On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, Li Su's private residence in Chang'an City was decorated with lights.

Before the New Year was over, I met Sikong's 30th birthday again. All the officials of the court came to celebrate, and the banquet was endless, and it was very lively.

Everyone was tacit and did not mention that the court would discuss the candidate for prime minister three days later.

However, even though everyone came to eat, drink, have fun and have fun, and were mentally prepared for Li Su's extravagance. But this time, most people were still shocked by the endless new things Li Su has emerged here.

Everyone exclaimed: Li Sikong is still good at playing!

This is true for both the officials of the court and the female relatives they brought.

Some people may be curious: Li Sushemi has not been a year or two, but why has she had so many tricks in more than ten years? Is it over?

Not to mention, Li Su did calm down in these aspects a few years ago, especially after Liu Bei became emperor, except for Zhang Wu's first year, which brought out some new pleasure items, Zhang Wu was relatively restrained in the next two and three years, at least he did not show off in Chang'an. If he wanted to show off, he was leading troops outside and showing off his own territory.

This year, another blowout was coming, mainly because Li Su reused and absorbed a small group of Roman craftsmen such as Titus last year.

Later, because of Titus's "Qianjin City Bone" effect, the Anxi merchants never stopped traveling to the Han Dynasty to send Western craftsmanship and advanced animal and plant varieties.

These things are not big, and will not be written into official history. However, in the long run, they will have a subtle effect on the economic development and prosperity of the Han Dynasty. Even if they were just the pleasure of the families of kings, princes, generals and ministers when they were first introduced, they could benefit the people as long as they were reproduced.

Li Su also attaches great importance to the introduction of talents, culture, books and species, and has always maintained the enthusiasm for exploration of the Western Regions with generous treatment.

Later, not only did the merchants in Anxi, but even the merchants from the Han Dynasty went to the Western Regions, began to get back novel things.

When I bought a new Western book that I had not collected for the first time, Li Su waited for heavy gold to exchange. Engineers who encountered talent gaps in the field were all poached for salary starting with hundreds of Shujin's annual salary.

When encountering excellent cattle, horse and livestock breeds, Li Su spared no expense. A BMW stallion could buy hundreds or thousands of Shu brocades.

Even the cattle breeds or other economic animals that officials do not pay much attention to in the past, as long as they do have excellent traits that are not found in Chinese local cattle, they can buy hundreds of Shu brocades in order to enrich the species.

At first, officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Finance did not understand this. They felt that occasionally seeing cows with Western barbarians would not be as stamina as those of local cows. But since Sikong paid for the collection out of his own pocket, no one would object, and just thought that Sikong paid for the money to build a leopard house zoo to play.

But only Li Su knows that biological gene diversity and the large amount of goods in hybrid warehouses is not a bad thing. Because China is a pure farming civilization, it rarely eats beef, so it has been artificially bred for two thousand years (it is nearly two thousand years by the end of the Han Dynasty, and it starts from the Shang Dynasty. At present, the mainstream archaeology believes that there was no ox plow in the Xia Dynasty). The endurance of the cattle breed is good, but the meat is not produced much and the milk is not good.

There are some common sense in later generations. Everyone knows that among beef beef, except for the Wagyu beef that emphasizes fine taste and good quality, the other most famous ones should be Simmental beef native to the Alps (of course it is also a modern breed after various European beefs). It has a large meat yield and good milk.

Of course, there was no good Simmental cattle in the late Han Dynasty, but I could get some cattle, sheep and livestock breeds on the lands of Gaul and Germanic barbarians who were conquered by the Romans. I chose more meat and milk, and cultivated them slowly, and I could always get good ones.

In addition to livestock, let alone collecting and expanding exchange of plant seeds, which is low in cost and great profit. Although Zhang Qian introduced a wave of crops in Central Asia and West Asia and Gan Ying introduced another wave of crops, there are still many missing things to promote.

Within a year, merchants brought olive seeds from the Eastern Mediterranean, which can be used to reproduce and grow in a suitable climate and squeeze olive oil.

There are also some gadgets that add icing on the cake, mainly strawberry and blueberry seeds from the land of Gaul and Germanic barbarians, and Thracian apples. These have nothing to do with people's livelihood, and they will simply enrich the fruit matching on the aristocratic dining table.

Anyway, as long as it is not originally found in China, or even if Zhang Qian brought it back but was not promoted and lost, Li Su would give it a reward. If there are indeed species that have a significant improvement in people's livelihood, it can also be discussed to give a title.

With such encouragement from the government, not only did the land trade in the Western Regions be very hot, but the private sea fleets also spontaneously explored the west.

The merchants sailing west from Maulhammang at the mouth of the Nujiang River had already arrived in Sindu Kingdom by sea the year before yesterday, but the shipbuilding industry there was weak after all, and they could not bypass the Indian Peninsula to reach the West Coast of India and the Arab region. The species of Sindu Kingdom have basically been sent back. Long velvet cotton has been planted for several years, so there is no new room for imagination.

But the situation has improved again this year, because at the beginning of last year, Zhao Yun pacified the Linyi Kingdom and established a trade base in Chameng City in the Lancang River Delta, so the Han Dynasty had established connections with Funan and Langya Xiuguo. Before, the Han Dynasty did not even know about the existence of Langya Xiuguo, but had heard that there was Funan further west of Linyi.

Funan is roughly equivalent to the southern and southern parts of Thailand in later generations, along the Gulf of Siam. Langyashu is located in the central part of the Malay Peninsula south of Kra Isthmus.

After the Han Dynasty established a trade base in Chameng, Bu Zhi, who was responsible for local affairs, found out about information from the Langya Xiu natives, saying that Langya Xiu could navigate between the east and west sides of the Taiwan Straits, and it was thousands of miles south. The land had an end and the East-West Sea could be connected.

After getting this important information, Bu Zhi sent a team of lucky ships to sail along the Langya Xiu coastline, draw a picture book, and explored south for two thousand miles. Finally, he discovered the end of the Malay Peninsula, which is the Strait of Malacca, which can be round the West.

However, because this year was the first expeditionary trial, Buzhi did not complete any trade. What I saw on the way was either Langya Xiuguo or the tribal savages without a country. It took half a year of adventure to sail, but it only sailed a one-way between Chameng and Maulhammé.

When he came back, Bu Zhi asked someone to leave the boat in Maolan, set up a trade base, and then traveled through Funan by land to explore the way back to Chameng.

This was also considered that the sea ships at the Maudanmian colony were all built in Yongchang County, Nanzhong, and were dual-purpose rivers and sea ships produced by the Nujiang River. In order to drive from Yongchang to the estuary of Nujiang River, the ships in Nanzhong were relatively small and of poor quality. They could only sail along the coast in Sindu Bay and could not sail far away.

Therefore, a batch of lucky ships built by Lu Su in Jiaozhou were left in Maolami, and you can travel across the Du Ocean and sail directly to the Red Sea of ​​Anxu Kingdom.

Because of the contribution of exploring the road and discovering the strait, Bu Zhi was also named a marquis of Ting, which are all later stories.

...

The most intuitive result of further species exchange is that when the courtiers celebrated their birthday at Li Su's mansion, the dining table was greatly enriched.

There is no way for blueberries, strawberries and apples, because the fruits are prone to rot and cannot be transported from thousands of miles away. They just transport some seeds that are more expensive than gold, so they have just obtained the seeds in the first year but have not yet been planted.

Only Li Su had a few cans of sugar-grained blueberry sauce on his own table, and there were some dishes with olive oil.

Because it uses olive oil from the Greek region, it is very expensive, Li Su only puts olive rapeseed when he entertains officials at the level of the Secretariat or the Minister. In the future, it will be better if it is domestically produced.

The main method of using olive oil is to fry steak at low temperature, but the beef is still domestic, so you can't bear to slaughter the mixed Alpine beef. In addition to the steak, you can also fry deer, deer, musk, ore, but you have to pre-cook, and those are not easy to cook.

Among all the fresh products that I have never seen, Li Su's most open supply is dairy products, because that thing does not require slaughtering cattle and will be produced every day. Although the cows directly brought from the merchant of Anxi, there are only a few dozen, and they are enough for daily life.

Li Su was not eager to drink Western-style milk, but he just asked the Roman craftsmen he found to teach them their dairy products to Han craftsmen and popularize them.

Since ancient times, Chinese civilization has certainly been very good at using dairy products, especially nomadic Hu people eat it every day, so-called "eat fishy smell when hungry, and drink slurry and cheese when thirsty."

But from this description, it can also be seen that Eastern dairy products are mainly yogurt, and the so-called "slurry cheese" is yogurt. Even the "box of crispy" that Cao Cao ate in history was just sour double-skin milk, at most it was milk tofu. It was definitely not the milky solid pastry snack on TV.

Therefore, the Chinese civilization still lacks the technology to make hard solid cheese and isolate whey cheese, and does not need to be separated. The Han people do not have the tradition of eating beef, and the Hu people will not upgrade their technology.

Li Su has now recruited Roman craftsmen and can finally make hard cheese by taking advantage of the advantages of Westerners eating beef and improving food technology.

However, he himself doesn't care about eating cheese. The greatest value of cheese in ancient times was to preserve dairy products for a long time, not to make it delicious.

After the cheese is made, it is actually a mixture of lactose, cream and casein, which is high in calories. People like Li Su who are pampered and have a good time also find it unhealthy.

The isolated whey is a small amount of minerals, vitamins, whey protein and water. Although it looks yellow and green, it is simply poisonous, but Lisu is protein powder until the thing evaporates and drys, which is the essence of healthy people.

So at the birthday party, Li Su used the newly emerged Roman cheese to entertain military generals. Anyway, they had a lot of exercise, so it didn't matter if they had some junk foods with high lactose, cream fat, and purine. They just regarded it as "cheese is power."

Li Su himself was very self-disciplined and didn't touch a mouthful of cheese. Instead, he drank the sour and unpleasant yellow-green terrible liquid under the surprised gaze of his colleagues.

There is no way. When the modern protein powder industry is drying whey, it cannot boil it, it can only evaporate at low pressure and low temperature. Lisu does not have this condition and cannot evaporate the protein powder, so he has to drink fresh whey protein directly every day.

Since he had fresh whey protein, he has increased his fitness for horse riding and other interesting exercises every day in the past six months. After years of pampering, he can see six-pack abs again. Even his wives and concubines exclaimed that he was thirty years old and became more powerful.

Outsiders don’t know the inside story, but they can also see that Li Sikong’s thirty birthday is even stronger than when he was in his twenties and has a strong energy. He doesn’t know how to keep healthy and nourishing.

...

The banquets of ministers in the outside court were dazzling, and the banquets of women in the inner hall were also dazzled by countless destiny women.

It is said that Li Su is about to be the prime minister on his 30th birthday, so it should be his wife Cai Yan who came to host the reception of the female family. However, it was really a coincidence that Cai Yan is still in Luoyang at this moment and cannot return to Chang'an.

Because in the middle of the year, Liu Bei was on the east tour and asked the Grand Tutor Cai Yong to return to the east, talking about the work of "revising history and creating cores". Later, Cai Yong and Li Su made great contributions in this regard. Liu Bei might have Cai Yong passed the title to his grandson in the future, so Li Su Duannu worked hard at that time, and his wife had another son and his mother's surname.

Li Su didn't want to disobey this kind of decree. After all, who wouldn't want to give his son an extra duke?

So Li Su started to mid-year last year and even neglected Zhen Mi, who had just taken it for more than half a year, and turned around and worked hard on his wife for a while.

God pays off on those who are determined, and hard work pays off. In August, Cai Yan finally got pregnant. It is five months since she calculated that she could not withstand the fatigue of a boat and ride, so she stayed in Luoyang to raise her baby.

This time Li Su came back to celebrate her birthday and worshipped the prime minister, and only her second wife Zhen Mi was with her side, presided over the ceremony of communicating with the inner house.

After the New Year, Zhen Mi was only seventeen years old. At this age, she had to treat people with the etiquette and law of the Prime Minister's wife, and welcomed and sent to other officials and women, which was really eye-catching.

Fortunately, Zhen Mi has been a Xue Baochai character since she was a child and is very polite. She handles these things appropriately, which is amazing.

Now she is wearing all kinds of rare treasures from the South China Sea to the North China Sea, from the East China Sea to the Western Regions. With her beauty and age of seventeen, many noble ladies can't bear to look up, but they just look at them secretly from afar, and even women can't help but peek at them.

At the banquet, the only person who could talk and laugh with Zhen Mi was Zhen Rong, the wife of Zhuge Jin, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. After all, she was her fourth sister, and her own sister had no magnanimity.

However, Zhen Rong came today and was holding a child who was only two or three months old. He talked to his sister about his experience of a baby and said something private. Zhen Rong couldn't help but thank Zhen Mi, saying that fortunately his brother-in-law had recently let Hua Lingshi (Hua Tuo) innovate some medical standards and promoted them in the court. The wind and heat of the child when he was born was suppressed so quickly to avoid disasters.

Zhen Mi's thanks to her sister, of course, said lightly: "It's all the merits of the medical officials, and her husband just ordered them to think about it casually.

My sister and brother-in-law are in good health, so it is also appropriate for the child to be healthy. Is there a name for him?"

Zhen Rong replied that he was named Zhuge Ke.

In history, Zhuge Ke was born three years later, but now that even his mother has changed, it is normal for Zhuge Jin to get married early.

There is another background in the chat between Zhen Rong and Zhen Mi, that is, some accidents occurred during the royal harem delivery before, and some children still couldn't survive even if they were taken care of by medical officials.

However, considering that the death rate of infants in the Han Dynasty was 30% of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei was also a kind person and felt that it was God's will that the child could not be raised, so he did not blame the medical officer.

But since Liu Bei took care of Li Su and worked hard to find a duke who would pick up his father-in-law, Li Su had to get serious.

He also calculated that his wife Cai Yan was already twenty-six years old and was twenty-seven when she was born. So this child must be done at one time. Before, Li Su's children were born with some inflammation and had to survive with herbal medicine, but this time he was pursuing it.

Even in later generations, it is not easy for women to have children over 30 years old. It is best to solve the problem before 30 years old. If Cai Yan fails this time, she will take care of her health for another year and will have a 28-year-old and 29-year-old, and there is really not much tolerance rate.

And if it is a daughter, it is God's will, and Li Su will not force it. Anyway, he does not want his wife to be an elderly mother. She has too much physical pressure and will easily age if she gives birth to a lot and cannot maintain her health.

Therefore, in order to have a successor to his title, even if he looked down on those dirty and bloody crafts, he had to personally find a medical officer to inquire.

As Li Su, he was looking for Hua Tuo. Although Hua Tuo's medical skills are excellent, the methods he gave cannot exceed the limitations of the times.

After Hua Tuo described it, Li Su quickly relied on his superficial hygiene knowledge to lock in a high-risk node for infant infection and death—

Doctors of this era had some who used their teeth to bite the umbilical cord directly, and some used a knife to cut it. However, only good doctors like Hua Tuo would first clean the knife and cook it with medicine soup. If they pursue safety, they would even use fire to roast the blade.

Hua Tuo did not know the principle of disinfection, but based on his experience, he knew that he would bake before using the knife.

In addition, some famous doctors will consider using incense ash or wood ash to stop bleeding from wounds, which is quite resigned to fate.

Hua Tuo realized that the ash in the wood may not be clean, but instead introduced "evil poison". So sometimes he did not paste the medicine powder, but instead used the red-hot blade to burn the umbilical cord incision and burn the cut surface with high temperature to stop bleeding and disinfect it.

But this method looks bloody and cruel, and mothers and babies can't help but cry out in pain. Instead, they dare not use it on children of high-ranking officials and nobles, resulting in the birth infection rate of the children of powerful and nobles in this era is no lower than that of children of poor people.

After Li Su figured out the problem, in order for him to have a second son to inherit the title, he had to personally take the steps to improve it, instructing Hua Tuo to still use gray to paste wounds in the future, but the source of the gray must be strictly screened, not all incense, ash, grass and wood ash.

You can use the washed and dried straw to burn it into ashes, then put it in clean water to melt it, then filter out the insoluble solid impurities, and then distillate it to dry it. What is left behind is pure potassium nitrate and other nitrates, which will not introduce infected impurities.

Using this pure gray paste wound, and popularizing the method of boiling fire and grilling the blade and cutting the umbilical cord, it is estimated that 90% of the infection sources will be eliminated. The number of dead babies can be reduced by about half.

After Hua Tuo developed the new method, the first beneficiary of the test sample was Zhuge Ke. After the test was very effective, it would be used on Li Su's own child next year. Of course, when the female officials in the court heard that the effect was good, they were willing to try it. Finally, even the concubines in Liu Bei's palace, who had a body, asked the medical officer if they could try it.

The idea of ​​these women is quite simple: in order to ensure that multiple sons inherit one duke, Li Sikong can easily guide the medical officer to accumulate such a great merit. No wonder he deserves to be the prime minister because of his virtue.

——
Chapter completed!