Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 488
Yuan Xi followed behind the maid with his head down, followed by the majestic Lu Lingqi. Compared with the two, Yuan Xi looked like a prisoner under escort.

The two went up to the small building, Mi Zhen was already waiting inside, bowed to the two and said: "I have met the envoy, Lord Pingyang."

Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi returned the gift, but Mi Zhen bowed again: "Brother broke the courtesy, please forgive me."

Yuan Xi hurriedly said: "It's okay, Zifang is also a straightforward person."

But Mi Zhen shook her head and said: "Although my brother is a subordinate of Liu Yuzhou, he is really unable to do many things, but the concubine is a woman, although she intends to persuade her, but she can't change my brother's behavior."

Seeing the two people's conversation, Lu Lingqi couldn't help asking curiously: "Why do you two speak so politely? Didn't you hear that Liu Yuzhou promised marriage to you two?"

As soon as these words came out, Yuan Xi and Mi Zhen almost lost their composure, Mi Zhen stared at Lu Lingqi sadly, Yuan Xi opened his mouth and made a mouth shape with a helpless expression.

You talk too much!

Mi Zhen was at a loss, after panicking for a while, she quickly took a deep breath, tried to calm down, and said: "Originally, the concubine should not meet the envoy alone, but now that the wife is present, the concubine is not considered a breach of etiquette."

"The reason why I have the audacity to visit the envoy is because I have something to discuss."

Yuan Xi said: "Girls don't need to worry."

Mi Zhen stood up, raised her hand and said: "Please move with me."

She walked in front, Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi looked at each other, followed behind Mi Zhen, and walked inside along the corridor.

There are quite a lot of rooms on the ground floor of this small building, walking around the corridor, Mi Zhen walked in front of a room, she pushed open the door, but there were several large willow boxes inside.

Mi Zhen walked to a box, raised her finger and said, "This is a special product brought back from Siam by the Mi family caravan."

"My concubine is in charge of several boats in the Mi family's caravan. Once Lord Zhen's mansion came to visit and talked about going to sea with my brother. My concubine heard from the sidelines that the envoy returned the ship to the South China Sea for business. I also learned that the envoy wanted A few things to look for."

"My concubine was quite interested after hearing about it, but the merchant ships of Mi's family were no more capable of sailing far than those of Zhen's family, and it was difficult to reach Tianzhu, so I decided to go to Siam for the next best thing."

"The sea-going ship just returned yesterday, and I found that among the goods brought back, there are a few things that may interest you, so I want to ask you to take a look."

After she finished speaking, she walked up, the box was already heavy, and it was extremely difficult to open, and Mi Zhen was slender and slender, so she failed to open it after several attempts. Lu Lingqi saw her and hurried up to help, and the two of them worked together to remove the lids of the boxes one by one. Open it.

After several boxes were opened one by one, Lu Lingqi was fine, but Mi Zhen was tired and out of breath. When Lu Lingqi saw her, she turned her head and complained to Yuan Xi, "You don't look at your eyes, shouldn't you do this kind of heavy work?" ?”

But Yuan Xi didn't speak. Mi Zhen thought that Yuan Xi couldn't hold back, and just wanted to smooth things over, but she saw Yuan Xi staring at her. There is a box behind him.

Inside the several boxes, some were spices, some were ornaments, but this box was different, the things inside were full of tiny black particles.

Mi Zhen didn't know what it was, but she roughly guessed that it should be the seed of some kind of crop, and it looked very strange, smaller than sesame, oval in shape, brown in color, black in the outer skin, with The white and off-white fluff is completely different from ordinary crop seeds.

Yuan Xi took a few steps forward in a daze, stretched out his hand towards the box, picked up a few seeds, retracted his slightly trembling fingers, and put them in front of his eyes for a closer look.

Seeing Yuan Xi's appearance, Mi Zhen was at a loss, and thought to herself, could this be the most precious thing in the several boxes?
Looking mediocre, how can it be more expensive than spices and accessories?
Yuan Xi gently put the seeds back, staring at the box in a daze.

After a while, he suddenly laughed.

He laughed so happily that there was some moisture in the corners of his eyes.

Lu Lingqi and Mi Zhen looked at each other in dismay, thinking that Yuan Xi must have been bewitched by something, right?
Yuan Xi suddenly reached out and grabbed Mi Zhen. The two women froze, and the next moment Yuan Xi had already lifted Mi Zhen high and turned around in a circle.

Lu Lingqi was dumbfounded, what's going on?
Mi Zhen's mind went blank, she broke Yuan Xi's arm, and said in embarrassment, "Put me down quickly!"

Yuan Xi let out a cry, and then realized that she had lost her composure, and quickly put Mi Zhen down, and took a step back, with an extremely embarrassing expression on her face.

Seeing that Mi Zhen was about to cry, he quickly lowered his head and apologized: "I lost my temper!"

With a slap, Yuan Xi fell down involuntarily, but it was Lu Lingqi who kicked him in the crook of the leg from behind, and then shouted: "Are you out of your mind?"

"Quickly make amends to Miss Mi's family!"

Yuan Xi also knew that he had made a big mistake, so he quickly bowed down to Mi Zhen and apologized.

Mi Zhen was ashamed and angry, but seeing the other party like this, she couldn't say anything, so she said in a low voice, "Get up first."

After hearing this, Lu Lingqi lifted Yuan Xi up and said to Mi Zhen: "I'm afraid this stupid man has a wrong set of muscles in his brain. Don't be as knowledgeable as him."

Mi Zhen covered her neckline and said in a low voice: "I don't mind being a concubine."

All three of them felt the atmosphere was awkward, and it was Lu Lingqi who said, "Why does this look so similar to the one that was ruined by the Zhen family caravan yesterday?"

Yuan Xi couldn't hide the joy in his heart, picked up a handful of seeds, and put them in front of the two of them, "That's right, these are the cotton seeds I want the most!"

He thought to himself that he was really stupid. It is true that cotton was passed down from Tianzhu in later generations, but it was also grown in Siam during the same period!
Although there are some differences between the two varieties, in the final analysis, they must be planted under the climate and soil conditions of the Central Plains, and slowly evolve into the most suitable plants for the local conditions.

As a cash crop, cotton has an extremely terrifying advantage, that is, it is extremely adaptable!
As long as there is sufficient light, it can be grown from low-latitude Hainan to high-latitude Youzhou, from acidic soil to neutral to alkaline.

Its disadvantage is that the output is low, and it needs to open up a large area of ​​land for large-scale planting, which does not constitute an obstacle at the end of the Han Dynasty when the population is withered and there is no shortage of fields.

Although it may occupy part of the cultivated land, if it is planted on a large scale, it will far surpass hemp and silk in terms of land utilization and practicality.

Of course, there are many problems to be solved. For example, the one-stop technology of removing seeds after harvesting cotton, cotton spinning, spinning, and weaving cannot be perfected in a short period of time.

Even the initial harvest of these cottonseeds may not be good, and the harvest may fail for many years, and then in the process of continuous breeding, I do not know how many generations it will take to find suitable plants.

But everything is difficult at the beginning, at least the seeds are now available, otherwise, according to the high risk at sea, maybe a few more trips to the Nanyang sea route may not be successful.

Now that the sowing time can be advanced, it means that the people in the Central Plains may wear cotton products a few years earlier in the future. Save yourself from death in the freezing cold!

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi couldn't restrain the excitement in his heart, and bowed deeply to Mi Zhen: "Although the girl may have acted unintentionally this time, in the future, it is likely to save thousands of lives."

"This is an act of utilitarianism. Xi deeply feels the girl's great virtue and pays homage to the people of the world."

Seeing Yuan Xi's solemnity, Mi Zhen asked in confusion, "This thing called cotton is really so powerful?"

"The Mi family caravan has also heard about things, and occasionally saw a few cotton products, but they haven't seen much beyond linen and silk."

Yuan Xi took out a cotton boll from his bosom, handed it to Mi Zhen, and said, "The warmth retention of this thing is unmatched by other crops."

"In this state, stuffing it directly into the bedding is already much better than silk and linen."

"Today's quilts, poor people fill them with broken threads, poplar catkins, and even straw."

"The rich use feathers from chickens and ducks, but they are actually nothing like that."

"The reason why the cotton cloth from the place of origin is poor is that the textile technology has not kept up."

He talked about the rise, and began to talk about the future prospects from cotton planting to weaving. Mi Zhen took the cotton bolls from Yuan Xi's hands, and played with them while listening.

Based on her keen sense of smell after years of inspecting goods, she quickly judged that if Yuan Xi's words were true, then this so-called cotton cloth was definitely more widely used than linen and silk!
Seeing Yuan Xi's excited face, she felt genuinely happy for some reason.

And the other party is not happy because of the profit of cotton, but thinks that in the future, everyone can improve their clothes and protect them from the severe cold. They really have a heart for the world!
Mi Zhen felt that the warmth from the opponent's palm just now remained under her armpit, and her face blushed again.

One was listening carefully, and the other was speaking enthusiastically. The atmosphere gradually became ambiguous. It wasn't until Lu Lingqi yawned out of boredom that the two suddenly came back to their senses.

Seeing this, Lu Lingqi waved her hands and said, "I'm fine, you guys continue."

No matter how thick-skinned Yuan Xi was, he couldn't go on talking. He said to Mi Zhen, "This box of seeds means a lot to me, and I'm willing to pay a lot of money to buy it."

Mi Zhen shook her head and said: "This thing is useless in the hands of a concubine, and I don't know how to plant it, so I will give it to the envoy."

"The concubine feels that only in the hands of the envoy can it play a role."

Yuan Xi quickly thanked her, and was thinking about how to compensate Mi Zhen, when Lu Lingqi laughed and said, "It's just a dowry."

As soon as these words came out, Mi Zhen and Yuan Xi were extremely embarrassed, and Yuan Xi gave Lu Lingqi a hard look.

You talk too much!

Seeing that it was getting late outside, Yuan Xi bid farewell to Mi Zhen, and together with Lu Lingqi, pushed the box to the door, and asked Sun Li to lead the carriage to carry the box up.

He bid farewell to Mi Zhen: "Xi will definitely repay the girl's love this time."

Before Mi Zhen could speak, she saw a few soldiers rushing in from outside the Mi Mansion, shouting: "General Guan has an order to order Mi Mansion Lord to immediately mobilize all the soldiers and horses in the city!"

(End of this chapter)