Nongmen Fu girl group’s daily favorites

Feng Zhanglin said, "My Lord, when I was visiting the pear village in the suburbs yesterday, I found a plant that looked very similar to the potato you mentioned. Would you like to go and see it yourself?"

Shen Jia's eyes lit up, "Okay! Take us to see it now."

"Yes."

The four of them mounted their horses and, led by Feng Zhanglin, arrived at Li Village.

This village was basically empty during the war, and those who escaped returned from other places one after another after the Tatars were defeated.

After a war, half of the people in the village were gone.

Some of them fled slowly and were killed by the Tatars, while others starved to death or froze to death due to lack of food and clothing on the way.

After they came back, the court first gave each of them 300 coins and 20 kilograms of food to help them rebuild their homes. Orphans under the age of fourteen were all placed in orphanages and raised by the court until they were fourteen years old. The court then gave them a sum of money to start their own businesses.

If you have good academic knowledge, you can also apply for part-time work and study and continue to take the imperial examinations.

It was when Feng Zhanglin personally went to the village to verify the situation of the orphans that he discovered the plants that looked like potatoes.

Feng Zhanglin led them to a wasteland near the river at the end of the village, pointed to a plant with green and yellow leaves, and said, "Your Highness, Princess, look, that's it."

This piece of wasteland is about one acre in size and is full of weeds. It must have been abandoned after the war. The plants Feng Zhanglin pointed out were in the middle of the wasteland, accounting for only one-third of the wasteland.

Shen Jia looked down at the clothes she was wearing today, and was glad that she rarely wore skirts for convenience, otherwise it would be difficult for her to walk today.

She walked slowly to the plant, squatted down and took a closer look. The stem was diamond-shaped and hairy, and the green and yellow leaves had black spots on them. She had a preliminary confirmation in her mind.

In order to confirm her guess, she reached out and grabbed the stem, pulled it hard, and shook off the soil at the roots. The soil fell down, revealing five soil balls of different sizes, some as big as fists and some as small as tomatoes.

It’s potatoes after all.

Shen Jia was excited but also a little confused. Potatoes are not cold-resistant, and the weather in northern Xinjiang is suitable for planting potatoes at this time, and they should be harvested in autumn.

Why can the potatoes on this wasteland survive the cold winter? Is there something fishy about this field?

Before Shen Jia could figure out what was going on, he saw a group of people coming towards him.

It turned out that when Shen Jia and his four companions rode into the village, they were seen by several children, who immediately ran home to inform their parents. The villagers had just experienced war, and when they heard that four people were riding horses into the village, they were really scared, and immediately called the young men in the village to come over with kitchen knives.

The villagers were furious, ready to fight to the death. The older man in the middle, who was obviously the leader, shouted from a distance: "Who are you? Why did you come to our village?"

Feng Zhanglin saw this scene and guessed that they must have misunderstood. He couldn't help but put his hand on his forehead and raised his paw to greet the villagers: "Hello, everyone!"

"Bang!" The villagers recognized Feng Zhanglin and quickly threw the kitchen knives in their hands to the ground.

The man in the middle clasped his fists and saluted: "I didn't know you were my lord, please forgive me."

Feng Zhanglin waved his hand to show that he didn't mind: "Ignorance is not a crime, you can go back!"

Seeing that Feng Zhanglin did not punish them, the villagers bowed and said, "Thank you, sir. We will take our leave."

He secretly glanced at the other three people again, and saw that the kingly aura they naturally exuded, the powerful aura and innate majesty emanating from their bodies, all showed that their identities were extraordinary.

Moreover, Feng Zhanglin was extremely respectful to them. Such a person must be of very high status and not someone that small farmers like them could have a say in.

"Wait, who owns this land?" Shen Jia's voice was soft and pleasant, clean and clear, giving people a refreshing and comfortable feeling.

The villagers all stopped, glanced at Shen Jia quickly and then lowered their eyes, their hearts beating uncontrollably. They had never seen such a beautiful girl before, with a small oval face, creamy skin, and impeccable facial features, especially those clean, clear, and lively eyes, as if they could see all the ugliness in the world. Looking at her any longer would be a blasphemy to her.

The man in the middle came to his senses the fastest. He grasped his clothes tightly with both hands, as if this could ease the tension in his heart. However, his words were still a little halting: "Yes, yes, it's Hua, from the Hua family. There is only one orphan left in their family. He has gone to the orphanage."

Shen Jia smiled: "Don't be nervous, I just have some questions that I want to understand clearly."

Xiao Yichen pointed at a few people at random: "You guys go forward and answer."

The man in the middle took a deep breath and stepped forward, saying respectfully: "Please ask us, sir! We will tell you everything we know."

Seeing this, Shen Jia was too lazy to correct them. He picked up the potato on the ground and asked, "Do you recognize this thing?"

The middle-aged man looked at it carefully and nodded: "I know him. Last year, the owner of this land, Hua Dalang, brought back more than ten kilograms from Jiangnan. He said he bought it from a blond foreigner. He took out half of it and planted it in this land. These must be what he planted last year."

The other man was no longer afraid. "I've seen it too. One day I went to his house to chat and I saw that he cooked a few for lunch. Out of curiosity, I tried a small piece. It was soft and delicious."

Shen Jia nodded. From the information they revealed, he learned that the potatoes were bought by the owner of this wasteland from the Fan gang and were also planted by him.

"The crops grown on this land in the past were different from those grown on other lands."

"Yes, the crops in the middle of this field are growing particularly well." One of them said, pointing to where potatoes were planted.

Shen Jia suddenly had an idea, and he said, "Go get the pickaxe and bamboo basket."

'Yes'

Xiao Yichen asked after they left: "Jia Jia, is there any problem with this land?"

Shen Jia nodded: "Potatoes are not cold-resistant. The northern border is cold, so they can only be planted in March or April and harvested in August or September. But the potatoes in this field have survived the severe cold and have not been frozen to death. I suspect there are hot springs where the potatoes are planted."

"A hot spring like the one in the Ryosan Mountains?"

"Yes, there is a hot spring underneath so the ground won't freeze. That explains why potatoes can be grown here in winter."

Several villagers came back soon, followed by seven or eight brave villagers.

They didn't need Shen Jia's instructions, they picked up their pickaxes and started digging potatoes.

The villagers worked quickly and dug up the potatoes in just over a quarter of an hour.

The villagers who came to watch the fun squatted on the ground picking potatoes and putting them into bamboo baskets.

Because the bamboo baskets they brought were not enough, several villagers quickly ran back home and brought a few more bamboo baskets.

The potatoes from half an acre of land filled a total of eighteen bamboo baskets.

"This, this is too much!"

The villagers all opened their eyes wide and their mouths agape. If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed what they were seeing.

Even Zhou Rui and Feng Zhanglin were slightly surprised.

A young man weighed a basket of potatoes and exclaimed: "One basket weighs at least 50 kilograms. Eighteen baskets weigh 900 kilograms in total. 900 kilograms for half an acre of land? If we plant one acre of land, wouldn't it be more than 2,000 kilograms?" (End of this chapter)