African cassava is indeed a grain and one of the three major potato species in the world.

And in later generations, at least one billion people relied on cassava as their main food, 800 million of them in Africa.

"I have tried to make new foods out of cassava, beans, and a small amount of salt, meat, etc., and have been well received by eighty thousand slaves, who have even praised me as the most merciful duke in the world."

"Eight, eighty thousand slaves......" Dugu Shura was stunned.

"This is not counting thirty-three thousand excellent slave soldiers, and ten thousand six hundred excellent slave craftsmen." Liu Mu explained happily.

Dugu Shura could never have imagined that Liu Mu would have so many slaves. Immediately asked, "And that?" ”

"These slaves are payment, you know that the warehouse of the ship back to our Datang is limited, so it can only be shipped back slowly, most of them are in Djibouti and Mogadishu ports, and there are very few here in Spice Bay, only 2,000 slave soldiers and more than 20,000 mine slaves."

Dugu Shura has a feeling that as long as Liu Mu leaves the Tang Dynasty, countless people will be a character with terrible aggression when they go there.

Dugu Shura said: "I didn't dare to bring the letter of the saint with me, it was on the ship, the ship was in the port, I only brought six boats here, the first batch came over with two battalions, and the other eighteen ships went to Djibouti. ”

It is still more than 200 miles from the port, and the willow wood has been deep inland for several days.

Liu Mu who believes in something is not in a hurry, and Liu Mu can probably guess the content, countless are resources and silver.

After accompanying Dugu Shura back to the camp, Liu Mu went to wash and change clothes, but Dugu Shura found that some of the people he brought ran to the room.

Is the food here special?

You must know that even the sailors of the Fusang tribe on the ship have the same food as everyone else, and the food of the Tang army is excellent.

Dugu Shura also went to the room.

After the countless slaves in charge of digging had washed their dirt from the river, each of them carried a clay plate with a foot in diameter, and in the center of the tray was a clay bowl.

Then the large clay plate was divided into six, and everyone lined up to eat.

Yellow, white, black, green, yellowish, red, and then a bowl of soup that feels like there's a lot of meat.

"General, it looks good."

Dugu Shura glanced at the soldiers talking beside him and said in a low voice: "This is a slave's meal, you didn't find the soldier's room?" ”

"It seems to be."

There are soldiers of the Tang Army, also slave soldiers.

Dugu Shura believed that the food in the soldiers' quarters must be good.

It happened that Liu Mu finished washing and changing his clothes and came to Dugu Shura, and Dugu Shura asked Liu Mu: "What is this?" ”

Liu Mu carefully looked at the cauldron and explained to Dugu Shura:

"The black beans are ground and the brown rice is crushed, then the tapioca paste, the boiled beans, I don't know what the yellow one is, the pale yellow one should be a banana, a roasted banana. Then there were a few oranges, of which I had already rewarded the kitchen steward, and with which the meal was much more refreshing, and the slaves were very happy. I don't know what kind of broth the bowl is. ”

Dugu Shura exclaimed in amazement and then said to Liu Mu:

"It looks very good, it feels very delicious, much better than the food in the army when we first started the army, and the orange is a fruit."

"There's an infinite amount of fruit here, it's innumerable." Liu Mu is talking about wild fruits, and with his tens of thousands of people, for this continent, wild food alone is enough to feed millions of people.

What's more, willow is still arranging for people to continuously transplant and graft this fruit tree in the East African plateau, as well as cultivate farmland, graze and so on.

Regular soldiers ate better than slaves.

However, Liu Mu divided the food into three classes, the good soldiers ate the best food, and the inferior soldiers ate only a little better than the slaves. But there is rice.

There is not much rice in willow, and the fields here are mainly grown with wheat, and the rice has to be transported from Lingnan.

The meal prepared for Dugu Shura was the first-class meal for the generals.

"You don't seem to have a small stove on your own?" Dugu Shura was surprised.

"My eldest brother-in-law said that I must learn to share weal and sorrow with soldiers, and I can't eat inferior food with soldiers, but at least fifty people need to eat high-class generals' meals, so this is also called sharing weal and woe."

Liu Mu's explanation is not sophistry, and Dugu Shura can understand it.

What's more, Liumu has always had a grading system for soldiers and generals, if a certain regiment ranks last in each competition, all the soldiers in this regiment will be reduced to one or two ranks, and military attachés at all levels will be reduced by one or two.

On the contrary, the best regiment will be promoted to a first-class meal.

Dugu Shura saw that there were more than 20 kinds of fruits alone, which were more abundant than those in the Indochina Peninsula, and he was surprised why Liumu didn't build a canning workshop here.

The canning shop is a very good business.

Dugu Shura didn't understand the business matters, and he believed that there were few people in Datang who would be smarter than Liu Mu, so he didn't ask even if he had doubts.

For the next few days, Liu Mu said nothing about the current situation on this side of the Mediterranean.

Until Liu Mu saw the letter of the Tang Emperor Li Shimin.

After reading the letter, Liu Mu sat alone in his study for a whole day, not letting people into the study, and even Dugulan was refused to see Liu Mu.

There are no special secrets in the letter, just ......

Liu Mu was frightened by Li Shimin's plan, and in the next five-year plan, Li Shimin's material supply requirements for Datang will be increased by five times. And to achieve such a huge supply of materials, especially steel production, then the investment required is astronomical.

In the iron box, there is also a joint list of Shangshu Province.

In this above table, eight words are specially used, sin is in the present generation, and merit is in the future. This is a direct proclamation of Li Shimin's current grand plan and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty to build the canal, which requires the consumption of countless coins, countless manpower, and material resources.

There is certainly no way to enforce this resolution.

However, Li Shimin still hopes that Liu Mu can support him, and a sufficient number of iron oxen, iron donkeys, and fire fish can replace at least 100,000 and 200,000 servants. Then it's time for the coins you need.

Li Shimin would love to see the train from Luoyang to Chang'an open.

Liu Mu took out the above table given by the Ministry of Industry in the iron box, the Ministry of Industry calculated that Luoyang to Chang'an, the 800-mile railway only needs more than 30 bridges like the Jing River, many seemingly small rivers, in order to smooth the passage of the train, it is necessary to repair the bridge, only more than 30 bridges need the amount of cement......

The data given by the Ministry of Industry is very terrifying in the eyes of Shangshu Province.

In Liu Mu's eyes, this bit of cement and steel bars is a fart, as long as there is enough silver to repair the steel mill and cement mill, these consumption is not much at all.

However, the Ministry of Industry estimated that it would take eight years to complete the 800-mile railway.

As for the cost, the preliminary estimate should be around 4.5 million yuan.