Chapter 20: Ying Zheng: I'm just playing the victim, I can do it too
When Ying Zheng entertained his ministers, Wei Shengxue did not join in the fun.
She was getting information about the farmland from the agricultural officials.
The agricultural official that Weishengxue had requested at the Taishan Palace had not been able to come because he had been busy recently. Now that he had some free time, he summoned someone to find out about the situation. It would be even better if he could find new opportunities to gain merit through the conversation.
Wei Shengxue's knowledge of agriculture was limited to the news and videos on Starnet. Any more was the half-true and half-false knowledge he learned from reading novels. He had no idea where to start with this huge topic, so he asked the agricultural official to talk about it casually.
The agricultural official guessed that immortals were not interested in worldly affairs and might not be very interested in things happening in the fields, so he picked out a few interesting things to talk about without going into detail.
Wei Shengxue raised her hand to signal a pause. "Even half of the best crops are empty shells? Is this the case for all the fields?"
Agricultural official: "Yes, even the best farmer, using the best seeds and carefully tending the most fertile land, can only achieve a slightly better result."
Wei Shengxue recalled seeing the crops that day. Not only were the fruits half empty, but they were also sparse. There were probably less than 200 grains on one plant, which was far different from what she had seen on the Star Network video.
"If a farmer cries beside a field, why is he crying?"
The agricultural official said without hesitation: "It must be that the grain production is poor."
"If a farmer doesn't cultivate his fields well..."
The agricultural official spoke frankly: "Then his family will have a hard time this year."
Wei Shengxue thought of the crying peasant woman that day again, and after hesitating for a few times, he decided to go and see her again.
"Please tell Fellow Daoist Ying Zheng that I have to go out for something, so don't worry about me."
After saying this, he turned into light and disappeared into the sky in an instant.
The agricultural official watched her leave in amazement for a long time. When he came to his senses, his face turned pale and he ran towards the main hall.
----
Wei Shengxue flew following the scent left behind. The weather was pretty good today, it was a cloudy day, perfect for working in the fields.
So when she found the peasant woman, it was at the edge of the field.
"Hello, do you remember me?"
Wei Shengxue stopped two meters away from her and greeted her politely.
The peasant woman still had a sad face. When she heard the voice, she turned around and saw a piece of gorgeous sleeves. She didn't even have time to see the face clearly, and she subconsciously knelt on the ground.
"Your Excellency! Greetings, Your Excellency!"
Wei Shengxue waited for a while, but seeing that she still refused to look up, she took a few steps forward, squatted down, and said in a commanding tone, "Look up."
The peasant woman obeyed the order subconsciously.
"My dear! It's you!"
Wei Shengxue smiled when she saw that she still remembered him. She took out a few candies from her sleeve and handed them to her. "Hey, I forgot to take your candies."
The peasant woman was stunned, staring blankly at the malt candy wrapped in a clean handkerchief in front of her.
"My dear, I cannot accept this."
The handkerchief was so clean and the embroidery on it was so delicate. This must be a lady of noble birth. How could she dare to accept her things?
Wei Shengxue said, "Didn't I tell you that I wanted to get some information from you? These few pieces of candy are my reward."
The sweet aroma of malt sugar kept drilling into her nose. If she hadn't been afraid of offending others, the peasant woman would have stuffed the candy into her mouth long ago. She glanced at the nobleman cautiously, then thought of her child at home who had never tasted sweetness since birth, and finally couldn't help but reach out her hand.
A man who eats someone's food is soft-hearted, and a man who takes someone's money is grateful.
From this point on, it became much easier for Wei Shengxue to get information.
"Are you so worried because your cow is sick? That's easy to explain. I have an expert in treating cow diseases at home, and I'd like to show you around."
Using this excuse, Wei Shengxue successfully entered the peasant woman's home.
Her house was a typical Qianshou house. The mud walls were not high, and in order to keep warm in winter, even the windows were very small. The house was dark. There were a few wooden sticks in the corner with pointed stones tied to the bottom, which looked like children's toys.
After the peasant woman’s explanation, she realized that the wooden stick she thought was a toy was actually their farm tool!
Can this kind of thing really turn over the soil?
"Why not? Our ancestors have all lived this way." The peasant woman smiled faintly, her voice tinged with pride. "The child's father is a carpenter. He made four plows for the family. We have the most in the village."
Wei Shengxue swallowed the words of comfort that were about to come out of his mouth.
"Take me to see your cows."
The peasant woman felt both proud and worried when she talked about her cows.
The thing to be proud of is that not everyone can afford to raise a cow. Having a cow at home means that her family is well-off, which will be of great benefit whether it is for arable land now or for her children to find a marriage partner in the future.
The reason for worry is naturally that the cows haven't had a good meal for several days.
These days, cows are much more valuable than humans. People can go without food for several days, but cows cannot miss a meal.
"This is my cow, take a look."
Wei Shengxue naturally didn't know anything about raising cattle. The closest she was to cows was at the dining table.
But she has a cheat.
"Tong'er, come up."
The system that had been addicted to chatting with good friends recently was dragged out to work.
[Ding! Scanning...]
A rock got stuck in its right front foot, grinding against its flesh.
【Overworked, need to take good care of yourself.】
Wei Shengxue relayed the conclusion to the peasant woman. When she heard it, her eyebrows stood up and she cursed, "That bastard! I knew he was not a good person. Bah! He ruined my cow @#￥#￥..."
He was halfway through cursing when he remembered that there were outsiders around, and he could not help but shut his mouth in embarrassment.
Wei Shengxue nodded slightly and said goodbye: "I already know what I wanted to inquire about. Thank you very much."
After refusing the other party's thank-you gift, she left the village and took a detour to another place.
“I don’t recognize any of the farm tools here.”
——I’ve been to so many villages, but I haven’t even seen a hoe.
…
"And why two cows?"
Hearing this, the Internal Affairs Secretary Zhisu was even more puzzled than she was. "The iron plow is heavy, and only two oxen can pull it."
"But……"
Wei Shengxue was particularly bewildered.
"Aren't cows used for plowing the fields used one at a time?"
In the interstellar era, the Institute of History once released a restoration map of the agricultural civilization of the mother planet, which included a picture of a man and an ox plowing the land.
Thinking of the picture, Wei Shengxue was certain, "To plow the land, one person and one ox are needed."
"I've seen it all. Using two cows and two people at once doesn't speed things up. You're wasting manpower and resources."
She thought she was talking about a very clear path, but the huge technological gap and her wrong understanding of the world caused her to have a huge cognitive bias.
Daqin is not intentionally wasting, but...
"We can only make a two-ox plow."
ah?
Wei Shengxue blinked, seemed not to understand, and looked at the First Emperor blankly.
"Fellow Daoist, that's true." Ying Zheng was adept at creating a character who played the victim. "Ever since Shennong's departure, agricultural development has been exceptionally slow. It took thousands of years of improvement before the iron plow appeared."
For the sake of the Qin Dynasty, it's not shameful.
"Tong'er..."
【Host……】
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
Ahhhhhhhh!!!
Yiren Yitong screamed in his heart for a long time before he could barely suppress the joy of his unexpected fortune.
If you improve agricultural tools, the merits will come to you in large quantities.
Driven by interests, system efficiency takes off directly.
In just a few words, it pulled out several improved drawings from the database, including the dimensions, materials, and precautions.
【Host, for the sake of merit! 】
For merit.
Go for it!
Only the host can see the system's display screen. Wei Shengxue directly used his spiritual power to copy the drawing one-to-one and project it into the hall.
Everyone was originally amazed at this void imaging, but as the blueprint was fully displayed, no one cared about the magic anymore.
“This, this is…”
Even someone as calm and restrained as Ying Zheng accidentally dropped the wine jar.
The sound of cups, bowls and dishes breaking on the ground continued to be heard in the hall, but no one cared at this time. Everyone was staring at the image in the air.
"One man, one ox, plowing five acres a day?!"
"Five acres?" someone repeated, tugging at the sleeve of his colleague beside him for confirmation. "Five acres, is that five acres?"
"Pen and ink! Bring me pen and ink!"
Some people couldn't wait and directly brushed away the dishes on the table and took notes on the table with their hands dipped in wine.
Everyone else reacted so strongly that Mo Ge, a disciple of the Mohist school, wanted to glue his eyes to it. He took a deep breath and tried to restrain himself. He even couldn't wait for the palace servants to bring him paper and pen. He tore open his clean inner robe, bit his finger and started drawing on it.
Write it down, write it all down. If he can’t make it, he, Mo Ge, will be the sinner of the Qin Dynasty!
The loss of blood made him weak, but his face was abnormally flushed, and his eyes were excited and focused.
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