Chapter 344 I heard that I am the best (31)

Mu Yunchao really did a business deal with Zhou Shichu, which was to ask her to research the secret recipe of a low-end version of starch sausage. This was not difficult for Zhou Shichu. She researched the secret recipe that Mu Yunchao needed in just a few days and sold it directly to him.

A few months later, almost all the victims in Cuicheng participated in the "work-for-relief" infrastructure construction projects, which not only enabled them to support themselves but also saved some money. By the time these projects were completed, the flood in Licheng had long receded, but these victims had no plans to go back, and most of them really stayed in Cuicheng.

Mu Yunchao gained a large population, and the newly reclaimed land was enough for these disaster victims to cultivate, so Cuicheng became more and more prosperous.

While Zhou Shichu was slowly expanding her food shop, Mu Yunchao was also slowly expanding his own territory. He was not only a talented general, but also had the ability of a king. He also knew how to use people well and had recruited many capable people under him. Therefore, he always lost less and won more when fighting for territory, and the territory he occupied became larger and larger.

Li Wei's official position has been rising all the time. Now he is no longer a small captain, but has become General Xuanwei. He has made great military achievements and fights bravely, so naturally his rank is promoted quickly.

However, despite his success in officialdom, Li Wei's family affairs were still a mess. His son was becoming more and more dissolute. He wanted to find a virtuous woman, but his step-wife was either busy fighting wars or had not found a suitable one to discipline his son. In short, he was still a bachelor.

As Mu Yunchao's territory grew larger, Zhou Shichu's food shop had more and more branches. Almost every time Mu Yunchao occupied a city, she would go to that city to open a store. She made a lot of money by opening chain stores.

And after repeated trials and improvements of her potatoes and sweet potatoes, she finally succeeded in growing the type suitable for farming in this time and space. Zhou Shichu has slowly let the farmers in the village plant these new crops.

The farmers went from being skeptical at first to seeing the bumper harvest of potatoes and sweet potatoes with their own eyes and eating them themselves, and confirming that these were indeed new crops with higher yields and a better filling effect than rice and wheat. So, without Zhou Shichu's urging, they couldn't wait to plant potatoes and sweet potatoes.

All the money Zhou Shichu earned in the past few years was used to buy farms. After the successful local cultivation of potatoes and sweet potatoes this time, she planted these two crops on all her farms, because she remembered that in the wishful world, it seemed that next year, there would be severe droughts in the entire northwest and northeast regions of the world, and food would not be able to be grown, and famine would follow. Many people would starve to death or die of thirst, and there would be real starving people everywhere.

Mu Yunchao's territory was also located in an area severely hit by drought, which seriously damaged his vitality. After the drought and famine, it took him five years to recover.

It can be said that the impact of this drought and famine was huge, delaying Mu Yunchao's unification of the world by several years.

Of course, how long Mu Yunchao spends fighting for the world has little to do with Zhou Shichu. What she cares about is whether her new grain seeds can save many people and earn enough merit.

It was for this reason that she put a lot of effort into localizing the cultivation of potatoes and sweet potatoes one year before drought and famine hit, so that more people could be prepared and save more food.

Since the new grain variety has been successfully cultivated, Zhou Shichu did not play tricks. Instead, he went directly to Mu Yunchao and told him that he had a new grain variety with high yield and good taste, and hoped that Mu Yunchao could promote it.

Mu Yunchao would definitely not believe her easily. After all, this was a matter concerning the food supply of the people of the world. He would never dare to joke about it. If something went wrong, the half of the territory he had worked so hard to build would be lost again, and all his previous efforts would be wasted.

But he was also a bold, careful and ambitious man. After hearing Zhou Shichu's report, he personally took people to her farm, intending to see with his own eyes whether there really was new grain seeds.

If it was fake, Zhou Shichu would not be able to get any good results; but what if it was true? New grain seeds, this would be a good thing that would be passed down through the ages, and his chances of success in his fight for the throne would be several percent higher.

That's why Mu Yunchao attached so much importance to Zhou Shichu's words.

Zhou Shichu brought a group of people to his farm. They arrived at the right time, as it was the potato harvest time. Groups of farmers were digging potatoes in the fields with great enthusiasm. Each potato was as big as an adult's fist and round. Pulling up a seedling would bring up a nest of seven or eight potatoes. The harvest was extremely gratifying. The farmers were all very happy and spared no effort in harvesting the potatoes, because the feeling of a good harvest was enough to make them forget their physical fatigue.

"Are these new grain varieties? The yield is very good!" Mu Yunchao squatted down and imitated the farmer next to him to pull up the potato seedlings. He didn't need to use too much force and pulled up a bunch of potatoes at once. Mu Yunchao couldn't hide his excitement.

"Yes, this is called potato. It is very simple to eat. After boiling it in water, peel it and eat it with salt, or cut it into slices or strips and stir-fry it." Zhou Shichu introduced.

The other staff members were also stunned when they saw the bumper harvest. As if they couldn't believe their eyes, they stared at the farmers who were harvesting potatoes, making the farmers very nervous and unable to work efficiently.

"What is the yield of this acre of land? Has it been weighed?" Mu Yunchao asked Zhou Shichu expectantly. In fact, just by looking at the harvest, he knew that the yield could not be lower than that of rice and wheat, but he wanted to know how much higher the yield could be.

Zhou Shichu smiled meaningfully and said, "The yield per mu is 3,000 to 4,000 kilograms."

"What? Three to four thousand catties? You're not lying to me?" Mu Yunchao almost held his breath when he heard this number. Before he came here, he knew that the yield of rice in ordinary fields was 500 catties per mu, and the best fields only produced 600 catties. But potatoes, on the other hand, produced 3,000 to 4,000 catties per mu! That's six, seven, or eight times the yield of rice!

How could Mu Yunchao not be excited when he heard this? This means that the land that could only support a family of three before can now support eighteen to twenty-four people if new crops are planted!

Because of the wars in recent years, their rations have been very short. The soldiers had to tighten their belts even when going to the battlefield. But now Zhou Shichu brought him these new kinds of grains, which just solved the problem of food shortage. It was like a timely help. Mu Yunchao almost burst into tears of gratitude towards Zhou Shichu.

"I'm not lying to you. In fact, if you take better care of the land and make it more fertile, the yield can be even higher. It's just that the soil on my farm is of average quality, so the yield is only this high." Zhou Shichu said frankly.

"If you don't believe it, you can just ask your people to collect potatoes from an acre of land and weigh them yourself, then you will know that I did not exaggerate the yield." Zhou Shichu was afraid that he would not believe it, so he asked him directly to find someone to collect them.

(End of this chapter)