Outside the house, a large number of villagers were kneeling on the ground.
"We kowtow in gratitude to Madam Zhen for her great kindness!"
"Madam Zhen, you are a living Bodhisattva in this world!"
The constant stream of respectful greetings made Zhen Wanwan's head spin.
"What are you doing? Let's talk this out and get up!"
Faced with this bizarre scene, she was somewhat at a loss.
A middle-aged man who looked educated stepped out from the villagers' group.
He walked up to Zhen Wanwan, bowed respectfully, and his eyes were full of gratitude.
"Madam Zhen, you are our great benefactor, a great philanthropist to all of us!"
Zhen Wanwan smiled awkwardly and explained, "Brother, are you sure you're not mistaken? What great benefactor? I don't remember ever helping you."
The middle-aged man's eyes reddened, and tears almost fell. Zhenniangzi was indeed kind; she had done so much for them silently without asking for anything in return.
"Madam Zhen, we are truly grateful to you. If it weren't for you, how would we have enough to eat?"
"Yes! Yes! Thanks to Zhenniangzi for planting sweet potatoes for us, those sweet potatoes are sweet and fragrant, and they are very filling. We won't have to worry about going hungry this winter!"
Zhen Wanwan gleaned snippets of conversation from the villagers and roughly guessed why they had come.
It's likely that when she asked Wang Fu to lead people to dig sweet potatoes, he casually informed the villagers.
Previously, when she decided to plant sweet potatoes, she forced her tenants to plant sweet potatoes and other crops on the wasteland.
At that time, there were occasional complaints in the village, with people saying things like they had no way to make a living this year.
Now that the seeds have been sown and borne fruit, these people are naturally overjoyed to see the high yield of sweet potatoes.
And so, these tenants began to treat her like a goddess.
After figuring out their purpose, Zhen Wanwan put down the large stone that she had been pressing down on.
She has proven with her actions that the yields of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn will surely spread far and wide.
If she can create some buzz about the sweet potato yield, and with the villagers' endorsement, she believes other villagers will be scrambling to ask her for seeds.
In this way, Anqing Prefecture's grain production will surely increase day by day, and at that time, whether it is to attract people or to supply the army, there will be enough grain.
Looking at the excited villagers before her, Zhen Wanwan thought for a moment and said, "I've received everyone's gratitude, and I just wanted to tell you something..."
"Sweet potatoes and potatoes can be planted for two seasons. After you go back, dig up some soil on the mountain and loosen it. When it's almost ready, plant them using the same method you used to plant sweet potatoes!"
The crowd looked at each other, their shock clearly visible.
What did they all hear?!
It's one thing that the sweet potato yield is high, but I never expected that it could be planted for another season. If the yield is this high in the future, they will earn enough in one year to make several years' worth of food!
The middle-aged man pinched his thigh in disbelief, and only when he felt the piercing pain did he realize that he was not dreaming.
His hands trembled as he looked at Zhen Wanwan and stammered, "Zhen Wanwan! You...you're telling the truth? Sweet potatoes...sweet potatoes can be planted again for another season?"
Zhen Wanwan puffed out her chest and nodded, saying, "Yes! You heard me right. Not only sweet potatoes, but potatoes and corn can also be grown for two seasons, and the yield won't decrease!"
These words caused an uproar among the crowd.
They pinched and tore at each other, and some of them, in a fit of emotion, slapped each other.
Zhen Wanwan suddenly had a toothache, so severe that she could hear it from a great distance.
These people are really ruthless when they turn on their own people!
Before Zhen Wanwan could speak, the villagers, led by the middle-aged man, knelt down again.
The villagers were in tears.
"You're so kind, Madam Zhen!"
"Madam Zhen must be a Bodhisattva descended to earth to save us from our suffering!"
"You're right. If it weren't for Zhenniangzi, we wouldn't have such a good thing today."
Seeing that everyone was about to offer incense and worship her, Zhen Wanwan's eyelids twitched, and she hurriedly stopped them.
"Alright! If you have nothing better to do, why don't you go home and loosen the soil on the mountain, or clear some land on the mountain to grow more crops!"
The middle-aged man's eyes lit up. Zhenniangzi was right; their most pressing issue right now was food.
And what she just mentioned about land reclamation—although land reclamation is arduous, what they are least afraid of is enduring hardship.
Moreover, the reclaimed wasteland was registered under their own names.
Now that the sweet potato harvest is plentiful, they have plenty left over after paying their masters' grain and the government's taxes.
The remaining grain was enough to feed their entire family for more than a year.
With sweet potatoes, why worry about not having seeds?
As long as they clear the wasteland, even if the yield is not as fertile as the land owned by the master, it will be enough for them to make a living.
As Zhen Wanwan watched the villagers leave, she began to consider when would be the right time to promote sweet potatoes on a large scale.
After all, she didn't know when the war would break out, so she wanted to stockpile enough food for them before then.
Although she already had plenty of food in her space, enough to feed all the people in Anqing Prefecture and beyond.
But who would complain about having too much food?
"Ah Yue! Send someone to find the master and tell him I need to speak with him!"
Zhen Wanwan composed herself and gave the instructions in a low voice.
Ah Yue didn't ask Zhen Wanwan what was going on; her job was simply to deliver the message.
After all, whether she tells the reason or not has absolutely nothing to do with whether Zhu Yuan is willing to come back.
She sees things clearly now. Even if Zhu Yuan is taking a dump, he will not hesitate to break it and come out to see Lady Zhen when he hears Zhen Wanwan's call!
This was the unspoken secret among these servants.
In general, everything in the family is decided by Zhenniangzi!
It would take some time for Zhu Yuan to return, so Zhen Wanwan went back to her room to play games with the children.
Now the two little ones can recognize many characters; they can recognize almost any character she has taught them at a glance.
This made Zhen Wanwan both happy and ashamed. Although she was educated, this was ancient times.
In the world of traditional Chinese characters, she was practically illiterate.
She spent over a few months learning just the characters in the Thousand Character Classic from Qu Huaiyuan.
She managed to recognize them all with some difficulty, and even the slightly more difficult ones, she could guess and figure out by chance.
Unexpectedly, her two children, who were not even a year old, completely shattered her sense of superiority.
The little girl looked at her mother, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, sighing and looking very self-conscious.
If he hadn't been concerned about his mother's reputation, he would have been able to recite the Four Books and Five Classics fluently from birth.
Unfortunately, he couldn't speak back then, and now that he can speak, he's afraid of hurting his mother's young heart.
Being a baby is really tough!
Sweetie always dotes on her mother. In her previous life, before Fang Ruzhu was found, she was very pampered at home.
In terms of academics, she was only literate but lacked literary talent.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com