"Actually, when Hanlong mentioned this kind of cotton before, I also remembered it. I went to look up historical records and found that from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, it was cultivated inland, but this kind of cotton can only be grown in the Western Regions."
Sheng Du turned his head and asked, "Perhaps there are still some places in Hebei where we can find a few cotton growing areas, and even large quantities of seeds, but can it really be grown in the Central Plains?"
Today, the Song Dynasty is not static. For example, the imperial court ordered Fanyong and Qingtang in the northwest to open mutual trade, and purchased a large amount of cotton seeds from the Western Regions.
Qingtang is located in the area of Xining City, Qinghai Province in later generations. During the Song Dynasty, the Western Regions were blocked by the Western Xia, which led to the severance of communication between the Central Plains and the Western Regions. Although cotton was introduced during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was not promoted in the Central Plains.
Qingtang happened to be a must-pass place on the southern route of the ancient "Silk Road" and the "Ancient Tang-Tibet Road". After the Western Xia cut off communication with the Western Regions, the Song Dynasty could still communicate with the Western Regions through Qingtang.
Therefore, Zhao Jun proposed some time ago to conduct more trade activities with Qingtang, exchanging food, salt, weapons, armor and other materials needed by Qingtang for horses, cattle, sheep and cotton.
Now it finally works.
However, everyone expressed doubts about Zhao Jun's promotion of cotton.
The main reason is that ancient China actually had native cotton, called Asian cotton. This kind of cotton has low yield and is difficult to grow. Since the Western Han Dynasty, it has only been grown on a small scale in coastal areas such as Guangdong and Hainan.
The cotton introduced during the Northern and Southern Dynasties was African cotton, which has high yield and strong adaptability. It was also the cotton variety promoted nationwide by Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty.
But as for cotton, it also requires four main conditions: abundant heat, sufficient sunlight, sufficient water resources and fertile land.
Therefore, even after it was introduced to China, it was still not immediately adapted.
The Tang Dynasty once tried to promote it and planted it in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, but unfortunately it failed. It could not grow well, and even if it did grow well, the yield was not high and it had little economic impact.
Therefore, everyone does not understand how to promote this thing.
Zhao Jun heard what everyone was saying, smiled and shook his head. "Cotton wasn't widely promoted during the Tang and Song dynasties. The main reason was the Little Ice Age. Starting in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the climate turned colder, the rainfall line shifted south, and the north became increasingly dry and cold, making cotton difficult to grow."
"I remember Han Long once said that both the late Han Dynasty and the late Ming Dynasty were destroyed by the Little Ice Age. What is this Little Ice Age?"
Lu Yijian also became interested and remembered that Zhao Jun mentioned this matter when he talked about returning to the river three times.
Zhao Jun explained what the Little Ice Age was, then said, "The Tang Dynasty's Little Ice Age was the third, and the fourth wouldn't occur until the Ming Dynasty. In other words, we've just caught up with a good era, as we're at the end of the third Little Ice Age. It will be more than 500 years before the fourth Little Ice Age occurs. This will be an opportunity for rapid development."
"If that's the case, then wouldn't it mean that for at least five hundred years, all of Song Dynasty will enjoy good weather and good harvests?"
Wang Zeng opened his eyes wide.
"You're overthinking it."
Zhao Jun rolled his eyes at him and said, "Natural disasters will still happen, but the climate in the north isn't as cold, so crop yields in the north won't suddenly drop drastically."
Cai Qi stroked his beard and said, "If that's the case, does that mean that farming can resume in Hebei, Shaanxi and other places?"
"Yes."
Zhao Jun nodded: "As long as the threats from Western Xia and Liao are resolved, Shaanxi and Hebei will slowly recover."
The current situation in the Song Dynasty is that due to excessive cultivation in the Guanzhong area during the Tang Dynasty, the Guanzhong area is almost deserted and has a very small population.
Because Hebei was too close to the Liao Kingdom, a large number of people migrated south, and the local population was mainly military settlements.
According to historical records, the total population of the entire Shaanxi Province and half of Gansu Province, including Qinfeng Road and Yongxingjun Road, was only over 8 million at that time, and they were mainly concentrated in the Loess Plateau area. There were not many people in the Guanzhong Basin.
The two routes of Hebei, Hebei East Route and Hebei West Route, together have a population of no more than 6 million.
During the Tang Dynasty, Hebei had a population of more than 10 million.
In contrast, the population of Jiangsu and Zhejiang has exceeded 20 million. Henan, Jingji, Huguang, and Sichuan all have populations exceeding 10 million. Clearly, the area south of the Yellow River has become the main population center.
There are two subjective reasons for this: one is that people migrated southwards to the border between Western Xia and Liao, and the other is that crop yields in the north declined during the third Little Ice Age.
However, the third Little Ice Age ended in the early Song Dynasty, so if the threats from Western Xia and Liao could be resolved, Hebei and Guanzhong could rebuild water conservancy projects and it would not be impossible to reclaim the land again.
After hearing Zhao Jun's words, Wang Zeng pondered and said, "If we can reopen Guanzhong and Hebei, that would be wonderful."
"Does the end of the third Little Ice Age mean that cotton can be grown?"
Wang Sui also asked.
"Yes."
Zhao Jun nodded: "But we should still focus on adapting first."
Lu Yijian wondered, "Why?"
"Wasn't it that we hadn't adapted to planting in the Yellow River Basin before? This shows that planting needs to be done step by step. Although we have tried planting since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was not promoted until the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. There are certain reasons for this."
"You mean the localization adaptation process you mentioned earlier?"
"Yes."
"So what should we do?"
"After the cotton seeds arrive, they will be sent to Guangzhou, Hainan and other places for trial planting before being promoted throughout the country. This process may take several years."
Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "Places like Guangzhou and Hainan are already subtropical regions with abundant water and fertile land resources. If the experiment can succeed there, it means that cotton can take root and sprout in the south. Once the climate in the north warms up to a certain degree, cotton can be slowly spread from south to north."
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