In the year of disaster in the book, the villain girl is the real winner

Many people gathered nearby to watch the fun.

It’s not that there are no one in the village who knows about sweet potatoes.

But in their impression, sweet potatoes are only suitable for growing in southern Xinjiang and are not cold-resistant. By the time they reach the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty, their yield will decrease and the seeds will be difficult to preserve until sowing the following year.

Moreover, sweet potatoes are very vulnerable to hunger, are bad for the stomach, and can easily cause heartburn. In addition, sweet potatoes were originally discovered in southern Xinjiang a hundred years ago. People in the Zhou Dynasty were not good at growing sweet potatoes, and the yield per mu was not high. Growing sweet potatoes was not cost-effective, and they were not promoted in the Zhou Dynasty.

But if the yield of sweet potatoes is so high, the disadvantages of being intolerant to hunger and causing acidosis are no longer disadvantages.

This year, there was a drought in Yongning Prefecture. If there had been no relief grain, I don't know how many people would have starved to death.

Having sweet potatoes to fill your stomach, even if they don’t taste good and make you feel sour and heartburn after eating them, is better than going hungry.

Immediately, some villagers who loved to watch the fun ran to the county government office and told the county magistrate the news.

Was present at the banquet.

After hearing about this, County Magistrate Du and Yan Shi put down their work and quickly rushed to Shiliu Village with a group of yamen runners and police officers and their tools. When they saw the sweet potatoes harvested by the He family, they were shocked.

At this time, the He family dug out a lot of sweet potatoes.

But this still cannot determine the per-acre yield of sweet potatoes.

During the banquet, he found Mr. He to confirm whether the remaining sweet potatoes in the He family's land and those that had been dug out were planted in the same order. Then he hurriedly took people to help dig out the remaining sweet potatoes in the He family's three acres of land.

He Qiudi naturally heard about such a big event.

It was her request to plant the sweet potatoes, so naturally she had to come and see the excitement.

"Qiu Di, you're here."

During the banquet, he was directing the police officers to dig the remaining sweet potatoes. He caught a glimpse of Qiu Di walking towards the sweet potato field, so he hurried over to greet her.

"Ah."

Qiu Di walked up to Yan Shi and looked at the busy sweet potato field. "I heard that after the He family dug up half an acre of sweet potatoes, the yield was surprisingly high, which alarmed you guys."

During the banquet, I accompanied Qiudi to the sweet potato field.

“It’s really shocking.”

Near the sweet potato field, there is a shed for people to rest and drink tea, and guards have already prepared seats and tea for the banquet.

Bring Qiudi over to the banquet.

He Qiudi said: "The first sweet potatoes I planted were ready to eat a while ago. Sanlang and I have eaten a lot of roasted sweet potatoes. I wanted to send you some, but you have been busy guiding Ningyuan County's autumn harvest recently, so I didn't bother you."

Yan Shi was looking forward to it: "How about picking up the sweet potatoes today and roasting them together?"

Qiu Di smiled brightly: "Okay. My skill in making roasted sweet potatoes is pretty good."

In addition to County Magistrate Du and the people brought by Yan Shi, there were other young and strong people in Shiliu Village who wanted to help dig sweet potatoes, but they were rejected by Yan Shi.

Seeing that he refused the villagers' help at the banquet, He Qiudi had already guessed what he wanted to do.

He wanted to control the varieties of sweet potatoes first to ensure that the government would have enough sweet potatoes to plant next year.

I heard that the He family also planted 15 acres of sweet potatoes intercropped with corn, so during the banquet they quickly arranged for people to fence off the 15 acres of land.

These fifteen acres of land were sold by the Li family to the He family.

The planting time is about ten days later than that of the sweet potatoes in the three acres of land of the He family. After discussing with Mr. He at the banquet, they decided to harvest the corn and intercropped sweet potatoes in half a month.

Originally, the He family planned to harvest the first fifty acres of land, rest for ten days, and then harvest the remaining twenty acres of land.

The Li family came late, planted late, and harvested late.

When the Li family's land was gone, the He family's fifty acres of land were sown at intervals, so that it would be easier to arrange and allocate time when harvesting the crops.

There were forty or fifty people helping.

Soon, all the sweet potatoes in the three acres of land were dug out.

This area was crowded with people.

County Magistrate Du went to direct the police officers to weigh the harvested sweet potatoes.

Weighing was quick.

Not long after, the foreman of the police officers came over with an excited look on his face to report: "Master Du, Master Yan, we have dug up fifty loads of sweet potatoes from these three mu of land."

Harvesting fifty loads of grain from three acres of land, what a concept!

This is a huge harvest!

No wonder there are always floods in southern Xinjiang. Although there are mostly mountains and forests, there are rarely famines. It turns out that they rely on sweet potatoes to resist hunger.

When the weather was good, sweet potatoes were the lowest-level coarse grain looked down upon by people in the south of the Zhou Dynasty.

In the north, there is no government to promote large-scale planting, and sweet potatoes are not cold-resistant, which leads to the people not knowing much about sweet potatoes.

But in the past two years, there has been a drought in the northwest, so no one has time to care about coarse grains.

After determining the yield of sweet potatoes, Yan Shi took the lead and spent four hundred taels of silver to buy forty loads of sweet potatoes from the He family, leaving ten loads for the He family.

It’s not hard to guess, next year.

The government will select suitable places and plant sweet potatoes on a large scale.

Does the He family sell sweet potatoes?

This decision was left to Mr. He.

He Huaizhang was afraid that Mr. He would foolishly sell out such a great achievement, so he said directly to Yan Shi: "Master Yan, promoting the cultivation of sweet potatoes is a great thing that benefits the country and the people. Our He family is naturally obliged to do so. But I have something to ask Master Yan. If the yield of sweet potatoes is stable after planting next year and it is promoted throughout the Great Zhou Dynasty, it will greatly alleviate the famine. In that case, can the He family be regarded as having made a great contribution to the court?"

He glanced at He Huaizhang during the banquet.

Finally, his eyes fell on He Qiudi.

He said, "As far as I know, these sweet potatoes were planted at the request of the Seventh Lady. They were the mother seeds that the Seventh Lady accidentally bought. It was Mr. He who led the planting. The contributions of both father and daughter are indispensable. I can guarantee again that if the sweet potatoes can produce stable and high yields and greatly alleviate the food famine in the Great Zhou, I will definitely report the contributions of Mr. He and the Seventh Lady of the He Family to the court and ask the court to order a reward."

He Huaizhang was stunned.

He originally wanted to seek fame for Mr. He, but he didn't expect to bring up He Qiudi in a few words during the banquet.

My father is the head of the family. If he can do something meritorious for the court and Daye, it will be beneficial to him.

As for He Qiudi...

It must be that Yan Shi was trying to elevate her status.

Humph, it seems she takes it seriously.

It just so happened that the sweet potato seeds were brought back by He Qiudi, who asked his father and mother to plant them. It is said that even the initial seedling cultivation and cuttings were done by He Qiudi.

He Huaizhang thought that he was the eldest son and grandson of the He family, and as long as Mr. He’s contributions were not lost, he would benefit from it.

He had no choice but to say, "Your Excellency is wise. The He family will rely on you to make the decision."

Since no one objected, the He family sold forty loads of sweet potatoes to the government and received four hundred taels of silver.

Magistrate Du had the sweet potatoes brought back to the county government office, and soon had someone deliver the silver.

Four hundred taels of silver are real benefits.

Jin Cuihua couldn't help but sigh: "If my second sister-in-law knew about this, I don't know what she would think."