Chapter 63 Digging Potatoes◇
Zhou Yu suddenly thought of the vegetables in the space and found that many of them were not found in this world. She thought, if she could grow them, wouldn’t she make a fortune!
But then he thought of the lesson his brother learned from selling small mirrors, and felt that it might be okay if peppers and tomatoes were grown, but potatoes, as a crop that can solve the food crisis, would probably not be kept even if she could grow them.
If potatoes could truly help the poor and vulnerable end hunger, then she would have no problem contributing, and it would be her duty. But she was simply afraid that those in power would seize control of this crop and exploit it to enrich themselves.
However, Zhou Yu felt that it was too early to say these things. If she wanted to develop her few pepper, potato, and tomato seeds into large-scale planting, it would take at least three years.
So, she decided to leave things for later and just plant the crops first...
When Zhou Yu thought of planting potato, pepper, and tomato seeds, it was the second month after Zhu Xi left, which was the end of April. Because of the bitter cold in Liaodong, crops were planted late. Zhou Yu thought it was still in time to plant potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes.
So, she found a vacant space in the backyard vegetable garden and carefully planted the peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes according to the planting methods she remembered from her previous life.
When Zheng asked her what she was planting, she told him the same story her brother had used to fool the yamen runner Song. She said that she bought vegetable seeds from an overseas businessman she met in Baili Town. She didn't know what they were, but she heard the foreigner say they were delicious, so out of curiosity, she bought some and tried to plant them.
The Fuzhou Guard where they were located wasn't far from the sea, and the border had been much calmer in recent years, with occasional ships from overseas merchants docking...
Recently, Zhou Yu often followed his master to Tongji Medical Clinic and Cheng Ziyu's courtyard, so it was normal for him to meet some foreigners to buy and sell things. Therefore, Zheng did not say anything when she heard it. While taking care of other vegetables planted in the vegetable garden, she often watered, fertilized, and caught insects for the strange vegetables planted by Zhou Yu.
In the autumn of that year, Zhou Yu harvested a small basket of red peppers, dozens of tomatoes, and sixty or seventy potatoes.
Zhou Yu couldn't help it, so she took five tomatoes, five potatoes, and a handful of peppers, and used the excuse that when the overseas businessman sold her the seeds, he told her in broken Chinese how to make these dishes. She gestured and instructed her mother to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes, braised pork with potatoes, hot and sour potato shreds, spicy chicken cubes, and finally a tomato and egg soup.
At the dinner table, as the long-lost taste of food filled his taste buds, Zhou Yu felt incredibly satisfied! He also expressed deep regret that Zhou Jin was not at home and ate an extra bowl for him...
Zheng, Zhou Ruifeng, and the two children all ate with great relish. The two children liked the scrambled eggs with tomatoes the most, while Zheng liked the soft and sticky potatoes. Zhou Ruifeng, the oldest, loved the spicy diced chicken and hot and sour potato shreds. Even as his mouth hissed from the spiciness, he couldn't help but eat mouthful after mouthful. He snatched the entire plate of spicy diced chicken and hot and sour potato shreds from Zhou Yu, then took the bowl of tomato and egg soup that Zheng had served him, drank it, and said to Zhou Yu with a smile:
"How come you're always so lucky, girl? I'm with you almost every day, but how come you're the only one who ran into the seed merchant?"
Zhou Yu...
Just when she was trying to find an excuse to get away with it, she heard her master say:
"You got this look from an overseas businessman with a high nose, deep eyes, red hair, and a full beard. I saw him passing by the Tongji Clinic that time. He was carrying a cloth bag and looked weathered. You could tell he had just arrived by boat..."
Zhou Yu: Uh... this...
What else could she say besides nodding?
…
During this year, Zhou Li's academic performance improved significantly. Zhou Zelin even asserted that after two more years of study, he and Zhou Zesheng's youngest son, Zhou Zhuo, would be able to try out for the position together. Of course, this would only be possible if Zhou Jin and Zhou Dai were both promoted to general flag bearer within the next two years...
Last time, Captain Han was rewarded with three hundred taels of silver and promoted to deputy captain because he annihilated two Tartar squads in succession, including a tragic Tartar king of the Western Court. Not only was he rewarded with a reward, but the captain above him was also rewarded and the emperor became more friendly to him.
Although the so-called deputy captain was just a nominal position, Han Baihu was actually still in charge of the soldiers in the captain's office, but for Han Baihu who had no foundation at all, this was already very good!
Therefore, during this period, he was always in high spirits. Not only did he buy a house in Baili Town, he also asked people to find him a matchmaker...
Zhou Jin, who personally killed the King of the Western Courtyard of the Tartars, was promoted to a small flag by Captain Han because of his bravery in battle, and he now had ten soldiers under his command.
Zhou Dai was also mentioned together with him. It was not because Zhou Dai was also brave in battle, but because Captain Han knew nothing about the last time the Tartars came to rob food and grass, and his battalion, which was only forty miles away from the Tartars' location, knew nothing about it. If Zhou Jin had not happened to suggest going to Baili Town for fun, that group of Tartars would have slipped away right under his nose!
Therefore, Captain Han felt deeply ashamed of this matter, so he specially selected ten soldiers with sharp eyes and ears and agile bodies to form a special reconnaissance flag, which was specifically responsible for investigating the enemy situation nearby or when going on an expedition. Because Zhou Dai was particularly outstanding in this aspect, Captain Han selected him to be the flag leader!
Zhou Po, due to his excellent performance in dealing with the higher-ups, was valued by his superiors and was directly transferred from Han Baihu's camp. Although he still serves as a clerk in the Fuzhou Guard camp, his power is no longer comparable to that of Han Baihu's camp...
Captain Han was very reluctant to see Zhou Po go at first, but because Zhou Po was now in charge of distributing food and supplies to the various camps, he naturally took good care of Han, his former superior. Since Zhou Po left, Han's camp had more food and supplies than when he was there... and he didn't have to bow and scrape to urge them every time.
Therefore, Captain Han was relieved about his departure. However, when he mentioned him to others, he always liked to brag, "That person used to be my military clerk. I was the one who promoted him..."
………
Little Zhou Ying's painting skills also improved by leaps and bounds this year... Zhou Yu had only average talent for painting, and couldn't teach her anything else. He would just take a charcoal pencil and pretend to accompany her painting when no one was around. In reality, he was intentionally or unintentionally teaching her the shading and line drawing techniques his teacher had taught her in his previous life's sketching class...
Little Zhou Ying was indeed extremely talented in painting. After studying for a few days with Zhou Yu, a half-baked teacher, she had already integrated the lines and shadows Zhou Yu taught her into her own paintings. Compared with her paintings, Zhou Yu felt that his own paintings were simply unbearable!
Even Zhou Zelin, who was used to seeing famous calligraphy and paintings and had quite a few insights in this area, praised little Zhou Ying's paintings. He also had a higher opinion of Zheng, the mother who supported her eldest daughter in raising her younger daughter in such a bad environment.
You know, those painting pigments are extremely expensive, and the brushes, ink, paper and inkstone are not cheap either. Considering the huge amount of painting Zhou Ying does every month, it would take at least five taels of silver to buy them!
Five taels per month is sixty taels per year, and five taels of silver at that time was almost the annual living expenses of an ordinary family!
Although Zheng Shi is not short of money now, she is not like other women nowadays who only think about leaving money for their two sons. She is willing to spend so much money every month on a daughter. She is really a woman who loves her children and has foresight...
…
Time flies, and another year has passed in the blink of an eye. This is the fourth year that the Zhou family has been exiled to Liaodong!
Last autumn, Zhou Yu's new vegetables had another harvest, and the potato seeds grew from dozens to several large baskets. Zhou Zelin already knew that Zhou Yu had grown several kinds of vegetables that were not available in Dayan, and he had tried them one by one. Although he thought tomatoes and peppers were delicious, he didn't care too much about them. However, he paid special attention to potatoes, which were very filling, had a very high yield, and could even be eaten as food.
Not only did he order several families to keep the existence of the potatoes a secret, he also called Zhou Jin over for a secret talk when he returned.
The result of the secret talks was that several families jointly spent money to hire someone to dig a cellar, specifically for storing the baskets of potatoes that Zhou Yu had just harvested. Just in case, Zhou Ruiquan also locked the cellar.
Zhou Jin specifically let Zhou Zelin know about the existence of the potatoes because he intended to treat the potatoes as the common property of several families, and use Zhou Zelin's connections to try to get the greatest benefits.
Therefore, naturally, everyone listened to him in everything.
By late April of that year, Zhou Zelin had cleared out one and a half acres of vegetable plots in the backyards of several families. In addition to planting half an acre of peppers and half an acre of tomatoes, he planted potatoes on the remaining acre.
Last year, because they felt it was inconvenient to open two workshops at home, they chose a place not far from their homes and built several spacious factory buildings. The garment workshops of Zheng and others and the mosquito coil workshops of Zhou Yu and others have all moved there.
Therefore, apart from the Zhou family, few people go into the backyards of these houses now.
Even so, Zhou Ruiquan was still extremely cautious. In order to prevent people from using the toilet in the backyards of several houses, he even built two new public toilets for men and women between the houses and the two factories. He even gave the excuse that it was for the convenience of people working in the two workshops.
He himself wanted to go to the potato field in the backyard eight hundred times every day, and he had to check on it even in the middle of the night to feel at ease.
Finally, under everyone's careful care, potatoes once again ushered in the harvest season.
Because the potatoes were kept secret, Zhou Ruiquan and his friends didn't dare to ask for help, so they had to bring the young and old from several families together to dig potatoes!
On that day, both workshops had a day off, and Zhou Luo and his friends did not go to town. Several families locked the doors of their front yards and gathered in the backyard to dig potatoes.
When the first potato sprout was dug out, revealing a dozen potatoes of various sizes underneath, everyone was excited.
I never thought that one potato seedling could produce so many potatoes!!
…
"Is this delicious?!" Zhou Luo asked Zhou Ying while watching his great-uncle carefully pick the potatoes from the potato seedlings and weigh them.
"It's delicious, and there are many ways to eat it. You can stew it with meat, stir-fry it, or even steam it and make mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes made by my eldest sister are so delicious!"
Zhou Ying couldn't help swallowing when he thought of the mashed potatoes Zhou Yu made for him last time.
Zhou Luo became even more curious about the potato after seeing it, and couldn't help but complain:
"Your eldest sister is such an ungrateful person. I work so hard all day to earn money for her, but she doesn't even invite me when she eats delicious food!"
Zhou Ying...said honestly:
"Brother Luo, don't be angry. We've only eaten these potatoes twice. The first time, there weren't many, so we just tasted them. The second time, you weren't home, and I wanted to save a few to cook for you guys when you came back, but Uncle Lin stopped us, saying we had to save them for seeds and we weren't allowed to eat any more..."
But...that time he and the clan leader ate a lot, so she didn't have enough to eat!
Little Zhou Ying complained in her heart.
Zhou Luo... is he okay? The one who tricked him turned out to be his own father!
…
Of course, Zhou Zelin didn't know that his son and little Zhou Ying were secretly criticizing him. At this moment, his attention was all on the yield of the potato seedlings.
After weighing it, I found that the potato sprout produced two kilograms of potatoes!
So, how much can this acre produce?!
"Hurry up, start digging!" Zhou Zelin shouted excitedly.
…
"Ouch! You little brat! Be gentle! You've dug this potato in half!"
"Haha, the piece I dug is really big!"
"Oh no, this one won't do. It's all the size of eggs... not a single one is big!!"
…
Half a day later, the potatoes from one acre of land were finally harvested. After weighing them, there were more than 3,500 kilograms in total.
There are so many people...
An output of more than 3,000 catties per mu is naturally nothing in later generations. As far as Zhou Yu knew, the yield of potatoes per mu in later generations was about 5,000 to 6,000 catties, or even more than 8,000 catties. But in Liaodong, where the grain yield per mu was only 100 to 200 catties, an output of more than 3,000 catties could be described as astonishing!
Zhou Zelin and Zhou Ruiquan were so shocked that they couldn't even speak... their hands were shaking...
The author has something to say:
Let's take a look at everyone's age.
Zhu Xi left at the end of February of the second year after the Zhou family came to Liaodong. At that time, Zhou Po and Zhou Li were sixteen, Zhou Jin, Zhou Dai, Zhu Xi were fourteen, Zhou Luo was thirteen, Zhou Yu was twelve, Zhou Li was eight, and Zhou Ying was six.
Two months after he left, Zhou Yu finally remembered crops like potatoes and planted them. That autumn, he harvested dozens of potatoes...
In the second year, when several large baskets of potatoes were harvested, Zhou Zelin learned about the existence of potatoes. In the third year, when there was a bumper potato harvest, Zhou Po and Zhou Li were eighteen years old, Zhou Jin, Zhou Dai, Zhu Xi were sixteen years old, Zhou Luo was fifteen, Zhou Yu was fourteen, Zhou Li was ten years old, and Zhou Ying was eight years old.
P.S. All the protagonists have grown up! Starting from the next chapter, the climax of the Liaodong chapter is about to begin!
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2022-07-08 06:49:49 and 2022-07-08 14:37:40~
Thanks to the little angel who cast the mine: give me 1 Gun to hit the car;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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