Chapter 33 The Prince Who Failed to Revolt
There was really no delay at all. She had just said in the morning that her vegetables would be used for disaster relief and would not be sold to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the afternoon, Prince Rongchang came personally to pick up the vegetables.
"Uncle Prince, you're back so soon?" Zhang Xiaojia said with a wry smile.
Prince Rongchang flipped through the bill in his hand and said, "There are 140,000 catties of vegetables here. You used 100,000 catties for disaster relief, and the remaining 40,000 catties are more than you and Jingwen can finish. You can keep 10,000 catties and donate the rest!"
Zhang Xiaojia looked at him suspiciously and said, "Uncle Prince, are you taking this opportunity to take revenge on me because of the Crown Prince's incident? I don't believe you didn't know what the Emperor meant beforehand. Besides, no one in the capital has a bad word to say about you. They all praise you for being selfless and kind-hearted."
Prince Rongchang said impatiently, "Stop rambling. The farm next door belongs to Jingwen, right? They also harvested early. Their farm is not much less than this one, with over 200,000 kilograms of vegetables. Why are you complaining about it being too hard?"
Zhang Xiaojia was even more depressed. "The Second Imperial Uncle took some of it. The Grand Princess said that the Prince was her superior and that the soldiers couldn't be left without food. The Emperor agreed and sent his personal guards to take away most of it."
Prince Rongchang said even more bluntly, "Isn't that nearly 60,000 jin? Lin'an! The day before the emperor's birthday, Jingwen spent a thousand taels on fireworks for you. With that spare money, it would be better to use it for disaster relief! Next time, I'll bring you a few umbrellas for ten thousand people."
Zhang Xiaojia didn't want to talk anymore. If he continued, he would probably be out of money again.
She waved her hand and asked the housekeeper to prepare the vegetables.
Looking at the tens of thousands of kilograms of vegetables left by Zhang Xiaojia, although the quantity was not small, there was not much left after it was distributed.
The Queen Mother has a small kitchen, which must be given;
My mother also has a small kitchen, so it should be given to her as a gift.
The virtuous concubine and Zhang Xiaojia were good friends in their previous life, and they are still good friends in this life, so she has to give it to him.
The four concubines gave one portion, and the remaining two had to give some as well as a token of their appreciation.
How could the biggest boss, the emperor, not give gifts? He had to give gifts, and he had to give more than them.
Gifts must be given to several royal elders and also to the royal princess as a favor.
Even though Zhang Xiaojia has a bad relationship with the Zhang family, he has to send it to avoid being criticized.
His subordinates had to share, and he also had to eat. The maids, guards, and secret guards all had to eat, and they had to eat until March of next year.
Prince Rongchang lowered his voice and said with a hint of amusement, "How about we set up a game and have a big gamble?"
Zhang Xiaojia looked at him sharply and asked, "How do you bet?"
Prince Rongchang smiled nonchalantly, "My good-for-nothing son and the second daughter of the Marquis of Jinyang are currently having a passionate affair. I've already arranged a marriage for them with the princess, and the wedding will take place in March next year. Before the wedding, I plan to give my son the secret medicine you provided, and then spread the news. We'll bet that Song Fanxing won't marry into my family, and we'll split the winnings equally."
Zhang Xiaojia frowned slightly after hearing this, thinking that Prince Rongchang's plan was quite absurd, but she couldn't help but retort, "Song Fanxing can't not get married, otherwise her reputation will be really ruined."
Prince Rongchang's voice deepened. "That's why we're setting this up. Let the Third Prince be the bait to seduce her. Give her the idea of becoming a concubine, and she'll naturally want to back off. Plus, my marriage certificate already contained a trap. I'm marrying the Marquis of Jinyang's daughter, but I didn't mention her by name!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Xiaojia couldn't help but ask, "Will the Third Prince agree?"
The corner of Prince Rongchang's mouth curled up into a smile: "He owes me a favor, and this time it's just the right time to repay it."
Zhang Xiaojia was skeptical and asked, "Uncle Prince, are you short of money?"
Prince Rongchang said angrily, "I only have one son, but I have seven daughters. Damn, they're all getting married, and I haven't even gathered the dowries yet? Are you afraid I'll cheat you? I'll give you the banknotes and you can place your bets."
Zhang Xiaojia nodded and said, "Okay."
Prince Rongchang took out 500,000 taels of silver notes and said, "Lin'an, your uncle only has 500,000 taels of silver notes. This is the dowry for you and your sisters. Don't lose it. You don't need to bet too much. 500,000 taels is enough, okay? Also, you are not allowed to bet in Qiankun Casino. This is..." He didn't say anything and pointed to the sky.
Zhang Xiaojia's mouth twitched. Oh my God, this is unheard of. The emperor opened a casino.
When He Fei returned to the house, he saw Jia Jia taking out the silver notes and counting them. He Fei took out another stack of silver notes and handed it to her, saying, "There are only 3 million taels here. This time, my brother will give him 40%. I took 20%, and the remaining 10% was given to the second uncle."
When Zhang Xiaojia saw He Fei coming back, she immediately burst into tears and told him everything, saying that the vegetables were used by her to provide disaster relief.
He Fei hugged her gently and comforted her, "It's okay, it's okay. I will help you plant the vegetables again. I have already arranged it a few days ago. The preliminary work will take another five days. After five days, I will plant vegetables for you myself. I will plant whatever you like."
Zhang Xiaojia asked doubtfully, "But the temperature in Beijing is over ten degrees below zero in winter. How can we grow vegetables?"
He Fei smiled and said, "I remember that you can use a sunbed to grow vegetables in winter. You just need to cover it with a mat to keep it warm."
After hearing this, Zhang Xiaojia was still confused and didn't understand what it meant.
He Fei continued to explain, "If it were modern times, the labor costs for this method wouldn't even be enough. But now it's the imperial era, and farmers have nothing to do in the winter, so they have no income. Many fields are empty. If we can master this technology, at least we can help people suffer less from hunger."
Zhang Xiaojia took He Fei's hand and continued, "Uncle Prince said he wanted to bet that the Marquis of Jinyang's daughter would abandon his son again, and he gave the bet money of 500,000 taels."
He Fei smiled and said, "Uncle Prince is really something. The first time, the Princess gave birth to triplets. The second time, the Concubine also gave birth to twins. The third time, the Princess gave birth to triplets again. Finally, he got a prince, plus seven daughters. Just the jewelry and clothes cost a lot of silver. Now that they are getting married, they have to spend even more money. Sacrificing a son and getting seven daughters' dowries is still a good deal. But I will handle this matter. I will ask An Er to go to Jiangnan to place bets. Money in Jiangnan is easier to earn."
Zhang Xiaojia asked curiously, "Does Qiankun Casino belong to my cousin?"
He Fei found it even more funny and said, "Jia Jia, have you really forgotten? Think about it carefully."
Zhang Xiaojia flipped through the memories in her mind, and the dying patient sat up in shock. The casino belonged to her eldest cousin and her, and she held a 10% stake. She remembered that she was still young at that time, and her eldest cousin cheated her out of her money and gave her a 10% stake, but she never got the money.
When He Fei arrived at the field, he saw that the workers had already dug the greenhouse in strict accordance with his requirements.
The design of the sunbeds is ingenious: when forming ridges, they are deliberately tilted toward the sunnier side, creating a slope. The ridge base is one meter wide, ensuring ample space for vegetables to grow. The sidewalks are carefully designed to be 20 centimeters wide, making it easy to work without taking up too much land. The ridge height is precisely controlled at half a meter, facilitating drainage and enhancing ventilation within the fields.
At the top of the ridge, a pit is cleverly dug, surrounded on three sides by soil. This design not only helps retain heat, but can also be further enhanced by placing straw mats at night. If it snows, they will first place a log in the pit and then cover it with straw mats to ensure that the vegetables are protected from the cold.
This sunbed design greatly facilitates sunlight exposure, allowing for better temperature control in the fields. Vegetables are carefully planted in these pits, while the bed frames are covered with horse manure, which not only provides sufficient nutrients for the vegetables but also serves as an additional insulation.
He Fei used the remaining land in the imperial farm, planting potatoes on half. He also chose a compost made by Jia Jia and planted turnips, cabbage, eggplant, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, garland chrysanthemum, rapeseed, radish, soybeans, and leeks...
Zhang Xiaojia has also developed pesticides and nutrients for vegetables, which are very cheap, but he doesn't know how effective they are, so he plans to experiment by growing vegetables this winter.
Wei Jingxuan and the other two chose fields to plant winter wheat, which had already been sprayed with pesticides and plant nutrients.
It was not easy for them to leave. He Fei needed to take a notebook and record the vegetables every day to see what vegetables could be planted in the sunny bed, and which vegetables grew well and had high yields.
What they are most concerned about is the production of potatoes, because for the lower class people and farmers, potatoes are already the main staple food. As long as the production of potatoes can be increased, they can eat more, or even have enough to eat.
Although farmers also grow winter wheat, in most cases, after paying taxes, the remaining grain will be sold, leaving only about ten pounds for themselves, which they will only use to make dumplings during festivals. On weekdays, they mainly rely on potatoes, turnips and radishes to fill their stomachs.
The cucumbers that were previously attempted to be planted were completely wiped out, and farmers had to pull out cucumbers from one hundred acres of land.
So, He Fei asked the farmers to grow leeks instead. He planned to make some money by growing leeks during the Chinese New Year.
Zhang Xiaojia squatted down and asked in confusion, "He Fei, I heard that chives need to be covered and not exposed to sunlight. Why haven't you covered them yet?"
He Fei explained: "We have to let the chives grow for a while first, and then cover them with black ceramics after harvesting."
"What about the eggplants? They don't seem to be growing well either?" Zhang Xiaojia continued to ask.
He Fei, however, did not seem too worried: "It can survive. I am just adjusting the time of covering the straw mat. If the cucumber had been adjusted at the beginning, perhaps it would not have died."
He Fei held Zhang Xiaojia's hand and walked to the potato planting area. Looking at the potatoes growing in the budding stage, he was confident that the survival rate would be high this time. Zhang Xiaojia estimated and said, "He Fei, if we plant potatoes in a sunbed, we'll only be using half of the land."
He Fei nodded: "I put a lot of effort into fertilizing and draining the potatoes this time, so I am confident that even if the utilization rate of one acre of land is only half, the yield will exceed the previous yield of one acre of land."
Zhang Xiaojia looked at He Fei with admiration, and He Fei's ears couldn't help but turn slightly red.
At this time, the emperor came and saw the two of them looking at each other affectionately again. He couldn't help but cough twice in a low voice.
He Fei glared at the emperor. In fact, he had already sensed the emperor's arrival with his mental power.
Zhang Xiaojia saw the emperor and quickly stepped forward and said, "Cousin, you deliberately took advantage of my personality and made me give away vegetables for disaster relief. Also, I've been checking my accounts these past two days. I remember when I was nine years old, you took my pocket money and said you would give me a share, but I haven't received any dividends since then!"
The emperor said helplessly, "My vegetables were also used for disaster relief. You're still bringing up something that happened nearly ten years ago."
This unfortunate kid, even though he was the crown prince, he didn’t have as much pocket money as she did.
Zhang Xiaojia cried, "I want to go back to Beijing and complain to my mother. My cousin cheated the child out of money."
The emperor said helplessly, "Alright, I'll ask the Wudeshi Envoy to send it to you later."
Zhang Xiaojia blinked and said, "It doesn't matter whether it's money or not. Cousin, can you let me go to your private vault to get something?"
The emperor pretended not to hear. He had just received the silver for the earth and cement, so he was not short of money.
"Jingwen, the potatoes are sprouting very well. Are you confident that they can survive?"
He Fei didn't want to be as direct with the Emperor as he was with Jia Jia. After a moment's thought, he replied, "I'm 70% sure. I'm also 50% sure the potato yield will remain the same. This time I changed the fertilizer and used the composting method developed by Jia Jia and the vegetable nutrient solution she made."
The emperor looked at the fields and saw that only half of an acre of land was being used, which meant that the yield of potatoes was doubled.
The emperor suddenly said seriously, "He Fei, listen to my orders. I order you to stay at the imperial farm and concentrate on growing potatoes except for returning to the capital on New Year's Eve to eat the New Year's Eve dinner."
"Yes, I obey your command."
Zhang Xiaojia told the emperor what vegetables He Fei planted and what methods he used, chattering all the time.
The emperor listened attentively and asked, "Jingwen, how effective are compost, pesticides, and vegetable nutrient solutions?"
Zhang Xiaojia quickly answered: "How can we know so quickly? We are still doing experiments."
The emperor said speechlessly, "Lin'an, get lost! I'm asking about Jingwen again."
Zhang Xiaojia: "Hehehe~ Don't forget, I invented the compost, pesticides, and vegetable nutrient solution, and I have the formulas. I'm not an official appointed by the court, so these don't belong to the court. These are mine."
The emperor looked at Zhang Xiaojia's arrogant and conceited expression of a villain who had succeeded, and slapped her on the head.
It seemed that the emperor wanted to finish his tour of Yangqi, so Zhang Xiaojia simply returned home.
Zhang Xiaojia ordered, "Bai Shao, go prepare the food. His Majesty is coming to eat."
"County Lady, just now, I heard something from that little Shunzi. He said that Concubine Chen and the Empress Dowager have been in a bad mood these past few days, and they are planning to come to our imperial estate! However, the Emperor firmly disagrees with this."
Zhang Xiaojia couldn't help but frown, thinking secretly in his heart: The emperor dare not let the queen mother and the concubine come to live here. If he really lets the queen mother and the concubine come to this imperial farm, I am afraid that tomorrow morning, those imperial censors will come to the court to impeach the emperor for being unfilial; and the day after tomorrow, all kinds of rumors will surely be spread in the capital, accusing the emperor of being disrespectful, rebellious and unfilial to his elders; and the day after tomorrow, I am afraid that this news will spread throughout the Great Zhou, and then everyone will know that the emperor actually drove his biological mother and adoptive mother to the imperial farm. In this way, the emperor will have to bear the brand of being unfilial!
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