Usually when the sunset has just entered the West Mountain, the Yu Xiaocao sisters have already arrived home, and today the sky is already dark, and they have not seen the shadows of the two of them. Yu Hai couldn't sit still, so he took the horse out of the stable, put on the saddle, and rode out of the village.

Halfway down the road, I met my grandfather who came back from the dock. The house town rode a tall horse, carrying torches to lead the way, and behind it were the little grass sisters sitting on donkey carts.

Yu Hai was relieved to see that the sisters were safe and sound, and asked with concern, "Why did you come back so late today?" ”

Xiaolian grabbed the front with a little excitement and chirped: "Dad! King Yangjun, who traveled to the West, has returned, bringing a lot of things that we don't have in the Ming Dynasty. He also sent some seeds to Xiaomei and asked Xiaomei to help him plant them! ”

The Yu family is close to the Fang family, and they usually eat dinner together. Mrs. Fang got close to Princess Jing, and naturally knew how much Princess Jing hoped for her youngest son's safe return. Yu Hai listened, nodded and said, "It's good to come back safely!" Lest the princess and mother worry about it! The return of the little county king, what does it have to do with your late return? And also...... The little king gave the grass seeds and asked her to help plant them, what seeds? Can we plant it? ”

Xiaolian glanced at King Yangjun from a distance, and was still immersed in the excitement of being able to see the living princes and nobles, and said: "King Yangjun brought back too many goods from the West and Nanyang, and the dock workers unloaded it until very late. In order to save time, the workers took turns eating dinner. If you don't eat, how can you have the strength to work? We waited for the last group of workers to finish their meals before closing the stall. ”

After taking a breath, Xiaolian continued: "What the King of Yangjun gave to the little sister is a seed that our Ming Dynasty has never seen. A kind of golden cancan, like golden beans, is called 'corn', and a kind of round and non-slippery, a little similar to sweet potatoes, called 'potatoes'! My little sister can grow vegetables two months in advance, what else can't be planted? ”

The Ming Dynasty does not have a fresh species, that is something that even the emperor attaches great importance to, if his own daughter is bad, it is not a trivial matter. Yu Hai said with some concern: "Cao'er, what do you think?" Can it be grown? ”

Yu Xiaocao said nonchalantly: "Don't worry, as soon as I see these seeds, I have their planting methods in my mind, just like I used to plant them often!" No problem! But, Daddy! The little county king gave me the seeds of more than ten acres of land, how can our family have so much land! ”

"Not enough land? Then buy it! I've heard that there are a few families in the village who want to sell their land...... It's just that the land near our village is not too fertile sandy land, and I don't know if it's suitable for planting these precious seeds! If you buy it in the town, it's too far away to take care of it......" As he spoke, Yu Hai frowned a little embarrassed.

Xiaocao thought for a while and said, "Let's buy the village first, it's best to be able to connect the pieces, otherwise it's not easy to take care of." In the town, I also looked for someone to see, and if there was a suitable land, I bought it. If you don't grow it yourself, you can rent it to someone else! Both of these crops are high-yielding and not too picky. When the harvest is in the fall, we can plant a large area next year! ”

Yu Hai saw that his youngest daughter's tone was affirmative, so he no longer hesitated. Doing business and farming, it seems that there is no one who can get rid of the little daughter, and the watermelon has never been planted in their family before, isn't it very good?

The next day, Yu Hai found two of them who sold land, asked the village chief as a guarantee, and spent 36 taels of silver to buy the 12 acres of land of the two families. Dongshan Village is mostly barren sandy land, and except for cheap crops such as sweet potatoes, other grain production is very low, so the price is cheap. The three taels and one acres given by Yu Hai are already very authentic!

The land of these two families is connected together, and the land of the Yu family is only separated from the land of Wang Ergou. When Wang Ergou heard about Yu Hai's purchase of land, he came to the door and said with a hippie smile: "Brother Dahai, are you going to expand the cultivation of watermelons?" Do you have enough land? If it's not enough, I'll lend it to your family, and I won't charge money! But...... Hehe, this year's watermelon, you have to give me priority...... I need to save more for my son! ”

Wang Ergou's daughter-in-law added a big fat boy to him in the first month, but he was very happy. I used to drink with a few fox friends and dog friends in the village to make money or something, but since I had a son, I have become a living twenty-four filial father, revolving around my wife and children every day. He also came to Yu's house many times to ask for advice on the practice of confinement meals, personally served his daughter-in-law's confinement, raised his daughter-in-law to be white and fat, with plenty of milk, and the little guy ate a round belly every day.

Yu Xiaocao teased him: "It's better for you to sell your land to us!" ”

"Can't sell, can't sell!! This land is to be reserved for my son. Wang Ergou waved his hand again and again and resolutely refused.

Yu Xiaocao continued: "Just your two acres of thin land, can your son be rare? It's better to make money this year, and the surrounding villages will buy some good land for your son. If you want to plant yourself, you can plant it yourself, and if you don't want to plant, you can rent it out and collect rent! ”

Wang Ergou had a stunned expression, slapped his thigh, and said, "That's right!" Why didn't I think of that? My daughter-in-law has a lot of good land in her village, and I don't know if there is anything to sell. I'll have to ask my brother-in-law about ......."

Wang Ergou's parents died, leaving him a lone seedling. His daughter-in-law is the eldest at home, and there are four younger siblings below, all of whom she brought up. The younger sisters are married, and one of the two younger brothers works on the docks, and the other farms and waits for the old man at home. Looking at the strong temperament of the second dog's daughter-in-law, you know that although their family is poor, they have backbone. After the second dog was improved, the old father-in-law's family changed their attitude towards him a lot, and treated him as half a son. Wang Ergou felt the warmth of home in his father-in-law, so he would think about his father-in-law's family whenever there was a good thing.

"Brother Dahai, I'll go back and discuss with my daughter-in-law, if she agrees, I'll sell it to you! Brother Dahai, if you can't be busy, even if you squeak at me, don't go outside! "Wang Ergou passed the tune of his daughter-in-law. Teach, it's no longer the same fool he used to be.

Yu Hai was not polite to him, and said, "Okay!" The land has been thawed in the past two days, and I am about to turn over the ground! If the two dog brothers are idle, come over and help the plow! "If you have livestock at home, you don't need to plough the ground by hand.

Wang Ergou happily agreed and said, "Okay! I'll be here early tomorrow morning! ”

In the next few days, Yu Hai took Wang Ergou and turned over a total of 17 acres of land sold to him by Ergou's family. And Yu Xiaocao no longer goes to the docks to help, because she has to breed watermelons, corn and potatoes. The dock was really busy, so Han took his little daughter with him every day to help serve dishes and wash dishes.

The days passed, and soon it was time for spring planting. Standing on the hillside, you can see everyone busy everywhere. The villagers of Dongshan Village have a large variety of sweet potatoes. In the more than ten acres of land of the Yu family, it attracts curious eyes from time to time.

The reason is very simple, the county magistrate personally met with the village chief of Dongshan Village, and solemnly told him that the Yu family was experimenting with planting Western crops for the king of Yang County, and they must actively cooperate, assist in taking care of it, and resolutely put an end to theft.

When the village chief returned home, he solemnly convened a meeting of the whole village, and regarded the protection of the "experimental field" as the first priority of the whole village, and it must be carried out in a sound manner. The village chief was afraid that he would not be safe, and threatened: "If there is any failure in the crops in the Yu family's field and the matter of the county prince is delayed, the life of our whole village will not be enough to compensate!" ”

Get! With a major matter related to the lives of the whole village, it is no wonder that the villagers are concerned. However, for fear of affecting the cultivation of the Yu family, they only dared to watch from afar. In order to prevent the destruction of crops, the village returned the night patrol team in the city to guard the Yu family's more than ten acres of land at night so that not even a single mosquito could fly in. In this way, it saves a lot of things for the Yu family.

The Yu family's melon fields have doubled this year. Except for the eleven acres that served as the "test field", all the others were planted with watermelons. Growing watermelons is relatively simple, just bury the melon seeds in the soil. In order to improve the seedling emergence rate, the grass is first soaked in spirit stone water before being taken out for sowing. Six acres of watermelons, the Yu family plus a free labor force - Wang Ergou, worked for two days and finally completed the planting.

Corn is also soaked. In the planting of corn, we should pay attention to the distance between the plants, if the planting is too dense, it is impermeable to the wind and cannot get sunlight, and the corn will not grow well. If the seed is too thin, the yield will be reduced. Fortunately, Xiaocao had experience in growing corn in his previous life.

The fields have been ploughed and manure has been applied. Xiaocao took a small hoe to dig a shallow pit in the soft soil, Liu followed behind, put a seed in the pit, and then pushed the soil into the pit with his feet to bury the seeds, Yu Hai carried a bucket of water and watered the pit...... The family of three cooperated very tacitly.

Ten acres of land, all pointing to a family of three, will take several days to plant. The first time I tried to grow corn, the family did it themselves. The work of digging the pit looks simple, but in fact it is not light, the waist must always be bent, and the hoe in the hand must be tightened. At the end of the day, Xiaocao was so tired that he couldn't straighten his waist, and a few blood blisters were grinding out in his palms, and he screamed in pain when he broke it.

Liu Shi used a baked needle to carefully pick up the blood blisters in his little daughter's hand, and Yu Hai inhaled in distress on the side. The house town took the best wound medicine, applied a thick layer to the goddaughter, and wrapped Xiaocao's hands with gauze like pig's trotters. At dinner, like a seriously wounded person, he was fed into his mouth by Pearl.

Liu Shi looked at the delicate little girl, and said unbearably: "The distance of the pit has been remembered." Cao'er, don't go to the ground tomorrow, rest at home! ”

Yu Xiaocao shook his head again and again and said, "No! Pointing to Dad and you, when will you be able to plant corn! My hands are not used to heavy work, and it will be good to grind it out in a few days! ”

The house town disagreed, and said: "The blood blister on your hand has just been broken, and if you grind it again tomorrow, you have to take off a layer of skin." Simply, I'll take two days off and help out in the fields! ”