Some tea-picking girls shuttled between the tea gardens with small baskets woven from vines in their hands, quickly picking the young shoots and putting them into the baskets.They are picking Mingqian tea—that is, the first batch of tea in a year. They must be picked before the Ching Ming Festival, otherwise they will be old and cannot be sold at a price.There are no moving songs in the legend, only tense and monotonous work. I am afraid that no girl who has actually picked tea will have the time to sing while picking tea. If you don’t believe me, go to the tea garden and try it for a week?Yang Menglong said: "This is the first batch of tea leaves produced in our tea garden. The quantity is not large, so it is extremely precious."

A foreigner from the Netherlands muttered to Father Robben, who translated on his behalf: "Dear Yang, how much tea can you produce?" This relative is the representative of the East India Company in East Asia. East Asia has always been difficult to open the situation. Those damn Chinese pirates have been against them. They don’t have a stable supply of goods in China, and they are living a hard life. I heard that a governor is willing to open up their territory to trade with them. This brother ran over from Indonesia in a hurry.

Yang Menglong asked the person in charge of the tea garden: "Approximately how much tea can be produced?"

The person in charge of the tea garden pondered for a long time, and said: "This is the first batch of tea, I'm afraid there won't be much...one mu of field is at most five or six catties."

Yang Menglong turned to the foreigners and said, "It is estimated that there will be twenty or thirty tons."

A large group of foreigners were immediately dumbfounded: "Oh my God, there are so many!" They multiplied the purchase price of one pound of tea by twenty or thirty tons, and the resulting figure frightened them.

Yang Menglong chuckled: "Small meaning, this is the first batch, there will be more in the future... let's go, I'll take you to taste our special black tea!"

Tea leaves are very delicate, and they must be disposed of as soon as they are picked, otherwise they will be damaged.The tea making workshop in Tongbai Mountain Tea Garden is built at the foot of the mountain. The tea leaves are sent to the workshop as soon as they are sent down the mountain. I was dumbfounded, amazed repeatedly, and shouted "I can't learn it".Yang Menglong took them to the lounge, gave orders, and immediately someone brought two pieces of tea cakes.This is freshly made, and exudes a refreshing tea fragrance, which makes the mouths of foreigners drool.Yang Menglong stroked his sleeves, wanting to show off his skills, but Liu Ziyan, who accompanied him, knew what kind of pee he was, so he snatched the tea cakes first, crushed them quickly, divided them into the long row of teacups in front of him, and then lifted them into the cups The kettle with boiling water tilted slightly, and a slender water dragon sprayed out from the spout and poured it into the teacup. The tea leaves fluttered up and down under the impact of boiling water, just like a group of cheerful butterflies.She only poured half a glass of water into each cup, and when she was done, she took the cup again, and poured out the red tea under the eager eyes of a group of foreigners, leaving the tea leaves that had stretched out, and she finished pouring. Inject boiling water again, and this time it is [-]% full.A series of movements are like flowing clouds and flowing water, which is pleasing to the eye. Just watching her make tea is already a great enjoyment.

In the exquisite teacup, the tea leaves are flipped lightly, spitting out small pearl-like bubbles, and a strong and pleasant tea fragrance refreshes the heart, relaxing the pores all over the body, and refreshing the mind.

Yang Menglong whispered: "Actually, just let me do this kind of thing."

Liu Ziyan glanced at him: "Have you ever made tea?"

Yang Menglong said: "I...I drank it!" He always only drinks tea, not making tea.

Liu Ziyan said: "I'm afraid you're spoiling the tea!" After clapping her hands lightly, several maids, who were temporarily guest-starred by the tea-picking girl, arrived and brought trays of small walnut cakes, fruit platters, cloud cakes, etc. Waiting for the delicate tea, there is also a plate of rock sugar that is as white and transparent as ice.She picked up rock sugar with chopsticks, put a piece in each cup of tea, and said with a smile, "Gentlemen, please enjoy."

A simple sentence stunned Yang Menglong: This beautiful woman speaks fluent Portuguese!His eyeballs bulged out: "You... When did you learn a foreign language?"

Liu Ziyan said: "It's okay to learn a little from the priests. I can't say how proficient I am, but it's not a problem to chat with these foreigners in Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish."

Mastered three foreign languages ​​in two years... a female top student...

Those foreigners didn't care about these details at all, and happily sipped their tea.Yang Menglong makes black tea. There is no other way. In this part of China, there are as many famous teas as there are dogs. There are countless teas picked from tea trees with a history of hundreds of years. Tongbai Mountain tea is too sad to open up the domestic market. Even if it is opened , At most, it is the life of being a low-end product, and you can't make a lot of money.So this guy set his sights on foreigners, don't foreigners like black tea very much?Now the production of black tea is very little, so I will make black tea to trick you!This group of foreigners knew nothing about it. They picked up their teacups almost piously and sipped black tea. Their cautious gestures made Yang Menglong want to laugh. Are you drinking tea or holding some religious ceremony?Don't be so serious, right?

Those guys drink tea like misers. They only drink a little bit at a time, but they eat tea more and more fiercely, like the kind of small walnut cakes dipped in honey. They stuff them into their mouths in two or three, It's like being reincarnated by a starving ghost.In the past, Liu Ziyan complained more than once about Yang Menglong's ferocious eating that can scare away everyone at the table: "Is there anyone else who eats uglier than yours?" Today she was pleasantly surprised to find out, hey, there really are!No way, the sugar industry in Europe has been almost non-existent since ancient times, and the beekeeping industry is basically non-existent. Naturally, there are very few sweets available. In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for two lords to fight over a few catties of honey. Now there are free ones, of course you have to open your belly and eat them.Therefore, after coming to the Ming Dynasty, Yang Menglong met his opponent at the dining table for the first time. Although he was extremely brave and fought fiercely with the foreigners, he was no match for twenty or thirty hands with two fists. In the meantime, those exquisite refreshments were swept away, leaving him with only a pile of crumbling dishes.

What does it mean that there are mountains beyond mountains, and there are people beyond people?
That's it!

(End of this chapter)