Take the farm down to earth

Chapter 74 Harvest and Soaring Merit

In the early morning of mid-September, the weather was already a bit chilly.

The middle of September in the lunar calendar is almost the middle of October in the Gregorian calendar, and the surrounding farmland has basically completed the autumn harvest.

At this time, Shi Zhongkui was at Shanguogong Farm in Daxing, waiting for Yu Honggao, Gao Yongmin from the Ministry of Industry and other officials who had been paying attention to rice paddy and fish farming.

There is also the arrival of the surrounding country gentry, which can be predicted, and the number must be not small.

At about 8 o'clock in the morning, Yu Honggao's sedan chair came to the farm accompanied by a group of yamen servants.

As soon as I got off the sedan chair, I saw Shi Zhongkui waiting for him with Xue Pan and Jia Lian.

First he bowed to Jia Lian, panicked Jia Lian hurriedly bowed back, saying that he didn't dare, and the atmosphere returned to normal.

"Is Boqian sure?"

This was the first time the master and apprentice had met after the provincial examination to avoid suspicion.

Shi Zhongkui shook his head with a smile, "The disciples are absolutely sure about the Four Books and Five Classics, poems and official letters, but they are not sure about the time and policy.

However, it should be fine for the Zhongju. As for the rest, it depends on God's will. "

"Hahaha", Yu Honggao immediately remembered the heavy rain 5 days ago, "God's will, it's really God's will."

And as long as he wins the exam, it means that he has the opportunity to take the exam in February next year, and he is not considered a loser.

When Xue Pan and Jia Lian heard this, they looked at Shi Zhongkui with strange eyes.

After asking someone for a while, I found out that in this provincial examination, there were crying sounds from the homes of many previously favored scholars.

Don't think about it, there must be stains on the paper, and I can only wait for the exam in Chunwei a year and a half later.

Shi Zhongkui was actually very uneasy at first, but he felt relieved when he saw that the number representing the merit column in the farm space was still after 110.

Since my merit has not been reduced, then the matter has nothing to do with me, it must be just an autumn rain.

An hour later, the area around the farm was crowded with people. If there were not more than 30 government servants and 140 field soldiers, something might happen.

Shi Zhongkui hurriedly asked Xue Pan, Jia Lian, and Shi Guangzhu who came to watch the excitement, and some honorable children to organize the servants, so that the order of the scene was stabilized.

When Gao Yongmin and other officials saw him, they said a few words, and gave him a copy of the paddy field fish farming cheats written by himself, which attracted more than a dozen noble children.

Then he mobilized these young masters to take the initiative to stand up and lead a total of hundreds of servants from each family to help maintain law and order, and he was even more satisfied with him in my heart.

But thinking of some rumors, Gao Yongmin sighed in his heart again.

Xungui and Taishanghuang are not stupid, there is no reason to let the emperor and civil servants take all the credit for themselves.

Maybe one day the Supreme Emperor will find a reason and decree to confer a title, and Shi Zhongkui will have to stand on the honorable side.

Of course, he could take the risk of not accepting, but even if the Supreme Emperor does not inquire about the crime, Shi Zhongkui will have no chance to be an official or work before the Supreme Emperor dies.

Around 11 am, the sun was hanging in the sky.

First there was worship, and then an order was given. Hundreds of farmers held sickles, divided into ten groups, and carefully went to the field to start harvesting rice.

Ten people harvest one mu of land. For these farmers who have at least ten years of farming experience, it means that the harvest is over after a little sweat.

Two threshing machines were placed in the harvested farmland and started threshing in front of countless people, and then the people from the Ministry of Industry were responsible for weighing.

When someone yelled 'four stones and three' in surprise, there was a sound of breathing and noise at the scene.

And Shi Zhongkui was even more stunned, his mind was full of the constantly beating numbers on the merit column in the farm space.

Two hundred, five hundred, one thousand, did not stop until 1110.

In the heavenly court, Zhao Gongcao, Chen Dianbo, and a kind of heavenly soldiers and generals who were paying attention to the list of officials in the heavenly court couldn't open their eyes when they were suddenly pierced by a dazzling golden light.

Then, the list of officials in the Heavenly Court, which had been floating in the main hall of Shengxianchi, shook a few times and disappeared.

Zhao Gongcao, Chen Dianbo and others instantly understood that Shi Zhongkui had reached a certain level of merit and was protected by the Immortal List.

Chen Dianbo looked at Zhao Gongcao enviously, and asked in a trembling voice, "My lord, when Shi Zhongkui returns to the Heavenly Court, will he be a colleague of mine?"

Zhao Gongcao glared at Chen Dianbo, isn't this nonsense!

Incense can become a god, and merit can be sanctified.

As long as the merit is sufficient, let alone a ninth-rank sesame official, it is no problem to be a seventh-rank immortal official after returning home with a little care.

When Zhao Gongcao thought that he was only a seventh-rank immortal official in the heavenly court for countless years, he felt jealous.

Fortunately, there is still a big difference between an official and a job. Some people are of high rank but have no rights. They are just mascots in the heavenly court.

However, when he heard that Bi Mawen, who had turned against heaven, was recruiting soldiers and training monkeys and grandchildren in the lower realm, Zhao Gongcao sighed secretly that Shi Zhongkui had gone shit.
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"Boqian, Boqian,,,."

Hearing someone calling him, Shi Zhongkui came back to his senses and saw that Yu Honggao didn't care about the appearance and demeanor of the sixth-rank official at the moment.

With a look of ecstasy, he stretched out his hand and grabbed his hand, and laughed loudly, "The average yield of ten mu of land per mu increased by more than one shi, and only in Gyeonggi, it can increase hundreds of thousands of shi of rice. The benefits are in the future.

I am going to play, and I ask the court to reward you. "

Shi Zhongkui hurriedly bowed and saluted, saying "lucky".

While the surrounding people are envious at this time, they are more concerned about how much food and income they can increase in the future.

And this is just forgetting the rice, the fish in the fish ditch have long been frightened by the nearby crowd and scurry around in the fish ditch.

Even some fishes of almost seventy-eight taels directly jumped out of the fish ditch, and the startled crowd kept exclaiming.

Afterwards, fishing became even easier. More than a dozen households took bamboo sticks and inserted them into the fish ditch to drive the fish into the big fishing baskets that had been placed in advance.

Soon the ten fish baskets were surrounded by water splashes, and even the fish baskets trembled from side to side as the fish had nowhere to escape.

Everyone can tell at a glance that the receipt must not be small.

After picking up the fish baskets and draining the water, someone yelled and reported, "The ten fish baskets add up to 736 catties."

Then the servants, yamen servants and field soldiers shouted and spread the news to the outer circle, and the atmosphere became even more enthusiastic.

Some people even lit firecrackers to celebrate.

Put down the fish basket again, and received another 385 catties. Although the third and fourth times decreased suddenly, the total directly exceeded 1500 catties.

Shi Zhongkui knew that Liu Yu'er must be at fault for this, after all, she, the carp spirit, was there, not to mention diseases, even water snakes, weasels, toads and other animals that came out to look for food at night, they couldn't even get close to them.

Together with the care of farmers and 140 field soldiers, the survival rate of fry has reached about 10%.

Two or three thousand live fishes of about half a catty were all spread out in a field where the crops had been harvested, and the visual impact caused directly broke the hearts of nobles, squires, officials and others at the scene.

(End of this chapter)