Crops in ancient times were not as abundant as they are now, and famine was the norm. "Poor enough to eat soil" is often used as a ridiculous phrase in modern times, but it is not known that in the era of famine, there were really people who ate soil, and that kind of soil was called "Guanyin soil".
"Kannon soil" contains a variety of minerals and is generally used to burn porcelain. In times of famine, people use it to fill their hunger, and it is not a big deal to eat a small amount. However, it is difficult to digest after eating, bloating, and difficult to defecate, and many people are choked to death because they eat Guanyin soil. At that time, you could eat whatever you wanted, wild vegetables, bark, roots... These eat bugs, animals, and even more legends eat children. Speaking of famine in China, I have to thank the person who brought sweet potatoes back to China, who used sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes) to save many hungry people during the famine years.
He was a thief admired by Chinese, and he risked his life to bring back a vine from abroad to feed hundreds of millions of people in China. His name was Chen Zhenlong and he was a Fujian businessman. Chen Zhenlong (c. 1543 - 1619), male, Han ethnicity, a native of Qingqiao Village, Changle County, Fuzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province (now Changle District, Fuzhou, Fujian Province), was a young man in his twenties.
He was a businessman in the Philippine Islands and was attracted to the local sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are drought tolerant and high yielding, sweet and delicious, easy to plant, and high yield. Chen Zhenlong thought of the successive disasters in Daming, the poor harvest of grain, the lack of food for the people, and the suffering of hunger, and he wanted to bring sweet potatoes back to China. However, at that time, the Philippines regarded sweet potatoes as national treasures and strictly prohibited their export.
Chen Zhenlong hid the sweet potatoes in a box for the first time, and confiscated them after being discovered. The second time, he put the sweet potato vine into a rattan basket, but it was still found. He was beaten so badly that his nose was blue and his face was swollen, and he was almost put in jail. But Chen Zhenlong was not reconciled, he decided to do it again, he secretly woven the sweet potato rattan into a rope on the boat. Then covered with mud on the top, this time, he finally brought the sweet potatoes back to Fujian.
At this time, the whole of Fujian was in a drought, the grain harvest failed, Zhenlong asked his son Chen Jinglun to write to Inspector Jin Xuezeng in Fujian, suggesting that sweet potatoes be planted on a trial basis to alleviate the food crisis. After 4 months, the harvest of vermilion potatoes can fill the hunger. Jin Xue once ordered all localities to promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes in large quantities, and sweet potatoes took root in China and fed countless people.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, sweet potatoes were promoted to most parts of the country. At present, the national sweet potato planting area of more than 100 million mu, the annual output of the original grain reached 30 million tons, accounting for 80% of the world's total sweet potato production, during the Light Year of the Qing Dynasty, Fuzhou people built the "First Potato Pavilion" in Wushi Mountain to commemorate this Chen Zhenlong. Chen Zhenlong is also known as the "father of sweet potatoes" in the mainland
In ancient times, there was Chen Zhenlong, and now there is Yuan Longping. "Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, the grass is green in the sky. The evening wind blows the willow flute, and the sunset is outside the mountain. "In ancient times, there was "Starting work and opening things", and now there are continuations of the past, the world is rich, and the grass is cool. Those great men deserve to be remembered for a lifetime.