Fields of Gold

After the summer, with the exception of two or three sporadic rains, it hardly rained. Although not comparable to the drought in the north-east, without locusts, yields are likely to decline sharply, and in some places even to fail.

The only trees left on the western mountains that were eaten by locusts were dried trees, showing a dry state of death. If it doesn't rain any more, I'm afraid all the grass will die. Even streams flowing down the western mountains have been cut off over the years. The pond behind the rest of the old house, only a tenth of the original, a large chunk of sludge at the bottom of the pond was sun cracked open the thumb wide gap, occasionally a dead fish lay in the crack, emitting a rotten smell.

In the wells behind the old houses, the water level has also fallen considerably, and the ropes on the buckets have been replaced with more grown again. Yu Jia's wells are quite good. They are quite deep. Many people's wells in the village have dried up. Drinking water is actually a problem!

At a time of growing despair among the entire affected area, one evening at the end of the autumn, a freezing rain fell, leaving a string of transparent ice creams on the roof of the branches. At noon, the ice cream melted into droplets, and the autumn rain was still falling, and the dry land was moistened by rain. And those nasty locusts are freezing to death. The rain was too timely to mitigate the drought but also to address the locust plague. Next spring, it shouldn't be too much of an impact.

Frozen rain alleviates the disaster, but it also brings extinction to the rest of the family's vegetables. Autumn vegetables such as cabbage and radish are okay. Green vegetables, lettuce and other vegetables are all frozen overnight. If it hadn't been for Yuxiao's regular pouring of spirit stone water on vegetables, it would have been freezing to death.

Autumn rain, this autumn rain, has been falling for ten days. Over the past ten days, the rest of the house rained all the green vegetables into the warehouse in an effort to reduce some losses. After selling this vegetable, the autumn vegetables are about to be harvested.

Chinese cabbage, radishes, onions… There are not many types of autumn vegetables in this era. In Yujia's western courtyard, the whole planting is autumn vegetables, enough to eat the rest of the house up and down for the whole winter, more than enough. As soon as the cabbage is cut off from the ground and the water is dried slightly, it is received in the cellar of the west courtyard. The cellar in the east courtyard has been transformed into an ice cellar.

The radishes are pulled out of the ground, and some tender radishes can also be cooked as cold dishes. Pulling radishes is energetic and contracted by the men in the family. Women and children cut cabbage and pulled onions.

After ten busy days, the autumn dishes were put in the cellar. The extra Autumn Vegetables are contracted out to the Precious House at a high price. Since the start of the locust disaster in the summer, apart from the rest of the family growing autumn vegetables, it is not that no vegetable farmer has tried to grow radish cabbage, but they have all been spoiled by locusts shortly after they germinated. Many rich people in town bought potion from Yu Xiaograss, but they didn't grow enough to eat their own food, how could they sell it to the outside world? I don't like that kind of selling money.

The whole Tang Ancient Town liquor store can also have some fresh vegetables in the Precious Tower. Other older wineries also buy vegetables from the south, but they come at higher prices, and they travel long distances, and most of the vegetables are not very fresh after they arrive.

Yujia's vegetables, flavours and flavours are recognized throughout Tang Ancient Town. There have also been explorations of the differences between the remaining vegetables and others' vegetables and the reasons for their formation. Finally, the wells behind people's houses are fine mountain springs that cannot be found elsewhere.

Less than a month after the autumn rain, temperatures plummeted and snow arrived quietly. Winter arrives unconsciously. The entire Dongshan Village entered the cat winter. This winter is no better than in previous years, although every food item will be brought back from the South at a flat rate, vegetables have nothing but dried vegetables and sea fish shellfish.

Last year, Dongshan villagers had more money in their hands, and the winter was still quite moisturizing. Now, a lot of people can't even sustain warmth.

For the rest of the family, however, the impact has been modest.

After winter, the Yangshen King and his guards had returned to Beijing to cross the border. He did a good job of relief, the food was fairly timely, and the people of the affected area were grateful to the Emperor and King of Yangshen, Dade, and the reputation of the court was unprecedented among the people.

This year, Yangxian King brought high-yielding food seeds from overseas, cultivating an additional kilogram of maize and five kilograms of potatoes. Disaster relief has been quite complete. The Emperor gave a generous gift. If he hadn't just broken up with the county king for a while, it would have been possible to seal him up as a prince at the same level as his father!

Follow Yangxian Wang to the sea and responsible for purchasing Fangxian, also give Ka Guan into the duke, the official position won two consecutive levels, not only in charge of the ruling forest army, but also sealed the title of guardian army. Young people are already second-class, can't they be seen? However, their eyes are also dry, who told Fang Fang to enter the eyes of the Yangxian King, they have been promoted repeatedly!

The King of Yangxian became synonymous with the Red Man in front of the Emperor. There is a private message circulating from the Beijing official yard: "Follow the Yangshen Wang Wang and you will be guaranteed to enter the Duke!” The news is not hollow either. The Emperor trusts this little cousin and entrusts him with any important work. With people like that, it's easy to get grades. Besides, the Yangshen King never takes credit, which is not true. At the Chapel, he invited credit to the people who helped him grow corn and potatoes!

“Your Majesty, the rest of the family planted ten acres and harvested 10,000 kilos of corn. Grow an acre of potatoes with a yield of five kilograms. If corn and potatoes are spread in the North, why are people so upset? I thought Yu Jia was a successful member of the society and deserved a reward!” Zhu Junyang had a book presented.

Liu Sangbu of the household office said: “Your Majesty, such talent should be recruited to the household department in a broken manner! Shen calculated that if it weren't for the locust disaster, the test fields under the household, the output of six or seven hundred kilograms per acre of maize topped Tian Neng would be very good. Shen also looked at the maize cultivated by the rest of the family, and the grains were filled evenly. And the potatoes are huge! I thought the rest of the family was not a lot of planting talent, so use it again! ”

Other Wen Wu Baiguan, listened to the words of Liu Shangqu of the household, and his heart darkened to measure. The experimental field of the household subordinate, none of which is not fertile good field, is also carefully waited for, a acre of land only produces 600 or 700 kg. Dongshan Village is said to be mostly mountainous or barren sandy land, but the yield of one acre exceeds a kilogram.

What kind of concept is that? Either Yu did not contribute all the cultivation methods, or Yu definitely had an amazing talent for planting. With Zhu Junyang, the King of Cold Face County, staring, the rest of the family will definitely not dare to hide their privacy, which means that 90 percent of them are likely to be the latter.

What is most lacking in the Da-Ming dynasty today? Food! Jiangnan Fish and Rice Home is OK, the climate is suitable for planting, there are more good fields, and production is pretty good for two seasons a year. At least the people can fill their bellies. North of the Yangtze River, however, especially the bitter northeast and northwest, can only grow one season a year due to weather conditions. Although the Emperor has repeatedly waived taxes on agriculture, food production in the north is too low, and many people can eat half as much as they want.

Corn and potatoes are said to be less soil and climatic, and can be easily grown in the north. Most importantly, they have a high yield! One season equals two or even three seasons of other crops. If every acre of land reaches a kilogram, why can't the people eat?

Corn milled flour is made into buns and breads. Although it doesn't taste white and sweet, it tastes good compared to other coarse foods like pasta and bean noodles. The potatoes were cooked, and officials circulated them, and some even borrowed copies. After all, the method of cooking is not difficult. If potatoes become popular in the future, there will be plenty of dishes on the table in winter.

In the mind of Wen Wu Baiguan, it has long been determined that corn and potatoes should be grown in large quantities. This year, with 10,000 kilograms of good seeds, next year, thousands of acres of corn can be grown, and millions of kilograms of seeds can be harvested in autumn... so that in 35 years, corn can be grown in the North!

Such a planter, I'm sure no one will object to his breakthrough promotion!

The meaning of the Book of Household Affairs is to hope that the Emperor can seal a seven-grade official for the rest of the family and serve the court in Household Affairs. Nor did the other officials raise objections.

The emperor sitting high on the throne smiled silently. Sangshu Dobe was in a bit of a hurry. He thought the Emperor disagreed. When he was about to say something, the Emperor said: “Yangxian Wang, you have the most contact with the rest of the family, you have the most say. Who do you think the rest of the family owes it to? ”

Sangshu Dobe has personally visited Dongshan Village, and the rest of the family are all women and children except Yuhai. It's not that he despises women and children. Women and children do housework at home. Of course it's the master's business? Who else can be credited, of course, with the Yuhai, the head of the family.

Zhu Junyang glanced at his cousin, who seemed not to laugh, and honestly said: “According to Weishen's observation, the methods of growing maize and potatoes were all summarized by Yu Xiaograss, the daughter of Yuhai. ”

Yu Xiaohuado Department Sangshu has seen it before, only a skinny little girl is impressed. He couldn't help but wrinkle his eyebrows and argued, “Yangshen Wang, a little girl over 10 years old, how good can you be?” The old man seemed to think that all the maize was handled by Yuhai with his brother-in-law's family...

Yangxian Wang glanced at him coldly and said: “It doesn't matter who handles the fields, who is the conductor and who is the practitioner. His Majesty, Weishen lived in Dongshan Village for more than three months. All he saw was Yu Xiaograss behind the command, and the Yuhai family worked together to achieve a great harvest of maize. ”

Dobe Sangshu saw the King of Yangshen didn't seem to be joking. His eyebrows were still wrinkled and he whispered: “Is this Yu Xiaograss really this powerful? ”

The King of Yangxian ignored him and continued: “Your Majesty, you also saw it on your last private visit. In the year of locust plague, Yu Xiaograss, based on his understanding of medicinal properties, together with Dr. Sun of Tong Tong Tang, developed a potion to eliminate locusts. Unfortunately, some of the ingredients needed for the potion are rare, too expensive to produce in large quantities. However, the vegetables from the remaining herbivorous waters were not spoiled by the locusts at all. Enough wit! How hard would it be for her to grow corn during the year of the locust disaster? His Majesty thinks that it is the emperor who pursues the Ming Dynasty with reward and punishment! ”