Due to their poverty, the Zhan people had very little meat to eat. Even if they hunted prey in the mountains, they were reluctant to eat the meat. Instead, they marinated the meat into bacon and sold it when they had the opportunity. A lot of the meat was more expensive than the poultry they raised at home. Naturally, they were reluctant to eat it.
The animal hides that the Zhan people hunted were for sale. Most of the meat was also for sale. Similarly, the good and precious herbs were also sold. What they left for themselves were the worst and most ordinary things.
This situation also reminded Ang Lee of that special era. In that era when everyone didn't have enough to eat, many poor people would exchange their rice at home for low-grade sweet potatoes, or even rotten sweet potatoes. One jin of rice could be exchanged for seven to eight jin of rotten sweet potatoes.
There was no problem eating as much rice as one could eat, but eating too many sweet potatoes would make one sick and make one's stomach very uncomfortable. Although sweet potatoes were known as longevity food, they were definitely not suitable to be eaten as a meal. Otherwise, when the living conditions were better, they wouldn't have given up on large-scale sweet potatoes. In the era when people didn't have enough to eat, the popularity of sweet potatoes was extremely widespread. Sweet potatoes were everywhere in the crops. After the rich life, the cultivation of sweet potatoes was greatly reduced. It was also removed from the position of staple food and became a kind of snack. People who used sweet potatoes as a staple food were almost impossible to see.
In the era of affluence, the sweet potato food that the common people came into contact with the most was the roasted sweet potatoes on the streets and the crispy potato chips sold in the shops. These were all snacks for people. It was really rare to see someone eating sweet potatoes as a meal, or it could be said that it was already very rare.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a delicacy like sweet potatoes. However, because it had just been popularized for a few years, it was not popularized throughout the world. The Western Border Area didn't have a crop like sweet potatoes yet. It would probably take a few more years for it to be popularized here. Once sweet potatoes were popularized here, the yield of food crops here would definitely be greatly improved. After all, the yield of sweet potatoes was much higher than other crops. The requirement for fertilizers was not high, so it was greatly beneficial for increasing the yield of crops.
Moreover, sweet potatoes could also grow in the mountains. It didn't have high requirements for the terrain. Planting sweet potatoes along the hillside was no problem. Many other crops couldn't do the same. Generally, they needed relatively flat land. What was most lacking in mountainous areas was flat and fertile land. Therefore, it was most suitable to plant sweet potatoes in mountainous areas. At the very least, sweet potatoes should be mixed with other crops. This way, not only could increase the yield, but also increase the richness of food, so that the local people could absorb different nutrients and make their bodies healthier and stronger.
"Have you heard of sweet potatoes?"
Ang Lee looked at a member of the Zhan Clan and asked.
Several members of the Zhan Zhan Clan, simultaneously.
"Sweet potatoes? What's sweet potatoes? "
A member of the Zhan Clan asked.
From their expressions, it could be seen that they really didn't know what sweet potatoes were. This was enough to show that the spread of information was still too slow. In an era without powerful media such as television, the speed of the spread of news would be greatly limited. Things that happened in one place might take many years to spread to another place. Unless it was an extremely important matter, it would spread faster.
Now, the people in Central Sichuan had already started to plant sweet potatoes. However, it hadn't been a long time since they started, and there weren't many sweet potatoes on the market. Therefore, it was normal that the people in the Western Detention Area hadn't heard of sweet potatoes. There was nothing strange about it. They usually didn't travel far, so it was normal that they didn't know much about the outside world.
"This sweet potato is a kind of grain. Its yield is very high. It's not difficult to produce 500 kilograms of it per mu. Moreover, the demand for fertilizer is not very high. Even without fertilizer, it can still grow well."
Ang Lee opened his mouth and said.
"500 kilograms of it per mu? That's amazing!"
The members of the Zhan Clan couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe that such a high-yield grain crop existed in this world.
Chen Long, who was at the side, opened his mouth and said, "This is the sweet potato. Try it!"
After saying that, he handed some processed sweet potatoes to a member of the Zhan Clan.
This so-called processed sweet potato was a snack that was boiled and dried. After adding sugar, the dried sweet potato would become more delicious. However, the premise was that one must not eat too much of it. Eating too much was not good for the body, and one would feel very sick of it.
After tasting the processed sweet potato, the members of the Zhan Clan felt that the taste was very good. They were very satisfied and asked about sweet potatoes with great interest.
"Where can I buy the seeds of sweet potatoes?"
A member of the Zhan Clan asked.
Ang Lee said, "Central Sichuan has already started planting. You can buy some in Central Sichuan. This is the closest place to you. Beijing has the most sweet potatoes, but it's too far from here. It's best to go to Central Sichuan to buy some sweet potatoes."
Ang Lee had already seen the environment here. It was very suitable for sweet potatoes to grow. Of course, almost all places were suitable for sweet potatoes to grow, unless there was no soil at all. The adaptability of sweet potatoes was not ordinary.
Sweet potatoes were an annual herb. The underground part of the root was a round, oval, or spindle-shaped root. The shape, skin color, and flesh color of the root varied according to the variety and soil. The stem was lying or rising, occasionally twining, multi-branched, cylindrical or rectangular, green or purple, and sparsely hairy or hairless. The stem nodes easily gave birth to adventitious roots. The stem of a sweet potato was usually called a vine or vine. The branches that grew on the main vine were called side vines. The appearance of the vine was generally divided into two types, the heavy type and the semi-upright type. The length of the vine varied greatly according to the variety. The shortest was less than one meter, while the longest could reach more than seven meters.
The soil fertility, planting time, and density also had a great impact on the length of the stem. The short vine variety had more branches, first growing in clumps, then growing semi-upright or creeping. The long vine variety had fewer branches, mostly creeping during growth, and the stem nodes had more roots in the soil. The stem was generally less than one centimeter thick. The color of the stem was pure green, brownish green, purplish green, and full purple. There were also green stems with purple spots. The surface of the stem was hairy, the stem had nodes, and the stem nodes had buds and root primordia, which could grow branches and hairs. The stem layer had milk tubes that could secrete white milk. When the seedlings were collected, there were many milk tubes, indicating that the sweet potato seedlings were rich in nutrients and had strong vitality. It could be used as one of the indicators to diagnose the quality of the sweet potato seedlings.
Sweet potato was a dicotyledonous plant. Its leaves were very beautiful and pleasing to the eye. Sweet potato seedlings first revealed two cotyledons, then true leaves appeared on them. Every node on the stem had one leaf. The leaves had petioles and leaves but no stipules. There were hairs on both sides of the leaves. The hairs on the young leaves were denser. The length and width of the leaves varied greatly depending on the cultivation conditions. There were two glands at the junction of the leaves and petioles. The leaves had many shapes, which were roughly divided into heart-shaped, kidney-shaped, triangular, and palm-shaped. The edges of the leaves could also be divided into full edges and different depths of imperfections. There were many variations in the shape of sweet potatoes. Not only were there significant variations among varieties, but there were also great variations in the shape of the leaves at different growth stages and at different growing positions of the same plant. The color of the leaves, the top leaves, the veins (the veins on the back of the leaves), and the base of the petiole could be divided into several types, such as green, green with purple, purple, and so on. This was one of the characteristics of the variety and was the basis for identifying the variety.
Many people in later generations believed that sweet potatoes were plants that only had leaves and could not flower. In fact, this understanding was very wrong. Sweet potatoes could actually flower, and their flowers were very beautiful. They were light purple and a little similar to morning glory. However, not all sweet potatoes could flower. There were many restrictions for sweet potatoes to flower. Some varieties could flower, while others could not. Even the varieties that were allowed to flower did not necessarily flower. They could only flower when certain climatic conditions were met. If the climatic conditions did not allow for it, it would not flower, or it would flower very little. For example, in most areas of the Tang dynasty, as long as it was a sweet potato variety that could flower, it could flower. However, in the northern regions of China, it was very rare for it to flower. Even if it was a sweet potato variety that could flower, it would not flower.
There was a saying among the people that it was very inauspicious for sweet potatoes to flower. The reason why they thought so was naturally because they were ignorant. Sweet potatoes flower was just a natural phenomenon. It had nothing to do with auspiciousness or inauspiciousness.
In the northern saying, there was a saying that when sweet potatoes flower, husband and wife split up. This was completely a rhyme. It was said by bored people. After a lot of spreading, people believed it. In fact, there was no scientific reason for it. This saying generally appeared in the north. This was because sweet potatoes in the north rarely bloomed. In the south, because sweet potatoes were more common, there would not be such boring sayings. However, the people in the south also did not like sweet potatoes that bloomed. When they found out that sweet potatoes bloomed, they would find ways to remove the flowers of sweet potatoes. They believed that the flowering of sweet potatoes would reduce the yield of sweet potatoes. Only by removing these useless flowers could sweet potatoes grow more and more.
Sweet potatoes were annual herbs of the Convolvulus family and the sweet potato genus. They could also flower, and this was also a normal phenomenon of sweet potatoes. Some sweet potato varieties would also bear seeds after flowering. These seeds could be used for reproduction, but due to the different planting conditions and varieties, the flowering of sweet potatoes was also different. Many people found out that sweet potatoes had bloomed. Generally, they would choose to remove the sweet potato flowers directly. There was a little scientific reason for this. After all, nutrition was limited. If the flowers occupied too many nutrients, then the root of the sweet potato would not grow well. In order to prevent the flowers from competing for nutrients, affecting the growth of the root, and reducing the yield of sweet potatoes, the best way was to remove the sweet potato flowers. There was nothing better than this way to do it once and for all.
Since the fruiting rate of sweet potatoes after flowering was not high, the planting of sweet potatoes was basically done by cuttings instead of seeds. The cuttings were also obtained from the germination of intact sweet potatoes. This was more efficient and effective.
In nature, there were many plants that could be planted for reproduction, but people often did not use seeds. Instead, they used other methods to reproduce plants. For example, strawberries also had seeds, but few people would use strawberry seeds to reproduce strawberries. Generally, they would choose to reproduce with stolons. This way, the reproduction speed would be faster, and the strawberries would grow and bear fruit faster.
Hearing that sweet potatoes could be obtained in Central Sichuan, several patriarchs of the Zhan Clan had made a decision. As long as they were free, they would go to Central Sichuan to try their luck and get some sweet potatoes back to plant. This way, the yield could be increased a lot, and they could use less land to get enough food to fill their stomachs.
However, now that the Zhan Clan had discovered tungsten ore here, as long as they smelted the ore and sold the products, their income would be greatly increased. As long as their income increased on a large scale, food would no longer be a problem. They could directly go to other places to buy food. However, they could only be at ease if they planted enough food themselves. With food in their hands, they would not panic.
Several Zhan Clan members tasted the sweet potato products, but this was a snack after all. They still did not know what a complete sweet potato looked like. They were even more confused about the sweet potato vines. As such, even if they went to Central Sichuan to look for it, it was likely that they would get it wrong.
"What does this sweet potato look like? Is it as big as an apple?"
One of the Zhan Clan members asked.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "Sweet potatoes are much bigger than apples. Did anyone bring a complete sweet potato?"
A guard happened to bring a complete ripe sweet potato, but it was not very big. It could be considered medium-sized, but it was still much bigger than an apple.
"Take a good look. This is what a sweet potato looks like. The skin is red. Because it is cooked, the skin is slightly faded. If it is not cooked, the skin will be much redder than this. In addition, in addition to sweet potatoes, there are also white potatoes, purple potatoes, and many other varieties. The taste and appearance are slightly different, but the difference is not very big. They are all varieties with high yields."
Ang Lee said as he handed a complete sweet potato to a Zhan Clan member.
The Zhan Clan member took the sweet potato and carefully observed it. He was full of curiosity about this food.
"Sweet potato, so this thing is a sweet potato."
The Zhan Clan member said.
"May I ask what a sweet potato seedling looks like? How big are the leaves?"
The Zhan Clan member did not stand on ceremony and asked directly.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "No hurry. When I return to the foot of the mountain, I will draw it with a pen and paper. At that time, you will naturally see what it looks like."
Obviously, there were some things that were very pale and powerless to be described with words alone. Once the description was not accurate enough, others would not understand. However, if it was expressed with pictures, the effect would be very different. If one could not understand after looking at the pictures, then they would be too stupid.
Several Zhan Clan members seemed to be very interested in sweet potatoes. Then, they asked some knowledge about sweet potatoes. Ang Lee also did his best to answer and did not hide anything.
For example, what problems to pay attention to in the seedling of sweet potatoes, how to control the temperature and humidity, and when choosing sweet potatoes, one must choose a good sweet potato that was big and did not have any external wounds. This was because when sweet potatoes with wounds were germinating, it was easy to rot. As a result, the seedling would fail.
The Apex
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