Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Alas, Zhang Shikang shook his head slightly and had to nod in acknowledgment.

He originally just wanted to visit as an ordinary person, but he was ignored.

He is the current Duke of Zhenguo and Grand Marshal of the Army, Zhang Shikang. He is going to show his cards now.

The old man immediately became very excited when he saw this.

"My dear! My dear! Dian Wei! Dian Wei! Come out quickly!

The Grand Marshal has come to our house! Come out and kowtow!"

While shouting, the old man rushed into the house and called out his wife and his son.

Afterwards, the family of three bowed down to Zhang Shikang, leaving him completely confused.

He asked the family of three to stand up, and after a while of greetings, he finally calmed the old man down.

"Thanks to the Grand Marshal, the court allocated land to our family. Otherwise, we would have starved to death last winter!"

The old man said with tears in his eyes.

"What's the matter with that portrait?" Zhang Shikang pointed at the portrait on the table.

Zhang Shikang just looked at the portrait. It somewhat resembles himself, but not as handsome as him.

Upon hearing this, the old man quickly explained:

"I spent three taels of silver to buy the Marshal's portrait in the city. It was well worth it!"

Three taels of silver is a considerable expense for ordinary people.

"It's such a waste to save the money for living and buy a portrait!" Zhang Shikang said helplessly.

However, Zhang Shikang was somewhat happy in his heart. The fact that common people could afford three coins to buy a portrait showed that their lives were much better than two years ago.

"You may not know, Marshal, we have a proverb here, which goes, 'When you drink water, remember the person who dug the well.

My Xing family doesn't have any ancestral teachings, but one thing is that we must know how to be grateful and repay kindness.

My whole family was saved by the Grand Marshal. We have twelve acres of land! Without the Grand Marshal, I would have starved to death!"

Having said that, he asked his son to kowtow to Zhang Shikang. The son named Dian Wei really kowtowed to Zhang Shikang continuously and did not seem to have any temper.

Looking at the old man again, you can tell he has a strong temper. No wonder his son is a little cowardly and afraid of things.

Henan was a populous province in later generations, but at that time, Henan suffered disasters almost every year, including droughts, locust plagues, and wars.

If we push it back one or two years, if the plague had not been controlled in Xi'an Prefecture, it would have gradually spread here.

As the population decreases, more land will naturally be distributed equally.

Twelve acres of land, if cultivated well, would be enough for a family of three.

The most important thing is that during the entire year of Chongzhen’s 13th year, the imperial court exempted land tax.

"Then don't be so polite and kowtow all the time. I don't like it." Zhang Shikang said somewhat unhappily.

Seeing that Zhang Shikang was unhappy, the old man immediately asked his son to get up and gave him a few more instructions. Then the son went back to the house.

"Just now the Marshal mentioned sweet potatoes. Don't blame me for being rude. This thing is a treasure now!"

As the old man was speaking, he saw his son coming out from the inner room carrying a winnowing basket, which contained five or six pieces of sweet potatoes as thick as bananas.

"Look, Marshal. This is sweet potato. It's delicious. Marshal, please try it."

As he spoke, the old man generously picked up a piece, wiped it repeatedly on his tattered cotton jacket, and handed it to Zhang Shikang respectfully.

Zhang Shikang did not take it rashly. Instead, Hong Xiucheng took it, broke it into two pieces, put it under his nose and smelled it, took a bite of one half to taste it, and then handed it to Zhang Shikang with confidence.

Zhang Shikang naturally knew what sweet potatoes tasted like, but in order not to offend the old man, he took a bite, nodded, and asked:

"I'm a little confused, why are sweet potatoes so precious?"

Even without a series of improvements, the yield of sweet potatoes at this time is much higher than that of winter wheat.

But even so, it should not be linked to the baby.

"Hehe, Marshal, you may not know that this summer, the imperial court sent people to bring a lot of sweet potatoes and something called potatoes, saying that they wanted the people in our town to cultivate them.

But people in our town have never heard of this thing, and they are all worried that it will not produce food.

Although the imperial court distributed seeds for free and taught us how to farm, they said they would come to check every ten days, so most farmers didn’t dare to plant rashly.

Zhang Shikang understood it roughly as soon as he heard it.

Because the production capacity is only 5,000 acres, the seeds produced, whether sweet potatoes or potatoes, are limited.

In order to prevent the people from asking for free seeds but not farming, Song Yingxing asked the trained veteran farmers to take the yamen runners to investigate everywhere.

On the one hand, they supervise the people's farming, and on the other hand, if pests and diseases occur, they can teach the people how to deal with them.

But after all, it was a new crop, and people at that time did not want to accept new things. With the mentality of letting others try it first, many people did not dare to take the risk.

The family I visited apparently grew sweet potatoes and had a good harvest.

When other farmers discovered the high yield of this thing, they naturally became jealous, and the court also lifted most of the restrictions on the people, such as doing business.

Some people will come up with the idea of buying sweet potatoes and then selling them to other farmers at high prices to make a profit.

So when the old man first heard Zhang Shikang asking about sweet potatoes, he immediately became extremely wary and repulsive.

"Then why do you dare to plant it, old man?" Zhang Shikang asked with interest.

"Hehe, this is all thanks to the reputation of the Grand Marshal!

At the beginning, people in the capital said that the sweet potato was vigorously promoted by you, the Grand Marshal, and that its yield was higher than that of wheat.

If an outsider said this, I wouldn't believe it, but if you, the Grand Marshal, said it, I would believe it.

The neighbors around are also grateful to you, but they are all pretending to be grateful. They don’t believe in the things promoted by the Grand Marshal, only my family believes in it! "

The old man spoke in a very organized way, probably a farmer, and when he saw his idol, he did not forget to flatter and belittle him.

"Marshal, do you know how many sweet potatoes my family produced this autumn?" The old man stretched out his hands.

"It was sold for more than ten taels and fourteen cents of silver!"

The old man said with some excitement.

In the northern dryland areas, the average yield per mu of wheat is about one dan in normal years. Better land can produce more than one dan or even two dan, but poorer land, or in a bad year, may only produce six or seven dan or even less.

This year, after many efforts by the imperial court, the price of grain has finally stabilized at one stone and three ounces. With the continuous excavation of canals in the north, grain production will continue to increase.

If there are no major changes, according to the estimates of Song Yingxing and the Ministry of Revenue, grain prices are expected to return to a stable range of one liang per shi within two to three years.

Of course, this also benefited from the production enthusiasm of the people all over the world. There is also the people's desire for peace of mind, and the fact that the people farm for themselves rather than being tenants of large households further increased the people's enthusiasm.

The imperial court sent special people to collect the first crop of sweet potatoes. Of course, given the high water content of sweet potatoes, the price was not as high as that of conventional crops.

But even so, the old man only sold 60% of it, and he still got a full ten taels and fourteen cents of silver, which was a lot of silver. The old man had lived for more than forty years, and his family had never had so much silver.

"How many sweet potatoes did your family plant?" Zhang Shikang asked casually.

The old man was a little embarrassed, and after a while he said the truth:

"Reporting to the commander, my family has planted... planted two acres of land."

No wonder this guy feels embarrassed. He only planted two acres out of the twelve acres of land at home.

I do have some feelings for the Marshal, but not much.

But Zhang Shikang didn't care. After all, the yield per mu of sweet potatoes was much higher than that of wheat.

After the first promotion, word of mouth spread, and by the beginning of next spring, the court hardly needed to promote it, as people were rushing to plant it.

Compared with wheat, both potatoes and sweet potatoes are more drought-resistant than traditional crops.

Thinking of the drought, Zhang Shikang thought of this year's canal digging campaign and couldn't help asking:

"How is the year this year? Has the canal digging plan organized by the court benefited your Zhuxian Town?"

……