So Grandpa Zhao repeated the letter Yunhua sent back to the Taoist priest. After listening, the Taoist priest became even more certain of his observation.

But she couldn't help complaining, "This imperial court is too poor. You don't know, those new recruits eat the dry rations they brought from home. Some of them have to go hungry after they finish eating. How can the army fight if they don't give them food? They're starving to death before they even get to the battlefield!"

Grandpa Zhao chimed in, "In fact, the situation shouldn't be that bad; it's just that someone with ulterior motives set a trap for us."

“That’s right. No matter how poor the court is, it can’t be so poor that it doesn’t even have this much money. The royal family has so many jewels, paintings and tributes. They could easily raise a lot by selling some of them. There must be something fishy going on here. No, I have to write to Yunhua and ask him to investigate properly.”

After the Taoist priest finished speaking, he prepared to get up to write a letter. Lu Chuan, who had sharp eyes, grabbed the Taoist priest and said, "Master, why don't you take a shower first? Your body is sore."

After listening, the Taoist priest solemnly lowered his head and sniffed himself. "I must say, it really does smell a bit sour."

Xu Han replied, "Daoist Master, the water in the pot is already boiling. Why don't you go and wash up first? There's no rush. After your bath, get a good night's sleep and write the letter tomorrow."

"Alright, I'm going to take a shower first. You guys should get some rest too, it's getting late."

Seeing this, Xu Han and Lu Chuan went back to their rooms to sleep, while Grandpa Zhao went to the Taoist priest's room to wait for him. After the Taoist priest returned, the two chatted for a long time...

Several days later, the wheat in the field was fully ripe. That evening, Lu Chuan and the Taoist priest were sharpening their sickles. After preparing the tools that night, they could start harvesting the wheat the next morning.

"We planted a lot of wheat this year, so we harvested it according to the order in which it was planted. We'll take advantage of the good weather these next few days to hurry up and get the wheat harvested, so that it won't all be soaked in the fields by a heavy rain."

Xu Han chimed in, "Everyone, please work a little harder these next few days. After the wheat harvest, I'll cook something delicious for everyone."

"Haha, after being idle for so long, I finally have something to do."

Grandpa Zhao teased Lu Chuan, "Once we're done with the summer harvest and autumn planting, we won't have any free time. We'll be able to go hunting in the mountains again. Let's see if you'll still complain about being idle then."

Lu Chuan replied with a smile, "Being busy is good. Being busy gives you something to look forward to. It's really unbearable to be idle all day long."

Xu Han laughed and said, "Hahaha, a bunch of busybodies."

Everyone went to bed early that night, eager to get up early the next morning to harvest the wheat.

After working tirelessly for more than a month, they finally managed to harvest and plant all the crops in the fields.

The hard work of the group during this period has paid off. After all the wheat has been threshed and dried, Lu Chuan pulled the Taoist priest aside to weigh this season's harvest.

After the results were calculated, Xu Han was so happy that she couldn't stop smiling for several days.

I'm so happy! These are all things that can fill our stomachs. If this continues, even if Blackie has a few more puppies, we can still afford to raise them.

With grain in the granary, we have plenty of confidence and nothing to fear.

And this is only one season's harvest; there's still another season's harvest to be calculated.

Although the harvest was gratifying, Xu Han didn't plan to continue clearing land. There were only a few people in her family, and even if she cleared the land, she wouldn't be able to plant everything.

Rather than letting it go to waste, it's better to do our best to cultivate the existing land.

Before she knew it, it was already June. With the work in the fields finished, Xu Han began her chicken-raising business.

After half a year, there are now more than 300 chickens in the orchard. The area that was previously fenced off is now a bit too small for the flock.

So these past few days, Xu Han and the others have been busy making arrangements to expand the chicken farm.

Overcrowding in chicken farms makes them more susceptible to disease outbreaks, especially in the summer. If not careful, all the chickens could potentially contract the disease.

If the area where chickens are raised is expanded and the air circulation is better, the chickens will be less likely to get sick.

In addition, Lu Chuan disinfects the chicken coop with quicklime every few days, and sometimes he also boils some herbs for the chickens to drink, so so far the chickens in the orchard are growing quite well.

However, perhaps because of the large number of chickens, Xu Han always felt that the chickens in the orchard grew slower, and the chickens of the same month did not grow as big as the chickens she used to raise at home.

However, Xu Han was good at comforting herself, saying that there were a lot of them, and with the ducks and other animals, there were a total of more than four hundred.

Xu Han's goal is to increase the number of chickens in the orchard to at least 1,000 by this time next year, so that there will be more eggs later.

The roosters are used for daily consumption or sold to restaurants, while the hens are kept specifically for laying eggs, which will then be sold. However, simply selling eggs will not be easy, so we need to think of other ways.

The number of roosters will be large in the later stages, and even ordinary restaurants will probably be unable to handle it. We will need to think of a solution then.

But that's all for later. We don't have that many chickens at home right now, so we won't need them for the time being.

Moreover, the chickens we fed this year haven't started laying eggs yet. Last year, the chickens we fed laid quite a few eggs, but our family didn't get to eat many of them; most of them were used to hatch chicks.

After having breakfast early that morning, Xu Han followed the Taoist priest and Lu Chuan to the bamboo forest to cut bamboo.

Bamboo grows very fast and has a strong reproductive capacity. In less than two years, the bamboo forest has recovered more than half of its original size, and many new bamboos have grown densely again.

Lu Chuan led the two to select bamboo from last year. Last year's bamboo was not as tender and was more robust.

It took the group several days to cut the bamboo, and then they immediately began to build the chicken coop.

This chicken coop is two to three times larger than before, and it should last for two or three years without any problems.

When the number of chickens increases again later, we will build a new chicken coop over the newly transplanted high-pressure orchard.

By the way, Xu Han also planted a lot of fruit trees with high-pressure technology this spring, and they have all been transplanted now.

When the weather isn't too hot in a few days, I plan to continue air-planting fruit trees and try to cover the entire mountain with fruit trees. At that time, I can make a lot of money just by selling the fruit.

In addition to air-pressing fruit trees, Xu Han also plans to take some time to go up the mountain with Lu Chuan to air-press some chestnut and walnut branches, and plant some of them. It would be good whether they were for their own consumption or to sell for money.

The area for raising chickens will be expanded, but problems will arise as a result. There won't be enough manpower in the family, and we won't be able to manage raising too many chickens.