<h4>Chapter 500 – Breeding Base</h4>
In fact, even though Zhu Junyang’s farmstead was not officially under Xiaocao’s name, it more or less belonged to Xiaocao now. He sold the mountain area behind the farmstead to Xiaocao at a low price. He also gave her the right to arrange thend in the farmstead as she pleased. She was also able to order the stewards and servants working in the farmstead as she wanted. Xiaocao was respected and treated like the master of the farmstead by the servants. Of course, she was treated with respect because of her capability and charming personality.
Although they nted many flowers in the mountain area behind the farmstead, they were still short on supply. Yu Xiaocao publicly purchased a variety of flowers and petals from various ces. She even had suppliers from Jiangnan. Furthermore, Zhu Junyang had assigned one of his fleets to personally purchase flowers for Yu Xiaocao.
They already agreed that the thousands of mu of fertilend in the farmstead would be nted with vegetables and fruits in the winter. At the beginning of spring, thend in the farmstead will then all be used to nt flowers. In addition to that, he also had a couple of hundred mu located on the backend of the mountain area. That amount ofnd should be barely enough, right? If it wasn’t enough, Zhu Junyang was thinking about purchasing the neighboring farmsteads at a high price...
Yu Xiaocao had been busy with the beauty and health club during spring. Of course, she had not forgotten about her official responsibilities. She had also been taking care of the matters in the Imperial ntation. At the beginning of spring, she nted fresh vegetables after the greenhouse pavilions were taken down.
The vegetable farmers in the suburbs of the capital also nted some vegetables at the beginning of spring. However, their vegetables couldn’tpare to the vegetables nted in the Imperial ntation. Perhaps the Imperial ntation was infected with the dragon spirit from the royal family, but the vegetables produced this year appeared fresher and lusher than the vegetables from the other vegetable farmers. The vegetables from the Imperial ntation tasted even better than the previous years.
As a result, the vegetables sold by the shops under Zhu Junyang’s name were much more expensive than the vegetables sold by ordinary vegetable farmers. Even so, the cunning government officials, noble families, and wealthy merchants all fought to buy some vegetables and fruits from his shop.
Themoners in the capital were naturally reluctant to buy the same type of vegetables at a price that was several times higher just because it tasted better. Therefore, there was still a market for vegetables sold by suburban vegetable farmers. The vegetables produced by the Imperial ntation were coined as the ‘noble vegetables’ because it supplied mostly the wealthy upper-ss people. It didn’tpete in the market against the vegetables nted by ordinary vegetable farmers.
The weather gradually became warmer. People took off their warm clothes for lighter and morefortable summer garments. The one thousand mu of winter wheat nted in the Imperial ntation had grown into plump and massive ears of wheat. It looked like the Imperial ntation was covered with a golden colored nket. When they saw the vast golden wheat field, the old and experienced tenant farmers in the Imperial ntation smiled until their wrinkles deepened at the corners of their eyes.
They had nted crops for the majority of their life, but this was the first time they had seen suchrge and plump wheat ears. This year was definitely going to have a bumper harvest and they would be able to live a better life this year due to the bountiful harvest! Although the wheat in the Imperial ntation was owned by the imperial family, the tenant farmer’s ie was still linked to the harvest of the fields each year. The output of the harvest usually got converted into other forms of food or silver as ie for the tenant farmers.
Before Miss Yu came to the Imperial ntation, the tenant farmers working in the Imperial ntation were envied by others. The emperor was well known for his benevolence and love for his people, so he naturally wouldn’t treat the tenant farmers in the Imperial ntation badly. Last fall, under Miss Yu’s leadership, the corn output in the Imperial ntation broke a new record. Each of the tenant farmers’ ies had doubledpared to the previous years. Looking at the fields of winter wheat for this spring, they knew that their ie would definitely be better than the ie they received fromst fall. In other words, this year’s ie was better than all the previous payments they had received in the previous two to three years!
As a result, the tenant farmers were full of energy when they were harvesting the winter wheat. Men, women, and children all looked like they were engaging in battle as they cut, tied, and picked the wheat...the children followed behind the adults while carrying a small basket to pick the wheat ears that fell to the ground. They knew that the ntation had to receive the wheat in the warehouse first before it would be considered as their own. Since this year’s winter wheat had grown so well, they couldn’t afford to have an ident when harvesting the crops. They wouldn’t be able to afford the consequences!
When the thousand mu of winter wheat had been cut, dried, and stored in the warehouse, the tenant farmers who had been busy harvesting all day and night could finally let out a sigh of relief. Steward Wang and Minister Liu of the Ministry of Revenue couldn’t wait to calcte the output of the winter wheat with the officials in charge of the farming tasks.
Minister Liu trembled with excitement. Seven hundred catties!! The average yield per mu actually reached seven hundred catties, which meant that they yielded a higher catty per mu than the crops produced at Tanggu Town. In this era where the average wheat yield per mu was only around two to three hundred catties, no one could even imagine that they could one day produce seven hundred catties per mu! This was simply a myth that they didn’t even dare to imagine!!
The statistics of the total yield from the Imperial ntation was presented to the emperor. The yield per mu of the fields in Tanggu Town was also counted and it turned out that the yield per mu wasn’t much different from the Imperial ntation this year. However, Xiaocao asked a few people to select a few exceptionallyrge wheat ears in the previous year for her, and then she nted those in a few acres ofnd. The winter wheat nted in the few acres ofnd produced wheat ears that were a thirdrger in size than normal wheat ears. The wheat ear managed to create a miracle by outputting nine hundred catties per mu!
Above the imperial court, the emperor held a giant wheat ear and excitedly said to the civil and military officials, “Do you see this? This is the wheat ear that yielded nine hundred catties per mu. If we use this as a seed, then the yield next year definitely won’t worsen! Imagine if all the wheat in the north can reach this output, then would our Great Ming Dynasty have people who go hungry every day? Would we still have people who are poverty-stricken? Will we still have people who won’t be able to make a living?? The people in the Great Ming Dynasty will be able to live in peace and contentment. The Great Ming Dynasty will no longer be unstable because of poverty. Feudal Princess Jinan is indeed one of my most capable officials. Now, my officials and ministers, do you still believe that I’m trying to cause chaos to the imperial court by appointing a young girl as an official? My officials and ministers, do you still believe that a woman cannot be a capable and efficient official?”
The imperial court fell silent. The ministers, who strongly opposed appointing Yu Xiaocao as an official, had their heads hanging down. Their faces burned as if they were pped multiple times! The emperor always appointed people ording to their abilities and merits. He had stubbornly appointed a young girl from a peasant family as an official even though half of the imperial court opposed this idea. He didn’t want to overlook a farming genius just because of her background or gender.
After the emperor ascended the throne, in order to save some expenses for the imperial treasury, he insisted on using the former imperial pce. Some of the more remote and deste pces were starting to fall apart, yet he refused to repair the buildings. In order to prevent the wasting of manpower and resources, he even canceled the drafting of youngdies to the imperial harem that usually urred once every three years. The emperor’s harem, including the empress, consisted of no more than ten women! The emperor and the empress also had their expenses cut down by keeping their longevity celebrations simple. The celebration cost no more than one thousand taels of silver, which meant that it cost even less than the birthday celebration of a wealthy merchant.
The imperial family was naturally frugal because the funds in the imperial treasury were not abundant. In the past ten years since the emperor’s ascension to the throne, he had worked diligently for the people, encouraged people to open upnd for farming, lowered taxes again and again, and he even gave the people who suffered from war and disasters an opportunity to live a good life. Even so, many people in various ces still could not fill their stomachs because the grain output was too low! After an ordinary family worked for an entire year, the remaining money they had after they paid the rent for the farm was barely enough to make ends meet.
If the yield per mu was increased by three to four times, then the tenant farmers would still have surplus money after paying for rent and food. If the people were well off, then the nation would be stable. Wasn’t this what all rulers wished for? There were hundreds of officials in court, but the generals were the ones who built this country, and the ministers were the ones who ruled this country. Yet it was a young girl whom everyone looked down upon who ended up stabilizing this country!
Now, it was impossible for the ministers to reject the result. Official Yu used her extraordinary ability to win the recognition of the hundreds of civil and military officials in court! Her aplishments were gradually revealed to the people!
Some of the high yielding winter wheat seeds were stored to be nted in the Imperial ntation next year, and the remaining ones were sold to the poor people in the north at ordinary prices. In order to prevent certainndowners and officials from monopolizing the seeds, the court had dispatched an imperial envoy to preside over the sale of the seeds.
The Imperial ntation and Yu Family’s farmstead in Tanggu Town only totaled around four to five thousand mu ofnd. The average yield per mu was around seven hundred catties, so they produced over three million catties of wheat seeds. It took fifteen catties of seeds to nt one mu ofnd. This meant that the seeds that they currently had could only supply the nting for around two hundred thousand mu ofnd. This was far from enough since the Great Ming Dynasty had over six hundred million mu of arable farnd!
The emperor asked the imperial hidden guards to secretly count thend in the outskirts of the capital and the nearby Zhou prefecture that belonged to the officials and wealthy merchants. The area of arablend unexpectedly exceeded one hundred thousand mu. If all these farmsteads could be used to breed the seeds, then they would be able to supply enough seeds for the nine million mu ofnd! If this happened, then they would be one step closer to their goal of growing high yielding wheat all over the north!
The emperor asked Chief Steward Su Ran to gather these people together and announce that the court had expropriated theirnd. Of course, their farmsteads would not be used in vain. The seeds will be distributed by the court, and the harvested grains can only be sold to the court. The court was willing to pay ten copper coins per catty to buy the wheat harvested from thend.
The highest price for wheat in the market was only five copper coins per catty. The owners of these farmsteads would earn a huge profit, so why wouldn’t they agree? The imperial court signed a ten-year agreement with the owners of the farmsteads. They agreed that the court was going to decide what they will nt and how they will nt it for the next ten years. When they harvested the crops, the court will send amissioner to buy all the crops.
The crops nted by each farmstead were different. Some nted winter wheat while other farmsteads nted spring seedings, so the process was quite chaotic. Therefore, the agreement went into effect after this current autumn harvest ended. The beginning of the agreement started once winter wheat was nted in the ground.
After the winter wheat was harvested, both the Imperial ntation and the farmstead at Tanggu Town wildly proimed that they were now nting corn and potatoes. The climate in the northeastern and northwestern regions was harsher, and thend was more barren, so crops like corn and potatoes were more suitable for nting than wheat. Last year, many vigers from the suburbs of the capital came to the capital and frantically bought some corn seeds before returning. They immediately started nting the seeds at the start of spring. ording to their feedback, the corn was growing very well; however, the specific output of the crop would not be unknown until harvest season in the fall.
The two farmsteads already had some experience with nting corn. Before she started nting the seeds, Yu Xiaocao walked around the well water at the edge of the Imperial ntation. She increased the concentration of the mystic-stone water that had already gradually weakened. She also put on an act and walked around the fields a few times with her hands sped behind her back. Her task was nowpleted!
At this time, the peaches and plums at the back of the farmstead already began to mature. Because she had urgently required fruit trees at the time and couldn’t pick and choose, they now had a wide variety of peaches growing on the hill.. A few of the trees there were grafted with Dongshan Vige’s honey peach branches, and the resulting peaches wererge and sweet. As for the other varieties avable, they had the sweet and crunchy big white peaches, sweet and sour juicy blood peaches that looked as red as blood, and the sour and sweet crispy yellow peaches. Regardless of the variety of peach, all of the peaches produced at the fruit orchard wererge and numerous. There were so many peaches on the trees that the branches were slightly bent from the weight.
As soon as the peaches were ripe, they were all shipped to Royal Prince Yang’s premium fruit and vegetable shops. The peaches were packaged in exquisite gift boxes, and the prices set for each box were quite expensive. Fortunately, those who were willing to buy from the premium fruits and vegetable shops were not people whocked money. The peaches that came from the mountain area located behind the Imperial ntation, regardless of the variety, were allrger than the fist of an average adult male. There was no need to even exin the taste of the peachespared to the regr ones.