Chen Zhenlong is the father of sweet potatoes and from Changle, Fujian. It was he who introduced sweet potatoes to the country and saved countless hungry people.
1543, Chen Zhenlong was born in a scholarly family. He studied hard since childhood. He fell in love with scholars at the age of 20. If he passed the imperial examination, he could become an official and glorious family.
It’s a pity that Chen Zhenlong failed in the following several provincial examinations and was not able to win the exam.
Seeing that he was thirty, Chen Zhenlong had to choose to become a businessman due to his livelihood.
However, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the professions were scholars, farmers, industry and commerce respectively from high to low. Although businessmen were rich, their social status was the lowest.
Chen Zhenlong abandoned school and went to business, which was also a helpless move. For the sake of life, it is not a waste of money to make money.
Fujian region has developed trade since ancient times. Since Zheng He set up a route to the West , many merchants have sailed to sea to do business directly with foreigners, earning a lot of real money.
Moreover, Fujian people are very united and pay attention to clan culture. With the help of fellow villagers, Chen Zhenlong quickly found the business skills and made his first pot of gold in business trade with foreigners.
1593, a severe drought occurred in Fujian, with hunger people everywhere and starving many people to death.
Chen Zhenlong was doing business at Luzon at this time, and Luzon is today's Philippines . When he heard about the famine in China, he was very worried and wanted to do something for his fellow villagers in his hometown.
On this day, when he was walking in a rural area of the Philippines, he saw the locals harvesting a food called jujube.
vermilion means red, and vermilion is also sweet potato.
The vines of sweet potatoes are lush and lush. A large bunch of fruits can be dug out with a hoe, and the yield is very large. The key is that sweet potatoes can be eaten raw or roasted or cooked. They feel full and hunger-resistant.
After Chen Zhenlong carefully consulted the locals, he found that sweet potatoes were full of treasures. The fruits can be eaten by people, the leaves and vines can be fed to pigs and chickens, or dried sweet potato leaves are used to cook rice with fire.
The most gratifying thing is that sweet potatoes are very adaptable and easy to grow. It is heat-resistant to water-drought, and requires almost no fertilizer or labor. It basically does not need to be taken care of after planting, and the yield is particularly high.
Chen Zhenlong felt like he had a treasure. He felt that if this kind of food could be introduced into the country, how many people would have to be saved!
Do it whenever you think of it, Chen Zhenlong made up his mind to bring the sweet potatoes back to China.
However, at that time, the Philippines was a Spanish colony, and sweet potatoes were also brought to the Philippines by Spanish colonists from South America.
The Spanish are very clear about the great value of sweet potatoes and regard them as a big treasure. No one is allowed to bring sweet potatoes out of the Philippines.
Chen Zhenlong was discovered by Philippine customs officers when he was carrying sweet potatoes out of the country the first two times, and was beaten and covered in bruises.
But Chen Zhenlong still did not give up his original intention. He told himself in his heart : "We must bring sweet potatoes to China to save the hungry millions of people." It is impossible to carry them with
. The Philippine customs checked very strictly and searched for close-fitting clothes. It is not possible to put it in the luggage bag, as the customs officers will take out the items in the bag one by one to look at.
So what should I do? Chen Zhenlong racked his brains to think of ways to bring sweet potatoes back to China.
Suddenly, Chen Zhenlong flashed his mind. He found that the sweet potato vines were particularly similar to the water-absorbing rope on the boat, which was made of hemp rope.
So Chen Zhenlong weaves the sweet potato vine and the thin hemp rope together, and then smears the outside with soil, which looks exactly like the absorbent rope from the outside.
This is not enough. In order to prevent the ship owner from leaking the news, Chen Zhenlong also bribed the ship owner. The boat owner took advantage of the benefits, and even if he saw the clues, he turned a blind eye to the ears.
In this way, Chen Zhenlong successfully passed the inspection of the Philippine customs, boarded the return ship, and brought the sweet potato vine back to the country.
On the way home, Chen Zhenlong protected the sweet potato vine like a treasure. As soon as he got home, he called his son to plant sweet potato seedlings with him and conduct preliminary experiments.
A few months later, the ground produced huge sweet potato fruits. Chen Zhenlong was so happy that he let his family and neighbors taste it, and everyone said it was delicious.
In order to promote sweet potatoes as a food and help more people get rid of hunger, Chen Zhenlong asked his son to meet Jin Xuezeng, the governor of Fujian , to show him the benefits of growing sweet potatoes.
As a local official in Fujian, Jin Xuezeng was worried that he could not solve the local famine problem. When he saw this kind of tenacious and high-yielding potato with his own eyes, he burst into tears with joy and exclaimed : "The people are saved!"
He found Chen Zhenlong as his teacher and asked him to guide the planting methods of sweet potatoes in various places in Fujian. The sweet potatoes were planted with vine seedling cuttings and carefully cared for.
A few months later, the sweet potato harvest was indeed a bumper harvest. I saw the sweet potatoes connected with each other in clusters and clusters. They were huge and red and very attractive. They tasted sweet and had a good taste when eaten raw.
Soon, sweet potatoes were planted in most places in Fujian, and the famine problem was solved.
Governor Jin Xuezeng wrote my country's first potato monograph "Overseas New Biography" based on Chen Zhenlong's sweet potato planting methods.
Since the Philippines was a foreign country at that time, sweet potatoes were also called sweet potatoes.
Because of the introduction of sweet potatoes, the problem of famine in the Ming Dynasty was alleviated, and the national destiny was continued.
During the famine years, there was a saying: "Nine to eight out of ten villagers lived on sweet potatoes." This means that most people relied on sweet potatoes to survive during the famine years.
There is no doubt that Chen Zhenlong is definitely the savior of millions of people.
When we read this period of history, when we eat sweet potatoes, we must also remember the great contribution of Chen Zhenlong who risked his life to introduce sweet potatoes, and remember the great achievements of our predecessors, so as to inspire us to contribute to the country one day!
