In the back garden of Zhou's house in Songjiang Prefecture, Zhou Chong was picking peppers in a vegetable field that was cultivated. In order to cultivate sweet potatoes and peppers, Jinxuan, Lingyun and Jianer and the other three cultivated several acres of land at home to cultivate. As a result, they have become accustomed to it. No matter where they live, they will cultivate a small piece of field in the garden and plant some vegetables such as chili and cucumber. It is not mainly for eating, but for Jinxuan and the others to find something for themselves and exercise their bodies. This has also received strong support from Zhou Chong. It is precisely because of the hard care of Jinxuan and the others, so the vegetables in the vegetable field grow very well. The peppers produced are like small carrots, which look green and green, which makes people enjoy their appetite.

Zhou Chong was very leisurely during this period. The last native kingdom in the South China Sea was finally destroyed by Qu Lie, and the layout of the South China Sea was basically completed. It will take time to slowly consolidate it. In addition, Japan is still in a difficult situation, but Edo Bay and Ishimi Yinshan have completely fallen into the hands of the Ming Dynasty. Ishimi Yinshan has begun to produce silver, and it has attracted the attention of the court. A large number of troops have been stationed to guard it. It is absolutely impossible to lose. Edo Port has been almost built. Zhou Chong has submitted a memorial to Zhengde, hoping that the court can form an ocean-going fleet, at least go to the Americas, understand the route clearly, and lay the foundation for the future development of the Americas. However, Zhengde has not received a reply from him yet.

In addition to the expansion of the above territories, the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade has reached a peak. The ports that were previously abandoned due to the sea ban have gradually recovered their original vitality under the stimulation of the maritime trade, especially the ports south of Songjiang Prefecture. There are still boats and boats coming and going every day. Shuangyu Port, which used to dominate the maritime trade, is no longer so conspicuous among many competitors. Even Ningbo Port, which is close to Shuangyu Port, has gradually surpassed Shuangyu Port in scale. Now Ningbo Prefecture is discussing the merger with Shuangyu Port. If the two ports can really be merged, Ningbo will form a huge seaport area and jump over Guangzhou and become the largest port in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade has reached a bottleneck. What restricts the development of maritime trade is the development of domestic industry and Shanghai trade. For example, taking porcelain and silk as an example, most people now try their best to get these two kinds of goods and then transport them overseas to make huge profits. Even the domestic supply is insufficient, resulting in the continuous price increase of silk and porcelain in China.

In other words, the domestic productivity of the Ming Dynasty could no longer keep up with the development of commerce, and the goods that can be provided in China had reached the limit. Therefore, no matter how prosperous the maritime trade was, the goods provided by the Ming Dynasty were certain every year, which led to a contradiction between domestic demand and export. Therefore, the most important thing in the Ming Dynasty is to develop domestic agriculture, industry and commerce, and increasing the output of commodities is the right way.

Zhou Chong is still unable to get involved in the affairs of the Ming Dynasty. At most, he uses the influence of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce to open some cotton textile workshops, and encourages craftsmen to invent new textile tools and vigorously develop the cotton textile industry. After all, cotton is an important commodity in the marine trade. Although the price is lower than silk and porcelain, the output is very large. Even the Portuguese likes the Ming Dynasty cotton fabric. I heard that the Ming Dynasty cotton fabric is very popular in Europe.

However, whether it is the cotton textile industry or other industries, these are only privately influenced by Zhou Chong, and the progress speed is still too slow. Without more than ten or twenty years of development, there is no big effect at all. However, Zhou Chong is not in a hurry now. Anyway, he, the governor of the Four Seas, has done everything he can do, and the Ming Dynasty's layout on the sea has been completed. As long as there is no major change in the Ming Dynasty, one day he can make adjustments according to his own needs.

It is precisely because of this that Zhou Chong was very leisurely during this period. He even specially gave himself a vacation, intending to use this rare leisure to accompany his family. Jinxuan and Lingyun gave birth to a son for him respectively. The eldest daughter Xia Xia is almost five years old. It was the time to get entangled. In addition, Meng Wan is also pregnant and is waiting for delivery.

Zhou Chong is still a little guilty about his family. After all, he has been busy with the affairs of the Governor's Office in recent years and rarely has time to accompany his family. Among them, Jinxuan and the others are fine. After all, they can understand him and are busy taking care of their children. It's nothing. However, as Xia Xia grew up, she hoped to be with her father every day, but unfortunately Zhou Chong didn't have much time to accompany her, which made Xia Xia already complain about him, a father.

It is precisely because of this that Zhou Chong is preparing to make good use of this leisure time, thinking about nothing, and doing nothing, and spending it all with his family. Especially Xia Xia is getting older and older, and it is a time when her father needs care. Zhou Chong doesn't want his daughter to lack fatherly love during her growth process.

This morning, Zhou Chong accompanied Xia Xia on the streets of Songjiang Mansion for a long time, buying many gadgets for her, making this little girl very happy. Speaking of which, although Shanghai New Town has attracted many merchants to buy land and do business, the popularity has not yet increased, and the streets are not very prosperous. In addition, the houses are built all day long, and there is a smell of dust everywhere, so Zhou Chong did not move his home. After finishing his business every day, he would ride back to the old Zhou family house in Songjiang to accompany his family. It is not very far away anyway, and it only takes half an hour at most.

After playing for a whole morning, Xia Xiafei was eating the food made by her father. Speaking of which, since Zhou Chong became the governor, he rarely went to the kitchen. Jinxuan and the others would not let him cook, thinking that it was the best. So, except for the lively New Year, Zhou Chong was able to go to the kitchen to show his skills, he could not get close to the kitchen at all at other times. However, it was the two hands she showed during the New Year that made Xia Xia be obsessed with his father's cooking skills. In the past, Zhou Chong was too busy, and Xia Xia couldn't see anyone all day, so naturally he didn't have the chance to come up with it. Now he finally had the chance, so he naturally wanted to eat the braised pork made by Zhou Chong.

Speaking of which, in addition to her gender and appearance, Xia Xia is like Zhou Chong in other aspects. Especially in terms of diet, as long as Zhou Chong likes to eat, she will definitely like to eat it, such as braised pork, ancient meat, etc., and there are also spicy dishes. She and Zhou Chong like it very much. Today, she specially asked Zhou Chong to make a dish of fried eggs with chili peppers for herself. Although it is a very ordinary home-cooked dish, it is a dish that the father and daughter never get tired of.

In order to cook a meal for his daughter, Zhou Chong went to the vegetable field to pick vegetables, especially the chili peppers. They chose the big and green chili peppers. This chili pepper is not so spicy and can be cooked for cooking.

Speaking of chili peppers, it used to be the exclusive product of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce. In the Ming Dynasty, only the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce planted chili peppers on small islands overseas, and the seeds were not allowed to be spread. At the beginning, the Ming Dynasty was not used to chili peppers, but after a year or two, more and more people like chili peppers. As a high-end condiment, chili peppers are naturally a hundred times more capable. A jar of chili oil with a fist can be sold for three taels of silver at the most expensive time, and the cost is only a dozen cents, which is like robbing money.

Unfortunately, the good years of peppers were only maintained for two years. Later, Zhou Chong gave Zhengde an idea to migrate the victims overseas. In order to give these victims more money, Zhou Chong gave the pepper seeds to those victims who settled overseas for free. At first, many victims made some money by growing peppers. However, more and more peppers were planted, and even spread from overseas to the mainland of Daming. In less than two years, Daming was planted with chili peppers, especially in the later generations of Sichuan and Huguang. The peppers planted were far better than those in other places. As a result, the peppers are now as tumbling as they did in the past. When they go to the noodle restaurant to eat a bowl of noodles, people will take out a chili oil basin and let you eat them at will, and you don’t have any money at all.

However, although the price of chili has dropped, the taste has not changed. Moreover, with the spread of chili, more and more people like to eat spicy food, which has also made more and more dishes with chili seasonings, such as boiled fish, spicy tofu and other dishes, which have appeared now, but the taste is not as authentic as in later generations, but it can be eaten only.

In order to make Xia Xia her favorite fried eggs with chili, Zhou Chong personally selected the peppers, removed the seeds inside, washed them, cut them into thin strips, soaked them in cold water for a while, then rinsed them again to prepare for cooking. The reason why I brewed them in cold water is mainly to clear the spicy taste in the peppers. The fried dishes are not particularly spicy and are suitable for children. After all, Xia Xia is still young, and eating too spicy is not good for the health.

After the scrambled eggs with chili and eggs were prepared, Zhou Chong made braised pork and ancient Chinese, as well as two vegetarian dishes, sweet and sour cabbage and fried mung bean sprouts. Finally, a bowl of corn sweet soup and a few freshly steamed buns were added. These are the favorite things Zhou Chong and his daughter liked to eat. As for rice, they didn’t like them. They prefer pasta. However, in places like Songjiang, flour is much more expensive than rice. Generally, wealthy families only eat some pasta during festivals.

Although Zhou Chong cooked not many dishes, the amount was enough for them to eat. When Xia Xia saw that the table was full of home-cooked dishes, her big eyes smiled into crescent moons, and her chubby little hands grabbed the chopsticks and ate them. Although the two young men were only two years old, they were not willing to be outdone. They climbed onto the table and reached out to grab large pieces of braised pork and ate them. It seemed that they were carnivorous like their father.
Chapter completed!