Where you got it is none of your business, don't even think about taking it away.

Xingxing spread her arms and legs, standing fiercely in front of Zhou Erfu, as if this could stop all evil forces.

At this moment, Zheng Qingshu had no idea whether the little girl was angry or wary of him. His mind was completely focused on that big pumpkin. It was grown so well and was still fresh. The skin was yellow with a hint of green, which meant that the pumpkin had been picked before it was fully ripe. What a pity.

If you let it fully ripen and the outer skin turns golden, the pumpkin seeds inside can be used as seeds. There are many seeds in a pumpkin, but if you want all the people of the Great Jin Dynasty to be able to grow pumpkins, no amount of seeds will be enough.

Seeing Zheng Qingshu walk past her and reach out to grab the pumpkin, Xingxing objected, raising her voice to accuse him, "This pumpkin is for Uncle Village Chief, you can't take it, it's my family's pumpkin."

Zhou Erfu was also on high alert, tightly holding onto the pumpkin that was as big as three of his heads. He was strong and tall, and when Zheng Qingshu reached out, he quickly took a few steps back. He refused to let go, and no one could take it away.

However, there were still several officials in the courtyard, including Zheng Yue. They all knew kung fu, so Zhou Erfu wasn't confident he could save the pumpkin.

Yes, he only learned that this thing is called a pumpkin after Zheng Qingshu told him. Before, they didn't know what it was and just called it a big melon because of Xingxing.

The village chief, being the village chief, quickly understood why Zheng Qingshu was so excited. It seemed that this pumpkin, like the corn, was a new variety, and only foreigners had it. Coastal officials often had to pay a high price or exchange many silks and pottery for a few seeds.

Even so, the foreigners would only give one type of seed at a time, and would only give another type after a few years, which put the officials of the Great Jin Dynasty in a very passive position.

For items like corn seeds, the prefects of Nanyang Prefecture and surrounding prefectures such as Anyang, Quanshui, and Pingzhou negotiated with the foreigners several times. The foreigners came once a year, and several times meant several years. Other items were easy to exchange, but grain seeds were extremely difficult to obtain.

In this era of scarcity, food was undoubtedly the most important thing. Both the Jin Dynasty and foreign tribes valued food highly.

The reason why the prefects of several prefectures would join forces to do business with foreigners is that these prefectures are all coastal cities, but the ports where the foreigners' large ships pass through are the borders of these prefectures, and all the prefectures are keeping an eye on these ports.

Large merchant ships from several prefectures must pass through this area to make their way, which has led to a situation where several prefectures want to take it over. However, since many prefectures are involved, no one dares to make any rash moves. In earlier years, conflicts even broke out between the prefectures because of this, resulting in considerable casualties.

Five years ago, a large ship belonging to foreigners arrived at this port. The prefect of Nanyang Prefecture accidentally made a deal with the foreigners, paying a large amount of gold and silver jewelry in exchange for a sack of sweet potatoes.

The entire sack of sweet potatoes was planted and used for seedling cultivation. The foreigners, having received so much wealth, didn't hide it from the world, saying that even small sections of the sweet potato vine could be broken off and planted, making it easy to cultivate the seedlings.

The incumbent prefect was skeptical at the time, but he had no other choice but to take it one step at a time. After the experiment was successful, he presented the sweet potatoes to the imperial court.

When the emperor learned of this drought-resistant and easy-to-grow food, he was overjoyed and immediately rewarded the old prefect handsomely, ordering him to continue cultivating sweet potato seeds.

Unfortunately, there were limited sweet potato seeds available at the time. Apart from the emperor's estates doing their best to cultivate seeds, the main source of seed production was the southern coastal areas. After all, sweet potato seedlings could not be stored for long, and the journey to the capital was too long. By the time the sweet potato vines were transported there, they had dried out, resulting in a survival rate of only 20%. Given the extreme shortage of seeds, this was a huge waste.

Therefore, the best way is to cultivate the vine seedlings directly in Nanyang Prefecture. After the sweet potatoes are dug up, the vine seedlings can be planted directly. As long as there is no drought, the survival rate of the planted seedlings is 100%.

The beginning is always the hardest. The old prefect of Nanyang Prefecture devoted himself to cultivating the vines for three years before he could barely cultivate enough to supply the entire Nanyang Prefecture, and each household was given a limited number of them.

The old prefect was getting old and his health was deteriorating, so he had to retire and return to his hometown to live out his days. The important task of cultivating sweet potato vines fell on the shoulders of the current prefect.

This year, there are finally enough sweet potato vines to supply the entire population of the Great Jin Dynasty. Unfortunately, there is a drought in the north, so the surplus sweet potato vines have to be transported there for planting, and the survival rate is definitely not high.

The story begins with the acquisition of sweet potato seeds. The emperor realized the importance of this port and issued an imperial edict ordering the four prefectures of Nanyang, Anyang, Pingzhou, and Quanshui to jointly supervise the port and try to obtain more new varieties of grain from foreigners.

From then on, the port was named Four Corners Port. Officials from the four prefectures were required to live in peace and not to cause any further conflict, or they would be dismissed and investigated.

This led to a peaceful situation where the prefects of several prefectures engaged in joint trade.

This year, the prefects racked their brains to obtain corn seeds from the foreigners. The quantity was small, only one sack. Dividing it among the four prefectures was far from enough to meet the demand.

Then will be a new round of cultivation, which may take one or two years or as long as three or five years, but at least there is more hope.

After obtaining the corn seeds, the prefects pondered how to exchange them for pumpkin seeds from the foreigners. The foreigners were indeed cunning; they only let them taste the pumpkin and told them about its yield and properties, but refused to exchange it with them immediately.

It will probably be several years before we can get them back, and we'll need to use a lot of jewelry and silk to get even a little bit. Plus, there will be several years of cultivation after we get them back, so it will be at least ten years before all the people can eat pumpkins.

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