Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1487 - 1036: Five Years of Plenty—Rice, Wheat, Millet, Barnyard Grass, and Taro, Ancient Crops of East Asia

Chapter 1487: Chapter 1036: Five Years of Plenty—Rice, Wheat, Millet, Barnyard Grass, and Taro, Ancient Crops of East Asia

"Maitreya Buddha! This is the taste of rice, the taste that can make one cry tears of happiness!..."

"Haha! Sukeichiro, this is the best rice from the Yue country, from the north coast of Lake Biwa, Echizen Province’s Tsuruga District, the very place where Superior Rennyo spread the teachings! The water there is good, the soil is good, and the rice grown there is very fragrant. It’s not just good rice in Hokuriku, but throughout the entire nation!..."

"Buddha bless! Watanabe-kun, I had only tasted Hiraoka District rice from Mutsu Province at the family head’s banquet before, and it was already better tasting than what’s grown around the Victory Mountain Manor. But to think this rice from Yue country is even more glutinous and sticky, full of rice fragrance, and tastes sweetly lingering!..."

"Hayah! Delicious! Truly delicious!..."

Reindeer meat and rice porridge were rolling in the iron pot, steaming with a tempting white smoke. The meat was reindeer from the snowy plains, the rice was Yue country rice from Hokuriku. The Tsuruga District area is what later became Fukui Prefecture, known for its excellent water quality and soil, the birthplace of Koshihikari rice and Jade Dew tea. As for Hiraoka District in Mutsu Province, it’s the production area of Aomori rice, one of the few places in Mutsu Province that produces good rice.

At the moment, around the campfire cooking porridge, four people were sitting, diligently eating porridge — monk soldier Watanabe Masumi, the ship commissioner Murakami Kitamichi, horse breeder Sukeichiro, and shipwright Kim Sun-su. Each of them was devouring the rare meat porridge, even moved to tears. The rice was good and the meat was fragrant; a mouthful of hot reindeer porridge warming their entire bodies instantly in the cold icy world.

"Phew! The family head is generous! With rice porridge this fragrant, even without a single radish pickle, I could eat rice alone for a lifetime!... Oh! For lower samurai like us, if not for going out to sea to trade, how could we ever eat such rice!"

"Indeed! Maitreya Buddha has manifested! The ordinary villagers in the village can’t eat rice even once a year!"

"Haha! Sukeichiro, you say the villagers are so poor they can’t eat rice even once a year, I believe that..."

Hearing the laments of two Kaozaki family retainers, monk soldier Watanabe Masumi’s eyes flashed, while taking big bites of reindeer meat, he smiled and inquired.

"But, Murakami-kun, you’re the ship commissioner for Kaozaki family, do you also not have rice to eat usually?"

"Phew! Buddha be witness! Lord Watanabe, you are the legitimate lineage of the martial family, always staying in the affluent capital region, how could you know the hardships of us samurai in Ezo land... Not just our Kaozaki family, even the Nanbu family that produces good rice, ordinary mid-to-lower samurai can’t even eat rice twice a month! Eating rice every day, what a luxurious family that would have to be! Even Lord Nobuhiro of the family head wouldn’t be able to bear it!..."

The ship commissioner Murakami Kitamichi finished his rice porridge, licked the ceramic bowl clean with satisfaction as if he had ascended to heaven. Then, he began counting on his fingers, explaining the everyday hardships of ordinary samurai to Watanabe Masumi, who was now addressed as "lord".

"Lord Watanabe, in the impoverished Mutsu Province, rice can be a precious food used for banquets. The Kaozaki family’s rice is strictly preserved in the Takakura. Actually, the Victory Mountain Manor is rather cold, and there are not many rice fields to grow rice..."

"Oh? Then the villagers and samurai of Mutsu, if they don’t grow rice, what do they grow and eat on a daily basis?"

"Buddha be witness! Villagers and samurai typically grow barley, millet, barnyard grass, and taro in daily life!"

Talking about farming, Murakami Kitamichi became spirited. In Wa country, impoverished lower samurai could not leave farming. Even if they had 50 koku of fief, 20 koku of stipend rice was needed to feed a whole family, and they also had to pay tribute to the family head, life was tight, and they must work in the fields.

At the moment, it’s the late 15th century in Japan, water management facilities were lacking, and there was a lot of mountains, dry lands, and saline-alkaline lands, with not much paddy fields suitable for rice planting, and the yield was inadequate. Rice was truly a luxury that only the daimyo dared to often eat. Even a hundred years later, Date Masamune’s wish was just "One day when peace prevails under heaven, I want to eat red bean rice, taro radish soup, and fresh sardines!"

And the standard meal for the daimyo, Oda Nobunaga was one meat and two vegetables with a bowl of soup, plus his favorite tea rice. While Tokugawa Ieyasu practiced even more frugality, pickled radish with rice, and seldom fish. This dining standard fundamentally was due to the few people in the Wa country and scarce resources, not to mention comparing with the rich Ming Dynasty, even upon comparing with neighboring Korea, the difference was vast.

"Growing barley, millet, barnyard grass, and taro as a daily routine? Murakami-kun, tell me more! Is the barley the kind that’s ground into flour for noodles like in the Tang land?..."

"Ha! You’re talking about the noodle barley? Oh, no! Barley and rice are also luxury goods, normally not available to eat... Villagers usually grow barley or highland barley!"

"Barley or highland barley? I do remember drinking malt beer and it was rather refreshing. But as I recall, this crop doesn’t yield much!..."

"Haha! Lord Watanabe, you’re likely never to have farmed, right? The primary consideration in farming is to ensure that what’s planted can grow, produce yield; a complete failure is unacceptable!... Barley is slightly better than rice but still requires a lot of water and is picky about the soil, fragile, and can easily lead to a failed harvest! On the contrary, barley is drought-resistant and highland barley can even be grown in mountains, adapting to cold and barren conditions... Regardless of water abundance or scarcity, hot or cold weather, it always yields!"

Seeing Watanabe Masumi’s bewildered expression, Murakami Kitamichi smiled, patiently continuing to explain.

"As for growing millet, that’s growing small millet! Ordinary samurai consume millet most. Millet can be grown on both mountains and plains, drought-resistant, and not demanding on farming conditions. Simply put, it’s not picky about the soil, easier to grow than wheat or rice! The yield of millet is higher than barley or highland barley, and it’s easy to store... In the entire Ezo land and Mutsu Province, most proper farmland is used to grow millet. This time going north, part of the food the ship crew brought is rice prepared by the great merchant Sen no Kiyoshi, but the main portion is the millet taken out by the family head from the warehouse!"

"Hmm! In the temple, high monks eat rice, and minor monks eat millet. As a monk soldier, I lived on millet too!"

Monk soldier Watanabe Masumi touched his chin, reminiscing the taste of millet porridge. It’s the most common taste of hometown, the taste he was accustomed to from childhood. He recalled it for a long while and then sighed heavily, moving back to the previous topic.

"Bodhisattva bless! Tell me more about growing barnyard grass and taro!"

"Oh! Growing barnyard grass and taro!..."

Murakami Kitamichi rubbed his full belly, pressed down hard, and then served another bowl of fragrant reindeer porridge. He glanced at Sukeichiro and instructed.

"Sukeichiro, your family grows barnyard grass and taro, tell Lord Watanabe about it!"

"Yes! Barnyard grass and taro are staple foods for the villagers... Barnyard grass is a sort of wild barley, and taro is an aquatic plant that’s edible root..."

Sukeichiro explained with a respectful attitude, slightly bowing his head, using gestures to describe.

"Lord Watanabe, compared to wheat and millet, the advantage of barnyard grass is it’s easier to grow, less choosy about the land, and salt-tolerant! Seaside saline lands can only grow barnyard grass and nothing else... Its flour is less, but husks abound. For villagers, eating husks and not starving is already considered blessings from divinity, Maitreya Buddha showing miracles, it’s very fortunate!..."

"As for taro, it grows both by lakesides and in mountains but Ezo land cannot grow it, requiring warmer places down south. There are people growing it in Mutsu... It thrives well, doesn’t need management, just plant it by water and you’ll have a harvest, although they’re small, they taste very fragrant..."

The taro here is, of course, not the currently still prevalent high-yield sweet potato from America, but rather the aquatic taro cultivated since ancient times in the Celestial Empire. In the Book of Han, the "taro" mentioned in "they fed me pea soup and taro quid" is referring to this aquatic taro. Aquatic taro is small, numerous, fond of water and warmth, and was a staple food before the Han Dynasty. As for the later reason for "taro" retreating as a staple, naturally, its yield was too low. After comprehensive agricultural development in the Tang and Song dynasties in the Celestial Empire, warmer waterside lands were all converted to higher-yielding rice fields.

"I see!... Aside from these, is there anything else?"

"Maitreya Buddha protect us! Of course, besides barley, millet, barnyard grass, and taro, there are various other crops grown in the countryside, eating all kinds of edibles... Like the yellow soybeans and peas for feeding horses on the ship, they’re delicious grains making villagers drool. Oh! Fields can’t continuously grow rice or wheat; you must rotate crops with beans to maintain soil fertility. Among them, yellow soybeans prefer warmth, peas are cold-tolerant, Ezo grows more peas..."