"Originally, I planned to count on these potatoes to save my life, but now they are no longer needed. His Majesty sent some food, plus what is available in the city, it will last for more than ten days. Since it is no longer needed, there is no need to expose it.
Come on, I have a feeling that something big will happen sooner or later."
"Ah?" Li Siwen was worried when he heard this. He turned around and glanced at Dugu Jiu on the pavilion. Seeing that he had no intention of speaking, he hesitated and whispered: "Brother, I, I seem to have done something wrong.
thing."
"Of course you did it wrong!"
"Ah?" Li Siwen was shocked and said, "You know everything? Did Xiaojiu tell you?"
"Of course," Li Mu pulled out another piece of dried meat and said, "Do you know that if you left Dingxiang without His Majesty's orders, you violated the king's law?"
"Oh, brother, just scare me." Li Siwen didn't take this matter seriously and said sophistry: "Your Majesty said that he didn't have any will not to let me return to Chang'an, but he didn't say that he wouldn't let me return to Luoyang. Besides,
Yes, I asked the Protector for permission, and the Protector said it’s okay, won’t I be back now?”
"Dadu protector?" Li Mu looked up and said, "Prince of Hejian County?"
"Who else could it be!" Li Siwen said depressedly: "Originally, Dingxiang was our brother's territory, but as soon as the guardian arrived, my official office became his official office, my mansion became his mansion, and even my
All the soldiers in the government have become his subordinates." Li Siwen was about to cry and said: "I came back this time just to tell you this. Brother, this is not okay. The country we have conquered will be given away to others.
La!"
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Li Mu glared at Li Siwen and said, "Which one is your kingdom? They are all His Majesty's kingdom. How old are you, and you don't even have a gatekeeper?"
"Oh," Li Siwen held his mouth and muttered reluctantly: "I always feel that we can't say that. The city was defended by the two of us, right? After the city was destroyed, we were the ones who rebuilt it, right? I'm so busy
For more than a year, he was collecting refugees and running a market, but as soon as the Metropolitan Protector arrived, everything became his, so where can I reason?"
Li Mu probably guessed what was going on. The Western Turks' military force was too strong. Dingxiang was facing the Western Turks' sphere of influence, so a famous general must be in charge. Li Siwen obviously couldn't do it. But the Protectorate was located in
Dingxiang was not just because of this, he was probably on guard against himself. Li Siwen was his younger brother and obeyed his words. There was no difference between his and his. If Li Siwen's military power was not taken away and he was allowed to develop,
There's no telling what Dingxiang will become in the future. If one day he becomes disloyal and attracts Turkic soldiers into the mirror, Chang'an will be faced with the embarrassment of once again breaking the bridge alliance. Therefore, under Li Shimin
At an angle, he had to do this to rest his head.
Li Mu sighed and said: "If you are a senior official, you will be killed. Who wants our brother to be a junior official? Let him go. Apart from government offices and government soldiers, what else has he done?"
"That's not true." Li Siwen was not a liar, and said truthfully: "I am still in charge of all matters inside and outside the city. Most of the guardians usually don't go out, and they don't care about any other matters."
Li Mu felt a little relieved. As expected, Li Xiaogong was still wise enough to protect himself, and still had an attitude of not participating or getting involved in matters that were not within his scope of responsibilities.
"Does he know about the potatoes?"
"You should know," Li Siwen thought for a moment and said, "After harvesting, I sent him a few bags. He said they were delicious and asked for another cart. I told him when I returned to Luoyang, could I
Do you know?"
"I mean, does he know about potato yields?"
"That shouldn't be known." Li Siwen said firmly: "Only I know the exact yield. Others, even potato farmers, only know that the yield is quite high."
Li Mu felt vaguely uneasy and asked again: "Does anyone else know about the potato?"
"Uh..." Li Mu finally got the point. Li Siwen smiled awkwardly and said, "That's exactly what I want to say. Brother, I, I used potatoes to trade dried meat with Turks."
Siwen pointed to the bag behind Li Mu and said, "That's the bag."
Li Mu rolled his eyes speechlessly: "You, you really can't hold two taels of sesame oil in your belly! What's the point of showing off your stink? Are you afraid that people won't know about something good?"
"Brother, we can't hide this." Li Siwen muttered aggrievedly: "When harvesting potatoes, the mountains and plains are full of people. It's impossible to hide it. No one is blind, so we can't silence them all.
?”
"Uh--" Li Mu thought about it, sighed, and said: "That's all, if you can't hide it, forget it. Dingxiang is far from here, and it will take a certain amount of time for the news to spread. But it seems that your Majesty can't hide it.
Live."
"What's there to hide?" Li Siwen said nonchalantly: "According to my wishes, we have to take credit. Brother, do you know how many kilograms of potatoes can be produced from one acre of land? More than two thousand kilograms!" Li Siwen compared.
He said 'yeah' and said: "What is this if not a fairy seed? The yield per mu is two thousand catties. With these potatoes, will anyone starve to death in the future?"
"Although potatoes have high yields, they are not omnipotent." Li Mu is far less optimistic than Li Siwen, because he clearly knows that even in the 21st century, in a world with potatoes, there will still be famine. The famous '
The Great Famine in Ireland was caused by the fact that only potatoes were grown locally. When potato diseases began to spread, the residents of Ireland fell into an unprecedented famine because there were no alternative crops to serve as food.
Although I don’t know if the potatoes produced by the system have the ability to be 'immune' to pathogens. But even if they do, after several generations of reproduction, the varieties will mutate. It is almost impossible not to get diseases. Root crops such as potatoes,
There is a natural drawback called 'recropping'. When potatoes are grown on a piece of land for several consecutive years, the potato yield will decrease and the land will become increasingly barren. After a few years, even if potatoes are no longer planted
, if other crops are planted, the yield will also be significantly reduced. In other words, it is very unrealistic to rely on growing potatoes to solve the food problem once and for all.
Moreover, repeated cropping will lead to the reduction of some beneficial microorganisms in the soil, and the potato's own resistance to stress will decrease. With the addition of several control chemicals all year round, the resistance to pests and diseases will increase. As time goes by, the dosage of pesticides will increase.
The bigger the potato, the more resistance to pests and diseases will increase, which leads to a strange phenomenon: more pesticides are used, but the effect is getting worse and worse, potato yields are getting smaller and smaller, and the income is getting lower and lower.
A series of questions followed.
There is no solution to this problem, so even in the era before Li Mu traveled through time, technology was already very advanced. Potato cultivation also adopted fallow intercropping. Potato cultivation in the Northeast often involves planting potatoes for one year, corn for one year, or intercropping for two years.
It is almost impossible to grow only potatoes.
Li Mu simply did not expect the Tang Dynasty to solve the problems that remained unsolved after thousands of years. Also, although potatoes have a high yield, they are not suitable for storage. If potatoes are stored like ordinary grains, they are guaranteed to sprout.
The potatoes are poisonous and cannot be eaten. To store potatoes on a large scale, you have to dig a cellar, which can only last for a year and a half at most, and cannot be stored for a long time. Therefore, although potatoes are good, they can only be the icing on the cake and cannot be stored for a long time.
Used as a staple food.
Another disadvantage of potatoes is that they are an imported product. In essence, they do not conform to the eating habits that the Chinese have developed over thousands of years. Therefore, even thousands of years later, potatoes will still be used as a dish on the Chinese dining table.
'Come to eat, almost no Chinese would regard potatoes as a staple food, replacing rice, like foreigners do.
Li Mu has high hopes for potatoes simply because they are easy to propagate and do not pick on the location. If it can be popularized, every household will plant some and eat it the same year it is grown, which will save a lot of food. It will serve as an auxiliary
role, rather than substitution.
Li Mu spent half an hour telling Li Siwen this. Li Siwen was dumbfounded, especially when Li Mu said that potato sprouts are poisonous, and he couldn't help but worry: "Brother, what should we do?
There are also a lot of potatoes in Xiang. We don’t have a cellar, and we don’t know they are poisonous. What if they sprout and kill people?”
"What kind of sprouts are there on the freshly harvested potatoes? Tomorrow you will send a message back to tell me about the cellar and the poisonous sprouts. Why is it too late? Also, I specifically told my brothers and sisters not to sell potatoes to the Turks anymore.
I’m here now, let’s keep him for now.”
"Brother, aren't we brothers with the Turks? Potatoes are not valuable, so stop being so stingy." Li Siwen couldn't bear to say, "Brother, I originally hated the Turks, but after more than a year of contact with them,
When I got down, I found that the Turkic people were just like our people. They were just looking for food and clothing. Winter was about to come, they had no food, and I don’t know how many people had to starve to death. We didn’t give them potatoes.
They are hungry and anxious, and we might have to fight, so why not give them some potatoes to eat, as long as they have food to eat, they will be honest."
Li Siwen's idea coincided with the idea of the rulers of the Song Dynasty hundreds of years later. In a certain sense, it is not wrong to exchange peace at a small price. But today's Tang Dynasty is not afraid of war.
When he is weak, Li Mu has no interest in compromising. Food can be given, but I have to give it to you after you have convinced yourself, so that you will remember my kindness, instead of me rushing to give it to you, just be content with it, the difference here is still
Very big.
"You just don't have a long memory. If you are not of my race, your heart will be different. You look pitiful and I look pitiful. But when they knock on the door, they won't let go just because we look pitiful on them today."
You can help us, you can give it, but you can't give it in vain, you can't help it in vain." Li Mu watched the fire gradually extinguish, took the shovel to shovel away the ashes, dug out the 'mud eggs', cracked them open, and a smell of aroma came out.
When he came out, Li Siwen had been hungry for a long time, so he pulled off a chicken leg, shook it, and shouted: "Xiaojiu, do you want to eat?"
"Don't eat!" Dugujiu's voice floated over. If he hadn't seen how it was made, he might have eaten it, but after seeing how it was made, he really couldn't eat it.
Li Siwen handed the chicken leg to Li Mu, and Li Mu had already pulled the other one in his hand, indicating to him to eat it himself. He took a bite and continued: "Aren't the Turks divided into tribes? If you are close friends with us, you might as well sell half of it and half of it.
If you give them some gifts, those who have a normal relationship with us will be like "brothers settling accounts." If you don't have a good relationship with us, we won't sell them for money. Don't look at the potato harvest, but next year's output may not be the same.
The landlord’s family doesn’t even have any food left!”
"Brother is right, I know how to do it." Li Siwen's mouth was full of oil after eating, and he didn't know whether he really understood it or not.
"There's no more wine," Li Siwen clucked his lips and said, "Brother, I thought about it and you're right. Although potatoes are good, they can't replace food. Let's just say that in this bar, potatoes can't make wine, right?"
Li Mu thought to himself, in fact, potatoes can also make wine. It’s just that the wine produced is not very tasty, but there is no point in saying this at this time. Li Mu nodded and was confused.
"Brother, I want to tell you something." Li Siwen gnawed on the chicken leg and said as if he mentioned it casually: "I want to come back. I still feel at ease being around you."
Li Mu paused, glanced up at Li Siwen, and said, "I don't want to be in Dingxiang anymore, because of the affairs of the Protectorate?"
"Not entirely." Li Siwen murmured for a while and said: "The last time we fought, I felt that I, I was such a waste. I didn't have the ability to protect one side, but I still stayed with you to help you.
You can do something, but I only have this ability. Brother, don’t you dislike me?"
"I don't dislike it, but I don't dislike it. There is no such thing as 'dislike' between us brothers." Li Mu sighed and said, "It's just that I don't want you to follow me and live in my shadow. Mine
Brother, you should be a man of your own."
"I..." Li Siwen thought to himself, if I could be alone, wouldn't I want to be alone? I can't do it, that's why I have this idea. But after Li Mu said this, he couldn't say anything.
He pursed his lips and said nothing.
Li Mu saw what he was thinking and said: "Let's do this. It just so happens that there are a lot of things going on here in Luoyang recently. You have Dadu guarding you there, so it's not a big deal. You can stay and help me for a while, and wait for things to happen here.
The child has calmed down. If you still have this intention, then you can stay, okay?"
"Yeah!" Seeing that Li Mu didn't dislike him, Li Siwen became happy again. He looked at Li Mu who had almost finished chewing the chicken leg, and quickly pulled out another chicken wing and handed it over.
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, Li Mu looked at the chicken wings in his hand, but thought in his heart, Li Mu saw what he was thinking, and said: "Let's do this, it just so happens that there are a lot of things happening here in Luoyang recently. You have Dadu protecting you, so
It’s nothing serious, you can stay and help me for a while, and when things subside here, if you still have this intention, then you can stay, okay?”