Allure of a Country Maiden-Chapter 204 - 202: How to Appreciate

"I am indeed fearful of famine years, but if fewer people die, that will be the truth. In the future, a lot more common folk will have enough to eat." The emperor sighed.

"An acre of land can yield nearly two thousand pounds a year, my family has three acres of land. That’s at least five thousand pounds of grain a year. My family has ten members, erm, can someone help me calculate how much grain we can consume in a day? This number is too complex for me to calculate."

"You can consume at least thirteen pounds and six taels of grain every day." Xiao’er replied with a beaming smile. Her calculation was a conservative estimation.

The emperor turned to look at Xiao’er upon hearing this. How did the Countess of Rui’an come up with such a calculation instantly, without any deliberation?

Not just the emperor, but also the two young masters of the Admiralty and Huang Wei looked at Xiao’er in surprise, and then hurriedly did their own mental calculations to check if she had made a mistake.

"Thirteen pounds and six taels, that’s enough for a large family to eat for more than ten days!"

"Next year, you won’t have to save so much. Just eat until your belly is full," Xiao’er laughed.

"Yes, yes..."

This time, most of the villagers followed in planting the winter wheat. Only a few households believed it would not be possible for the crops to survive the cold weather, combined with the fact that they were lazy, they did not plant anything. Now, these households were pleading with Shen Chengyao to remember to reserve some wheat seeds for them.

Seeing this, everyone began to rush over to place their orders for wheat seeds.

"Shen Lao-san, I want two pounds of wheat seeds. You must remember to set some aside for me!"

"I want five pounds, I need to buy an extra two pounds for my maternal family!"

"How could I forget about my father-in-law’s household? I also need to buy an extra three pounds. Brother Chengyao, remember this for me."

"Yes, my maternal family also needs some. You must remember..."

"Go, go, go, people in the village have not finished buying yet, and you’re already buying for your maternal family! Go away quickly! Brother Chengyao, I want..."

"I have just rented an additional five acres of farmland. I need more wheat seeds for my family!"

"Right, why did I not think of that? Where else can I rent land? I also need to rent more, so I need an extra two pounds of wheat seeds!"

...

As the villagers surged forward, the scene became somewhat chaotic. Huang Wei and the two young masters of the Admiralty Guards quickly moved to protect the emperor and the two princes.

"Mr. Shangguan, why don’t we go back first?"

The sun was getting stronger and the Emperor had many imperial memorials to handle every day. He couldn’t keep watching this and just nodded in agreement.

On the way back to Shen Chengyao’s house, the emperor was excited, his feelings not calming down for a long time.

He was thrilled and excited about the high yield of the rice, but not compared to this time.

This time, he was on the spot, witnessing the cheers, the jumps, the tears of joy of the commoners.

The feeling of rejoicing with the people was truly overwhelming!

Back in the house, the emperor sat on the sofa and invited everyone else to sit down with a smile.

"Haha... Marquis Shengping has once again made great contributions this time. What rewards do you think we should give him?"

No one spoke initially. Those with great achievements were generally promoted and given higher ranks.

Marquis Shengping is already noble as a Marquis, according to the rules, rewarding ranks is the limit.

"Or reward him with fertile land, a mansion, silver, etc." Huang Wei, who originated from a farmer’s family, felt these were more practical. If rewards were given that could only be looked at and not used, what’s the use of displaying them every day? Nobody has time to do that. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

"My Son thinks that since a kind of rice and wheat seed needs to be bred every year and Marquis Shengping is so outstanding in farming, I think we can set up a new position for the minister of agriculture, let him manage the national granary and the distribution of grains, encourage farming and conduct researches on agriculture." Shangguan Xuanyi said.

"Minister of Agriculture?" The emperor heard this and began to ponder its feasibility.

Marquis Shengping has studied, but he isn’t even a student, if we confer him such an official title, those in court.....

"I’m afraid that there would be objections from the ministers in court!" The emperor also wanted to do this, but he had to find a way to silence the various ministers in the court.

"My son believes that an official should do his job and achieve his task! All official positions should be held by the capable, the incapable ones would ruin things even if put in the right place!" Shangguan Xuanyi proclaimed candidly.

"My son also believes that this approach is feasible. Farming is the foundation of a country. If the national granary has no grain, the country will be shaky. Surely it has to be held by the capable." Shangguan Xuanhao also spoke.

After spending several days with Shen Chengyao, it was clear from his conversations that he was not an ignorant fool.

Besides, there are countless officials in our dynasty. A large number of them got their positions based on relationship. This is not even counting.

What’s more, the current great minister of agriculture does not have any considerable achievements. Not to mention the national granaries, whenever there is a disaster in a region, they always ask for grain from the national granary, move grain from the granaries of regions without disasters, seven or eight times out of ten; they say there isn’t much left, or that the stored grain has run out!

"I also think it’s feasible. Look at the military operations, people who have read a lot of military books may not necessarily win if they don’t have the experience to fight battles! Armchair strategizing doesn’t work." Zhao Youhe, the second master of the Admiralty, said.

"In this field, just relying on knowledge from books, from people who haven’t even cultivated land, I don’t think they could do a great job promoting agriculture!" Zhao Youwei nodded in agreement.

"How important the national granary is during these times of external worries and internal troubles, the person in charge must be honest and sincere. I think Marquis Shengping is indeed worthy!"

"You guys write a memorial about this matter, and we will discuss it when we return to the court...." The emperor thought about the stack of memorials delivered this morning and got up to return to his study to deal with them.

These people who often accompanied the emperor knew that when the Emperor said this, it meant there was a chance!

When Shen Chengyao returned, everyone congratulated him, leaving him completely bewildered.

It was Doctor Luo who kindly reminded him that there would be a reward from the emperor.

Shen Chengyao didn’t mind, thinking it would be the fertile land, gold, or silver.

If he knew it was an official position, he definitely would have found a way to refuse.

The emperor originally said that he would leave after watching the wheat harvest. He had other matters and needed to continue his journey south.

But when he finished dealing with the imperial memorials and came out for a walk.

Little Xi’er, holding two paper planes folded from wedding invitations, suddenly threw them towards the emperor’s feet.

The emperor bent down to pick them up and found they were two wedding invitations.

When he opened them, he found they were invitations to the wedding of Ming Zhijie and Lai Zhewei. Both of them were getting married on the same day, the day after tomorrow.

Lai Zhewei and Ming Zhijie, one got the second place, and the other got third in the imperial examinations, and were appointed by him directly. Both of these individuals were being prepared for future significant usage.

Did they rush to get married before they took office?

Moreover, it had been a long time since he attended someone else’s wedding.

"Mr. Shangguan, give it to me, the bride!" Little Xi’er walked up to the emperor and tugged at his robe, pointing at the invitation in his hand.

"The bride? Do you know what a bride is?"

"Yes, the bride, the prettiest."

The bride is the prettiest? That’s right! Isn’t a woman’s prettiest day when she is a bride?

"Is that so, Xi’er?" The emperor squatted down and picked her up into his arms.

"Mhm." Xi’er wasn’t shy, she naturally curled up in his arms and nodded.

"I want to go to the wedding feast too, can you take me?"

"Okay, let’s go and watch the bride together." Xi’er clapped her little hands happily.

The emperor laughed, "The bride is usually covered by a veil. We can’t see her. Let’s watch the groom instead!"

"Groom...a boy?"

"Right."

"Is he handsome?" She wouldn’t watch if he wasn’t good looking.

"Handsome?" What description is that?

"If he’s handsome, I’ll watch!" Little Xi’er nodded decisively. Her sister said that only handsome boys are worth watching.