What else are you looking at?
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Author's Note: Zhu Ci: I'll show you a real treasure! A little kitty jumping and leading the way. jpg
Next update at 6:00 PM~
Chapter 223
Fu suppressed his curiosity and waited for Zhu Ci to change into a new set of clothes, then followed him all the way to the imperial manor in the outskirts.
Before they entered the imperial manor, Jiang Quan walked over, bowed, said, "Greetings, Your Majesty."
Seeing the heavy security of the imperial manor and how the Little Emperor had even arranged for Jiang Quan to come, Fu saw that there must be a great secret here.
He did not speak to ask, he only cast a glance.
The so-called imperial manor was actually no different from a small village; the farmers hired by the Little Emperor lived within the manor and rarely went outside.
This imperial manor had been presented by Fu back then, so he still had some impression of it, but upon seeing it today, he found that it seemed vastly different from before.
Setting aside everything else, there were many more buildings; some were single-story houses, but there were also two three-story buildings.
Zhu Ci saw his gaze linger on those three or four-story buildings and said with a slight smile, "That is the greenhouse I newly built."
A greenhouse.. Fu was somewhat puzzled: "What is His Majesty researching?"
A Dashan Hall in the palace, a Research Center outside, yet that is not enough—he even wants to set up a greenhouse on the imperial farm?
Zhu Ci did not answer, but simply led Fu all the way to those two three-story buildings.
After entering the first floor, Zhu Ci pushed open the door with great familiarity.
Fu saw a patch of lush green leaves at a single glance. It was something that looked quite unfamiliar, he could not help but crouch down to examine it closely.
It should be a type of climbing plant; the vines appeared slender and soft, creeping and spreading across the ground. The stems were tender green with distinct nodes, the leaves grew alternately on both sides of the nodes, heart-shaped and deep green in color.
Fu observed it for a long while, confirming that he had not seen this kind of plant before, or rather, this kind of crop. After all, something that could cause His Majesty to go to such great lengths to cultivate it certainly wasn't an ordinary plant; it must be related to the people's livelihood.
After he stood up, he asked, "Your Majesty, what kind of grain is this?"
At present, the Great Ming is most lacking in grain, so the Little Emperor almost never chooses to cultivate vegetables or similar crops.
Zhu Ci said with his hands tucked into his sleeves, "Sweet potato."
"Sweet potato?" Fu was surprised for a moment.
Zhu Ci turned to take a look, immediately someone came forward carrying a tray of sweet potatoes.
The sweet potatoes of this era were not as large as those in later generations; they were generally spindle-shaped, with the largest being about the size of a fist and the smallest being roughly the thickness of a finger.
Fu picked up the sweet potato, examined it carefully, said, "My caravan did bring some back previously."
He put down the sweet potato and asked keenly, "Your Majesty, what is the yield of this crop?"
Zhu Ci said, "The yield per mu is approximately five to eight shi."
Fu rarely showed any sign of surprise.
Not for any other reason, but simply because this yield per mu was truly terrifying—nearly twice that of existing rice yields, three times that of wheat.
Of course, if compared to the improved rice, it certainly wouldn't exceed it by that much, but even so, it sounds truly shocking.
This thing has such a high yield per mu; why has it never appeared before?
Actually, what Fu wanted to ask was, since this thing has such a high yield per mu, why bother going through the trouble of improving rice and wheat? Why not just promote it directly?
Although he did not say it explicitly, Zhu Ci could tell what he wanted to ask just by looking at his expression. He explained patiently, "This thing loves warmth and hates the cold. Currently, it is only grown in small quantities in places like Fujian, it cannot be used as a staple grain. It can only serve as a supplementary food or coarse grain, used during times of famine."
The current varieties of sweet potato are even less cold-resistant than rice and wheat, so it wasn't easy for Zhu Ci to find them.
Even in places like Fujian, there are not many suitable locations for cultivation.
Fu Weiwai calmed down. For now, this thing didn't seem to have any special advantages. He thought for a moment and asked, "In that case, even if cold-resistant varieties are cultivated, it would still be difficult to promote them."
Who would be foolish enough to change their own family's rice and wheat fields into sweet potato fields?
Zhu Ci led him out while saying, "This thing has one advantage: it is drought-resistant and can grow in poor soil. It can be planted in mountain areas, sandy lands, even sloping terrain."
Fu immediately reacted, "So sweet potatoes don't need to compete with rice and wheat for fertile land at all."
"Correct. Now, come, let's take a look at this." Zhu Ci pushed open another door.
The crops in this room were vastly different from the previous ones; as soon as Fu walked in, he saw lush, green crops nearly as tall as a person.
As usual, he did not speak immediately, but instead took a careful look.
The stalks of this crop were relatively thin, the leaves bore some resemblance to sorghum, but they were shorter, thicker, wider. They seemed to have already begun to bear fruit, which were pointed at the top and rounded at the bottom; none of them were particularly large, measuring about five or six inches in length and roughly the size of a fist in thickness. Each was wrapped in a layer of husks, though they were very thin, faintly revealing the individual grains inside.
Fu stood there for a moment before turning to ask, "Your Majesty, is this wheat-maize?"
Zhu Ci was stunned for a moment before realizing that wheat-maize was the name used at this time. He nodded. "Yes, have you seen this stuff before?"
“The people below brought some back. This thing..” He hesitated for a moment. “Is the yield also very high?”
"The yield isn't particularly high, but it is equally resistant to cold and famine," Zhu Ci said.
Fu began to form a suspicion in his heart, he looked at Zhu Ci, asking, "Is Your Majesty preparing for famine in the North?"
Zhu Ci looked at the lush green expanse and said, "It is better to be prepared than to be caught off guard. After all, it might take one or two years, perhaps two or three years, or even longer to cultivate this."
Fu saw that Zhu Ci did not have the same lighthearted expression he had when cultivating rice before, asked, "Does Your Majesty not have high hopes for these two types of grain?"
Zhu Ci turned and left the conservatory, then sighed and said softly, "It's too different."
Fu immediately understood that Zhu Ci must be referring to how much they differed from his impression, he asked curiously, "What should they be like?"
Zhu Ci immediately said, "Sweet potatoes are actually quite alright; the difference isn't that obvious, they're just a bit larger, there are more varieties, the flavors are richer, the yield is higher. It's only the wheat-maize.."
He paused before saying melancholy, "In our place, we call it maize; I have never seen maize like this."
When the seeds and plants were first found, Zhu Ci's first reaction was that you all must be deceiving me.
However, the things found did indeed have a tiny bit of similarity to maize.
One could only say that after centuries of cultivation by future generations, it would be quite different from the original species.
Just as Fu Gang was about to speak words of comfort, Zhu Ci composed his emotions and said, "But it is also normal. By that time, they will have been cultivated and evolved for hundreds of years, so there will certainly be great changes. Let's take it slow; at least the current direction is correct."
If it weren't for Zhu Ci knowing that high-yield crops could serve as grain reserves, he probably wouldn't have thought of cultivating sweet potatoes and corn in his entire life.
Fu Qingsheng smiled as he listened to him, his eyes filled with uncontrollable affection and admiration.
The Little Emperor never stayed trapped in negative emotions for long; his inner strength was incredibly powerful, to the point that even Fu would occasionally draw strength from him.
As he thought about these things, he asked casually, "Your Majesty, what is this greenhouse over here?"
The expression on Zhu Ci's face instantly became even more melancholy than just now, he said, "There are potatoes in there."
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Author's Note: Zhu Ci: I thought the differences between the original seeds would be large, but I didn't expect them to be this huge! *Cat hugging a long sweet potato and sighing. jpg*
Next update tomorrow morning at six o'clock~
Chapter 224
Fu was somewhat surprised; Zhu Ci's expression looked even more conflicted than before.
After he followed Zhu Ci into the warming room, Zhu Ci didn't even give him time to examine the potatoes, instead had someone bring in a plate of round things.
The largest of those things were only about the size of an egg, while the smaller ones were not much larger than soybeans.
Zhu Ci picked one up and said, "This thing.. well, it's still in the experimental stage. Let's cultivate it as a novelty."
Cultivating it as a novelty?
Fu felt something wasn't quite right; from those two previous crops, it was evident that the crops the Little Emperor had brought were all high-yielding and had relatively low requirements for soil and celestial conditions, this one would certainly be the same.
Looking at these potatoes, he suddenly remembered something and said, "I remember these were once grown in Beijing."
However, even in Beijing, they were only grown in the imperial gardens or the private gardens of high-ranking officials, which shows that they were indeed cultivated as rare delicacies.
Zhu Ci replied, "Yes, the Prince of Ning mentioned this as well."
Prince of Ning, Zhu Ci, not only knew about it but had even eaten it; he simply knew nothing at all about how this thing was cultivated.
Fu put down the potato and asked, "Is this thing useless?"
Zhu Ci frowned and said, "The yield of this thing is even lower than wheat."
Not only were the fruits small, but they were also scarce; forget being inferior to wheat, they were even inferior to millet.
In Zhu Ci's memory, the yield of potatoes was very high.
He did not have particularly high expectations for the current potato yield, but it should at least be on par with the yields of wheat and rice, right? Otherwise, there would be no value in cultivating it.
Especially since the current potatoes are completely unable to adapt to high temperatures; according to experiments, once the temperature exceeds thirty degrees, their growth stops entirely, making it very difficult to cultivate them in the south.
Even during the Little Ice Age, summer temperatures in the south were not particularly low; it still got quite hot.
As a result, the areas in the south where potatoes were cultivated were reduced to only high-altitude regions.
It was just that due to the continuous warfare in recent years, the land was already vast and sparsely populated, Zhu Ci also strictly controlled the land, employing various means to rigorously prevent land annexation.
It cannot be said that there are none at all, but it has indeed curbed some.
In this situation, besides those who already lived in high-altitude areas, who would bother to grow this for no reason?
And most of those people belonged to ethnic minorities, they showed a slight hint of defiance toward the Emperor's rule.
Zhu Ci currently has no hands free to deal with them. If he were to truly manage them, he might have to first send troops to subdue them and then implement a series of resettlement policies, which would consume a significant amount of manpower and resources. Where would he find the money for that right now?
Fu heard Zhu Ci's explanation and only then realized why the Little Emperor had such a melancholy expression on his face.
He also had little experience in this matter and could only offer consolation, saying, "With the sweet potato and wheat-maize available now, it is already sufficient; His Majesty need not worry too much."
Zhu Ci turned his head, smiled at him, said, "I know."
Nothing in this world is perfect to begin with. He arrived with the knowledge of future generations; being able to know which crops are suitable for cultivation and what direction their cultivation should take is already like having a cheat code, so asking for anything more seems inappropriate.