As the first village to successfully trial-plant potatoes, Ma'an Village has also attracted much attention.
After the last earthquake, we helped them repair their houses and harvest crops from the fields.
The villagers of Ma'an Village are naturally grateful to the Governor Shen Nian.
"Sir, my family is harvesting potatoes today. Please come with us to take a look!" An old man enthusiastically invited Shen Nian to visit his field.
Chen Nian has been to Ma'an Village many times and is already familiar with the villagers here, so the villagers are quite friendly when they see him.
The main reason was that Shen Nian was not arrogant here and had done a lot of practical things for them, so they were naturally not afraid of him.
“Okay, let’s go and take a look.” Shen Nian smiled and nodded.
When the old man saw that the governor agreed, he grinned with his toothless mouth and his face was full of wrinkles.
"Sir, thanks to a good official like you, our family will never go hungry again this year, and we will have a warm house to live in."
The old man's family was one of the poorer ones in the village. They had many children but not much land. Before the earthquake, the family of more than 20 people lived in a few dilapidated thatched houses.
Fortunately, no family members were injured or killed during the earthquake because the house was dilapidated.
After the earthquake, in order to rebuild as quickly as possible, Shen Nian was so anxious that he almost got angry. The few brick kilns collapsed due to the earthquake and could not burn bricks temporarily.
Later, Xia Tian drew a blueprint according to the method he saw in the book and asked Chen Nian to build several brick kilns according to the blueprint. They kept burning bricks day and night until they had enough bricks and tiles to build the house.
The brick kiln is all made in the summer.
The old man's house was later rebuilt by Chen Nian using bricks and tiles.
As for the food, it was because of the earthquake. Shen Nian reported it to the court, and the emperor reduced the taxes and grain in the earthquake-stricken areas.
That's why the old man said that.
"This is all my duty, old man, you don't have to be polite." Shen Nian replied with a smile.
His greatest wish is that the people under his rule can live and work in peace and contentment, and have enough food and clothing.
"Your Excellency is a good official. Our Ma'an Village is in its current state thanks to your Excellency." Village Chief Ma also echoed.
Whether this official is good or not can be determined by looking at the attitude of the villagers.
In the past, when they saw officials, they wanted to stay as far away from them as possible.
Afraid of doing something wrong and getting arrested again!
Now when I meet an official, especially a high-ranking official like the governor, I can actually chat with him about family matters. This shows how big the difference is.
“It is a blessing for the villagers of Ma’an Village to have Village Chief Ma leading it.” Shen Nian also said politely.
But he was not wrong. Although Village Chief Ma had not received much education, he was dedicated to the villagers and was a rare good village chief.
The group chatted and laughed, talking about family matters, and arrived at the old man's land.
At this time, the old man's five sons were digging potatoes in the fields, and the women were constantly picking up potatoes from the dug fields and putting them in bamboo baskets.
The children carried baskets and dumped the potatoes onto the open space.
There was already a pile of potatoes on the open space.
“Sir, look, this is my family’s land. We’ve only dug three piles and it’s already this big.” The old man proudly introduced it to Shen Nian.
Judging from the situation, the autumn potatoes this time are no less than those in spring.
The old man's eyes narrowed as he laughed.
His family had many people but little land, so they had to tighten their belts all year round and never had a full meal.
At that time, the three families in Chunshang Village who planted potatoes had a bumper harvest, and they were envious for a long time.
I thought that if they also planted crops, they would definitely have enough food to eat.
But the autumn potatoes are also good this time.
The old man rolled up his trouser legs and went to the field to pick potatoes.
Shen Nian turned around and took a look. This time the potatoes seemed to be bigger. It seemed that the yield per acre was quite high.
"Sir, let's go and have a look at other homes! Every household in this village grows potatoes. It looks like this year's harvest is good." Village chief Ma invited Shen Nian to go and have a look at other fields.
The imperial court reduced grain taxes, and the potato harvest was abundant, which made Village Chief Ma feel much more relieved.
This is all because they had a good governor.
Shen Nian nodded and followed Village Chief Ma to look around.
"Although taxes are waived this year, potato production still needs to be counted. When the report is published, I will see whether the potato harvest is good or not."
Chen Nian thought that this was the first time that potatoes were grown on a large scale, so he had to have harvest data, which would make it easier for him to report to the emperor.
"Don't worry, sir. I will definitely get this done." Village chief Ma quickly agreed with a smile.
After everything that needed to be arranged was done and everything that needed to be seen was seen, Shen Nian went to other villages.
Basically, every village he visited was like Ma'an Village, and he received enthusiastic support from the villagers.
It was two days later when they finished visiting several surrounding villages, and Shen Nian finally brought Mu Lin and the others back to Sangluo City.
He is back, and Lord Cao and Lord Li are back.
Several people sat in the meeting room of the governor's office to discuss the autumn harvest.
Lord Wang is here too!
"Governor, in the past two days, prefects from other towns in Linzhou have also sent people to report that the autumn harvest has begun, and the villagers who planted potatoes have generally had a good harvest."
When Lord Wang saw the three people coming back, he quickly handed the memorials he had received in the past two days to Shen Nian.
Because other towns in Linzhou, except Sangluo City and surrounding villages, were not affected by the earthquake, they still had to pay taxes as usual.
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