What’s even more outrageous is that it’s his own son!
Although he lived outside the palace, as the little prince of the empress and the crown prince of the Shang Dynasty, the good things in the palace were always delivered to Zishou like water.
But he doesn't like fancy clothes, delicious food, or treasures. Ever since he could walk, he has been following Long Jun in the yard to plant things every day!
Emperor Yi once thought about whether to take Ah Shou back to the palace in advance, but the emperor's promise is as good as gold, and he didn't want to do such a thing. On second thought, there were many emperors in ancient times who had strange hobbies. Liking farming is relatively speaking a very down-to-earth and normal hobby.
It seems like there's nothing wrong
—Except that every time he came to see his son, he was covered in mud.
The queen was a very gentle woman. Although she felt distressed to see her son like this, she never blamed Jiang Lin in her heart.
"Ahshou." She called her son softly.
Zishou stood up and brushed the mud off his hands.
He is now a three-year-old child. Unlike when he first became sensible, he knew that he was not his master's son but Emperor Yi's son. He even pulled at Jiang Lin's clothes and cried breathlessly, shouting that he wanted to change his father.
"Mother." Zishou saluted to the queen in a baby voice.
Although Jiang Lin didn't pay much attention to him, as the crown prince, the palace servants who had served him since childhood would still teach him some things he should learn, such as etiquette.
The queen used a handkerchief to wipe his cheeks and hands, but Zishou dodged it.
"Wait a minute, wipe it later!" Zishou bowed to Emperor Yi again, and then said excitedly, "Father, Queen Mother, I have something good to show you!"
Emperor Yi and the queen watched their son pick up the small bronze hoe and continue to dig in the same place where he had been squatting before.
The land is lush and green, and nameless plants are growing well.
"Lord Dragon, what's happening to Ah Shou?" Emperor Yi looked at Jiang Lin who was standing on the other side.
Looking at Jiang Lin now, Di Yi has no filter at all for him.
If there is a great beauty and every time you see her, she is playing in the mud with her sleeves and trouser legs rolled up, you will lose all your filters.
So at this moment, when he saw Jiang Lin wearing the short brown shirt that ordinary people wear and squatting on another piece of land with his sleeves rolled up in a very indecent manner, Emperor Yi was already very calm.
Jiang Lin smiled mysteriously and said, "It's a gift for Your Majesty on Ah Shou's third birthday."
"Oh?" Emperor Yi became interested.
He vaguely guessed something and looked at his son expectantly.
That thing grew in the soil and was very difficult to dig out. Even though the copper hammer was very sharp, Zishou still broke out in sweat from digging it out.
In the end, he dug it out.
Ah Shou held the treasure in his hands, which was still wet with soil, and said happily to Emperor Yi: "Father! This is what Ah Shou planted..."
He paused for a moment before uttering two words: "Sweet potato!"
His face was covered in dirt and sweat, and he looked like a little mud monkey, but his eyes were sparkling with an innocent smile. This smile was very contagious, and Emperor Yi couldn't help but smile as well:
"Oh? Sweet potato, what is this? What is it good for?"
He took the thing from his son's small hands with both hands very solemnly.
It is palm-sized and oblong, with a red outer skin, and feels heavy in the hand.
A Shou couldn't help but look back at Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin gave him an encouraging smile.
Ah Shou turned around and said very seriously: "You can eat it! The fruit can fill your stomach, and the leaves can be used to cook!"
Full
Emperor Yi was shocked. He looked at the ugly red fruit in his hand and asked uncertainly, "Can this really fill my stomach?"
Ah Shou was not sure: "Ah Shou has never eaten it either..."
Jiang Lin smiled and said, "Whether you can fill your stomach or not, Your Majesty will know when you have dinner here later."
Emperor Yi looked at the sky, reached out and touched his son's head: "Good."
In addition to this small hill of land that Jiang Lin personally taught his son to cultivate, Jiang Lin also planted sweet potatoes on the other two plots of land.
It’s just that the first sweet potato that grew was dug out by Zishou.
Sweet potatoes are easy to cook, so Jiang Lin asked Zong Yu to light a fire and made a simple sweet potato feast.
One plate is cut raw, one plate is steamed, and a few are roasted directly on the fire.
Huaiyin then cleaned the sweet potato leaves, fried some oil from the pork sent from the palace, and simply stir-fried them to create a delicious dish.
This novel method made Emperor Yi very interested. After all, at that time, the practice of "stir-frying" had not yet appeared.
Jiang Lin said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, these are all edible and non-toxic."
Emperor Yi did not doubt him, nor did he ask the palace servants to help. He first picked up a piece of fresh sweet potato with chopsticks.
It tastes crisp, sweet and juicy.
Emperor Yi's eyes lit up: "This thing tastes delicious!"
He motioned to the queen to have a taste as well.
The queen tasted a piece and nodded: "It tastes good."
The whole sweet potato is used for steaming. Emperor Yi took one and easily broke it open, revealing the golden flesh inside.
A rich sweet fragrance emanated from it.
Emperor Yi handed half of the fruit to the queen. She took a bite and found that the sweet and crispy flesh became soft and sticky after being ripe, and was even sweeter than when eaten raw.
"It tastes really good." After half a sweet potato was eaten, Emperor Yi touched his stomach and felt very happy. "This thing is delicious and filling, it's really great!"
Moreover, the taste of "sweet" is absolutely scarce nowadays.
Only the upper class nobles can taste the sweetness of honey.
Sweet potatoes, whether eaten raw or cooked, have a rich sweet flavor.
This is good stuff!
A'shou was also eating, but he was young and afraid that he would choke, so the palace servants scooped out sweet potatoes with a spoon and fed him one spoonful at a time.
The demure queen finished eating half of the sweet potato and couldn't help but say, "This cooked sweet potato is very delicious."
Emperor Yi said, "I think it tastes better when eaten raw."
The queen retorted: "After steaming, it becomes soft and sweeter."
Emperor Yi: "It is crispy and sweet when eaten raw, and it is very juicy."
Jiang Lin did not expect that this distinguished couple would actually argue about how to make sweet potatoes delicious.
Just at this moment, Yinhe came over with a large plate of roasted sweet potatoes with an expressionless face.
Huaiyin didn't dare to appear in front of Emperor Yi and his wife, so when the two of them came over, the task of showing up and doing the work fell on Yinhe.
Seeing Yinhe, Diyi subconsciously glanced at his son.
Seeing Zishou eating obediently and just glancing at Yinhe, he immediately felt relieved.
As expected, it was the right decision to send Ah Shou to Long Jun.
I have been accustomed to the beauty of Lord Long and Mr. Yin since I was a child. Why should I worry about beauty traps in the future
He only thought about this for a moment, and his attention quickly shifted to the plate of roasted sweet potatoes.
There were no professional tools here, and Jiang Lin wasn't someone who cared much about appearance, so he just threw the raw sweet potatoes into the burnt-out fire. The appearance of this plate of roasted sweet potatoes was... not very good-looking.
The skin was charred into carbonized black.
Emperor Yi frowned instantly: "This is also a sweet potato? How come it is cooked like this?"
The queen was even more disgusted: "This is too dirty, why didn't the palace servants wipe it clean before serving it?"
Jiang Lin listened to the two people's words without being moved, and didn't care that the over-roasted ones looked ugly. He just reached out, picked up one, and broke it with a little force...
A rich and overbearing sweet aroma accompanied by a burnt aroma hits you in the face.
Emperor Yi, who wanted to continue dissing, shut up immediately and changed his tone: "This sweet potato smells so good after being baked!"
The roasted sweet potato flesh is redder in color and looks more tempting with the steam rising from it.
Jiang Lin didn't need to say anything now. The emperor and the empress shared one and agreed that compared to eating it raw or steaming it, it tasted best when roasted.
—It just doesn’t taste very elegant and is not suitable for eating in front of others.
"Zixian is extremely grateful for the great kindness of Lord Long." Emperor Yi said to Jiang Lin.
He knew very well in his heart, how old was Ah Shou? He couldn't even recognize a few kinds of grass, how could he discover and grow this kind of edible food that he had never seen before
It was obviously taught to him by Jiang Lin.
However, at this time, Emperor Yi had not yet realized Jiang Lin's true purpose.
Jiang Lin waited for a long time, but Emperor Yi did not ask him anything. When the Emperor and Empress were about to take A Shou back to the palace, he finally couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, aren't you curious about how to grow this plant and what its yield is?"
Emperor Yi said, "This kind of delicacy must be very precious and rare. I plan to send my ministers to inquire about it in detail after I return to the palace."
Jiang Lin shook his head.
He pointed to the field where Ah Shou was digging sweet potatoes.
Jiang Lin saw that Ah Shou was interested in farming, so he cleared the field specifically for him to play with. It was only two meters long and wide, and was now covered with sweet potato vines.
"How many sweet potatoes do you think we can get here?"
Emperor Yi considered it for a moment and gave a cautious number: "Five?"
Jiang Lin smiled and shook his head.
Emperor Yi frowned and asked, "Three?"
Jiang Lin shook his head again.
Emperor Yi frowned: "It can't be that one vine can only grow one sweet potato, right?"
Jiang Lin did not want to keep the question secret and answered, "Sweet potatoes only grow once a year. Ah Shou's land can yield three jin a year."
One jin weighs thirty jin, so this piece of land can produce about ninety jins of sweet potatoes a year.
Although the current planting level is very backward and the crop yield is extremely low, his seeds are definitely of good variety. After being nourished by the emerald space, it is not difficult to increase the yield.
This output can be regarded as miserable in later generations. For Jiang Lin, it is even more shameless to mention it.
But in the Shang Dynasty, it was enough to make another ambitious emperor lose his composure on the spot.
Emperor Yi was dumbfounded: "Three Jun!"
He looked back at the small piece of land and confirmed with Jiang Lin: "This small piece of land?"
Jiang Lin nodded.
Emperor Yi felt dizzy.
What is the level of farming in the Shang Dynasty now
Rice is one of the main crops. Usually, five or six people work together to plant 30 mu of land. Even if the harvest is very good, the yield per mu is only 2 jin.
But how big is A Shou’s land
It turned out to be a hundred times the harvest!
Emperor Yi was a little dazed and asked, "Could this be the food of the gods?"
Jiang Lin shook his head: "The gods don't eat grains, so they don't have this kind of food. This was discovered by Ah Shou, and it can be used to benefit the people of Yin Shang."
He emphasized the words "Ashu discovered".
Di Yi reacted all of a sudden, his face flushed, he looked at Jiang Lin, suddenly stood up and pulled A Shou.
"Ah Shou, pay your respects to Lord Long. You have accepted his great favor today."
Ah Shou was confused and bowed to Jiang Lin as he was told: "Ah Shou, thank you, sir."
Such a major event was enough to make Emperor Yi distracted.
After obtaining Jiang Lin's consent, he personally took the tools and turned over the small piece of land planted by A Shou. When he saw the sweet potatoes buried in the ground, he almost lost his voice with excitement.
He ordered his trusted palace servants to quietly bring the sweet potatoes back to the palace, and Emperor Yi took Ah Shou and Jiang Lin to say goodbye:
"There is a banquet in the palace tonight to celebrate Ah Shou's birthday. Please come, Lord Long."
Jiang Lin nodded: "I will go."