Seeing the Administrator's two messages in the group, Liu Bang felt something was off.
[Liu Bang: I remember that in the last Rebel Army Q&A, after all three of us answered the first question correctly, we went on to a third question, didn't we? Why did this round end after only two?]
Zhu Yuanzhang had also felt something was wrong at first, but his memory was a little better than Liu Bang's, and he soon recalled the reason.
[Zhu Yuanzhang: Only Zhang Jiao and I answered the second question that time. Because both of us got it right, we had a chance to answer a third.]
[This time, you and I both answered the second question, but we got it wrong. Only Zhang Jiao got it right, so naturally there was no third question.]
[Liu Bang: I see.]
[Liu Bang: It's a pity we have to decide whether to participate before the question appears. If we could see the question first, those who weren't confident could withdraw, giving the participants a better chance of reaching the third question.]
[Zhu Yuanzhang: Indeed.]
Zhang Jiao spoke up then as well.
[Zhang Jiao: Emperor Gao of Han, Brother Zhu, rest assured. Whatever reward I receive this time, I'll share it with you both.]
No sooner had Zhang Jiao's message appeared than another message from the Administrator followed-
[Administrator: Liu Bang answered the second question incorrectly in Rebel Army Q&A and will receive the negative status "fatherly love and filial piety" for one month.]
[(For the next month, you will find the crown prince particularly displeasing. However, be very, very careful of him. Also, if your father is still alive, we recommend spending less time in his presence this month.)]
Liu Bang: ???
Could fatherly love and filial piety mean something like this?
Why not call it "father and son turning against each other"?
And with Liu Ying being such a weak, spineless thing, why should I be so careful of him?
Careful of what?
Could that brat possibly dare to imitate Modu of the Xiongnu, murdering his father to seize the throne?
For a moment, Liu Bang was thoroughly puzzled by the explanation of this negative status, "Fatherly love and filial piety." He wanted to ask Zhu Yuanzhang about it, but the Administrator went on to announce Zhu Yuanzhang's punishment.
[Administrator: Zhu Yuanzhang answered the second question incorrectly in Rebel Army Q&A and will receive the negative status "woodworking obsession" for one month.]
[(For the next month, governing the realm will seem far less interesting to you than woodworking, and beautiful women will look less appealing than wood. Biao'er? Biao'er is no match for a plane!)]
Biao'er was no match for a plane?
Reading the explanation of the negative status "woodworking obsession" in the group, Zhu Yuanzhang once again laughed in anger.
Then he remembered that the third question in their first speed-answer round had mentioned a "Carpenter Emperor." The answer had later confirmed that this was the nickname of a future emperor of Great Ming.
Clearly, he had received this negative status, "Woodworking obsession," thanks to an emperor among Zhu Di's descendants who was obsessed with woodworking!
"Hmph, Fourth Son!"
Zhu Yuanzhang felt a faint pang of regret over sending Zhu Di to farm in Fengyang-if he had kept Zhu Di in the capital, he would have summoned him for a beating today without fail!
But when Zhu Yuanzhang compared it with Liu Bang's "fatherly love and filial piety," he felt that his own "woodworking obsession" was nothing much.
As for why "fatherly love and filial piety," originally a term of praise, had become a negative status when applied to Liu Bang... he thought that perhaps the Rebel Army Group counted the emperors of Liu Song as part of Old Liu's family line too. After all, Liu Jiao was Liu Bang's younger brother.
While Zhu Yuanzhang was comparing his negative status with Liu Bang's, the group announced Zhang Jiao's reward.
[Administrator: Zhang Jiao answered two consecutive questions correctly in Rebel Army Q&A and will receive the reward "Choose One of Two Answers"!]
[You may choose to view this reward's questions and answer privately or publicly in the group. Please choose.]
Without hesitation, Zhang Jiao chose to view them publicly in the group.
[Question A: How did sweet potatoes come to China?]
[Question B: In the original course of history, the Yellow Turban Rebellion failed. What went wrong?]
[Please choose a question for this group to answer within ten breaths. Otherwise, this group will answer one at random.]
Because Zhang Jiao had chosen public viewing, Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang could also see both questions.
Remembering that sweet potatoes yielded even more than rice, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately offered a "reminder."
[Zhu Yuanzhang: Zhang Jiao, choose A! I can tell you why the Yellow Turban Rebellion failed!]
[Zhang Jiao: All right, I'll take your advice, Brother Zhu.]
In truth, Zhang Jiao would have chosen A even without Zhu Yuanzhang's "reminder."
As Zhu Yuanzhang had said, he could learn the reasons for the Yellow Turban Rebellion's failure from Zhu Yuanzhang, whereas even Zhu Yuanzhang did not know where sweet potatoes had come from. That made the answer more worth spending his reward on.
Besides, Zhu Yuanzhang had saved his life. Since Zhu Yuanzhang was so eager to know the answer to question A, he could hardly refuse to help.
Not to mention that the answer should also prove useful to him and Liu Bang.
After replying to Zhu Yuanzhang in the group, Zhang Jiao selected question A.
[Administrator: Zhang Jiao, would you like to view this group's answer to the question privately?]
[Zhang Jiao: No.]
At that moment, Liu Bang, Zhang Jiao, and Zhu Yuanzhang all fixed their eyes on the translucent group chat window before them.
Pale white text appeared upon it, paragraph after paragraph.
[At the end of the fifteenth century CE, Westerners discovered the Americas through their great ocean voyages and brought sweet potatoes from South America to the South Seas and other regions.]
[In the twenty-first year of Wanli's reign in Great Ming, Chen Zhenlong, a merchant from Changle in Fujian, discovered sweet potatoes in Luzon. Seeing that they yielded as much as two thousand to four thousand jin per mu, he was utterly astonished. Thinking of the tens of millions of people in Great Ming plagued by famine, he resolved to bring sweet potatoes back to China.]
At the sight of this second paragraph, Liu Bang, Zhang Jiao, and Zhu Yuanzhang, who had already sat down, all sprang to their feet again!
Liu Bang even rubbed his eyes involuntarily.
After carefully reading the second paragraph once more, he could not help saying, "Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Two thousand to four thousand jin per mu?!"
"Or is the jin of that later age vastly different from the jin of my time? Are ten of their jin worth only one of ours?"
Astonished and doubtful, Liu Bang was desperate to ask Zhu Yuanzhang at once.
Only the continued appearance of the answer's text made him hold back.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was even more shocked than Liu Bang.
The second paragraph clearly stated "the twenty-first year of Wanli's reign in Great Ming." That meant sweet potatoes had come to China during his own Great Ming dynasty!
Liu Bang might suspect that the later jin differed from that of Great Han, but Zhu Yuanzhang had no such doubts. He knew exactly how much a Great Ming jin weighed, and that made the sweet potato's enormous yield all the more shocking.
"How could a grain crop with such a high yield possibly exist?!"
"Even with meticulous cultivation in the finest paddies, rice yields four hundred jin per mu at most. These sweet potatoes can yield ten times as much?!"
For a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang stared unwaveringly at the text appearing before him, eager to learn what happened next with the sweet potatoes.
[At the time, the Spanish from the Western Ocean had colonized Luzon and strictly prohibited sweet potato planting stock from leaving. Chen Zhenlong and his son twisted sweet potato vines into a water-drawing rope and coated its surface with mud, successfully evading Spanish customs inspections and bringing the vines back to Fujian.]
[Chen Zhenlong and his son first tried growing sweet potatoes on Shamao Mountain in their hometown of Fuzhou. Their abundant harvest proved that sweet potatoes were perfectly suited to Fujian's soil, water, and climate.]
[When a severe drought struck Fujian and famine broke out, Chen Zhenlong's son, Chen Jinglun, submitted the Treatise on Presenting Sweet Potato Vines to the governor of Fujian, introducing the advantages of sweet potato cultivation and its usefulness in famine relief.]
[The governor of Fujian ordered their cultivation promoted throughout the province. Sweet potatoes quickly became widespread in Fujian and helped many people survive the famine that very year. The people of Fujian called them "golden sweet potatoes."]
The Rebel Army Group's answer ended there.
Yet Liu Bang, Zhang Jiao, and Zhu Yuanzhang remained unable to recover their senses for a while.
A few breaths later, Liu Bang was the first to send a message.
[Liu Bang: Old Zhu, tell me quickly. How much does a jin in your Great Ming differ from a jin in my Great Han? Surely it isn't a tenfold difference?]
Seeing the message in the group, Zhu Yuanzhang finally realized that the sweet potato's extraordinary yield had led Liu Bang to suspect that the jin of later ages was too small.
[Zhu Yuanzhang: We're more than a thousand years apart. How would I know how much a Great Han jin weighs? But the difference shouldn't be too great. Certainly not tenfold.]
[Liu Bang: Though we're over a thousand years apart, people's weight shouldn't differ too much, should it? Tell me, how much does a twenty-year-old man generally weigh in Great Ming?]
[Zhu Yuanzhang: Around a hundred jin.] (In this story, a Ming jin is taken as 600 grams.)
[Liu Bang: And you say the difference isn't great? In my day, a twenty-year-old adult man generally weighs around two hundred and fifty jin! And that's someone who looks rather thin!] (In this story, a Han jin is taken as 250 grams.)
The front hall of Changle Palace.
As Liu Bang entered that message, his face was filled with shock.
Because if the jin mentioned by the Rebel Army Group was the Great Ming jin, or something close in weight, that meant sweet potatoes yielded more than eight thousand Han jin per mu!
At that point, Zhang Jiao also realized something from their exchange.
[Zhang Jiao: From what you two have said, the four thousand jin mentioned in the group's answer might not equal four thousand Great Ming jin either?]
[Liu Bang: Even if the four thousand jin mentioned in the group aren't Ming jin, there's no doubt that sweet potatoes yield a great deal-don't forget that it said earlier that Chen Zhenlong of Great Ming was utterly astonished by their yield.]
[If sweet potatoes didn't yield far more per mu than rice, wheat, and the like, why would he have been so astonished?]
After reading Liu Bang's analysis, Zhu Yuanzhang came to his senses as well.
Then, thinking that the Great Ming of later generations would possess such a high-yielding crop, he could no longer keep one corner of his mouth from rising.
According to the group's answer, within just a year or two of Chen Zhenlong and his son bringing sweet potatoes back to Great Ming, their cultivation had spread throughout Fujian and resolved the famine.
In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, as long as Fujian's officials were not fools, they would surely present the sweet potato planting stock and cultivation methods to the imperial court.
Even if differences in climate prevented sweet potatoes from spreading to the north, spreading them throughout the south alone would be enough to send Great Ming's food production soaring!
If they could be cultivated in the north as well, the Great Ming of later generations might never have to fear famine again!
At that thought, Zhu Yuanzhang could no longer hold down either corner of his mouth, and his face broke into a broad smile.