Female-to-male: I live on farming

Chapter 93 Spring Ploughing Ends

After visiting the terraced fields and water wheels, the princess set off to return to Cangwu City. After all, she was busy with work and it was impossible for her to stay here all the time.

Taiyuan and Wuwei are the counties closest to Cangwu City. After this period of time, all the villages in the two counties suitable for building terraces have been completed or are under construction. Qin Ke has also inspected some of them. The remaining statistics on the specific increase in cultivated land area will depend on the local county government.

The Shaoqing and the Zhishi of the Sinong Department, who already had experience in building terraces, were both officials assigned to the Sinong Department. Strictly speaking, they were all subordinate officials of Qin Ke. They were sent by Qin Ke to inspect other counties in Liangzhou to see if they could also build terraces.

As for the remaining Si Nong Qing, Qin Ke taught them how to grow potatoes. They should cut the selected potatoes into pieces and sprinkle wood ash on the cut surfaces to speed up the healing of the potato wounds. As long as they are placed in a slightly humid place, they will sprout soon.

Potatoes need loose and breathable soil, so the soil still needs to be turned deeper. The ministers of agriculture are all very experienced in growing grain. Even if they are not familiar with unfamiliar crops such as potatoes, they can get started with just a brief explanation from Qin Ke.

The ten acres of potatoes brought from Qinghe Village were all seeds that Qin Ke had reserved in advance. They were distributed to various counties as a political task, and the Minister of Agriculture would go there in person to guide the planting. Perhaps each county did not receive many seeds, but after Qin Ke learned about the climatic conditions in Liangzhou, he believed that potatoes could be planted twice a year here.

In other words, the potatoes planted during the spring plowing period can be planted again after the autumn harvest. In this way, the entire Liangzhou can be self-sufficient in potato seeds without having to wait until next year.

After arranging the planting of potatoes, Qin Ke finally had time to look at his own farm.

Han Qi and his team already had experience with crops such as watermelons and tomatoes that had been planted in Qinghe Village before, so Qin Ke didn't need to worry about it. However, they had never seen cotton and sweet potatoes, which were completely new crops, and they didn't even know what they would look like after they sprouted and bore fruit. Therefore, they could only follow the planting instructions left by Qin Ke and proceed carefully step by step.

When Qin Ke arrived at the farm, he found that in addition to Han Qi and the farm manager, Li Nanqiao's mother was also there.

"Aunt, why are you here?"

Li's mother was planting rice seedlings with Han Qi in the field. When she saw him coming, she stood up and said with a smile, "Mr. Qin, you are back."

"Well," Qin Ke returned to Cangwu City without even having time to change his clothes, thinking about the sweet potato seedlings, and went straight to the farm, "Your health is not good, so don't do these things."

"I can't sit still either. You are all busy with official duties, and I can't help you much. But I have been farming for half my life, so I wanted to come and help."

Qin Ke thought about it and agreed. Among those who moved here from Qinghe Village, Li Nanqiao went on a business trip to Xihai with his wife, and he took Lei Zhong to Taiyuan County. The maids and servants in the house were all unfamiliar faces. Only Han Qi was familiar to her.

"I don't know how Nanqiao is doing in Xihai now?" Ever since Li Nanqiao left, Li's mother's heart has been entirely on her.

A mother worries about her child even when he is far away. This has been the case since ancient times.

"My wife wrote back before, saying that they have arrived safely in the West Sea and everything is fine. There is no need to worry, aunt." Qin Ke consoled.

"I know that Nan Qiao is going to do great things with Madam Lu."

Seeing that she was open-minded, Qin Ke felt relieved.

The farm manager and his servants have already finished planting the cotton seeds. Before he left, the sweet potato seeds had just begun to sprout, and now the seedlings have grown. It seems that Han Qi has been very dedicated during this period of time.

There are two ways to transplant sweet potato seedlings: straight insertion and oblique insertion. The oblique insertion method allows the seeds to be planted deeper into the soil, is more convenient for cuttings, has a higher survival rate, and also has a higher yield than the straight insertion method. Therefore, Qin Ke decided to use the oblique insertion method to transplant the sweet potato seedlings. Now Han Qi is watching people transplant the seedlings into the field.

After a round of inspection, Qin Ke felt relieved to see that every link was going on in an orderly manner. He planned to go home and take a good bath. He had been busy these days and had not been able to sleep well every day. It felt like he hadn't had a good night's sleep for a long time.

Fortunately, there are maids and servants at home now. He only needs to say that he wants to take a bath, and they will prepare the hot water in a short time. Soaking in the warm bathtub, Qin Ke feels all the pores in his body are relaxed, and he sighs with contentment.

This is the life people should live. He heard that Gu Lanxi has already started to build a branch of Yao Chi Fairy Bath in Cangwu City. However, unlike Jinzhou, there are no suitable ready-made houses in Cangwu City, so it needs to be built from scratch.

But it's only April now, it's still early in winter, and there's plenty of time.

Gu Lanxi really does business wherever he goes.

Qin Ke sighed as he picked up a soapberry to wash his body. The soapberry is the fruit of the soapberry tree, a legume plant. After being mashed, it can be made into a ball and mixed with water to produce foam. This is the soap commonly used by ancient people to wash their bodies and hair, which can refresh and remove odors.

But it is definitely not as good as modern soap. It seems that making soap should be added to his list.

Thinking of the list, Qin Ke did what he said and stepped out of the bathtub. Water dripped from his wet long hair. He casually wrapped himself in a loose white robe and wiped his hair gently. It was early spring now and the weather was warm. He only wiped it for a while and let his wet long hair hang down behind him.

Qin Ke didn't like others entering his and Lu Youqing's private space, so the inner courtyard was empty except for the maid who came to clean in the morning.

He just sat there by himself, not caring about his image. He just sat at the desk with his hair disheveled and started making a list.

Now that spring plowing is about to end, he is ready to start the next plan. After all, agriculture can only provide people with food and clothing, and if they want to become rich and revitalize the economy, they still cannot do without the development of business.

In other words, the ancients believed that among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants were the lowest and therefore they were unwilling to engage in any of these occupations.

However, Qin Ke felt that those wealthy and powerful families were not stupid. Who doesn't have farms, estates and shops? Their extremely luxurious life was not enough just by relying on their salaries, but they just didn't publicize it to the outside world.

Basic business is inseparable from food, clothing, housing and transportation, so Qin Ke plans to start from there.

There are some things Qin Ke can do by himself, but there are some things Qin Ke cannot touch. There is a line here that he needs to grasp by himself.

But before doing these things, Qin Ke still had something important to do.

So ten days later, Jin Yang looked at the business development plan that Qin Ke handed over, flipped through it roughly, and after pondering for a while, he said, "I will consider this matter."

"Then Your Highness, now that the spring ploughing has ended, all that's left is to take care of it on time. The Ministry of Agriculture is free these days, so I think..."

Before Qin Ke finished speaking, Jin Yang looked at him with a half-smile and said, "You want to take a leave?"

Qin Ke coughed lightly with some embarrassment and nodded sheepishly. Why did he feel like the princess knew everything?

Jinyang didn't need to guess, Qin Ke's expression was obvious, and anyone could guess what he was doing on leave. However, he worked hard for the spring ploughing, and he became much thinner, with slightly protruding cheekbones and a more distinct jawline.

"I agree. It's a good opportunity for you to go and check on the current situation in Xihai County for me."

Qin Ke, whose thoughts were guessed, scratched his head embarrassedly.