It rained heavily overnight.

In the early morning, the world seemed to be washed by the heavy rain last night. The sky was clear, the earth was clean, and the air was fresh.

During the morning court, the Minister of Rites submitted a memorial saying that the prefect of Hanchuan County reported that wild silkworms were found to be cocooned, and the mountains and fields were everywhere. The prefect of Hanchuan ordered the people to harvest and harvest more than 10,000 cocoons and make silk cotton, thinking that this was auspiciousness from the sky and blessing from God. Therefore, he reported to the court and sent people to pay tribute to the cocoons made by wild silkworms to make silk cotton.

In fact, this kind of wild silkworm is not a traditional silkworm. Silkworm is also called mulberry silkworm. It can be spun silkworms by eating mulberry leaves, forming cocoons and drawing silk. However, wild silkworms are actually also known as tussaurus, which is named because they like to eat oak leaves. They are also very different from ordinary silkworms. Ordinary silkworms grow whiter, while tussaurus is greener, like a big green worm.

However, wild silkworms form cocoons, and their cocoons can also weave silk, but generally, there are not many cocoons formed on a large area. Whenever the ancients encountered this situation, they would consider it auspicious.

In the eyes of Emperor Luo Cheng, this is actually like a plague of locusts, it is just a natural phenomenon. It is just that the large area of ​​tusseria silkworms is rare. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, some people found ways to artificially raise tusseria silkworms.

This time, Luo Cheng did not refute this auspicious statement, and even asked the court to issue an edict to commend the prefect of Hanchuan.

After the court came to court, Luo Zhi immediately summoned people from the Escort Province. The Escort Province was equivalent to the emperor's court steward, and there were also departments responsible for raising silkworms and weaving silk.

Luo Cheng instructed that a team should be sent to Hanchuan County immediately to investigate the local tussert silkworms in detail and carefully study the situation of tussert silkworms so that methods can be found for artificial raising of tussert silkworms.

After all, artificial silkworm raising requires both planting mulberry and picking mulberry, feeding leaves, etc. If this kind of tussal silkworm masters good stocking technology, it can increase the source of silk. You should know that in later generations, Dandong, the most famous tussal silkworm production area, it can produce more than 30 million kilograms of tussal cocoons in a year.

The prefect of Hanchuan also believed that this was auspiciousness from the sky, but Luo Cheng believed that this was a good industry. As long as it was studied and found a method of stocking, it would be of great benefit and worth studying.

Even in addition to tussaurus, there have been maple silkworms that eat maple leaves, castor silkworms that eat castor leaves, and stinky tussaurus that eat stinky tussaurus that all of them can produce special silk, but in comparison, tussaurus is more promising to stock.

It usually takes about fifty days for tussal silkworms to grow eggs to cocoons, from spring to autumn, and can be stocked for multiple seasons a year. If managed properly, the yield is high and efficient.

In addition to cocoon-weaving, tussaurus also has many other functions. For example, tussaurus pupae can be eaten just like pupae in the house, and residue can also be used as feed for fish, livestock and poultry.

"Aye, can these wild silkworms really tame and stock? Will they not run away?"

The prince came to pay his respects. After seeing Luo Cheng give instructions to the Escort Provincial Department about going to Hanchuan County to study the artificial stocking of tussal silkworms, he couldn't help asking during lunch.

"Although silkworms belong to moths, they will never fly before they break out of the cocoon. When they grow up and mature, they will need to be in the cocoon for a while before they break out of the cocoon and finally fly out of the cocoon. As long as the silkworm farmers grasp the time, collect the cocoons before they break out of the cocoon, and then boil them in the water. In this way, when the silkworms are still pupas, they will die in the cocoon and will not break out of the cocoon and turn into moths to fly away. In this way, the cocoons can be drawn and weaved, and the silkworm pupa can also be made into food."

"Wouldn't this be cruel?"

Luo Cheng stroked the prince's back with his hand, "Crown Prince, everything in the world has its own uses. Raising silkworms, collecting cocoons and weaving silk, can make clothes and warm people's bodies. This is not cruel. It's like you raise chickens and eat meat. This is not cruel, but you abuse and kill chickens for the sake of eating. That's cruel, do you understand?"

"But that's also killing."

"Wolves eat sheep and sheep eat grass. This is the law of nature. Humans are the genius of all things, above everything. Eating both meat and vegetarian food is not called killing. Torturing killing is called killing. We are not monks, so it is different from the rules they follow."

Luo Cheng quickly corrected the prince's naive idea. The prince was already ordinary enough, but if he became a monk in the future, wouldn't he be done?

“Is the lamb delicious?”

“It tastes good, it’s even better to roast with angel.”

“Is the chicken delicious?”

“Baizhan Chicken is delicious.”

“Is the fish delicious?”

“The fish fillets are delicious.”

Luo Cheng laughed and patted the prince on the shoulder, "Isn't that right? Do you think it's boring if you can't eat these in the future?"

"Yes." The prince licked his lips. He had already drooled in his mouth after talking about these dishes.

"Give you a task, give you twenty silkworm eggs, hatch them out, and then pick mulberry and feed them until they form cocoons."

The prince nodded. Although he didn't quite understand the tasks assigned by his father, he still tried hard to do it.

Just like his father asked him to raise horses and dogs, he also did it himself. Although he had the guidance and help from the groom's dog slave, he would still do it with his own hands.

"By the way, what happened to the horse and dog you raised?"

"It's good. The horse is very well-behaved and gentle. The dog is so naughty. He often pees in my palace and shits. He is not as good as the horse."

"That's because you didn't teach him well. Didn't your servant tell you how to set rules for your dog?"

"I taught, but I don't listen."

"That's because you didn't teach it well. You have to reward and punish the dog. First teach it how to do it. If it does it right, you will reward it for what it eats. If it does wrong, you will have to beat it so that it can have a memory and understand the rules in the future."

"The dog is so cute and so small, it's not good to be hungry for him."

Luo Cheng shook his head, "Prince, the rules must be established early, and there will be no rules. If you don't set rules for this dog now, then this dog will be a dog without rules when it grows up. He will not be qualified to stay with you. Then he will be pulled out and slaughtered. Look, you are not doing this now, it is not really good for this dog, it is just harming it, do you understand?"

"Father, can you raise tussaurus silkworms in the palace?"

"Of course you can raise it, but you have to plant oak trees first, so it won't be worth it. The father asked the emperor to go to Hanchuan to study oatmeal silkworms because not only Hanchuan, but also from Guanzhong to Hanchuan, to Henan and Shandong, Central Plains, Henan and Hebei, and even Liaodong outside the Guandong, there are many oak trees, and some places are everywhere in the mountains. Therefore, there are good conditions for raising oatmeal silkworms, which can reduce the cost of cocoons, and it is profitable to raising oatmeal silkworms."

"Father, the teacher says that a gentleman does not speak of profit."

"Which teacher said it?"

"What Grand Secretary Li Zhan said."

Luo Cheng laughed twice. Li Gang, the prince Zhan Zheng, was the Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy, and they were all ministers who were worshipped by ministers, but after all, they were still a bit nerdy.

"This is not how a gentleman explains that he does not speak of profit. Do you know where this sentence comes from?"

"It was said by the wise men of Mencius, from the "Letter of King Hui of Liang" in "Mencius". Mencius met King Hui of Liang. The king said, "Old! Will you benefit our country from coming thousands of miles?"

Mencius replied, "Why do you have to say profit? You have benevolence and righteousness. Therefore, Li Zhan teaches his sons to govern the country with righteousness, so why do you have to say profit?"

Luo Cheng then taught his son, "A gentleman does not mean that he does not want profit at all, but that he does not only seek profit. The reason why Mencius said so resolutely was that the people at that time only wanted profit but did not know that there were benevolence and righteousness in the world, so he pulled the root and saved the disadvantages. This is the heart of a sage. Later generations should understand the sage's words at that time, and they cannot be cleared up in their minds."

"But Li Zhanshi also said that Confucius also said that a gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, a villain is a metaphor for profit, and Xunzi also said that righteousness is emphasized in prosperous times, and profit is emphasized in troubled times."

Luo Cheng was speechless, "You little bastard, you can just drop your bags. The words of the saints are the words of the saints, but I want to teach you that as the crown prince, since you are the crown prince, then you should be treated as righteousness and profit. A gentleman should not be ashamed to speak of profit. But you must grasp righteousness and profit well, and you cannot value profit over righteousness, nor can you only value righteousness over profit. You can achieve both righteousness and profit, and master balance. Do you understand?"

The prince scratched his head. What his father said was completely different from what his teacher Li Gang said.

"Some of Li Gang's teachings should be listened to, and some of them should not be listened to all. You have to listen to your father, do you understand? You must remember that it is better to have no books than to believe in books. There is also a saying that if you listen partially, you will be dark, and if you listen both, you will be bright."
Chapter completed!