Getting Rich from Legend of Zhen Huan

Nine hundred and seventy-six pounds! Nine hundred and seventy-six pounds!

Kangxi didn't care about the dirt all over his body and asked Jiang Chen: "Wangxuan, can the sweet potatoes maintain this yield?"

Although he has been experimenting with sweet potato cultivation on the farm for two years, Jiang Chen is still shocked when he sees the yield of sweet potatoes again. If it can be promoted nationwide, how many families can be saved from being broken up?

"Your Majesty, I have tried planting for two years, and the yield has been stable at more than 900 kilograms. However, this is because all the farm owners have taken care of it wholeheartedly, and they have never stopped fertilizing and watering. If the soil was poorer, 800 kilograms would be considered a high yield."

The barren land can hold 800 kilograms, isn't that enough? This is not just a lump of earth, it is clearly a lump of gold!

As if to confirm, Kangxi picked up another sweet potato and observed it again, fearing that it would disappear if he closed his eyes.

Holding the sweet potato in his hand, Kangxi was about to reward Jiang Chen, "Wangxuan, you have made an invaluable contribution this time. What reward do you want?"

Jiang Chen did not think that he had made any great contribution. Sweet potatoes were brought back from overseas by the ancestors of the Chen family after risking their lives. He was able to come across sweet potatoes because the descendants of the Chen family followed their ancestral teachings to promote them. Even if he was not there, sweet potatoes would have been noticed by the court. He really did not deserve the word "credit".

Thinking this in his heart, Jiang Chen also said truthfully, "Sweet potatoes were not discovered by me, nor were they planted and promoted by me. They are the result of the hard work of several generations of Chen family members. Even if there were no me, how could the emperor, with such a keen eye, miss such a magical thing?"

Kangxi patted Jiang Chen on the shoulder, very dissatisfied with his modesty, "Of course I will not forget the contribution of the Chen family. I have carefully read Jiang Qing's memorial, which includes the time and yield of sweet potato planting in various parts of the north, as well as the development of sweet potato planting areas in the south. It can't be that the Chen family did it, right?

If Wang Xuan refuses to accept the reward, isn't that like Zi Gong refusing the money? If Wang Xuan is not rewarded, what will we do if someone else discovers a new high-yield crop in the future?"

The Zigong Refusing Gold mentioned here refers to two short stories recorded in "Lüshi Chunqiu": "Zigong Refusing Gold" and "Zilu Accepting the Ox".

Among Confucius' 72 disciples, there were two disciples named Zigong and Zilu. Zigong's country lost a war, and Zigong redeemed many people with his own money, but refused the country's reward; and what about Zilu? He bravely saved a drowning man, and the man gave Zilu a cow as a thank you, and Zilu gladly accepted it.

When Confucius heard what his two disciples did, he disagreed with Zigong's approach and praised Zilu's approach. Why? You have a noble character, but you cannot ask everyone to do the same. If you want to promote a trend, you must reward it.

Corresponding to Jiang Chen, if Jiang Chen does not get any reward for offering such crops, then people who discover similar crops may give up reporting to the court because there is no profit.

Kangxi had already said this, Jiang Chen could only reply, "The yield we have seen now is only that of the farm. It is just the first step. We should wait until the sweet potato is successfully promoted before rewarding them."

Kangxi was helpless. If others had the credit, they would have wanted to realize it immediately, fearing that something might go wrong in the future. But Jiang Chen had to wait until everything was settled, and it might take several years.

However, it was Jiang Chen's style that won Kangxi's appreciation. The important officials in the court were obsessed with party affairs and did not consider people's livelihood at all. Although Kangxi liked to balance the court, he was also very dissatisfied with the officials who were busy giving gifts and taking sides, and were not content to do their own jobs.

Kangxi patted Jiang Chen again and pretended to blame him: "You, you!"

After that, he took the sweet potato in his hand and asked, "Wang Xuan, have you ever tasted sweet potatoes? Let's try this sweet potato feast today."

Jiang Chen has done a lot of research on this. If sweet potatoes are to be promoted, in addition to yield, they must rely on excellent taste. So in the past two years, Jiang Chen has been thinking about how to cook sweet potatoes from time to time.

As a plant rich in starch, sweet potatoes can be made into sweet potato cakes and sweet potato vermicelli without any difficulty. When paired with meat, they absorb the greasiness of the meat, which is also a recipe that cannot go wrong. The sweetness of sweet potatoes themselves is also a good match with the sweetness of sugar.

In this way, Kangxi first tasted the original roasted sweet potato, which added some confidence to the promotion of this crop. This sweet potato is simply roasted, and the taste is very good when eaten alone. It also has a sweetness that is difficult for ordinary people to taste, which is indeed rare.

The emperor's arrival and the requested sweet potato feast made the farm's kitchen extremely busy. Everyone was very excited. Who could have thought that they would be able to cook a meal for the emperor in this lifetime!

The chef worked hard to prepare a table of dishes. Liang Jiugong had tested the poison and served it to Kangxi.

Kangxi didn't have high expectations for this at first. After all, even if the kitchen could only handle as much as the imperial kitchen's food, he thought as long as it was edible it would be fine.

I didn’t expect that the food served would taste good, but the cooking method was novel.

The first dish is a dessert, sweet potato and glutinous rice wine meatballs. The sweet potatoes are steamed and mashed into a paste, and then added with glutinous rice flour, glutinous rice wine and other ingredients to make meatballs. The taste is very unique.

Kangxi tasted the meatballs in the bowl with a novelty. They had the unique chewy texture of glutinous rice, and the distinct graininess of sweet potatoes, paired with the non-intoxicating fermented glutinous rice. Although Kangxi didn't like sweets, he couldn't help but eat the small bowl of meatballs and fermented glutinous rice.

After eating it, Kangxi asked in surprise: "This doesn't seem like our northern cooking, it has a bit of southern flavor."

Jiang Chen answered: "Your Majesty is indeed well-informed. It is the southern fermented rice wine. Sweet potatoes first appeared in the south. I thought that perhaps there was a mature production method in the south, so I learned this common method from the Chen brothers."

This dish of fermented rice wine has aroused Kangxi's interest, and he began to look forward to the following dishes.

Next up is the combination of sweet potatoes and meat.

Fried sweet potato and pork meatballs are made by steaming sweet potatoes, mashing them into a paste, mixing them with minced pork, flour, eggs and seasonings, making the meatballs into balls that are fried until golden brown and taste very delicious.

Although fried, the meatballs were not greasy at all because of the sweet potato. They were served steaming hot and Kangxi almost got burned when he took his first bite. After eating one meatball, his mouth was filled with the delicate aroma of pork and sweet potato.

Braised pork ribs with sweet potatoes, stew the ribs with sweet potatoes together, the deliciousness of the ribs and the sweetness of the sweet potatoes are blended together, and it is rich in nutrition.

This dish is also a combination of sweet potato and pork. It is indeed mainly nourishing. It is still a bit cold in early spring, so this pot of sweet potato stewed with pork ribs is very suitable. This dish has been stewed for quite some time, and the sweet potato has almost melted into the pork ribs soup. Only simple salt is added for seasoning, which warms the heart of the person who eats it.