Chapter 70 Vegetable Planting Experiment
"How is the recent income of the needlework workshop?" Yang Zhengshan continued to ask after returning to the study in the government office.

"Our income has dropped, especially after the news of defeat came from outside the city. The city gates were closed and we haven't sold all the cloth shoes we sewed yet!" Old Li said as he took out the account book and silver box and handed them to Yang Zhengshan.

Before leaving the country, Yang Zhengshan helped the needlework workshop to take several orders for sewing clothes. Although the profit was not very high, it was still a good income.

As for cloth shoes, when the army went to war, almost all the soldiers in the city followed the army, and the cloth shoe business was greatly affected.

Yang Zhengshan casually glanced at the account book and put it down.

"Don't stop the needlework workshop. It doesn't matter if the shoes can't be sold. Store them first and sell them later!"

"How about this, let's change the model from now on. We won't wait until the shoes are sold before paying everyone. We will pay everyone on a regular basis every month!"

Yang Zhengshan thought for a while and said.

There is still some silver and money in the needlework workshop. Of course, all of this silver and money can be said to belong to him, or to the entire needlework workshop.

However, Yang Zhengshan did not take this money seriously, so he did not put it into his own pocket, but used it to subsidize military households.

After giving a few brief instructions, Yang Zhengshan went back to his room to rest.

When they were outside the Great Wall, they lived in fear every day and did not get a good night's sleep. Now that they are finally back, Yang Zhengshan's mind can finally relax and he can sleep well.

Go to bed early and get up early.

At dawn the next day, before daybreak, Yang Zhengshan woke up.

Lying on the kang covered with a straw mat, he turned his head to look at the dim sky outside the window, his mind moved slightly, and he immersed himself in the spiritual spring space.

Since coming out of retreat, apart from taking spring water, he seldom paid attention to the changes in the Lingquan space. Counting the days, he had not entered the Lingquan space for more than a month.

In more than a month, the Lingquan space has expanded significantly. The dark brown soil that was originally only one finger wide is now more than one meter wide.

The dark brown soil surrounds the stone pond, which is about ten square meters.

Yang Zhengshan squatted down, pinched the black soil, and seemed to be thinking about something.

Can I grow anything on this land?
He had such a guess before, but he had been away from home recently and had no time to do it.

Now that he finally has some free time, he is definitely going to experiment.

Since it is an experiment, there must be reference and comparison.

Thinking in his mind, Yang Zhengshan immediately took action.

After getting up, putting on clothes and washing up simply, Yang Zhengshan took some vegetable seeds from the utility room of the government office.

In order to allow the military households to grow vegetables, the government office specially purchased a batch of vegetable seeds from the city wall, including cabbage, radish, leek, beans, gourds and so on.

Yang Zhengshan took some of each and planted them in the Lingquan space.

For the purpose of comparison and reference, he divided the land in the Lingquan space into two parts, one part was irrigated with the river water outside, and the other part was irrigated with the spring water in the stone pond.

The spiritual spring water has a nourishing effect on both humans and animals, but he has never used it on plants.

In the past, there was not much spiritual spring water, so he could only use it sparingly. Now that there is more and more spiritual spring water, he can finally splurge a little.

After a busy morning, Yang Zhengshan finally planted all the vegetable seeds.

Just at this time, everyone had returned from morning exercise, and several women had already prepared breakfast.

Yang Mingwu, Yang Chengche and others had no families in Linguanbao, so Yang Zhengshan did not arrange a separate courtyard for them, but let them live in a dormitory.

The dormitory is just behind the government office. There is a large courtyard and each person has a room. Although it is simple, each person has his or her own private space.

Everyone ate and trained together, and in order to prevent them from wasting time on trivial matters of life, Yang Zhengshan also hired several women to take care of their meals.

Of course, Yang Zhengshan also ate the same meals with them.

The breakfast was simple, with a bowl of millet porridge, an egg, a few plates of pickles and cured meat, and plenty of multi-grain steamed buns for each person.

They were all young men, not picky eaters at all. In just a few moments, they had cleared the table of food.

After breakfast, everyone got busy. They had just come back and there were still many things waiting for them to deal with.

As he walked out of the government office, Yang Zhengshan smelled an unpleasant sour odor.

It smelled really bad and almost made him vomit out the breakfast he had just eaten.

Yesterday they brought back more than 300 oxen and mules. The stables and cattle pens in the garrison were full of space and they had to be tied up in the training ground temporarily.

After a night, these beasts were really rude, and the shit and piss were unpredictable, as you can imagine.

Looking at the neatly parked grain carts and the group of grunting oxen and mules in the training ground, Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but feel a headache.

When he pulled it back yesterday, he was full of joy.

So many oxen and mules, so much food and fodder, this must be a huge amount of money.

But looking at it again today, it's really a trouble.

The things are here and he can use them at will, but the problem is that these things do not belong to him.

The food and fodder belonged to Zhenbiao Zuoying. They could eat them themselves, but they could not sell them.

The oxen, mules and grain carts all belong to the Dusi Yamen. There is no problem with them keeping them for the time being, but sooner or later they will have to give an explanation to the Dusi Yamen.

We can make some false reports at that time, but we certainly cannot leave all of them in the garrison.

"Old Li, Old Li!"

Yang Zhengshan stood in front of the government office and shouted at the top of his voice.

"grown ups!"

Soon, Old Li walked out of the government office quickly.

"Are the granaries full?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"Sir, they are all full!" Old Li looked at the grain trucks and his mouth was almost grinning from ear to ear with joy.

There was so much food that their granaries couldn't hold it.

Not only can't it fit, but only a small part of it can be loaded.

"Go, give each household three loads of food as a reward for their participation in the battle!"

"Find someone to build a few more stables and cattle pens!"

Yang Zhengshan gave the order without hesitation.

With so much food and so many cattle and mules, he naturally had to keep some.

He had already thought about it. When the time came, half of the food and fodder would be given to Zhou Lan, and he would keep the other half. As for the oxen and mules, he would keep twenty of them, and the rest would also be given to Zhou Lan.

These cows and mules cannot be killed or sold. Keeping them would be a burden, so it would be better to hand them over to Zhou Lan.

In fact, Linguan Fort is quite large, and it has plenty of space for one hundred military households to live in. Not only is there a large training ground, but there is also a lot of free space.

If we build more stables and cattle pens, it will not be difficult to accommodate so many cows and mules.

But keeping so many cows and mules requires people to take care of their eating, drinking, defecating and urinating every day, and also consumes a lot of fodder.

Linguan Fort really can’t afford it.

"Okay, I'll do it right away!"

Old Li responded happily.

Although he had no position in Linguan Fort, Yang Zhengshan always treated him as the chief steward. Even Yang Minghao followed him around and ran errands.

Mr. Li is actually quite capable and has a lot of experience in managing miscellaneous matters, but he has a bad leg and walks with a limp.

(End of this chapter)