Chapter 1505 Fainting

In the blink of an eye, it was time for spring ploughing. The emperor wanted to do the ploughing himself, not only taking the princes with him, but also a group of ministers. They were away for two days and stayed in a prepared manor.

As Zhulan packed her luggage, she kept muttering, "Spring ploughing is the most tiring time. I don't know if you can stand it these two days."

Zhou Shuren was not worried. "At my age, it's not my turn to do the hard work here, so you can rest assured."

Moreover, he had experience in farming with the retired emperor, so he was not afraid of farming.

Zhulan, "The purpose of this spring ploughing is to teach the ministers to be frugal and cherish food in the future. Do you think the meals prepared by the emperor will be coarse grains?"

Zhou Shuren was no longer idle, "Hurry up and ask the kitchen to prepare some more meat jerky for me. Yes, and some meat floss as well."

Zhulan, "When you reported back this morning, I asked someone to prepare not only dried meat, but also some pickles to go with the rice, and I cooked some eggs for you, too."

Zhou Shuren lay back down again. "That's enough. It's only two days. Alas, the emperor's mind is on food this year. Today I saw the folds I wrote on the emperor's desk. There are traces of scratches on the edges of the folds. The emperor must have studied them a lot."

"The root cause of food shortages is still production. In ancient times, there were no high-yield grains. In fact, more research could be done on fertilizers."

Zhou Shuren tilted his head, "You think I haven't done any research. Fertilizer research is not easy because livestock have few feces. Anyway, I don't understand it."

Zhulan didn't understand either. "Well, speaking of livestock, there's no large-scale breeding near the capital."

Zhou Shuren narrowed his eyes, "The tribes on the grasslands are experienced in raising herds of cattle and sheep, so it would be a waste for them to just sit idle in the capital."

Zhu Lan knows Shu Ren very well. "You still remember Prince Oger's plan. You want to return it."

"My wife understands me. Wen Li was sent to the manor, and this prince can't be ignored. It's better to send such an ambitious person with no bottom line to the suburbs where he has no chance to hide. Farming is suitable for him."

I will talk to the Emperor about this tomorrow and build a breeding farm in the far suburbs close to the grassland. This prince will not be able to return to the capital easily.

The next morning, Changyi also wore coarse cloth clothes. Among the officials in the entire capital, only a few people were left in each department to keep an eye on the crops, while the others had to go to spring ploughing.

Mingyun from the Hanlin Academy was lucky enough to stay, and Changzhi was also going to go with him.

The father and his two sons were riding in a carriage. Chang Zhi said, "It is true that clothes make the man. Now that you are wearing coarse clothes, father and second brother really don't look like court officials."

Zhou Shuren had already looked in the mirror this morning. The only difference between him and the old man in the countryside was that his face was paler. "If you have nothing to say, just shut up."

Chang Yi said nothing. He didn't look like an official even without his official uniform.

Changzhi touched his nose and his old man was unhappy.

When they arrived at the city gate, they saw a long line of carriages. Zhou Shuren opened the carriage window and took a look. If there were hot weapons, they could be wiped out in one fell swoop. It was only because there was no danger now that the emperor dared to bring so many officials out of the capital.

The spring plowing site is at the imperial estate, and the grain grown this year will be donated to the people. The imperial estate is not far away, and when they get off the carriages one after another, the emperor does not arrange accommodation according to their official positions. Those who have sons can live with their sons, because filial piety is greater than heaven, and there is nothing wrong with sons serving their fathers.

Zhou Shuren had two sons. Wang Ju was extremely jealous of them because his elder son was an official in another place and his younger son was still young and had no one to take care of him.

Lord Yu’s eldest son has arrived, and Lord Liu’s eldest son has stayed in Beijing.

Zhou Shuren had a lot of people gathered here, and because they were relatives, they chose a small courtyard.

At this time, the power of the court can be seen, and basically everyone is sticking together.

As soon as everyone was assigned their places to live, a eunuch came to pass on a message, "Everyone needs to prepare their own meals every day. Food is divided according to the number of people, so please go and pick it up yourself."

Zhou Shuren and others, "......"

It was so cruel that they didn’t even give them food.

Wang Ju waited for the eunuch to leave, then smiled and said, "It's a good thing he brought a servant with him, otherwise I would have to cook for myself."

Zhou Shuren chuckled, "You talk as if you've cooked."

Wang Ju, "......"

A gentleman stays away from the kitchen, so he has never been to the kitchen.

Mr. Liu is a junior. "I'll go get some food."

Lord Liu, "Go ahead."

Changyi had already checked the kitchen, "Fortunately the firewood is fully stocked."

Zhou Shuren, "I need to go back and rest for a while. I still have to work after lunch."

Chang Yi said to Chang Zhi, "Help Dad to rest. I'll go take a walk around the area."

Chang-Chi: "Okay."

Zhou Shuren returned to the room and sat down. Changzhi and Jianyan laid out the luggage. Zhou Shuren took a rest, Jianyan went to light a fire and make tea, and Changzhi took the servant to clean up.

Zhou Shuren didn't sleep either. He closed his eyes and rested, feeling that it was better to have his son by his side.

Changyi came in quickly and knew his father was still awake, so he said, "Dad, what we brought back was just food supplies, not many vegetables, and the only fishy thing was a piece of meat. Dad, I'm going to go see if I can catch some rabbits nearby."

Zhou Shuren opened his eyes, "Don't go. The emperor doesn't care what we bring, but he won't allow us to go out hunting now. Your mother has made all the preparations. Just be quiet for the next two days and don't make trouble."

Chang Yi felt sorry for his father, as he was the thinnest in the family. "Go prepare lunch there, son."

"Well, tell your uncle Wang to put all the food you brought together so that we can eat together later."

"good."

Changyi told everyone in the courtyard about his father's proposal, and everyone agreed. Wang Ju brought all snacks, and the same went for the Yu and Liu families. The Liu family was lucky enough to stay in the capital and did not come.

In the end, the Zhou family brought the most things, and Changyi watched the servant prepare lunch.

Wang Ju took a bite of the jerky and said, "The beef jerky from your house is still the best. Next time I get some beef, ask your cook to make some for me."

Zhou Shuren, "Wait until you can get some beef."

The beef his family eats now is sent by Rongchuan. He won’t be able to send it in the future because the temperature will rise and the meat will go bad easily.

Wang Ju remained silent. Not to mention beef, even mutton was scarce. It was the spring ploughing season and no one dared to touch the cows. In the past, when food was not so scarce, if one or two cows died on the farm, no one would hold it against them as long as there was a legitimate reason. But that was no longer the case now.

They went down to the fields without resting. The emperor and the prince stood in front and divided the work according to their age. Zhou Shuren was assigned the job of scattering seeds, which was not an easy job.

The emperor was digging the hole seriously, and the ministers could only bite the bullet and do their work.

Zhou Shuren had no sons to help him, so his two young sons went to dig holes and do manual labor. After working for a while, Zhou Shuren drooped his back, really missing modern mechanization.

He glanced around and thought, he was actually quite fast at work. His eyes fell on Old Master Wen, whose forehead was already covered in sweat.

Looking up at the emperor in front of him, Zhou Shuren raised his eyebrows. The emperor and the prince were still working hard and were not pretending.

Zhou Shuren continued to work. After a while, he heard some noise behind him. He turned around and saw that Old Master Wen had fainted. Zhou Shuren walked over quickly and asked, "Why did Old Master faint? Come on, let me take a look."

Everyone, "......"