Chapter 554: Great Aspiration
Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Yangling insisted on planting sweet potatoes because Chen Ming had bought a lot of noodles during the new year. Only then did Mu Yangling think of sweet potato noodles.
Sweet potatoes were indeed not easy to preserve, but if they were made into sweet potato powder, they could be kept for a long time after drying.
Even if they could not eat this for every single meal, alternating it with coarse grains would greatly relieve the shortage of grains.
Only then did Mu Yangling remember that in the past, she had always been focused on how to grow grains and increase the production of grains, but she had forgotten to develop the ways to eat various foods. For example, corn could not only be crushed to make porridge, but it could also be crushed into corn flour to make corn buns and pancakes.
Although she did not know if they needed to add other flour or something, considering there were so many people in this world, surely someone could figure it out?
It was as if a door to a new world had opened in front of Mu Yangling. Unfortunately, she was not a standard foodie. Otherwise, she might know more ways to eat.
As Mu Yangling insisted on planting sweet potatoes, the village chief and junior officer could only buy them. Since there was still some time before the seeds were planted, they could nurture them at home first.
As sweet potatoes came from Fuzhou, it was said to be a product from overseas. Although it had only been 20 years, it had already spread to Jiangnan.
Most people plant them in the vegetable garden. Humans could eat the tender shoots on the vines, and the rest could be used to feed the pigs and chickens. As they grew quickly, they had always been loved by families who raised poultry.
As for sweet potatoes, everyone liked to eat them too, both raw and cooked ones. For a period of time, people even ate this thing as grains because it was much tastier than chaff and easier to grow. Furthermore, there was no need to convert forestland. They took the vines and directly dug the soil behind the house to plant them. In just a few days, they would start to grow. In addition, the sweet potatoes harvested did not need to be taxed.
Therefore, for two years, everyone liked to plant this thing and eat it every day. Although it made people fart, no one minded.
However, not long after, everyone felt a ball of fire in their stomachs. It was as uncomfortable as if something was burning their hearts. Not understanding that this was caused by too much gastric acid, they’d only felt that they might be seriously ill and about to die.
It was at this moment that everyone realized that it was not good to eat too much sweet potatoes.
For the next year, no one was willing to touch sweet potatoes, afraid that they were poisonous. Someone even found a doctor to repeatedly confirm that this thing was not poisonous before starting to plant it again, but they did not dare to eat more.
Therefore, everyone was very surprised to hear that the village chief wanted to buy so many sweet potatoes and vines to plant.
With so many sweet potatoes planted, would the vines be wasted?
However, when they thought about how they were farming the wasteland to pay interest, they became indifferent. In fact, planting sweet potatoes meant that there was less work to do there, and there was no need for them to farm meticulously. After planting them, they just had to plow the land once and pluck the grass. Also, it required less fertilizer.
Li Jinghua did not know anything about farming, so she could not understand Mu Yangling’s excitement. “For a family like ours, we just have to leave farming to the servants. Why do we have to do it ourselves?”
Mu Yangling said with a smile, “Sister-in-law, my dream is to eliminate hunger in the famine years. This can’t be achieved just by blindly converting forestland and farming. The most important thing is to increase production. Otherwise, in the future, when the population increases and we reclaim more wasteland, the commoners might not be able to fill their stomachs. It’s just that many people think like Sister-in-law and completely hand over farming to the servants and tenant farmers. They have no desire to improve further, so the development of agriculture is so slow.”
Li Jinghua was stunned for a moment. Then, she shook her head and said, “For thousands of years, even saints can’t achieve that. How can we do it?”
“Regardless of whether I can do it or not, I’ve put in the effort and won’t regret it in the future. Moreover, I’m still young. I still have 50 to 60 years ahead. Even if I take a small step forward every 10 years, after 50 to 60 years I’d have taken a big step forward.”
Li Jinghua couldn’t help but laugh out loud. She tapped Mu Yangling’s forehead and said with a smile, “I didn’t expect you to have such ambitions. You actually want to live to be 70 or 80 years old.” Mu Yangling was 17 years old this year. Wouldn’t she be almost 80 years old in 50 to 60 years’ time?
“Sister-in-law, you’re focusing on the wrong thing.” Mu Yangling glared at her. “My ambition is in agriculture. What’s so difficult about living till 70 or 80 years old?”
Although the average lifespan in this world was very short, Mu Yangling was wealthy. In some aspects, they paid more attention to health than in the modern world. Although the level of medical treatment was very low, she did not think that it would be difficult for her to live to 80 years old. On the contrary, she did not know if she could achieve her goal in agriculture in her lifetime.
However, Li Jinghua completely treated Mu Yangling’s aspirations in agriculture as a child’s dream. This was because over the past few hundred years, although the yield per acre of grains had also slowly improved, and the farming techniques were also slowly improving, it was completely impossible to achieve zero hunger in the famine years.
How could a famine year be called a famine year without famine?
Even in a prosperous era, no one could ensure that the people would not starve. Although Li Jinghua was a young lady from a wealthy family and did not know much about farming, she had seen the accounts of her family’s farm. She knew how much the yield per acre was. With that kind of production, unless the Imperial Court did not collect taxes and could ensure that every family had enough fields, there would still be many starving people even in a prosperous era.
However, Li Jinghua did not expect that Mu Yangling would walk further and further down this path in the future. In addition, she would let the future generations continue along her path. In less than a hundred years, she would achieve her dream of zero hunger in the famine years.
At night, Mu Yangling lowered her head and wrote her agricultural plan on the table. The more she wrote, the more excited she became. There had never been a time when Mu Yangling yearned more for Qi Xiuyuan’s rebellion to succeed.
Should Qi Xiuyuan become the Emperor, she would be considered a member of the royal family. It would be much more convenient for her to do anything.
After writing the agricultural plan, Mu Yangling took out the map and started to fill in the map with the information obtained by Guard One. Then, she circled a few places. She wondered when Qi Xiuyuan and Qi Haoran would be able to take down these places and clean up the Jiangnan area. They should be able to return to Lin’an City then.
At this moment, Qi Haoran kicked Fei Bai away with bloodshot eyes and roared, “Prepare a horse for me!”
Fei Bai spat out a mouthful of blood and scrambled forward to hug Qi Haoran’s leg. He begged, “Master, Master, you can’t leave. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the entire army are all watching you. If you leave, there will be no leader. Eldest Master, Eldest Master is still counting on you to attack the enemy from both sides with him.”
Qi Haoran lowered his head and looked at him coldly, his gaze like a knife. He gritted his teeth and said, “Let go. I told you to let go.”
“Master, get Zhan Yu to bring people to save Fourth Madam and the others…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Qi Haoran kicked Fei Bai out again. This time, a cracking sound came from Fei Bai’s chest as his ribs broke.
Enduring the pain, he got up and looked over. He saw Zhan Yu standing behind Qi Haoran and knocking him out with a palm.
Fei Bai heaved a sigh of relief. He knew that Zhan Yu succeeded only because the Fourth Master had let his guard down in his grief and anger. Not daring to relax, he hurriedly said, “Quickly help the Little General back to the tent and get someone to guard him strictly. Zhan Yu, immediately bring people to speedily rush over to save Fourth Madam. Hurry!”