Chapter 105: It was a timely rain!
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Early the next morning, Xiao Hanzheng went to the courier station to mail the letter urgently at twice its usual cost.
A few days later, the polygonum multiflorum seedlings that Shi Qingluo nurtured were ready.
Xiao Hanzheng asked Mo Qingling to get someone to deliver them with ox-carts.
Mo Qingling was very interested in this and had selected six villages suitable for growing polygonum multiflorum for the trial planting.
According to Shi Qingluo, polygonum multiflorum would take 2-3 years to grow. Its quality would improve as the planting duration increases.!!
Planting now meant that they would be ready for harvest before the Qingming festival in the third year.
Since it would take nearly 3 years, he chose a few more villages to reap more benefits if the plan was successful.
Then, he would let other villagers plant it on a large scale.
In the future, polygonum multiflorum’s place of origin would be Nanxi county.
Then, they could also open a workshop to make hair growth cream.
Thus, most of the people collected the polygonum multiflorum seedlings.
The seedlings were all purchased by the county yamen for distribution to the villagers for free.
However, they also signed a contract with the villagers.
The seedlings were free of charge, but after harvesting the polygonum multiflorum, they would be sold to the county yamen.
They also set a minimum price, so that in the future, no matter how low the county yamen’s purchase price was, there was a limit to how low the price could go.
This also motivated the villagers to plant more diligently.
After all, the price was not low and much more profitable than planting grain.
Profits motivated the villagers.
As expected, the villagers from these 6 villages were very happy after signing the contract. They promised that they would follow the procedure to grow polygonum multiflorum well.
Shi Qingluo and Xiao Hanzheng also followed along the team and distributed the seedlings to the villagers.
Shi Qingluo taught the villagers how to plant them personally.
Before planting, she taught them to add organic fertiliser first.
Organic fertiliser was made from peanut bran and chicken faeces, which the villagers had prepared beforehand.
Then, she taught them how to add fertiliser, water, field management, and pest control in great detail.
Mo Qingling also specially tasked the county yamen’s secretary to record everything Shi Qingluo said.
In the future, at every fixed time interval, the county yamen’s people would come and take a look.
They would also be able to supervise the villagers.
Shi Qingluo also taught everyone how to make organic fertiliser.
She even took some organic fertiliser she made at home and let everyone try it.
The more experienced old farmers didn’t mind getting their hands dirty, so they held it up and looked at it.
“The fertiliser is really good. With this fertiliser, not only will we grow some polygonum multiflorum, but we can also use it to grow food and vegetables. It’s extremely good.”
“Lady Xiao is really amazing at making this kind of fertiliser.”
“Let’s also make more to fertilise the fields.”
The fields were the villagers’ lifeblood. This kind of fertiliser would allow them to grow better quality food and vegetables at a higher quantity. How could they not be happy?
Shi Qingluo was also genuinely happy. “It’s a deal as long as y’all think it is good.”
As an agricultural expert, she was very happy to help the farmers based on what she learnt.
Mo Qingling also tasked his subordinates to memorise how to make fertiliser and prepare to send it to the capital.
This benefited the country and its people.
He looked at Shi Qingluo and the old farmers who were talking about how to grow better crops and fertilise them.
He again realised that Shi Qingluo knew too much about planting.
She even had an indescribable lustre and charm in a planting related conversation.
Of course, he was purely admiring her.
She was Xiao Hanzheng’s wife, he wouldn’t have any thoughts that he shouldn’t have.
But he also suddenly understood why Xiao Hanzheng had such a good relationship with this village girl who came to chongxi.
As he frequently interacted with Xiao Hanzheng, they gradually became friends.
Whenever Xiao Hanzheng mentioned Shi Qingluo, he saw the extra kind of affection in his eyes. It was obvious that he really liked this wife.
In the beginning, he had similar thoughts as others.
With Xiao Hanzheng’s capability and charisma that weren’t inferior to the aristocratic dukes in the capital, how could a village woman be a match for him.
Now, he felt that the two of them were a good match.
After all, apart from Shi Qingluo’s slightly inferior background, she was more attractive than the other aristocratic women he had met before.
Other than the 6 villages, Shi Qingluo and Mo Qingling had discussed and left some seedlings for their village and a few nearby villages to plant together.
Now, the villagers trusted Shi Qingluo very much.
In addition, the seedlings were free of charge and wouldn’t be occupying the more fertile land, so everyone planted them happily.
This time round, there wasn’t a single family in the entire Xiaxi village that did not plant them.
Because of the previous incident, the waiter at the Wu Family’s Inn and his family was ostracised by the villagers and had no choice but to move to the county town.
Now, they also blamed it on the Wu family. After all, they had to do this because they worked for the Wu family.
The Wu family was furious.
However, Mo Qingling was targeting them, hence they had no choice but to admit it.
They arranged accommodation for his family and offered them two additional jobs as waiters.
Of course, this caused them to be more resentful towards Shi Qingluo and Xiao Hanzheng.
As for the villagers, after they completed planting the polygonum multiflorum and building the cement workshop, they rolled up their sleeves and began to make cement.
The Bai family also brought their freshly made floor tiles to the Xiao family’s new residence, and Shi Qingluo taught the craftsmen to lay them.
Xiao Hanzheng also reported to the county school.
Shi Qingluo and Xiao Hanzheng were extremely busy in the village, and the troublemakers in the capital also secretly received the letter.
Eldest Grandson Xiao still went to that little restaurant.
Seeing the waiter hinting at him with his eyes, he requested a private room.
The person who followed him stood at the entrance of the restaurant, fanning himself out of boredom.
He was already used to seeing him coming here to eat and drink almost every day.
Eldest Grandson Xiao got the letter in the private room and gave the waiter a tip, even though this made his heart ache.
However, no matter how he felt, he still listened to Shi Qingluo that he wouldn’t catch the wolf without risking a child.
A sacrifice was necessary before he could enjoy greater benefits.
After ordering a few dishes, he took the letter back to the general’s residence with his younger brother.
With Shi Qingluo’s reminder, even though he was sluggish, Eldest Grandson Xiao recently discovered that someone was following him.
This also confirmed how powerful Shi Qingluo was. Thus, he suppressed his thoughts of going to the courier station himself so as to save money.
After returning to the general’s residence, he did not immediately visit Old Lady Xiao.
Instead, he held back his impatience and returned to his room to stay for a while before going to dinner.
After Ge Chunru was done serving Old Lady Xiao and his uncle left, he pretended that he wanted to coax Old Lady Xiao to ask for money and chased the servant girl out.
Shi Qingluo taught him this too.
Because of this, even the shrewd Xiao Yuanshi and Ge Chunru did not notice anything wrong.
After the servant girl left, Eldest Grandson Xiao took out the letter.
He said in a low voice, “Grandma, the wretched girl’s letter has arrived. Shall I read it to you?”
Old Lady Xiao had been feeling extremely sullen recently.
Although she had dealt with that vixen repeatedly, Ge Chunru was becoming more and more difficult to handle.
Especially regarding the storeroom, she had a faint premonition that the two beasts were holding back their most powerful moves to deal with them.
Now that she heard this, her eyes immediately lit up. “Quickly read it out!”
The others could not help but come over.
After Eldest Grandson Xiao finished reading, Old Lady Xiao couldn’t help but pat her leg. “Okay.”
That girl was really bad, but they liked her.
Old Lady Xiao ordered again, “My eldest son, tomorrow you will do as this girl says.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Those two animals want to send us back, so we don’t have to give them face.”
She wasn’t stupid. After spending so much time together, she knew the two unfilial bastards inside out.
She knew that they were trying their best to teach them a lesson.
It was a pity that they couldn’t do anything even if they were anxious. They had been on tenterhooks the entire time.
To them, Shi Qingluo’s idea was a timely rain!