North and South groceries

For this god-given divine food, His Majesty the Emperor held a grand ceremony to sacrifice to the heavens, and even asked the most prestigious priests in the court to be in charge of divination and communicate with the gods.

In the end, the sacrificial priest of the immortal style carved out the word "jade" on the high altar.

His Majesty the Emperor said that this is the sixth valley bestowed by the gods on earth, and it is called "jade".

Under the altar, everyone worshiped.

Within a day, this matter spread throughout Chang'an City. In ancient times, Shennong passed on the five grains, and today the gods gave them the sixth grain. What a sacred and exciting thing this is.

The people in the city rejoiced and rushed to tell each other. Another messenger rode out from Chang'an City on a horse, and sent the good news to all states and counties.

If there is no accident, the imperial court decided to plant the corn immediately after the spring of next year. When the summer harvest comes, officials from all over the country can go to Chang'an City to collect the seeds. If it is a southern state or county, hurry up and start planting that year.

Perhaps some people will say that Li Shimin's move is too risky. For this food variety that has never been seen before, it should be cultivated for several rounds before deciding whether to promote it.

But what is absolutely safe in this world, especially as a superior person, he is always facing various risks.Bing is expensive, and risks always coexist with opportunities. Only by daring to advance can we continue to open up new situations. If everything requires safety and security, I am afraid that we will only be forced into a corner in the end.

At this time, the city of Chang'an was full of joy, but on the southwestern border, the soldiers were fighting bloody battles.Tuyuhun Khan, whose name was Fu Yun, adopted King Tianzhu's strategy and attacked Kuozhou and Lanzhou on the border of the Tang Dynasty, where the Hexi Corridor is the throat from the Central Plains to the Western Regions.

Fu Yun and his ministers believed that Datang's current national strength was very weak, and they would definitely not fight against them at this time. After all, even if Tuyuhun was defeated, it would not be of any benefit to Datang.

It is not without reason that they think so. Tuyuhun is located in the southwest, about in the area of ​​Qinghai, south of Gansu, and northwest of Sichuan in later generations, sandwiched between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo, and most of the places they occupied were on the plateau. .

Compared with the Central Plains, these places are not suitable for farming at all, and the Han people cannot adapt to life there.

Under this consideration, they chose to go to war, and Tang Chao's counterattack was also violent.

This is not an era of real peace. Wars exist all the time. The Tang Dynasty is surrounded by enemies. Everyone fights with each other. In fact, it doesn't matter whether evil or justice. To the people of Datang, Datang is justice, Tuyuhun The same is true over there.

Now that the opponent has already attacked, Datang must have to fight back, but even if the bitter cold land is occupied, it is useless, and it is very difficult to defend.

If he was kept, it would also be a buffer between Tang and Tubo, so in the end, this war against Tuyuhun would probably only be a surrender.

So this time, the reason why Li Shimin wants to make such a big fanfare about the grain seed this time is that there should be two considerations. On the one hand, it is naturally to consolidate his dominance in the country. God's food down?

On the other hand, it is naturally to promote the power of Datang.Just like the battle of Tuyuhun this time, if Tuyuhun was afraid of the power of the Tang Dynasty, he would not dare to fight lightly.

Thinking back, the reason why Luo Yong chose to take out the corn seeds first was that it was drought-resistant, barren-resistant and very high-yield. With this kind of grain, many people should be able to avoid hunger.

But when it came into the hands of Li Shimin, these seemingly harmless seeds immediately turned into a sharp weapon, which could win people's hearts inside and shock the world outside.

For a while, it seemed that the whole world began to boil, and everyone was talking about the sixth valley named "Jade", wondering how it was different from hemp, millet, millet, wheat, and bean.

I heard that the sixth valley is very high-yielding, and it can grow as tall as a person. As long as you sow a small seed, you can reap a big bunch. This is true...

For a while, some people praised His Majesty the emperor's high virtue, majesty and grand strategy, and that he was truly favored by the heavens. How many of these voices were spontaneously formed by the people, and how much was deliberately propagated out of political needs, ordinary people do not know.

Li Shimin is naturally a majestic man, and Luo Yong is not too bad. The seeds he planted earlier have sprouted silently at this time.

At this moment, on a section of the official road more than 20 miles north of Wenxi County, Jiangzhou, a group of people are resting in a few thatched pavilions on the side of the road. When did there appear to be so many thatched pavilions? Just now I saw two postmen eating here. I guess it must not be a black shop. Besides, they have a large number of people, so they are not afraid of anything.

The group of people happened to be tired from walking at this time, so they stopped here to rest. Although the low table with the bed in the grass pavilion is a bit rough, it is much better than the sky and the floor. The meadow is too rough and not clean enough, just spread a mat and sit on it.

But the brine boiled in the yard of the store was so fragrant that the servants could only swallow their saliva. A woman in the pavilion saw it and told them to eat some food. They could continue on their way when they were full. There were still more to come. Way to go.

So those irrelevant people went to eat, only a few adults and children were still sitting outside in the pavilion, they came to support the spirit, the deceased was their family members, and they were in mourning, so they couldn't Meat.

"Ma'am, you should also eat some corn porridge to pad your stomach." The store owner was considerate, while arranging his two brothers and sisters to prepare meals for others, he and his wife brought a few bowls of corn here Porridge, and a few side dishes.

"What kind of oil do you put in this dish?" The woman asked when she saw that the pile of green vegetables brought by the other party was faintly glowing with oil.

"It's soybean oil, women don't worry about eating it. There is also fermented bean curd from Lishi County, which is also made from soybeans." Stay here.

Mrs. Yang took her three daughters to eat in the pavilion here, and the two sons born in the early days of the samurai were in another pavilion next to it. The store also sent them hot porridge and side dishes.

This small shop in the wilderness looks inconspicuous, but the meals they make are delicious. With just a few side dishes, Yang's mother and daughter finished the hot porridge, and the stomach warmed up, and the whole person felt much more comfortable. In this weather It's getting colder every day, and it's about to start snowing. The further north you go, the colder the weather will be...

About ten days later, Luo Yong, who was in Xipo Village, received a stack of letter papers. The sender was his disciple Wu You, that is, the store selling brine near the official road in Wenxi County.

On this pile of letter papers, everything is detailed, Lala miscellaneously recorded a lot of things, and the tone was casual, just like the master and apprentice gossip, this is not the first time Luo Yong received such a letter. It's quite boring, occasionally it's like picking treasures, and you can find one or two useful information from it.

Like this time, Wu You mentioned the wife and children of the warrior Xun. Luo Yong searched inside and only found a description about the second daughter of the Wu family: "...the eldest daughter is quiet, the second daughter is stable, and the youngest daughter is good at less than ten years old... ..."

Luo Yong did the calculations in his mind. It is said that Wu Zetian entered the palace when he was 11 years old in Zhenguan and 14 years old at the age of 11. Now it is the ninth year of Zhenguan, that is, he is [-] years old. old look.

Counting Li Shimin's age, he was almost 40 years old at that time.

"Tsk, I'm really embarrassed to say it." Luo Yong curled his lips.

There are many distortions and inaccuracies in the records about Wu Zetian in history. After all, she became a female emperor in a patriarchal society, and history is recorded by men. Luo Yong does not think that all men can have such a broad mind. , not to mention that in those bloody battles, she even made countless enemies for herself.

Later, many people said that Li Shimin did not choose a good heir for himself because Li Zhi was too cowardly, so Wu Zetian pinned him to death.

In Luo Yong's view, this matter is really not to blame Li Shimin. During Li Zhi's reign, the overall national power of the Tang Dynasty was still on an overall upward trend, and the territory also expanded. It seems that I can't deal with a female stream.

However, no matter what kind of character Wu Zetian will become in the future, whether it is decisive or cruel, at the beginning, as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old green girl, it was the time when she was innocent, full of fantasies about love, and full of expectations for the future. Are you really willing to serve an old man who is nearly forty years old?

Luo Yong conveniently folded the few pieces of letter paper and put them in his sleeves, and was not in the mood to read them again for a while.

"Brother! Brother! Come! Come!" At this time, Goro not far away shouted at him and jumped up.

"!" Luo Yong grinned, looking at the ditch on the side of the road that we dug together these days and then plastered it with cement. At this time, not far in front of him, there was a clear stream flowing along The ditch flowed quickly, bringing a burst of fresh air head-on, and before Luo Yong could react, the water flow had already crossed the ditch beside him, rushing all the way in the direction of the cement workshop.

When building this ditch, Xu Erlang and the others finally decided to divert water from the sheep pen after some discussion, because the water flow in that creek was large and stable.

They dug ditches to divert water from a hillside over there, lowered the height little by little along the hillside, and meandered along the way, flowing past the dirt road in front of Xu's guest house, and then passing through the entrance of the village. Go to the cement workshop, pass through rows of water tanks, and finally merge into a small creek next to it.

After this ditch is repaired, it not only guarantees the water for the cement workshop and the future Eucommia glue workshop, but also guarantees the water for Xu's guest house.

The mountain stream water is drawn directly from the ditch on the hillside, without passing through the sheep pen, and directly drawn here. The water quality is very clean and can be directly used for washing rice and vegetables.

"In the future, our family's clothes can be washed here, which is much more convenient than at the well." Er Niang stretched out her hand to scoop up the clear water in the ditch, and said happily.

"That's natural." After all, the well water has to be lifted up from the well, unlike this ditch, the clear water flows by itself.

"From this section to the east of the village entrance, you can wash wherever you like." Da Niang and Lin Wulang also came out to watch the excitement at this time.

If you want to talk about the convenience of cement, if they wanted to dig a ditch in the past, how could it be so easy? Look at the clean ditch, there is no silt at all, and the clear and bright stream flows lightly. It is so gratifying to watch up.

At the beginning, Xu Erlang and the others were also thoughtful. They built a narrow road on the open space opposite the ditch. The narrow road was also plastered with cement, and it was connected with one side of the ditch to form a slightly slower path. It’s the best place to wash clothes on the steep slope. Squatting on the other side of the ditch to wash, even if there are people coming and going on the main road here, there is no hindrance.

The daughters-in-law of Xu's family also took a lot of vegetables from the store to wash at this time. After hearing the news, the women in the village also came here with baskets to wash their clothes.

The vegetable washers are upstream, and the clothes washers are downstream. One by one, they squat in a row by the side of the ditch. The stream in this ditch flows so fast that it can quickly take away the filth, even if it is downstream of others. I don't think there is anything unclean about washing clothes.

To the east of the village entrance, on a piece of flat land beyond the cement workshop, there are strips of water tanks distributed. Between the water tanks, there is a concrete road about three feet wide for people to walk on.

These sinks are the places where the eucommia gum is washed. On this day, Luo Yong and his disciples dug out a batch of Eucommia leaves that were filled in from the fermentation tank next to it, and put them in one of the sinks. Considering these The degree of decay of the leaves was not too high, so they were completely crushed by stepping on them and beating with wooden sticks, and then they were ditched and put in clean water.

These tanks are connected one by one, and there is a slight difference in height. After the first round of panning in the upper tank, the eucommia gum will enter the second tank for the second and third panning to remove impurities. Efforts should be made to reduce the loss of gum, and strive to use limited Eucommia leaves to pan out as much Eucommia gum as possible.

For the panning technology of Eucommia gum, they will need to spend a lot of time in the future to explore, and I believe that the efficiency will always be higher and higher.

Luo groped carefully in the sink with his hands, and indeed felt that there was some slippery gelatin in the mixture of rotten leaves and clean water in this sink.

As long as these gums are washed out, part of the water is removed by precipitation first, and then they can be boiled in a pot, and finally a pot of thick and suitable Eucommia gum should be obtained, just pour them into the grinding tool Among them, after cooling, you can get the shape you want. What Luo Yong wants to do most at present is naturally the sole of the shoe.

Winter is here, and it's time for rubber-soled leather boots to come out.