It's June now, and we've just had such a long period of rain, so it's the perfect season to plant sweet potatoes. They have a short growth cycle, so if we plant them now, they'll be ready by the end of September or October. When the weather gets cold, people won't have to suffer from both hunger and cold.
Sweet potatoes can be prepared in many ways. They are delicious whether steamed, boiled, or roasted. Even their leaves and stems can be stir-fried or used to make steamed buns. Even their vines can be used to feed livestock.
Most importantly, it has a high yield. If planted well, the yield per acre can reach about 5,000 catties. If everyone could grow this sweet potato, there would be no need to worry about going hungry.
When Yun Xiao heard Han Yiyi say this, and looked at the sweet potato seedlings all over the yard, he was not happy at all, but his brows furrowed slightly.
He knew that something was good, and he knew that this sweet potato, if it really had the high yield that Han Yiyi said, could save countless people. But how could he explain the sudden appearance of sweet potato seedlings all over the yard?
Yun Xiao knew better than Han Yiyi the wickedness of people's hearts and the principle that "a common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime." He was worried that Han Yiyi's secret would be exposed and bring about her death. He could help her cover up the rice matter, but what about this sweet potato? There was none in the entire Beichen. How could he help her cover it up?
Seeing Yun Xiao's slightly furrowed brows, she knew he was worried about her, and a warm feeling welled up in her heart. However, she couldn't just stand by and watch everyone go hungry, so she smiled and spoke.
"Don't worry, I'll tell you it's a gift from the gods in heaven who couldn't bear to see people go hungry. As for how to grow it, I'll say it was told to me by the gods in a dream..."
Seeing the smile in Han Yi's eyes, a hint of determination flashed in Yun Xiao's eyes. He secretly vowed in his heart that he would protect the person in front of him. Then he tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"Okay, I'll vouch for you. These things just suddenly appeared in our yard..."
Hearing Yun Xiao's words, Han Yiyi smiled and exchanged some more from the system. When there was almost no room to step in the entire courtyard, the two went to find the village chief.
Upon hearing Han Yiyi's words, the village chief couldn't help but pinch his thigh. At this moment, he didn't think Han Yiyi was dreaming about some kind of miracle doctor; he felt like he was dreaming.
It wasn't until a piercing pain shot through his leg that the village chief came to his senses and realized he wasn't dreaming.
"Han girl, are you telling the truth? That sweet potato, can really yield 5,000 catties per mu? And it only takes a little over three months to mature. It can be eaten directly as food..."
Hearing the village chief ask this question, Han Yiyi's eyes flickered before she answered.
"I don't know the specifics, but in my dream, that's what the white-bearded old immortal told me..."
"Okay, okay, okay, since it was said by a deity, it must be true..."
"The deity also said that this stuff is limited, so it can be planted only by the villagers of Zhushan Village first. If there is a surplus, some can be given to the surrounding villages. However, the seeds for next year must be reserved by our Zhushan Village..."
Han Yiyi roughly calculated that, based on 3,000 sweet potato seedlings per mu (unit of land area), her family's sweet potato seedlings could plant about 60 to 70 mu of land. After some people moved away, she would exchange some more from the system, so that the surrounding villages could all be planted. As for more distant places, they could only expand outwards freely.
Upon hearing Han Yiyi's words, the village chief nodded repeatedly.
"This is natural, this is natural..."
As soon as Han Yiyi arrived at the gate, the village chief saw a pile of lush green things in the yard. When he saw the tall pile of sweet potato seedlings, he was so excited that his eyes turned red.
Although he didn't doubt that Han Yiyi was lying, he still found it somewhat unbelievable. Now that he had actually seen it, he was so excited that he was almost incoherent. If it was true, then everyone would no longer have to worry about going hungry.
"I, I, I'll gather the villagers here right away to collect them, collect them, collect them..."
"Sweet potato seedlings..." Yun Xiao couldn't help but add when he saw that the village chief hadn't gotten anything out of the seedlings after leading them for a long time.
"Yes, yes, sweet potato seedlings, sweet potato seedlings..." After saying that, he turned around and left, shouting as he went, not even having time to go back and get the gong.
Before long, everyone gathered at Han Yiyi's door. There was no way to squeeze in because the house was full of sweet potato seedlings.
Everyone was both surprised and incredulous upon hearing the village chief's words.
The reason why everyone fought over a mushroom was because they were worried that when the weather got cold and there were no mushrooms or wild vegetables on the mountain, they would not be able to survive. That's why they thought that if they could stock up on an extra pound of rice now, they might be able to live one more day.
Hearing that the "gods" had sent such wonderful things to everyone, they were so moved that they burst into tears.
"Alright, alright, stop howling and line up to get your sweet potato seedlings. Han girl, the immortal said that you only need to plant 3,000 seedlings per mu (unit of land area). I remember exactly how many mu each of you has. If I find out that anyone has taken more than the allotted seedlings, I'll kick them out of the village..."
It's June now, the time for planting late rice. Some families were already preparing to plant late rice, but now that they have sweet potatoes, they've decided to use all their land to plant sweet potatoes.
In the past, people might have chosen to plant half rice and half sweet potatoes, but after the incident with the chili peppers, they felt that following Han Yi's lead was definitely the right thing to do.
Furthermore, at most, an acre of rice yields a little over 200 jin (100 kg), while an acre of sweet potatoes yields 5,000 jin (2,500 kg). Only a fool would think of planting rice, but there really are fools.
Seeing that everyone had received their share, and there were still half a yard of sweet potato seedlings left, the village chief borrowed the mule cart from Han Yi's family, took a few more sweet potato seedlings, and went to the town to find the town supervisor. After all, this was a major event that would benefit the people, and how to distribute the remaining seedlings and where to distribute them was up to the town supervisor.
Because of the flood, the early rice that should have been harvested in July has yielded no harvest at all. As a result, Liu De, the supervisor of the town, has been so worried about the tax revenue that he is almost bald.
Now, I heard from a servant that a village chief was carrying some kind of "grass," which he said was called sweet potato and was also a kind of grain.
They said that if that thing were planted, after three months, one mu (unit of land area) could yield five thousand jin (unit of weight) of sweet potatoes, and asked the adults if they wanted to plant it.
Hearing the servant's words, Liu De, who was already very irritable, thought that the visitor was delirious. Therefore, without even seeing the village chief, he ordered his men to drive him away.
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