The Ming Dynasty started with caution

"Dismiss the court, Yan Chengjin, you stay. I have something to ask you."

At the signal of Emperor Hongzhi, all the officials slowly left the hall. Xiao Jing followed them to the hall door and closed it.

Yan Chengjin felt mixed emotions, but impeaching Shi Qin once caused such a big commotion.

It seems that he has to be more careful in future impeachments.

"I am going to leave the palace and go to Huimin Pharmacy to have a look. You come with me."

You dared to ask for five taels of silver. If you bully the people, I will never let you go.

Emperor Hongzhi went to the side hall with a snort and changed into the Confucian clothes that he often wore out of the palace.

Xiao Jing also prepared a set of clothes for himself.

"Find a set of my Confucian clothes for Yan Qing's family."

Seeing that Yan Chengjin was wearing official clothes, it was inconvenient to leave the palace. Huimin Pharmacy was far from Yan's house, so there was no time to change.

Yan Chengjin was a little disgusted: "There are clothes on my sedan chair."

Your Majesty is now leaving the palace as frequently as Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao has not left the palace for a long time, and I don't know what toy he got these two days.

Your Majesty's visit to Huimin Pharmacy must not be as simple as a visit.

"There are more than 5,000 refugees in Liangxiang. I have been working hard to govern the country from morning till night, but I can't figure it out." Emperor Hongzhi suddenly said.

Yan Chengjin advised: "Your Majesty, don't think too much, it will make your hair fall."

Not to mention that you can't figure it out, historians in later generations can't figure it out either.

Natural disasters and man-made disasters are not something that human power can resist.

Even if Li Shimin traveled to the Ming Dynasty, it would be difficult to achieve prosperity and great governance under the Little Ice Age and intensive disasters.

Emperor Hongzhi ignored him.

Huimin Pharmacy still represents the court. Only when the people can feel the grace can they support the court.

And now it has been handed over to Yan Chengjin, and the price has risen to five taels of silver.

This is exactly why he is worried.

"Your Majesty, Wang Ji is seeing patients upstairs."

Emperor Hongzhi was stunned. Compared with the deserted day before, Huimin Pharmacy was like a completely different scene.

The people queuing up from the door were like a line of ants moving, densely packed, and lined up to the entrance of the market, with more than 300 people.

"How could it be, how could there be so many people?"

Five taels of silver, these people are still struggling to queue up, are they crazy?

"Reporting to Master Zhu, these people are willing to come for Huimin Pharmacy, Your Majesty should be relieved." Yan Chengjin said.

Huimin Pharmacy is related to the face of the court.

It was precisely because of the fear of losing the people's hearts and turning good policies into bad policies that Emperor Hongzhi personally came out of the palace to see.

The capital has a population of more than 300,000, and a few hundred people are not many.

Yan Chengjin wrote a secret letter to Cheng Minzheng, asking him to purchase medicinal materials from Korea.

The Ming Dynasty has many holy places for purchasing medicinal materials such as Liaodong and Anhui.

But it is better to import from Korea, the price is low, and it can be transported by large ships.

...

Ministry of Revenue,

After receiving the imperial edict, Chen Qing returned to the duty room to look for the yellow book.

A large, old, yellowed book was moved to the desk.

The last measurement was in the fourth year of Hongzhi, when the number of households was more than 9,113,400 households...

"This yellow book cannot be presented to Your Majesty, and it needs to be re-measured. But how easy is it to re-measure the manpower and financial resources consumed?"

"I'm afraid that Your Majesty will not be satisfied with the results of the measurement."

Chen Qing sighed with regret. This matter fell on his head, like carrying a stone weighing more than a thousand pounds.

All officials understood that it was not a problem of financial resources or time.

In order to avoid taxes, the gentry concealed the land.

If he checked directly, he would offend many gentry.

If he handed it over perfunctorily, His Majesty would be furious and would also chop off his head.

Chen Qing came to Han Wen's duty room: "Brother Guandao, His Majesty ordered me to thoroughly check the population and cultivated land. If there is no growth..."

The previous dynasty checked the fish scale atlas, and they were all perfunctory and childish.

The specific approach is to use the data from the previous thorough investigation, make some minor changes, and present it to His Majesty.

Han Wen did not dare to do this, as the Censorate can find out anything now.

"You check first, and then make a decision after seeing the results."

After receiving the order from the Ministry, Chen Qing sent an order to thirteen, ordering the Household Department to thoroughly investigate the population and the acreage.

Liangxiang,

Zhang Xian received a memorial from the Ministry of Households, asking for an investigation of the cultivated land in Liangxiang.

"Sir, we just measured it when we allocated the land tax to the acreage. Whatever is on the books is what it is." The clerk of the Household Department said.

"No, if Sir Yan wants to investigate, he must investigate thoroughly, and he must not be careless. Do you want to put him in jail in the Censorate?"

The cultivated land in Liangxiang is constantly increasing. The big trees were cut down for shipbuilding, and the wasteland was just right for arable land.

The merchant ship that departed from Hainan returned to Liangxiang.

Yan Chengjin stood at the dock with some excitement, and the yamen runners brought down baskets of grain.

Xu Jinzhong actually planted so many peanuts?

Liu Jin left half a boat of peanut seeds in Liangxiang.

Yan Chengjin was not prepared when he came.

He was so surprised that he was speechless when he saw the peanuts.

The oil used in the Ming Dynasty was mostly animal fat. When the people sold pork, they would pick the fat ones.

They could also fry some lard at home.

Some people even used wolf oil, deer oil and fish oil to cook.

It was not until the Song Dynasty that vegetable oils such as sesame oil, soybean oil and rapeseed oil appeared.

But these vegetable oils have a fatal flaw, which is that the amount of oil produced is extremely low.

Therefore, many people in the Ming Dynasty could not eat oil for ten days or half a month. Especially when winter came, they always felt empty without the smell of oil.

"Where is Song Jing? Ask him to make an oil press for me."

Zhang Xian quickly sent someone to Liangxiang Science College.

Soon after, the yamen runner came to report: "Replying to Lord Yan, Lord Song will not come to Liangxiang, but Master Li is in Liangxiang."

Li Zhaofan stood not far away and looked at him, not daring to come over.

However, he was doing well in Liangxiang, and Yan Chengjin waved at him.

"What does Lord Yan want me to do?" Li Zhaofan came over and asked.

Yan Chengjin pointed to a dozen boxes of peanuts and said, "Help me make an oil press to produce five stones of peanut oil."

Li Zhaofan was stunned, and Zhang Xian was also stunned.

You can't scrape out a few ounces of lard from a 100-jin pig.

One hundred jin of rapeseed can only produce about three dou of rapeseed oil.

Lord Yan actually wants it to produce five stones of rapeseed oil?

"Learn... Let me try."

Li Zhaofan returned to the mansion with the drawings. He was going back to the capital to observe the stone mill and oil trench of the oil mill in the capital.

He lay in the oil mill for a few days, recording all the processes from the workers frying, to the stone mill, to the cake making, etc.

"The same principle should apply to peanuts."

He drew on the sketch paper and enlarged the oil trench by one inch, so that more peanuts could be placed and more oil could be squeezed out at one time.

He was so absorbed in drawing that he didn't notice that Li Dongyang was standing beside him.

"What is this?! Your father thought you were reading the books of sages, but you are not doing your job properly!"

"Father, my son..."

Li Zhaofan felt that he was different from Li Zhaoxian and was not his biological son, so he always had awe in his heart.

Li Dongyang's sharp eyes saw through his thoughts and said unhappily: "Did Yan Chengjin ask you to draw it?"

Li Zhaofan didn't dare to lie and hesitated: "Yes, but Lord Yan is dedicated to the people of the world."

"If I make it, I can squeeze out five oils."

Five oils?

"What can squeeze out five oils at one time?"

"Peanuts."

Where did peanuts come from in the Ming Dynasty? Li Dongyang had never heard of them.

He was too lazy to argue: "Zhao Fan, since your father passed away, I have always treated you as my own child."

"I know, but I still..."

Li Dongyang walked out of the study with a disappointed look on his face.