In the farmhouse outside the city, Zhao Kuo was taking his concubine to plant cotton in the fields with Chen Xin and others. Bin and Zhao Zheng were running around in the fields, extremely excited.
Zhao Zheng had never seen such a scene in the palace since he was a child, and it felt very fresh. Bin had seen it often before, but after entering the palace, he had no chance.
Po Nu lay in his mother's arms and looked around curiously.
Tian Shu's belly swelled slightly, and her face was filled with a happy smile.
Zhao Kuo's harem was relatively stable, mainly because in this era there was no ban on women leaving the palace, and Zhao Kuo was even more lenient towards them, allowing them to do what they wanted.
Everyone has something to do, so they won't think about the palace fight all day long.
Of course, some jealousy is inevitable, but as long as it's not too much, Zhao Kuo won't care.
Nowadays, the farmers are no longer the weaklings they used to be. In the past two years, Zhao Kuo has been filling the farmhouses with people. The number of farmers has increased from double digits to triple digits. The farmland is full of busy young people.
There was no way, the old men from the farm were really good, but they were too old and might die at some point. Zhao Kuo had to be prepared and train more talents to keep as backup.
This is just one of the experimental fields. Millet, millet, rice, wheat, soybeans, hemp... Each food crop and some fruits and vegetables have dedicated personnel responsible for research.
The farmhouse is also the transportation base for fresh fruits and vegetables every day in the palace...
In addition to seasonal fruits and vegetables, there are also off-season ones, such as peaches and leeks that appear during the court meeting...
Zhao Kuo, who couldn't finish the meal, sent it to the ministers in the capital. Although Zhao Kuo himself didn't feel anything, the ministers were very excited after receiving it.
Especially every time Zhao Kuo sent them fruits and vegetables that were not available in the season, some ministers were reluctant to eat them and kept them at home, where they all rotted.
Even though Zhao Kuo sent people to tell them that these were just ordinary fruits and the ones grown by farmers were not fairy peaches, some people just didn't believe it...
In fact, not to mention them, even the farmers were very surprised when they first saw it, and then gradually accepted it.
It stands to reason that during the spring plowing season every year, the king would personally plow an acre of land, while the queen and later queens would personally pick mulberries and feed silkworms to show that the country valued mulberry farming and also symbolized the tradition of men plowing and women weaving.
Then the literati and poets wrote some splendid articles to promote the monarch's benevolence, virtue and hard work, and at the same time improve his own popularity. This has been the case since ancient times, and Zhao State is no exception.
But this time Zhao Kuo was not planting millet or broomcorn millet, but cotton.
"When can it be promoted?" Zhao Kuo put a cotton seed into the dug hole, then used his feet to smooth the soil and bury the seed. Qinghe followed behind and watered the seed.
"It will be almost this time next year. There are still a few seeds and cannot be wasted. In two years, cotton will be planted all over the country. However, it is difficult to remove cotton seeds. We can only manually pick them out one by one, which is time-consuming and laborious.
." Chen Xin cupped his hands and said.
"I asked the craftsmen to think of a way to see if they could use machinery instead of manual seed removal." Zhao Kuo thought for a moment and said.
In later generations, machines were used to deseed cotton, but he didn't know the specific principle, so he left it to the craftsmen.
In addition, he remembered that cotton seeds can also extract oil, and the oil yield rate is not low, which can relieve the pressure on soybeans to a certain extent.
Of course, there are also hemp seeds that can be used to extract oil.
Hemp had a very, very high status in ancient times, tied with mulberry. There was no cotton before. Although commoners raised silkworms and weaved cloth, they could not afford to wear silk themselves, so they had to sell it all to the nobles.
In some places, silk and satin are directly counted as taxes, and how many pieces of silk and satin must be turned in every year.
This is exactly what the saying goes, "Those who are covered with silkworms are not sericulture farmers."
They only wear clothes made of linen.
Countries in the Central Plains even have special mulberry fields and hemp fields, and there are also ponds for retting hemp outside the city.
Because the hemp must be soaked until only the crude fiber is left before it can be woven.
In addition, hemp is also edible, and one version of the grain contains hemp.
In addition, there is also a raw material for weaving called kudzu, but kudzu is a wild vine and does not need to be specially cultivated.
When cotton becomes popular, the status of linen will inevitably decline significantly. Whether it is warmth retention or comfort, cotton is much better than rough linen.
Including silk will also be affected, but not too much, because the comfort of silk is irreplaceable, and the tulle made of silk worn by the nobles in summer will be cooler.
"It would be great if we could use machinery to remove seeds." Chen Xin said happily.
"Maybe one day in the future, we can directly use machinery to plow the land, and we can plow hundreds of acres of land in one day." Zhao Kuo said with a smile.
"Your Majesty, don't be ridiculous. Even a majestic cow can't plow five acres of land in a day. What kind of machinery can plow hundreds of acres of land?" Chen Xin waved his hand and found a wooden stake to sit down. At his age, according to the
Etiquette and laws are all supported by the state, and there is no need to bow when you see the king.
"Hahaha, I was just joking." Zhao Kuo laughed.
"Father, look." At this time, Zhao Zheng ran over from a distance, holding Zhao Kuo's thigh with one hand and grabbing an earthworm with the other, trying to pass it to Zhao Kuo.
Zhao Ji saw this and quickly knocked the earthworms out of Zhao Zheng's hand.
Zhao Zheng did not cry, picked up earthworms from the ground, ran to Chen Xin, and said crisply: "Grandpa, what is this?"
"Hahaha, these are earthworms, they can loosen the soil, just like we cultivate the land." Chen Xin was stunned for a moment, then laughed.
"Can you eat it?" Zhao Zheng raised his little face and looked at Chen Xin expectantly. He raised the earthworm in his right hand high, as if he wanted to put it in his mouth.
"Its belly is full of mud, do you want to eat mud?" Chen Xin couldn't help but laugh.
"No, mud is not delicious at all." Zhao Zheng shook his head, threw the earthworms to the ground, and ran back to Zhao Kuo.
"Are you hungry?" Zhao Kuo picked up Zhao Zheng and asked.
"Not hungry." Zhao Zheng shook his head.
"Then why do you suddenly want to eat...earthworms?" Zhao Kuo asked. Historically, the First Emperor was not a foodie!
"Didn't my father tell those chefs that there is nothing that cannot be eaten? If it is not poisonous, find a way to make it delicious. If it is poisonous, find a way to make it non-toxic. You must try more and dare to try?" Zhao Zheng blinked his eyes, cute.
Look at Zhao Kuo.
Zhao Kuo was stunned for a moment, and three black lines suddenly appeared on his forehead. He looked at Zhao Zheng with a speechless expression. He was led astray by himself!
When Chen Xin heard this, a smile suddenly appeared on his face. There has been a rumor in Handan that King Zhao raised a lot of cooks in order to study delicious food, and even opened a cook school. He had always thought it was a joke, and there must be something different about opening a cook school.
The reason, I didn’t expect that it was really just to study delicious food.
No wonder new dishes have been constantly coming out of the palace in the past two years.
Even the farm disciples who were farming in the distance had uncontrollable smiles on their faces. They didn't expect that the monarch they had always admired would be like this.