October Golden Autumn.

An army is slowly marching on the official road outside Chengdu.

Liu Chan and Liu Bei sat in the carriage.

Outside the car were Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu, Zhao Yun, Chen Zhi and other henchmen and important ministers riding horses, slowly walking towards Chengdu City in front.

At the end of August, Li Hui sent someone to inform Liu Bei, Liu Bei got the news, but he instinctively didn't believe it, he Liu Bei was also a poor person, although he was a weaver and a seller for a living, but he had also planted fields, what crops had he not seen?

He had heard of corn and sweet potatoes.

Even after Liu Bei read the letter, he suspected that Li Hui was trying to murder him.

Fortunately, Liu Chan also ordered someone to bring the real thing, and Liu Bei saw the real corn and sweet potato, so he believed what the letter said.

Seeing that the yield of corn and sweet potatoes was so high in the letter, Liu Bei was overjoyed, so he took Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu, Zhao Yun, Chen Zhi and other henchmen to Pingyi County.

Now until the beginning of October, Liu Bei and Liu Chan have returned to Chengdu together.

As for the origin of corn and sweet potatoes, Liu Bei did not have much doubt, he believed the words that Liu Chan taught Li Hui, after all, he had never seen these two crops, and only those ancient tribes could explain it.

Now that the corn has been harvested, the sweet potatoes are also being excavated and returned to the warehouse, and the benefits of corn and sweet potatoes have been seen.

Therefore, Li Hui came back with Liu Bei, and the governor of Nanzhong was replaced.

Because only Li Hui understood the planting methods of these two crops, he was appointed by Liu Bei as the captain of the agricultural school, and returned to Chengdu with Liu Bei and Liu Chan, and he will continue to be responsible for the planting of corn and sweet potatoes next year.

The governor of Nanzhong, compared with the captain of the agricultural school, his position is actually not much different, one is responsible for the military and political affairs of Nanzhong, and the other is responsible for the agricultural affairs of the whole country.

And the lieutenant of the school is more in the central government, in fact, the power is greater than that of the governor of Nanzhong, Li Hui can be regarded as promoted, and is responsible for promoting the cultivation of these two crops, and he will be able to leave his name in history in the future, and Li Hui is also willing.

The governor of Nanzhong was succeeded by Deng Fang.

Deng Fang was actually the first governor of Nanzhong in history, he was light and courageous, and won the respect of the barbarians in Nanzhong, although he was not as good as Li Hui, but it was more than enough to guard Nanzhong.

Liu Bei and Liu Chan shared a carriage, and Liu Bei looked at the farmland on both sides of the official road.

At this moment, it is autumn, and the fields are golden, but the rice is ripe.

Liu Bei stroked his beard and said: "The harvest of rice per mu is only 100 catties, while the corn is 500 catties per acre, and the sweet potato is enough for thousands of catties per acre." This rice is far inferior to corn and sweet potatoes, and I want to plant sweet potatoes and corn in the whole of Yizhou next year, what do you think? ”

"The lord is very good!" Xu Shu nodded and agreed: "If the entire Yizhou is replanted with corn and sweet potatoes, the grain output of my Yizhou can be increased by dozens of times, and then our army will not lack grain and grass at all!" ”

Liu Chan's face changed when he heard this, although corn and sweet potatoes are good, they are not as good as rice and wheat! When you first start eating, you naturally feel good, but if you eat too much, you won't say it's good.

Liu Chan hurriedly said: "Father, this matter must not be done!" ”

"Why not?" Liu Bei frowned when he heard this: "The yield of sweet potatoes is so high, its green vine can be used as horse feed, and people can also eat it, and the same is true for corn, the yield of this rice is so low, isn't it good to replace it?" ”

"Father only knows one thing, but he doesn't know the other!" Liu Chan explained: "Although the yield of this sweet potato is high, it is not easy to preserve, and it must be cellared, and if you eat too much, you will have diarrhea." If it is used to replace rice, although the sweet potato harvest is huge at the beginning, it cannot be preserved, but it is afraid that it will be rotten before the next year's harvest, and the common soldiers will also be emaciated because of stomach trouble.

And corn is only delicious when it is fresh and tender, and after it grows old, the grain becomes hard, and it is difficult to grind into flour, and the taste is not as good as rice at all, and it is okay to use it as military food to satisfy the stomach, if the people eat it for a long time, they are afraid that they will not do it. ”

"Is that so?" Liu Bei frowned when he heard this, looked at Li Hui and asked, "Is this true?" ”

Li Hui looked at Liu Chan, although Liu Chan said this kind of thing, but it didn't happen, because sweet potatoes were planted to be used as seeds, and they would continue to be planted in the coming year, so the soldiers didn't dare to eat them at all.

It's just that Liu Chan said this, Li Hui trusted Liu Chan very much, nodded and said: "That's the case, a few soldiers are greedy, and if they eat too much, they will have stomach trouble, it seems that this sweet potato can't be eaten too much, and it must not be used as a staple food!" ”

"Hey!" Liu Bei sighed and said: "It seems that everything has advantages and disadvantages, although the yield of this sweet potato is high, it is not easy to preserve, and it is a pity that you can't eat more." And the corn can be cooked when it is tender, but it will soon grow old again, and it will be crushed to make cakes, and the taste will be a little ...... Hey......"

At this time, there was no machine for making flour, and stone mills, wheat, rice, etc., were used, which were relatively easy to grind into flour, but corn grains were larger and the texture was harder, so it could only be crushed, and it was more difficult to grind into flour, so the corn tortillas made had a lot of crumbs and did not taste very good.

It's okay to make military rations in the army, but if you want the people to eat this for a long time without rice, they will definitely not want to.

Liu Chan shook his head and smiled, everything has pros and cons, there is no perfect thing, although corn and sweet potatoes are good, they also have flaws.

Liu Chan said with a smile: "Father doesn't have to be like this, although sweet potatoes are not easy to preserve, they can be steamed and dried, and they can also be made into flour to make rice for military rations, although the corn tortillas taste bad, but military rations are scarce on the battlefield, and it is not a problem to use them to fill their stomachs."

In my opinion, rice, sweet potatoes, and corn are planted in 30 percent, and the remaining 10 percent can be planted in cereals. In this way, our army's military rations and the people's grain stocks will be greatly increased, and their lives will be richer. ”

Liu Bei understands the method of sweet potato flour, Liu Chan also did it to Liu Bei when he was leveled, although there are no potatoes and sweet potatoes in this era, but there are kudzu roots and fern roots on the mountains, and there are also people collecting kudzu roots during famine, and fern roots are made to make glutinous rice cakes to fill their stomachs.

After listening to Liu Chan's suggestion, Liu Bei nodded and said: "Yes, although corn and sweet potatoes cannot completely replace rice, they can also greatly increase my grain storage in Yizhou.

Li Hui, now that the rice is about to mature, you are the captain of the agricultural school, so you will plan the land with the share that Adou said before, and transport the corn and sweet potato seeds to various places for collection, and you will vigorously promote planting in the coming year! ”

"No!" Li Hui gave up his hand to take the order.

………………

…………

In the blink of an eye, another year passed, and the year 217 A.D. came.

Since Liu Bei defeated Cao Cao in Hanzhong the year before last, Cao Cao has focused his strategy on Jiangdong.

In 215, Jiangdong Sun Quan took advantage of Cao Cao's attack on Hanzhong to attack Hefei, Cao Cao urgently withdrew his troops with Liu Bei, and then rushed to Hefei to repel Sun Quan.

In these 217 years, Cao Cao took the initiative to go south and led his troops to attack the mouth of the water.

Sun Quan could only attack Hefei, and Cao Cao could not help Sun Quan.

In September 217 AD, Cao Cao had no choice but to return to the north, leaving behind the sigh that his son should be like Sun Zhongmou (this happened in 213, the butterfly effect, and Cao Cao was busy with Guanzhong in 213 of this era. ）

On this day, outside the city of Chengdu, a scout rode his horse to the city of Chengdu and went straight to the government.

"Lord, after Cao Cao retreated from the army and returned to the north, he became the king of Yecheng!"