Chapter 86
After this incident, Zhou Yushu no longer had any hesitation about whether to stay or leave.
"I now declare that I will stay in the Yichun military settlement and will not return to the Yichun camp."
Meng Yi stepped forward and put his arm around his shoulders. "Good brother, from now on we'll be stirring the same pot."
"General Zhou, welcome to join our Yichun military settlement."
"welcome--"
The Yichun camp had anticipated this outcome, and looking at the soldiers surrounding Zhou Yushu, all of them were covered in dust and dirt. They were too embarrassed to stay any longer.
Before they even left the military settlement, Zhu Guotao erupted in anger. With a gloomy face, he questioned Wang Lang, "Who told you to act on your own?"
The others remained silent. This was too embarrassing, and someone had to take the blame. Shi Mei had been the best candidate before, because he had been the one who made the decision to replace her. But today, Wang Lang had taken the initiative to invite Zhou Yushu's aunt. If it succeeded, it would be a sign of foresight, but if it failed, he would naturally have to bear the responsibility.
"We had already impressed Zhou Yushu, but unfortunately, your threat ruined everything."
Wang Lang sneered, what a bunch of guys deceiving themselves. He could see clearly that Zhou Yushu had never thought about returning to the Yichun camp from the beginning to the end.
Shi Mei understood his approach, but she didn't want to confront Zhu Guotao for him.
"Are you sure that after losing face so much, you still want to perform an entertainment show on someone else's territory before leaving?" Wang Lang asked coldly.
Looking at the villagers in the military settlement who were staring at them in groups of three or five, Zhu Guotao and others fell silent.
A group of people walked in silence, because when they were going back, they took a shortcut and encountered different scenery.
When passing a paddy field, they found that the seedlings planted there were straight and level, and the distance between the seedlings seemed to have been measured. Everyone stopped and squatted there to watch.
"Are the rice grown in their military settlements using new methods?" Some new farming methods in the "Techniques of Crop Planting" were summarized as new methods by the Yichun camp.
"It should be, but after all the hassle of pulling up and planting the seedlings, it seems they are actually growing well now?" It's no worse than if they had skipped the seedling raising step.
But they asked the old farmers, and they all thought that it was not appropriate as it would damage the root system and the seedlings would die easily if they were not careful.
"This rice field looks very good. The rice has taken root and turned green, and each plant is quite strong." At first glance, it looks lush and green, better than theirs.
They looked at each other, were they wrong?
"Look over there, they're actually planting beans and wheat together?"
"Not only that, but also the mixed bean and sesame over there."
"Are those bean seedlings sprouting from under those fruit trees?"
The people in the Yichun camp looked at each other, wondering what was wrong with the people in the Yichun military settlement. Why were they planting like this and competing with beans?
Beans are soybeans, which have rhizobia. When soybeans are intercropped with other crops, such as wheat, the main factor to consider is the nitrogen fixation ability of soybeans.
The purpose of intercropping soybeans with sesame is to ensure a good harvest. This method is to use soybeans as the main crop and sesame as a supplement. If the weather is relatively dry, it is beneficial for sesame to grow, and if there is more rain, it is beneficial for soybeans to grow, thus enhancing the ability to resist disasters.
Intercropping tall crops like soybeans and fruit trees can effectively utilize soil fertility, space, and sunlight, increasing the multiple cropping index and yield. In fact, the best method is to intercrop with corn. However, Yao Chunnuan brought the sweet potatoes from the old house, but not the corn.
Now they are just seeing the curiosity and cannot see the mystery behind it. They will know when the harvest season comes.
Wang Lang remained silent. He had little to say. He had been working in the Yichun camp, facing numerous obstacles in implementing his ideas. Take, for example, the "Key to Crop Planting Techniques" he had single-handedly purchased for 4,800 taels. It had been widely disapproved of by his colleagues in the Yichun camp. Seeing only a sliver of their progress, they couldn't help but feel self-doubt and regret, right? Wang Lang felt that by the time the summer harvest came, these people would be beating their chests and stamping their feet.
The performance of Shi Mei and others along the way when they left was reported to the shogunate by the soldiers following them. Yao Chunnuan and others didn't care much about it. They could watch if they wanted to. Anyway, they couldn't make any sense of it now.
As soon as Wang Lang, Shi Mei and others left, the general and Chief Steward Wu came over and welcomed Zhou Yushu's joining.
The general was also very happy to have another capable person under his command. "Tomorrow, you, the new Sima of the Cavalry Battalion, will also take office. I look forward to you training a strong cavalry brigade in the near future."
"Yes!" Entrusted with an important task, Zhou Yushu's face was full of determination. He knelt on one knee and agreed!
The general had a lot of things to do, so he left after staying for a while.
Butler Wu stayed behind, and after catching Yao Chunnuan and Yu Chen, he quickly pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, "Come on, come on, while you two are here, come and help me with some advice. There are only three left. Who should I choose? Or should I talk to them first?"
Yu Chen and Yao Chunnuan looked at each other, and Manager Wu was conscripting young men.
Yao Chunnuan picked up a pen and quickly crossed out Han Chaosheng's name. Only a few of the highest-ranking officials in their military settlement knew about Han Chaosheng's transition from being an open person to being a clandestine one. She hadn't expected that someone like him, who had always been in the dark, could still make it into the top three.
Manager Wu was shocked. "What's wrong with this person? Why did you delete him just because of a disagreement?"
The person was given to Xing Xingyue, which was basically like throwing meat buns at a dog. In order to prevent her from being used again, she might have to be taken care of for the rest of her life. Yao Chunnuan replied, "I have a great use for this person." She can't be wasted on the Fourth Young Lady.
Talent is hard to come by, and there simply aren't enough of them. Why waste it? Yao Chunnuan grumbled inwardly, wondering who had chosen those ten candidates. Their judgment was truly ruthless.
Yu Chen suppressed his laughter and followed suit, picking up the pen as well, but was stopped by Wu, the steward. Wu, like a protective child, was so protective of the only two people left on the list that he refused to let Yu Chen cross them out.
"Forget it, forget it. I won't discuss it with you. I'll go meet these two people myself and then make a decision." Now he has to choose between two options, right? At least he still has a choice, right?
*******
That day, before going on duty, Yao Chunnuan deliberately wore the same Chinese red dress she'd worn to little Yao Xi's full-moon banquet; she quite liked it. March and April, the late spring, with its mild weather, were perfect for skirts. She had Luo Suyi help her tie her hair into a bun, accessorized it with jade hairpins and flower-embroidered shoes, and stood up, looking graceful and elegant, even unconsciously carrying a touch of swaying grace.
Yao Chunnuan also used some lip balm at the end. She originally had fair skin, and after keeping it warm for a whole winter and then spending more than a month in confinement, her skin was completely restored. After applying the lip balm, her skin looked even whiter than snow and her complexion looked rosy.
Axia wondered what day it was today and why her master was dressed so beautifully?
Luo Suyi smiled. She actually liked seeing her master dressed up beautifully. "Maybe it's spring."
Axia was even more puzzled. Didn’t spring come a long time ago?
"Let's go to the exchange building and take a look."
Exchange Building
Qi Yingshan's legs had finally recovered and he could walk normally. As long as he didn't do strenuous exercise like running, he would be fine. The first thing he did after recovering was to report to the exchange building and start work.
Grandfather Yao was explaining his job and the things he should pay attention to during the work. "...this is basically what you have to do on a daily basis. If there is anything you don't understand, you can always come and ask me."
Qi Yingshan nodded, indicating that he understood everything.
Just then, Yao Chunnuan walked in with Axia.
When Grandfather Yao saw Yao Chunnuan, he was stunned for a moment, "Why are you here?"
"I haven't been here for a while, so I came to take a look." The exchange building was under her jurisdiction, and she had the right to inspect and supervise. "Is there anything difficult or unsolvable in the building?"
Yao Chunnuan actually saw Qi Yingshan. After his legs healed, his posture was indeed as straight as a pine tree. She nodded at him, but her attention was more focused on the conversation with her grandfather.
Grandfather Yao thought for a moment and said, "There aren't any major problems that can't be solved. They're just small issues. For example, yesterday a woman came to ask if we had any glutinous rice oil in the exchange building. We don't have any."
Mihua oil is a specialty plant from a certain place in the southwest. The flowers of this plant are very small, but they can be used to extract oil after being picked. It is very effective for children's diseases such as abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Ever since the exchange office began listing items that could be redeemed for their own crops, the settlers had grown a stronger sense of the office's power, a feeling that anything could appear there. This feeling reached its peak during spring plowing season, when the exchange office offered over thirty varieties of rice seeds.
The settlers believed that if they needed something they couldn't buy outside, they could definitely exchange it at the exchange office. Even if it wasn't available now, it would be in the near future. All they had to do was work hard to earn work points or merit points. Their diligence also made the military settlement more manageable, ushering in a period of rapid development.
The villagers didn't know that Yao Chunnuan had been troubled lately. Her three caravans had recently reported that they needed more items for the exchange building. Some of these items were quite rare and valuable, and paying real money to get them through was no longer feasible. While barter was still possible on the North-South trade route, the items they had weren't valuable enough, and other merchants weren't very willing to exchange them for some items.
Yao Chunnuan's biggest worry had finally come to pass: their military settlement lacked a unique core product, something that would attract merchants from both the north and south. But there was no way around it; it was inevitable at this stage of development.
In fact, salt is a perfect example. It is a treasure that everyone likes and a hard currency. However, salt and iron are controlled by the state and are difficult to move. Even if she has a salt drying method, she can easily get a large amount of high-quality salt.
Unable to touch the salt and iron, she could only shift her focus from salt to the rare commodity of sugar. In Daliang, sugar was quite scarce. The most common product on the market was malt sugar, but it was not very affordable. Therefore, if she could make sugar, it would surely become a big hit.
Making sugar from beets was one solution she could think of. Making sugar from sugarcane was also an option, but sugarcane seeds were difficult to find. She had already planted all the beet seeds she had gotten, but the sugar beets were still a season away from turning into sugar. Well, she had to find a way to produce something rare to keep her caravan going smoothly.
In addition to exchanging goods, their caravans also took the opportunity to recruit talents.
Brick-making masters, tile-making masters, pottery heirs... As long as the craftsmen were in trouble and could no longer stay in the local area, the caravans would persuade them to go to Yichun, and they would be given money to settle down once they arrived.
From the Chinese New Year to now, their military settlement has gradually accepted many craftsmen.
Yao Chunnuan pondered for a long time. Grandfather Yao thought she was worried and tried to comfort her, "Don't worry too much. We already have a wide variety of items in the exchange building. The villagers are just making up their minds. They don't consider that the items they want are too rare and difficult for the caravan to obtain."
Yao Chunnuan nodded and didn't say anything else. Some things she just needed to plan herself, there was no need to tell them out loud and make the elderly worry.
Qi Yingshan stood quietly by the side until the two had finished talking. Then he stepped forward and said, "Master Yao, thank you for the medicine you gave me that day." Qi Yingshan was grateful to Yao Chunnuan; her medicine had been very effective. However, Master Yao was drunk that day, and he wondered if he still remembered him.
"You are welcome."
She still remembered him, and Qi Yingshan's eyes lit up.
"Do you know each other?" Grandfather Yao asked suspiciously.
"I've met him once."
"when?"
"On the day when little Yaoxi is one month old."
"The day you got drunk?"
"Yeah."
Grandfather Yao's eyes looked back and forth between the two of them once or twice. Yao Chunnuan was calm and composed, but Qi Yingshan was inexplicably a little nervous.
Seeing this, Grandfather Yao put down his hand and said to Qi Yingshan, "You can go and do your work first. There's no need to answer my question."
"Yes." After Qi Yingshan agreed, he unconsciously glanced at Yao Chunnuan before turning around and getting busy.
Grandfather Yao looked at his granddaughter suspiciously. She was obviously dressed up and looked even more radiant and charming. He hesitated to say the following words, "A Nuan, you..."
"Grandfather, what do you want to say?"
"Nothing, nothing important, I forgot it immediately. Oh, I'm old, my memory is not good."
"Oh." Yao Chunnuan said, drank the last sip of tea, and stood up. "Okay, if everything is fine here, I'll go back to the shogunate."
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