Great Tang Southern Emperor

"Your Highness, this is the delicious food that my subordinates just mentioned." Wang Dewei took a step forward, opened one of the bags, took out a fist-sized thing with a reddish-brown skin, and introduced it: "Don't look at the appearance of this thing, but it tastes crisp, delicious and sweet. More importantly, the skin of this thing is very thin, and the inside is all edible parts. Even the skin can be eaten if it is cleaned... ...Your Highness, if this thing can be successfully grown in the Tang Dynasty, then we will have another edible crop in the Tang Dynasty."

Wang Dewei's introduction was very detailed, but Li Zhen didn't listen to a word. In terms of understanding of sweet potatoes, how can Wang Dewei, who is only a native of the Tang Dynasty, compare to Li Zhen, a time traveler who traveled from the future?

You must know that although Li Zhen is a little rich second generation, his family started after he was ten years old. Before he was ten years old, his family was not very rich. He didn't eat this stuff when he was in the countryside. .

"Sure enough, this is the sweet potato...hahaha..." Li Zhen was so excited that she lost her composure and laughed out loud at the end.

I can’t help him not laughing, God knows how much effort he has put in to increase crop yields after coming to Datang——Li Zhen begged for a huge manor from Li Shimin back then, although in the end a piece of land became a cement experiment workshop , but a large part of it is still growing grain, the purpose is to study how to increase grain production, not only Li Zhen, but even Li Zhi's manor was bought back by Li Zhen at a high price.

In order to increase the amount of food assets, Li Zhen used almost all the methods he knew in his previous life and copied them in Datang, and hired dozens of experienced farmers as consultants. It has achieved a lot of results, but at most it has changed the output of one stone to one and a half stones, after all, it has not caused a qualitative change.

So since then, Li Zhen no longer focused on improving crops, because he has understood that the reason why crops in later generations can have such a high yield is not only high technology, but also the fact that the Chinese people have lived for thousands of years. slowly cultivated.

Later, Li Zhen stopped paying attention to these things, and just asked the people in the manor to keep the fullest and highest-yielding ears of wheat and other crops every year, and then save them as seeds for next year, hoping to use this method to optimize the genes of the crops. Slowly improve food production - this is the inspiration he got from an article called "Green Finger" that he read when he was a child. The old grandma used this method to cultivate white marigolds.

Li Zhen doesn't know if this method is useful, but judging from the theory of seed genetics, even if it can't completely optimize the seeds, it should be able to increase the production of some grains.

In fact, what Li Zhen didn't know was that he found the right method by mistake, because in ancient times, the people of China did use this method to select seeds, and it was precisely because of hundreds of years of such selection. Even if the seeds of high-tech crops have not yet appeared, China's grain output can reach more than 200 catties (ask my dad, the output was about this much in six years or so, without chemical fertilizers, and without farming Machinery, only farmyard manure and a cow), barely fed hundreds of millions of people in China, and finally survived until the emergence of hybrid rice.

Now Li Zhen has used this method in advance, but this method takes too long, and it will not be effective in 20 or [-] years.

So Li Zhen quickly put this matter aside, and began to use a short-term effective method-that is, to open up a piece of fertile land with high yield.

It was at that time that Li Zhen set her sights on Nanyang. Only by conquering here can Datang temporarily solve the threat of hunger, and Li Zhen can buy more time to find new high-yield crops.

In other words, even without Lin Yi's offense, Li Zhen would find an excuse to conquer Nanyang after the situation in Lingnan was stabilized.

Now Nanyang finally fell into the hands of Datang, but it was only then that Li Zhen discovered that it was not that simple to farm in Nanyang—there were too many aborigines in Nanyang.

Datang has just conquered Nanyang, and has also carried out some immigration, but the number of these immigrants is very small, which can only be regarded as experimental, and the occupied places are also in the northern part of Linyi.

If you want to completely immigrate and develop, you must clean up the interior of Nanyang. Only after reducing the aborigines here to an acceptable level can the immigration policy officially begin-although most of the slave hunting teams have already entered here, but I want to It is not that simple to clean up the aborigines to a safe value range, and it will take at least three years.

Three years later, the immigration work can be fully carried out. It will take at least five years for the Tang people to fully adapt to the Nanyang environment and occupy Nanyang. It will take almost ten years to start...

As far as this is the goal that can only be achieved with the full cooperation of the government and the people of the Tang Dynasty, if something goes wrong, for example, if chaos breaks out within the Tang Dynasty, it will take longer.

It is precisely because of these considerations that Li Zhen puts those high-yield crops in America in his heart - he has even decided that if there is really no way, if the situation in Lingnan develops in two years, he is ready to take risks Take a trip to the Bering Strait yourself, through which you travel to the Americas in search of sweet potatoes and corn.

But this is a last resort, because it is still very dangerous to cross the Bering Strait in this era.

Chapter 811 Finally Seeing Sweet Potatoes

Chapter 173 Seeing Sweet Potatoes Finally

How could Li Zhen not have thought of such a beautiful place like the Bering Strait?But since he knows the Bering Strait, he also knows how dangerous the Bering Strait is - at least in the twentieth century, very few ships would pass through here to Alaska.

Someone may ask, the Bering Strait is the closest strait between the Asian continent and the American continent, and the narrowest point is only more than 80 kilometers. Let alone a boat, you can swim across it even by swimming. Why is it dangerous?

This makes sense, but only makes sense.

Is this really the case?

Of course it's not that simple.

When Li Zhen thought of looking for the American continent, the first thing she thought of was the Bering Strait. The reason was that it was close enough that she could land on the American continent as long as she crossed the [-]-kilometer sea.

But after field investigation, Li Zhen found that things were not that simple at all.

The Bering Strait is frozen in winter and melts in summer. No matter which season you go from, there are restrictions of one kind or another.

First of all, the Bering Strait is frozen in winter, so you can’t take a boat, you can only take a sled or walk across it. This is indeed the safest way. There are hundreds of people, not tens of thousands of people. They can only deliver breakfast to the native Americans. I am afraid that they will be attacked by the natives before they cross North America.

But can the ice on the Bering Strait bear tens of thousands of people and more supplies to walk on it?This place is on the edge of the Arctic ice cap, let alone more than 1 people trampled on it, even if there is no one, it will crack without warning, and it is not safe at all (this is really not alarmist, the Bering Strait in winter Although it is frozen, the ice layer will break and break without warning at any time, and there are many wide ice cracks. Now many people will walk across the Bering Strait in winter. It is not so much that they walk there, but their swim past).

Li Zhen didn't dare to take the risk of experimenting. If it didn't work, if the ice surface couldn't bear the weight and broke with a 'click' in the middle of the walk, then not one or two people would die.

What's more, the Bering Strait in winter is really cold, maybe people will freeze to death.

As for going in summer, it doesn't work either.

In summer, when the ice melts, boats are needed. The narrowest part of the Bering Strait is only 80 kilometers, which is not wide. Small fishing boats can pass through it, and there is basically no danger.

The problem is that in summer, there is not only sea water in the Bering Strait.

There are countless floating ice in summer.

In summer, the Arctic is in a state of extreme daylight, and the ice melts. A lot of crushed ice will be blown into the North Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait by the monsoon, and then swept back and forth in the northern North Pacific Ocean by various ocean currents (those who have studied ocean currents can find that the North The warm Pacific current, the warm Alaskan current and the thousand cold currents just form a circle, encircling the northernmost part of the Pacific Ocean), and it is not only difficult but also very dangerous for ships to travel. You must know that the Titanic sank after hitting a giant iceberg ah.

It's okay if it's a big iceberg, you can see it from a distance. With the speed of ancient wooden boats, you can avoid it as long as you find it in advance. If the boat hits it, it will be a big hole—the defense of the wooden boat is not as strong as that of the iron boat. Even the iron boat dare not drive in the ice floes. If the wooden boat comes, it will hit a sinking one.

Therefore, Li Zhen will not take this path unless it is absolutely necessary, but according to the previous situation, if there is no high-yield crop, it is impossible for Li Zhen to stabilize the interior and then send troops to fight.

Therefore, before returning to Lingnan, Li Zhen had already made up his mind that if Datang's grain production did not increase significantly within five years, he was going to take the risk of going to the Bering Strait for a try. Most got through safely.

But not long after he made his decision, that is, today, Wang Dewei actually brought him good news.

"Hahaha..." Li Zhen couldn't stop his smile, he was so happy, with sweet potatoes, he could finally solve his worries, and Datang's hegemony could be expected.

"Uncle Wang, you have helped me a lot." After a long time, Li Zhen calmed down reluctantly, and patted Wang Dewei's shoulder vigorously: "Not only did you help me a lot, but you also helped Datang and the people of China. , made a great achievement for countless sages in ancient times—don’t worry, as long as sweet potatoes can be popularized, as long as its output can exceed [-] catties, I will personally ask my father for a duke for you. "

"Wow!"

After hearing Li Zhen's words, everyone was dumbfounded, and they all looked at Li Zhen in disbelief—the duke was a duke, is it so easy to get a duke now?

But they quickly realized that if the production of sweet potatoes is really as exaggerated as Li Zhen said... No, don't be so exaggerated, as long as it can exceed three hundred catties, the reward of a duke is really not much.

This is not sweet potatoes, this is immortal food that can live countless lives. In the future, as long as someone still eats sweet potatoes, they will be able to remember Wang Dewei's contribution—this is a great achievement that can be passed down for thousands of years. What is a duke?

After thinking this through, everyone's eyes turned red.

Just now, those people like Liu Rengui didn't even want officials because of the sweet potato, which shows how much credit the sweet potato really has.

Now this sweet potato was taken away by a Qiu Ba.

This is really... too reconciled.

Everyone is envious and jealous.

"Your Highness, no." Wang Dewei thought that Li Zhen was going crazy with joy, so he quickly waved his hands and said, "This subordinate just wanted to give Your Highness a taste of sweet potatoes, but he didn't think about making any contribution. Besides, this sweet potato is also a match." Brother brought it, subordinate... this is really inappropriate, please take it back, Your Highness."

"You don't need to refuse, you can afford this duke, and you don't have to worry about him as for the heroes of the competition. Since I can remember your achievements, I won't forget him."

Li Zhen turned her attention to Sai Qunxiong again: "Sai Qunxiong, your sweet potato has solved a huge problem for my Tang Dynasty. Since I rewarded Wang Dewei who introduced the sweet potato to my palace, you, the treasure giver, are naturally indispensable... ...Tell me, what benefits do you want?"

"Your Highness, I don't want any benefits." Sai Qunxiong shook his head first, and then said his request: "There is only one request. We were taken to Datang by the storm. I don't think we can go back in this life. I hope that I can lead my people to live a good life in Datang, as long as His Highness is willing to accept us, not only this sweet potato, but we are willing to dedicate everything we bring to Your Highness."

Chapter 812 Surprise!This is a potato?