What farmers cherish most is land. None of the villagers, men or women, who signed employment contracts with Yu Jiao were lazy. They all treated the fields as their own and worked hard for them.

Yu Jiao straightened up in the field, looking at the vast fields, her heart filled with joy.

Yu Fuling covered the area where she had just planted the cabbage seeds with soil, wiped the sweat off her forehead with her sleeve, and said with a smile, "We have a lot of people, and it's only been seven or eight days, and we've already planted more than 500 acres of land."

It is autumn now, and the weather is neither too cold nor too hot to work in the fields. The wheat seedlings that had rotted in the fields have been cleared away as weeds. Although the fields are bare, everyone knows that seeds are buried underground, and it won't be long before the fields are green and full of vitality.

Yu Jiao took a water bag from the ridge beside her, raised her head and drank a few gulps happily, then handed it to Yu Fuling.

Yu Fuling took out a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped her hands, then took the water bag and imitated Yu Jiao's posture, raising her head and drinking heartily.

During these days staying in the Zhiyuan Canal, Yu Fuling felt unprecedented freedom. The freedom and happiness that she had not experienced in the past ten years seemed to have been regained all at once.

She used to think that a woman's life was to knit, wash clothes and cook, but after following Yu Jiao, she realized that a woman could be like a man and do whatever she wanted. She didn't have to confine herself to a small house, sewing all day long, just waiting for a man to have children and relying on a man for a living.

A cool breeze blew on my face, the sun set in the west, and there were many people standing in the fields. They were all villagers who had just finished farm work in other fields.

After Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling finished working on their field, they walked along the ridge to the end of the field.

"Boss, the fields in Baiyi Village have been planted." Seeing Yu Jiao coming over, the person in charge of Baiyi Village who was selected a few days ago spoke up.

Then, there came a series of reports.

"Boss, all the fields in Gezhuang Village have been planted!"

"Boss, the fields in Yangxi Village have all been planted!"

…

Yu Jiao smiled and nodded, "Thank you for your hard work, everyone."

The eyes of the group of people were bright, and they all smiled and waved their hands honestly, "It's not hard, it's what we should do."

"Tomorrow we will irrigate the fields, but not too much. The soil in our fields is already moist, so just sprinkle a thin layer of water." Yu Jiao gave the next instructions.

A group of people responded in unison, and then vied to invite Yu Jiao to have dinner in the village.

"Mr. Yu had dinner in your Gezhuang Village yesterday. Today it's our village's turn!" said the man selected to be in charge of Yangguan Village.

"Mr. Yu had his meal in your Yangguan Village last time, and today it's the turn of our Yangxi Village." Another person said without giving too much away.

"Stop fighting! It's time for Mr. Yu to go to our Baiyi Village for dinner!" A woman said loudly, holding Yu Jiao's hand.

After that, she even tried to pull in Yu Fuling, her ally, "Miss Yu, our village has prepared the food and is waiting for you and the host to come over!"

The woman's name was Xu Anniang, and she was the person in charge of Baiyi Village. As the saying goes, there is no order without rules. Although they were farming, there were many fields. In order to facilitate management, Yu Jiao asked people from several villages to recommend themselves to be managers to manage the fields of each village respectively.

Xu Anniang was the only woman in the villages who took the initiative to step forward and volunteered to be the manager. She had a straightforward personality and was just as good as the men at work. At first, some people looked down on this woman as a manager, but in recent days, she had managed the fields of Baiyi Village in an orderly manner, not lagging behind in anything. The fields of Baiyi Village were also the first to be planted, which silenced many people, and gradually the voices of criticism died down.

Yu Jiao patted Xu Anniang's hand and said with a smile, "I won't bother you today. My sister and I will go back to the house to eat. It's getting late. You have been busy all day. Come home and have dinner and rest early."

Hearing Yu Jiao say that she was not going to dinner, the group of people couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, but they didn't say anything more. They smiled and greeted Yu Jiao, and gradually dispersed.

Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling got on the carriage. The driver smiled and said, "Aunt Chen prepared steamed pork ribs with rice flour and rice dumplings with fermented rice wine, and she is looking forward to the return of the master! The master has stayed in the village for the past few days to eat. Aunt Chen even asked me quietly if the master didn't like the dishes she cooked."

Aunt Chen was the cook hired by Yu Jiao some time ago. She and Yu Fuling were busy in the fields, and seeing that the shop assistants still had to eat, they simply found a cook with good cooking skills.

The steamed spareribs cooked by Aunt Chen were fat but not greasy, soft and tasty. Yu Jiao liked them very much. The rice wine dumplings were made with dried osmanthus, which was fragrant, sweet, soft and sticky. Yu Fuling liked them very much. If they were not difficult to digest, she could eat two or three bowls in a row.

"Aunt Chen cooks delicious dishes, who wouldn't like her?" Yu Jiao said, "I've been too busy these days, discussing farm matters with the villagers, so I had dinner in the village."

The driver was driving the car, and his voice came from outside the car, "If Aunt Chen heard what you said, she would be very happy."

"Have you received any letters today?" Yu Jiao sat in the carriage for a while, suddenly lifted the curtain and asked.

Yu Qizhe has been in the capital for more than ten days. Excluding the time spent on the road and the time required for the post station to transmit letters, it is time for a letter to be sent back.

But until today, Yu Jiao has not received any letter from him, and she can't help but worry about him.