The commoner named Mengnu is a genius, and even farming is worth it...
For the next period of time, Shen Zhiwei had a particularly easy time.
It was as if time had slowed down all of a sudden. Nothing happened. Even the news of the annihilation of the princes that would occasionally reach Jingchang had become much less frequent.
Those vassal states that were previously ambitious and expanded their territory everywhere also calmed down.
Shen Zhiwei knew why this was because the next period of time entered the stage of crop growth.
At this time, no one would start a war and affect the work of farming and tending to crops. Everyone lived on the little output from the land, and no one would do anything that would dig their own grave.
Shen Zhiwei just attends classes every day and occasionally goes to court. Her life is even more boring than that of modern times. This is really the good life she has always dreamed of. She made a wish that she would live like this every day in the future and no one would disturb her.
If she didn't have to go to class, Shen Zhiwei would even like to lie in bed all day without moving. It would be even better if the system could play a movie for her or let her read novels online.
She doesn't even need a short video, she can grow in bed!
Unfortunately, good days are always too short. People are destined to encounter various challenges and emergencies in their lives.
After a quiet May, the weather started to get hot in June.
Fortunately, the overall temperature is relatively low at this time of year. Even in the hottest summer, the temperature will not exceed 35 degrees. This is a great thing for Shen Zhiwei, who is very afraid of heat.
However, the sunny weather of 27 or 28 degrees was enough to make Shen Zhiwei uncomfortable.
Shen Zhiwei didn't want to go out at noon, but this matter was really important, so she had to walk into the fields under the scorching sun.
There were some problems on her farm.
Several slaves who were working the fields knelt on the edge of the field, so scared that they didn't even dare to raise their heads.
A palace maid held a huge umbrella to shade Shen Zhiwei from the sun. The umbrella was made of silk and required two burly palace maids to carry it together. I wonder how many people could wear decent clothes with just this umbrella.
Shen Zhiwei had been in the palace for a while and had almost forgotten the appearance of the people at the bottom of the world. Now, when she suddenly saw those slaves who were tanned, had no flesh on their bodies, and whose clothes were tattered, she felt a little uncomfortable.
Shen Zhiwei felt that she was a member of the evil aristocracy, but in fact she was already very frugal. Nong Xi, who worked as an agricultural official on the farm, was even shocked when she saw the low-key manner of the king's trip.
I've heard for a long time that the royal family is not as good as before, but I didn't expect that the royal family can't even arrange a grand ceremony for the king to travel?
Nong Xi would not think that the king's low-key travel was a form of frugality. He would only think that the royal family was not as good as before, just like the other princes saw Shen Zhiwei now.
Shen Zhiwei's previous use of iron to make pots did not make anyone think it was a luxury.
It's just because her behavior is nothing in front of those truly extravagant aristocrats.
In order to show off their grandeur, some nobles would even use dozens of meters of cloth to make a small tent and lay out the finest red silk as a red carpet, sometimes stretching for several miles.
Besides, rich people pretending to be poor is just a way of being humble and frugal. Why would people without money pretend to be poor? They will be truly poor no matter what they do!
This is Shen Zhiwei's current situation. In the eyes of those nobles, she is very poor.
However, this situation will be completely reversed after she paves the salt fields, but no one knows yet.
Nong Xi didn't know either, so he was very anxious now. He wished he could kneel on the edge of the field and beg the king for mercy. If there was any problem in the field, it would definitely affect the harvest. The king was already short of money and food, and now the harvest was small. The king must be angry!
Everyone thought Shen Zhiwei would be angry, but after seeing the situation in the field, Shen Zhiwei was not angry, and her depressed mood due to the weather instantly became excited.
What did she see! She saw wheat!
The crops, which had been planted for two months, had grown a lot at this moment. The plants had grown taller, approaching the height of mature plants, but they had not yet produced ears of corn.
At this time, the difference between wheat and millet was also very obvious.
The batch of seeds planted were planted by each person manually. Millet and wheat look completely different, so why would a small piece of wheat appear on the land where millet was planted?
Shen Zhiwei was a little surprised. She looked at the group of common people and said, "Everyone, get up. This is wheat, not weeds. You haven't ruined the land. Besides, this piece of land is your private plot, right?"
Shen Zhiwei came here in a hurry because he heard that there was a piece of land on the farm where no crops were harvested and weeds grew. He was afraid that it was a punishment from heaven.
The worship of God in this era was completely different from that in later generations. The Son of Heaven, the child of God, was still alive and had not been replaced by anyone. People worshipped God sincerely and obeyed the will of Heaven.
If the person who angered the gods was a noble, then the matter would most likely be suppressed quietly, but the people farming the land were just common people and slaves. If Shen Zhiwei didn't come to see it in person, these common people and slaves would most likely be dragged away to be sacrificed to the gods.
In order to appease the wrath of God.
Shen Zhiwei was really afraid that if she came a step late, the person would be roasted on the fire, so she came over in the scorching sun.
She didn't expect that the "weeds" growing in the field were wheat, and she didn't expect that this was a private plot of land and had nothing to do with her land.
Shen Zhiwei had said at the beginning that private plots were land left for the common people to cultivate themselves. They did not need to pay taxes and could plant whatever they liked as long as it did not interfere with her work on the fields.
So even if weeds really grew in the private plot, it had nothing to do with the emperor Shen Zhiwei, so how could it be a punishment from heaven?
Upon hearing this, Nong Xi stepped forward and said to Chen Zhiwei, "Your Majesty, this is indeed the private plot of a commoner named Hei Shou. Hei Shou has been working in your fields, and his wife is cultivating the private plot."
Shen Zhiwei looked at Nong Xi. Just like before, Nong Xi was white and plump, completely different from the appearance of those common people.
After two months of recuperation, Nong Xi even looked more "respectable" than before. Shen Zhiwei even wondered if he had ever been out in the field, as there was not a single callus on his fingers.
However, in those days, the scholar class was at the top of the pyramid, and it was normal for agricultural officials to only guide the common people in farming and not go to the fields.
If Shen Zhiwei had someone on hand, he really didn't want to use this kind of person. Nong Xi didn't even know Xiaomai, and he was unworthy of the name Shen Zhiwei gave him!
Shen Zhiwei said, "It's not easy for a woman to weave cloth and take care of the fields so well. What's her name?"
Ordinary people, common men and common women.
Seeing that the king had no intention of blaming him and even had an admiring attitude towards a commoner, Nong Xi felt relieved. It seemed that the king would not punish him for this matter.
"My name is Mengnu."
"Who is it?"
Shen Zhiwei's attitude has always been gentle, which made the common people who stood up and lowered their heads like quails less nervous. Now Shen Zhiwei wanted to see Meng Nu, and the common people who knew her subconsciously looked at her.
Ms. Meng was one of the common people kneeling on the ground before, and she was the one kneeling in the front.
Meng Nu gritted her teeth and stepped forward. The black-haired man beside her subconsciously stopped her, fearing that she would never come back.
Meng Nu didn't even have time to look at Heishou. She grabbed Heishou's wrist, pressed his hand down, and stepped forward to greet the king.
She didn't know what etiquette was right, so she knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and cried out, "Your Majesty, I am Mengnu."
Mengnu's surname is not Meng. Meng is the same as Bo, which means the eldest among uncles, middle brothers, and youngest brothers. In other words, Mengnu's name has only one meaning - the eldest daughter in the family.
This name is very common among the people and is the name used by common people.
"Where did you get this wheat seed? Are there any left?"
Wheat was not grown near Jingchang, and the people on this farm had never seen wheat, not even Nong Xi. Wheat had not yet been grown on a large scale in the Zhou Dynasty.
Previously, Shen Zhiwei said that the common people's teeth would be worn black by eating wheat rice and bean rice. In fact, he was wrong. They simply ate beans and various coarse grains, not including wheat.
Eating wheat rice probably became a common practice among the people only during the Han Dynasty. Shen Zhiwei didn't know whether there was a Han Dynasty in this world.
"Slave, slave..."
"Stand up and speak. You don't have to call yourself a slave. You can call yourself a commoner."
Meng Nu obviously didn't know that only people with slave status would call themselves "slaves" in front of nobles, or that only officials would be humble when addressing the king, and it was more polite for common people to call themselves "common people".
She called herself a slave because she learned it directly from listening to the slaves calling themselves that.
This shows that she still has some learning ability, which is a very valuable ability among the common people who don't have enough food to eat, work from day to night, and have completely numb brains.
Shen Zhiwei saw the merits of Meng Nu, but Nong Xi next to her was full of contempt. She was dissatisfied with the rude common people, and even more dissatisfied that a lowly common people could be appreciated by the king.
And he, a farming official from an orthodox aristocratic family, had not seen the king for two months since he arrived at this shabby farm!
I finally got to see him today, but the limelight was stolen by a woman again.
"Here, these seeds were exchanged with others. I didn't have enough seeds at home to plant all my plots, so I thought of planting something more. I didn't know it was wheat, but I still have some seeds left at home. I'll get them for the king."
Ms. Meng spoke in an organized manner. She would pause before speaking, which meant she was thinking. She also had her own little thoughts. She did not reveal the person who provided the wheat seeds.
She was still testing Shen Zhiwei's attitude. If Shen Zhiwei wanted to hold someone accountable, she could protect the person who kindly provided her with wheat seeds.
Shen Zhiwei looked at Meng Nu and thought to himself that he had met a true genius.
Common people these days rarely speak like Mencius. Most of them just say whatever comes to mind, and their language logic is almost non-existent. Communicating with common people is a very tiring task because they have never been to school for a day.
Young people today rarely communicate with people who have never been educated, so they don’t know how difficult it is to communicate with an uneducated person!
Shen Zhiwei immediately felt that she was not really without help.
So she turned her head and asked with a half-smile, "Nong Xi, who was the first to say this wasn't wheat seed but weeds?"
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