Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1274
Last year, in 1654 A.D., many major events happened, among which the fall of You Yiqing shocked the world the most.

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Jin became the only opponent of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also the next country that the Ming Dynasty would inevitably conquer in the future.

Ever since Qin Huang swept Liuhe and unified the world, the entire Chinese nation has planted the gene of great unification, so everyone in Jin Kingdom knows that the final battle will come sooner or later.

This year, the Ming Dynasty attacked Mongolia in the north and conquered the Yiyi in the south, which solved the two hidden dangers that restrained the hands and feet, and the state of Jin became even more nervous.

In order to find out when the Ming Dynasty would attack and the state of its war preparations, Jin Guo spent a large amount of money, manpower and material resources to spy on the Ming Dynasty's intelligence.

Sichuan, as an important direction for the Ming army to go north to Hanzhong and attack the Kingdom of Jin, was also the top priority of the Kingdom of Jin's spying.

At the end of last year, the Jinniu Road Plank Road, which was once burned by Wu Sangui, was repaired by the Sichuan government with great efforts. The connection between Sichuan and Hanzhong became smooth again, and subsequently brought business travel between the two countries.

Although it is stated that the DPRK prohibits the delivery of strategic materials such as grain and refined iron to the Kingdom of Jin, other items are not prohibited, and the two sides still have commercial exchanges.

Especially the population of Hanzhong, most of them moved from northern Sichuan, they are inextricably linked with Sichuan, although the two countries are hostile, but the non-governmental connection has not been cut off.

Jin Guo's secret agents often disguised themselves as business travelers and went to Sichuan and other places to spy on information. The Ming Dynasty also sent a large number of personnel to infiltrate Jin Guo.

In the territory of Baoning Prefecture in the north of Sichuan, most of the population here was relocated by Wu Sangui. Later, the Sichuan chief envoy moved some from southern and eastern Sichuan. In addition, the government persuaded some chieftains to go down the mountain to farm, so the population of Guangyuan has been increased. A certain recovery.

At this time, in the fields of Guangyuan, officials of the government were guiding the people to harvest sweet potatoes, sow corn and potatoes.

A few years ago, after Wang Yan discovered that a large number of sweet potatoes were planted in Fujian, which reduced Fujian's dependence on foreign provinces for food, he vigorously promoted the planting of sweet potatoes in the mountainous areas of the southwest, and provided a lot of coarse grains for the Ming Dynasty. For the Ming Dynasty, it was no longer a particularly serious problem.

Food has always been the foundation of the stability of the dynasty. After the success of sweet potato promotion, Wang Yan issued a decree to posthumously make Chen Zhenlong, a businessman from Changle County who brought sweet potatoes to Fujian, the count. Both great honors.

Sweet potatoes have been introduced to China for a long time, and many officials have even eaten sweet potatoes, but these people who are vegetarians have never thought of going to the fields to have a look. Draw yourself a few mouths.

Not long after the imperial court decreed the posthumous title, officials in Fujian discovered dryland crops such as corn and potatoes in the name of presenting auspiciousness.

Auspiciousness is a superstition of the people below, but as a ruler, he enjoys it very much. This represents the heaven's approval of the ruler, represents the prosperity of the country and the people, and the prosperity of the dynasty.

Wang Yan enjoyed this feeling very much. He rewarded those who donated again, and then ordered people to try planting. The results were all good, and then the government let the government promote it among the people.

The emergence of these crops has allowed many dry lands that could not be cultivated to produce food.

Over the years in the Ming Dynasty, the warehouse reserves have increased significantly. Even if a large-scale famine occurs in a certain place, they are still able to provide relief.

As early as when sweet potatoes were popularized, the Ming Dynasty ordered that no one should be allowed to bring sweet potatoes into the north. Later, corn and potatoes were also included in the list of prohibited shipments.

Once it is found at each pass that someone is taking it to the Kingdom of Jin privately, the officers and soldiers will lock it up immediately, and they can be executed after interrogation.

This punishment can be said to be extremely heavy and has a strong deterrent effect, but people die for money and birds for food. In the past two years, there are still not a few people who have died because of this.

In fact, at the beginning of the promotion of sweet potatoes in the Ming Dynasty, the secret agents of the Qing court got the news, but Dorgon was more concerned about the firearms of the Ming Dynasty, so he did not pay attention to this matter.

Jin Guo didn't get any news about this before, but after the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a large number of spies from the Qing court turned to work for Da Jin, and many things that were not valued by the Qing court were uncovered by Jin Guo.

Of course, Jin Guo paid attention to this piece of information mainly because Jin Guo's food production had reached a bottleneck.

Although the Kingdom of Jin vigorously opened up wasteland and cultivated fields, there was not much land that the Kingdom of Jin could cultivate, and the yield of wheat per mu was also very limited.

The food production of the whole country of Jin is barely self-sufficient, which has strangled the lifeblood of the development of the country of Jin.

Now the Kingdom of Jin adopts the same method of farming as Wei and Wu, and there are more than 60 military households. This number seems to be huge, and the number of troops is large, but this combination of soldiers and farmers, farming more land than farmers and soldiers fighting, the combat power is real Worrying.

This kind of peasants and soldiers is like a mob in front of an elite professional army.

If the Kingdom of Jin wants to train more elite soldiers, it must let farmers and soldiers out of production. However, due to the limitation of food production, especially the land, it is impossible for the Kingdom of Jin to have too much food to train elite soldiers who are out of production, and it is impossible to have too many soldiers. Many people, go to mine, engage in business.

The food problem limited the development of the Jin Kingdom, and when the Jin Kingdom knew that the Ming Dynasty had these high-yield crops that could be grown on dry land, how could it not be tempted?
At this time, in the territory of Guangyuan, many people wearing bamboo hats could be seen reclaiming dry land and harvesting fruits.

Fu Youchun and Fu Younian, disguised as little wounders, led two mules laden with goods, and walked slowly on the road, looking at the people working on both sides of the road from time to time.

The two saw that they followed the sweet potato vines, dug up red and fat sweet potatoes from the ground from time to time, and then transported them to the side of the road in a frame. They piled up a lot in a short while, and they couldn't help but exchanged glances.

At this time, the two led the mule and walked along the road to an old man who was sitting on the side of the road, fanning the wind with a bamboo hat, resting.

Fu Youchun winked at Fu Younian, and Fu Younian gave Fu Youchun the rope for the mule and horse, then sat down beside the old man, and said with a smile, "Old man, this year's harvest is good!"

"It's not bad. For this season, it's enough for the second half of the year." The old man fanned the air.

"This is the sweet potato. The yield is so high. It must be very troublesome to grow!" Fu Younian said as he took out a handful of jujubes from his pocket and handed them to the old man, "Try it, it's so sweet!" .”

The old man looked up at him, and couldn't help asking, "Your accent seems to be from our Boryeong Province area. Don't you know this sweet potato?"

In order to come to Sichuan to spy on information, Fu Younian and Fuchun stayed in Hanzhong for three months, learning the dialect of the Baoning area.

Fu Younian sighed, "I am indeed from Baoning, but I was forcibly moved to Hanzhong by the Jin Army, and I haven't returned to Baoning for several days. This time I went to Chengdu to buy some Shu brocades and do some business. too understanding."

Hearing what he said, the old man took the jujubes, didn't eat them himself, and put them all in his arms, then suddenly stood up, took out two sweet potatoes from the pile of sweet potatoes in front of him, wiped the mud with his hands, and handed them to him. Fu Younian said: "The court has a rule that this food is not allowed to be transported to the north, I guess you have never eaten it, come on, you should try it too, it's sweet."

Fu Younian took it, threw the other one to Fu Youchun, wiped it twice on his clothes, and bit it down, it was very sweet, he couldn't help admiring repeatedly: "It's delicious, so sweet!"

Seeing his appearance, the old man smiled, "Sweet, the old man also thought it was very sweet when he ate it for the first time. In fact, he eats it better when he cooks it or bakes it. It's easy to hiccup when he eats it raw. Haha..."

"This is really a good thing, but it's a pity that it can't be brought to the Kingdom of Jin." Fu Younian sighed.

The old man said with a smile: "It's easy to grow. You just need to cut it into pieces and put it in the soil to germinate. The vines that grow can also be used as seedlings. As long as they are not soaked in water, they can live. The yield per mu It’s also high, it’s really an excellent thing. The court made great efforts to get it, so naturally it can’t be given to the Kingdom of Jin, or the traitors of Wu will have enough to eat, and they will harm us again!”

Fu Younian smiled apologetically, "This thing is simply a treasure. It can be grown on dry land. How much grain will there be?"

The old man was excited, and continued: "You don't know yet, last year there was auspiciousness in Fujian, and God gave us two kinds of crops in the Ming Dynasty. One is called potatoes, which are grown in the same way as sweet potatoes, and the other is called bracts. It is said that a grain of rice is as big as a bean, and they are all golden..."

Fu Younian had set up a business in Nanjing, and the businessman could speak. He talked with the old man for a while, and after a while, he learned how to plant the sweet potatoes, what to pay attention to, and the things about the potatoes and bracts. It's clear.

Sweet potatoes, bracts, and potatoes can all be bought in the market. The Ming Dynasty did not prohibit their circulation in the market. People can still sell them for money, but people are not allowed to bring them north.

In fact, this kind of prohibition can only be delayed for a while, but for the Ming Dynasty, if it is delayed for a while, the gap between the Jin Kingdom and the Ming Dynasty will change a lot, so it must be strictly prohibited.

It was not difficult for the spies of the Kingdom of Jin to obtain these crops in the Ming Dynasty. What was difficult was how to transport them out and how to plant them. They needed to know the planting methods and precautions in order to ensure that the crops they brought back could germinate and be promoted. .

Fu Younian chatted with the old man for a while, until he couldn't find any useful information, then he got up and left, and went north with Fu Youchun.

In the next few days, the two wandered around the countryside, looking for opportunities to talk with farmers, and after learning more about the technology, the two arrived outside Jianmen Pass, ready to leave.

In order to get out of the customs, Fu Younian weaved the rattan of sweet potatoes into the loading frame. Fu Youchun felt a little disgusted. He wrapped a few grains of corn from Chengdu in silk, and then gritted his teeth and stuffed them into his buttocks. Start preparing for exit.

The two were afraid of making a mistake, so they didn't go together, lest the whole army be wiped out, they queued up to leave the customs separately, but it turned out that Fu Younian was unlucky and was really found out...
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(End of this chapter)