The seedlings cultivated by Natsuhime have finally grown to the length of a chopstick, and according to Natsuhime's understanding, these seedlings should be able to be transplanted.

Accompanied by Chun'e and Xia Chan, Xia Ji went to her experimental field, where the seedlings grew in the grass because the grass robbed the ground of nutrients and sunlight, so it only grew to about ten centimeters; In the other field, which was used for experimental rice planting, it had been soaked in water for a long time according to Xia Ji's request, and the ground was smooth and soaked in water.

Natsuhime ordered his men to move all the seedlings to the field and prepare to start planting. Because of pregnancy, Xia Ji was inconvenient to plant seedlings in person, so she instructed Xia Cicada to start planting the seedlings neatly in the thin mud according to the distance they had seen on TV before, and after planting this acre of land, they would evenly throw the large and small loaches that had bred these days into the rice field, worried that these loaches would not eat, and sprinkled some grass and live earthworms.

After doing this, Xia Ji instructed Xia Cicada to manage the two plots. The slash-and-burn land is still in accordance with the traditional method, and the experimental field where the loaches are placed does not need to be too fine with fertilization, weeding, etc., in addition to maintaining the water level, because Xia Ji is thinking about promoting planting in the future and meeting the conditions for large-scale planting.

After another two days, the hatching of chickens and ducks also began to bear fruit, one by one chicks and ducklings broke out of their shells, chirping non-stop, very cute, a thousand chicken and duck eggs, a total of about 850 successfully hatched.

Xia Ji saw these young creatures, and hurriedly asked Chun'e and them to get dried maggot powder to feed these little beings who couldn't find their own mothers, and placed them in the chicken coop and duck coop that had been prepared for a long time.

The production of maggots for chicken feed is also gradually increasing, and the chicks and ducklings are gradually growing up, and more and more feed is needed, so she also adds two more people to raise maggots and take care of these chicks and ducklings.

After Xia Ji came to Zhuyuan, Concubine Hui came to Xia Mansion several times to look for her, and even the queen sent someone to find Xia Ji, hoping that Xia Ji would go to the palace to meet her, and her younger sister-in-law An Yu visited Xia Mansion several times, but she didn't see Xia Ji, and the reason given by the people in Xia Mansion was that Xia Ji was unwell and wanted to recuperate for some days.

Xia Ji didn't tell Uncle Xia Yu about these things, one was worried that he would not succeed, and the other was also worried that Lord Sima would be distracted by these trivial things, after all, the imminent invasion of Chu was a big deal.

Although Chen Gonggong adopted his idea of recruiting slaves into service, in addition to the low fighting quality of these slaves and the urgent need for a lot of training, new problems arose.

Uncle Xia Yu thought that it was Xia Ji's idea to let the slaves into the slave be given to him, so he made a special trip to Zhuyuan to listen to Xia Ji's good advice.

"Madam, although the matter of enslavement has been settled now, there is a situation in which these slave soldiers are ostracized because of their humble origins, and there is disunity within the army, I don't know if Madame has any good suggestions."

"My lord, slaves come from humble backgrounds and have a low status, and they have long formed a deep-rooted concept in people's hearts, and it is better to avoid them than to let them change."

"How to avoid it?"

"My lord, the concubine body means that the slaves should form a combat phalanx alone, from the commander to the soldiers, all of them are composed of slaves, and the equipment should be the same as that of other combat phalanxes."

"Good idea. But if someone from this combat phalanx has made meritorious contributions and has been promoted to commoner, can they still stay here? ”

"Of course, if these people are incorporated into the battle phalanx of civilians because they have become commoners, they will still be discriminated against because of their low origins, and staying in the original slave phalanx can inspire other slaves."

"Makes sense. But madam, will that lead to new discrimination and discrimination? ”

"My lord, I don't think so. Because these slaves who have made meritorious contributions to the common people will only be a minority, and they will not form a force. One very important point is that although military merits are linked to promotion to the rank of commoner, serving as a commander must be measured by ability, and those who are capable are not only from their background, so that they will not be proud of their merits. ”

"Madame's insight is so open for the husband."

"Your Excellency has won the prize." Xia Ji was a little overwhelmed by Lord Sima's praise, because these concepts of equality were taken for granted to her.

"The invasion of the Chu State is a matter of time, Madam, you also have to make some preparations, it is better to leave the Chen State and avoid the war."

"The lord wants to send the concubine to Zheng Guo? But this kind of concubine is worried that it will have a bad impact on adults. ”

"After all, Madame is a female and Princess Zheng Guo, so if she leaves on the grounds that her mother is ill, there is nothing wrong with leaving. The key is that the wife is pregnant, and the husband is worried that the war will have too much impact on the wife. ”

"It's not that tense yet, is it? Concubine Rong thought about it for a few days first. ”

"Okay, it's just the preparation stage, so it's okay to wait a few days."

After the exchange between Uncle Xia and his wife, he wrote a recital that night, strongly expounding the shortcomings of the current army establishment, and suggesting that the army should be reorganized, and all slaves should be set up in a new camp, and he would be personally responsible for training.

The next day, after Chen Gonggong received the recital from Lord Sima, he weighed it again and again, and after consulting with Fan Rui and Duan Kui, the two secretaries of state, accepted his suggestion.

The new slave camp has a total of 600 chariots, 10 chariot armor soldiers per chariot, a total of 6,000 people, plus 12,000 apprentices, a total of 18,000 people, these slave recruits are the lowest level of society from poor backgrounds, born with a lack of food and poverty and discrimination, and now they are well fed and clothed in the army, and have the hope of becoming commoners, although they are all trained from scratch, but they are very hard, very disciplined, and very united, which makes Uncle Xia feel very pleased.

Uncle Xia Yushu used the thirty catties of gold supported by Xia Ji to recruit thirty chariots for his clan army, and correspondingly increased the number of armor soldiers and apprentices by nine hundred, making his family truly a family of hundred times, and the clan armed forces had a scale of three thousand people, led by himself and his younger brother Xia Yuzhi, and became a force that no one in the Chen family dared to despise.