In the following days, the various people from the Song Dynasty were progressing smoothly. Although they encountered sporadic resistance from the indigenous people by chance, in general, in the face of the powerful Song army force group, the indigenous people also reflected the wisdom of higher animals, that is, to recognize the current affairs. The situation quickly changed to confrontation and cooperated. The indigenous people received compensation and were happy to barter with the Song people.

The troops entering the northern end of Taiwan followed the rivers they could find in advance and made great profits in the transactions with the indigenous people, because in addition to being able to exchange furs, many indigenous people could also use gold to exchange items for Song army. Fortunately, the Song army was well prepared and the accompanying boat contained various items that the indigenous people loved, such as clothing, food, etc., while the indigenous people did not understand the real market of gold, so the Song army took a big advantage in the exchange.

Since the indigenous people had gold, they proved that gold was produced nearby. The Song army began to pay attention to finding the golden vein. Hard work pays off. A team of Song army found sand gold in the river. It seems that Shangguan’s explanation is good, and this place may really produce gold. However, finding the main mineral vein of gold is not a one-day effort, but this news is already very encouraging. Then the news was reported layer by layer and reported to the central army tent of Zhao Han, Penghu.

Zhao Han has been very pleased with the progress of all the people these days, and has swept away the bad luck before. Sand gold was found in the northern end of Taiwan, which proves that 90% of the gold and silver mines were said to be true. In addition, a basin was found there. The land in the basin was fertile and the rain was abundant, so it was just right for rice to be cultivated and planted. To the south, the water and land were advanced and entered a huge plain with a warm climate and a scattered water flow. As Mao Geng said, this was a fertile field, which could be transformed into tens of hectares of fertile land in time.

But what makes people scratch their heads is that along the way, they have already encountered seven or eight ethnic groups. All the indigenous people are talking and no one can understand their language. Without exception, they have no words. So gestures are popular in the Song army. Many people who are not good at fighting are just because they can happen to understand the gestures of the indigenous people. This time, they have become celebrities in the Song army. This is what makes people sigh that Feng Shui is really taking turns.

Mao Geng has not been idle these days. The Song army heading south encountered smoke and malaria. Therefore, although there is a fertile field in the south, how to prevent malaria has become the top priority. Because of the prior training, the Song army has already understood miasma and understands that the so-called miasma is the gathering of flying insects that are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye due to the untreated animal corpses. To be precise, it is a group of poisons flying in the air. Therefore, on the one hand, it uses smoke to drive away miasma, and on the other hand, it uses some food and herbs that specialize in preventing miasma, including betel nut.

Another focus of Mao Geng is the food consumed by the indigenous people, which is related to whether new crop species can be found in Taiwan. Therefore, all walks of life have the responsibility to collect various foods of the indigenous people.

The indigenous food collected before was nothing more than meat, millet, taro, and no other unique species. So far, no indigenous people have been found to grow rice. But on this day, a group of people exchanged a bunch of fruit-like things with fibrous roots from the indigenous people of a clan. This thing can be eaten raw, sweet and crispy at the mouth, obviously not taro. This pile of strange things was sent to Penghu. Mao Geng immediately recognized it as a sweet potato at first sight. Mao Geng was overjoyed and thought that this was originally a species in South America. It was unknown when it was introduced to Taiwan from South America, or the sweet potato was born and raised in Taiwan.

In Mao Geng's original history, sweet potatoes were not spread to China from the Philippines until the 16th century. Unexpectedly, sweet potatoes were discovered in Taiwan at the end of the 12th century. In Mao Geng's opinion, this was really an unexpected gain.

Sweet potatoes are the highest-yield grain crop. Although they are coarse grains, they can save thousands of people from starvation if they are introduced to the mainland one day. Mao Geng even thinks it is more meaningful than discovering gold.

Zhao Yan asked someone to cut a piece and tasted this novel food called sweet potatoes that Mao Geng called, and thought it tasted pretty good. However, Zhao Yan had tasted a lot of fruits and vegetables in his life and was quite tricky, so he just praised it casually and did not take this thing seriously.

In this regard, Mao Geng had to introduce the benefits of sweet potatoes:

"Duke, this sweet potato is a good thing. With this sweet potato, you can protect the Song Dynasty from no more hunger. It is actually a blessing for the people of the Song Dynasty."

Of course, Han Tuozhou did not believe Mao Geng's big words. There was a famine in the Song Dynasty, but because of frequent natural disasters, Mao Geng's words were obviously too exaggerated. However, Han Tuozhou did not want to attack Mao Geng too much, so he said:

"Mao Geng, farming in the world is easy, but it is not easy to get a millet and wheat. The poem says that every grain is hard, and you and I are both unfarmed people. You and I do not know that farming is difficult. Since ancient times, natural scourges are unpredictable. The crops are magical, but when disasters come, they are unstoppable. With this thing, you can protect the world from hunger? It's okay to talk about it here. If you boast in the court, you will be teased. In order to save the famine, the Song Dynasty set up a Changping Warehouse, a Social Warehouse, a Yi Warehouse, a Huimin Warehouse, a Guangfeng Warehouse and a Pingping Warehouse. Even so, it's not enough to deal with the disaster. Mao Geng, don't talk nonsense if there is no hunger. However, since you boast like this, this thing must have some benefits, so it's better to tell the Duke."

Mao Geng thought to himself, you don’t know that this thing is magical, and you may not say that after you know it in the future.

Zheng Shi also tasted a piece of sweet potato. He was very curious about such things and said:

"Mr. Mao seems to know this thing well, so he talks about its benefits and let me gain some knowledge!"

Mao Geng is of course very familiar with sweet potatoes. In the early 1960s, he relied on sweet potatoes to survive a grain crisis. He has done a lot of farm work to plant sweet potato seedlings and harvested sweet potatoes. He has eaten more sweet potato products. Of course, everything has to be pushed to the master, so he introduced it as if he had known:

"Master once said that the yield of sweet potatoes is extremely high. One acre of land can harvest one or two thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes in one quarter. In the current territory of the Song Dynasty, two seasons of sweet potatoes can be planted a year, and three or four thousand kilograms of per mu is not difficult. As for Fujian, Guangdong, and Taiwan, where the climate is relatively hot, it can be planted in all seasons. For example, here in Taiwan, it is not difficult to produce seven or eight thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes per mu in one year. There is another advantage that sweet potatoes are indiscriminately resistant to poverty and drought. It can be said that they can be planted everywhere. Such a good grain crop is actually a blessing for the Song Dynasty."

When Zheng Shi heard this, he couldn't believe it for a moment and asked:

"Is it so amazing? I finally heard that a mu of rice can only harvest at most two or three hundred kilograms of rice. The rice in Fujian and Guangdong is ripe twice a year, and at most five hundred kilograms of rice. If this sweet potato can be used as food, it will definitely be a great achievement and a great achievement for the benefit of the Song Dynasty by the Duke of the People's Republic of China."

Zheng Shi attributed all the credit to Zhao Han. Zhao Han also began to become eager in his heart. He immediately changed his carelessness and asked solemnly:

"Mr. Mao, do this matter seriously?"

Then he said:

"Even if you give some discounts, you can earn more than 1,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes per acre and can fill the food for famine, which is also very good."

Zhao Han knew that the emperor's grandfather loved the people and attached great importance to farming. If he could offer a high-yield grain crop this time, the emperor's grandfather would naturally be very happy. The emperor's grandfather was still a trivial matter. If he could really be as Mao Geng said, the Song Dynasty might have lost hunger from now on, and the people would never be hungry until death. In any case, this is a good thing that benefits the country and the people. Zhao Han felt that if this was true, this time he would not only be quite affordable, but also had unexpectedly high added value.

Mao Gengxin said that the yield of excellent varieties in later generations exceeded 10,000 kilograms per a quarter. I don’t know how high the yield of this sweet potato variety is now. It is no problem to exceed 1,000 kilograms. Now, I am confident that I suggest:

"Duke, it's useless to say too much about this matter. It's better to find a place in Penghu to try it out, and you'll know the truth or false."

Han Tuozhou looked at Mao Geng curiously and said with a smile:

"But none of us can grow sweet potatoes. Do we need to ask those savages to teach you?"

Mao Geng smiled and said:

"Don't worry, Lord Han. Master once said how to grow sweet potatoes. Xiaoke tried it, maybe it won't be bad."

Of course, there will be no problem. Who can't insert sweet potatoes? You may be a little bit too much for other farm work, but only those who put sweet potatoes. Later students in the 1970s worked as part-time work to work and study. When they came to the Song Dynasty to grow sweet potatoes, they would be quite sure to achieve a yield of one thousand kilograms per mu.

(How sweet potatoes in the Americas were introduced to Taiwan? Scholars' research is divided into two factions. One is brought to the Philippines by Europeans in the Age of Discovery, and then introduced to the Ming Dynasty from the Philippines. The Han people of the Ming Dynasty then introduced sweet potatoes to Taiwan. The other faction advocates being introduced to Taiwan from indigenous people. Most of the traditional foods of the 14 indigenous peoples in Taiwan are millet, sweet potatoes and taro. Indigenous people should have a certain degree of credibility by their own efforts to introduce sweet potatoes to Taiwan. In recent years, some scholars have used archaeological anthropology discoveries to further prove that sweet potatoes were likely introduced to Taiwan from indigenous people.)
Chapter completed!