Chapter 113 Searching the Tian Brothers' Residence
Shen Zhi brought Wang Hu and his wife to the front of the crowd and said loudly: "The position of village head has been removed today, and Wang Hu will be the new village head from now on. Don't worry, Wang Hu is the most honest person, and he will never do the things that bullied men and women when Tian Baoshan was in office. As long as everyone does their own job well, I will not treat you unfairly."
Everyone quickly answered yes and said they would work hard in the future.
Shen Zhi handed everyone over to Wang Hu and asked him to assign tasks to them. On Wang Hu's first day in office, Shen Zhi looked at him differently. He changed his previous honest image and used both kindness and force.
In the morning, he had someone take him on a tour of the farm. In the afternoon, he made a series of grain planting plans based on local conditions, waiting for the wheat to mature and free up land to implement them. The pond on the farm would also be planted with lotus roots and lotus pods, and fish and shrimp would be raised. The grass by the river was fertile, so cattle and sheep would be raised in due course. Chickens, ducks and geese would also be raised, as there were many water sources and grass on the farm, so there would be many eggs to be harvested. Wang Hu got a preliminary understanding of everyone's specialties based on their self-introductions, and assigned them appropriate tasks one by one.
After receiving Shen Zhi's explanation, Li told everyone about the adjustment of the monthly salary. The more you work, the more you get. Of course, those who work hard will get more. If everyone does a good job, there will be a reward at the end of the month. If you do a good job for three consecutive months, you can get an extra day of rest. Everyone was secretly happy when they heard it, and their enthusiasm was also mobilized.
Shen Zhi was very satisfied to see that Wang Hu and his wife had arranged everything in an orderly manner.
At this time, Eunuch Cao and Song Shijie, who had rushed over after hearing the news, led the officials to search the entire manor from top to bottom. They really found a large amount of valuables in the house of the Tian brothers, and even found many antiques from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Needless to say, these antiques must have been stolen from the Huainan Palace.
A careful yamen runner found several letters from an antique, and Cao Gong recognized that they were written by the King of Huainan. The letters even contained evidence of the King of Huainan's collusion with the Japanese pirates and the ministers in the capital.
Eunuch Cao thought that this matter was of great importance, so he sent people to search the house inside and out. Finally, he found several more letters from the secret compartment of the Duobao Pavilion in the bedroom of Tian Laoer Tian Baolin.
Song Shijie made a special trip back to the county government to interrogate Tian Baolin. Tian Baolin confessed that he accidentally discovered the indentures of the Tian family in the Huainan Palace. He found a large amount of valuables in it, all of which were hidden in the newly purchased house in the town.
Song Shijie personally led people to search the Tian family's new house, and eventually found two million taels of silver in the dark room.
After Eunuch Cao and Song Shijie discussed it, they immediately sent Bi Ming and some guards to secretly deliver the confiscated silver and secret letters to the capital.
Four days later, the pigeon message from the capital finally arrived. The emperor granted permission to experiment with growing potatoes at Baiyun Villa, and announced that Yixiang Jun could lead the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture to grow other high-yield crops on the fields of Baiyun Villa. He also allocated 50,000 taels of silver from the national treasury to purchase grain seeds and provide food expenses for these officials.
As for the crimes committed by the first few brothers in Tianzhuang, the emperor has sent officials from the Dali Temple to personally try the case. The officials from the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Agriculture have already left the capital.
In the past few days, Shen Zhi has been staying at home and preparing various modern agricultural tools, all of which are lightweight, labor-saving and can improve efficiency.
The next day after receiving the pigeon letter, Shen Zhi went to Baiyun Villa with the strong men he had bought before, and of course the farm tools also came with the carriage. The carriage was purchased by Shen Zhi in the town later. The carriage was specially customized to be larger and thicker for freight transportation. There were five carriages in total.
Since Baiyun Villa was the property of the Huainan Palace, all the servants in it had been taken away. Now the village head and servants in it were all bought by Eunuch Cao when he first came to Qingzhou Prefecture, and they had been trained in advance by Steward Zhou who was brought from the capital.
When Shen Zhi arrived, the village head Liu was already waiting at the door with his servants. After everyone introduced themselves to each other, the village head Liu took Shen Zhi on a tour.
Baiyun Villa is next to Shen Zhi's manor, and the Dacao River also runs through Baiyun Villa. The water in those water dungeons was built on the tributaries of the Dacao River. Baiyun Villa is very large, almost three times the size of the manor given to her by the emperor. The large sandy land next to the Dacao River is estimated to be hundreds of acres, which will be very convenient for irrigating crops. There are about 200 acres of fertile land, and a stream also flows through it. There is also a lotus pond of more than ten acres, which is probably used for viewing lotus flowers.
Shen Zhi decided to plant hybrid rice on the fertile land. Modern hybrid rice has a high yield and can be harvested twice a year, which was unthinkable in the Great Xiao Dynasty. Corn was planted on the slopes, and the yield was not low. Corn already existed in this era, but Shen Zhi asked the head of the village, and the yield was not very good. Tender corn is not sweet, and it is ground into cornmeal after it is old and used to make cakes or steamed corn bread. Shen Zhi thought of the many varieties of corn in modern times, including sweet corn, glutinous corn, fruit corn, etc., with high yields. When the time comes, he will buy more seeds of various types in the space. There are many streams in the village, and there are lotus ponds. Raise more chickens, ducks and geese, and then they can be made into preserved eggs, which will be another harvest.
Shen Zhi acted immediately. She gathered her servants and began to assign tasks. Together with the thirty-seven strong men she brought with her, there were a total of one hundred and twenty people.
Shen Zhi divided them into three groups, each with forty people, and selected one person from each group to serve as group leader.
Shen Zhi divided the fields into three groups on the sand, each of which was the same size. The group that finished turning the field first would win, and each member of the winning team would receive a reward of half a tael of silver, which was more than the monthly allowance. Therefore, after receiving the farm tools brought by Shen Zhi, everyone worked hard. Some people were even reluctant to rest, and would just eat a few mouthfuls of food before going back to the field.
The day before the beginning of spring, the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture finally arrived in Qingzhou Prefecture. Shen Zhi had already asked the maid to prepare accommodation for the adults.
There were five officials from the Ministry of Agriculture on this trip. One of the gray-haired old men was Sun Weizhong, who was appointed by the emperor to lead the team. The other four officials were about 40 years old, including Zhu, Gu, Jiang, and Chen. The impression left by each official on Shen Zhi was that they were majestic and serious. Each official brought a servant with him.
Shen Zhi led the people in the manor to greet the five adults at the door, but the adults did not get out of the car to show up, but asked the servants to drive directly to their residence. Shen Zhi was not unhappy about this, but ordered the head of the manor to quickly follow and lead the way, so that the adults could have a good rest. After all, the capital was a long way from Qingzhou Prefecture, and they were also exhausted from the journey. I am afraid they had suffered a lot, so they should have a good rest.