Chapter 553: Sweet Potato
Editor: Atlas Studios
It wasn’t that Li Jinghua didn’t let Little Treasure and Little Bear play together in the past and didn’t care about Mu Yangling, but now, she was a little enthusiastic. Mu Yangling suddenly realized that even Spring had noticed it. That confirmed her own feelings about the matter.
Li Jinghua was very fond of Little Bear. Moreover, there was nothing wrong with Little Treasure and Little Bear having a good relationship, so she often let the two children play together. However, she did not let them do whatever they wanted. For example, previously she rarely let Little Treasure nap or sleep in Little Bear’s room. But these days, as long as Little Treasure asked, she would let him go over to sleep with Little Bear.
Her relationship with Mu Yangling was also pretty good in the past, but she acted as more of an elder sister-in-law. Unlike now, Li Jinghua was still good to Mu Yangling, but she was more enthusiastic than before.
Mu Yangling thought of the current situation and understood. Instead of explaining it to Spring, she only said, “Since I’m still young, there’s nothing wrong with Sister-in-law showing more concern for me.”
Qi Xiuyuan had already occupied half of the land. In addition, Qi Haoran had taken back two-thirds of the states from the West Xia army.
If Qi Xiuyuan ascended the throne, Little Treasure might become the future Crown Prince, and Qi Xiuyuan would definitely have more sons. Qi Haoran’s love for Little Treasure would be a strong support for Little Treasure.
And Mu Yangling and her child was one factor that could influence Qi Haoran.
Mu Yangling was not sad. She just felt that the world was changing.
Regardless of what motive Li Jinghua had for treating her better, she would not tell the servants lest Spring and the others looked down on Li Jinghua.
Mu Yangling adjusted her mentality and accepted Li Jinghua’s goodwill towards her. She did not reject her intention to bring Little Treasure and Little Bear closer together.
Li Jinghua’s smile deepened when she saw this. She said to Wen Cui, “Everyone says that Ah Ling isn’t tactful, but I think her magnanimity is enough to subdue everything.”
Wen Cui did not understand, and Li Jinghua did not explain further. She only sighed in her heart. If she were Mu Yangling, even if she did not become arrogant, she would still be slightly annoyed. However, seeing how Mu Yangling was treating her now, she felt that Mu Yangling was even more tolerant.
Thinking of this, although Li Jinghua continued to be enthusiastic towards Mu Yangling, it was now more genuine. This, however, made Mu Yangling feel a little puzzled.
However, she was not in the mood to investigate further because the snow had begun to melt. Once the snow melted, they would have to start planting crops. Everyone was about to start preparing seeds when the village chief came looking for them and asked Mu Yangling what she planned to plant in the wasteland.
After all, they had agreed that Mu Yangling had the final say in the planting.
Mu Yangling asked Chen Ming to take out a bag of sweet potatoes and open it for the junior officer and village chief to see.
The two of them were surprised. “Isn’t this sweet potato?”
Mu Yangling nodded. “I want you guys to plant this.”
The village chief said in a dilemma, “Fourth Madam, this thing is eaten as a vegetable. If you plant this on more than a hundred acres of wasteland, we can’t finish all of it either. This is easy to plant but not easy to preserve. When winter comes, the vines will all die. Even if we don’t dig it out, the stem will rot.”
Mu Yangling nodded. “I know. You guys just have to plant it and sell it to me later. It’s just that I don’t have many vines and stems of sweet potatoes here, so each family has to fork out some. If not, I’ll have to ask the village chief to help me look for them. I’ll fork out money to buy them, but as for the actual buying…”
The village chief and junior officer hurriedly said, “Fourth Madam, don’t worry. Leave the matter to us.”
Only then did Mu Yangling nod slightly and say regretfully, “Actually, it’s not bad to plant corn in that wasteland. Although the land is a little thin, corn is resistant to drought and cold. It’s better than sweet potatoes. After planting it for two to three years, the land will become much more fertile.”
Junior Officer smiled bitterly. “Fourth Madam, you’re only saying that because you lived in the north. It’s too difficult for us in the south to get corn seeds. Only those rich families can get hold of them and plant some.”
Anger flashed across Mu Yangling’s face. “Corn has been planted for several years. Considering the excellent climate in the south, one can plant two batches a year. Logically speaking, since corn can’t compare to wheat, rice, and millet, it’s fine even if it flows out. Why are those aristocratic families holding it in their hands and not letting them flow out?”
Mu Yangling couldn’t be blamed for being angry. She didn’t know about it while she was in the north in the past, but she only learned about it when she arrived in the south. Back then, after that batch of seeds was distributed to the Imperial Plantation, the families of the aristocratic families and officials, very few of the corn seeds planted subsequently could flow into the hands of the commoners.
Not to mention the Imperial Plantation, the aristocratic families and officials would hand over the limited seeds they had obtained to the farms to plant and strictly prohibit them from leaking the seeds. Once they were discovered to be hiding corn seeds or stealing them, their entire family would be beaten to death. It could be said to be extremely strict.
If they had done that the first year to preserve more seeds, what about the second year, the third year, until now?
There was corn sold in the grain store, but it was all crushed. The price was cheaper than flour and rice, yet it was more expensive than coarse grain.
As they were all crushed, most ordinary people did not have any connections, so they had not been able to plant corn all these years.
Even ordinary landlords did not have corn seeds to plant.
What puzzled Mu Yangling was that although the grain stores in the north, such as Xingzhou Prefecture, Hanzhong Prefecture, and Lin’an Prefecture sold whole seeds, the quantity was little. However, for some reason, merchants traveling between the south and the north did not dare to sell corn seeds.
Mu Yangling didn’t know if Qi Xiuyuan was involved. After all, if the south could farm corn, there might be fewer people rebelling.
Although there were also people who starved in the north, the situation was much better than in the south which had an excellent climate. There were even fewer rebellions.
After Mu Yangling arrived in Lin’an City, she had also planted corn in her own farmstead. At first, it was for experimentation. Later on, she also did that to spread the seeds. However, when she ordered Zhu Liang to sell the corn she planted, Zhu Liang only ground the corn before selling it, or transported the seeds back to the north to sell to the West Camp. Even the farms closest to their farmstead did not have any corn to plant.
This was also the reason why Mu Yangling suspected Qi Xiuyuan. After that, Mu Yangling no longer cared about this matter. At this moment, she was only angry for a moment before picking up the sweet potato and saying, “This thing isn’t just eaten as a vegetable, but it can also be used as grains.”
“We know that.” The village chief was not surprised at all. “Sweet potatoes can indeed fill one’s stomach when cooked, but if you eat too much, your stomach will swell. Not only will it cause one to emit sour gas, and it will result in heartburn. We don’t dare to eat too much of it.”
Junior Officer smacked his lips. “Why else would people say that corn is good? Not only can that thing fill our stomachs, the production yield is also very high. I heard that they even make corn flour now. I bought it and asked my wife to bake pancakes with it. They turned out quite delicious. Although it’s a little thick, it’s not inferior to coarse flour at all. It’s a pity that we can’t get our hands on the seeds.”
The junior officer and village chief looked at Mu Yangling with some desire and asked carefully, “Isn’t Fourth Madam from the north? I heard that they don’t restrict the sale of seeds there.”
Mu Yangling said, “I can buy seeds, but it’s too chaotic outside now. Even if I buy them, I won’t be able to transport them over. If you want to plant them, you have to wait until next year. This year, we can only plant this first.”
It wasn’t that they couldn’t transport it over, but that it would cause too much of a commotion. Mu Yangling didn’t dare to make a big commotion now because she was afraid that others would discover their whereabouts.
“You can also plant wheat…” The village chief tried his best to persuade her.
It was true that one couldn’t eat too much sweet potatoes. Otherwise, they would be happy to plant more. If Mu Yangling refused to accept them after the sweet potatoes were harvested, they could only be left to rot at home. It would be a waste of effort.