Good heavens! Fifty taels!

  The rain had been falling for five days in a row. Everything was wet and soggy, the tents were uninhabitable, the thick cowhide bedding was swollen with water, emitting a rotten smell, Yun Ye felt like he was living in a garbage dump. The thin blanket couldn't keep out the chill, luckily there was a sleeping bag to avoid freezing to death. Old Cheng stopped Yun Ye and Li Chengqian's training. This made Yun Ye feel a mix of sadness and joy, on one hand, he was relieved to have escaped the devilish training, on the other hand, seeing Cheng Pomo struggling in the mud and water while he himself sat comfortably in his tent made him feel like he owed them something.

  The chill of autumn days easily penetrates to the bone marrow, leaving behind a root of illness. Old Cheng is a living example, not yet fifty years old, but although he looks strong on the surface, in reality, when he returns to his tent, he is groaning with pain. His knee is swollen, and every night, Cheng Chu Mu gives him a massage to activate his blood circulation, and medicine is poured down his throat, but it has no effect whatsoever. Yun Ye didn't bring any medicine for treating arthritis, so he could only take out some anti-inflammatory medication and persuade Old Cheng to take it, but who knew that Old Cheng was aware of the preciousness of this medicine and ordered Yun Ye not to give it to anyone easily, including himself. Niu Jin Da has also reduced his outings, and whenever he arrives at a place, if he can sit down, he absolutely won't stand up; it seems that this old fellow is also being tormented quite severely. In the Tang Dynasty, as long as one was over fifty years old, they were considered to be of an advanced age. The underdevelopment of the healthcare system, the scarcity of food, and the frequent occurrence of war have resulted in people's lives generally not being very long. It's unlike later generations where fifty years old is when high-ranking officials are at their most ambitious, and another twenty years of hard work wouldn't be a problem. Yun Ye's words about stopping training on rainy days were swallowed hard by Old Cheng; it was clear that the Tang Dynasty would be using its army to its fullest extent in the next few years, and having one more elite troop would mean having one more chance at victory. Old Cheng wouldn't care if these people would leave behind a root of illness or not; as long as the Tang Dynasty prospered, he wouldn't even care about his own life. One can't help but admit that he is a very pure person, a good military man. Not just him, many high-ranking officials' sons in the training camp have this kind of awareness and are biting their teeth to persevere through the hardships. Climbing over obstacles using only one rope on steep cliffs makes Yun Ye dizzy just by looking at it, but they want to climb up while fully armed. This has already exceeded Yun Ye's original training plan; Old Cheng, Old Niu, and a group of old generals have added these subjects to Yun Ye's plan. After three months of training, the results are evident: these guys can climb walls and jump over tiles as if they were walking on flat ground, running one hundred miles is as easy as turning their hands over, ambushing, assassinating, breaking through encirclements, capturing enemies alive - it's all like a routine meal. The only thing that didn't occur to Yun Ye was that these people would take his engineer shovel as their main weapon and combine it with crossbows, military stabs, forming their own equipment system. In the regular assessment ten days ago, one thousand soldiers were defeated by two hundred of them in an encirclement battle within a five-kilometer radius; this is still a frontal confrontation - if they let Cheng Chu Mu and his men freely do as they pleased, not one of those one thousand people would have survived. After carefully evaluating their combat strength, Niu Jin Da believed that without more than ten times the number of elite soldiers in an encirclement battle, it would be impossible to capture these two hundred people. If they were in a special terrain like mountains, forests, or cities, their abilities would be infinitely magnified; of course, this is after undergoing two years of training. Old Cheng and Old Niu are both expecting this troop to shine with glory, believing that Li the Second won't let such an elite troop waste away its youth for much longer.

  Today is a grand day, the potato stems and leaves have withered completely, and it's time to harvest. Li Chengqian got up early, finished washing and dressing under the attendance of the inner servant, and came to the grass shed. Cheng Yaoguang, Niu Jinda, and all officials above the seventh rank were already waiting in their formal attire. A six-foot-long incense table was placed on the open ground in front of the grass shed, with a whole cow, sheep, pig head, fruit, pastries, and a large bronze incense burner in the middle, which Li Chengqian would use to insert incense during the ceremony. Yun Ruo wore a fifth-rank military uniform, his mother's light red one, unlike Old Cheng and others who wore purple robes, holding an imperial belt with a golden fish bag, a silk net crown shining like new, two black crown bands hanging down naturally, majestic and solemn, a great ministerial demeanor. Yun Ruo turned around to look, how come everyone around him was a big uncle-level character, each wearing a red robe like a cooked crab, proud and arrogant. Looking back, he saw Cheng Zuoming, Li Huairan, and others wearing green robes, green crowns, and looking like mantises. Yun Ruo looked at them, raised his eyebrows, and made faces. Just as he was about to speak softly, Old Niu coughed loudly, and he quickly closed his mouth. Li Chengqian wore a full crown prince attire, with a Tongtian crown on his head, a dragon brooch on his chest, all in gold and yellow, walking slowly from the tent and standing still in front of the incense table, bowing silently. When the first ray of sunlight shone on the incense table, Niu Jinda shouted loudly: "The auspicious time has arrived, the crown prince is offering incense." Li Chengqian took three thick incense sticks from the incense table, lit them with candles, and after three kneels and bows, inserted the incense into the burner. Except for Old Niu standing beside the incense table, everyone else followed the crown prince in bowing to heaven. After finishing the incense ceremony, the crown prince turned around, took out a yellow silk scroll from his sleeve, and read aloud: "The emperor has an imperial edict, all officials kneel down." Only after everyone knelt down did he read the imperial edict, which this time was not for the Emperor of Heaven, but for Shennong, one of the Three Emperors. He first reminisced about Shennong's past achievements, then described the current happy life that came from Shennong's legacy, reported on the new grain production, and encouraged Shennong to continue blessing the Tang Dynasty with good weather and abundant harvests. After finishing, he burned the edict for Shennong to see. Yun Ruo was very unhappy, his hard-earned potatoes were all attributed to Shennong, which was heartbreaking.

  The five large vats were all moved out, and Old Cow stared at them without blinking. For several months, Old Cow had been worried about it day and night, carefully taking care of it during the day, watering and fertilizing, catching insects and cultivating the soil, just short of wiping the leaves every day. Now that it was finally ripe, how could he not be excited? However, Old Cheng was worried that if there wasn't a high yield as Yun said, he would be guilty of deceiving his lord. He regretted bringing up this matter early on.

  "Master Yun, you're the most familiar with auspicious signs, so please take care of harvesting." Li Chengqian was also excited and didn't know where to start, turned around and asked Yun He to do it. Yun He looked at everyone strangely, what's the big deal about digging up a potato? He stretched out his hand, grasped the stem of the potato plant, and with one pull, he pulled it out. The old cow's hands shook as if they were pulling something out.

  As everyone looked at the potato in Yun He's hand, they all took a deep breath. On the root of the potato, there were three fist-sized potatoes, each weighing over a kilogram. This was incredible! One plant produced three kilograms, and one mu of land planted with 1,000 plants would yield 3,000 kilograms. Even if this plant was carefully nurtured, it wouldn't be possible to have such a high yield in the fields. Cutting the yield in half would still result in 1,500 kilograms, which is equivalent to 12 or 13 dan (a unit of measurement). It seemed that Yun He had already set up a trap earlier and reported a lower yield.

  Cheng Yaojin was extremely satisfied with both Yun He's caution and the potato's yield. Niu Jinda wailed loudly, Li Chengqian sat on the ground with a thud, and everyone crowded forward to take a closer look. Just as they were crying out in amazement, Niu Jinda suddenly jumped up and shouted: "Everyone step back! Anyone who takes another step forward will be executed!" Only then did everyone hastily retreat.

  Yun He scratched his head in confusion, saying: "This isn't right, why is it only this little?" When he said this, everyone fell to the ground. The prince had a smile on his face and was about to pretend to comfort Yun He when he saw Yun He pick up a stone and smash open a large jar with a loud crash. The mud inside the jar splattered everywhere, and he used his hands to dig in the soil until he dug out three more potatoes before nodding in satisfaction.

  Feeling that it had become quiet around him, he turned his head to look and found that everyone was staring at the three potatoes in his hand with wide eyes. After a long time, Niu Jinda let out a mournful cry: "Heavenly king, 50 dan!"