As Shen Zhuang left, Jin Zhong suddenly looked full of admiration.
"I have always heard that Guo Changshi is the chief financial officer of Prince Yan's palace. Today I saw him and admired him greatly."
Guo An smiled softly and said with an incomprehensible expression: "Do you think the Shen family will agree?"
Jin Zhongxin said: "If we return to Guo Changshi, the Shen family will definitely agree.
Merchants pursue profits, and with His Majesty now banning the sea, the Shen family's business is not as good as before.
Now, by cooperating with Prince Yan's Mansion, they can not only monopolize all the sugar in the south, but can even board the big ship of Prince Yan's Mansion. At least no official dares to deduct the Shen family's caravan at will.
If they don't agree, when our Prince Yan Mansion builds sugar workshops in Fujian and Guangdong, not only will they not make any money, but the Shen family's share of sucrose will even be reduced. "
Guo An nodded with a happy face, "In this way, Prince Yan's Mansion has another stable source of wealth."
"exactly."
Jin Zhong said with certainty.
"Very good!"
Guo An nodded slightly, and then made arrangements: "Now, it will be the time of autumn harvest soon.
Go and inspect. How are the preparations for the farms under Prince Yan's residence?
In addition, how prepared are the people of Wanping County?
If there is any shortage, can you borrow it from Prince Yan's Mansion?
In short, everything is mainly about the autumn harvest..."
"Here!"
Jin Zhong responded and retreated.
…
A few more days passed.
Guo An came to Cunxin Hall with some doubts, "Your Highness, are you looking for me?"
"Um."
Zhu Di sat above him with a gloomy look, motioned for Guo An to sit down, and said coldly.
"Guo Qing, we heard that the Korean envoy has come to pay tribute to our Ming Dynasty twice this year."
"Uh-huh?"
Guo An nodded subconsciously, then realized something and his face lit up.
"May I ask, Your Highness, if the envoy from Goryeo hasn't paid back the money to Prince Yan's Palace?"
"Exactly... hmm?"
Zhu Di looked at Guo An with a displeased look on his face, "Guo Qing, why are you so happy when that little Goryeo official dares to default on the money he owes us?"
Guo An replied honestly: "Your Highness, you still remember that when Wei Chen persuaded His Highness Jian to use a loan to sell transparent glass and winter vegetable planting technology to Korea, he had no intention that Korea would return the money to His Highness!"
Zhu Di was stunned for a moment, and then his face became sullen.
"But the small country of Goryeo can't repay us even a penny, right? We have a deed with the seal sealed by the King of Goryeo himself!"
Guo An sighed slightly, "Your Highness, I forgive you. I never expected that the Goryeo Kingdom would be so bold."
Zhu Di was still a little unwilling, "What can Guo Qing do?"
Guo Andao said: "For the current plan, we can ask Zhu Changshi to write a letter to the court crying that the Goryeo Kingdom is ungrateful.
His Highness trusted the Koryo Kingdom so much that he lent them 210,000 taels of silver. Not only did they not repay a penny, but they even refused to pay back the interest. Please ask the imperial court to issue an order to reprimand the Koryo Kingdom.
At the same time, His Highness can also send someone to send a message to the Koryo Kingdom to urge them to pay back the money..."
Zhu Di asked again: "So, what if they keep saying they have no money?"
Guo An grinned, "Your Highness, you have just established three Mongolian cavalry units."
"good!"
Zhu Di nodded slightly, "The money from our Prince Yan's Mansion is not that easy to get."
Go ahead, Zhu Di ordered Ma He on the side: "Summon Zhu Changshi."
"Here!"
As Ma He went down, Guo An also stood up and said: "Your Highness, I have to go to the farm to check around today. I'll take my leave first."
"Um!"
Zhu Di waved his hand very casually.
Guo An quickly resigned.
After returning to the public house, Guo An dragged Jin Zhong, who had not yet left, and rushed to the farm without waiting for the old man Zhu Fu to come back and glare at him.
"Chang Shi, the farm has only planted 200 acres of grain this year, plus 100 acres of experimental fields, but there are more than 300 veterans on the farm. There is always a hundred households stationed around, so there is no need to worry about the autumn harvest. "
On the carriage, Jin Zhong said slowly.
Guo Andao: "We know."
Hearing this, Jin Zhong's eyes flashed with surprise and he didn't say anything more.
The carriage was swaying on the road.
After a while, Guo An frowned slightly, "Nowadays, the farm is considered a more important project in Prince Yan's Mansion. Why are the roads still so dilapidated?"
Jin Zhong opened the car curtain, glanced at the road outside, and said, "Back to Guo Changshi, it has rained a lot during this period, and no one has smoothed it, making the road a little bumpy."
Guo An said directly: "Let's build a cement road."
“Cement roads?”
Jin Zhong was surprised, "Chang Shi, wouldn't this be a waste..."
"No need to worry."
Guo An said quietly, "In just the past two years, the farm has earned enough money for the family to build a cement road.
Moreover, the farm will inevitably expand in the future, and this trail alone is no longer useful! "
"Yes, Guo Changshi!"
Jin Zhong nodded and replied, "As soon as the autumn harvest is over, the villain begins to gather the laborers and craftsmen to start laying cement roads."
"Um!"
Guo An nodded slightly.
…
The farm in Prince Yan's Mansion has expanded a bit.
Although he hasn't been here for a long time, Guo An can clearly feel that the farm has definitely expanded again.
"I've met Guo Changshi!"
Ding Shang, the farm manager, was happy when he saw Guo An.
Guo An said with a smile: "Congratulations to General Ding for expanding his territory again!"
"Hahaha, Guo Changshi clearly noticed that there are two more hills and 600 acres of wasteland."
Ding Shang said proudly.
"Very good!"
Guo An nodded with satisfaction and asked casually: "Are any of the hogs, sheep, chickens and ducks sick this year?"
Ding Shang said with joy on his face: "According to Guo Changshi's instructions, we expanded the pen for these animals and cleaned them every few days.
Their pens are cleaner than the houses I live in. The number of illnesses among these animals this year has been reduced by half compared to last year. "
Guo An smiled and said: "Thank you, General Ding, for waiting for you all."
The smile on Ding Shang's face got even bigger, "Hahaha, Guo Changshi said something serious. How hard is it to feed a few poultry and livestock?"
"Um!"
Guo An nodded slightly, and then did not continue the greetings, but asked directly: "General Ding, where are Guo Bingyong, Guo Zhi and others?"
Hearing this, Ding Shang's eyes flashed with respect.
"Back to Guo Changshi, the four master farmers of Guo Village should go to the experimental field to inspect one by one."
"Master Farmer?"
A trace of surprise flashed in Guo An's eyes, and he smiled softly without retorting, "I'll go see them."
"Let's take Guo Changshi forward."
After saying that, Ding Shang led the way very diligently.
Behind them, Guo An and Jin Zhong looked at each other, with a glimmer of expectation in their eyes.
The fields where rice is grown are only a hundred or two hundred meters away from the entrance of the farm.
Therefore, before walking a few steps, Guo An saw four thin literati in the clearly defined rice fields at the edge. Two of them bent down from time to time, observing carefully. Holding the book, he quickly recorded it.
Guo An walked closer, opened his mouth and shouted: "Fourth brother, sixth brother, tenth brother, eleventh brother!"
Several people who were working in the fields raised their heads, glanced at Guo An outside, and said with joy on their faces, "Ning Yi, you are back!"
Immediately, before Guo An could speak, Guo Bingyong and Guo Zhi shouted again, "Ning Yi, please wait for a while. I will observe for a while and then come out."
After saying that, the four of them lowered their heads again and looked at each other seriously.
On the side, Jin Zhong asked: "Chang Shi, now that the rice is almost ripe, what else do they want to see?"
Guo An glanced at Jin Zhong, "Who knows what else they want to observe and record? It doesn't matter, we are all members of the same family. As long as we study something, we will ignore the outside world. Just wait here for a while, I Go in and take a look.”
Jin Zhong was also curious, "I also want to see these rice fields."
"Can!"
Guo An responded casually and walked in on his own.
There is still a big difference between the rice fields in the experimental field and the rice fields next door.
The ridges in the rice fields of the experimental fields are all separate, allowing people to walk freely in the middle.
In addition, for the rice in the experimental fields, the density, height, and ear length of the rice in every two ridges, and even if you look carefully, you can see that the fullness of the rice ears in each ridge is somewhat different.
However, as he looked at it, Guo An noticed something was wrong.
Looking back, Ding Shangzheng had been staring at the two of them closely, as if he was guarding them against something?
"Hey, I was worried that Guo Changshi didn't know him, so he followed me in. Please don't be weird, Guo Changshi."
Guo An was stunned for a moment, then said: "It's okay, you don't need to worry, we just came in to take a look at the research results of some elder brothers, we won't pick and play at will."
Ding Shang's face was full of ridicule.
However, there was no step-by-step follow-up.
When Guo An walked around and came out, Guo Bingyong and Guo Zhi also came out with happy faces.
"Congratulations to Ning Yi."
Guo An also returned with a happy face, "Congratulations to the four eldest brothers for finally researching something."
Although Guo Bingyong and Guo Zhi are members of the same family in Guo An's village, their ancestors go back for who knows how many generations.
Therefore, there is a big age difference between several people and Guo An. The eldest Guo Bingyong is already thirty-six this year.
Hearing Guo An's words, the four of them couldn't help but look ashamed. Guo Bingyong quickly shook his head and said, "Ning Yi is disappointed. We have occupied so much fertile land, borrowed many of Ning Yi's methods, and used the farm. There are so many veterans, but they still haven’t developed improved rice varieties that can increase the yield per mu.”
Guo An was a little confused and said: "But I saw in the rice field, there are already several ridges of rice. The ears of rice are obviously much larger than others, and the rice is even very full."
Guo Bingyong explained: "Well, Guo An didn't know that when he bought these rice, they were all high-quality varieties with full grains. Although the ears of rice are larger and the grains are full, they are almost the same as the previous high-quality varieties."
Guo An's face was filled with joy, "So, doesn't it mean that as long as the four eldest brothers continue to plant these improved seeds, the rice in the future will be as big as this?
So, if this rice seed is used to plant fields, wouldn’t the rice yield per mu naturally increase after a few years? "
"this?"
Hearing this, Guo Bingyong and Guo Zhi couldn't help but be stunned.
Immediately, the four of them quickly looked through the books in their hands and read them carefully.
Then, he quickly ran to their house, dug out a pile of rice seeds, and compared them.
After a while, I ran to the rice field next door and started checking one by one.
Guo An stood aside and watched the four of them running back and forth.
…
(End of chapter)
