Ang Lee smiled and said, "Generals, please don't be angry. I was the one who reported Gelofeng's disloyalty to the Tang dynasty to the imperial court, so my troops naturally prepared better. As for our army's smooth progress, we really didn't expect Nanzhao to be so weak! In addition, your preparations were not in vain. Scaring Yu Chengjie into submission was a very good result. In addition, Nanzhao has just been conquered and needs enough soldiers to defend it. You have come at the right time. After all, this official still has important matters to attend to and definitely cannot stay in Nanzhao. As for your merits, they are just empty titles. This time, we have captured Nanzhao Royal City and obtained a lot of treasures. I will give each of you 100 chests of treasures. You can distribute them to your soldiers as you see fit. These treasures are much more practical than merits. "
These two generals worked so hard to come here, so Ang Lee naturally couldn't let them get nothing. If he didn't give them some benefits, they would definitely feel uncomfortable. If they couldn't restrain their soldiers and something bad happened, then they would be in big trouble.
When the two generals heard that they could each get a hundred chests of treasures, they were naturally very happy. Their eyes were full of excitement. After all, they also had to give some benefits to their soldiers. Otherwise, it would be really difficult to restrain them. Of course, they would definitely take a considerable amount and only give a portion of the treasures to their soldiers. This was all common sense, so there was nothing strange about it.
After comforting the two generals, Ang Lee began to prepare for the journey. The railway to the Indian Sea was very important, so the route of this railway had to be planned and built many years later. As long as this railway was completed, in the future, the ordinary people of the Tang dynasty could go to the Indian Sea to see the sunrise. At that time, a large group of scholars and poets who loved to travel would be born.
Because the situation in Nanzhao wasn't very stable, when Ang Lee led three hundred guards forward, Chen Zhuang disagreed and added another thousand soldiers. These thousand soldiers were all elites and kept a distance of thirty li from Ang Lee. As long as Ang Lee was in danger or needed, he could mobilize these soldiers at any time. These soldiers were completely under Ang Lee's command.
After leaving Nanzhao's capital, Ang Lee headed west, preparing to take a look at the western part of Nanzhao. Someone had already explored the terrain in the east, so Ang Lee wanted to explore the terrain in the west.
After crossing a large river that ran from north to south, Ang Lee and his party entered the vast Yunlong Mountain Range. This mountain range was very large and long, and the terrain was quite complicated. It was a relatively desolate mountain, and the population here was very sparse. They would probably have to walk for dozens of li to meet a person. In some particularly desolate places, it wasn't rare to not meet a person for hundreds of li.
Because it was too remote, the road conditions in the Yunlong Mountain Range were very bad. However, there were many kinds of wild animals and plants, especially precious herbs. They were almost everywhere, and there were even some herbs that Ang Lee had never seen before.
Since there were so many precious herbs here, Ang Lee naturally wanted to collect them. At the same time, he could also let the soldiers get some extra income and make them happy. Previously, when they were in other places, many soldiers picked some precious herbs and sold them to the merchants in the city when they passed by, making a lot of money.
It was very hard for the soldiers to follow Ang Lee, and sometimes it was very dangerous. Therefore, Ang Lee naturally couldn't treat these soldiers unfairly. Finding an opportunity for them to earn money was a very good way to win over people's hearts.
"Soldiers, spread out and search. Whoever finds the herbs will have it. How many precious herbs you can get depends on you."
Ang Lee said.
When the soldiers heard this, they were all very excited. Soon, they all spread out to look for precious herbs.
Ang Lee and Zhao Yefu were also looking for herbs nearby. There was no one here, so there were quite a lot of precious herbs. Not long after, Ang Lee and Zhao Yefu found many precious herbs. They were all relatively old. Although Ang Lee wasn't short of money, he was still very excited when he saw these gains.
"An, what's the fruit on this fruit tree?"
Zhao Yefu pointed at a fruit tree and asked.
Ang Lee glanced at it and said curiously, "Yefu, isn't this a very ordinary mango? You're from the south, how could you not have seen mangoes before?"
"Mangoes, we don't have mangoes there!"
Zhao Yefu said.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "Yefu, these mangoes are still green. They're not ripe. We can't eat them. Let's go! Let's see if we can find some edible fruits. "
There were many wild fruit trees in the mountains. Some wild fruits were very rare. Ang Lee didn't know their names. For the fruits that he didn't know, Ang Lee didn't dare to put them in his mouth so as not to poison himself to death.
"Yefu, there's a lychee tree here. It's the favorite fruit of the imperial concubines in the palace. Once again …"
Li An opened his mouth and told Zhao Yefu the story. Riding in the red dust, the concubine laughed. No one knew it was Lychee. This interesting story made Zhao Yefu laugh.
Of course, she had eaten lychee. There were more than a dozen lychee trees in their palace. Although lychee was delicious, it was too cold and couldn't be eaten too much. Zhao Yefu ate some lychee every year, but she ate very little. She didn't expect that the imperial concubines of the Tang dynasty loved lychee so much and could eat so much.
However, such a story would not be repeated in the future. The railway of the Tang dynasty had been built to the north of Central Sichuan. The lychee in Central Sichuan could be transported to the palace in one day. There was no need for long-distance transportation by horse anymore. The transportation cost was greatly reduced.
After taking a closer look, Li An found that these were all wild lychees. The lychees were relatively small and were far inferior to the ones cultivated by humans. After all, the lychees he found grew in the cracks of the rocks under harsh conditions. Without sufficient nutrition, the lychees naturally couldn't grow big. On the other hand, the cultivated lychees required frequent fertilization, so naturally, they could grow very large lychees.
Ang Lee picked a few lychees and tasted them in his mouth. He felt that the taste was not bad. However, the taste was indeed not as good as the cultivated lychees. The taste was much worse.
"Zhao Fu, how does the lychees taste?"
Ang Lee asked.
Zhao Fu nodded with a smile and said, "The taste is not bad. However, I don't like small lychees very much. I still hope for big lychees. The lychees planted in my palace are very delicious. Unfortunately, I left in a hurry and didn't have time to pick some."
"Hehe! I'm afraid that the lychees in your palace were not ripe when we left! Unripe lychees can't be eaten. "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
Now was the season of fruit ripening. However, when Ang Lee just left the palace of Dongnu Province, the season was not yet ripe, so there was no chance to eat the fruit.
"That's also true. I forgot. Let's see if there are any delicious fruits."
Zhao Fu said softly.
After being with Ang Lee for a long time, Zhao Fu also became a glutton. He especially liked to eat delicious things. His mouth became more and more picky.
There were indeed a lot of wild fruits in the wild. Ang Lee soon found dozens of wild fruits. However, most of them were not very delicious. There were only a few that tasted good. Lychees were one of them.
The fruits in the wild were generally smaller. After all, the living conditions in the wild were relatively harsh. No one would deliberately fertilize the fruit trees. Without sufficient fertilizer, the fruit naturally could not grow big. To make the fruit grow bigger, it was necessary to constantly fertilize it. It had to be fertilized many times a year. Constant fertilization was the most basic condition to ensure the growth of the fruit.
"An, what fruit is this? It looks so beautiful. Can it be eaten?"
Zhao Yefu saw a Dragon Fruit and asked curiously.
This dragon fruit was hidden in the bushes and was almost completely covered. However, because the fruit was red, even if the whole tree was covered, it was easy to find.
When Zhao Shifu saw the red fruit, he discovered that it was a Dragon Fruit tree with several fruits on it.
"Oh, this is a dragon fruit. It's a fruit that tastes good. You can directly eat it after picking it."
Ang Lee said with a smile.
In the Tang dynasty, dragon fruit was not popularized. After all, transportation was very inconvenient. The fruit rotted when it was transported to the north. Only southerners had eaten dragon fruit. Northerners could not eat dragon fruit. It was good enough to see dragon fruit.
Speaking of dragon fruit, this is a perennial climbing succulent plant. The plant has no main root. A large number of lateral roots are distributed in the shallow soil layer. At the same time, there are many aerial roots that can climb and grow. The roots are dark green, thick, up to seven meters long and ten centimeters thick, with wavy edges. Climbing roots grow at the stem nodes, which can climb other plants to grow. There are mostly three ribs. Each section of stem node has small thorns in the depression. Due to long-term growth in the southern tropics, its leaves have degenerated. The photosynthetic function is undertaken by the stem. The interior of the stem is a large number of parenchyma cells full of viscous liquid, which is conducive to absorbing as much water as possible in the rainy season. There are a large number of compound buds and mixed bud primordia in the buds, which can be extracted into leaf buds and flower buds. In the early stage of flower buds development, under suitable temperature conditions, it can be transformed into leaf buds. The exuberant growth of the apex tissue of the branches can also be extracted into flower buds under suitable conditions.
"Yofu, this dragon fruit is a specialty of Nanzhao. It really likes the tropical climate. The climate in your place is still too cold. It is very difficult for the dragon fruit to survive. They can only grow here. This kind of fruit needs more water to thrive. It needs more water to maintain its vigorous growth. In rainy weather, it should be drained in time to prevent the root system from rotting. The dragon fruit's root system can maintain normal growth even if it grows on rocks. It can grow very big fruits without fertilization. That's why we can see the dragon fruit tree in this barren mountain, and it can still bear such big fruits."
Ang Lee said.
Dragon fruit is very resistant to barrenness. Even if there is no fertilizer, it can still grow very well. However, when fertilization is applied, the effect is naturally better. For example, sweet potatoes can grow very big without fertilization, but with fertilization, sweet potatoes can grow better. Without fertilization, one mu of sweet potatoes can have a harvest of thousands of pounds. After fertilization, the yield of one mu of land can be as high as tens of thousands of pounds. This is the huge benefit of fertilization.
Naturally, no one fertilized the wild dragon fruits here. However, the dragon fruits that were specially planted in the future needed fertilization. This way, they could bear more and bigger fruits. Sometimes, in order to make the fruit bigger and more marketable, they would also use the appropriate amount of fruit. This way, they could ensure that the fruit would grow bigger and better.
Naturally, the wild Dragon Fruit didn't have the human fruit. However, the wild Dragon Fruit couldn't bear more than a few fruits. There was a huge gap between the artificial Dragon Fruit and the artificial Dragon Fruit. No matter what kind of fruit it was, there was a big gap between artificial cultivation and wild growth.
Of course, artificial cultivation has its advantages and disadvantages. That is, the nutrition of the fruit will become weaker. For example, wild ginseng is very effective, while artificial ginseng is much less effective and the price is much cheaper. The fruit is the same. Maybe the taste is better, but the rich nutrition will be weaker.
After all, the concentrated fruit is the essence. Artificial fruit trees have a lot of water in the fruit because of too much fertilization. If the water content is too high, the nutrition will naturally be diluted. Therefore, the nutrition is far less than that of wild fruits.
The soldiers are picking wild fruits nearby, but Ang Lee and Zhao Shifu are looking for delicious fruits. After all, Ang Lee no longer needs to pick wild fruits to sell, and the economic conditions of the soldiers are naturally far less than Ang Lee. Because they are short of money, they have been looking for the previous herbs and preparing to sell them to the medicine shops in passing cities. At least they can get a good income, so that their lives can be better and easier.
The Cloud Dragon Mountain here is not only beautiful, but it is also the place that the Tang dynasty must pass through to build the railway to the Indian Ocean. Ang Lee wants to stay in this mountain for a while to walk around and have a good understanding of the terrain here. Only by understanding the terrain here can he find the best route to build the road, so as to avoid huge waste.
Ang Lee asked the soldiers to scatter to look for precious herbs. First, it can increase the soldiers' income. Second, it can let them be familiar with the surrounding terrain and geological characteristics while looking for herbs, so that they can find the best place to build the road.
If he directly ordered the soldiers to go to the mountain to familiarize themselves with the terrain, it is estimated that the soldiers will be more disgusted and their enthusiasm for work will be greatly reduced. After all, no one is willing to idle around in the mountain every day. They will be tired to death. But if they can collect precious herbs, the meaning is different. They can get an extra income while working. How can they refuse such a good thing? When Ang Lee made this decision, all the soldiers were very excited. They all felt that Ang Lee's order was very wise. They are all willing to go to the mountain to look for herbs and familiarize themselves with the terrain at the same time, so as to achieve the effect of earning extra money while working.
A job with extra money is a good job. It is a job that can stimulate people's interest the most. A job without extra money is not a good job. No one likes it.
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