"King Yangjun, I'm looking forward to seeing you here!!" Liu Jiajin, Minister of the Household Department, greeted him with joy. After greeting each other, he couldn't wait to ask, "Is anyone from Tang Guyu's family here?"
Ever since he received the official document from Tanggu King from Yangjun, knowing that the corn seeds planted there were bred with insect and disease-resistant potions, Liu Shangshu's heart felt like being scratched by a cat, and he couldn't calm down no matter what.
The entire Huangzhuang Experimental Base took good care of the corn seedlings planted last year, and almost every corn seedling was carefully cared for, but the growth was not as good as the corn seedlings grown in the barren sandy land of Dongshan Village. When the locust plague came, the capital was not the hardest-hit area, it was only wiped out, but the yield of the harvested corn was low, and the corn kernels seemed to be malnourished. The ones from Dongshan Village matured early and were harvested in time, with a yield of 1,800 catties per mu. The contrast is too strong! !
Last year, he could say that he had no experience in planting for the first time. This year, if he can't plant Tang Gu, where is his old face? Therefore, as soon as Liu Shangshu got the news, he immediately sent a distress message for eight hundred miles, hoping that someone from the Yu family could come to see if there was any possibility of saving the corn in Huangzhuang!
Zhu Junyang admired this gray-haired old Shangshu, and he only cared about people's livelihood. Originally, the Ministry of Household Management was not limited to farming, but since last year, Liu Shangshu has devoted almost all his energy to training high-yielding crops, thinking only of helping the people not to go hungry sooner! Liu Shangshu was born in poverty, perhaps the scenes he experienced when he was young made him empathize with the lives of the common people, and he became an official who really cared about the common people.
"Here we are! In the carriage!!" As soon as Zhu Junyang finished speaking, Liu Shangshu came to wait beside the carriage.
The first one came down was the cherry holding the earthen pot. Liu Shangshu looked at her age and wondered when the Yu family had such a big girl? But I heard the cherry carefully advise: "Miss, please slow down, the ground is not flat, let Linglong sister support you."
After finishing the sentence, Yu Xiaocao jumped out of the carriage, and said with a smile: "This place is not bad, when I used to go to the mountains and forests to trap hares, some places were difficult to walk...Master Liu, how are you, meet again!"
For some reason, after Liu Shangshu saw Yu Xiaocao, his uneasy heart instantly calmed down. He smiled and said, "Miss Yu is here too? Great, our corn is saved!!"
Yu Xiaocao glanced at the corn sprouts on the side of the road, and gave him a reassurance: "Master Liu, don't be too nervous. The potion is only for prevention. If the corn seeds are good, the chance of pests and diseases will also be reduced!"
Liu Shangshu stared at the earthen pot in Cherry's hand, and said with some concern: "This is the potion made by Miss Yu? We have planted thousands of acres of corn and more than 50 acres of potatoes in our village. Are these potions enough?"
Yu Xiaocao didn't even think about it and said: "I am a high-concentration potion. Just add one drop to a bucket of water to have an effect. If there is too much, it will not be good for the corn seedlings! Master Liu, can you show me our Zhuangzi first?" Is there a source of water above?"
Liu Shangshu nodded and said, "Miss Yu, please..."
Zhu Junyang interrupted the two of them from the side, and said, "Shouldn't you go to the Zhuangzi to rest for a while and have a cup of tea?"
Liu Shangshu suddenly said: "Look at my mind, I just think about the cornfield. Let's go, Miss Yu, nephew Yu, I should be about the same age as your father, so please call you nephew!!"
Yu Hai hurriedly replied: "Thanks to Mr. Liu for looking up to you, you can..."
Yu Xiaocao cast a glance at Zhu Junyang, and said, "It's important business, we came here in a carriage, we're not tired! Master Liu, let's go to see the water source first."
Liu Shangshu gladly took her there, and asked, "Is the water source also related to the growth of the corn?"
Yu Xiaocao thought for a while and said, "It doesn't matter much! You also know that corn is not tolerant to drought and waterlogging. If there is not a continuous drought like last year, the rain will be enough! Check the water source, just be prepared."
Liu Shangshu nodded ignorantly, and said repeatedly: "Oh, oh..."
Huangzhuang is backed by a hill on the outskirts of the capital, and the spring water on the mountain gathers behind Zhuangzi, forming a natural lake. However, Huangzhuang is relatively large, and a well will be dug every other place to resist drought.
There are fish, shrimps and other animals in the lake, Yu Xiaocao didn't want to make something like the Nessie, so he didn't tamper with it in the lake. She inspected all the wells, and after improving the quality of the water in the wells, she said to Liu Shangshu: "Although the water source is not as good as our Dongshan Village, it still meets the standard. Do you have enough people? You can start! !"
This time, Liu Shangshu brought two servants, Si Yu from Cangbu, with him. After all, he is the boss of the household department, how can he take care of everything? Liu Shangshu turned his questioning gaze to Si Yu from Cangbu.
Li Siyu hurriedly said: "There are more than 100 households in Huangzhuang, and there are more than 400 adult male laborers. If there is not enough, the subordinates can go to the nearby Zhuangzi to borrow some people."
Huangzhuang has a good terrain and fertile soil. In addition to Huangzhuang, there are many dignitaries who own Zhuangzi here. The neighboring Zhuangzi was bought by an idle prince in Beijing. This idle prince can be counted as the cousin of the Supreme Emperor, and he was also born as a mud leg. He has no special skills. After the founding of the country, he was named a prince. He has no authority and only receives a salary. If he counted it seriously, Zhu Junyang would still call him Grandpa!
Yu Xiaocao thought for a while and said, "No need! This job is not heavy, even women and seven or eight-year-old children can do it."
In fact, there is no difficulty, just drop the spirit stone liquid into the bucket, and then pour it on the roots of the corn seedlings. However, it takes patience to water one by one.
Liu Siyu gathered his people, those who fetched water, those who watered it, and the whole Huangzhuang became busy all of a sudden. Yu Xiaocao was not idle either. She reckoned that the "potion" she brought might not be enough, so she pretended to use her own herbal medicine to boil a pot of potion, and finally added a bottle of spirit stones while no one was paying attention. liquid, and you're done.
With six or seven hundred people and more than two thousand acres of land, each person has about three acres, and the work can be completed in one day. Zhu Junyang was afraid that Yu Xiaocao would be bored, so Zhu Junyang suggested: "Although there are no large prey in the hill behind, hares and pheasants appear from time to time. Do you want to go and have a look? "
On the west mountain of Dongshan Village, the vegetation has been destroyed by locusts, and small animals are almost extinct. Since last summer, Yu Xiaocao has never tasted pheasant again. She thought for a while, and said: "Okay! Anyway, I'm idle, if I can catch pheasants and hares, I can add something for lunch!"
When Cherry heard that he was going up the mountain to catch game, he volunteered to follow. Yu Hai was worried that his daughter would be alone with the county prince, so he followed step by step, for fear that her daughter would be deceived by the cunning big wild wolf.
The hill behind Huangzhuang is overgrown with green grass and verdant. Yu Xiaocao learned from Zhao Han the ability to see the path of prey, and set up a few nooses in places where hares and pheasants haunted, leaving traces of spirit stone liquid on the nearby grass.
Zhu Junyang didn't bring any hunting gear, but it didn't bother him. He chopped off a few bamboo poles, sharpened one end, and prepared to use it as a spear. Perhaps because the plague of locusts in the capital was not as serious as that in Dongshan Village, there were occasional hares flashing past the grass on the hill.
"There are few prey here, let's go inside!" Since there are no beasts on the mountain, why worry? Yu Xiaocao followed behind Manager Liu and Zhu Junyang, slapping the bushes with a bamboo pole.
Suddenly, there was movement in the grass not far away. Yu Xiaocao picked up a small stone and threw it over there. A colorful pheasant jumped out from the bushes, fluttered its wings in a panic, and ran towards Zhu Junyang.
Zhu Junyang calmly tapped the pheasant's head with a bamboo pole, and the pheasant thumped twice and then stopped moving. Cherry, who had never had any experience in hunting, rushed towards the prey happily, and came back with the pheasant's wings: "Miss, this pheasant seems to have been knocked out, and the servant tied up its wings so that it can wake up I can't escape!"
Cherry tied the pheasant into dumplings and put them in the basket she carried.
[Where pheasants haunted just now, there are wild eggs!]Xiao Butianshi reminded lazily. Yu Xiaocao took back the strides she took, and walked towards the relatively dense bushes.
Cherry followed curiously, and when Yu Xiaocao pushed through the grass, she exclaimed: "Miss, miss!! There are wild eggs!! Seven or eight wild eggs!!"
Yu Xiaocao was infected by her good mood, and said with a smile: "Go ahead and put away the eggs! At noon, let's fry wild eggs with wild onions, it tastes absolutely delicious!!"
Cherry happily picked up the wild eggs and put them into the basket, carefully covered them with straw, and then asked, "Miss, there are wild eggs, but what are wild onions?"
Yu Xiaocao took a few steps, bent her waist and pointed at the slender plants in the grass, and said, "Hey! This is a wild onion. Pull it out carefully, it's best to pull out the round roots in the ground as well. "
Cherry was very interested, and after listening to it, she pouted her buttocks and pulled up wild onions there. When the soil was relatively hard, she used small bamboo chips to dig up the soil, trying to dig up the wild onions completely.
Seeing Zhu Junyang's master and servant walking away, Yu Xiaocao stayed where she was and waited for the cherries. This girl has never been to the mountains, so don't get lost on the mountains. Although this hill is not comparable to the West Hill in Dongshan Village. If it gets lost, it will be troublesome enough to find it again.
Zhu Junyang walked a certain distance inside, shot two hares and a pheasant, and took out a white-fronted pig from the hole. The white-fronted pig is actually a ferret badger, a small burrowing animal with delicious meat, which is a good game.
At this moment, Cherry also dug up a lot of wild onions. Looking at the sky, Yu Xiaocao went down the mountain along the way he came. Passing by the place where he had put the trap, he harvested two live hares.