The drought-stricken wheat fields are saved

Chapter 20: The drought-stricken wheat fields are saved

The rumor of the new waterwheel in the military settlement quickly spread to the ears of the major families. Every servant rushed to the settlement to see the waterwheel and reported back to their master in vivid detail. Of course, the military supervisor, Fan Liang's family, was also included.

The dragon-bone waterwheel was soon used in the fields by various wealthy families. No one was willing to harvest less wheat if they could harvest more.

At the same time, the waterwheel quickly spread to the outskirts of the city and even more distant villages. Along with the reputation of the King of Zhenbei, it spread to the remote countryside. The dragon bone waterwheel had become the Chu family waterwheel, spreading from village to village.

This allowed most of the wheat fields, which had been dry that year, to be irrigated. Seeing the wheat leaves, which had once yellowed, turn emerald green again, the people expressed gratitude not only to the Bodhisattva but also to the King of the North. In some villages located high in the mountains, the village chiefs even enshrined the King of the North's longevity tablet in the village ancestral hall, hoping for his longevity.

Of course, Chu Huaibei didn't know about these things. When she returned home that day, she learned from her mother that the wheat fields at home were also suffering from drought. She gave the dragon-bone waterwheel drawing to her mother and asked her to ask the carpenter in the farm to make it overnight so as not to delay the wheat harvest.

But what Chu Huaibei didn't care about was something that others cared about quite a lot. For example, the Imperial Censor Fan Liang, the Northern Territory Governor, the Tongzhi Tongpan...

Fan Liang submitted a memorial to the emperor, praising the Prince of Zhenbei's abilities and also sending the blueprints of the dragon-bone waterwheel to the emperor's desk. It must be said that the emperor's close ministers were quite adept at reading the emperor's mind.

At the beginning of May, the emperor had already agreed with the Ministry of Revenue to provide 1.2 million dan of military rations. However, after receiving Fan Liang's urgent memorial, the emperor asked the Minister of Revenue Zhao Zhengyuan to change it to 1 million dan, and send it to the northern border in the middle of the month.

Military rations are delivered in May every year, and we need to ensure that they are received in the north before October. If we are late, heavy snow will block the roads in the north, making it difficult to transport food and fodder.

As the itinerary was being arranged, the emperor looked at the blueprints for the keel waterwheel, his heart torn and his thoughts boiling. It was difficult to calm down for a moment. After a long while, he ordered his personal eunuch, Eunuch Yao, to take the blueprints to the Ministry of Works and have them build two.

Upon receiving the emperor's order, Minister of Works Zhou Zhili immediately set about producing the waterwheel. He had actually received a letter from the Northern Territory Governor Zhou Ming a few days earlier. He was already aware of Chu Huaibei's situation in the Northern Territory and had even had the servants at the farm begin work on the dragon-bone waterwheel. He was just waiting for someone to break the news first, so he could use it on his farm.

I had thought the memorial would be submitted by Zheng Wenxiao, the Northern Border Magistrate, but it turned out to be from Fan Liang, the Military Inspector. It seemed there was something hidden in this matter.

In one day, the Ministry of Works completed the dragon-bone waterwheel, even carving dark patterns on the handrails and pedals, which looked quite beautiful. The emperor directly ordered people to test it in the imperial garden. Watching the water in the imperial pond rushing to the flower beds on the bank, the emperor turned the jade ring on his thumb and said to Zhou Zhili, "Make more samples and distribute them to all prefectures and counties so that the people can use them."

"I obey your order." Zhou Zhili took the order and left, returning to the Ministry of Works to arrange manpower.

Overnight, a large number of dragon-bone waterwheels were erected on the farms of the aristocratic families in Fengjing. Gradually, any village with a skilled carpenter began using them. The situation in various prefectures and counties was similar, with the technology initially flowing from the aristocratic families to the common people.

The Feng family, the Imperial College's chief academic officer, were the last to adopt a dragon-bone waterwheel on their farm. What the public thought was irrelevant; as long as the emperor saw it, it was enough. What the emperor thought was another matter, but the attitude still had to be maintained. The old man of the Feng family read the letter from his younger sister and stroked his beautiful beard.

Chu Huaibei didn't care about the affairs of the court. Besides exercising Hengheng every morning, she would often go to the military camp to check on the wheat. She also had to be wary of Mongol raids. Those Mongols were extremely evil. A few years ago, a successful raid burned nearly a thousand hectares of ripening wheat fields. Perhaps God didn't want the crops to be destroyed, so a timely rainstorm extinguished the fire.

Although the Mongolian raiders were permanently detained in the northern border by Chu Huaibei, the damage they caused was irreversible. That year, the palace paid for a large amount of wheat, which ensured the food supply for the soldiers in the barracks.

Due to this year's drought, the wheat matured a little over half a month later than usual. By mid-June, wheat in the northern border began to mature in large quantities, marking the busy farming season. Chu Huaibei had been living in the military camp throughout June, guarding against the Mongols.

Military patrols and rotations became more frequent, and starting in June, Chu Huaibei suspended Du Jiping's studies, resuming them after this busy period. So Du Jiping felt at ease as he took Hengheng to study and practice calligraphy every day at the palace.

The military settlement was bustling with activity. Every household worked day and night to harvest wheat. For lunch, they made pancakes and brought them to the fields, eating them with cold water.

Once, Chu Huaibei saw that all the workers were drinking river water directly. He was shocked. There were so many parasites in the river. Something bad was bound to happen sooner or later.

Ten soldiers were dispatched to the fields, bringing two large, cleaned vats. They set up fires and boiled water, pouring it into the vats and letting it cool. The villagers were then asked to bring their own water bottles to drink. A blackboard was also written nearby about the dangers of drinking raw water, and the soldiers were asked to explain it from time to time. Because the blackboard was signed by the King of Zhenbei, many in the military settlement had a natural trust in Chu Huaibei, and this promotional work was quite effective. Gradually, the villagers gave up their habit of drinking raw water.

After a busy half month, by the end of June, the harvest was basically completed. The weather was also good. There was only a light rain in half a month, and the rest of the days were sunny, which did not delay threshing and drying the grain.

By the time the wheat was threshed and dried, another month had passed. The military settlement began to collect grain taxes, and Chen Sinong became busy all the time.

The farm of the Wang Mansion also harvested new grain. Mother Wang used the new wheat to make pancakes and noodles several times. The wheat was full of fragrance. This pure natural crop is delicious.

After waiting in Mongolia for two months without seeing any trace of them, Chu Huaibei sent two more groups of scouts to Mongolia to inquire about the situation. The scouts brought back news: the factions of the third prince and the eldest prince of Mongolia were fighting fiercely, and even some cavalry were on standby.

Chu Huaibei watched with amusement. Fight, fight quickly! However, it could also be a show, hoping to make the soldiers here relax their vigilance. Chu Huaibei ordered strict precautions and no negligence. Anyone who neglected their duties would be punished with double the military discipline penalty.

The Zhenbei Army always obeyed orders and spent two months in peace and stability.

One day, Chu Huaibei was having lunch at home when he suddenly thought of something. The palace didn't cook much pasta, and the family was used to eating rice. In the barracks, meals were served by the deputy general, and they were all rice. Honestly, I hadn't eaten steamed buns in all this time. Shouldn't people in the north eat steamed buns more often?

After dinner, I asked Aunt Wen why she didn't make some steamed buns. Aunt Wen was a little surprised when she heard it, "Your Majesty, do you want to eat steamed buns?"

"Yeah, I feel like eating." Chu Huaibei said.

"Okay, I'll ask Mother Wang to make a few for dinner." Aunt Wen replied.

There were indeed steamed buns on the dinner table that day. Chu Huaibei looked at the shape and felt that it was very similar to the steamed buns she had eaten in the restaurant in her previous life. She picked it up and took a big bite. The flour was very fragrant, but she almost choked to death. No, which kind person would use such good flour to make steamed buns with unleavened flour!

He tried hard to swallow the dough in his mouth, picked up the soup handed to him by Hu Zhi, drank two sips and then swallowed the steamed bun. Chu Huaibei looked at Aunt Wen's mouth, which was trying to hold back her smile, and smiled helplessly.

No wonder people don't like it. If they do eat it, it's usually pancakes or noodles. "Aunt Wen, why don't you make steamed buns made with leavened dough? These steamed buns made with unleavened dough are too choking."

"What are leavened buns?" Aunt Wen heard a new word.

Chu Huaibei saw that everyone in the family was looking at her, "Um, it's just the steamed buns made by fermenting the dough first."

Very good, it seems that there is no habit of making dough here, or there is no such technology. Out!

"Forget it, I'll study it myself tomorrow and tell you when I'm done. I've never done it, I've only seen it in books." Chu Huaibei simply did it himself. This was difficult to explain.

The next day, Chu Huaibei walked into the kitchen, first took a porcelain bowl for soup and a large plate, boiled water and sterilized them in the water. He took out the flour, put a small bowl for eating in a bowl of flour, added a large spoonful of honey to the flour, and then added cooled boiled water and stirred it into flocs. After washing her hands, she kneaded it into a dough with a smooth surface. This was a method of making old dough that she had seen in her previous life. Now that she didn't have a small scale, she just added the honey. If it didn't work, she could try a few more times without losing much. She covered the dough with a large plate and let it ferment for twelve hours. The weather was relatively hot now, so the fermentation speed should be quite fast. She would check the situation again in the evening.

Originally, white sugar could be used for fermentation, but there was no fine white sugar at that time. It was all coarse brown sugar with impurities, and it had to be purified before use, which was too troublesome. It could also be used if there was honey in the fermentation mixture.

You can also use high-proof liquor to make the dough, which is faster, but there is no high-proof liquor here. The reason why the ancients always said that they could drink a thousand cups without getting drunk is that the alcohol content is only around 20 degrees at most, so how drunk can it make you?

Hey! High-proof liquor can be used for disinfection. If I have time, I'll make a distillation device. In the future, I can use alcohol to disinfect the wounds of injured soldiers, which can effectively prevent the wounds from festering.

Thinking about this, things started to pile up again. The cows and horses became advanced cows and horses, but they were still cows and horses.

After dinner, Chu Huaibei rushed into the kitchen excitedly, opened the plate and saw that the dough had almost tripled in size. Uh, maybe there was too much honey. It’s okay. I smelled it and there was no sour smell. It should be safe to use. I’ll try it first.

Take flour and dough, add old yeast, knead the dough until the surface is smooth, let it rise to twice its size, then take it out and knead it to release the air, pinch it into small even dough balls, knead it while folding it inward, shape it into a steamed bun, put it directly in the steamer and steam it for fifteen minutes, turn off the heat and wait five minutes before opening the lid.

Gradually, everyone in the family gathered at the kitchen door, watching Chu Huaibei make steamed buns, curious about what she could come up with. Hengheng had been sleepy at this hour, but tonight he was unusually alert, hoping it would be as delicious as the egg cake.