Chen Sheng quickly straightened his clothes, tucked a few stray hairs behind his ears, wiped the mud off his feet from the edge of the field, and then put on his straw sandals to go and meet them...
Qi Yuchen: "..."
Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
The constables stopped the donkey against a tree trunk by the roadside before hurrying over, wiping their sweat. The lead clerk bypassed Chen Sheng and ran straight towards their Minister of Agriculture, leaving Chen Sheng completely bewildered.
Fortunately, the constable behind him stopped in front of him and said, "Chen Lizheng, that is our newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Lord Qi. He has come to Shiligou specifically to understand the people's conditions."
Chen Sheng was startled. Oh my god, that silly, clueless greenhorn was actually the Minister of Agriculture?
How important is the position of Minister of Agriculture? Chen Sheng didn't know, but as the name suggests, it was someone in charge of agricultural affairs, and a high-ranking one at that! For ordinary people like them, any official was someone they couldn't afford to offend! Let alone someone in charge of agriculture!
Chen Sheng quickly reviewed the conversation in his mind and found no loopholes. Fortunately, he didn't have the bad habit of complaining, otherwise he wouldn't know how he died.
"This humble subject greets Your Excellency, Minister of Agriculture," Chen Sheng said, bowing deeply.
Upon seeing this, the surrounding farmers understood immediately and followed suit, bowing and paying their respects to the official.
Qi Yuchen was very excited and told everyone to stop being so formal, and considerately said that they should just go about their business and not bother him.
He had just seen it too; the work in the fields was indeed hard, and these farmers were working very hard. No wonder his father had scolded him for not understanding the hardships of ordinary people.
"Chen Lizheng, your Shiligou is in a good location. I wonder how the harvest is this year? How much does one mu (unit of land area) yield?" Qi Yuchen asked very kindly. He thought to himself that the old farmer looked very afraid of him, which was quite ridiculous. He was clearly a dashing and debonair man, not the King of Hell.
Qi Yuchen had no idea that, for the old farmer, his position as the Minister of Agriculture, in charge of agricultural affairs in a county, while not exactly the King of Hell, wasn't much better. If he encountered a good official, the tax collector would enforce the law impartially. But if he was unlucky enough to encounter a greedy official, he would inevitably be cheated, having to hand over a quarter of the tax grain for nothing—a truly heartbreaking situation!
However, Qi Yuchen left a good impression on Chen Sheng. At least she didn't seem arrogant; she had a somewhat naive and simple-minded image.
"Chen Lizheng, just speak the truth. Our Minister of Agriculture is understanding of the people's will." The clerk was familiar with Chen Sheng and knew what he was thinking, so he quickly spoke up to persuade him. Everyone in the yamen knew that the new Minister of Agriculture was the son of a high-ranking official in the capital. He was a playboy, but he was quite righteous and not the kind of ruthless villain.
Chen Sheng nodded quickly and said, "Reporting to you, sir, the harvest in Shiligou this year is quite good. Today is the rice harvest, and the sorghum harvest will be coming soon. It's hard to say about the rice yield per mu yet, but it should be around one and a half shi."
"Hmm, one and a half bushels, that's a pretty good harvest. But I noticed that the rice paddies of those other households seem to be growing even better. I wonder how much they can produce?" Qi Yuchen looked at the rice paddies in the distance, where the rice ears were heavy and seemed to be doing better than the ones in front of him.
Chen Sheng was speechless. He hadn't expected this young man to know about the yield per acre. Seeing him pointing in the direction of the Qin family, he said with pride, "Sir, that family is using a new planting method. This is their first time... experimenting. We don't know how much they will yield per acre yet, but it looks like they will get more than us."
Qi Yuchen naturally didn't have that ability; he had only crammed this agricultural knowledge from Cai Bo a few days ago. If he were to go to the countryside to observe the people's conditions and didn't even know the most basic common sense, he would feel ashamed.
Upon hearing this, Qi Yuchen finally felt that there was something new to learn, so he asked to be taken to the Qin family's land to see what this new planting method was. He had never heard of it before, and even Uncle Cai had never heard of it. This was interesting!
You have to understand that when Cai Bo was young, he was someone who traveled all over the country with his father while he was in office, so there really weren't many things he didn't know.
The group of people that Qin San Niang saw were Qi Yu Chen and others who had come with the village head Chen Sheng.
Seeing Da Wa's mother standing there, Chen Sheng hurriedly called out, "Da Wa's mother, come and pay your respects to the Minister of Agriculture."
The Minister of Agriculture? Isn't that the official in charge of agricultural affairs?
Qin San Niang was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted. She wiped her hands and climbed onto the ridge. The ridge was a full seventy centimeters long, and the paddy field, which had just been flooded, was very muddy.
No wonder she was in such an unladylike posture; she simply had no choice but to climb!
Of course, Qi Yuchen didn't think there was anything wrong with the woman's demeanor. After all, in his opinion, Qin Sanniang, who was dressed very simply, was just a pretty rural woman. Her clothes were not even as good as those of the second-class servants in his own household.
"Greetings, Lord Minister of Agriculture." Qin San Niang bowed and performed a curtsy.
Qi Yuchen looked at the woman in front of him and asked in a very kind manner, "Madam, I heard from the village head that your family's rice paddies use a new planting method and that the yield per mu should be higher than that of other families. So I came uninvited to see exactly how much our family's yield per mu is. You don't mind, do you?"
Qin San Niang wanted to say, "What's the use of me minding? You're acting so nonchalantly as if it's all perfectly natural! You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth."
"Of course, but we'll have to wait a while. Why don't you rest here for a bit, sir?" Qin San Niang took out her own stools and offered them to sit and rest.
Village head Chen Sheng hurriedly urged, "Da Wa's mother, are you almost done here? Let me help you with the harvest first."
He had originally planned to call a few more men to help, but when he saw that there were already quite a few men helping in the field, he took off his shoes and went down to help as well.
The two constables couldn't just stand by and watch; they couldn't let this gentleman wait there, so they also prepared to go down to the fields to help.
The farmers, seeing this, thought, "How can we let them do anything? What if they offend the officials? What will they do when it comes time to collect taxes? Besides, with them around, we always feel like we're being watched, and we can't really use our hands and feet properly!" They even struggled to wield their sickles!
Upon seeing this, Qin San Niang understood immediately. She quickly pretended to take out several bamboo tubes of fruit jam water from the basket containing mung bean soup and handed them to them.
"Gentlemen, you have come from afar. How can we let you do the work? Besides, we don't have any extra sickles. Why don't you have some water to quench your thirst first?"
Cai Bo brought over the two bamboo tubes of water and thanked her. He opened the stopper and took a sip, and his expression brightened. He thought to himself, "Isn't this fruit jam water?" It tasted sweet and sour, and it was even better than what the cook in the manor made.
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