Because Mr. Zhao was in a hurry, he decided not to get off the boat and disturb the local people this time. Instead, he asked someone to call Tang Youde to come on board for lunch.
Lunch was held on the bow deck. Tang Youde came running over and rushed over with a red face. "Sir, I, Old Tang, am finally back!"
"You guys are talking more and more strangely, is it because you have been hanging out with the Koreans for too long?" Young Master Zhao couldn't help but laugh and scolded, "What do you mean you are on stage again? Are you acting here?"
"Hehe, that's about right. Life is like a play." Fatty Tang rubbed his hands excitedly and said, "Old Tang hasn't appeared in a play for a whole year. Who still remembers that I was your ace supporting actor and your left and right arm together with Master Xuelang?"
"Then just give each other a good hug." Young Master Zhao felt a chill and sat back in his chair.
"I have been looking forward to seeing the Master coming!" Tang Youde happily held Xuelang's hand and shook it vigorously, saying, "Finally, there is someone who will play opposite Old Tang from now on."
Xuelang nodded with a smile and said, "I hope Mayor Tang will take good care of me in the future."
"Of course, of course, in the future." Tang Youde nodded repeatedly, and the two of them sat down politely.
At this time, Qiaoqiao brought out the cooked dishes. Tang Youde quickly stood up to help prepare them. He was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes and said, "I must have earned this blessing in my previous life to be able to eat the food cooked by Miss Qiaoqiao again. It's like going back to the days in Caijia Lane. So many years have passed in the blink of an eye..."
"Yes, you are now the mayor of a city." Young Master Zhao laughed loudly and pointed at Xingang City in the distance and said, "How is it? It's happier than running a grocery store, right?"
"I am tired but happy." Tang Youde laughed and pointed at his head and said, "I have white hair now."
"Look, you showed your true colors in less than three sentences." Zhao Hao invited him to eat and talk, "What other problems do you want me to solve?"
"It's true that my parents gave me life, but my son knows me best." Tang Youde said with a smile, "Didn't we recruit 30,000 households from the country to come here to cultivate the land this year? As a result, all the land was distributed, but I didn't expect that the soil here is too poor. One mu of land can only yield 200 kilograms of wheat at most."
"That's because it's next to a canal and has timely irrigation. The dry fields that rely on the weather only produce about 100 kilograms per mu, which is not enough to cover the cost." He sighed worriedly and said, "If it weren't for the high ship tax, they could have built a lot of infrastructure and given the immigrants jobs. I'm afraid they would have backed out... But you can see that even the No. 2 Pier that was originally planned to be built during the 25th period has been built ahead of schedule. There will be no infrastructure to build next year. We can't just build a road around the island, can we?"
"This is not a bad idea. To get rich first, build roads first, have more children and plant more trees." Young Master Zhao said with a smile, "I asked you to migrate 10,000 households first and then find out the way. You refused to listen. Are you dumbfounded now?"
"Please give me some advice, sir." Tang Youde pleaded pitifully, "I know I was wrong, I promise to be obedient next time."
"It is indeed difficult to develop agriculture with a yield of only 100 kilograms per mu." Zhao Hao sighed.
"If the land of Jeonra Island had not been barren, our dynasty would not have generously awarded it to the Joseon Dynasty." Xuelang had a somewhat "a monk knows everything about the world without leaving home" attitude. "No wonder the Joseon Dynasty only used it to raise horses and exile prisoners."
"What do the locals grow?" Zhao Hao asked.
"The same as what they grow in Shanxi and Shaanxi, buckwheat and oats." Tang Youde replied: "This poor place has strong winds and can't hold water, so we can only grow these two things."
"Their lives must be hard enough." Xuelang showed sympathy. Buckwheat is also called intestine-cleansing grass. The more people eat it, the thinner they become. Many high-ranking officials in Jinling often eat it, under the pretext of "not forgetting one's true nature", but in fact they do it to lose weight...
"They are all low-class people. They are not treated as human beings in the Li Dynasty. Besides, these buckwheat and oats are mainly used as concentrated feed for horses. People can't even eat enough of them." Tang Youde said.
"Have you figured it out? How many animals are there on the island?" Zhao Hao asked.
"According to statistics, there are 20,000 horses in the government-run horse farms on the island, and there are also a similar number of horses in private horse farms owned by merchants. In addition, there are probably about 10,000 pigs, cattle and sheep," said Tang Youde.
"So many?" Xuelang couldn't help but be amazed.
"This island is as big as two Kunshan counties, and the land is not suitable for growing crops, but it is very suitable for growing grass." Tang Youde said with a smile: "Six out of ten of the untouchables on the island of the Li Dynasty are raising livestock. One reason is that they have to pay tribute to our dynasty and the Li Dynasty with horses every year. In addition, this is also the main source of income for the island."
"Have you investigated how much room there is for development in animal husbandry?" Zhao Hao asked again.
"The space is huge. Right now, the pigs, horses, cattle and sheep on the island are all free-range. If they were raised in pens, we could increase the number by ten or even dozens of times." Tang Youde said, "Of course, that would require a huge amount of manpower..."
After saying this, he suddenly realized, "Sir, you mean that the island will mainly be based on animal husbandry in the future?"
"Of course we have to adapt to local conditions and make the best use of our strengths and avoid our weaknesses." Young Master Zhao nodded, took a sip of the wine accompanying the meal and said, "The land on Jeonra Island is barren and the cost of improving it is too high. Why not just plant oats and buckwheat and develop animal husbandry? Wouldn't that make everyone happy?"
"That's good." Tang Youde was born into a business family, so he would always ask where to sell everything. "But Tamra Island is isolated overseas after all. How can New Port City and the garrison area handle so many pigs, horses, cattle and sheep?"
The sea was bumpy and it was very difficult to transport live animals. Not only was the cost extremely high, but the mortality rate was also high. Therefore, only tribute horses were sent to the Korean mainland by ship... and they were transported when the south wind was strong, so that they could reach the shore in one day. There were also horsemen who took care of them, but even so, 20% of them would die every time.
Of course, no one knew whether they were dead or not, but it was absolutely true that, apart from the carefully selected tribute horses worth a hundred gold coins, the rest of the animals were not worth shipping by sea.
"You know nothing about the power of science." Young Master Zhao smiled and gave an order, and the guard brought two glass jars and a glass bottle.
The glass jars were tightly corked with corks and tied with iron wire. One was filled with yellow peaches that were not in season, and the other was filled with large pieces of red meat. The glass bottle was filled with milky white juice, also tied with corks and iron wire.
Gao Wu unscrewed the wire with his bare hands, pulled out the cork, and poured the yellow peach soup in the glass jar into a large bowl.
Zhao Hao handed Tang Youde a fork and asked him to try a yellow peach.
"Will you get sick from eating this?" Tang Youde was quite worried, but since the young master wanted to eat it, he couldn't frown even if it was a good idea. He bit the bullet and took a bite. Hmm, it was sweet, tasted good, and definitely not bad.
"I didn't expect to be able to eat fresh yellow peaches in this season!" Tang Youde happily ate several pieces. "Are these grown in greenhouses?"
"No, they're summer yellow peaches that have been picked three months ago." Zhao Hao smiled faintly, quite proud.
"Oh? So amazing?" Tang Youde raised his thumbs exaggeratedly: "You are worthy of being a young master! Science can do anything!"
"Science is not that magical. It just happened to solve the problem of long-term storage of fresh fruits, vegetables and meat." Zhao Hao smiled and prepared to open another can to show off his canned meat. "Here, try this one. It was also stewed three months ago."
But the embarrassing thing was that he couldn't unscrew the wire after twisting it for a long time, so he had to hand it to Brother Gao as if nothing had happened.
Gao Wu easily unscrewed the wire, pulled out the cork, and poured the large chunks of beef and the soup into the bowl... Alas, the cattle in Kunshan County are always subject to accidents and diseases, and it is difficult for them to die of old age.
"Hmm, this one is even better." Tang Youde tasted a piece and it tasted great. The meat was soft and tasty, and it went really well with rice. "It's not salty, how come it can be stored for so long?"
"This is the magic of canned food." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "I'm going to take these to Beijing as gifts, so I use glass jars. In fact, it doesn't matter if you use porcelain jars or pottery jars... Of course, the pottery jars must be glazed before they can be used, otherwise they will be breathable."
"Is this called canned food?" Tang Youde rubbed his hands excitedly and said, "Now we don't have to worry about how many pigs, cows and sheep we have. We can make them all into canned food and sell them back to Jiangnan, and we will definitely make a lot of money!"
He knew that Jiangnan had a small land area and a large population, and the climate was hot and humid, which was completely unsuitable for animal husbandry. Therefore, except for the very wealthy, ordinary rich people could not afford fresh meat and could only eat pickled meat, smoked meat and fish instead. Unfortunately, the people in Jiangnan were wealthy and had a huge demand for meat, so canned meat would definitely be in great demand!
Not to mention canned fruits, which make huge profits during the long autumn and winter seasons, right?
Tang Youde seemed to see the pigs, cattle and sheep all over the mountains of Tamra Island lining up to walk into the workshop, to be canned and shipped back to Ming Dynasty, a wonderful scene of making huge profits continuously.
Although he had a customs office and could collect money from maritime trade, as an old-school Huizhou merchant, he still felt that the best way to make money was to make money from production, supply and marketing.
"What is this, milk?" Xuelang had no interest in making money. Seeing that the two were chatting endlessly, he took the remaining glass bottle, pulled out the cork, and smelled a milky fragrance.
There is no prohibition on drinking milk in Buddhist precepts. When the Buddha attained enlightenment, he was exhausted and accepted goat milk from a shepherdess. Therefore, Xuelang can drink milk. Otherwise, his skin would not be whiter and tenderer than that of a woman...
Xuelang tasted it and found it was indeed milk. He couldn't help but sigh, "You really don't know how to enjoy life."
He usually drinks breast milk, which is expressed, of course!
"Is this also the milk that came from three months ago?"
"This pasteurized milk has a shelf life of only half a month, but it can preserve the nutrition and freshness of the milk to the maximum extent." Mr. Zhao is as tall as he is now thanks to drinking a cup of milk a day. He had people use pasteurization to preserve milk a long time ago.
The so-called pasteurization method is to heat the milk to 60 degrees for half an hour, so that only lactic acid bacteria that are beneficial to the human body remain in the milk. In this season, it is fine to seal and store it for ten days or half a month.
"If you use high temperature sterilization, it can be preserved for more than half a year, but it will lose a lot of nutrients." Young Master Zhao smiled and said, "I don't have the ability to let all the children in Daming drink milk at present. Let the students in Jiangnan schools drink a cup of milk a day... So raise the cattle well, Old Tang! In the future, students will not only study in the school building you built, but also grow up drinking your milk!"