Coming out of the Yibin County Ya, Gu Yunji was depressed in his chest.

Although the final result was achieved, it can be seen from the scene of the quarrel between the lieutenants that they are not enthusiastic about the cultivation of artichoke, and even very resistant. Moreover, Gu Yunji went to see several towns later, and found that this was not a special case of Fuxing Town, but a common phenomenon in the entire Xuzhou Mansion.

The chief is the lowest level of officials, the representative of the general public, like the ordinary people of this era, with a narrow vision and a weak ability to accept new things; They are also tainted with the bureaucratic atmosphere of some high-level officials, who have a lot of power in their respective villages, and they can say whatever they want to the villagers, and they can block all the news issued by the government as long as they want.

However, the governor knows the situation of his respective villages well, and can talk to every villager, the government has limited manpower, and if he wants to go up and down to follow the order, it is impossible to complete it with only the officials and servants of the government, and in the end he has to rely on the chief.

Promoting artichoke is even more difficult than Gu Yunji imagined.

Gu Yunji walked on the way back to the mansion with a frown, but saw Zhang Cuiying coming over with an excited face: "Lord Gu, are there any artichoke seeds?" We don't have enough in our village, and every family wants it. ”

Gu Yunji looked at her in surprise: "Are you sure?" I don't want the mayors of other villages, but your village is not enough? ”

Zhang Cuiying smiled embarrassedly: "Maybe they don't know how good the artichoke is, so they don't want to accept it." Our village is different, when I planted artichoke for adults before, in order to avoid leakage, I invited people from my village to do long-term work, and they all saw the high-yield things of artichoke. ”

"I was worried that it would be bad for adults, but I didn't let them say it, and I couldn't hold them back. Later, when I heard that you were going to send seeds for free to promote in Xuzhou Mansion, everyone was so happy that they immediately told their families, and this matter had already spread in our village. ”

"Everyone is very disappointed to learn that artichoke seeds are only sent to the chief, so let me ask you, can you allocate an extra batch of seeds to Zhangjia Village, so that every household can plant a little?"

Speaking of this, Zhang Cuiying hurriedly said: "Of course, if the adult is very embarrassed, then forget it, we will definitely follow the arrangement of the adult." ”

Under the premise that other towns are not going well, it is rare for the villagers of Zhangjia Village to be so positive, Gu Yunji's depressed mood finally got a little comfort, and naturally he couldn't bear to refuse: "This is no problem, it just so happens that there is still a batch of seeds left in the government office, so I will allocate another 1,000 catties of good seeds to Zhangjia Village, as for how much each family gets, you will distribute it yourself, how about it?" ”

Zhang Cuiying smiled happily: "Okay, okay, no problem, thank you Master Gu!" ”

When it came to the seeds, Zhang Cuiying left happily, but the enthusiasm of one village in Zhangjia Village does not mean that other villages are also very active, and from the perspective of the entire Xuzhou Mansion, the people are not very interested in planting artichokes.

A few months later, on the eve of Chinese New Year's Eve, the first-generation artichoke seeds distributed to the chief should be ripe, and Gu Yunji randomly visited several villages, intending to see the situation.

Not surprisingly, the situation is bad.

At the beginning, those lieutenants were in front of Gu Yunji, forced by his prestige, and promised to be good, but in fact, they didn't pay attention to it at all.

There are many people who have one set in front of them and one behind them, and they don't plant them at all after they go back, and no one cares about the potatoes that are rotten at home. I still heard from afar that the government came to inspect it, so I hurriedly prepared to dispose of it, but I ran into Gu Yunji and others head-on, and the scene was very embarrassing for a while.

There are also people who plant 150 catties of artichoke, but only harvest about 400 catties, and stubbornly claim that the yield of artichoke is so high, and there is no cat greasy among them. In the end, under Gu Yunji's repeated questioning, the other party was willing to admit that half of the seeds had been eaten by them, and they had not planted all of them at all.

There are even a few outrageous ones, as soon as they are taken back, they are distributed to relatives and friends to eat, and there is not a single sown artichoke left. Hearing that the government was going to come to inspect it, they were afraid of being punished, so they actually ingeniously brought dozens of catties of taro, dyed it yellow with dye, and took it to Gu Yunji and said that this was an artichoke.

Gu Yun's face at that time was even more yellow than the "artichoke", and he was so angry that he almost didn't pout on the spot.

Of course, there are still many people who attach great importance to this matter and go back to plant the artichoke one by one according to the government's requirements, which in turn leads to another part of the chaos.

Some people are sincerely afraid, for fear of doing something that the government has explained, and after planting the artichoke, they will go to see it from time to time, weeding once every three days and watering it once every two days. Because I was too worried, I pulled out the potatoes one by one to see how they were growing when they were halfway there, and there was no doubt that they were all planted and died.

After some visits and spot checks, in the end, less than one-third of the lieutenants completed the tasks assigned by the government, and the results were very unsatisfactory.

When the news reached the prefect's mansion, Yan Zhengqian almost laughed and hurt his stomach: "I have long felt that this thing is unreliable, Gu Yunji still has to do it, now it's okay, it's messed up, right?" Not many people want to plant at all! Fortunately, I didn't agree to take the money at the beginning, otherwise I, the prefect, would have been implicated. ”

Master Pang Fu also gloated: "In fact, it's not that no one wants to plant at all, a lieutenant in Fuxing Town went back and planted it well, and finally harvested more than 1,200 catties of artichokes!" As a result, the guy saw that the yield was so high, and he was greedy, so he hid a whole thousand catties in his own house, and only took out more than 200 catties and sent them to the villagers. ”

"Later, Gu Yunji took people to their village for spot checks, and as soon as the incident occurred in the east window, the villagers knew that there were so many hidden in the village, and they were so angry that they scuffled with him at that time, and the officials couldn't pull it open, and it also affected Gu Yunji, fortunately, Chen Peishi took a beating for him, and that kid still has a big bag on his head now."

Yan Zhengqian laughed out loud again when he heard this, and finally sighed with a fake sigh: "Young people are impatient, eager for quick success, so ambitious, always thinking about doing a big career, how can it be so easy?" When he reaches my age, he will understand that everything in the world is not easy. ”

Pang Fu looked puzzled: "It's strange to say, what kind of benefit did that Hui merchant named Fan Li receive from Gu Yunji, and he was actually willing to give him five thousand taels of silver for nothing to buy seeds?" Now that things are messed up, five thousand taels of silver have been lost, and Fan Li has no choice but to fight with him? ”

Yan Zhengqian said slowly: "I don't know if I want to fight hard or not, but if I were Gu Yunji, I'm afraid I would have been so guilty that I would have no shame to see Fan Li!" ”

The promotion of artichoke is not ideal, although Gu Yunji is disappointed, but he does not regret it, no matter what he does, the first step from scratch is the most difficult. What's more, this is equivalent to a measure to speed up the historical process, originally potatoes will not be introduced to the mainland for at least a few decades, but now it is so much earlier, the difficulty is certain.

Having said that, Gu Yunji's heart was still a little guilty about Fan Li, the matter of artichoke was already like this, and doing a good job in the next chili pepper business was the best reward and compensation for him.