Chapter 392 Population
Manbao said, "Let me do it!"
Bai Erlang threw the leaves away in disgust, moved his butt to the side, and said unhappily: "Come if you want."
Manbao reached out to pick up the leaves, and the already frightened tadpoles in the water instantly scattered and hid.
Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang: ...
They both glared at Manbao and blamed her, "Look, you can't catch it, right?"
"There's none here, but there are some elsewhere!" Manbao had an attitude of "If the mountain doesn't come to me, I'll go to the mountain", picked up the leaves and climbed up from the ground.
Yang Heshu took a look and asked, "Is that black fish a small fish? Can it be eaten?"
The sudden sound startled the three children. When they looked up, they found that Mr. Bai, the head of the village, and the village chief were all following behind Yang Heshu, and were looking down at them.
Well, there were a few officials behind them whom they had seen but were not familiar with.
Adults don't allow them to go near the water, let alone play in the water.
The three men, feeling guilty, immediately threw away the things in their hands and stood up. Well, Bai Shanbao also threw the wooden barrel in his hand into the ditch.
Everyone: ...
Seeing the wooden barrel floating in the ditch and about to float away, Bai Shanbao couldn't help but shout, "Daji, quickly pull it out!"
Daji, who had been standing quietly by, reached out, picked up a stick and pushed the barrel over. The three children breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this.
Seeing the three people standing up and checking their fingers in a row, Yang Heshu asked curiously, "What happened?"
Master Bai glared at them before coughing softly and saying, "What are you standing there for? Why don't you bow quickly when you see the adults?"
The three of them saluted quickly.
Yang Heshu smiled and said, "It's been a while since we last met, why are you three so reserved? Master Bai, I'll just talk to them. There's no need to be too restrictive."
Of course Mr. Bai had no choice but to agree.
Yang Heshu didn't like being surrounded by too many people, mainly because Bai Shanbao and the others didn't like to talk much when they were around, so he asked everyone to disperse.
The officials who accompanied the county magistrate on his trip to the countryside, receiving such an order for the first time: ...
Although they didn't want to abandon the county magistrate and didn't know what to do, the county magistrate had given the order, so everyone had to disperse and talk to a distance.
Zhang Zhubu was quite familiar with Master Bai. He glanced at the other side of the ditch and said to Master Bai with a smile, "I didn't expect that Master Bai's son and the county magistrate have become close friends regardless of age. Our new county magistrate comes from a prominent family. Your son will have a bright future."
Mr. Bai spoke modestly. How could he not know what his own child was like?
Yang Heshu stood by the ditch and spoke to them, "Would you like to catch these fish and eat them?"
Bai Shanbao looked at Manbao with pride and said, "Look, Lord Yang also said it was a fish, right?"
Bai Jilang: "That's right, that's right."
Manbao snorted, "If you don't believe me, let's raise it and see."
"Let's raise them," Bai Shanbao and Yang Heshu said. "She said they weren't fish, but frogs. We should catch a few and raise them to see if they are fish or frogs."
Yang Heshu exclaimed, "Huh?" and looked down at the tadpoles that had reappeared from the water. After searching his mind for a moment, he said, "There seem to be a lot of things like this in the water, but I don't remember them looking like big fish. Could it be that they can't grow up?"
Yang Heshu knew that some fish could not grow up.
Manbao understood what he meant as soon as he heard it, and he also didn't believe that it was a frog.
Yang Heshu smiled and said, "You guys go ahead and try to grow them. By the way, I see most of you are plowing the fields here. What's up? Have you finished planting the beans?"
"We finished planting yesterday," Manbao said. "We have three cows and hired a lot of people, so we're working very quickly."
Yang Heshu pointed at some women and asked, "What are they doing?"
"I'm planting melons," Manbao said. "Mr. Bai said we should plant some vegetables for the farmhands. We also need to cook for the occasional temporary workers, so we need to plant pumpkins, wax gourds, winter melons, and all kinds of melons."
Yang Heshu praised, "You've really thought about this. By the way, Manbao, how's your cow? Is it working well?"
Manbao nodded affirmatively, "It works!"
Yang Heshu then asked about her family's farming progress and how it compared to previous years. His knowledge of farming came only from some descriptions in books and some knowledge he had gained before taking office.
So he urgently needed some data for comparison.
The county government can also give him these data, but they are always a little vague. If he asks in person, the people who have bought cattle on credit will be nervous, so he should ask Manbao.
Manbao really knew about it. It was mainly because Old Zhoutou was quite concerned about their small farm. He would ask some questions after dinner every day, and then talk about family matters. Manbao naturally remembered everything by listening.
"This year, my family plans to cultivate the fields in Xiaoling carefully. As long as there is no drought or flooding, we can harvest a lot of grain from that field. There is a kind of sour wild fruit in Xiaoling that can be eaten after Qingming Festival. Lord Yang, when you come, I will treat you to some."
Bai Erlang immediately followed up, "I know, it's called Sour Fruit. I like the red ones the best."
Bai Shanbao said, "The black ones taste better."
Manbao nodded as well, "Black is sweeter, red is more sour."
The three children's topic gradually shifted to the wild fruits growing all over the mountains.
Yang Heshu was amused and asked, "Are there many wild fruits here?"
Bai Shanbao: "There are quite a lot, but they are not tasty."
Manbao: "So we still have to grow it ourselves."
“Do you also grow fruit trees?”
Manbao pointed to her fourth brother's mountain path and said, "Look, we just planted it a while ago. We will be able to eat the fruits in two or three years."
Bai Erlang himself was very disgusted, "It's too long. I told my dad to just buy a big fruit tree and plant it so we can have fruit to eat in the fall."
Bai Shanbao despised his ignorance. "It's not easy to keep a fruit tree that big alive. Wouldn't it be better to start small? If you want to eat the fruit, just buy it yourself first."
“And large fruit trees are so expensive.”
Yang Heshu sat aside and listened to them talk, occasionally asking a few questions to guide the topic. It didn't take long for him to understand the situation of their farm.
He didn't pay much attention to this small farm when he came here last time. This time he came again and found that these more than 100 acres of land actually have so many uses.
There is actually a piece of land specially cleared at the foot of the barren mountain for raising chickens.
Yang Heshu couldn't help but ask, "You have so many things to grow and raise, are only three farmhands enough?"
"It's not enough," Bai Shanbao said, "so I told my grandmother that I'll hire someone after I finish this part."
Manbao had the wisdom of Old Zhou and said, "In fact, it would be better to find wives for the farmhands. My father said that if we don't have enough people, we can just find wives."
Yang Heshu: ...
Bai Shanbao thought about it seriously and said, "But it seems that no one is willing to marry them."
Yang Heshu's spirits brightened. Population was also an important factor in a county's development. He asked, "Don't your three farmhands have wives?"
(End of this chapter)
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