Shen Yu originally thought that since they had helped the military households find a water source, the military households would be as happy as the villagers of Elm Village and Willow Village. However, he never expected to get such an answer.
"Well, I won't force you." After saying that, Shen Yu turned around and left without hesitation.
"Sir!" Several guards chased after him, but Shen Yu waved his hand. "Go back, everyone! I have something important to attend to."
When Shen Yu rode back to find Wan Xueying and Gu Ming, they had found two larger water sources.
Wan Xueying excitedly told Shen Yu: "With these two water sources, all the military fields around here will no longer have to worry about drought in the future." This was really a pleasant surprise.
"Thank you for your hard work," Shen Yu smiled, "but should we go back first?"
"Didn't you find the person?" Wan Xueying looked behind him.
"I did find them. But they would rather work as laborers in charcoal kilns to earn a living than come back to farm."
"Is it because farming can't feed them?"
Shen Yu nodded, "That's right." This was also the reason why he did not force the military households.
"There's nothing we can do about it. This year is really too difficult." Wan Xueying advised Shen Yu when she saw that he was in a bad mood.
"Let's go. We'll talk about this later." Shen Yu's mood was low, not just because of Li Laoshi's words, but mainly because after a long tour, he found that the situation in the military settlements was even worse than he had imagined. He couldn't count on the military settlements to help him solve his food problem this year. He would have to discuss extreme measures with Pei Xuanqing.
The prerequisite was that he had to bring the reserve troops out as soon as possible. This was the first batch of soldiers he was bringing in. Only by ensuring they were well fed and well fed, and with a better future, would more people be willing to join the reserve, or even stay there.
These water sources can be used sooner or later. After Wan Xueying and Gu Ming told Shen Yu their locations, they left together.
Near noon, Shen Yu treated everyone to a meal in the kitchen at his own expense. In order to return to Yushu Village as soon as possible, Wan Xueying and others did not stay long.
Their trip wasn't in vain. Wan Xueying had almost unloaded all of the family's horse and mule carts, carefully selecting and taking away most of Curry's furs. Of course, she wouldn't let go of the remaining furs either, and had told Nanying and Shunzi to wait two days before returning to collect them.
Just as Shen Yu sent the people away, Li Laoshi's father, Li Daping, the village chief of Baihu Village, came to see Shen Yu with a dozen elderly military households.
"Sir, you can't just let that unfilial son of mine rant and think that all the military households in our village would rather work as laborers in the charcoal kilns than farm." Li Daping started to scold Li Laoshi. "Crops are our roots. Even if we can't fill our stomachs with cabbages and radishes, it's better than having no future in the fields!"
He was so excited when he heard Li Laoshi say that Shen Yu's friend found a water source near the military field. When he heard Li Laoshi say that he rejected Shen Yu's kindness and still planned to take his men to do hard labor in the charcoal kiln, he raised his shoe soles and chased Li Laoshi to beat him up.
"Have you thought it through?" Shen Yu asked, "After the cabbages and radishes have grown, you can only keep 30%?"
"We've thought about it. Even if it's only 30%, it will allow us to survive this winter." They can earn a living working in the charcoal kiln, but what will they do when the kiln runs out of food? Even now, they don't have enough to eat every day.
"Okay, go back and prepare the tools to start digging the canal tomorrow. Oh, and by the way," Shen Yu kindly reminded, "you'd better plant the seeds first, and then you can plant them after the canal is dug."
"Breeding?" Li Daping looked at the soldiers who had followed him. "Do you know how to breed?"
Several people shook their heads and asked him, "Village Chief, do you know?"
Li Daping also shook his head, "I've never heard of it." Then he looked at Shen Yu and bowed, "Please enlighten me, sir!"
"You don't know anything?" Shen Yu knew nothing about farming. He only understood a little after seeing Wan Xueying breeding seeds in the room before planting.
In order to conceal the truth, Wan Xueying couldn't cultivate all the seeds in the space, and the space was small, so she couldn't cultivate many. Therefore, a large part of the seeds were cultivated outside the space.
She did not keep this method to herself. She not only taught it to everyone in the An family, Gu Ming and his daughter, but also to Lin Ying and his servant.
When people from various villages helped Wan Xueying and Gu Mingjia plant, they were amazed and learned from them.
Since Wan Xueying had taught this method to so many people, it wasn't a secret. However, Shen Yu still consulted her before letting Li Daping and his men go to learn from her.
In the following time, in addition to teaching Li Daping and others how to breed, Wan Xueying spent more energy on processing the fur.
She needed to produce a large quantity of furs or fur-lined robes before winter. With just Aunt Chen, Madam Wu, and Madam Su, plus Lin Yingnan's maid Chunjiao, the manpower was far from enough. So Wan Xueying and Madam Wu went to the pawnshop in the county town and carefully selected four young girls, only twelve or thirteen years old.
These little girls have one thing in common, that is, they come from poor backgrounds and have no relatives at home. People like them will work more down-to-earth.
It was not appropriate to call them by their original names, Daya and Erya, as that would be too down-to-earth, so Wan Xueying named them after traditional Chinese medicine: Bletilla striata, Atractylodes macrocephala, Angelica dahurica, and Bletilla striata.
After the careful teaching of Aunt Chen and Madam Wu, the four little girls not only became better and better at needlework, but also gradually behaved like maids from wealthy families.
Even with the addition of the four of them, if they started making clothes from the first step, it would still be far from meeting Wan Xueying's requirements. She thought of buying some finished products first and then having them process them further.
These finished products were expensive to buy from the garment shops in the county town or prefecture, and the quantity was far from enough. So they bought large quantities of high-quality cloth and hired needlework experts from their own village and several surrounding villages to help them make them, charging them by the piece. They would then hand over the fur and leather work to their own people.
In order to speed up the progress, she asked people to make cloaks and capes with simpler styles and easier to make, and the quality was easier to supervise.
When the first red satin cape with a fox fur lining and a white fox fur trim was released, everyone loved it and praised its beauty. This also convinced everyone that such capes and cloaks would be a big hit, so they worked even harder.
This was the first money-making idea that Wan Xueying thought of.
There are so many guards at home who are idle anyway. Many men in the village and outside the village feel embarrassed when they see their women find jobs to earn money to support the family, so they all go to Wan Xueying and ask her to arrange work for them.
Seeing that a large number of trees on the mountain were withered, and inspired by the last time she went to the military farm, Wan Xueying asked Qiu Shi to take people to build a large charcoal kiln.
Otherwise, why is it said that it is not easy to travel through time without some skills? Inspired by the novels in her previous life, she has done a lot of research on various necessary skills for time travel.
Compared with the ancient papermaking method, charcoal burning is simpler.
Ultimately, it was just empty talk. While Li Daping and others were learning from her about breeding, she asked Qiu Shi and others to learn from Li Daping and his team. Combining this with the methods she had learned from her previous life, the charcoal kiln was quickly built and the first batch of charcoal was successfully fired.
When Qiu Shi and his friends were looking for dead wood to make charcoal, Wan Xueying asked them to pay more attention to the short bushes.
Papermaking requires a large number of trees. She wanted to do this in the long term, so she couldn't cut down a large number of trees. So she set her sights on small shrubs that could grow in a year or two. Although the paper made from shrubs was poor, she didn't intend to make high-quality paper, but if she could make paper, that would be great.
Because papermaking is an extremely long process, she put this item on the agenda early.
Just when Wan Xueying and her men were busy with their work, the Ningjiang County Guard caught four sneaky people from Xijiang. They specifically stated that they came to Dayan to look for Wan Xueying from Yushu Village.
So, Du Jin, the commander of the Ningjiang County Guard, sent someone to invite him after learning about it.
It was really a request, not being taken in.
"You are the one who helped the military settlements find water sources in many other places!" As soon as they met, Du Jin's personal guards were both respectful and curious about her.
"It's not just me, it's mainly my elder brother and younger brother's teacher." A while ago, An Ping and An Fan officially became Gu Ming's disciples, with all the necessary etiquette and tuition fees. Wan Xueying also changed her address to "Mr. Gu" like everyone else.
"So that's how it is! Miss Wan is amazing too! When we first entered the village, we heard many people praising you."
"Really?" Wan Xueying smiled. "I don't know what they're praising me for."
"They praised you a lot, mostly saying that you are beautiful and kind."
"Then I wonder why these young generals are looking for me?" The other party's attitude was very good, and Wan Xueying put aside her worries early.
"It's because..." Du Jin's personal guard did not hide anything, but told her the whole story.
After hearing this, Wan Xueying asked, "Then why are they looking for me?"
"They said they wanted you to help them find water." Fortunately, the other party could speak Dayan's language, so they figured out the whole story.
It turned out that not only their northern border, but also the neighboring Xijiang Kingdom had suffered from drought. Someone heard that a goddess had descended from Dayan and could find water, so the Xijiang Kingdom sent people to secretly inquire about it.
"After hearing that it was Miss Wan who had helped find the water sources, they started planning how to bring you back to Xijiang. But they said our Great Yan's words were too lame, and our people discovered you." Du Jin's personal guard added, "My commander was afraid that others might harm you, so he asked us to take you back to the garrison for protection."
"So that's how it is!" Wan Xueying suddenly realized, "I thought there was some misunderstanding and you were here to arrest me."
"Haha, if they were here to arrest you, it wouldn't just be us brothers. We wouldn't be so polite to you either."
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