Cultivating sweet potatoes
Chapter 64: Cultivating Sweet Potatoes
The next morning, Chu Huaibei returned to the Northern Territory with the sweet potatoes. Originally, his uncle had planned to ship the sweet potatoes and other gifts back to the Northern Territory with the caravan, but Chu Huaibei was eager to learn how to grow them, so he distributed half a basket of sweet potatoes to each of the twenty guards, each carrying a few in their bags.
We hurried back to the northern border. It was already late October, and preparations had to begin for the annual patrol.
Upon returning to the barracks, Chen Sinong entered the accounts to report: First, the court had sent 1.2 million dan of military rations this year, which had been inspected and found to be no more than the previous two years' dregs. Second, the cotton-padded clothes had also arrived ahead of schedule, with 200,000 pieces, more material than in previous years, and the clothes were thicker.
Chu Huaibei nodded: "Chen Sinong, thank you for your hard work."
"It's not hard. This is my duty." After reporting, Chen Sinong took his leave and left the tent.
This trip to Fengjing was not in vain. At least the military rations were restored to the previous 1.2 million dan, and the quality of cotton clothing was also better. It seemed that the new Minister of Revenue was very obedient to the emperor and did not give her any trouble.
After handling several urgent military matters, Chu Huaibei returned to the palace with the sweet potato. He went straight to the concubine's courtyard.
She first briefly recounted what happened in the court, and then told the story of the Feng Mansion in detail. When she mentioned that her grandfather saw her staring at her with tears in his eyes, the concubine took a handkerchief and wiped the corners of his eyes.
Her father was always like this. He clearly loved her the most, but he always wrote things in his letters that she didn't like to hear, using the cumbersome formalities of women's vows to persuade her to be a qualified mistress of an aristocratic family. But, was the Zhenbei Palace an ordinary palace? Moreover, the current prince was no ordinary prince either.
If she didn't work hard, the palace would have been in trouble a few years ago.
Chu Huaibei reached out and hugged his mother, patting her gently: "Mom, grandpa and grandmother are in good health, don't worry."
"Well, Mom is fine, go on."
Then he talked about several cousins and younger generations in the Feng family. Chu Huaibei carefully observed everyone's food preferences at the dinner table and asked his mother to choose some gifts according to their preferences.
The gifts arranged by the Concubine Dowager were delivered to Feng Mansion the day after Chu Huaibei left. Most of the gifts for men were pens, ink, paper and inkstone, while most of the gifts for women were pearl hairpins and jewelry with the characteristics of the northern border. Although they were all top-quality, they were not in line with personal preferences. After all, the Concubine Dowager was not clear about the situation.
Now, after listening to Chu Huaibei's description, the concubine had a deeper impression of the younger generations in the family. She asked Aunt Wen to record everyone's preferences and then slowly select them and send them to the Feng Mansion.
"Also, the gifts from the Feng family are still on their way back to the northern border. I'll have to trouble you to pack them up when the time comes."
The concubine nodded in agreement. It was a rare opportunity for the Feng family to send gifts to the northern border in a high-profile manner. Judging from her eldest brother's personality, there would probably be a lot of gifts this time.
After chatting for the whole afternoon, it was already time for dinner, but Chu Huaibei did not return to his yard. He waited until they had dinner together before returning.
Eleven returned to the palace in the morning and reported to his master in detail everything he saw and heard during his trip to Fengjing.
After listening to this, Sun Mingsi showed no extra emotion on his face. However, after Eleven left, he immediately put down the medical book in his hand, picked up a pen and wrote a letter and asked someone to send it to Jin Yi as soon as possible.
In the evening, Sun Mingsi arrived at the dining hall half an hour earlier than usual and sat down. As soon as Hengheng entered the dining hall, he saw that his mother, who had always arrived at a cup of tea before the hour of You, had arrived earlier than him today.
"Mom~" Hengheng first bowed respectfully, then leaned beside his mother's legs and looked at her curiously.
Sun Mingsi patted the child's head and didn't intend to explain. When Chu Huaibei arrived, the child would naturally understand what was going on. After two years of studying with Du Jiping, Hengheng had become increasingly intelligent, a reflection of him. His teacher had praised him immensely.
At the hour of You, the imperial concubine appeared in the dining hall, with Chu Huaibei following behind. Heng Heng's eyes lit up when he saw his father. He hadn't seen his father much in the past four or five months. He stood up straight, turned around, and rushed towards his father.
Seeing his son rushing towards him like a little cannonball, Chu Huaibei squatted down early, picked up his son when he pounced on him, and gave him a big kiss on his chubby face which was already starting to get thinner.
Hengheng rarely returned to the warmth he had towards his father when he was three years old, and hugged Chu Huaibei's neck tightly.
The two mothers have already brought the food to the table. Today, since the prince is back, the two mothers have prepared a whole table full of dishes that Chu Huaibei likes.
He patted his son on the back, placed him at his designated dining seat, and took the hand of Hu Zhi, who was sitting calmly beside him, to sit at their usual dining seat.
Chu Huaibei could see that Hu Zhi was missing her. Usually when they held hands in front of others, Hu Zhi would subconsciously avoid her. But today, he held her hand tightly and didn't care about other people's eyes.
The family had a lively reunion dinner. After the meal, Chu Huaibei held the child in his left hand and Hu Zhi in his right hand and walked briskly towards his yard.
Five-year-old Hengheng began to have an awareness of the difference between men and women, and began to feel awkward about his mother giving him a bath. Chu Huaibei laughed out loud when he saw this, and Hengheng's face turned red with anger. He originally wanted to play with his father for a while longer, but now he had no desire to do so. After the bath, he quickly went back to his own room to sleep.
Sun Mingsi knew what Chu Huaibei was laughing at, but the child was still young, so he couldn't tell him the inside story. He could only let the child bear it for now.
After settling the children, Chu Huaibei took a good bath. Not to mention anything else, he felt that his body was covered with dust after traveling in the open air for more than ten days. He just wiped his body at the post station and did not take a bath. He just wanted to rest early so that he could travel with full energy the next day.
After Chu Huaibei finished washing, he helped Hu Zhi change the water and then lay down on the bed. His own bed was still more comfortable to sleep in.
After Hu Zhi finished washing and went to bed, Chu Huaibei waved his hand to draw down the curtain. This short separation was like a new marriage, like dry wood meeting a raging fire, and they made a lot of noise until five o'clock in the morning.
The next morning, Chu Huaibei woke up at the hour of dawn as usual. Looking at Hu Zhi sleeping on his body, he kissed his overly rosy little mouth, got up happily, and prepared to start beating his own child.
Hengheng's left eyelid has been twitching when he got up today. He didn't believe these things at first, but his teacher said: A gentleman does not speak of random things or strange gods.
When he was thrown to the ground by his father for the twentieth time, he began to reflect on himself. In theory, this was a good thing for him to exercise himself, so it was right for him to twitch his left eyelid. But Hengheng's fall was really painful. He felt like his buttocks were about to break into eight pieces...
Seeing Hengheng lying on the ground and refusing to get up, Chu Huaibei chuckled twice, picked up a wooden stick with cotton cloth tied on one end, used some skill to turn the child over, and hit his fleshy buttocks with the stick.
“Ahhh!!!!!!”
"Dad! How could you attack the surrendered soldiers!" Hengheng jumped up and ran forward several steps. He stopped only after making sure that he could not hit them with the stick. He severely accused his father of lacking martial ethics.
"On the battlefield, let alone being injured, even if you're dead, you'll still be hacked a few more times by the enemy. Also, don't listen to your teacher's words about not executing envoys when two armies are fighting, or about a great power not killing surrendered soldiers. That's all bullshit. Daddy never taught you that."
"When you have the upper hand on the battlefield, you have the final say. Not killing the envoys is to see what the enemy can offer you in exchange for peace."
"But when you're at a disadvantage, you have no choice but to try your best and rack your brains to win. Even if it's a narrow victory, it must be a victory. Otherwise, the only fate that awaits you is death."
Chu Huaibei took the opportunity to teach the child. Du Jiping's idea as a scholar was that it was okay to teach the child the Four Books and Five Classics, but Hengheng would take over her position and become the new God of War in the North, so he didn't need to learn the pedantic practices in the books.
After things were almost settled, she had to continue teaching her children military books, just like her father did in the past.
Hengheng's mind was in a mess. Subconsciously, he felt that his father was right, but after studying with the teacher for two years, he felt that the teacher was also right. He was unable to make sense of the situation for a moment and stood there in a daze.
"Okay, that's all for today. We'll continue tomorrow. Dad will explain what I just said to you tonight. Let's go have breakfast."
Chu Huaibei picked up the weapons on the ground, took the child's hand and went to the dining hall together.
After breakfast, Chu Huaibei went to the military camp to make arrangements. The emperor didn't seem to have any intention of transferring Jin Hongye back to Fengjing. The rewards for this victory were based on the military merit list she submitted, and Jin Hongye also received his share, and the emperor didn't deduct any of his rewards.
In the past two days, she found that Jin Hongye had become more proficient in handling military affairs. After asking the deputy general, she learned that the Jin family had found a powerful military advisor for him. The advisor was teaching him while handling military affairs, and he was growing very fast.
I heard that I could occasionally hear the military advisor's angry curses, but Jin Hongye never punished the military advisor. It's quite interesting, I think this military advisor's identity is not simple.
Before the big patrol, Chu Huaibei went to the sugar mill to cultivate sweet potatoes. In the next few days, he would be in the military camp in the morning and go to the sugar mill in the afternoon.
She had asked her mother to find some skilled farmers to help her with the farming. When she arrived at the sugar mill, two men and a woman had already been there all day.
The concubine personally went to the sugar mill to watch Chu Huaibei raise seedlings. If it was true, as Huaibei said, that the yield per mu could reach several hundred kilograms, and that it could be produced regardless of the fertility of the soil, even in the mountains, then it would be a great blessing for the people of the northern border, and the number of people who would starve to death would be greatly reduced.
Chu Huaibei marked out a piece of land against the wall on the north side of the sugar factory and had a greenhouse built according to the size of her drawing. There were large windows on all four walls, which could be opened at noon when the temperature was suitable, and thick quilts were hung inside the windows to keep warm at night.
The land on the north side was trampled hard by people passing by. It was first plowed shallowly, and then covered with a thick layer of soil dug from the fertile land of the farm. Planting sweet potatoes requires high ridges and shallow planting so that the tubers can grow large and numerous.
The sugar factory also raises pigs. The pig manure is fermented and used directly to fertilize the land during the sweet potato growing season. Seeds are scarce, so we will try to cultivate more seeds at present, and then plant them in the fields when the temperature is suitable in April and May next year.
The craftsmen are in place and the materials have been prepared in advance. Chu Huaibei watched the craftsmen working. The greenhouse is not large and can be completed today.
The next day, Chu Huaibei personally made ridges in the greenhouse where everything was prepared. The ridges were 30 cm high and 70 cm apart, for a total of three ridges. The small half basket of sweet potatoes was only enough for one ridge, and the remaining two ridges were reserved for transplanting the potato seedlings.
Cut the sweet potato into four to six parts along the bud point, soak it in wood ash water for ten minutes, then take it out and wipe off the water stains, bury the seeds at a depth of about five centimeters, and keep the seeds fifteen centimeters apart.
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