Chapter 2867 Going to the Countryside (I)
Bai Shan: "...Who do you have your eye on?"
Manbao said casually, "I can accept anyone, as long as they are a human being."
Bai Shan looked at her in silence. When she finished writing the memorial, he took her to dinner and said, "His Majesty has sent you out because he wants you to find a way for the local medical department and the local county government to coexist harmoniously and develop together. The person you want to bring with you now will be your right-hand man in the future, and this person may even take over your position. Do you think this person can be treated casually?"
Manbao frowned slightly, "I have taught all the students in the Imperial Medical Bureau, and they are all the same here."
She thought for a moment and then smiled, "At this point, Zheng Gu and the other four all have their own positions, and the Imperial Medical Bureau won't let the four of us, master and apprentice, be in the same place."
Isn't this forming a clique? Who knows if there will be any ulterior motives?
So what does it matter who it is?
Bai Shan said: "I thought you would have someone in mind."
Man Bao thought about it and shook his head. "It's all fine. The local medical department is just exploring, and everyone has different ideas. There are so many students in the Imperial Medical Department, and I can't understand everyone's ideas. So why not just go with the flow? No matter who comes, we can get along with each other and inspire each other."
When Bai Shan heard this, he thought it made sense, so he stopped caring about her.
After dinner, Zhou Man wrote a letter to Xiao Yuanzheng and handed it to Bai Shan along with the memorial. He said in a lordly manner, "Deliver it tomorrow."
Well, the post station is also under the jurisdiction of the county government. Unless it is a secret letter, the letter really needs to be handed over to the county government and then sent to the capital.
Bai Shan took it and put it on the table beside him. He rubbed his forehead and went to bed and hugged her. He covered her with the quilt and said, "Go to sleep quickly. You have to go to the countryside tomorrow."
Going to the countryside was hard work, and generally, the more conscientious county magistrates would select a few villages to visit every year to understand the people's sentiments and encourage them to engage in farming and sericulture.
The very diligent county magistrate, just like Yang Heshu back then, traveled to every inch of land under his jurisdiction.
Bai Shan planned to visit every village as much as possible, at least to know the grain seeds and sowing conditions.
However, unlike Yang Heshu who liked to enter the village with only a servant, he not only rode a horse and brought guards, but also brought County Lieutenant Dong and yamen runners, and two carts of grain behind him.
Manbao also brought some western cakes and some commonly used medicinal herbs.
County Magistrate Dong asked, "Where would you like to begin?"
Bai Shan said: "Let's look outside and go to Lizhuang first."
That was heading southwest, and it would take about quarter of an hour to get there by horseback trot after leaving the city. County Captain Dong didn't expect that he would go to such a close place first. He was stunned for a moment and then nodded.
So everyone went to Lizhuang first.
Most of the people in Lizhuang are surnamed Li, from the same family. The village head is also surnamed Li, and he is in charge of three nearby villages.
The villages close to the city have developed better than other villages. Some people in the village have already started sowing seeds. The grain supported by the imperial court every year is not available to every household, nor can it cover a family's grain needs for an entire year.
Therefore, no one in a well-off family would really wait for the seeds to be sown.
Bai Shan naturally knew this, so he only learned about the population situation in the village, and then took people to the fields to watch people sow seeds, touched their seeds, and asked about last year's harvest.
Bai Shan grabbed a handful of seeds in his hand, pressed them one by one, and turned to ask Zhou Man, "I remember we have to wait for them to germinate before we plant them."
Manbao nodded, "It will bloom in two days."
Bai Shan curiously asked the villagers, "Don't you soak seeds here?"
The villagers said, "We've soaked it before. They say it's a method that came from the Central Plains. But after we soaked it, it grew too long. When we spread it out, many of the buds broke off. It's better not to soak it at all."
Bai Shan pondered and said, "Soaking now... It was a bit hot and humid last night, so you can get up around midnight to soak it. It should be about the same on the third morning."
If one day's work was shortened, the sprouts wouldn't have grown so long.
But the farmers looked somewhat unwilling.
Although most of their seeds were saved by themselves, it was very difficult and they did not have many left over. If they were soaked and spoiled, they would have to go to the county town to buy seeds, which was not cost-effective.
Bai Shan saw it without forcing him, and said with a smile: "You can pick two or three pounds to soak and see the effect. This is how we breed seeds in the south, and the germination rate is very high every year."
The county magistrate did not force them, but the farmers began to hesitate again and asked, "Sir, you can also farm?"
It's no wonder they are so suspicious of Bai Shan. He is simply too white, very different from the previous Magistrate Lu, who looked smart, capable and dark.
Bai Shan smiled and said, "I can't say I'm an expert, but I've worked in the fields since I was a kid. Farming is like studying, so you can try a few different methods. I also know that farmers don't like to take risks, so every year you can test the new methods given by the government on just a few plots of land. If the yield is high, that's great. The rest of the land will catch up next year. If it's not, it won't have much of an impact on you. You can just try another method next year."
When they were young, they were particularly interested in farming for a period of time. For this purpose, they read a lot of agricultural books and miscellaneous notes, which recorded farming methods in various places, as well as various strange methods that Zhou Man had found. They had all tried them out on their own small farm.
Most of them were successful, but of course there were also failures.
The people in Qili Village and Mr. Bai were used to watching them struggle, and they let them run wild. If their struggles produced results, they would catch up the next year. If not, they would smile and say to them, "Every failure makes you wiser."
Bai Shan believes that farmers all over the world need to learn from their mistakes.
There were quite a few villagers watching, and most of them were reluctant to take the trouble, but some were willing to take the risk and give it a try.
Just as Bai Shan said, just take out three or four kilograms of grain seeds and give it a try. Even if this amount of grain seeds is wasted, the impact will not be that big.
Bai Shan was delighted to see that some people were willing to listen, so he started chatting with them and asked, "How do you solve the problem of fertilizer here?"
While Bai Shan was communicating with the villagers, Manbao followed Koko's instructions and dug some things in the fields and on the hillside. Most of the people around her were teenagers and girls from the village.
Manbao even called several young wives from the village and asked them, "When you are sick, do you take medicine yourself or go to the city to see a doctor?"
"What medicine do you need to take? Just boil it and it will be fine."
Manbao asked, "What about the children? Do they have to endure it too?"
"Children have it harder. We usually go to town to see a doctor and get a prescription for something." The young wife sighed, "Raising a child is most frightening when it comes to having a fever. My child has had a fever twice this year, and I was terrified every time."
She didn't know Zhou Man was the imperial physician yet. He looked her over and asked with a smile, "Has Madam also given birth? I see that both you and Madam are very kind people. I'm sure the child they have will be easy to take care of, right?"
See you at 9pm
(End of this chapter)
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