"Ren Jun didn't want the gold, precious stones, and beautiful maids offered by the Sogdians, but he asked for these seeds, and I bought them, and I knew that they were as expensive as gold, and the other two were scarce, but this little white flower couldn't be eaten when it looked at it, what was it used for?"
After Ren Hong granted the Sogdians' request and took a caravan to meet Fu Jiezi next month and sent them away, Lu Jiuyu, who had also been a businessman, expressed his puzzlement, feeling that Ren Hong had lost money on this deal.Ren Hong asked him rhetorically: "When you went to Dawan with Fu Gong before, did you ever see a poisonous cloth in the bazaar?"
”Lu Jiuyu slapped his palm: "I've seen it, the cloth is very soft, red and blue, not like silk linen, and I also bought one for my wife!"
”"Then do you know what the poison cloth is made of?"
Lu Jiuyu said: "I once asked the Dawan people, and the Dawan people said that there is a kind of tree with body poison, and the tree will have hair, white as snow, softer than wool, and the body poison cloth is woven from the hair on the tree. ”Speaking of this, he stopped, stared at the cotton in Ren Hong's hand, and said in surprise: "Could it be that this white flower is the tree hair woven into the poisonous cloth?"
”"It's cotton, read it to me, cotton, flowers."
Ren Hong stuffed the cotton with the seeds back into the bag, and the Sogdians brought him a total of two bags, enough to plant dozens of acres.However, Ren Hong came to cotton, not for weaving, at the moment the Central Plains advocates silk and linen, although the poisonous cotton cloth is popular in the west of the Green Ridge, but in the Central Plains, because of the scarcity of quantity, the price is high, it is not competitive at all.Its only advantage over silk and hemp is probably that it is easy to dye and not easy to fade.The original use of Ren Hong's pondering for cotton was to make fillers and make cotton jackets and quilts.After coming to the Han Dynasty for more than a year, he found that the most difficult thing was winter, especially in the west of the river.In the cold season, the rich can nest on the kang, wear fur robes, and wear thick robes stuffed with feathers to keep warm.The poor soldiers did not have such conditions, so they could only stuff reeds, catkins, and straw into the mezzanine of their robes, and several people shivered and huddled together, burning the scarce firewood in winter, and shaking to keep warm.Whenever you need to go out, in case of cold wind and snow, it can reach more than ten degrees below zero outside, and it is common for people to freeze to death, even if they don't die, they often lack an ear and a finger.For example, the siege of Baideng, the winter march of the Han army, and the fall of the finger of the twelfth or thirteenth.And the winter in the Western Regions is even colder than in Hexi!
Ren Hong counted the time, March was approaching, and he would be able to leave in October, but he felt sorry for the guards who wanted to stay here!
Of the fifty people who stayed in Shanshan City, Ren Hongneng ensured that all of them wore sheepskin furs and thick felt hats.But what if the Han Dynasty's military strength in the Western Regions became 500 or 5,000 in the future, and the number of people who moved to the Western Regions or even further west reached 50,000?
I'm afraid it won't be for everyone.At this time, if you can plant cotton extensively, put on a small cotton jacket stuffed with cotton in the sandwich, and have a large quilt cover at night, it will be simply warm and beautiful.Of course, the premise of this is that Ren Hongneng will be the cotton in his hands, and popularize the two bags of cotton seeds in his hands, one bag of cotton is slightly larger, this is from its own poisonous Indian Asian cotton, is a perennial woody cotton, and the zodiac woman in later generations weaves this cotton.The other bag is slightly smaller, this is Kangju, Yue's herbaceous cotton, the scientific name of later generations is "African grass cotton", is the first cotton species to be eliminated in history.If you change to someone else, you will definitely choose Asian cotton with larger cotton blossoms to plant.But Ren Hong sealed the bag of Asian cotton and let it continue to wait, and in the spring of the next year, he first tried to plant grass cotton with stubby cotton wool in Shanshan.It's funny to say that cotton can help keep people out of the cold, but Asian cotton from India itself is not cold-tolerant.Historically, it was introduced to China from Southeast Asia, and only spread in the tropical areas of Yunnan and Hainan, and it was difficult to continue north.Because the perennial Asian cotton could not survive the winter in the cold north, it is no wonder that the Yuan Dynasty had to introduce cotton spinning technology from Hainan.It was not until it took a thousand years to improve and adapt that Asian cotton could cross the Yangtze River and reach the north, relying on production, slowly replacing linen and silk and clothing the world.It is impossible for Ren Hong to snap his fingers and let Asian cotton achieve a millennium evolution, so it is better to plant grass cotton first, this cotton is an annual herb, planted in spring and harvested in autumn, but it is quite suitable for the climate of southern Xinjiang.Thinking like this, Ren Hong changed into a short shirt that he wore for work, wearing calf nose pants and straw sandals underneath, wearing a hat on his head, carrying a hoe, and calling Lu Jiuyu and several officials to go out with him.The officials were no strangers to this scene, and they all smiled and said, "Ren Shilang is going to irrigate the garden and plant vegetables again." ”Outside the dock courtyard of the Tuntian soldiers, a ditch was specially opened from the big canal, and dozens of acres of fields were specially used to grow vegetables outside the courtyard, and the flowing water was gurgling, moistening this dry land, and the industrious officials made it more vibrant.Most of them are vegetables commonly eaten by Han people such as onions and leeks, but there are also ten acres of land separated by ridges, which is Ren Shilang's own land, which is specially used to plant exotic melons and fruits.After half a year of cultivation, under the guidance of Song Litian, Ren Hong personally watered and fertilized, hoeed weeds, and his small vegetable garden was already very lush, still full of greenery under the scorching sun.Broad beans, garlic and other Western vegetables grow here, and the green herbaceous plants on the edge of the small ditch are grown.If you smell it closely, in addition to the smell of dung, you can also smell a refreshing fragrance, which is "coriander".That is, the coriander that is indispensable for shabu-shabu in later generations, it and green onions are a pair made in heaven.When Ren Hong eats noodles, he always likes to chop and sprinkle coriander on top, and the hot noodle soup is called a beauty.But the other fifty officials were divided into two.Half of the people led by Zhao Han'er can accept it, and it tastes quite fragrant.The other half of the people, led by Han Dangdang, expressed their resolute unacceptability to the change in color of the coriander!
What do you mean by that?
You can take a person who rejects garlic and eat garlic and make him fall in love with it.But you can never make someone who hates cilantro fall in love with cilantro.In addition to the coriander that is already wilting, Ren Hong can still harvest a basket of courgettes at the melon stand erected by the red willow branches of the reed pole today.That is, the cucumber of later generations.But the primitive cucumber was not at all like the descendants of later generations, it was small, short and thick, and looked like an angry pufferfish, with a bulging appearance and covered with spikes.It's okay when it's tender, and you can chew it when you put it in your mouth, but if you put it too old, the spikes on it will become dry and hard, and you can prick people's blood!
This vegetable from West Asia has been introduced to the Central Plains by Zhang Qian, but the quantity is still small, Ren Hong thinks, because the Han people have not yet found the right way to eat it.Washing and scrubbing casually, Ren Hong stuffed a cucumber into his mouth, the texture of the melon flesh was crunchy, but the taste was slightly sour, unlike the cucumbers of later generations, only a refreshing flavor.But it is still an artifact to cool off, of course, Ren Hong, who prefers heavy food, prefers another way to eat: he soaked three jars of pickled cucumbers in salt water in the tile jar in the dock kitchen!
Right now, Lu Jiuyu was holding a jar in his arms, and his face was really turned to the side, as if he was afraid of the smell.And when Ren Hong personally opened the altar, a strong sour smell overflowed in the field, and the officials hid even further."
Eat?"
Ren Hong invited everyone with a pickled cucumber that had been soaked slightly yellow, and his eyes were full of anticipation.But from Lu Jiuyu to the rest of the officials, they all shook their heads, and the food concocted by Ren Shilang in an iron pot was delicious, but they couldn't accept this pickled cucumber.Everyone only watched in horror as Ren Hong put the cucumber into his mouth and chewed it violently, with a sour and satisfied face.Sour and sweet, cold and delicious, appetizing and digesting, the mutton that has been eaten in the morning does not feel tired at all, as long as there is a pickled cucumber, Ren Hong can kill a bowl of corn rice, is it really not fragrant?
It's a pity that no one can taste it with Ren Hong, at this moment, Ren Hong only feels that he is a lonely gourmet.After eating the pickled cucumbers, Ren Hong led everyone to work, carefully planting onions and carrots.They can overwinter in the field, but cumin does not seem to work, and they will have to endure until the beginning of spring next year before they can be sown on the land with grass and cotton.Ren Hong planned to let these hard-won crops survive in Shanshan first, and after collecting the seeds, they would be transmitted to Hexi and Chang'an like a relay.The Chinese have a talent for growing vegetables, and with the diligence and hard work of the farmers in the Central Plains, they will be able to take care of these plants.But nature has its own laws, agriculture really can't be in a hurry, and it will take ten or twenty years for these vegetables to really become popular in the world at the earliest.When the work was almost finished, a group of people came in the distance, but it was Song Litian and others who went to Tuntian District today to teach Loulan officials and the people the techniques of plowing the fields with oxen and intensive cultivation.Ren Hong greeted them with a hoe: "Song Litian, what's wrong?"
”"Ren Shilang, rotten wood can't be carved, dung can't go up the wall, and if it's lazy by nature, this farming thing can't be taught!"
Song Litian was angry, threw down such a sentence, and went back to the dock courtyard directly, shouting that he wanted to drink."
What's wrong?"
Ren Hong looked at Han Dangdang and Zuo Mo, the translator of Shanguo, and the two went with Song Litian today."
Don't mention it!"
Han Dangdang was very angry, glared at the weak-hearted translator and scolded: "Ren Jun and Song Litian are kind enough to teach Loulan farmers the art of cattle cultivation, but guess what those farmers say?"
”"How so?"
Ren Hong frowned.The translator Zuo Mo said cautiously: "They said that the harvest depends on the virtuous river god, and after burning the wasteland by the lake, after the seeds are sprinkled and trampled, they can no longer be managed, and if they do, it is against the will of the virtuous river god." ”Han Dangdang was straightforward and told the truth: "Therefore, they would rather bask in the sun and chew white grass roots every day than go to the ground to hoe and fertilize!"
”