Mo Bao was fast on his feet and arrived in Zaozhuang in less than the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.

"Whoa—"

Su Hua reined in her horse and stopped at the entrance of Zaozhuang, just in time to see Yang Qing leading seven people to dig a ditch to divert water from the rice paddies not far from the village entrance.

Upon hearing the voice, everyone turned around and immediately jogged forward to bow, saying, "Greetings, Princess Le'an! Congratulations, Princess Le'an!"

Su Hua dismounted and helped the man up with a smile. "Uncle Yang, please get up quickly. There's no need to be so polite. We're all from the capital, so just call me Miss, like before!"

"Yes, miss." Yang Qing smiled, stood up, and stepped forward to lead the horse.

He glanced at the empty horseback behind her and asked with some curiosity, "Didn't Madam come with Miss today?"

Su Hua nodded with a smile, "My mother is busy catching river clams in the village river right now. She'll probably arrive in Zaozhuang a little later today. It's hot today, so I came early to see how the sweet potatoes are growing."

After taking over Zaozhuang, she didn't come to Zaozhuang often. On the contrary, Su Baishi, who raised fifty piglets and one hundred lambs in Zaozhuang, came here every day without fail to develop her breeding business.

Speaking of the heat, Yang Qing frowned immediately. "The weather this year is really strange. It started getting hot in May, and now a whole month has passed, and not a drop of water has fallen. Fortunately, the sweet potatoes that the girl found are drought-resistant, and even under this scorching sun, they only need to be watered once every four or five days."

However, the remaining twenty acres of rice paddies require water to be drained from the lake every day, and in the past week, the lake has dried up very quickly, leaving only half a lake of water.

If it gets this hot, I'm afraid there will be a drought.

The man spoke in a very low voice for the last few words, but Su Hua still heard them clearly.

This was exactly what she had been worried about these past few days. Although Wangjia Village was adjacent to Shanghe Village, there was no river flowing through the village. When she rode over on horseback, she saw many villagers from Wangjia Village carrying water to irrigate their rice paddies. The well water was still plentiful and could be used for irrigation. However, if the weather continued like this, she was afraid the situation would not be so optimistic.

For the rich, a drought might just mean earning less money, but for farmers, it's a devastating disaster.

Farmers dedicate their entire year to the fields. In years with favorable weather, they can exchange the newly harvested rice for old rice and coarse grains to make ends meet and get through the following autumn harvest. Very few of them will have any left over for the second harvest.

Su Hua composed herself and followed Yang Qing into the manor.

The rice paddies on the twenty acres of land are no longer the small seedlings of spring; they are now all half a person tall, with the yellowish-green ears of wheat bending the rice seedlings over, and you can still faintly smell the fresh fragrance of rice.

Beside the rice paddy, Yang Qing and his group dug a ditch to drain the water.

The water gurgled into the rice paddies, and the curled rice leaves gradually unfurled.

Further ahead was a 180-mu sweet potato field. Compared to the somewhat wilted rice paddies, the sweet potato field was much more vibrant. As far as the eye could see, it was full of lush green vines. Su Hua casually plucked a sweet potato vine and pulled out a few half-grown sweet potatoes from underneath.

At this point, it was finally realized that Liu Yuxian's destruction of the rice seedlings was not entirely a bad thing. If all 200 acres of land in the entire village had been planted with rice, the lake would probably have been drained dry, and it wouldn't have lasted a month until the autumn harvest.

Sweet potatoes have a shorter growth cycle than rice, and this sweet potato field will be ready for harvest in at most half a month.

In this way, even if there is a real drought, Zaozhuang should be able to hold out until the autumn harvest without too much of a problem.

After inspecting the farmland, Su Hua went to check the lake and the livestock shed. As Yang Qing had said, the lake, which was full of water before, was now only half full, and the water was also tinged with blue. On the surface, one or two fish could be seen floating belly up, as if they were lacking oxygen.

Under the livestock shed, there was a pigpen and a sheeppen. The piglets and sheep were now half-grown and were happily eating sweet potato vines. Their eyes were bright and their fur was shiny, clearly showing that they had been well cared for by Su Bai.

After looking around, Su Hua felt a little more at ease. "Uncle Yang, I need a lot of sweet potato vines these days. Please leave the three acres of sweet potato fields near the livestock shed for the piglets and lambs to eat, and don't touch the rest."

Although Xiao Jinhan did not explicitly state the reason why the emperor would bestow upon her the title of county princess and the fiefdom last night, it can be gleaned from the imperial edict that the emperor intended for her to use Qingshui County as a pilot project.

After all, the promotion of a new type of food crop is not something that can be accomplished overnight. The territory of Yu the Great was vast, with thirty-six prefectures and one thousand four hundred and eighty counties. To promote sweet potatoes throughout the country would require a great deal of manpower and resources.

Qingshui County, with its limited arable land and abundant mountains, has consistently ranked at the bottom in tax revenue among all counties. Using it as a sweet potato experimental field would be entirely beneficial.

Qingshui County comprises eighteen towns with a total population of over 100,000. She doesn't know the exact number yet, but based on a rough estimate of ten people per family, there are over 10,000 households. If all the sweet potato vines in Zaozhuang are used, that should be about right.

"Yes, I've got it." Yang Qing replied quickly.

Yesterday, the Su family sent over a hot pot feast. They had to stay at the estate and couldn't go to the host's house to offer their congratulations, but they knew that the young lady was now teaching the people of the county how to use sweet potato vines.

Fortunately, these sweet potato vines grow quickly, and three acres of sweet potato fields, plus the leftovers delivered by the restaurant every day, are enough to feed these little ones.

Before leaving, Su Hua sent Yang Qing away and took the opportunity to divert a lot of spatial river water into the lake. Almost as soon as the spatial river water entered the lake, the fish that were starving and floating belly up turned back and swam towards her, wagging their tails...

Meanwhile, Meng Yun'er and Feng Zicai were rushing back to the village in a carriage. Meng Yun'er repeatedly urged the driver to speed up, but she was also extremely annoyed.

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