After being praised by the prince, Liu Laifu felt that his hard work was worth it. More importantly, he felt that these plants were like his own children, and were raised by him.

This huge sense of accomplishment is what Lai Fu wants most. He said proudly: "Your Highness, I discovered that this potato is the fastest growing. You will be able to harvest it in a few days. And this sweet potato is also the craziest. I picked some tender leaves of sweet potatoes and made porridge according to your instructions. The taste was really good. I dared to give some to Empress Yian."

This sweet potato, that is, sweet potato, can be said to be a treasure in the whole body. As long as it is, as a financial crop, sweet potatoes are cold-resistant to drought, salt-alkali, and widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. It can be said that almost all the Ming Dynasty could be planted from south to north.

What’s important is that this thing has an extremely high yield. Moreover, the roots, stems and leaves of sweet potatoes can be eaten. Especially tender leaves, which taste good when used to cook porridge, and the picked tender leaves will not affect the growth of sweet potatoes.

In fact, sweet potatoes were introduced in the eighth year of Wanli, Ming Dynasty. So far, it has been introduced for a full sixty years. But why are such high-yield crops still not popular?

This stems from the obstruction of information in this era and the lack of attention from the government.

During the Wanli period, Chen Zhenlong, a native of Changle, Fujian who had been doing business in Luzon, the Philippines for many years, and his son Chen Jinglun, saw that a local planted a root crop called "sweet potato". The roots were "as big as a fist, with a vermilion-colored skin, a crisp and juicy heart, and can be eaten raw and cooked, with high yields, wide planting and barren tolerance."

Thinking of the fact that his hometown of Fujian, there were many mountains and few fields, poor land and insufficient food, Chen Zhenlong decided to introduce sweet potatoes to China. In 1593, the Philippines was under Spanish colonial rule and regarded sweet potatoes as strange goods and was prohibited from leaving the country. After careful planning, Chen Zhenlong "took the potato vines into the water-drawing rope" and applied sludge to the rope surface. In early summer of 1593, he cleverly avoided the inspection of colonists' checkpoints and "begin to cross the sea". He sailed for seven days and returned to Xiamen, Fujian in late May of the lunar calendar. Sweet potatoes come from outside the territory, and the Fujian people are called "sweet potatoes".

Originally, after the sweet potatoes were introduced to China, they showed their excellent characteristics of strong adaptability and excellent land, and their yield was high, "double dozens of stones per acre, twenty times better than grain seeds." In addition, "it is moist and edible, either boiled or ground into powder, and eaten raw like karuta, cooked like honey, and tasted like water chestnuts", so it can spread to the mainland quickly.

However, it was not until the Kangxi period that sweet potatoes were introduced to Zhejiang, and it was not until the Qianlong period that these sweet potatoes were planted nationwide under official promotion. Some people say that the explosion of the Qing Dynasty originated from sweet potatoes, which is actually not unreasonable.

The sweet potato brought by Zhu Cilang is a new variety cultivated in later generations. This kind of sweet potato is more than twice the yield of the variety introduced by Chen Zhenlong.

Regardless of the truth of history, Zhu Cilang never admitted the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong prosperity. It was just that sailing introduced high-yield crops from America into China, which led to the explosion of the population of the Qing Dynasty. As for the person from Kangxi and Qianlong, Zhu Cilang has always sneered.

Queen Yi'an Zhang Yan smiled: "When Lai Fu was delivered to me, I was quite hesitant. I never thought that this kind of tender leaves could be edible. If it could be planted widely, it would have done a good thing for the people."

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Auntie, when these sweet potatoes are harvested, they will harvest more. Conservatively, this acre of land can produce higher than the yield of dozens of acres of rice."

Zhang Yan was shocked: "So many?"

Zhu Cilang nodded: "Yes, and this sweet potato tastes pretty good."

Only Liu Laifu cried and said, "If it weren't for Empress Yi'an, the things I have worked hard to plant may not be able to be kept."

Zhu Cilang was shocked: "What's going on?"

At this time, Empress Yi'an Zhang Yan's face had already sunk. Liu Laifu lowered his head, looked at Empress Yi'an, and said boldly: "Yes, it's Empress Tian. Empress Tian was angry that I changed this good garden into arable land. I insisted that the palace servants abandon all these crops, saying that they had to plant some beautiful flowers to be pleasing to the eyes. Empress Tian said that the palace was not a mountain market, so what land was planted?"

Zhu Cilang was furious: "Let go, let her mother go..."

"Ciyang!" Seeing that Zhu Ciyang was about to curse without saying anything, Queen Yian Zhang Yan hurriedly interrupted him with a cold face.

Who is Concubine Tian? Tian Xiuying, who was named Concubine Li in the first year of Chongzhen, and later became the Imperial Concubine. Tian gave birth to King Yong Zhu Cixuan, King Mo Ling Zhu Cihuan, King Mo Huai and the seventh son of the emperor.

Concubine Tian is from Jiangnan. She is good at makeup and wears Jiangnan clothing, which fully expresses the charming and beautiful temperament of the beautiful Jiangnan beauties. At the same time, Concubine Tian is also versatile. Her paintings and calligraphy are loved by Emperor Chongzhen. She is also good at playing the pipa and playing flutes. She was praised by Emperor Chongzhen for the effect of "breaking stones and passing through clouds". Her piano sound was praised by Emperor Chongzhen as "the sound stopped the clouds and surrounds the beam for three days."

However, Concubine Tian and Empress Zhou have always been disagreeable.

This is embarrassing. Although there was no intrigue in the harem fight during the Chongzhen period, Concubine Tian was not in the way of dealing with Zhu Cixuan's mother, Empress Zhou, and the two often had conflicts about this.

Relying on Emperor Chongzhen's favor, Concubine Tian was furious when she heard that the garden of Cining Palace had been planted with food. She instructed the palace servants around her to remove these grain crops.

Lai Fu naturally had a soul flying outside the sky, telling Concubine Tian that this was planted by the crown prince. If anyone dared to touch these things, the crown prince would not give up.

As soon as he heard this, Concubine Tian added fuel to the fire. OK, now you are the mother and son join forces to bully me. Originally, Empress Zhou was targeting me everywhere, but now his son dares to be arrogant.

What's wrong with the prince? I have to pull out these crops.

Fortunately, Liu Laifu, who was anxious and wise, shouted angrily: Whoever dares to come forward, the prince will surely tear you into pieces when he comes back.

The palace men were afraid of Zhu Cilang and didn't know whether they should go forward or not. While Liu Laifu was calming everyone, he reported to Queen Yi'an.

When Empress Yi'an arrived, Concubine Tian had already brought the palace servants to the ground and personally pulled out a few corn that was growing vigorously. Fortunately, Empress Yi'an arrived in time and scolded Concubine Tian.

Fortunately, the corn seedlings pulled out were replanted by Liu Laifu, and they actually survived again.

When Chongzhen learned about this, he scolded Concubine Tian fiercely. Since then, no one in the harem dared to move this land anymore. Chongzhen was actually not aware of the matter of growing food in the Cining Palace. He thought it was Empress Yi'an who was bored when she was idle, so he did not scold Concubine Tian fiercely.
Chapter completed!