Chapter 138: Chapter 138: Magistrate Xu’s Plan
Magistrate Xu has seen the vast expanse of yellow color—it was beautiful and relieving, especially when one remembered the decreasing harvest each batch.
He subconsciously pushed his feet to take quicker steps, and then realized that someone was even faster than him. Han Tingxun had already been standing in front of Shun Zi and Merchant Yang.
The three seemed to be familiar with each other.
When he saw they were trying to weigh the paddy rice, he couldn’t resist asking.
"It’s... it’s..." Shun Zi took a deep breath, and Merchant Yang’s expression turned solemn.
"Three hundred and fifty jin per mu! It increased again!" He muttered loudly, causing the men around them to stare at him wide-eyed.
"Over three hundred jin! Am I dreaming? Tell me... ouch!" One man hissed, glaring at the person beside him.
His companion shook his head, taking a deep breath. "You are not dreaming!"
"It’s really three hundred and fifty jin per mu?" Magistrate Xu repeated. The news last time was surprising enough, and the harvest was even now increasing.
Even if what Zhou Anran said last time was nonsense, he already started to believe the Xiao family was truly blessed.
As a county ruler, he genuinely wanted his people to have enough to eat. Shun Zi once again repeated the words, causing Magistrate Xu to close his eyes.
Once he opened them again, he muttered excitedly while slapping his own thigh. "Good, good, good!"
The usually composed Magistrate Xu became emotional. He personally helped them to weigh more paddy rice, and then jumped to the fields to take a look and cut the paddy rice stalks himself.
Xiao Qingya trailed after her mother. Because she wasn’t allowed to use any sharp object, she made use of the System who had materialized into cat form.
"Bite again!" She ordered in a childish tone.
Xiao Xue bit into the stalk with its sharp teeth, accurately cutting the paddy rice plant. Its power had increased a lot ever since Xiao Qingya gave a few points to upgrade its teeth.
Now, its teeth could even puncture anyone’s skin easily.
With the two little ones working together, they helped to harvest the paddy rice stalks. In a few hours, they finally gathered a small pile weighing several jin.
The Sun family’s children were also astonished. Ever since their mother passed away, they could only take care of their fields clumsily.
Last time, their harvest also had been a failure. Upon hearing that the Xiao family’s harvest yield was so high, Sun Tiezhu immediately reminded his younger brothers.
"You can’t tell this to someone else after we arrive in the north, alright? The Xiao family have been kind to us, and if this information spreads, it won’t be good for them." Sun Tiezhu’s tone was serious, and his two younger siblings also became solemn, nodding furiously.
He had an inkling that they might meet the Zhou and Xiao family again in the north someday.
It took the group two days for them to harvest all the paddy rice in the Zhou and Xiao family’s fields. Since each mu of paddy rice produced three hundred and fifty jin, they harvested a lot that the grain room wasn’t enough.
Merchant Yang immediately grabbed his chance. "Master Zhou, Mrs. Zhou, you can use our shop in the county’s market to store the grain."
"Our grain room in the Magistrate mansion is also really big. We still have a lot of room left. Your family can use it, Master Zhou, Mrs. Zhou." Magistrate Xu’s butler immediately spoke, not wanting to be outdone.
Zhou Wenzhi chuckled as he stroked his beard. "How about this? Mr. Xu, you want to buy the rice seeds from us and bring them to the north, right?"
"Yes, yes, Master Zhou." Merchant Yang nodded seriously.
He wanted to get as much grain as possible from the Zhou and Xiao family. Their grains had proven to be high-quality seeds.
Even if the plants planted from the same seeds couldn’t reach the amount their family had harvested, it definitely wouldn’t be far off. Not to mention that Qingshan county was considered a less fertile area.
What if they could plant these seeds on fertile lands? They should be able to get a decent harvest and distribute them to the famine-stricken areas!
Merchant Yang had even thought about renting lands and hiring workers to take care of them. His business mind was already churning.
Magistrate Xu had deep creases on his forehead. He was worried; what if Merchant Yang buys all the seeds and brings all of them to the north?
His butler had just called him and dragged him to the conversation between the few people. When he arrived, he heard these people already talking about buying seeds.
"Master Zhou, Mrs. Zhou, our magistrate mansion wants to buy some seeds too." He told them straightforwardly.
Then, he told them about his plan. In order to improve the harvest yield in Qingshan county, he wanted to distribute a few jin of paddy rice seeds to each farmer in every village.
Each village had a different environment. Some had hotter weather, less fertile lands, while others had better lands, more fertile and suitable for planting.
He wanted to experiment whether these factors would have a huge effect on the harvest yield.
Zhou Wenzhi and Zhou Anran listened attentively to Magistrate Xu’s plan, and they were startled. Their new magistrate really cares about the people!
"Each of our farmers are also talented people. I believe that they can also take care of the paddy rice plants and bring out their potential," Magistrate Xu told them earnestly.
He already had this idea when Zhou Anran visited the Magistrate mansion some weeks ago.
"Your Excellency, are you going to distribute the seeds for free?" Merchant Yang asked.
They all secretly glanced at him. The shop selling seed was Merchant Yang’s business, and if Magistrate Xu were to distribute rice seeds for free, wouldn’t it affect him?
"Yes, it will be free." Magistrate Xu nodded. "Mr. Yang, you wouldn’t mind, right?"
A faint tension seemed to hang in the air.
