Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Capable Cow

Fifteen cents a day is not a high wage, and it is even lower than the market price in Dachen.

The agricultural conditions in Li County are too poor, which in turn cannot drive the economy, forming a vicious cycle. This is why these fifteen cents are so valuable.

Lin Si not only wants the manor, but also wants to quickly improve his reputation and popular support, so he needs to get something out of the system first.

As she watched her reputation and popularity in the system rise rapidly, she finally felt a sense of security.

Reputation grew faster than people's hearts. When Lin Si put down his pen, it had already reached double digits, and the number was still growing rapidly at a rate of 0.01.

People's hearts grow more slowly.

Lin Si could probably understand the difference between people's hearts and reputation in this system. Reputation only required spreading the name, but people's hearts were more complicated.

With the huge sum of 10, Lin Si only needed to spend 5 reputation points to exchange for the "Fertilizer Law" that she had been coveting for a long time.

The agricultural conditions in Li County are poor because most of the land is barren and infertile. Dachen naturally has methods of fertilizing, but when these methods are used one by one on the land in Li County, the effects are not great.

With excitement in his heart, Lin Si clicked the word "Exchange" under the "Fertilizer Field Law" with trembling hands.

A thin booklet suddenly appeared on Lin Si's desk. The cover was in the Dachen style, and there was no sense of incongruity at all.

Turning to the first page, the book first lists several current methods of fertilizing the soil in Dachen.

There are wood ash, manure, green manure, river mud fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer, etc.

Each method is followed by a note explaining how to use Dachen's raw materials and technology to produce high-efficiency fertilizers that are close to modern ones.

If we modify it on the original basis, it will not be too abrupt.

Lin Si was overjoyed, exclaiming, "The golden finger is really good! So this is what it feels like to be able to cheat?" She read the Fertilizing Field Method carefully and put it in the partition under the desk.

Lin Si has no plans to teach it directly to the people for the time being, as there is still a discrepancy between theory and practice. She plans to practice it in the manor first, and then teach it to the people of Li County after she has compiled a systematic method.

Her reputation and income will rise because the people are well fed because of her, and Li County’s tax revenue is also closely tied to Lin Si.

There will be many places to spend money in the future, so the more money the better.

"County Lady, County Lady." Chun Yi called softly outside the room.

Lin Si put away the things on the desk and asked, "What's wrong?"

With Lin Si's permission, Chunyi peeked in with her eyes shining brightly.

"Today, when Doctor Wang Shi and Zhao An went out to buy groceries, the people on the street were all praising you." Chun Yi seemed even more excited than Lin Si, the person involved. "They all said you are a very kind person."

"The manor was originally built as my private property. How can I use corvée to force the people to do labor?" Lin Si replied slowly.

In the early days of Dachen, corvée was only used for the construction of public facilities, such as canals, mausoleums, roads and other large projects. But now, corvée has become a tool for the royal family to arbitrarily oppress the people.

The royal family's private property was often built by the people through forced labor.

As a modern person who traveled through time, the education he received since childhood prevented Lin Si from doing such a thing.

In addition, the infrastructure system requires reputation and people's hearts, so it is even more impossible for Lin Si to be so stupid as to oppress the people.

Chunyi secretly sighed, it turns out that people really become a different person after experiencing ups and downs. The current county lady has really changed a lot compared to before.

"Doctor Wang told me to tell you that today's lunch will be crispy bone fish, black bean sauce chicken, crispy shredded chicken, and stir-fried lungs. They'll also have water balls as a snack after the meal."

Lin Si specifically requested that the names of dishes be read out before meals every day. Knowing what she was going to eat before the meal not only added to her anticipation, but also kept her in a good mood for the entire morning.

When in Anjing, the princess's mansion was extremely extravagant. There were dozens of dishes on the table, and Lin Si could not finish them all by herself.

So after arriving in Li County, Lin Si made a rule that four meat dishes were enough. Besides, there was only Dr. Wang at the moment, and he would be too busy to cook more.

Lin Si held up his chin with his hand, "It's really too hard for Doctor Wang to cook alone."

Chunyi nodded heavily, "We'll also need to assign you a dim sum cook, as you used to love dim sum the most."

*

The construction of the manor began, and everyone in Li County had a smile on their face when they went out.

The weather is good this year and the harvest is more than in previous years. In addition, there is a salary of fifteen cents a day for repairing the manor, so everyone is happy to have a good new year.

Lin Si stayed in the county lord's mansion for more than ten days, and the objects of her torture became the two sisters Nan Qiao and Nan Shuang.

At first, when the two sisters found Lin Si staring at them from behind, they trembled, thinking that they ate too much and Lin Si disliked them.

The two of them even secretly discussed during their night rest whether they should eat less tomorrow to avoid being kicked out by Lin Si. As a result, when it was time for dinner.

I'm so hungry, I want to eat two bowls.

In Dachen, only a few upper-class people can eat three or four meals a day, and most of the lower class can only afford two meals a day. The two sisters have big appetites, and it is a luxury to have two meals a day in the princess's mansion. They did not expect that they would have to eat three meals a day after arriving in Li County.

The two secretly swore that they would never leave the county lady for the rest of their lives!

Nan Shuang finally couldn't stand Lin Si's gaze from behind and turned around cautiously, "County... Lord."

Lin Si nodded nonchalantly, a long colorful silk ribbon hanging from his shoulders.

"You guys keep practicing, I'll just watch."

Nan Qiao and Nan Shuang had no choice but to continue practicing martial arts.

The two of them were bought into the princess's mansion because of their great strength. Princess Huayang also invited the imperial guards to give them some guidance. Therefore, even after the two sisters came to Li County, they did not forget to practice martial arts every day.

After reading it, Lin Si unconsciously put his short hand on his chin, as if thinking about something.

After acting as the "class teacher" many times without anyone noticing, Lin Si finally asked questions to Nan Qiao and Nan Shuang.

"How good are your two sisters at martial arts?"

Nan Shuang, the younger sister, was more talkative than Nan Qiao and replied, "My Lady, an ordinary man is no match for us two sisters. Even if we were to encounter a trained imperial guard, we wouldn't necessarily be at a disadvantage."

Lin Si looked at the two sisters' tight muscles and nodded approvingly.

"If you two sisters were asked to teach others martial arts, could you do it?"

Nan Shuang scratched his head in confusion, "My sister and I are naturally strong, and it may be difficult for others to reach our level even if we teach them."

"I don't need to be as good as you, I just need to be better than ordinary people."

Nan Qiao seemed to have just realized what was happening, and said, "Okay."

"In that case, you should spend the next few days thinking about how to teach the children martial arts."

After Lin Si walked away, Nan Shuang quietly asked Nan Qiao: "Sister, what does the county lady mean by this? There are no children in the county lady's mansion."

"I don't know either. Never mind. Let's go have lunch first."

"Oh, it's time to eat, let's think about it after we finish eating.

Lin Si felt that once the manor was built, Nan Qiao and Nan Shuang’s teaching of the basics of martial arts should be enough. Now that they had a physical education teacher, they still needed a Chinese teacher.

But there is not a single educated person in the entire county lord’s mansion, including Lin Si himself.

Lin Si thought for a moment and said, "Prepare the ox cart. I'm going to the county magistrate's mansion."

Liang Nian was handling official business at the county government office. Zuo You had just finished reading "Wen Yuan Hua Ying" and was about to eat some apples when she heard Yao Niang say, "Madam, the Princess of Anping is here."

Zuo You almost dropped the Ringo in her hand. "It's not dinner time, and Liang Nian is not at home. What is she doing here?"

Yao Niang and Zuo You were both extremely wary of Lin Si. They felt uneasy and didn't know what Lin Si's purpose was in coming to their house this time.

When Zuo You appeared in the side hall, Lin Si had already sat down and picked up a red apple and started to eat it without any hesitation.

Zuo You only left Yao Niang in the side hall and bowed, saying, "I hope the Princess Anping is well."

Lin Si had just finished eating a ringo and took the silk scarf handed to him by Chun Yi to wipe his hands. "I came here this time because I want to ask Madam Zuo for help with something."

Zuo You calmed himself down and asked, "What's the matter? If it's something important, we might have to wait for my Dalang to come back to discuss it."

Lin Si shook his head and said in an exaggerated tone, "Madam Zuo has seen it too. The County Lady's Mansion only has about ten servants. Back then, I had hundreds of servants serving me in the Princess' Mansion in Anjing. How could I get used to that?"

"So what does the county lady mean?"

"I'm new here, so I naturally want to ask Madam Zuo for help in buying some servants." Lin Si was melancholy.

Zuo You didn't expect that Lin Si came just for such a small matter, but Li County was poor and the pawnbrokers were unwilling to do business here. If they wanted to buy people, they could only go to Shizhou.

Lin Si looked at Zuo You expectantly, "Madam Zuo, are you unwilling?"

"No, there's no pawnshop in Li County. If you want to buy someone, you need to go to Shizhou." Zuo You told the truth.

"Okay, then it's settled. Madam Zuo, you will go to Shizhou with me in seven days." Lin Si gave a decent smile.

Zuo You: How come it’s already seven days later?

After the discussion, Lin Si's butt did not move, and he showed no intention of leaving.

Zuo You always felt that Lin Si looked at her with a strange look in his eyes, but she couldn't tell what was strange.

Sure enough, Lin Si picked up another ringo and said, "The ringo from the County Magistrate's Mansion is really sweet."

"Ringo is just an ordinary fruit. You are too kind, my lady."

Lin Si asked again, "What does Madam Zuo usually do in the mansion?"

Zuo You answered truthfully, "Reading."

Zuo You felt that Lin Si's eyes were even stranger. "Reading is good, what kind of books does Madam Zuo usually read?"

"Wenyuan Huaying, Mengxi Bitan, Xu Shupu, and some miscellaneous talks." Zuo You's eyes lit up a lot when talking about reading.

"Very good, very good." Lin Si only felt that the apple in his hand became sweeter.

"I wonder if Madam Zuo also reads books about mathematics." Lin Si continued to ask.

Zuo You hesitated for a moment, but finally confessed, "I've read the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, the Ten Mathematical Classics, and the Jigu Suanjing."

Lin Si finished chewing a ringo, his tone even more satisfied than before: "Very good, very good."

This mother and daughter pair are really helpful.

Zuo You sent Lin Si away in confusion. She felt uncomfortable with the mixed feeling in her heart. She finally understood why her daughter said she couldn't understand this county lady.

Who could possibly understand this? She hadn't even grown all her teeth yet, yet she smiled innocently and asked me to do things for her.

Thinking about seven days later, Zuo You couldn't help but have a headache. She had to arrange an ox cart to go to Shizhou, and she needed servants to escort her, and they had to accompany her to buy people. How many people did she want to buy? She wouldn't buy a hundred people, right? Then how would those people get back and follow behind the carriage?

Zuo You held his forehead helplessly, "Yao Niang, what do you think this county lady wants to do?"

Yao Niang was silent for a moment: "When my wife said she loved reading, the Anping County Lady seemed to notice..."

"What did you find?" Zuo You asked.

"I dare not speak carelessly... I am afraid that my words may be rude and may be displeasing to my lady."

"Why would I be unhappy? Please tell me quickly. I'm feeling very nervous right now." Zuo You felt exhausted.

"It seems that the farmers have discovered a particularly capable cow." Yao Niang hesitated for a moment, but still told the truth.

"What?" Zuo You almost thought he had misheard.

The author has something to say:

----------------------

Crispy bone fish, black bean sauce chicken, crispy shredded chicken, stir-fried lung. From "Song: The Golden Age of Foodies"