Diqin Designer

Chapter 162 Is the Great Qin a place blessed by nature?

Before they could figure it out themselves, Li Nian immediately told them what was wrong and suppressed the enthusiasm that had just arisen in the hearts of the ministers.

He said: "Your Majesty and everyone, although there is a lot of silver, it cannot be eaten or worn. Even if so much silver is brought back, it will not make Daqin rich and strong immediately, and it will not enable everyone in Daqin to eat and wear clothes."

The enthusiasm of the ministers faded away immediately. They were all smart people and they understood at once that if there were not enough clothes made and not enough food grown in the world, it would be useless to have silver in hand. You couldn't eat silver when you were hungry and wear silver when you were cold.

But hearing about such a huge amount of silver is indeed exciting. This kind of enthusiasm among the people has also occurred in a certain Western country.

This country once plundered a large amount of silver, thinking that it could rely on the silver to make the country rich and the people strong and prosperous forever. However, the opposite happened and it eventually declined.

Because this country has not yet recovered from the enthusiasm of suddenly having mines, it thinks that since it has silver in its hands, it does not need to produce anything on its own and can just buy various things from other countries. Anyway, men with money are arrogant.

The huge amount of silver did make the country prosperous for a time, but the country had no industry of its own and no one was engaged in production. It seemed strong and wealthy, but in fact it was just a false prosperity, and the falsehood would eventually be exposed by the truth one day.

It is totally not as clear as what the ancient Chinese thought, "If you have food in your hands, you will not be worried", rather than "If you have money in your hands, you will not be worried", unless the money can be used directly for food and clothing.

"Besides, even if we want to get the silver back from here, we have to rely on the navy."

Only then did everyone notice that the place Li Nian was pointing to was in the lower right corner of the map, which was far away from Daqin and spanned many Daqin's waters.

Can’t we travel by land?

With this idea in mind, everyone looked at the map carefully again. If they wanted to go there by land, the detour would be even longer than going by sea, and the land route did not seem to be completely connected. There was a gap between Shenzhou and Xuanzhou.

It looks like just a small gap on this map, but in reality, it is probably an extremely wide strait, and there are mountains, rivers, swamps, dense forests, etc. on the land. If you really want to go there by land, the actual distance you have to go is much farther than what you see on the map.

If you really want to get the hundreds of millions of pounds of silver from that place, you either have to fly there or go from the sea. What Li Nian said is true.

The ministers began to seriously consider Li Nian's proposal to establish an independent navy and build a naval school. If other parts of the world also have such high-quality resources, and these places are easier to reach by sea, they really need to build a strong navy.

The ministers of the Qin Dynasty understood one thing very well: if they did not take the high-quality resources in these places, they would be taken away by other countries. If they let others take them away, they might very likely use them to harm themselves in the future. So it was better to keep them in their own hands.

"Li Nian said that many interests in the next hundred years, or even a hundred years later, will require the navy. This is not a lie, but the truth. I have heard that the ancient sages could predict a hundred years of events, but I think it is an exaggeration. This Li Nian may be the sage in the ancient times!" Many ministers thought secretly.

Li Nian used the stick to point at Yingzhou in the lower right corner and said, "The iron ore here is also very rich. There are several of the world's largest iron mines here. The largest iron mine is also here, with iron ore reserves of hundreds of trillions of kilograms."

The ministers' breathing quickened when they heard this. This number was much larger than silver. At the same time, they had a thought in their minds: Isn't our Great Qin really the Celestial Empire, blessed by nature? Why does it sound like this place called "Yingzhou" is truly blessed by nature?
Li Nian didn't know what they were thinking, so he circled Xuanzhou and Yingzhou with a wooden stick and said, "Not only silver mines, but also many other resources, such as crops that my Great Qin doesn't have: potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corn, cassava, cinchona trees, rubber trees..."

Speaking of potatoes, Li Nian thought of the potatoes he brought from modern times. After consulting many experienced farmers in Xianyang some time ago, Li Nian decided to wait until next spring to plant them. Li Nian mentioned several crops that the ministers had never heard of. The ministers guessed in their hearts: potatoes should be a kind of bean, corn should be rice like jade, rubber trees, sweet potatoes, cassava, tomatoes are hard to guess what they are, and cinchona trees, what a strange name.

Li Nian said: "Potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes and cassava are all crops that can be staple food. They have good yields and do not require high planting conditions. They can be grown in arid, cold and water-scarce areas."

Based on Li Nian's understanding of Daqin's current climate and environment, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, and cassava can definitely be grown in Daqin. He did not mention the specific yield, only said "the yield is not bad."

The reason why these high-yield crops of later generations have high yields is because they have been bred through generations and used chemical fertilizers. If they really went to America, what they brought back would be ancient varieties, and the yields would not be as high as those of later generations.

"Tomato is a vegetable and can also be eaten as a fruit. The bark of the cinchona tree is a medicine that is particularly effective against malaria and colds."

Hearing this, many ministers looked serious. Malaria is a notoriously difficult disease to cure, and many people die from it every year. There has been no particularly effective medicine.

But today this person said that the bark of the cinchona tree can cure malaria and colds. If it is true, how many lives can be saved?

Not only that, the miasma in the south often causes malaria and colds. That is to say, if we get this thing, we will no longer have to worry about miasma and can vigorously cultivate the land in the south.

People have long wanted to develop the rich and fertile land in the south, but there is a lot of miasma in the south, which makes people sick and difficult to treat, so it has been left there.

But if the poisonous miasma can be solved, wouldn't it be possible to open up the south on a large scale? With the rich water and soil in the south, it will surely become a land of fish and rice for the Qin Dynasty.

Noticing the change in the ministers' eyes, Li Nian deliberately added, "Not only is cinchona bark effective in treating malaria and colds, but Artemisia argyi can also treat malaria and colds, and the effect is no worse than cinchona bark."

We need to teach the doctors of this era some medical knowledge that can be used in this era as soon as possible. I wonder when those doctors will be able to arrive in Xianyang?
Ying Zheng has already issued an order to summon doctors to Xianyang, but this is not an easy task: not only is there a shortage of doctors at that time, but also because summoning so many doctors to Xianyang will inevitably lead to a shortage of doctors in various places for a period of time, but people may get sick at any time. We cannot ignore the lives of patients in various places just to summon doctors.

Therefore, according to Li Nian’s proposal, they should first investigate and understand the medical conditions in various places, and then select a group of doctors with confirmed medical skills to go to Xianyang.

Hearing Li Nian's words, Chun Yuyue smiled and said, "It's okay, it's okay. If they are all effective, then just take them back!"

The other ministers also nodded. Only children would do multiple-choice questions. Adults would of course have to use both cinchona and wormwood. If one doesn’t work, they can always use the other one. It’s safer!

Li Nian continued, "The rubber tree will be used in the future development of our Great Qin. It is very important!"

Unless the Qin Dynasty develops along a different civilization path, it will be impossible to avoid oil, rubber and other things. But with him around, it is estimated that the Qin Dynasty in this world will not be able to take another path and will follow the same technological path as the future generation from which he came.

(End of this chapter)