Chapter 222: No Small Contribution

Raw sweet potatoes could be eaten.

They were crisp and had a sweet taste.

Crunch, crunch. Since it was in his mouth, Zhang Mao chewed it attentively. The taste… wasn’t bad.

But… eating this, the feeling… was this a fruit?

If one acre of land could yield thirty dan of such fruit, that would be quite good.

The only downside was that it couldn’t serve as a staple food.

But at the moment…

Thirty dan… Zhang Mao’s heart pounded wildly at the thought of that number. His earlier anger vanished instantly.

Fang Jifan seemed to notice his thoughts and said with a smile, “Uncle, the most interesting thing about sweet potatoes is that they can be eaten raw or cooked. If you mix them into rice congee, they can relieve hunger.”

Relieve hunger?

Zhang Mao was a straightforward, rough man. Upon hearing this, his eyes lit up.

So, didn’t that mean… didn’t that mean it could be used as a supplementary food?

If that was the case… this sweet potato with a yield of thirty dan per acre meant… Zhang Mao was stunned.

Although he was a military officer, how could he not know the importance of grain? Grain was life, the miraculous medicine that saved lives! In this era, the consequences of even the slightest famine were immense.

Fang Jifan, of course, understood even better than Zhang Mao what grain meant in this era of low productivity. People of later generations most praised and revered the Song Dynasty, calling it the wealthiest in history, yet the Song Dynasty’s historical records still contained countless entries of “famine year, people ate each other.”

And when it came to the Great Ming Dynasty, with the arrival of the Little Ice Age and the emergence of numerous natural disasters, it went without saying.

The remarkable thing about sweet potatoes wasn’t that they completely replaced staple grains. Eating them all year was actually no different from eating millet. Their importance lay in the fact that during famines, they could keep people alive. Even in good years, using sweet potatoes to replace part of the staple grain was entirely sufficient.

With the land and population of the Great Ming, this alone could solve the hunger problem. Besides, he still had potatoes, didn’t he? Potatoes were the real divine artifact because they could completely replace staple grains.

Without solving the hunger issue, Fang Jifan’s historical knowledge was essentially useless. Completely breaking the structure of Scholars, Farmers, Artisans, Merchants was simply a joke. Many believed the emphasis on agriculture over commerce was related to Confucian thought, but after studying a great deal of Ming history, Fang Jifan didn’t see it that way.

Because it involved a chicken-and-egg relationship. In Confucius’s time, Confucianism didn’t deliberately discriminate against merchants; it was largely egalitarian. So why did it later start to emphasize agriculture and belittle commerce?

In fact, it was simply because later Confucian scholars, who held a monopoly, formulated the idea of belittling commerce based on the needs of the rulers.

The rulers’ belittling of commerce wasn’t due to an inherent discrimination against merchants. Essentially, it was because once commerce flourished, many people would engage in trade, countless others would work for merchants, and the nation’s strongest laborers would be employed by merchants. This would inevitably harm agriculture. Meanwhile, as the population kept growing, the available land didn’t increase. To feed more people, a large population had to engage in intensive farming of the land. Otherwise, a single famine would lead to widespread chaos.

This was true of this era, and even medieval Europe wasn’t much better. With low agricultural productivity, their cities were pitifully small. It was only after potatoes and sweet potatoes were introduced to Europe that a large labor force was freed from the fields and flocked to the cities. Later, once the food problem was solved, nobles, to develop industry and commerce for higher profits, even converted farmland into pastures to raise sheep for wool and textile production.

Imagine, if it weren’t for the massive increase in grain production brought by potatoes and sweet potatoes, which largely solved the hunger problem, which fool would turn good farmland into sheep pens?

Any doctrine has its practical foundation; it isn’t something someone just thought up on a whim that the whole world then willingly accepted.

Thus, without solving the fundamental issue of food for the people, the problem of Scholars, Farmers, Artisans, Merchants could never be resolved.

Of course, Zhang Mao couldn’t think as deeply as Fang Jifan, but Fang Jifan’s words had convinced him. After trying it himself, he didn’t understand much else, but he knew this thing was edible, could relieve hunger, and was high-yielding.

At that moment, he stared at Fang Jifan, breathing heavily, as if still doubting Fang Jifan’s credibility. He then turned his head and glared fiercely at Zhang Xin beside him, uttering two words: “Is that so?”

If asked about other things, Zhang Xin might not have had much confidence, but when it came to farming matters, even facing his father, he calmed down and said firmly, “Yes, I’ve eaten sweet potato congee. It tastes good and truly relieves hunger.”

“…”

At that, Zhang Mao fell silent.

His son hadn’t been very obedient lately, but he was still trustworthy—at least much more so than that shameless brat.

Zhang Mao was usually a talkative man, but now he suddenly stopped speaking.

He stood rigidly, unmoving.

Fang Jifan was startled. He worried something might be wrong and hastily called out, “Uncle, Uncle…”

Zhang Mao remained like a statue, completely still.

Suspicious, Fang Jifan extended a finger and tentatively… placed it under Zhang Mao’s nose.

There was still breath.

Only then did Zhang Mao’s eyeballs shift, and then his large, fan-like hand slapped heavily on Fang Jifan’s shoulder.

Fang Jifan shuddered and turned to run, but Zhang Mao grabbed his shoulder firmly!

At that moment, Zhang Mao suddenly laughed heartily, “Haha… haha… Nephew, what did I, Lao Zhang, say earlier? I knew you’d achieve great things! Extraordinary! A young hero! I, Zhang Mao, have never misjudged anyone in my life. You don’t know, when you were still in swaddling clothes, what was the first thing I said to your father when I saw you? Do you know?”

Fang Jifan felt uneasy inside and could only shake his head.

Zhang Mao laughed loudly, “I said I saw a faint multicolored light around you—a sign of great nobility. In the future, the Fang family would rely on you.”

Fang Jifan felt a chill, shaking his head like a rattle drum, “I dare not, I dare not. A colorful light would suffice. Multicolored would be too presumptuous, far too presumptuous.”

Multicolored was too high-level. In this era, there were only seven colors. A multicolored light was something only the Emperor emitted.

So Fang Jifan said firmly, “Let’s make it a colorful light. That would put my mind at ease.”

Zhang Mao felt like slapping his thigh, “Right, then let it be colorful. Truly remarkable! Do you know how many people you’re going to save…”

Fang Jifan looked terrified, “Even colorful seems too much for me.”

But Zhang Mao laughed, “Don’t fuss over that. Anyway, you’ve made no small contribution this time, saving countless lives. Come, this old man will report your merits.”

“Wait!” Fang Jifan said, “Actually, Deputy Hundred-Household Commander Zhang deserves much of the credit.”

Zhang Mao was stunned upon hearing this.

He knew his son’s nature well. The boy was honest, but could he have come up with something like this?

He looked suspiciously at Zhang Xin, who appeared flustered.

Fang Jifan said seriously, “If it weren’t for the deputy commander fulfilling his duties diligently and taking care of the sweet potatoes daily with everyone in the Military Agricultural Colony… I shouldn’t say this, but achieving a yield of thirty dan per acre would likely have been delayed by several years. Deputy Commander Zhang has both merit and hard work to his credit. So while I naturally won’t decline recognition, Deputy Commander Zhang and all the others in the Military Agricultural Colony also contributed greatly.”

To be fair, Fang Jifan was quite decent in this regard. After all, he only pointed the way and provided the seedlings; as for the rest, to his shame, he really hadn’t achieved much.

Zhang Mao trembled and looked at Zhang Xin in disbelief.

Before, when he saw Zhang Xin in tattered clothes, he felt nothing but disgust. But now, Zhang Mao was utterly shocked! This was a great merit… a great merit!

His own son also had a share in this great merit!

Zhang Mao’s eyes lit up with genuine excitement, and he even felt his eyes moisten. Damn it, my son farming can yield such merit! In an instant, tears streamed down.

Then, he slapped his own old face hard, “Xin’er, your father was blind, blind…”

Zhang Xin had never seen his father like this before. Usually, it was either harsh scolding or a beating. Now, he felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.

Zhang Mao then laughed wildly again, “Very good! What did I say back then…”

Zhang Mao then turned back.

“Don’t mention back then!” Fang Jifan felt like crying. Besides, I, Fang Jifan, nearly beheaded a white snake, and when I was born, a dragon circled the sky. I beg you, Uncle, spare me—I’m still a child! “Reporting the good news is what matters now.”

“Wait.” Wiping his tears, Zhang Mao sighed deeply and pulled Fang Jifan aside, looking at him intently.

Zhang Mao pondered, thinking Fang Jifan intentionally wanted to share the credit with his son. Ah, what did I say back then? At first glance, this Jifan was a person with a conscience. But since you have a conscience, old man…

He narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice, “Thirty dan is too little. Anyway, one or two dan more won’t hurt, right? When reporting good news, you should say what sounds pleasing. A few more dan sounds better and will please His Majesty even more. He won’t bother to investigate deeply. Even if verification is needed, who would care about a few extra dan? How about we make it a round number with a fraction? Listen to me, Nephew, report thirty-six and a half dan.”

But Fang Jifan’s heart sank. Uh, I already exaggerated—from the original twenty-six dan to thirty dan. Adding more could lead to trouble!