Union

Chapter 133, Section 132: Revenue Generation
In the end, Second Master took away Yunying's stack of silver notes. As he took them, he smiled at Yunying and said, "Consider it your investment."

These words were inexplicable, and Yunying was completely bewildered.

She was about to ask further, but the Second Master missed the opportunity to bring it up again.

Yunying thought about it all night and couldn't help but wonder if the Second Master had some other business dealings in private.

Whether it was true or not, Second Master wouldn't harm her, so Yunying didn't pursue the matter further.

Time quickly came to harvest the late rice.

Given that the terraced fields in Yunying's area were all leased in her name, and now that it was time to harvest, the county official finally came to inform her.

Yunying was busy preparing New Year's gifts to send to the capital and didn't have time to leave the city, so she just had people start harvesting directly. If she had time, she would go and check on things; if not, she would just tell her the approximate harvest of each terrace.

Yunying was busy for several days. When she finished, she remembered this matter and prepared to take her maid to see how the late rice harvest was going.

Unexpectedly, they arrived too late, and when they got to the fields, they found that the rice had almost all been harvested.

The rice in the terraced field closest to Li Dazhu's house has been dried and harvested, and is now being weighed.

Yunying arrived at just the right time; the minor official in charge of agricultural affairs at the county government had already noted the harvest from the terraced fields and was about to tell her.

Seeing Yunying's carriage stop beside him in the distance, the clerk ran over in a few steps and greeted Yunying with a smile at the carriage.

"Miss Yunying, you've come at just the right time. I was just about to look for you."

"But what's the harvest from the terraced fields? How much grain can be harvested per acre?" Yunying was also anxious and didn't bother with formalities. She couldn't wait to ask the question as soon as she saw the clerk.

Nowadays, the harvests from the fields are mostly low. In particular, the land in Lingnan Prefecture is mostly barren, and the harvests are even lower.

Yunying had previously looked through the files that Second Master kept in his study and knew that the average grain yield in Yungui County over the years was about 1.3 shi.

One shi is equivalent to 120 jin in modern terms. After calculation, this means that the yield of one mu of land is only about 156 jin.

Of course, this is an average.

In fact, the fertile fields here can yield about 180 jin per year, medium-quality fields about 160 jin, and the poor-quality fields, which make up the vast majority of the land, yield only about 120 jin per year.

This data is terrifying to even think about.

In modern society, an ordinary acre of land can easily produce over a thousand catties of grain. But here, let alone the people of Lingnan Prefecture, even the people of the fertile lands of Jiangnan wouldn't dare to dream of such a thing.

Yunying was deeply shocked when she saw this data. Only then did she understand why people's lives were so difficult.

Think about it. There's only so much grain per acre. People work hard all season, and then they have to pay taxes on the harvest. After paying all sorts of miscellaneous taxes, there's not even enough grain left for people to eat porridge. If there's a natural disaster or man-made calamity, then it's all over; they won't even have porridge to eat.

Yunying sighed inwardly, deeply regretting not having studied agriculture in college. Even without specialized training in increasing crop yields, she figured reading some agricultural books would still be useful. Unfortunately, who wastes time reading those books?

Now she does want to read it, and she even has the time, but unfortunately, she can't find the book she needs.

While Yunying was lost in thought, she heard the clerk say with a smile, "The terraced fields total five acres of land, and the total harvest for this season is three hundred catties of grain."

Three hundred catties?
Does that mean that each mu of land only produces sixty jin of grain?
Yunying stared in disbelief, her brows furrowed into a knot.

Seeing Yunying's expression as if struck by lightning, the clerk quickly said, "This is quite a lot, Miss Yunying, it far exceeds my expectations. In fact, if it weren't for the high temperature these days, which caused the ears of grain to grow a bit longer, it wouldn't even weigh three hundred catties."

This year has been a mild winter. It's already November, and during the hottest part of the day, you can still wear a light jacket. If it were last year's temperatures, the dry rice would probably have frozen to death long ago.

Don't even dream about getting 300 jin of grain. If you can harvest even 100 jin, it'll be a blessing from God.

The official said, "Our harvest is really quite good. Not to mention that this is the first year of building terraced fields, we also suffered a disaster this year. I originally thought we would have no harvest at all, but who knew that in the last half month, God was kind to us and made the grain ears even fuller."

The clerk went on and on, but the gist of it was: this is really a lot, far exceeding his expectations.

Yunying was just momentarily confused, but fortunately she quickly came to her senses and realized that the official was right.

These terraced fields were already extremely barren land. Even with the addition of wood ash and dredged river silt to fertilize them, they were still considered low-quality land. Furthermore, the hurricane damaged most of the seedlings. Given all these factors, the fact that the terraced fields still yielded 300 jin (150 kg) of rice was truly a blessing from heaven.

Yunying said, "You're right, I was too attached to appearances. Actually, 300 jin is already a lot, and this is only the first year. It's really remarkable."

The clerk smiled and nodded, "It's good that you understand."

"I have to thank you so much. The success of the terraced fields is entirely due to your daily care and management..."

Yunying flattered the clerk a few times, making him beam with joy, his lips trembling.

Finally, Yunying promised that she would talk to the magistrate about this matter later, and that the magistrate would probably reward her. Perhaps he would even be in charge of guiding the construction of the terraced fields throughout the county...

As each word was spoken, the clerk became increasingly excited. He was invigorated and looked more spirited and excited than before.

Finally, Yunying bid farewell to the official and went to check on the harvest of the people on the neighboring plots of land.

To be honest, it's not good.

When you calculate it carefully, it's about the same as the harvest from each acre of her terraced fields.

However, her terraced fields were newly reclaimed land and were exempt from taxes, while the local people still had to pay various taxes. Thus, cultivating those fertile fields was not as profitable as reclaiming the land.

Sure enough, Yunying soon heard the people say, "Next year we should cultivate more wasteland. Wasteland yields less, but whatever we harvest, it's all ours. Look at so-and-so's family, they cultivated ten acres of wasteland this year, and they've made a good amount of grain. At least they won't go hungry anymore, and they might even be richer than in previous years."

"Whether it's clearing wasteland or building terraced fields, as long as you don't have to pay taxes, you can always keep more money in your hands."

……

As the rice dried, the harvest from the rest of Yunying's terraced fields also came in.

Overall, the average yield per mu (unit of land area) is probably no more than 60 jin (unit of weight).

However, because Yunying built dozens of terraced fields, after deducting the money spent on hiring workers and buying manure, and selling all the grain, she actually broke even.

"Breaking even" means that she has earned back all the money she spent on building the terraced fields this year.

Of course, this is also thanks to the high grain prices this year, which allowed her to sell her grain at a good price.

But it must be said that breaking even in a year was still very encouraging for Yunying.

This year we break even, and next year's harvest will mostly be a surplus. If you add it all up, wow, it'll be quite a sum of money!

Yunying never thought of getting rich through terraced fields, but one day she suddenly discovered that terraced fields could also bring her money, and she couldn't help but jump for joy.

As soon as the second master entered, he saw her hopping around under the tree. She was like a rabbit, her hair bobbing up and down, and the tassels on her head swaying back and forth. To be honest, she was quite cute.

After the Second Master had seen enough of the scene, he coughed lightly.

Sure enough, the moment he uttered that voice, Yunying became completely obedient. She instantly transformed back into that dignified, virtuous, aloof, and delicate young woman. The Second Master burst into laughter.

Seeing this, Yunying rolled her eyes at the Second Master, annoyed, "You're just teasing me."

"I wasn't teasing you. I was just worried your legs would hurt if you jumped around too much."

"I'll listen to your excuses."

"Okay, I won't deny it. I'm asking you, what were you doing just now? You were so agitated, you almost jumped into a tree!"

Yunying blushed and scolded the Second Master.

She jumped up into the tree like a ghost, barely two fingers off the ground.

However, Yunying was too lazy to mention this matter, fearing that the vivid images in the Second Master's mind would affect her image in his heart.

Leaving aside the matter of jumping around, Yunying talked to Second Master about the harvest from the terraced fields.

Second Master already knew about this, but he still played along, feigning surprise and asking, "So many?"

"It's not much. This is the first year, and we suffered a disaster, otherwise it would have been even more. I had people sell the grain to the grain shops designated by the government, and they brought back quite a bit of silver. I just calculated that this year's input and output are just breaking even."

Upon hearing this, the Second Master was genuinely surprised.

Input and output are balanced?
Did it break even in a year of disaster?
Second Master exclaimed sincerely, "Truly amazing!"

Yunying nodded, "It's all thanks to the good grain prices this year. But next year's harvest should be even better. I originally built these terraced fields to increase the income of the people, but I didn't expect that I would make money for myself first. It's really true that you can't always plant flowers with care, but they will grow into lush willows without intention."

Second Master smiled and said, "Your good intentions have not been in vain; the people may indeed see an increase in income."

Yunying was somewhat excited, "Really?"

"Have you forgotten? Some people built terraced fields right after you. The first group to build them has already reaped a harvest this year. As for those who built them later..." Those who built them later, seeing others' harvests, were filled with regret. These past few days, they've bought more barren hills, planning to take advantage of the lull before the New Year to turn them into terraced fields, hoping to harvest more next year and make up for the less than others this year.

Leaving aside the terraced fields, let's talk about ginger—this was replanted in the fields after the disaster.

At first, we thought it was already October, and there wouldn't be enough time to plant rice in the fields. But it would be such a waste to leave the land empty.

Just as Second Master was pondering what to plant, Yunying took out a book and suggested that they try planting ginger.

The temperature in Yungui County is relatively high, which greatly shortens the growing season for ginger. If planted in October, it will be harvested the following February.

Harvesting the ginger won't affect the planting of early rice, so it's a win-win situation.

Even better, ginger has always been bought by merchants at high prices, so if there is a bumper harvest, the people may make a fortune.

He had just gone to the county government office to ask Yun to come and tell him that two merchants from out of town who specialized in buying ginger had come.

I heard that because of this year's mild winter, the ginger that was stockpiled earlier to make ginger brown sugar for women will all rot before the New Year. They have a large shortage, and since they heard that Yungui County has replanted a lot of ginger, they are willing to offer a good price to pre-order this batch of ginger.

He entrusted the matter to Suiyun, who then led the merchants to find the people who grew ginger.

This deal should go through without any surprises.

In this way, wouldn't Yunying generate income for the people?

This was a completely unexpected delight. Not only was Yunying excited, but even the Second Master couldn't help but smile.

The two thought this year's harvest would be terrible, but to their surprise, it was only slightly worse than in previous years.

This can be considered a pleasant surprise.

Feeling happy, the two immediately started drinking wine across the table.

Second Master was the one drinking, while Yunying substituted tea for wine, listening to him talk as she drank.

Before we knew it, the moon was high in the sky.

Yunying felt a chill and rubbed her fingers together. Seeing this, the Second Master quickly told a maid to bring her a cloak.

Yunying put on her cloak, but still didn't feel warm. Looking up at the moon again, she realized it had hidden behind the clouds, and now the sky was pitch black, with only a few stars twinkling listlessly.

Yunying said, "Second Master, it's getting late, let's go back to our room and rest."

Just then, the first watch gong sounded.

A deep, aged voice came from outside: "The weather is dry; be careful with fire."

The sounds came one after another, then gradually faded away with the sound of the gong.

Yunying couldn't help herself and covered her mouth, letting out a soft yawn.

When the second master saw that physiological tears were welling up in the corners of her eyes, he reached out and wiped them away.

Yunying did not move, letting the Second Master do as he pleased.

After wiping away the tear, the second master stood up.

"It's getting late, we should rest."

Seeing that Yunying was still sitting on the stool, the Second Master reached out and pulled her out.

Second Master's palms were burning hot, perhaps because he had drunk strong liquor, or perhaps because men are naturally more sexually active than women.

In contrast, Yunying's hands were cool and soft, like a piece of cold jade, very comfortable to hold, and irresistible.

Second Master did not let go of her.

He just frowned and asked, "Why is it so cold? Is it too cold? I won't let you stay up all night with me next time."

Yunying said vaguely, "It might be because I'm weak and haven't recovered."

"Have you been taking the medicine that Dr. Qu prescribed for your health on time?"

Yunying nodded, "Yes, I've been eating it, one bowl in the morning and one at night. I've been drinking it for a month now."

"Why is it still like this? Is the medicine not working? Perhaps I should call another doctor to prescribe a new one for you?"

"No, it's better not to. As Dr. Qu said, my body was severely damaged during pregnancy, and it's not something that can be recovered in a day or two. It could take three to five years, or even seven or eight years, and it's hard to say. It's only been a month now, so it's normal that there's no effect yet. I'm not in a hurry, so you shouldn't be too anxious either."

The second master reluctantly agreed, "Okay."