137 The fish fry enter the paddy field
◎ She stared at the spot and confirmed it again and again. It was indeed a fry!◎
Ever since the road construction notice was posted, the entire Lingnan County has become bustling. Liu Mazi, along with two yamen runners, carefully screened the applicants according to Ye Yunzhao's requirements. Now, only the 17th or 18th day has passed, and a lot of stones have been dug.
Since no one in Lingnan County knew the craft of processing stones, and Ye Yunzhao didn't know much about it in his previous life, most of the stones dug were flat stones that hardly needed to be chopped or split. However, there were too many strangely shaped stones on the mountain, so if they wanted the ones that specifically met their requirements, they had to pick them one by one.
As for these matters, Ye Yunzhao's energy was limited. He had originally intended to let County Magistrate Han take charge, but for some reason, Han made some inexplicable remark about "spring sowing" and shirked the responsibility. The crucial task of road construction naturally fell to Liu Mazi. Having never handled anything so important, he was initially nervous and reported everything to Ye Yunzhao. Fortunately, he has now become quite capable of handling matters on his own.
Ye Yunzhao was fully focused on the fish eggs in Dongxiang. The bamboo trough that he asked Sun Ning to make had been fixed in the river. Because of the sudden rise in temperature, there was a day of fish fishing, and overnight, a lot of fish eggs were stuck to all the fish nests of several households.
The Dongxiang people watched with joy, the Dongxiang people watched with joy, and she was even more so. She came here every day to watch, just waiting for the fish eggs to hatch, and then she could relax.
"Why is this so strange..." Ye Yunzhao stared at the fish nest in the river. She could faintly see clumps of pale yellow fish eggs clinging to it. She looked up at the bright morning sun and muttered to herself, "Logically, at this temperature, they should be hatching."
As she spoke, she walked forward along the bamboo trough, looking at the fish nests that were piled up one after another inside, trying to figure out why they were not hatching.
Dongxiangli was following her like a little tail, and he kept asking, "County Magistrate Ye, why don't I see any fish? Have you figured it out?"
Ye Yunzhao remained silent.
He continued, "Didn't you say they'd be here in the next few days? I've been coming here every day, but they haven't come out. I'm almost dying of anxiety. County Magistrate Ye, you don't know. I don't even dare to go home now! Every day people ask me when the fish fry will be available. Alas..."
Ye Yunzhao remained silent.
He pressed on, not giving up, "If it doesn't work today, will it hatch tomorrow? Oh, this is such a headache! Every household in our village has already planted their rice seedlings, and now we're just waiting for these fish!"
Ye Yunzhao remained silent.
The Dongxiang headman was also angry. He had been coming here every day for the past few days, thinking about her every night, and his hair was turning white with worry. Seeing that she had been silent for a long time, he said with a bit of resentment: "County Magistrate Ye, please tell me, can we see the fish fry tomorrow?"
He leaned forward and exclaimed "Ah" at the concentrating Ye Yunzhao, only to see her frowning and pointing at a spot in the bamboo trough. Her tone was filled with surprise and disbelief as she said, "Don't say anything yet. See if that spot has hatched yet?!"
"Really? Where? Where?!" He looked in the direction she pointed, but because the bamboo trough was fixed in the river, even though the river water was clear, his eyesight was not good enough to see the fry. Dongxiangli was confused, "Where is it..."
Ye Yunzhao squatted down and moved closer. She had raised killifish in her previous life. The adult fish were not even as long as her little finger, and the fry were extremely small after the eggs hatched. Therefore, she had some experience with the size of the fry.
In addition, carp and grass carp are mostly black and gray, and their eggs after hatching are mostly black needle seedlings, which are thin and small, about the same size as a piece of thread.
She stared at that place and confirmed again and again, it was really fish fry!
Ye Yunzhao's frown, which had been on his face for the past few days, finally relaxed. A hint of excitement appeared on his face. His previous silence towards the Dongxiang village chief completely disappeared. He continued pointing at the spot and explained, "Look carefully. Can you see some black things moving? Can you see them?"
Dongxiang Lizheng rubbed his eyes, wishing he could wade into the river. He spoke uncertainly, "I think I can see a little bit... Are those fry?"
"Exactly!" She couldn't hide her excitement. "That's great! I think they'll all hatch in the next few days."
Dongxiang Lizheng remained motionless, still staring at the fish eggs in the river. He couldn't help but sigh, "County Magistrate Ye, your eyes are really sharp. You can even spot such a small thing. But these fry are too small. How long will it take before they can be planted in the paddy fields?"
His question made Ye Yunzhao hesitate for a moment. Since there was no fish feed here, if they were left to grow slowly, it would probably take half a month. She replied, "At least fifteen days, but there's no need to rush. If anyone comes to you again to ask about this, tell them to take advantage of the next ten days to let the rice seedlings grow properly before planting the fish fry."
The Dongxiang village chief nodded in understanding: "Okay, as long as we can scare them, otherwise they will bother me all day long."
Ye Yunzhao smiled and said, "If the fish fry are planted too early, the rice will be too short and the fish will be too big, which will definitely greatly affect the rice yield. This method is for everyone's benefit and cannot be considered as deception."
"I see." He nodded quickly in agreement. "I understand, County Magistrate Ye, don't worry."
After saying that, he looked at the sink again and sighed silently: "It's so small..."
*
Under Ye Yunzhao's daily care, more than half of the fish eggs in the tank hatched quickly. The water quality in Dongxiang is already excellent, and now the bamboo tank isolates many things that can eat the fish eggs, so the hatching rate is quite good.
Not only that, the needle seedlings grew faster than she had imagined, and now the sink was pitch black.
Spring is in full swing, and the rice in the paddy fields looks different every day, as do the fish fry in the water tanks. Ye Yunzhao took a careful look early in the morning and saw that it was almost time to stock the paddy fields with fish, so he notified the Dongxiang village chief to send people to distribute the fish to each household.
"Can we fish now?!" Dongxiang Lizheng was shocked, and couldn't stop smiling. "Okay! Okay! I'll go find someone right away!"
She quickly stopped him: "No hurry, I have something to tell you."
Hearing this, he was stunned: "What's the matter?"
Ye Yunzhao said gently, "Have each household prepare a pottery basin. Each household can take out about thirty fish a day. When selecting, they need to be large. The small ones won't survive in the paddy fields right now."
Dongxiangli nodded hurriedly: "I understand! As for the remaining ones, can we divide them up when they are bigger?"
"I calculated last night that if every household takes thirty fish a day for six or seven days, the river troughs will be nearly empty," she added. "Once all the fry are gone, you'll have someone put the nest back in the river, just as I told you last time."
"You're still laying fish nests?" He was incredulous. "Can you even collect fish eggs?!"
The head of Dongxiang Village was both surprised and delighted. He never expected that there would be such a good thing as being able to collect fish eggs twice. In this way, every household in the paddy field would probably be able to get at least 200 fish fry. Wouldn't it be a big profit when the autumn harvest comes?
"Right now, it's carp fry," Ye Yunzhao explained. "Carp have lower water temperature requirements. Seven days from now, we'll be harvesting grass carp eggs. I went to the river today and it's almost time."
In reality, she wasn't telling the truth. When she went to see it today, many grass carp in the river looked like they had already laid their eggs. She figured they wouldn't be able to collect many eggs in seven days. This was Ye Yunzhao's selfish motive. The Dongxiang people had never done this kind of work before. If they knew the fish were about to spawn in the river, they would probably be greedy. But there's always a price to pay. If they took less now, there would still be enough to collect every year. If they sent everything to the paddy fields, they would only be able to earn enough money from the rice paddy fish farming business for a year.
This time she spoke seriously, "Don't be too happy. Not all fish in paddy fields can be raised to adult size. You need to follow my instructions step by step. Don't be impatient."
The Dongxiang village chief naturally took her words as his own and nodded obediently, "I know, County Magistrate Ye, you can't have a heart full of hot tofu. Don't worry, I don't have any other skills, but I do have the ability to make the Dongxiang people behave themselves. Naturally, everything will be at your disposal."
Ye Yunzhao patted his shoulder with satisfaction: "I'm relieved to leave this matter to you."
In addition to the good news that Dongxiang is going to raise fish fry, the road paving project has also achieved results.
Under Liu Mazi's command, the crowd had already replaced the seven or eight meters of dirt road with a stone road.
To be precise, it shouldn't be called a cobblestone road, but rather a large stone road. Liu Mazi would come to her early every morning to cry and complain. After more than ten days of hard work, his face was already tanned.
After finishing her explanation of the Dongxiang matter today, she deliberately made a big detour and found the place where everyone was repairing the road.
Liu Mazi was quite surprised to see her. He hurried over to greet her and said, "County Magistrate Ye, what brings you here? The road is very dirty right now due to the road construction."
Ye Yunzhao waved her hand, indicating that he was fine. She had never seen a road paved before, so she pointed at the road that had been dug for nearly half a meter and asked in surprise, "Do you need to dig such a big hole just to lay a layer of stones?"
A man working nearby smiled innocently and explained, "County Magistrate Ye, the deeper the dig, the stronger the road will be."
She naturally didn't understand these things, so she curiously looked inside. There was something that looked like wood ash in the pit, some gray, some white. Ye Yunzhao wasn't quite sure. There was no cement in ancient times, so perhaps this stuff was used as cement?
Although she was still curious, she looked at everyone sweating and panting, so she didn't ask any more questions.
Ye Yunzhao was very curious when he saw the small section of stone road that had been paved. To be honest, it was not as good as the stone roads in the capital, let alone those in Yuezhou City.
But she was just happy, so she asked Liu Mazi with a smile: "Can I step on it?"
Liu Mazi pointed quickly and said, "County Magistrate Ye, the ground over there that was laid two days ago is now safe to walk on. This ground was laid yesterday and today, so it's not very solid yet."
She walked over silently, stepping onto the relatively flat stone road, her heart filled with joy. However, after walking back and forth twice, she realized that this road seemed a little strange.
Ye Yunzhao waved to Liu Mazi, and when he came back, he whispered, "Is there no one in Lingnan County who knows how to pave the road?"
Liu Mazi replied, "A few have gone to Yuezhou City to pave the roads, but they are not considered to have any skills."
Seeing her nod in understanding, he asked curiously, "County Magistrate Ye, is there any problem with the road?"
Ye Yunzhao walked back and forth again and asked, "Do you feel that our stone road seems uneven? Why does it seem to me that the sides of the road are high and the middle is low?"
Liu Mazi laughed and said, "Well, this is done specifically for this purpose. If we were to dig a canal on our road, it would cost a lot more money. We'd pave it in a way that the sides are higher and the middle is lower. If it rains heavily, the middle of the road can be used as a canal, and pedestrians won't get their shoes wet when walking on the sides."
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