The emperor jumped down from the field and replied loudly, "Old man, I'm here to look for relatives. I heard that Zhuangzi from Zhou Taiyi's family of the Imperial Hospital in Beijing is here?"
"Oh, are you here to find the owner?" The tenant farmer immediately greeted him enthusiastically, and asked with a smile on his face, "Where are your relatives from? Why don't you go to the capital?"
The emperor paused and said: "We came from Yongzhou to go to the capital, but occasionally we heard from our family that the Zhou family has a Zhuangzi here, so we wanted to come to visit relatives."
"That's it," the tenant farmer waved his sickle proudly and drew a big circle, and said with a smile on his face, "Did you see, this big area is our boss's work field."
The emperor had already looked down at the rice at his feet. He held up an ear of rice with his palm, and his heart was pounding: "Old man, your rice is growing well this year."
When the tenant farmer who was about to guide them enthusiastically heard this, his attention was immediately diverted, and he nodded fiercely and said, "Isn't it? This is the best harvest I have seen in more than 50 years of living."
With sharp eyes, Yin Li immediately stepped into the rice field and pulled out an ear of rice, "Your Majesty, master, look!"
"Hey, why are you tearing my rice so casually?" The tenant farmer saw it and was anxious. "This good ear of rice is to be kept as a seed, so you return it to me."
Yin Li glanced at the emperor and handed it to the tenant farmer with a smile, saying, "This is the first time we have seen such long and full ears of rice. It was a novelty, old man, how do you grow this rice? They are all longer than ours, and they are heavier, so it looks like a bumper harvest."
The owner didn't stop them from spreading the word, and even told them that they could answer any questions, and recommend their new rice seeds by the way, so the tenant farmers didn't answer at all, so they just blah blah blah. We talked about the new rice seeds.
"...Speaking of which, my mother-in-law is responsible for the new rice seeds."
"Oh? How do you say that?"
At this time, the emperor and Yin Li were already sitting in the field, just in the way of the rice plant. The rice plant was quite tall, and barely blocked the sun on the face, but half of it was red from the sun.
The tenant farmer wanted to chat with them while cutting the rice, but when he saw that they were all squatting, and Yin Li took out a handful of copper coins, he also squatted down, stuffed the copper coins into his arms, and said, "My daughter-in-law Careful, she was invited by the boss to weed and deworm the rice, isn't it due to her?"
The emperor couldn't help smiling, and asked, "I heard that the Zhou family has set up a lot of experimental fields in Zhuangzi, which are specially used to cultivate grain seeds."
The tenant farmer looked at the emperor and Yin Li suspiciously, and his tone was much slower, "The nobleman has been here for so long, why don't you go to find the owner?"
Yin Li smiled slightly and said, "Zhou Dalang should be in the field right now. Even if we go to Zhuangzi, we may not be able to see him. Isn't it just a matter of seeing the big harvest, so I can't help but ask?"
The tenant farmer immediately asked, "Who are your family and the master's relatives?"
The emperor said with the same expression: "In-laws."
He said: "I have a daughter who married the uncle's cousin of their family."
The tenant farmer counted the relationship with his fingers, which was not difficult for them to calculate, so he patted his thigh and said, "Oh, isn't that two sisters-in-law? They are relatives, they are indeed relatives."
The tenant farmer smiled so much that his eyes narrowed, so he didn't shy away from anything, got up straight away, pointed to a yard in the distance, and said, "Have you seen that yard? It's our owner's yard. Uncle Zhou must be in the field now." I'm busy, but it's not far away, the field is not far behind the house."
Emperor: "Is the experimental field over there?"
"Here, that area has now become an experimental field." He said: "In the beginning, there were only two or three acres of land. Later, more and more seeds were to be tested, and more and more seeds were planted. Hehe, to be honest, before this year , We are also worried that in the future, the owner will use this piece of job field as a test field, and we will have no fields to plant, and we did not expect the new seeds they tested to be so good."
The emperor stroked the ears of rice in front of him, and asked affectionately, "This year's harvest in this field is considered good or bad?"
"It's so-so. If you want to say the best, it has to be the few experimental fields that Uncle Zhou and his family planted. Hey, it's a pity that those few fields are almost harvested. It seems that one piece of land is still close to confiscation. It’s heavy, one ear has three hundred grains of millet, and one stalk of rice has ten or fifteen ears, do you think it’s great?”
Anyway, they didn't count how many seeds a rice plant had in the end.
Emperor: "Have you counted?"
"I've counted it, but we didn't count it. It's a positive number. Hehe, we can't count it, and neither can Uncle Zhou. Every time I count to more than a hundred, it gets messed up. In the end, it's a positive number." , better than me."
The emperor became curious, "How many can you count?"
"Eighty!" He hurriedly said, "It's almost one hundred, but my little grandson is very good, he can count to one hundred now."
When the little grandson was mentioned, the tenant farmer couldn't sit still, he touched the sickle and asked, "My lord, do you have anything else to ask? If there is no one, I will cut the rice. My family is harvesting rice in another field, and it will be over soon." It's time to come..."
If you come here and see that he didn't move his sickle, but is bragging and chatting here...
The emperor turned his head and took a look at the yellow and heavy rice ears, and stood up with a smile, "Okay, let's go find relatives, the old man will do his work first."
Yin Li supported the emperor on the road, "Your Majesty, the sun is too strong, let's go to Zhou's Zhuangzi first."
The emperor nodded slightly and got on his horse.
Zhou Dalang and Wu Wulang were cutting rice in the field. When they heard the sound of horseshoes, they took the time to look up.
Then he stayed for a while and got up immediately.
Although they don't know the emperor, they know Yin Li!
Zhou Dalang hurried up from the field, "Lord Yin, why are you here? It's such a big sun, hurry up, hurry up and sit in the house, fifth brother, don't cut it, go back and boil water."
Zhou Wulang responded, and trotted up to the field ridge while wiping his sweat.
The emperor hurriedly said: "No, we are here to see the rice."
Yin Li said: "Master, let's go inside to cool off, drink some water, your complexion is a bit bad."
Zhou Dalang and Wu Wulang looked at the emperor curiously, wondering why Yin Li called him master.
The emperor met their bewildered eyes, and responded with a smile, but before leaving, he still pointed to a pile of rice that had just been cut and said, "Take a handful of them home, and I want to count how many seeds are on each ear." .”
The guard went down and gave her a hug.
Zhou Dalang and Wu Wulang didn't mind either, but took them home in a daze.
Now there are two brothers living in this village, and most of the time, Zhou Dalang lives alone.
Zhou Dalang led them into the hall and asked Wu Wulang to boil water, while he poured water for them with a teapot, saying: "This is the water that was boiled in the morning, and it's already cold now, if you don't mind, please moisten it first." Mouth, there will be less water for you to make tea for a while."