Han Yiyi looked at the four sweet potatoes she had put in the stove, but now only two remained, and fell into deep thought.
Meanwhile, the two people on the mountain wished they could eat the charred skin off the sweet potatoes as well.
"What, what is this thing? It tastes so good..."
The other person couldn't help but lick their fingers again before speaking.
“I don’t know either, but I’m sure we don’t have this kind of thing in Nanjing. Just now I saw that woman’s pot was also made with this stuff, and it smelled very sweet. If I hadn’t noticed that the men in her house knew some kung fu and were worried about being discovered, I would have definitely served myself a bowl to try.”
"This is probably the most remote village in Beichen Kingdom. Could it be that even in a village like this, every family can eat such delicious food?"
"This family's house doesn't look like an ordinary farmhouse. Their food must be better than others. Let's go check out other houses..."
Half an hour later, the two returned to the back mountain, and this time they were each carrying two strings of sweet potatoes. Yes, two strings of sweet potatoes, the kind that had just been pulled from the ground and were still covered in mud.
It turned out to be two people who had visited almost every household in Zhushan Village and discovered that every family was eating this stuff.
Not only that, they also overheard the villagers chatting that this plant was growing everywhere and had an astonishingly high yield. They had initially disbelieved that any food in the world could produce such a high yield.
It wasn't until they pulled two sweet potatoes out of the ground themselves and saw that each one had five or six fist-sized sweet potatoes on it that they believed what the villagers had said: that there really was such a high-yield and delicious thing in the world.
From the villagers, they learned that this hard, sticky thing that could be used to make porridge or roasted was called a sweet potato.
The land in Nanjing is much less fertile than that in Beichen. At most, an acre of land can only produce 200 catties of rice, which is a world of difference compared to the 5,000 to 6,000 catties of sweet potatoes.
The two men stole what they had taken. Well, if they didn't see it, they took it. They threw all the sweet potatoes, big and small, into the fire.
The reason was simply that the two things I had "taken" from Han Yi's house earlier weren't enough to satisfy my craving, so I thought I'd put them all in to roast so I could eat more.
Fifteen minutes later, the two of them swallowed hard as they watched the smaller ones roasted to a crisp, and even the larger ones were charred on the outside, with only a tiny bit of golden flesh the size of a finger left inside.
So the two went down the mountain again, and when they came back this time, they somehow got a burlap sack and filled it up.
Having learned from their previous experience, the two cooked the food much better, and after letting out a big burp, they finally spoke.
"I don't know what Dongli An's intentions are. He actually told our king that there is no food left in Beichen and people have started to eat wild vegetables to fill their stomachs. He also said that if we send troops now, we can definitely take Beichen into our hands. I think they have ulterior motives..."
"Well, it's fortunate that our king is wise enough not to completely believe their nonsense, but instead sent us to investigate first," he said, glancing at the sacks filled with burlap beside him.
"We'll take the rest back to Nanjing so our king can taste this delicacy. Alas! It's a pity we only found this one sack after searching the entire village. Otherwise, we could have taken more back."
Now that the two had eaten their fill and taken what they needed, they didn't linger any longer and hurried back to Nanjing.
The next morning, everyone started digging cellars. As for the sweet potatoes, they wanted to wait a few more days before digging them, so that they could grow longer in the ground.
However, some families with children couldn't resist their kids' clamor for food, so they reluctantly dug out a couple of sweet potatoes. Seeing the fist-sized sweet potatoes being dug out, everyone's eyes were filled with happiness.
Just then, a sharp curse rang out in the village.
"Who the hell stole my sweet potatoes? Every family has them, yet you shamelessly stole mine! I curse you all, may the sons you eat my sweet potatoes be born without an anus!"
The one who started the cursing was Widow Liu from the village. Her husband died of illness a few years ago, and she has been raising her two children alone ever since. In order to avoid being bullied by outsiders, she has become quite shrewish.
Her voice was notoriously loud, and when she spoke, the whole village heard it. However, everyone pretended not to hear, since they hadn't actually stolen it.
Widow Liu was furious when she saw that more than twenty sweet potatoes had been stolen. Her eyes turned red with anger. She had originally planned to dig them up again in a few days, but then she thought that she had planted quite a lot and that it was not easy to have food. So she thought that she should make sure that her two children had enough to eat, and she took them to the field.
But as soon as she arrived at the field, she saw that more than twenty sweet potatoes at the edge of the field had already been dug up. The soil was obviously freshly dug up, and Widow Liu couldn't help but curse around the village again.
Meanwhile, the two who were rushing to Nanjing on horseback suddenly felt an itch in their noses and sneezed several times in a row.
Actually, it's understandable that Widow Liu scolded the two men; there were so many sweet potato fields in the whole village, yet they only picked that one plot to harvest.
The journey from Zhushan Village to the border of Nanjing is only three days at a fast pace, which is why the King of Nanjing chose to come to Zhushan Village to investigate.
The King of Nan Jing was an old man over fifty years old. He didn't seem to be a warmonger. However, the reason he wanted to bring Bei Chen under his control was because Bei Chen's land was much richer than Nan Jing's. He wanted his people to have enough to eat and for the people of Nan Jing to live a more prosperous life.
When the old man saw the two scouts bring back something, and they said that this thing called sweet potato was everywhere in Beichen and could yield more than 5,000 catties per mu, the old man was so shocked that his mouth was agape for a long time.
However, after tasting the sweet potato, the old man was instantly captivated by its deliciousness. His eyes widened in disbelief that such a delicious food existed in the world, and that it could be produced in such large quantities.
After finishing the entire sweet potato, he finally spoke up and asked a question.
"Are you sure this stuff can really yield more than 5,000 catties per mu?" Before the two scouts could answer, Emperor Nan Jing continued.
"If the things grown here could be cultivated in our country, then our people would never have to worry about going hungry again..."
"Your Majesty, the sack I brought back only yielded about twenty kernels. I roughly calculated that they have about two or three thousand kernels per acre!"
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