The 46th Great Harvest

  Collection is still two and will reach three hundred, Da Bai sincerely asks for everyone's support, tomorrow there will be three updates to thank you!

  Li Er didn't have time to come over, but he often received secret letters, and his heart was itching with impatience. To be on the safe side, he had already added sixteen guards to Kyoto to keep a close eye on Mizuo's rice fields. Except for a dozen or so people who were specifically responsible for taking care of the rice fields in the village, no one else was allowed to approach.

  According to the growth cycle of super rice, it is two months and twenty days. Possibly due to climate and regional restrictions, eighty days have passed, and the rice in the paddy field is still a bit green. Zhangsun Chong thought that except for unexpected events, he would squat on the ground every day, watching, and as soon as it was ripe, he would start harvesting immediately.

  Because it's far away, Li Er can't come often. Every day he sees the reports below, his heart is itching with impatience, and he wishes he could grow wings to fly over and feast his eyes.

  Finally, upon receiving the memorial from Zhangsun Wuji announcing that the rice had matured, and also receiving a bundle of rice ears personally plucked by Zhangsun Wuji wrapped in a handkerchief, Li Er held up the full bundle of rice ears, looked up at the sky and burst out laughing, his laughter lasting for a long time without stopping, frightening the imperial consorts into losing their composure, and causing the children to tremble with fear.

  At dawn, Li Er took out the rice ear and let the courtiers see the divine food of Da Tang and hope.

  House Xuanling was in charge of the people's livelihood and was very familiar with the five grains. When he received this ear of rice, he was so excited that he knelt down on the ground and said: "Congratulations to Your Majesty for obtaining this immortal grain! I just counted it carefully, and there are 298 grains of rice on the whole ear, and each grain is half larger than the rice in the Tang Dynasty before. When I went to visit Old Du earlier, I followed Old Du to calculate how many stalks of rice could be grown per mu, how many branches, and based on the weight of this single ear of rice today, it's no problem to produce 10 stones per mu, and one mu of land can support a family."

  "Your humble servant congratulates Your Majesty on obtaining this divine grain. In just a few years, our Great Tang will surely have no one with an empty stomach!" The Minister of Revenue, Dai Gun, thought to himself that if the common people had a good harvest, he could collect taxes, and the national treasury would be full again, never having to worry about it being as empty as this year, like a starving mouse.

  "With such divine food, our Great Tang will avenge its hatred and behead the two bastards, Quli and Tuli. I request permission to serve Your Majesty and the people of Tang!" The Minister of War, Li Jing, was thinking that with food, there would naturally be food for war.

  Minister of Agriculture Li Wei thought that this kind of divine grain must be vigorously promoted and planted in all parts of the Tang Dynasty.

  Everyone was talking, and it had been a long time since the imperial court had been so lively. Wang Gui, the Minister of Rites, became anxious, not wanting to let the other five departments steal the spotlight. Such a major event, how could they not offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, and report to their ancestors? He hastily stepped forward: "Your Majesty, at this moment when we are benefiting the country and the people, and our achievements will last for thousands of years, I humbly request that we offer sacrifices to heaven and earth before harvesting, and pray that Heaven will grant more protection to Great Tang."

  The calmest in the imperial court is none other than Zhangsun Wuji. This guy has always been pretending to be profound, but this rice was actually stirred up by his son. Even if he didn't fart on the imperial court, Your Majesty would not forget the merits of the Zhangsun family, and promotion and enfeoffment are a matter of course.

  Li Er stroked the small mustache on his upper lip, chuckled and said: "Wang Ai Chen is right, I have asked Yuan Tian Gang to choose a auspicious day, tomorrow we will hold a ceremony in Chang Sun's paddy field to inform the land."

  Everyone listened, and their hearts skipped a beat. They only thought that the promotion of rice would benefit the country and the people, but they forgot who cultivated this rice. They looked at Zhangsun Wuji with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

  Cheng Yaojin was the greatest anomaly in the imperial court. He walked up to Changsun Wuji and said with a sour tone, "Honorable brother-in-law, where did you get this rice seed from? Why not bring more over so we can have even more next year?"

  Chang Sun Wuji had already prepared his speech, but upon hearing Cheng Yaojin's annoying question, he felt uneasy and said: "Good things are what everyone wants, but there's only so much to go around. What can you do? Besides, where my son gets good things is a secret of the Chang Sun family. If I let you know too, your five useless sons will be crawling all over my son's head. Don't forget, your second son did something stupid on my estate, and I haven't even settled accounts with you yet."

  Cheng Yaoguang smiled awkwardly, rubbing his nose. This year, what he least wanted to hear was others mentioning that Cheng Chuliang had slept with the daughter of the Zhang family in Longsun Village. He said: "Hehe, brother, I'm not envying you for having a good son, am I?"

  Chang Sun Wuji may have been practicing Tai Chi, but he didn't tell anyone about the rice seedlings. However, everyone was a seasoned veteran of the officialdom, and they had already made up their minds. From then on, they kept an eye on Chang Sun's sons, big and small. Whatever they did, they followed suit. No, it was the younger ones in the family who followed them around, refusing to let go even when they were shooed away.

  Li Er let Yuan Tianxia personally come to observe the night sky, after which there were ten days of clear and pleasant autumn weather with not a cloud in sight. After deciding to hold a ceremony to inform heaven and earth, they began harvesting.

  Chang Sun Chong received a letter from Li Er, and was shocked. Yuan Tian Gang pinched his fingers to calculate, could it be more powerful than the 21st century's weather forecast? Being able to see the weather situation for ten days, later generations had to expend great effort, launching satellites, taking atmospheric satellite photos in space, and analyzing countless theoretical events to obtain relatively accurate predictions.

  Li Er led the civil and military officials to arrive at Changsun's villa, directly to the land head, where everything needed for the sacrifice to heaven and earth was already prepared.

  In the golden autumn, the rice fragrance wafts, the yellow orange rice fields turn into golden waves, bringing the hope and joy of harvest, quietly arrived. The golden rice fields, the heavy rice ears, are placed in the hopes and expectations of Zhangsun Chong.

  It's finally ripe and ready for harvest.

  Soon, Li Er completed the ritual steps, and the farmer who had been ready for a long time, sharpened his knife and headed towards the rice field. Li Er snatched the sickle from Zhang Sun's hand, bent down to cut the rice, although his movements were not as skilled as those who had been doing farm work for years, but he was very serious and focused.

  The ministers saw Li Er starting to work and others couldn't idle around, they all took sickles to cut the rice.

  Luckily, Zhangsun Chong had prepared many sharp sickles the night before to save time sharpening them. Otherwise, if this group of old men were to cut the rice, the villagers would be watching and wondering when they could finish!

  Like Zhang Fei and Li Er, these cavalry generals are still somewhat better off; they have great strength and won't be exhausted easily. However, those civil officials can't take it; after being cut a few times, they're done for. All they can do is hold onto their rice rations, mutter to themselves, recite poetry, and do what they're good at.

  After a busy half-day in the fields, Li Er caught his breath, put down his sickle, and saw that some rice grains had been scattered among the fields. He squatted on the ground, picking them up one by one.

  "Your Majesty, there are so many here, just don't bother picking up the few that have fallen on the ground." Wei Chi Gong said in a loud voice, not understanding why it was such a big deal, after all, it's just one grain of rice.

  Li glared at Wei Gong and scolded: "This is a grain of rice, which can grow into a stalk of rice, with eight branches on the stalk, each with three hundred grains of rice. That's two thousand four hundred grains; next year's two thousand four hundred grains will be used as seeds for the following year, how many more will there be? Year after year, it will become countless."

  Wei Chi Gong hastily and respectfully said: "It's this general's shortsightedness!" He squatted down with his robust body, following Li Er to pick up the rice ears, competing not to waste a single grain of rice.

  Farmers cut the rice, and the soldiers of the 16th Wei, led by Cheng Yaojin, carried bundles of rice onto the cart, pulled it to the flattened threshing ground, spread them evenly on the ground. Skilled farmers drove donkeys pulling stone rollers, circling over these rice ears, until all the grains were pressed off from the rice stalks.

  Instead, Zhangsun Chong, who was originally in charge, had nothing to do and sat on a pile of grass, laughing as he watched everyone else busy.

  Li Er and the group of officials wanted to witness this historic moment with their own eyes, so they prepared to stay in Zhangsun's villa, waiting for the results of the harvest. With many people working together, it only took two days to complete the threshing. Before Li Er, Minister of Agriculture Li Wei personally measured the amount of rice.

  Twenty mu of land, a total of 31,000 catties were harvested, with an average yield of 1,550 catties per mu. At the rate of 120 catties per dan, the grain output is as high as 12 dan, and even if several big suns are dried, there will be at least 11 dan.

  Li Er was excited, holding up a big handful of newly harvested rice, eagerly watching the plump grains fall from his fingers. This is just one season, if it's two seasons, three seasons, that's not 3,000 or 4,000 kilograms per mu! My goodness, how much grain will be harvested this year!

  The ministers went crazy, holding the rice grains and sprinkling them on their faces, not minding that the rice grains were scratching people, Chang Sun Can't help but feel itchy for them!