The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 214 New Grain Seeds

This time, the fleet landed in the territory of Great Zhou, and among the things they brought back, in addition to the usual goods, were the new food crops that Chen Cui had entrusted them to find.

"These things are grown by the local natives. They use them to feed themselves. The way they farm is very clumsy. They use very simple tools, such as plowshares and rakes. They just dig a hole and bury the crops, and they can get a good harvest. They will not starve to death just by relying on this. I think if our Great Zhou cultivated the crops carefully, the yield would definitely be higher."

After listening to what the steward said, Chen Cui looked at the potatoes and sweet potatoes in the basket. These two things had been sailing on the sea with the fleet for several months and had arrived in Da Zhou across the ocean. Many of them had already sprouted.

As she looked at these tender little buds, her eyes were already filled with tears of excitement.

With these two things, as long as they are promoted properly, within ten years, most people in the Great Zhou will be able to get rid of hunger!

"Sister Cui, what's wrong with you?"

Zhang Ruomei rarely saw Chen Cui lose her composure like this, so she couldn't help but ask.

Chen Cui wiped away the tears from her eyes and said with a smile, "I was thinking that what Lord Wang and Changping are doing now is to promote new grain varieties. If the yield of these two things is really so high, maybe they can provide them with help."

In fact, Zhang Ruomei also thought so in her heart. However, the task of finding new food was entrusted to her by Chen Cui. Even if it was found by someone from the Zhang family, it could not be entirely attributed to her. Seeing that Chen Cui still put Wang Hengzhi first, she couldn't help but sigh.

"Sister Cui, you are truly the lucky star and benefactor of my husband and I. We have received a lot of help from you along the way. Don't worry, if the master makes achievements in the officialdom in the future, he will not forget the three Changping brothers and will definitely support them as his own nephews."

"You are being too polite. If it weren't for you and Lord Wang, I would still be leading the children through the smoky and hot charcoal burning!"

What Chen Cui said was from the heart. Even if she had already made the canned food, it would have been useless if she didn't have the right person to cooperate with. If the person she met had ulterior motives, the consequences could have been even worse. She was lucky to find Zhang Ruomei, who was both capable and conscientious.

Chen Cui temporarily put aside the perfume stall and hurried back to plant sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Fortunately, in the early spring, she bought a small farm in the suburbs of Beijing. Although it was only more than 70 acres, it was already very rare, and she was able to buy it by chance because someone was selling it.

If the farm was not too small, those wealthy families would not be interested in it and it would not be her turn to buy it.

It is the end of July now, and autumn has not yet arrived. The temperature is just right, so it is still time to plant these two things and they will not affect the harvest next spring.

Chen Cui asked the farmers to find a lot of wood ash, cut the sweet potatoes and potatoes according to the sprouting position, and coated the cut surfaces with wood ash to prevent rotting.

The farmers saw the wife of the host squatting on the ground. They did not mind the dirt and carefully handled each lump of material with her hands and placed it in place. Only after she was done did she plant the material on the leveled land.

Potatoes that have already sprouted can be planted directly, while sweet potatoes need to be grown as seedlings first. Chen Cui placed these two things properly, explained the precautions to the farmers, then washed her hands and face, and got on the carriage back to the city.

If the space in the house wasn't so small, she really wanted to plant these at home so that she could keep an eye on them every day to avoid any problems.

However, she did not completely forget about her plans. The fleet brought back four baskets of potatoes and sweet potatoes, two baskets each. Before transporting them to the farm, she had hidden some of them in the space and even put some wood ash in it.

Just in case, she wanted to plant some of these two things in the space to prevent anything from going wrong with the ones planted outside and ending up with nothing and all her efforts in vain.

In recent years, she has entered the space less frequently, but she has continued to grow crops and go in regularly to water the wheat.

Especially after experiencing the war and the journey to Shu, and seeing the miserable conditions of the starving people along the way, his sense of vigilance increased, and he became more aware of the importance of food.

However, now that she has these two crops that have higher yields than corn and are easier to grow, she is confident that she can raise the living standards of the people of the Great Zhou to a higher level.

Not to mention that the lives of ordinary people have nothing to do with her, she just wants to live a stable life in this era and make money by doing business.

If most people in the country are starving, the society is unstable and the situation is turbulent, no business will be good.

What's more, she actually has a small vision in her heart, which is to change the living conditions of women through her own efforts.

Since ancient times, women have been in a disadvantaged position. Even in modern orphanages, girls are the majority.

The few boys in those orphanages were all disabled or handicapped, but most of the girls were healthy and had no problems. They were abandoned just because they were girls.

This situation was even worse in ancient times. Some girls would even be drowned at birth, because the addition of one more person in the family meant paying an extra head tax. Those people thought that girls were useless, it cost food to raise them, and they could not carry on the family line, so they simply killed them at birth.

Someone like Chen Cui's original self, Chen, is already a rare happiness. Her parents and brothers all love her and provide her with support even after she gets married. This is one in a million.

Therefore, after Chen Cui traveled through time, she was very filial to Chen's parents and gave them the way to make money by burning charcoal, which provided them with a long-term income, benefited their descendants, and allowed the two elders to spend their old age in peace.

Chen Cui was busy in the space for a long time at night before she planted the intercepted potatoes and sweet potatoes. She took off her work shoes, left the space and lay down on the bed.

There are more servants in the house now, and she has two maids serving her at all times. She is not as free as before, and cannot enter the space at any time.

Fortunately, she has a low dependence on space and generally does not go in unless necessary. Even if she goes in, she will come out quickly and will not arouse other people's suspicion.

Chen Cui was a little tired from working that day, so she didn't want to go out to the workshop the next day. She sent someone to tell them that she would not be going there today, and asked them to come to her house if they had anything.

In fact, now whether it is canned food, hot pot or perfume, the process has been fixed, and most of the links can be completed without her. She only plays a supervisory role. Even if she is not there, it will not affect anything.

She went there every day just to fulfill her responsibilities. The profits from these businesses were considerable, and she couldn't take the money for nothing.