I was a god in the 18th century

Chapter 323 Fields and Poetry
Although Caroline looked down upon farming, Xia Qingdai found it quite interesting.

After the barbecue, Jian declined Xia Qingdai's invitation to dinner and proposed to go home first, so Xia Qingdai sent a carriage to take her there.

Although Fucui Villa was not far from the parsonage, since her stable was full of horses, she naturally wanted to let the horses run more.

After Jane left, Xia Qingdai, who had nothing to do and didn't want to go to music class with Miss Bai, ran to the wheat field to watch the farmers sow wheat seeds.

As a person who grew up in the city, Xia Qingdai was a little confused about the different types of grains. She just wanted to see how wheat should be grown.

The result was different from what she expected. The farmers here sowed seeds directly into the soil instead of planting seedlings.

When she was a child, she saw her grandparents planting rice on Wengsan Island. She knew that rice was generally planted by transplanting rice seedlings, and she thought that all crops were planted in the same way.

After watching for a while, she became interested and jumped off the ridge of the field to sow a small seed.

So what she called the fun of farming was only that it was a leisure activity for her, another form of poetry and distant places, and not something she was forced to do by life.

In the 18th century, between October and November, it was the wheat sowing season in Britain. The wheat would not sprout until winter, and would be harvested in mid-July of the following year, so it took a full half year to grow.

If there are several strong storms in the middle, such as the drought, wind disasters and floods this year, the harvest will be very poor.

Farmers who depend on the weather for their livelihood have to rely on God no matter how hard they work.

This was not only the case in Britain, but also in the whole world. The French Revolution was largely caused by the poor harvest, which made ordinary people unable to afford food.

The less food there is, the higher the price will be, and this will never change.

However, the market prices near Fucui Villa were quite stable. Owen knew that Xia Qingdai did not like a chaotic environment, so he released several batches of affordable "magic flour" to stabilize food prices and the surrounding environment.

If another squire dared to do this, the grain merchants would definitely put up some obstacles. But the owner of Fucui Villa did this, and the bigger the grain merchants, the more they stayed silent.

Compared with the gentry and common people who are out of touch with the news and whose farthest place they have ever been in their lives may be the nearby villages and towns, merchants are much more well-informed.

Especially the big grain merchants, often there are big landlords behind them.

Large landowners usually represent one party in the House of Lords, and many of their young sons also enter the House of Commons. Naturally, their sensitivity to information is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Everyone has more or less heard of the god of Fucui Villa, who buried an entire army, flooded the city of London, and destroyed Westminster Abbey. Who would dare to act rashly against the Owen family?

On the contrary, small and medium-sized grain traders may be ready to make some moves.

After Xia Qingdai finished sowing the wheat seeds in her hand, she clapped her hands and prepared to leave the wheat field.

Caroline was very unhappy with her impulsive behavior. She had just argued with Jane Austen about whether to farm or not, and she lost the argument.

But Xia Qingdai turned around and went to play in the mud in the fields. Wasn't this a slap in her face? The key point was that cousin Owen also accompanied her in mischief, not being a gentleman at all.

Owen and Xia Qingdai naturally would not care about Caroline's thoughts. It would be too tiring to consider the feelings of those who depend on others in their own territory.

Xia Qingdai came to the eighteenth century to be a fairy, not to be a well-behaved eighteenth-century lady.

But even if she didn't care about Caroline, she couldn't stay in the fields for long at this time of year.

On the one hand, I have to go to school, and on the other hand, the daylight is getting shorter and it gets dark earlier. October is more than halfway through, and the UK is about to enter winter time. It is not until 7 or 8 in the morning that it gets light, and it gets dark before 5 in the afternoon.

When the real winter comes, the sun sets at 4pm. This is why the lower class people have dinner at 3am in winter, because eating late will waste more firewood and lights because the sun will not shine.

Gentlemen with an annual income of two thousand pounds, such as Elizabeth's family, have dinner about four o'clock in winter.

As the two were walking back through the wheat field in the twilight, they were suddenly hit by a heavy rain and almost got soaked like drowned rats.

The weather in Britain is like a child’s face, it changes at any time.

Xia Qingdai just thought about returning to the modern era and avoided the rain.

Then she used a mooncake box distributed by her brother's company to build a temporary shelter for Owen, and helped him "fly" back to the castle with the house and the person.

"No wonder you British people always ask about the weather when you meet. No wonder there are so many gentlemen holding umbrellas in London. It really rains a lot."

Owen had no place to put his feet when he stood in the mooncake box. He was tossed around by the "flying" box, and his hat and hair were all messed up. He had to work hard to keep his balance so as not to fall all over the box. He could no longer calmly spare the attention to complain with Xia Qingdai.

He might as well go back in the rain!
In fact, for an English gentleman, getting wet in the rain or snow is not a big deal. Many people do not use an umbrella when getting wet in the rain.

But Xia Qingdai couldn't stand it. She had to wash her hair when it rained. She had just washed her hair today and was determined not to get wet again.

"Oh, it would be great if it was snowing instead of raining." Looking at Owen jumping from the mooncake box into the window of the castle, Xia Qingdai put away the box and couldn't help but whisper to herself again.

Vienna had its first snow during the National Day holiday, but there is no sign of snow in the UK so far, although autumn rains occur frequently.

For farmers and ordinary people, heavy snow is a very bad thing. Inconvenience in travel is a minor matter, but freezing crops is a major issue.

But for Xia Qingdai, heavy snow only represents romance.

Although it hasn't snowed in the UK yet, Xia Qingdai is not in a hurry. If she wants to see snow, there will always be snow.

In the 18th century, the whole world was experiencing a Little Ice Age. Even in Fujian, China, winter came early and it snowed, not to mention Britain, which was at a higher latitude.

Even though the warm currents of the Atlantic Ocean prevented Britain from being as cold as other countries and regions at the same latitude, the cold winters were inevitable and accompanied the Little Ice Age.

Xia Qingdai picked up three Empire dresses that had been modified a little bit, put them in her oversized backpack, and prepared to give them to her roommates.

These skirts are made based on Xia Qingdaika's body bug, so they are all suitable for her size.

Fortunately, the Empire dress is a loose style and not as tight-waisted as the Rococo dress. All I have to do is shorten the hem, which is too long for Cheng Xiao, and sew a hem.

Shi Yan is tall, so even if the imperial skirt is shorter, it won't affect her wearing. Apart from her curves, Xia Shishi's height and weight are basically the same as Xia Qingdai's, so there's no need to change it.

Every time she sells an Empire dress, she will make some modifications based on the customer's body data - mainly the length of the skirt. If it is more difficult, she will tell the customer that it is out of stock and there is only one of its kind.

This is also one of the reasons why her Empire Skirt business is not so good. The sizes are out of stock and she is picky about the customer’s body shape!
But there are also advantages. The traces of her personal sewing and cutting in the room make her character as a "genius little tailor" more three-dimensional.

Even Xia Shanglu, whose suspicion level has always been high, would not notice anything unusual.