During this trip to Beijing to suppress bandits, each unit of the National Guard Army carried a month's supply of food and grass, and subsequent food and grass would be provided by the local government.

Prior to this, Zhu Cihong had already sent an order to Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting, asking them to wipe out the bandits as soon as possible.

Especially Hong Chengchou, don't always think about conserving your strength and going around in circles with bandits.

Sun Chuanting's early work was on military training and land reform, not on suppressing bandits.

Now that the land reform has been basically completed, and the army has been training under Li Shouting for more than half a year, it is time for the Qin army to show its skills.

Qin Liangyu, the loyal prince of Sichuan, with the strong support of the crown prince, is currently training another 20,000 white pole soldiers, including 3,000 musketeers.

Her mission was to block Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng's escape route to Sichuan, and to eliminate all rogue bandits once they invaded the country.

In order to obtain sufficient supplies, Zhu Cixi ordered the Longteng Army and Huben Army to go south along the canal.

And he led the Weiwu Battalion to take the same old route, directly from Hebei to Henan.

The last time I took the emperor on a private visit to Henan, Chongzhen saw the suffering of the people, causing him to shed tears along the way.

This time Zhu Cihong came again, and he also wanted to see how much the situation had changed compared to last time.

If things remain the same, Zhu Cixiang wouldn't mind killing a few more corrupt officials!

The four-wheeled carriage that Zhu Cixi rode was drawn by three mules. When driving on the road, the comfort was better than that of the last trip to Henan.

Yue Yang and the young eunuch Hu Bao were also accompanying them on the four-wheeled carriage. Three mules and horses easily pulled the three of them.

Mules are born from the marriage of horses and donkeys. They are taller and stronger than horses, and even taller and stronger than donkeys. They are most suitable for pulling carts. The only drawback is that they have no reproductive ability!

Behind and behind the four-wheeled carriage were the guards of the East Palace and the Imperial Guards, accompanied by Zhou Yuji, the commander of the mighty battalion, Xu Xing, the general on horseback, and others.

Li Fang, the commander-in-chief of Ye Bu Shu, who is now a lieutenant general, is also among them.

There is also Zhang Huangyan, a historical national hero in the team, who is currently serving as the commander-in-chief of Weiwu Camp.

Most of the 20,000 men in the Weiwu Battalion traveled on horseback, and the soldiers who did not ride horses sat in four-wheeled ox-carts.

The carriages they made were different from those of Zhu Cixiang. There were carriages pulled by two oxen and carriages drawn by four mules.

There are a row of wooden benches on each side of the carriage, and there is no roof on it, just like the cargo buckets of small four-wheel tractors used to pull goods in later generations.

Not far after the team left the capital city, Zhu Cixiang opened the curtains and saw a green field.

The potatoes and sweet potato vines were growing well in the fields, and Zhu Cihong was beaming when he saw them.

There were people pulling weeds in the fields on the roadside. When they saw the army passing by, they stopped and watched.

Sweet potato leaves are edible, Zhu Cixiang has told Chen Zilong, but the people are reluctant to eat them, fearing that they will damage the growth of the sweet potatoes!

Zhu Cixiang knew that they now had porridge to eat. If it had been during the disaster last year, they would have eaten all the sweet potato vines!

When the team was passing by a small river, Zhu Cixi noticed that there were many waterwheels along the river.

Although there is little water in the small river, the people dig deep ditches under the waterwheel to guide the water under the waterwheel. The waterwheel will pour the river water into the canal above...

The scene before him made Zhu Cixi very happy. Under normal circumstances, the people in Gyeonggi Province would definitely be able to have enough to eat this year.

When you don’t have enough to eat, who cares whether sweet potatoes cause flatulence? It’s definitely the first choice to eat enough, not to mention potatoes, which can be used as staple food when cooked.

A team of 20,000 people marched, carrying some of their baggage with them. They left Zhending Mansion at noon. Zhu Cihong gave the order to stop for lunch. He got off the carriage, stretched his body, and walked towards a farmland.

Yue Yang and Hu Baogang just greeted the guards of the East Palace to escort him, but were immediately stopped by Zhu Cixiang:

"No, what do you have to worry about with the 20,000 troops here? You two can just follow me!"

"According to the order!"

Yue Yang and Hu Bao looked at each other, and the two of them quickly followed the crown prince.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes were not growing well in the field, but Zhu Cihong knew not to look at the surface, because the edible things were in the soil. He squatted on the edge of the field to look at the sweet potatoes, and then walked to a potato field and squatted down.

According to his experience in later generations, there has been no change in the soil at the roots of the sweet potatoes, which proves that the sweet potatoes have not yet grown underneath. At present, they are just small roots. It is estimated that it will take half a month for the sweet potatoes to grow as big as a thumb.

The potatoes had been planted for nearly two months, and Zhu Cihong estimated that they should have produced small potatoes, so he decided to dig one to see how it went.

With a movement of his hand, a military shovel appeared in his hand. Although Hu Bao and Yue Yang had seen the crown prince take things out of thin air many times, they were still shocked when they saw it again.

Zhu Cixi exerted a little force, and the military shovel easily penetrated into the soil. Then he exerted a little force again, and a potato seedling was turned over by him. Three potatoes the size of pigeon eggs suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Damn, that's not bad..."

Zhu Cixiang was overjoyed when he saw this. He threw away the military shovel in his hand, reached out and grabbed three small potatoes and laughed loudly. This is life-saving food for the people!

Before Zhu Cixi finished speaking, an old man ran up from a distance. He shouted as he ran:

"Stop, don't destroy the potatoes before they are ripe. When the potatoes are harvested, the old man will invite the military master to his home..."

Zhu Cixiang turned around and looked at Old Khan, who was stumbling and running quickly. He admired Old Khan's courage and was not afraid of Huang Ming's army.

"stop!"

Hu Baoyue made a prank on the old man and asked him to approach the crown prince. The two quickly stepped forward to stop the old man. Almost at the same time, Zhou Yuji led the East Palace Guards to surround Zhu Cixiang.

Seeing the officers and soldiers blocking the way, the old man fell to his knees at the feet of Hu Bao and Yue Yang and begged:

"Master, please don't destroy our crops. We haven't had enough to eat for several years. We finally received land this year. I beg you, Master..."

Hu Bao and Yue Yang didn't know whether the crown prince wanted to continue digging potatoes. Seeing the old man kneeling and kowtow, they hurriedly helped the old man up and took out a tael of silver and said:

"Uncle, go back. This is to compensate you for your crops. Don't worry, the national defense army will not harm the interests of the people!"

When he heard that it was the National Protector Army, the old man hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed again:

"It turns out it's the Crown Prince's army. You go ahead and dig. This land was given to us people by the Crown Prince. It's not too late to thank the Crown Prince. Thank you very much for taking care of us mud-legged people..."

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Zhu Cixiang walked up to the old man and stretched out his hand to help him up, then waved to Yue Yang, Hu Bao and Zhou Yuji:

"Stand back, don't show off your power in front of the people!"

"Here!"

Seeing that the old man could not harm the crown prince, Hu Bao and others agreed and retreated with the East Palace guards.

The old man looked up at the young man who helped him up and smiled:

"The young general is very powerful. Can you see the Crown Prince? If you can see the Crown Prince, I would like to thank Chitose for us, the common people!"

Zhu Cixiang smiled slightly and said:

"Yes, when I see the crown prince, I will thank him for you. How much land will your family be allocated?"

The old man hurriedly bowed and saluted:

"Thank you, young general. The four members of our family have been allocated twenty acres of land, and we are all growing potatoes and sweet potatoes. You see, there is still no rain this year. I am really worried that there will be no harvest. Fortunately, the crown prince exempted us from taxes for three years.

At least I won’t starve to death…”

Zhu Cixi nodded and said with a smile:

"With twenty acres of land, the yield per mu should normally reach ten shi. Even if the drought is serious, the yield should be around eight shi per mu. If we calculate based on eight shi, twenty acres can yield 160 shi.

This one hundred and sixty stones will not be enough for your family of four to eat in a year. Plant potatoes after the harvest in July and harvest around October and a half. Because the time is short, the harvest will definitely not be high, but no matter how much it is, it will be extra.

Uncle, you must pay attention and plant a season of wheat in November. No matter what the wheat harvest is, you will never go hungry again..."

Without chemical fertilizers, sweet potatoes and potatoes can produce up to two thousand kilograms per mu. In ancient times, a yield of more than one thousand kilograms per mu was definitely considered a bumper harvest. It was impossible to produce five or six thousand kilograms per mu!

The old man didn't know how to count. He felt incredible when hearing Zhu Cixiang's calculations. Not only could he have enough to eat but he also had such a surplus, which they had never dared to imagine in their entire lives!

"Plop...Thank you, young general. I will thank the Crown Prince Chitose for us. Our lives are all given by the Crown Prince..."

Zhu Cihong helped the old man up and said with a smile:

"As the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty, if he can't let the people eat free rice, he is not qualified as a prince. These are the potatoes I just dug from your field. I will tell you how to eat them!"

Zhu Cixiang took the old man to the kitchen and asked Huotoujun to wash the potatoes and throw them into the rice cooking pot. He was ready to let the old man taste the potatoes.

But when he turned around, he found the old man looking at him with strange eyes. Zhu Cixi felt puzzled, so he asked:

"Sir, why are you looking at me like this?"

"You are not allowed to speak ill of the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince is the savior of the people..."

"Hahaha……"

The old man's words made Zhu Cihong, Yue Yang, Zhou Yuji, Hu Bao and others laugh. When the old man saw several people laughing at him, he immediately became angry:

"Why are you laughing? As an army under the command of the Crown Prince, how can you disrespect the Crown Prince so much? It's outrageous!"

Yue Yang patted the old man on the shoulder and said:

"The person in front of you is the Crown Prince, so we can't help but laugh and kowtow to our benefactor!"

When the old man heard this, he was overjoyed and hurriedly knelt down in front of Zhu Cihong:

"The common people pay homage to the Crown Prince, you are the god in the hearts of our people..."

Zhu Cihong glared at Yue Yang, then helped the old man up:

"Sir, get up quickly. Everything I have done is to give you enough to eat. No need to thank you. I hope your life will get better and better!"

The old man nodded excitedly, and then burst into tears...

At this time, the supervisor of the Huotou Army brought the potatoes to Zhu Cixiang and said awkwardly:
To be continued...