Chapter 891 0886 [Flowers Bloom in Luoyang]

It was March when Liu Yannian entered Beijing.

Before he even got off the boat, he had already seen the scenery of Luoyang.

No matter if they were high officials or peddlers, everyone wore a peony flower on their hair.

The whole Luoyang was a sea of ​​flowers.

It was Liu Yannian's first time in Luoyang. He was attracted by the magnificent scene and couldn't help wanting to buy a flower hairpin.

"Flowers for sale, flowers for sale!"

As soon as the boat docked, several boys and girls squeezed forward with flower baskets.

The oldest was fourteen or fifteen years old, and the youngest was eleven or twelve years old. They were wearing relatively cheap clothes and looked like children from ordinary families.

They held up the flower baskets and sold them to the passengers who were getting off the boat.

"How much is one?" asked a person next to Liu Yannian.

"Five cents!"

"Mine costs three cents."

"I also have ten cents, which are very valuable."

"..."

The man quickly bought a peony hairpin and Liu Yannian also paid for a ten-cent one.

He took his servants and chose an inn to stay in, and then wandered around Luoyang.

When he walked to a street, he saw a large group of people in the alley next to it, and even a few carriages were parked.

Could it be the residence of a minister?

Liu Yannian walked over curiously and asked the people outside the crowd: "Whose residence is this?"

"Mr. Yang's house." The man replied.

Liu Yannian asked again: "But which member of the six ministries?"

The man smiled and said: "It's Mr. Yang who does business."

A merchant's house?

"The door is open! The door is open!"

These people began to shout.

But the gate was only opened a little bit, and a servant poked his head out and shouted: "Don't listen to the rumors of the bad guys, my family doesn't sell Wei flowers!"

Liu Yannian was speechless on the spot. So many people squeezed in, and they came to buy flowers.

And the owner didn't sell them.

"Wei flowers" are the king of flowers among Luoyang peonies. When the Wei family was not yet in decline, you had to buy tickets to enter the garden to enjoy the flowers.

A ticket costs more than ten coins, and the Wei family can collect more than ten coins every day.

That was the early Song Dynasty, and prices were not expensive!

Later, the garden was presented to the royal family, and the royal family gave it to the temple. The monks sold all the peony plants, reclaimed the flowerbed as farmland, and planted wheat and mulberry trees instead.

Gradually, the wheat and mulberry trees disappeared and became the back garden of the temple.

Today, the temple has also been banned by the court and rebuilt into residences and shops.

Although "Weihua" has been distributed to ordinary people, the number is extremely rare, and no one is willing to sell it.

The less famous "Yaohuang" is easier to buy, and one flower is worth about two or three hundred coins. This is because it has gradually spread. When it was rare before, one "Yaohuang" was worth a thousand coins.

You can also graft it if you want.

Grafting a "Weihua" once, regardless of whether it is successful or not, one hundred stones of rice are gone - grafting fee!

"Yaohuang" is cheaper. It was also one hundred stones of rice at the beginning, but now it only costs twenty stones to graft once.

After listening to the man's story, Liu Yannian shook his head and said, "Peony is not edible, how can you waste money like this?"

"What do you know, a foreigner?" the man said contemptuously.

Liu Yannian continued to stroll, and there were flowers everywhere...

Arriving at Zhuque Street, which was renamed after the Ming Dynasty moved its capital, I saw a father and son holding a rare peony, standing on the street surrounded by countless people.

Suddenly, several rich kids came on horseback, shouting along the way: "Who has a rare peony? Who has a rare peony?"

"Here, here!" The crowd responded.

"Make way, please make way!"

Several rich kids squeezed into the crowd, and after a careful look, they were amazed.

One of them asked, "How do you sell this whole plant?"

The flower owner said, "No. If I want to sell flowers, I'll go to the flower market, why come to Zhuque Street?"

The rich kid offered, "Thirty strings of cash!"

A wealthy businessman in the crowd laughed and said, "My dear nephew, you're just thinking about good things. I offered fifty strings of cash but he wouldn't sell it."

The flower owner said, "I'm waiting here to present it to the emperor."

As soon as he said this, the people who wanted to buy flowers gave up immediately.

Offering flowers is a tradition in Luoyang. After discovering an exotic plant, the lower-class civilians will sell it to the rich.

But as long as they don't have to worry about food and clothing, they will try their best to cultivate a copy. Then, one of the copies will be presented to the emperor or prime minister, and this exotic plant will suddenly become a hundred times more valuable.

The flower presenter can not only get money from the emperor and prime minister, but the remaining copy in his hand will also become a hen that lays golden eggs.

The king of peony flowers, "Weihua", was originally presented to the prime minister by a woodcutter.

But there is no copy to speak of. It was the prime minister who personally cultivated "Weihua" into a variety after obtaining this wild exotic plant.

The emperor will pass by here?

Liu Yannian's focus is obviously different. He thinks the emperor is a benevolent monarch and wants to stop him here to persuade him.

No, you can't persuade the emperor!

Now the emperor is in charge of the Ming Dynasty. If you go to persuade the emperor, you may really annoy the emperor.

Liu Yannian volunteered to be a gun for others, not that he was really stupid.

"The emperor is entering the city! The emperor is entering the city!"

The carriage came slowly from outside the city, and the crowd of onlookers dispersed spontaneously, making way for the flower presenter to walk out.

The exotic peony plant is quite large. The flower presenter and his son carried it, and the people behind them followed closely.

Zhu Guoxiang had to go to the experimental field outside the city every three or five days, and he didn't have many guards with him.

At this moment, the guards were like a big enemy, and one of them came over to question: "What is your intention of gathering here to block the emperor's carriage?"

The flower presenter knelt down suddenly: "I am Fan Dazhong, a commoner, and I have an exotic peony to present to the emperor!"

The guards hurriedly called their companions, and the two of them carefully carried it away, returned to the carriage and said: "Your Majesty, a commoner presented a rare peony."

Zhu Guoxiang knew about peonies, which originated from Genyue in the past.

Genyue cultivated many precious peonies, and Zhu Guoxiang even helped Song Huizong with grafting. He also used colchicine to induce polyploid mutations, hoping to grow a rare peony to please Song Huizong.

Unfortunately, the success rate of polyploid peonies is too low.

After carefully appreciating it for a moment, Zhu Guoxiang nodded and praised: "There are many leaves, and the color is like goose yellow, so let's call it Qianye Goose Yellow."

"What a good name!"

The common people who were separated by the guards and the few who were closer heard it and immediately praised the name given by the emperor.

Zhu Guoxiang called the father and son who presented the flowers again: "Although I like peonies, I don't want to steal other people's beauty... Don't talk. If I accept your flowers, should I accept the treasures presented by others? Once this precedent is set, local officials will compete to pay tribute. Wouldn't it become the flower and stone gang of the tyrant? Giving a flower name is enough."

The flower presenter knelt down to thank him: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for giving the flower a name!"

With the name given by the emperor, the value of this exotic peony will surely double.

Liu Yannian not only sighed: "What a wise and benevolent monarch. With such a saintly monarch, the country and the people are blessed."

He also silently added in his heart: Why did he abdicate?

Not only Liu Yannian was praising, but the people at the scene were also praising.

In order to repair the Luoyang Palace, Song Huizong also ordered the collection of the flower and stone gang. Many local people in Luoyang were captured and forced to serve, and all the cattle in the surrounding villages were killed - cattle bones were ground into powder and boiled into mortar.

At this moment, when the people heard the emperor say that he refused to accept the peony because he was afraid of the flower and stone gang, they subconsciously thought of Song Huizong.

Comparing the two, the one in front of them is a good emperor.

Hmm... a good emperor!

The emperor's carriage continued to move forward and gradually drove into the imperial city.

And the place where the flowers were presented just now has become crazy.

Just because Zhu Guoxiang personally gave the peony a name, this peony with the highest bid of 50 guan, someone immediately shouted: "I'll give 80 guan!"

"One hundred guan, sell it to me quickly!"

"One hundred and fifty guan."

"One hundred and eighty guan, this price is already very high."

"You want to buy it for 180 guan? I'll give 200 guan!"

"..."

The father and son who presented the flowers were very proud and said with a smile: "This is a special product, named Qianye Goose Yellow by the emperor. I won't sell it, but I can graft it. In a few months, when it is suitable for grafting, you can come to me with money. I am afraid of hurting the mother plant, so I only marry one branch a year, and I will marry whoever offers the highest price!"

The father and son carried the special peony and walked happily towards home.

Many Luoyang citizens followed and kept praising this special product.

The scene was like a fisherman carrying a big fish and parading on the street, and a group of fishing friends flattered his fishing skills.

"That exotic plant is really good." Shen Yourong, who was sitting in the carriage near the imperial city, said.

Li Qingzhao smiled and said, "It is still much worse than Wei Zi and Yao Huang, but its appearance is similar to Zuo Hua (a kind of Qianye Zi)."

An Xiaomei said, "No matter how good Wei Zi and Yao Huang are, they are not as good as the Yin Yang Face in the palace."

"It's just that the name is too... Alas, the name given by the emperor." Li Qingzhao couldn't help but sigh.

There is also an exotic peony in the palace, which was created by Zhu Guoxiang using colchicine.

The success rate of polyploid peonies is extremely low, and the survival rate is also low. They die after being raised, and it is difficult to graft and plant.

Zhu Guoxiang used it purely as a supplement to pass the time. He used 0.5% to 1% concentration of colchicine to repeatedly induce experiments for nearly ten years. At present, there are only a few plants that have survived, and there is only one "Yin Yang Face" that is truly the best.

The name was given by Zhu Ming. The same peony has white and blue flowers. It is estimated that the seeds belong to hybrid varieties.

If you want to turn this polyploid peony from a single plant into a variety... it's very difficult!

Hundreds of years later, even modern technology cannot guarantee it.

If you succeed, it's just luck.

For example, who knows how the variety "Shou'anhong" came into being. It is very likely that it was a hybridization by accident, and it inexplicably became a triploid peony that can reproduce.

Zhu Guoxiang now lives a comfortable life. He plays with his wife and children all day long, and goes out of the city from time to time to do agricultural research.

Today, when he returned to the palace, he took his wives to serve the peonies directly.

The flowering period of polyploid peonies is later and longer. The Yin-Yang face has not bloomed yet.

Zhu Ming is very busy, with a lot of government affairs in spring.

He is reading the land survey report sent by Wei Liangchen, and is very satisfied with the progress of the land survey.

Zhu Ming doesn't know that someone has come to the capital to make trouble.

At this moment, Liu Yannian is standing outside the east city of the palace, looking at the big drum in front of him.

When the time comes, Liu Yannian is scared.

He wanted to gain fame, but he didn't dare to beat the drum.

He had no official status, so how could he advise the emperor without beating the drum?

After walking back and forth in front of the drum, he hesitated for a long time, and finally chose to leave quietly.

Perhaps, he would have the courage tomorrow.