The Resolute Cannon Fodder Teaching In Ancient Time

Chapter 64: Sixty-Four Treasures ✨

As winter passed into spring, fragrant grass sprouted inside and outside the walls, transforming the landscape into a sea of vibrant green.

Xu Zhen sat at the city gate, yawning.

A few traveling merchants, faces covered in sand, approached on the road. Xu Zhen checked their identities and took the opportunity to buy some grape and tomato seeds from them, planning to plant them under the warm autumn sun.

She tucked the seeds into her pocket.

Nearby, some passersby from Pingliang saw her through a wall and began to whisper.

“That’s the one who proposed a strategy during the Longmen battle.”

“Make way; let me take a look—wow! She doesn’t seem particularly impressive. Was she demoted from Chang’an?”

“Yeah, there was a Hu person with her who killed many of their kind that day.”

“Wow!!”

The sounds of astonishment wafted over to Xu Zhen's ears on the cool breeze. After hearing this, she chuckled to herself but chose to ignore them. When the old soldier returned from his meal, she shamelessly decided to take the day off.

Back home, Xu Zhen began her gardening.

In recent days, she had already planted quite a bit. To maintain light and warmth during the cold weather, she used a greenhouse, and now many plants had sprouted little seedlings.

With the marketplace not updating, she couldn’t bear to waste too many merit points on purchasing books for rice cultivation, so she decided to write one from memory herself. She distributed it to several farming families in her official capacity, asking them to share the information and encouraging anyone who had questions to come directly to her.

Upon reaching a certain point, a farmer opened the pamphlet to glance at its contents. When he saw the sections on hybridization and shortening the growing seasons, he was taken aback, feeling utterly dissatisfied.

"You aren't from a farming family and don't understand the intricacies. Aligning with the seasons is fundamental, and this seems to go against nature," the farmer complained.

Xu Zhen responded with a smile, "How is this against nature? The 'Huainanzi' mentions aligning with the seasons above, fully utilizing resources below, and employing human effort in between. I'm simply expanding production by harmonizing human effort with the earth."

"Nonsense!" the farmer retorted.

"The key isn't to defy the seasons but to master rice cultivation," Xu Zhen replied confidently. "Even though Pingliang is arid, you can still plant a single-season rice crop. If you make good use of the time before Qingming, you won't have to worry about this year's harvest."

Planting rice on the dry northern lands was first developed by Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, who, after becoming a monk and adopting the name Xingchi, devised this method to address northern famines.

Some farmers, skeptical, examined the pamphlet while others scoffed, "What does a Confucian scholar know about agriculture!"

Xu Zhen replied, "Whether or not I fully understand agriculture, what's written here is achievable. If you choose not to follow this method and your neighbors do, don't be surprised by the difference in your harvests later."

Having planted seeds of doubt, she waved her hand and departed.

The farmers found themselves in a quandary, unsure whether to plant or not. Eventually, many chose to secretly gamble with half of their land.