Chapter 873 0868 [Tetraploid Watermelon]
Of the twenty scenes of Wangchuan, six have been restored.
Zhu Guoxiang personally gave instructions, Li Qingzhao and Wen Xiaomei provided suggestions, and the art officer of the Ministry of Works went to design and supervise the construction.
The construction is still ongoing, and the emperor has not yet moved to Wangchuan Villa.
On this day, Zhu Guoxiang came back from the experimental field outside the city, and immediately a eunuch reported: "Your Majesty, the government sent a woman who was once a concubine of Wu Qimai."
"I know, arrange a cleaning job for her." Zhu Guoxiang said casually.
The eunuch hurriedly explained: "The government has made her a noble lady."
Zhu Guoxiang was extremely angry. The rumors about his "good wife" had spread all over Kaifeng and Luoyang. Now another one was sent over, wouldn't it confirm this stigma?
After a while of anger, Zhu Guoxiang said: "Bring her over."
This concubine of the Jin Dynasty, who had just passed her thirties, washed clothes in the laundry bureau for a year and a half, and was even beaten, scolded and humiliated by the female officials.
Her hands were calloused and she looked a little haggard.
But today she dressed up, put on new clothes and put on makeup. The combination of haggardness and beauty made her even more charming.
The woman was very nervous at the moment. She quietly hid her calloused hands in her sleeves and bowed with the Ming etiquette she had just learned.
Zhu Guoxiang couldn't help but look at her a few more times and asked, "What's your name?"
The woman replied, "Li Zhen."
Zhu Guoxiang looked like a serious person, but said to the eunuch, "Promote her to Taishang Jieyu (third-class concubine) and find a courtyard to settle her."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Li Zhen knelt down and kowtowed excitedly.
The rank of concubines in the Song Dynasty did not change in the Ming Dynasty, but a few more concubine titles were added.
Guiren was the lowest-ranking concubine, and above them were Cairen, Meiren, and Jieyu.
Above Jieyu were a bunch of second-class concubine titles.
Among the second-class, Taiyi, Guiyi, and Shuyi were the most honorable, and the next ones were concubine titles.
Concubines are all first-class, and the highest rank is the imperial concubine.
However, Zhu Guoxiang created an imperial concubine. She is super first-class.
Li Zhen stood up, stole a glance at Zhu Guoxiang, and then lowered her head, feeling more and more happy.
Although the emperor had gray hair on his temples, he had few wrinkles on his face and his skin was smooth and rosy. Moreover, his face was solemn and upright, and he was a man of virtue and happiness. According to the ancient aesthetics, he was a standard old handsome man.
He beat Wu Qimai by eight streets!
Zhu Guoxiang took two steps and suddenly stopped: "Give her one watermelon, and remember to collect the watermelon seeds."
It turned out that Zhu Guoxiang came back from the experimental field and brought two large baskets of watermelons into the palace.
The eunuch was very smart. He took Li Zhen to choose a residence with a watermelon in his arms, and asked the female official to arrange for the palace maids to serve.
After choosing the palace, Li Zhen bowed and asked, "I don't know your name, the one from Japan."
The eunuch said quickly, "I dare not address you in front of the Grand Concubine. My name is Yang Mao, and my nickname is Yang A Liu. You can call me A Liu."
Li Zhen pointed at the watermelon and said, "What is this?"
The Jin Kingdom also had watermelons, but they were cheap and were mainly used as a backup water source for marching on the grassland.
Yang Mao replied, "This is a watermelon. The emperor has cultivated it for several years. Every year, he discards the bitter melon seeds and only selects the non-bitter ones for seed cultivation."
The maids in this courtyard had not been arranged yet, so Yang Mao said, "If you want to eat watermelon now, please remember to collect the seeds and write down the number with paper and pen."
Li Zhen became more and more confused as she listened, fearing that she had made a mistake, so she ate it quickly while the eunuch was there.
The two of them cut the melon immediately, and the eunuch even went to find a knife.
Soon, two maids came and were also called by Li Zhen to eat the melon.
Yang Mao introduced while cutting the watermelon: "This kind of watermelon is different. The seedlings have been soaked in Shennong water (colchicine solution). The emperor said it is a tetraploid. It can also be used as the mother plant to cross with ordinary watermelons to cultivate triploid seedless watermelons."
Li Zhen was confused and felt that the emperor was knowledgeable.
Yang Mao was given a piece of watermelon and said: "The watermelon seeds are spit on the paper, and the weak seeds must be left to record the number of seeds in this watermelon. This kind of tetraploid watermelon has fewer seeds than diploid, so seed preservation becomes more important."
Li Zhen praised: "Eunuch Yang is worthy of being the emperor's close friend, and he is so proficient in farming."
Yang Mao was quite proud in his heart, but he was very humble: "We have been following the emperor to farm since the first year of Hongwu. These are just the beginning for the emperor."
The two new palace maids, who had never eaten watermelon before, followed Li Zhen to chew it slowly.
Tetraploid watermelon was a real technological achievement in ancient times, and they enjoyed it hundreds of years in advance.
After collecting the watermelon seeds, Yang Mao took them back to report.
Although the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty had no real power outside the palace, Yang Mao was extremely glorious.
Because he understood agronomy!
Colchicine solution was called Shennong Water by the agricultural promotion officials.
Although it was not taken seriously within the agricultural promotion system, it was extremely mysterious among the people.
Many gentry, including many scholars, had heard of Shennong Water, but did not know what it was specifically. They found that the yield of crops in the agricultural promotion experimental fields was often higher than that of the people, and even the appearance characteristics of some fruits and vegetables were different. So they thought it was the credit of Shennong Water, but they also thought that the thing was a secret that could not be passed on, and most of the time they did not dare to ask.
Even the Taoists who studied chemistry secretly got the "formula" of Shennong Water. They believed that Shennong Water contained the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth, and could cultivate ordinary spiritual medicines into immortal medicines. They also suspected that the Ganoderma lucidum as big as a millstone was produced by Zhu Guoxiang using Shennong Water.
The eunuch Yang Mao knew how to prepare Shennong water and how to increase the yield of many crops.
"Your Majesty, I got the watermelon seeds back." Yang Mao said, holding a small paper bag.
Zhu Guoxiang nodded: "Let it go."
The sun is about to set, and strong winds are blowing in the yard, taking away the scorching heat. It looks like it may rain tonight.
Shen Yourong, Wen Xiaomei, Li Qingzhao and An Niang were eating melon around Zhu Guoxiang with their children.
The taste is still not very sweet, but there is no bitterness, and it is very comfortable to eat when dipped in sugar.
The white sugar was presented by Wang Zhuo, a Sichuan agricultural officer, along with the sugar-making process a few days ago.
Wang Zhuo himself is from Sichuan and is proficient in poetry and music. After repeated attempts failed, and the sugar industry was developed in his hometown of Suining, he simply took the time to study how to make sugar.
When Ju Ming raised troops to occupy Sichuan, Wang Zhuo did not dare to "surrender to the thieves". It was not until the founding of the Ming Dynasty that he belatedly asked for an official position. It's a pity that the opportunity has been missed and only one scribe position was obtained.
Wang Zhuo did not want to be a scribe, so he continued to study sugar production and presented "Frost Sugar Manual" in the fourth year of Hongwu.
This book starts with how to grow sugar cane and divides sugar cane into several varieties. He wrote clearly which ones are suitable for making brown sugar and which ones are suitable for making rock sugar.
Then, the sugar making process was recorded in detail, and the main focus was on making rock sugar.
Purple rock candy is the best, dark amber is second, light yellow is third, and light white rock candy is the worst...
Zhu Guoxiang got the book "Frost Sugar Speculation", met with Wang Zhuo in person, and asked him to lead the study of white sugar production technology.
Another four years later, Wang Zhuo presented "White Sugar Book".
"Where's the melon?"
Ju Ming suddenly shouted outside the hospital: "You can eat melon without even calling me!"
Shen Yourong took his concubines and children to greet him, but Zhu Guoxiang was still eating watermelon dipped in sugar.
Zhu Ming bowed his hands to the cheap mothers, then sat down and said, "Why can't I understand this craftsmanship?"
"I don't understand either." Zhu Guoxiang said.
Ju Ming held a book called "White Sugar Recipe" in his hand: "It's a bit like the yellow mud water method, but it's very different."
Zhu Guoxiang said something that the concubines could not understand: "Small workshops in Sichuan, Fujian, Guangxi and Hainan still used similar indigenous methods to make sugar in the 1980s. I have some impression, but it is only an impression. I don't know the specific principle. It may be produced by taking advantage of the difference in solubility of sugar at different temperatures.”
In this technique, a funnel-shaped pottery is placed on top of a pottery urn and connected in a sealed manner. Then seal the mouth of the funnel with straw, pour syrup boiled with lime three times into the funnel, and seal it with soil on top.
After a day, the syrup is completely cooled. Take out the sugar drain, remove the sealing grass, insert bamboo strips into the syrup to form a conduit, and the sugar seeds with impurities will slowly flow out.
After a month, there will be crystallized sugar on the inner wall of the sugar drain, and the place near the sealing mud is the purest.
Crush the crystallized sugar into pieces to make white sugar.
Straw was used to seal the leaks, and yellow mud was used to seal the mouth, which is inconsistent with the records in "Tiangong Kaiwu".
And it’s not instant, the whole process takes a month.
Rather than saying it is the yellow mud water drench method, it is better to call it the mud sealing method.
Zhu Guoxiang said: "The so-called mud-sealing method of making white sugar is actually very similar to the rock sugar made in the previous Song Dynasty. It's just that the process that took half a year was accelerated into just one month."
"The frosting method in Sichuan in the pre-Song Dynasty was to leave the sugar from spring to summer and precipitate the rock sugar through natural temperature changes. But this mud sealing method artificially controls the temperature changes."
Ju Ming took another bite of watermelon: "This Wang Zhuo is very good. How old is he?"
"He is in his fifties," Zhu Guoxiang said. "He is an official fan and has always wanted to seek an official position. Unfortunately, he is too timid to become a thief. He has been living in Sichuan, but he has missed several opportunities to seek an official position."
Ju Ming smiled and said: "Then let him be a county magistrate. From now on, as long as he is not a big corrupt person, he can be spared his life. If he is an upright and capable official, at his current age, he may be able to retire as a magistrate."
The sugar-making process has been shortened to one month, and the output has increased compared to before. This has made a huge contribution.
It is not too much to reward a county magistrate.
After Zhu Ming finished chewing a piece of watermelon in his hand, he went to the basket next to him and took out two more: "I'm leaving, you can eat slowly."
"Hey, I got this back. If you want to eat it, go out of the city and get it yourself!" Zhu Guoxiang said angrily.
Ju Ming didn't look back: "No time."
The four stepmothers covered their mouths and snickered, and the younger brothers and sisters also laughed.
Li Qingzhao said to Zhu Guoxiang: "The officials are acting coquettishly to ask for rewards."
Zhu Guoxiang said angrily: "He is not asking for reward, he is openly robbing!"
Ju Ming had already reached the entrance of the courtyard and turned around with the watermelon in his arms: "Dongxi Garden is quite cool. I went there last year. You can go there to escape the heat."