Standing in the fields, Yun Ye flew into a rage, pointing at the still foolishly grinning Lantian County Magistrate and Chief Clerk and cursing them out. Li Chengqian and Li Tai grinned foolishly on the side, and the villagers, seeing the County Magistrate being scolded, were also laughing cheerfully watching the spectacle.
Heaven help him! Yun Ye sat down with a thump in the field, looking at the mountain-high pile of potatoes before him, wanting to cry but having no tears. Knowing the yield was high, why plant so much? In his previous life he had no concept of crop yields. He always heard about hundred-thousand-acre experimental fields, million-acre experimental fields—there were plenty of them. He didn’t care, didn’t pay attention. No matter how much was grown, it would generally all be consumed cleanly. Over a billion people—how could there be leftovers?
But now, what did Lantian County’s twenty thousand acres of potato experimental fields amount to? The dryland plateau had been entirely planted with potatoes. Within sight, there were countless giant potato piles too numerous to count.
This year the rainfall was good. The dryland plateau produced nearly seventy million catties of potatoes—enough for Chang’an people to eat for three years. They had grown them, and the potatoes looked quite good too—large, with rough skin, sandy potatoes. But these potatoes—who could they sell them to?
Expecting ox carts and small boats to transport them out? What a joke—the transportation costs alone wouldn’t be covered. “No profit under double within a hundred li, no profit under fivefold within a thousand li”—this was a precept strictly observed by Great Tang merchants. Without double the profit, they wouldn’t go a hundred li away; without fivefold profit, they wouldn’t go a thousand li away. A hundred-some li journey would easily take two or three days. These villagers who planted potatoes were still foolishly smiling waiting for profits. They’d lose their shirts.
“Ye’er, why are you angry? Now with grain covering the ground and cattle and sheep filling the slopes, these are days for happiness. Why are you alone flying into a rage? Isn’t this too harsh on them? The Lantian County Magistrate and Chief Clerk have merit for the nation. I’ll submit a memorial right now to request honors for them.”
Li Chengqian held two giant potatoes in his hands, treasuring them. Not minding the mud covering them, he held them in his arms with Li Tai, both making sounds of amazement, planning to wash them clean and present them as auspicious omens to the Emperor.
Using other things as auspicious omens would result in impeachment by officials and condemnation by literati. Using grain as auspicious omens would only bring a chorus of praise. Even two wheat heads growing on one stalk would produce a flood of essays offered to Heaven, not to mention potatoes the size of human heads.
Since arriving in the Great Tang, he had never seen a time when there was excess food. Most common people still only ate two meals a day, and moreover, they drank thin gruel when idle and ate solid food when busy. People had never had the concept that growing too much grain could also be a disaster. Not only did the farmers lack this concept, even elite figures like Li Chengqian and Li Tai didn’t have this concept either. From childhood, the education they received was that the more grain the better—this way everyone in the realm could eat their fill. They interpreted Yun Ye’s fury as an unusual kind of joy.
“Right now wheat costs six wen per dou. These potatoes should sell for at least three wen per ten catties, right? We’ve been eating potatoes these past two days—very good grain. Both delicious and abundant. From now on, what are mere disasters worth mentioning?”
Li Chengqian smiled and exchanged congratulatory bows with Li Tai, the Lantian County Magistrate, and the Chief Clerk. Yun Ye walked over and said viciously: “Since the Crown Prince and Prince Wei like them so much, how about each household purchases one million catties of potatoes? I don’t dare expect three wen for the price—just give me two wen. I’ll send people to haul them to the Eastern Palace and Prince Wei’s manor right now. Don’t try to stop me.”
“Ye’er, one million catties of potatoes is too much. My Eastern Palace only has a thousand people—how can we finish eating them? Qingque’s manor has even fewer people—he couldn’t finish them in two years either. This is just being unreasonable.”
“I’m being unreasonable? Your thousand people can’t finish one million catties, but Chang’an’s seven hundred thousand people can finish seventy million catties? This thing can be stored for at most one year. What if we can’t finish eating them? Let them rot away? It’s not only Lantian County planting potatoes—the nobles are planting them too, and all the land on the imperial plateau is planted with this stuff. Roughly calculating, the total won’t be less than one hundred million catties. Haha, so many potatoes—enough to cover all of Chang’an City, right?”
Once Yun Ye laid it out plainly, Li Chengqian was stunned. Li Tai also froze. The Lantian County Magistrate and Chief Clerk’s faces turned ashen. The pride and joy from just moments ago vanished in an instant.
“Who truly eats potatoes as a staple grain? In disaster years with nothing to eat, having potatoes naturally prevents starvation. But now it’s a bountiful year. Guanzhong has a great harvest, Hedong has a great harvest, Hebei has a great harvest, Jiangnan and Jiangbei have great harvests, and Shuzhong also has an incredibly good year this year. Throughout the Great Tang, except for Qianzhong Circuit suffering military disaster, I haven’t heard of any place suffering disaster. Hehe, one hundred million catties of potatoes that can’t be finished—when spring comes and they’re ruined, do you think Heaven will forgive this kind of conduct?”
These words scared the County Magistrate and Chief Clerk so much they collapsed on the ground right there. The potatoes in Li Chengqian’s hands also unknowingly fell to the ground. Only now looking back did Li Tai realize how terrifying all these piled potatoes everywhere were. One million catties of potatoes was merely two hundred strings of cash—it wasn’t about how much money, but rather that they simply couldn’t finish eating these potatoes. Even if the manor ate them every day, every meal, it wouldn’t work. In the distance, the joyful farmers knew nothing of this and were still happily piling newly dug potatoes onto the potato piles. The harvest scene indeed could infect people—the Crown Prince, Li Tai, Yun Ye, and the household guards they brought all happily went to dig potatoes.
The hundred-year-old Yan Zhitui came by ox cart to view the harvest scene. Originally smiling so broadly his mouth wouldn’t close, after hearing the three young men’s words, his face turned black as charcoal. Li Gang brought several old gentlemen also riding their own ox carts over. Before their congratulatory words left their mouths, they were thoroughly berated by Yan Zhitui. After understanding, each one also began sighing and lamenting.
This group kept growing. Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui personally came to escape the heat. Hearing this news, they were so astonished they gaped speechlessly, yet had no good solution.
Joy spread among the common people, but worried expressions spread contagiously among the nobles, until it spread into the imperial palace. Li Er looked at the giant potatoes on his desk, wanting to cry but having no tears. Who dared waste grain? This was the greatest disrespect to the fertile earth. The Great Tang had never experienced grain surplus before, and history hadn’t either. During the Rule of Wen and Jing, it was merely that official granaries were filled with grain. Now, not only were official granaries full, private granaries were almost full too. Perhaps mobilizing all of Chang’an’s people to eat together might still be possible.
Yun Ye became angry at the sight of potatoes. Returning home, the courtyard and garden were covered with the things. Li Anlan and Xinyue were bored, playing at counting potatoes with the two children. Seeing Yun Ye return, Xinyue happily came up, pulling Yun Ye’s hand and pointing at the courtyard full of potatoes saying: “Husband, our family’s land is truly good. I planted fifty acres of potatoes. Look—they’ve almost filled the garden.”
Yun Ye slapped away this foolish woman’s hand with slanted eyes saying: “Good, since you like potatoes so much, starting tomorrow you’ll eat potatoes in the morning, eat potatoes at noon, eat potatoes at night, and your midnight snack will also be switched to potatoes. You can eat them all the way until next year’s new potatoes come in. How about that? Wonderful, isn’t it?”
Xinyue laughingly slapped her husband once saying: “It’s just eating them for the sake of it—who treats potatoes like life itself? The household only has several hundred thousand catties. After giving them to familiar families, not much will be left.”
Li Anlan put down the potato in her hand, dusted off her hands and said to Yun Ye: “This is husband’s achievement. With these potatoes, it’s better than you killing those enemies on the battlefield. This is truly an achievement worthy of being recorded gloriously in history.”
“You all like potatoes so much? Good. I’ve bought another one million catties for the household. You four—mother and children—eat them desperately for me. It doesn’t count as finished until you’ve eaten them all.”
“Ah?” Xinyue immediately became anxious: “Husband, do you have a fever? The household can’t even finish the potatoes we have—why are you going crazy buying more from outside? We don’t even have a place to store one million catties, do we? You’re joking with me, aren’t you?”
“I’m not joking. Chengqian bought one million catties, Qingque bought one million catties, I also bought one million catties, Old Master Yan bought five hundred thousand catties, the Academy purchased two million catties, but there are still tens of millions of catties unaccounted for. I ordered one million catties for the navy. Chengqian returned to the palace to petition His Majesty, to see if they can also purchase large quantities of potatoes for the Sixteen Guards. We can’t let those plateau people’s potatoes go unsold. Our household will just have more troubles—I don’t dare let the farmers take losses.”
Li Anlan and Xinyue stared wide-eyed, looking at the potatoes on the ground, then glancing at their worried and distressed husband. Too little grain was a disaster, but now having too much had also become a disaster? What kind of talk was this?
On the Yun Family estate, all households that hadn’t planted potatoes themselves came to the main house to haul potatoes. Throughout these thousands of years, it had always been tenant farmers hauling grain to the main house—never had anyone heard of hauling grain from the main house to tenant farmers’ homes. Each person came cheerfully carrying a bamboo basket to receive their welfare, but ended up being scolded back by the furiously raging Marquis—three hundred catties per household, and you’re using a basket to carry it?
While loading potatoes onto their family carts, they watched the Marquis’s expression. The Marquis was very angry at those who took too little advantage of his household—hauling too little wouldn’t do. The carts were piled high, and the Marquis finally also filled their baskets and hung them on the cart shafts, telling them to hurry up and scram, also saying that if they finished eating them, they could still come to the household to haul more.
This time, Yun Ye wasn’t the only spendthrift in Chang’an. Li Chengqian, Li Tai, and Li Ke who wasn’t in the capital, as well as Yan Zhitui, all played spendthrifts once, endlessly giving away potatoes.
After sending out one round, Yun Ye looked at the potatoes in the fields that seemed not to have decreased at all, worried to the point of scratching his ears and cheeks. The Lantian County Magistrate developed large blisters around his mouth overnight, with eye discharge filling his eye corners. The Chief Clerk wasn’t much better. As long as the potatoes in the fields weren’t completely dealt with, they shouldn’t expect to have good days. All the farming households had set aside enough grain for a year’s rations—not counting wheat and millet, they planned to eat potatoes for this whole year. Three meals a day.
The Academy was already filled with wails of distress. Students who had just started the school term suddenly discovered that all their meals had been changed to potatoes. In the morning it was cold mixed shredded potatoes, at noon it was potato chunks stewed with meat broth, and in the evening the cooks turned the potatoes into mashed potatoes with seasonings for dipping. Previously, no matter what dish, they only gave one ladleful, but now the cooks viciously added two big ladles to the meal plates and still asked if it was enough.
Xiao Ya poked at the potatoes in her meal plate, pouting and about to throw a tantrum, when she was slapped on the back by her grandmother: “Such good food and you’re still picky! What’s wrong with potatoes? Before your brother came to get us, even having some rice bran would have been good. Now there’s meat and potatoes and it still can’t shut your mouth?”
Yun Ye put down his chopsticks. Originally, everyone at home ate wolfishly, but now they had all suddenly become refined young ladies. Xiao Wu had just transferred all the potatoes from his plate to Di Renjie’s, and Di Renjie’s eyebrows were twisted into a knot. This wouldn’t work—always eating potatoes like this wasn’t sustainable.