Chapter 219 I don't want my daughter to be involved
It was a drizzling spring day, and the fields were full of farmers working in straw hats and raincoats.
The road was finally completed, and everyone didn't take time to rest but plowed the fields deeply.
With the addition of a few more horses to provide draught power, the time spent on plowing the fields was greatly shortened.
Then pull out the seedlings and plant them.
The Su family's more than ten acres of paddy fields are all planted with seedlings. The seeds are rice seeds carefully selected by the whole village.
The ones pulling up the seedlings were veterans like Su Laoer, Su Laosan, and Yang Dalang, and they didn't dare let Su Boyan and the others do it.
There are some tricks to pulling out seedlings. Those who don’t know how may cut off the roots, and the seedlings with damaged roots will be difficult to survive.
The same applies to transplanting rice seedlings. There should be four to five seedlings in each nest. They should be buried deep in the soil. They cannot be too deep or too shallow. The arrangement and spacing must also be paid attention to.
They were not confident in letting a few scholars take charge, so they were snatched away by Wang Sanlang, Zheng Silang and others.
So Su Boyan and his colleagues had no choice but to pick the seedlings, pull out the bundled seedlings from the rice field and carry them to other paddy fields.
The children have not been in class for the past two days. They use scoops to carry seedlings and shuttle between the crisscrossing ridges of the fields.
The edge of the field was slippery, and one accidentally fell into the paddy field and became a mud monkey, which made everyone laugh and the field was filled with laughter.
Several carriages drove along the newly built mortar road.
In addition to Su Bucheng, there were the governor Lu Zhaoshi, the recorder Wang Yannian, the county magistrate Hu, and officials from the Ministry of Agriculture.
The "Special Administrative Order of the Lingnan Province Food Special District" has been officially promulgated and issued to each province, and has now been conveyed to the prefectures and counties.
Dou Jing, the Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, brought one Secretary, one Chief Clerk, one Recorder, several Supervisors, and several Planting Experts to Lingnan. These people were the main members of the Special Administrative Region of the Grain Administration.
The sowing time for two seasons of rice is earlier than that for one season of rice. When the sowing began, Dou Jing temporarily decided to go to Wuzhou first to check on the progress of spring plowing and sowing, and temporarily postpone his meeting with Feng Xu, the envoy of Lingnan Road.
We traveled through mountains and rivers, day and night, and switched from land to water and then to land again. After entering Lingnan, the road was rugged and difficult to walk on.
Due to the lingering miasma and the fatigue from the journey, several people had already collapsed and were recuperating at the post station.
I learned from the governor of Wuzhou that not long ago a large number of foreign merchants bought land everywhere in Wuzhou, dragged officials into the scam, and colluded with each other.
After a series of drastic measures, the situation has been curbed and the farmland that was sold through fraud, coercion and bribery has been returned to the farmers.
In order to rectify the administration of officials, those with minor offenses will be demoted, and those with serious offenses will be dismissed and investigated. This has been reported to Lingnan Province and is awaiting approval.
Dou Jing didn't expect that the governor of Wuzhou was so tough. He dared to clear out the farmland in a big way before the special administrative order was issued here.
On the way to Wu County, I saw many caravans coming and going, but I didn’t feel much.
Compared with the prosperous Chang'an City, Wuzhou and Wuxian are nothing special. In Dou Jing's eyes, these places are barbaric and backward.
Could they really grow two crops of rice and turn it into a wartime granary? Dou Jing was unsure.
I led the officers, soldiers and civilians to cultivate the land. There was a war there, but the land was cultivated land. Large tracts of cultivated land were abandoned due to the war, and they could be used to grow crops with a little deep plowing.
Almost all the laborers employed were strong and hardworking, and the crops were well produced.
Unlike here where there are endless mountains everywhere, there are almost no large flat lands. It is a real wasteland.
Reclamation is difficult and the plots are small, making it difficult to form large-scale planting sites.
As she walked and looked around, Dou Jing secretly compared herself with others, feeling quite nervous.
This exclusive grain zone carries the expectations of Tian Khan. It can only succeed, not fail!
Dou Jing felt that her shoulders were heavy and the burden was too heavy.
Until you enter Heifeng Township, and then take the fork in the road to Huanggou Village.
Dou Jing looked at the mortar road with great curiosity. Finally, he saw something new and refreshing, so he called Su Bucheng to ask him.
In Wuzhou, Lu Zhaoshi specifically introduced to Dou Jing the strategies and methods used by Su Bucheng to assist him in recovering farmland, and naturally also introduced Su Bucheng's identity.
As the Minister of Agriculture, he was in the court that day and agreed with Su Bucheng's plan to eliminate locusts.
But as a relative by marriage, he knew what the Khan was afraid of. When the Khan was furious, he naturally kept his mouth shut to protect himself.
I didn't expect that the magistrate of Chang'an County was so troublesome. He didn't stop even in Lingnan and showed up in front of the governor so soon.
These have nothing to do with him. He only cares about whether the two-season rice can be successfully planted and whether the exclusive grain zone can be established.
He only cares about the results and doesn't care about the process or means. In short, he doesn't ask about, care about, or take responsibility for Su Bucheng's affairs.
However, if something happened, Lu Zhaoshi would be the first one unable to escape.
Dou Jing was shocked when she learned that it was Su Bucheng's Huanggou Village where he proposed, vigorously advocated and promoted the two-season rice policy, and that the strategy of exclusive grain zones also came from Su Bucheng.
If what Lu Zhaoshi said was true, it meant that Su Buchengcai was the real leader of this matter.
Looking at Su Bucheng again, his attitude is no longer dispensable.
When Dou Jing heard Su Bucheng introduce that the road was made of lime, clay and sand mixed in proportion, she suddenly realized that this method should have been inspired by the mortar used on the wall.
It was drizzling and the dirt on the official road was slippery, but this mortar road was clean and not affected by the rain at all.
When we drove into the village, we saw many people busy in the fields.
When everyone got off the car, they saw rows of closely adjacent paddy fields planted with neatly arranged rice seedlings, with a well-arranged density and in straight and horizontal directions.
Most of the paddy fields have been planted, and a small part of them are still being planted with rice seedlings.
The arrival of the carriage startled the villagers working in the fields, and they all stood up to look.
"Mr. Su is back?" Old man Yang dropped the work in his hands and came up to greet him.
"Greetings, Lord Lu, Lord Wang, and Lord Hu!" Old Man Yang bowed and saluted. Seeing that Dou Jing was a stranger, he said, "Greetings, sirs."
"You're too polite, village chief. This is Lord Dou, the Minister of Agriculture. These are officials from the Sinong Temple. They have come here today to visit our Huanggou Village." Lu Zhaoshi introduced.
"I am a commoner who has failed to recognize a great man! I have neglected Lord Dou!" Old man Yang was shocked and apologized quickly.
"Oh, you are too polite, old man! We heard that there is a new method of farming in Huanggou Village, so we came here specially to learn it." Dou Jing helped the old man Yang up and was very polite.
Except for the Su family, everyone else in Huanggou Village was an important official of the previous dynasty.
The Dou family also has intricate ties with the previous dynasty. Seeing the former influential figure, Dou Jing naturally had to be polite.
"No, no! Our farming method was proposed by Mr. Su's daughter Su Ying. We just started and are still exploring."
Old man Yang was not greedy for credit and said it very tactfully. Su Ying was just suggesting it so that if it failed, others would not be blamed.
If it succeeds, then of course Su Ying deserves the credit.
Old man Yang didn't know about the issuance of the special administrative order for the Food Special District. If he knew, he would definitely not dare to push Su Ying out so easily.
"Oh, Lord Su, why haven't I heard you mention it?" Dou Jing turned and asked Su Bucheng.
"Your Excellency, I just mentioned it casually, don't take it seriously. The implementation was a unanimous decision made by the village elders after discussion, and it has nothing to do with me." Su Bucheng hurriedly distanced himself from the matter.
The court sent a group of officials from the Sinong Temple, which showed how much importance it attached to this matter. This was beyond his expectation. The power of the decree was so great that it was directly supervised by the Sinong Temple.
Su Bucheng didn't want his daughter to be involved, as he was still worried about the locust extermination.
Old man Yang looked at Dou Jing and Su Bucheng's questions and answers with suspicion, feeling something was strange. Did he say something wrong?
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