Chapter 71: Chapter 70 Vegetable Planting Experiment Chapter 71: Chapter 70 Vegetable Planting Experiment “How are the revenues of the needlework workshop lately?” Returning to the study in the government office, Yang Zhenshan continued to inquire.
“The income has declined, especially after the news of defeat beyond the wall came, and the walled city closed its gates. The cloth shoes we made haven’t even been sold yet!” Old Li said while pulling out the accounts book and the silver chest to hand over to Yang Zhenshan.
Before heading beyond the wall, Yang Zhenshan had taken on several orders for the needlework workshop to sew clothing. Although the profits were not very high, it was still a decent source of revenue.
As for cloth shoes, with the army setting off on a campaign, nearly all the soldiers from the city had followed the troops, greatly impacting the business of selling shoes.
Yang Zhenshan casually flipped through the accounts book and then put it down.
“Don’t stop the needlework workshop; it doesn’t matter if the shoes can’t be sold right now, store them and sell them later!”
“Let’s do this, change the pattern in the future. No longer wait until the shoes are sold before settling the silver with everyone. Settle and distribute silver to everyone on a regular monthly basis!” Yang Zhenshan thought for a moment and then said.
The needlework workshop still had some silver, which could be considered entirely his, but also belonged to the whole workshop.
However, Yang Zhenshan didn’t care much about this amount of money, so he did not put it in his own purse, always using it to subsidize military households.
After giving a few simple orders, Yang Zhenshan went back to rest in his room.
During their time beyond the wall, they lived in constant fear and trepidation, never sleeping well through the night. Now finally back, Yang Zhenshan’s mind and spirit had relaxed, allowing him to have a restful sleep.
An early night meant an early rise.
The next day at dawn, the sky was still not bright when Yang Zhenshan woke up.
Lying on a kang covered with a grass mat, he turned his head to look at the dimly lit sky outside the window, his mind stirred, he immersed himself in the Spiritual Spring Space.
Since returning from the expedition, aside from using the spring water, he had rarely paid attention to the changes in the Spiritual Spring Space. Counting the days, it had been more than a month since he last entered the Spiritual Spring Space.
In a month’s time, the Spiritual Spring Space had expanded significantly, the originally finger-wide black-brown soil now spanned more than a meter in width.
The black-brown soil surrounded the stone pool, covering an area of about a dozen square meters.
Yang Zhenshan crouched down, pinching the dark soil, lost in thought.
Could this soil be used for planting?
He had suspected as much before but had no time to verify this while staying beyond the wall.
Now finally having some free time, he was determined to experiment.
Since it was an experiment, he needed a baseline for comparison.
With that thought, Yang Zhenshan immediately set out to act.
After getting up and dressed, and performing a simple wash, Yang Zhenshan took some vegetable seeds from the storage room in the government office.
Previously, to have military households plant vegetables, the government office specially purchased a batch of vegetable seeds from the walled city, including Chinese cabbage, radishes, leeks, green beans, and gourds.
Yang Zhenshan took some of each and planted them in the Spiritual Spring Space.
For the sake of comparison, he divided the land in the Spiritual Spring Space into two parts: one part was watered with river water from outside, and the other part with spring water from the pool.
Spiritual Spring Water had nourishing effects on both humans and animals, but he had never used it on plants.
Previously, because there was not much Spiritual Spring Water, he had to use it sparingly. Now that there was more of it, he could afford to be a bit extravagant.
After a busy morning, Yang Zhenshan finally got all the vegetable seeds planted.
At this time, everyone had also returned from their morning exercises, and a few women had already prepared breakfast.
Yang Mingwu, Yang Chengche, and others without families at Linguan Castle did not have separate residences arranged for them by Yang Zhenshan, but instead, they lived in a communal dormitory.
The communal dormitory was located behind the government office. It was a large courtyard with a room for each person. Although it was a bit basic, it was still their own private space.
Everyone shared communal meals and training, to avoid wasting time on daily chores, Yang Zhenshan also hired a few women to take care of the meals.
Of course, Yang Zhenshan shared meals with them as well.
Breakfast was simple: each person had a bowl of millet porridge, an egg, several plates of pickles and salted meat, and cornbread to fill them up.
All of them were young lads, not picky eaters at all. In no time, they had wiped clean the table of food.
After breakfast, everyone plunged into a flurry of activity.
They had just returned, and there were many matters awaiting their attention.
Stepping out of the government office, Yang Zhenshan was hit with a foul, sour stench.
It was truly horrendous, almost making him vomit out his recently consumed breakfast.
Yesterday, they had brought back over three hundred head of cattle and mules. The garrison’s stables and cowsheds couldn’t accommodate them all, so for the time being, they were tied up in the training ground.
A night had passed, and those creatures were wholly unabashed in relieving themselves everywhere, as one might imagine.
Looking at the orderly rows of grain carts in the training ground and the busy-busy cattle and mules, Yang Zhenshan couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on.
When they had been hauled back yesterday, he was filled with joy.
So many cattle and mules, so much grain and fodder, this was definitely a tidy sum of money.
But looking at it today, this was a damn hassle.
The stuff was in his possession, and he could use it as he pleased, but the problem was, none of it was his.
The grain and fodder belonged to the Left Camp, consuming it was no issue, but selling it was out of the question.
The cattle, mules, and grain carts were all property of the Governor’s Office. Temporarily keeping them was not an issue, but sooner or later, he had to give the Governor’s Office an explanation.
When the time came, he could overstate some numbers, but he certainly couldn’t keep everything at the garrison.
“Old Li, Old Li!”
Yang Zhenshan stood in front of the government office, shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Sir!”
Very promptly, Old Li briskly walked out of the government office.
“Are all the granaries filled up?” Yang Zhenshan asked.
“Sir, they are all filled!” Old Li, looking at the line of grain carts, was so happy that his mouth almost split to his ears.
So much grain that their granaries could not contain it all.
Not just full, but in fact, only a fraction had been stored.
“Go, distribute three dan of grain to each household, as a reward for their service in battle!”
“Also, get some people to build more stables and cowsheds!”
Yang Zhenshan generously ordered.
With so much grain and so many cattle and mules, naturally, he intended to keep some for himself.
He had already decided, he would give half of the grain to Zhou Lan and keep half for himself. As for the cattle and mules, he would retain twenty head, and the rest were to be handed over to Zhou Lan.
These cattle and mules can’t be slaughtered or sold, they’re a burden to keep, so it’s better to leave them to Zhou Lan to deal with.
In fact, Linguan Castle had quite a large area. One hundred military households lived there very comfortably. Not only was there ample space for a large training ground, but also a lot of spare land.
If more stables and cowsheds were built, it would not be a problem to accommodate so many cattle and mules.
But keeping so many cattle and mules would require people to tend to their daily needs and consume a great deal of fodder.
The truth was, Linguan Castle really couldn’t afford to keep them.
“Alright, old man will get on it right away!”
Old Li joyfully responded.
Though he held no official position at Linguan Castle, Yang Zhenshan always relied on him as the chief steward. Even Yang Minghao ran errands under his watch.
Old Li was actually quite capable, with considerable experience in managing various affairs, it was just that he had bad legs, limping as he walked.