Tang Dynasty: The beginning of the game is to touch the Princess Changle

On the second day of the twelfth lunar month, Monday, the weather cleared up.

It had been snowing intermittently for five days.

Looking out from the tower of Youzhou City, it seemed as if it was covered by a thick quilt, and the surroundings seemed particularly quiet.

"Hiss~ha!"

"It's not cold when it snows, but it's cold when the snow melts!"

"Hiss~ha!"

A dozen soldiers guarding the Youzhou City Wall, with white air coming out of their mouths and noses, curled up and squatted in a corner of the city wall to make a fire to keep warm.

Two other soldiers looked into the distance, always alert to prevent enemy attacks.

The Youzhou border fortress borders both Shuofang and Eastern Turks.

"Hmm?"

"Brothers, there's something going on! Be alert!"

A dozen soldiers warming themselves by the fire in the corner quickly stood up, picked up their spears and walked to the city wall, looking in the direction of the warning finger of the soldier.

A dozen wild horses could be vaguely seen galloping towards the border in the snow at the level of their bellies.

"Go to the Governor's Mansion and inform General Li." A leading sergeant immediately ordered.

All the other soldiers in the cabinet on the city wall ran out.

Although no one was seen on the horse's back, the Turkic cavalry used to hide on the other side of the horse's belly with superb horsemanship to confuse the defenders.

After a few breaths, sixteen wild horses came to the city wall.

Youzhou has a special terrain. There is no moat under the city wall, and the half-foot area under the city wall is not covered by snow.

More than a dozen wild horses stopped outside the city gate and neighed.

"咈哧~!"

The front hooves kept digging the ground, as if calling the people in the city to open the city gate.

The soldiers on the city wall did not relax at all, and dispersed to patrol in the distance. Everyone saw only a vast expanse of white, and there was no abnormal situation.

A quarter of an hour later, the wild horses under the city made a "咈哧" sound from time to time.

Several wild horses were circling back and forth, as if they were impatient to wait, and no one had opened the door for them for such a long time.

After a cup of tea, a team of fully armed soldiers came to the city wall.

The leader was a general who was only about 23 years old.

"What's the unusual situation?"

The sergeant came forward with a spear in his hand and clasped his fists and said: "Report to the governor, two quarters of an hour ago, sixteen wild horses came from the west of Eastern Turkic to the border. There was no other abnormality after that, and no trace of the enemy was seen."

The governor suddenly heard the neighing of horses under the wall, and leaned over the guardrail of the city wall to look down.

"It is indeed a wild horse, without a bridle or armor."

"Huh?"

"You continue to be alert!" The governor said, and took the soldiers down the city wall.

He found that these wild horses were a little special. Except for two or three wild horses digging the soil and circling with their front hooves, the other wild horses stood quietly and orderly.

Arriving at the foot of the city wall, he ordered people to open the city gate. The governor stopped the soldiers from leaving the city to avoid scaring the horses.

He went forward alone to observe the group of wild horses closely.

After a while, the governor tried to get close to the horses in front. The wild horse exhaled white air from its nostrils, shook its neck and made a "hissing" sound.

The governor slowly reached out and stroked one of the horses. The wild horse seemed to be not afraid of people and did not resist the governor's touch.

"This is not a wild horse!"

The governor muttered to himself, and his resolute face showed a thoughtful look.

"Two months ago, Hou Jun gathered 200 people from here to enter the Turks... War horses?"

The young governor showed a trace of sadness on his face. The war horses returned to Tang and their owners were probably killed in battle, and their souls died in the Turks!

He clenched his fists and then looked at the group of war horses again.

"Huh! That's not right!"

He found that there were no obvious sword, gun or arrow wounds on these war horses, so he carefully checked the condition of each war horse.

As expected by the governor, none of the horses had been injured.

"Come here! Quickly bring 16 sets of warhorse equipment!" The governor turned and ordered the soldiers at the city gate.

The governor's surname was Li Dazhi, the son of Li Jing's younger brother Li Keshi, and he had served as the general of Jinwu Guard.

Soon, the quartermaster brought the warhorse equipment, and the 16 warhorses were obedient and allowed to be fiddled with.

After putting on the reins, Li Dazhi picked up the front hoof of a warhorse, wiped the hoof with his robe and examined it carefully.

"Sure enough, hahaha!"

Li Dazhi saw nail marks on the slightly worn hoof, proving that the horseshoe was removed by humans.

In order to confirm his guess, Li Dazhi checked the hooves of several other warhorses.

"Take these warhorses back and take good care of them."

Li Dazhi left quickly after speaking. He wanted to send a pigeon to Chang'an to report the situation to the emperor.

…………

Imperial Palace, Imperial Garden.

After more than half an hour, the snow covering the sweet potatoes and Zhenguan beans had been almost cleared.

Among the sweet potatoes and potatoes planted in the second season, only Su Chen Manor was the last to plant.

Other Daozhou, including the Imperial Garden, had planted before the end of August. In order to wait for the snow, Su Chen did not plant the seedlings until the start of school in September.

Due to the sudden snow,Li Shimin was worried that the sweet potato field would be soaked after the snow melted, which would make it difficult to dig.

Therefore, he chose to harvest the sweet potatoes and Zhenguan beans today.

It has been planted before September, which is three months and a few days more.

Li Shimin couldn't wait to determine the yield of the second season. The planting area of ​​the Imperial Garden was not large, and the sweet potatoes and Zhenguan beans together only accounted for two acres.

At the beginning, Li Chengqian only reclaimed three acres of arable land, less than 2,000 square meters. If he planted too much, he would be beaten badly.

Half an acre of land was planted with corn, and the other half was used to plant peppers and tomatoes, but now it is in a state of abandonment.

"Great, let people harvest the sweet potatoes first!"

Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling and others had already prepared the lifting scale.

"Go ahead, try to dig deeper and don't damage the sweet potatoes." Li Chengqian commanded the Eastern Palace Guards to lead more than 100 people to start harvesting sweet potatoes.

The first time Li Chengqian harvested the 100 or so sweet potatoes he planted, he dug them all by hand. Now he knew that sweet potatoes could be made into sweet potato flour, and it was okay if they were broken. So everyone used iron farm tools to dig, which would be much faster.

Wei Zheng, who was standing aside, dug a sweet potato with his bare hands, and there were six sweet potatoes on it. The largest one was about half a catty, and the smallest was three taels.

"Your Majesty, great joy! There will be no more hungry people in the Tang Dynasty!"

Wei Zheng came to Li Shimin with sweet potatoes and said excitedly.

Li Shimin smiled and nodded, "Xuancheng, I saw it!"

After the crops in the imperial garden were planted, Li Shimin and Li Chengqian did not ask people with rich farming experience to take care of these crops. I just want to know the general planting technology, whether the sweet potato Zhenguan beans can achieve high yields.

It's nothing more than keeping watering in the early stage after planting, and knocking off some sweet potato vines in the middle.

The yield of sweet potatoes can be foreseen. Li Shimin remembers that he planted 2,100 plants on this acre of land.

The guards of the Eastern Palace were responsible for digging, and the eunuchs carried bamboo baskets to collect the sweet potatoes and weigh them aside.

After an hour, the sweet potatoes of one acre of land were harvested.

A total of 62 stones of sweet potatoes were harvested.

"Congratulations to Your Majesty! Long live the Tang Dynasty!" The ministers congratulated in unison after learning about the sweet potato yield per acre.

Li Shimin looked at the Minister of Revenue and solemnly reminded him: "The Ministry of Revenue must convey that the sweet potatoes and Zhenguan beans harvested in various prefectures this time. The people can keep half for themselves, and the rest will be purchased by the government and redistributed to the people as seeds for planting next year."

When the sweet potato and Zhenguan bean seeds were distributed before, the local governments had repeatedly told the people about this matter.

And the people who received the seeds were registered one by one, and it was expected that there would be no accidents.

Only in this way can the planting of sweet potatoes and Zhenguan beans be quickly popularized.

"Your Majesty!"

The new Minister of Revenue Liu Zhenghui respectfully accepted the order.

...