CHAPTER 119: CHAPTER 119: COULD THE MINISTER’S MANSION REALLY TEACH HER HOW TO FARM?

Half a month later, the cabbage also matured, and government officers came up the mountain daily to collect it. Zhang Feng looked at the cabbage covering the mountainside and had a heartfelt smile on his face.

Pei Shu’er might not know this, but her cabbage has solved an urgent crisis at the Gulan Mountain military camp.

Everyone has been eating cabbage during this time, but when the soldiers see the cabbage, they feel reassured.

Some soldiers even wiped away tears with hands covered in dirt.

"If only Miss Pei had come earlier, then my brother wouldn’t have starved to death."

"Same with my second brother. We even ate all the leaves in this area, gnawed at the bark, but so many people still died."

"A total of five thousand people starved to death, their bodies nothing but skin and bones when they died."

Thinking about this, everyone red-eyed while eating the cabbage, crying while they ate, yet lifting the corners of their mouths.

Living, is really great.

Truly great.

As long as we’re alive, as long as we have something to eat, we can still fight.

We can still guard Dayan’s borders.

This time, not a single person starved to death in the military camp.

Everyone’s stomachs may lack nourishment, without staple foods making them weak.

But as long as nobody dies, it’s the greatest fortune.

Gradually, the first batch of cabbage on the Deserted Mountain, a total planting of 24 acres, averaged a yield of 50,000 kilograms per acre, amounting to 120,000 kilograms of cabbage.

Such an astonishing figure, even if reported upwards, those above would likely think they were making false reports.

It’s simply too outrageous.

Past yields maxed at 800 kilograms per acre!

This is more than a sixfold increase.

The cabbage is so delicious that everyone eats it meal after meal, yet the soldiers are quite content; compared to tree roots, this cabbage is simply a delicacy.

However, the people on the Deserted Mountain have eaten to the point of being a bit fearful. They’re not like the third branch with Pei Shu’er, who thinks of different cabbage recipes every day; everything they eat is novel.

They simply know how to boil cabbage, boil cabbage, and boil cabbage.

Because the salt exchanged for the officials is expensive, they use it sparingly.

As for oil, it was consumed long ago.

So it’s just boiling vegetables in plain water.

Eating nothing but this for two months, how can anyone not get sick of it?

Right at this time, the green vegetables of the third branch matured.

The green vegetables grew tall but not old, still at their most tender when tasted.

Boiled green vegetables taste very good too, with a slight bitterness but mostly sweetness.

Everyone couldn’t stop eating them.

There are 2,000 kilograms of these green vegetables, 1,000 kilograms after taxes.

Pei Shu’er reserved 300 kilograms and made them into pickled vegetables, filling the yard with the scent of pickled and spicy cabbage.

The remaining 700 kilograms, 300 were kept for the third branch’s consumption.

Another 400 kilograms were placed in the central large house of the third branch, for everyone to exchange.

It became a simple store, usable with labor scores, skins, crops.

Then Pei Shu’er exchanged the items she collected, placing them in the store for everyone to trade. If she found something she wanted, she’d keep it.

The seed types she provided were not many, mainly cabbage, plus some sweet potatoes and potatoes, others weren’t necessary.

They couldn’t grow them effectively.

Just these few were easy to cultivate, not particular about the soil.

So, when the green vegetables were placed at the exchange spot, some households came to exchange with labor points.

"Give us twenty pounds of these greens, they taste refreshing and are great for replenishing energy when tired from work."

Of course, it’s good. These green vegetables were modern varieties improved for generations, rich in nutrients.

The green vegetables were traded within just one day, mostly exchanged with labor points and next with fur, hunted by everyone in the back mountain.

Once the green vegetables were finished, the potatoes in the field were ready to eat.

The potatoes Pei Shu’er had planted previously were ready for harvest, and when dug up from the ground, Yinxing took a step back.

There were eight potatoes attached to a single root, each as large as an adult man’s fist.

This was completely different from any potatoes she had seen before.

The potatoes she had seen before, even those bought by the Prince Mansion, at most reached the size of a ten-year-old child’s fist, and tasted watery, not very starchy.

Such large potatoes, let alone her, even Tang Zan had never seen.

Yan Hengyin was a bit stunned too, could Pei Shu’er grow such amazing things?

These were merely simple potatoes, how could they grow so large?

The more he interacted with Pei Shu’er, the more curious he became, she always seemed to know things that a noble young lady wouldn’t.

Could it be the Minister’s Mansion taught her how to farm?

Of course, Pei Shu’er wouldn’t tell everyone that her potato seeds were the best available.

After all, these were varieties improved after countless studies by antique experts from later generations.

She was only being humble, not daring to use the biggest variety, otherwise potatoes large enough for two men’s fists were possible.

Seeing such, everyone’s eyes might pop out.

Yet, she feared being considered a demon and burned alive.

Plus, with the Spiritual Spring Water and fertilizer.

These potatoes compared to reality were still a bit larger.

When officials came to collect taxes, seeing such large potatoes, their eyes lit up.

They were already sick of eating cabbage. Now, these large potatoes with high yield could sustain everyone for a long time.

Pei Shu’er smiled as she handed over cooked potatoes to the government officers, along with fermented bean curd made previously in the village, now just ready for eating.

The officers dipped and ate, smiling from ear to ear.

These potatoes were delicious, not watery but starchy.

And this fermented bean curd was tasty too, making them eat it all up, the two officers even used chopsticks to keep eating the fermented bean curd, savoring its aroma and spiciness with rice.

Eating it alone also has a unique flavor.

If paired with cabbage, who wouldn’t be happy?

Liu Xu signaled Yinxing, who understood and fetched a small thirty-centimeter-high wooden bucket, placing a cover on it, handing it to Liu Xu.

Liu Xu smiled as he presented the fermented bean curd: "My Lords, such a little treat, please take some back, it’s nothing valuable, just a spur-of-the-moment snack from Shu’er."

The two nodded, glad to interact with the Tang family’s third branch, this family gets it.

Once they ate and took enough, they started collecting taxes.

Pei Shu’er planted a total of two acres of potatoes as staple food, also planting some soybeans and rice, but it’s not yet harvest season.

Due to everyone’s careful tending, combined with Pei Shu’er’s Spiritual Spring Water and fertilizer, the attentive care paid off.

The potatoes’ yield per acre surprisingly reached 4000 kilograms, which even by modern standards is considered good.

In ancient times, such a yield would be jaw-dropping.

The officials were overjoyed, gleefully weighing and loading the 4000 kilograms of potatoes into large bags.

After filling up the carriages brought along, they left happily with those potatoes.