Lady of the Lord From the East - Chapter 142

The bumper corn harvest is indeed good news, but Wei Wei is not as happy as George thought. After all, it is commonplace, and she has almost estimated the corn output this year.

However, it is good news that there is no reduction in production. Wei Wei still rewarded George for his hard work during this period, and at the same time agreed to his request, nodding and sending him some corn.

These corns have been cultivated for almost three years. Now, there is no need to carefully store all the harvests as seeds. When the corn was filling, Wei Wei asked people to pick a lot of tender corn and send them to the castle. These few days In the restaurant, their family did not eat less, boiled, steamed, fried, and fried pancakes. Wei Wei had tried every method that could be made, which made Felix and the others understand the variety of this kind of food. Law.

Since it can be eaten openly, Wei Wei naturally has no intention of keeping all the corn.

“Keep some for seeds, and sell the rest for money.”

Don’t look at their wealthy family, but the wharf and the new city that Sardinson is building are cost-intensive projects. These two things can’t be repaid in a short period of time, and they have to be compensated from other places. Pen.

Wei Wei plans to discuss corn sales with Felix.

The price should not be too high. If it is too high, ordinary people will not be able to buy it, which is not conducive to its promotion among the residents, but it should not be too low. If it is too low, it will not rise again, which will be detrimental to the commercial value of corn in the future.

In the end what price is, you have to find someone to discuss it before you can decide.

As for sales, she thought to herself, when other people know about the corn harvest, the business will probably come to her door.

In fact, the business came to the door earlier than she expected, and even before Wei Wei received George’s report, many people had already moved to buy corn seeds.

Of course, it wasn’t the serfs who watched the corn harvest, but a group of people headed by kings and nobles who were far away in the capital.

When Felix went to the capital to meet the king last year, he once gave him 100 catties of corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes. At the same time, he did not miss some other nobles who were worthy of being friends. There are many kings, but if nothing else, this corn is enough to grow an acre or two.

Unlike potatoes and sweet potatoes, which grow in the ground and don’t know how much they will harvest unless they are dug out, corn is hung on the corn stalk. What is inside is very clear.

Especially the head is not big, it is clear at a glance.

At first, the king and others did not pay much attention to these new crops. Even if Felix mentioned that these seeds are very productive, most of them just casually asked their servants to put the seeds away and wait for the coming year when they received gifts. All things considered, I didn’t have much expectations for its harvest.

They have no shortage of food for their identities, and these new crops don’t look so delicious. The corn is so dry that it grinds its teeth at first glance. The potatoes and sweet potatoes have not been cleaned for preservation, and the skins are covered with dirt. They are like lumps, they have no appearance at all, and they are secretly disliked by many nobles, and they are not very satisfied with the gifts that Felix sent. discarded.

However, although it was not discarded, it did not receive much attention. Some nobles still felt that their planting was a waste of land, so they simply rewarded their subordinates.

Although the nobles just said something casually, their servants did not dare to do things carelessly. Naturally, they remembered every word of the masters firmly. Therefore, in the spring of this year, most of these seed potatoes were successfully planted in the fields. inside.

Felix didn’t forget to send a planting manual when he sent things, and the serfs who can farm the land for the nobles are not too bad. With their careful care, these kinds are not difficult to grow. The crops in the less-selected areas are growing very well, especially corn, which grows from the cob. Even if it has not been harvested yet, seeing the size of the corn, the serfs immediately went to notify the steward, and then the steward informed them. ‘s owner.

The King’s affection for Felix can be said to have always been low, and he got a lot of benefits from Felix, from the initial method of making deworming water, fire manure, and manure, to the later method of sugar making , each of which has benefited him a lot. The use of insect-repellent water and fertilizer has increased the yield of crops in his domain, and the sugar-making formula has made him a lot of money. This year, the king not only expanded the number of crops in the royal domain. The number of beets planted has even signed a deal with some nobles to purchase beets. When the beets matured in October, his sugar mill would be able to continuously produce a large amount of beet sugar. The king could imagine that at that time, he Another gold mountain will be added to the coffers.

And these are the benefits that Felix brought him, so the king, who had always appreciated this cheap grandson, became more and more satisfied with him, knowing that this was a good subordinate who had good things and would think of himself, so he The seeds he sent also paid more attention to the king.

So he would inquire about the situation in the field every once in a while, and after knowing that the corn had grown, he deliberately took time out to see this novel plant that he had never seen before.

The king who was fighting with Duke Romanov was also harvesting the wheat, and when the corn was about to mature, he had time to go to the fields to look. When he saw it, it happened that the serfs, according to the planting manual, had planted the overgrown corn. The corn stalks were cut off, the husks on the corn were torn open, and when the corn was exposed to the sun in the field, at first glance, a green top was topped with a golden-yellow cob. From a distance, it seemed like some kind of strange The flowers are very eye-catching.

After taking a closer look, the huge golden corn kernels on the palm-length corn cob made the king stunned for a long time, and then he asked the entourage beside him in disbelief, “Is this corn?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

After receiving the answer, the king looked at the three cornfields again. In the three acres of land, the golden corncobs grew so large and numerous that he did not know how many there were.

The king’s expression changed from casual at first to solemn: “How much is the yield of these corns?”

The entourage couldn’t answer the king’s question. He actually didn’t know anything about the corn. In fact, like the king, this was the first time he saw the real thing.

Fortunately, the steward in charge of this field had already come to pick him up, and when he heard the king’s question and saw that no one else answered, knowing that this was his own performance, he immediately stood up and lowered his head and replied, “Your Majesty, these corn The specific yield is not yet clear, but we have roughly estimated that the yield per acre should not be less than 4,000 catties.”

In fact, the estimated yield of the royal stewards is higher than this. They think that the corn in the field is probably five thousand kilograms per acre, but this is only an estimate, not an exact data. If he said at this time that there are five thousand After weighing it later, it turns out that if there are not so many, he is likely to be convicted, so the steward automatically reduces this number a lot, so that if the final output is higher than what he said, the king will Maybe even happier.

But the output of 4,000 catties has already caused the king to gasp for breath.

As a king, his territory is very large, and he has a lot of private land. Although most of the land was used to grow sugar beets this year, the king did not forget to leave enough land to grow wheat to ensure that he would not run out of food and need to spend money. Because of Felix’s generous tribute, the wheat harvest in his territory has been very good in the past two years. When harvested this year, the average yield per mu has increased to about 1,800 catties, although not as good as Sardinson’s. The output that the county has heard about is far higher than that of other nobles, especially the fact that it is higher than Duke Romanov, which makes him very proud.

But now suddenly hearing that there are still food crops with a yield of 4,000 per mu, the king almost was not shocked by this number.

After a while, he calmed down his suddenly accelerated heartbeat, and confirmed again: “Is there really that many?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, in fact, this figure is only a conservative estimate, and the actual output may be a little higher than this.” It is hard to say how much higher, so he can only say vaguely.

Hearing that the yield per mu might still be higher than 4,000, the king stared at the corn excitedly, wishing to harvest it now and weigh it: “How long will it take to harvest?”

Steward: “The planting manual says that it can actually be harvested now. We confiscated it because we leave the corn on the stalks to dry and then pick it off without the need for additional drying.”

In fact, this is of course not the main reason. If you want to dry the corn, it is the same as picking the corn off and drying it. If you leave it on the corn stalk, it will easily attract some birds to steal food. In the past few days, they have to send people to guard the fields to drive them away. Peace of mind is even more troublesome.

But the stewards had been notified long ago that the king would take time to come and look at the cornfields, and after they discussed it, they thought it would be more shocking to leave the corn on the cornstalks, so they didn’t move these fields. Of course, if If the king does not come again, because the planting manual says that staying here will reduce the yield, they will still have to harvest at that time.

Hearing the words, the king asked, “That is to say, you can also pick it now?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The king immediately said: “Then what are you waiting for, go pick it now.”

After he finished speaking, he even dismounted himself, walked to the cornfield, stretched out his hand and broke off a corn growing on the edge, and then turned back and asked the steward, “Is this how you picked it?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Seeing that he actually did it himself, the steward was frightened, and immediately called for the serf who had been staying not far away to come pick corn.

Soon someone went to get the basket, and the steward and his entourage stepped forward to persuade the king to rest, but the king was in high spirits now. Agreed to take a rest, and even greeted the knights and entourage he brought with him, and they all came to help.

What else can the other people do, of course, come over to break corn together.

Originally there were only three acres of corn, not to mention the twenty serfs who were recruited by the stewards, and there were ten knights and entourages who followed the king. Nearly forty people harvested three acres of corn together, and it didn’t even take an hour. All the corn was collected.

When the corn was divided into three piles and piled on the field ridge, a large scale for weighing the grain was ready. The king had many small scars cut by corn leaves on his hands, and his entourage was asking him to go back and deal with it. , but the king didn’t care at all, he waved his hands to tell them to stop talking, still eagerly waiting for the weighing results.

With the king watching, everyone’s movements accelerated a lot, and soon, the result of the weighing came out.

The number that the steward told the king was 4,000 jin per acre, and their private estimate was 5,000 jin, but the farmer who weighed them at the end told them that the output of these three acres of land was 5,300 jin and 5,000 jin, respectively. Five hundred catties and five thousand six hundred catties.

“The total output is 16,400 catties.”

This number is much higher than the number estimated by the stewards. Everyone who hears it has a rapid heartbeat and can’t believe it.

The king was just taken aback by the output of 4,000 catties. Now that he learned that this number could be even higher, he felt as if he was getting a piece of bread and was happy to eat it. It turned out that the bread was not only white bread, but also contained in it. Had the jam, couldn’t be more pleasantly surprised.

In addition to the surprise, he also quickly realized the importance of corn. With this high-yield crop, are his subjects afraid that they will have no food to eat in the future?

Thinking of this, the king immediately went back and wrote to Felix, but he remembered that Felix had said that he was going to plant a large amount of corn in Sardinson this year, and as a seasoned expert who had been planting for two years, his corn harvest there was probably Higher than the king’s side, the king felt compelled to order a batch of corn seeds from Felix before the others.

No rush, he believes that other people will soon realize the important role of corn, and then I don’t know how many people will want to buy corn from Felix like him.

And he didn’t know if there was enough output in Sardinson County, so naturally he had to write to an earlier order to order a batch, and the more the better. Make some money.

As he wrote, the king suddenly remembered that there were two new crops from Sardinson in the field. Although the yield has not yet been seen, since it can be called a high-yield crop by Felix along with corn, then compared with the corn. The output would not be too low. The quill in the king’s hand stopped, took away the letter he had written earlier, and then took another piece of scented letter paper produced by Sardinson, and wrote a new one. Xin, this time, he changed his request for corn to be three new crops.

The letter was sent out quickly, and when the king’s letter was about to reach Felix, the other nobles also reacted. After tasting it, it changed immediately, and these people naturally wrote letters to Sardinson.

Of course, no one’s letter is as fast as Allen’s.

Allen had already taken over Princia. He originally thought of going to Felix to hunt whenever he was free, but he only returned to Princia to take over the territory in June, which was the harvest season. Lincia’s side is naturally the busiest time. Allen was caught in a busy work as soon as he went back, let alone go to Felix. He couldn’t do it for a day off by himself. It really tired him. enough.

But the seeds that Felix gave him last year, Allen sent to Princia early in the morning, and let his serfs plant them this spring, so at this time, he also saw the huge growth of corn. Good harvest, and also wrote to Felix right away.

Moreover, Allen’s letter was sent by carrier pigeons, and a carrier pigeon can take a few days to arrive, so when Wei Wei received George, Felix happened to read the letter from Allen.

The letter is actually just a small note. The carrier pigeon has a limited carrying weight. It is impossible for Allen to write a lot of things on it, so he is very honest and directly wrote on it “I want to buy corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes, how much can I give? How much?” Felix laughed dumbly when he saw it.

So before Wei Wei went to him, Felix had already come over by himself. He wanted to discuss with Wei Wei how much he could sell to Allen. Of course, the most important thing was to set a price.

Hearing his intention, Wei Wei grinned: “It’s a coincidence, I’m also planning to discuss the price with you.”

Felix: “What do you think?”

Wei Wei pondered: “I think these things should be considered rare now, and with such high yields, there will be many people who want them. If the price is set too low, we will be at a loss, so you think we should use two wheat seeds. How about selling at double the price?”

Selling as seeds or grains, even if the things are the same, the price is different. The corn, sweet potatoes, etc. they produced this year, when only Sardinson has a large amount of output, it is naturally more cost-effective to sell them as seeds. .

And Felix dared to bid more than Wei Wei: “I think it’s okay to use three times the price, especially for corn, which requires several times less seeds than wheat for an acre of land, but the output is also higher. Even if the price of seeds is higher, ordinary people can still afford them.”

Now the residents of Sardinson are not poor. Most of the people’s lives are much richer than those of the residents in other areas, and the farmers who cultivate the fields also pay for the seeds every year. A lot of money, although most people will deliberately save seeds, but if their own output has been unsatisfactory, they are willing to spend more money to buy better seeds, after all, it is related to the family’s livelihood in the future.

While planting an acre of wheat requires at least 180 kilograms of wheat seeds, it only takes 30 kilograms of corn to plant an area of ​​the same size. times, don’t say they’re just going to set the price of corn seeds three times as much as wheat, and even if it’s higher, people who want to buy it will still buy it.

“And we can probably only make money this year. After everyone starts planting next year, the price of these new crops can’t be so high. The price reduction is certain.”

And the first batch of people who come to him to buy seeds must be those nobles. To earn their money, Felix has never been soft-hearted.

Wei Wei felt that what he said was reasonable, and agreed to set the price of corn at three times the price of wheat seeds. The specific price fluctuated with the price of wheat seeds. However, although the price of wheat in Sardinson County has been stable since last year, There has not been much change, but the wheat seeds have remained high because of last year’s bumper harvest. The merchants only need to buy the wheat seeds produced here and take them to other areas to tell them that this is enough to produce two per acre. With thousands of kilograms of Sardinson wheat, there is no need for a large number of customers to come to buy it with money, which makes the wheat seeds in Sardinson County very popular, and even more than double the amount of other similar seeds in other areas. The price of, of course, in Sardinson, the price of seeds has not changed much after doubling once.

Therefore, they sold corn seeds at three times the price of wheat, and the actual money they could get was a lot more than expected.

In addition, the price of sweet potatoes and potatoes has also been fixed. Felix is ​​indeed a nobleman who has evolved into a black-hearted businessman. The price of sweet potatoes is similar to that of corn, but the price of potatoes is set higher than that of corn. Because the yield per mu of potatoes is higher than that of corn, and because there are not many potatoes at present, it is unlikely that they will be sold on a large scale, so the rare thing is the most expensive, and the price is understandable no matter how high.

And Wei Wei can still remember that compared with corn and sweet potatoes, potatoes are the favorite of Westerners. It can even be said to be a staple food, the kind that is eaten almost every day. It is conceivable that when potatoes are popularized and planted, their popularity will be greatly improved. The popularity will definitely surpass that of corn and sweet potatoes.

After the price was set, Felix wrote to Allen, telling him that he could only sell him 3,000 catties of corn for the time being, while potatoes and sweet potatoes would have to wait for the harvest to see the situation. As much as he could sell, he had to deal with other people.

Even though he only planned to sell three thousand catties of corn to Allen, these three thousand catties were enough for Allen to plant 100 acres of land in his manor. In fact, he didn’t need any more Allen. It was impossible in his manor. All beans are planted with corn. After all, for them, bread is the staple food, and if they want to eat bread, naturally wheat is indispensable.

If he could get 3,000 catties of corn, Allen was not too little, so he responded to the letter very readily, and then sent someone to bring the money to Sardinson to find Felix to trade.

At this time, the corn had already been delivered to the castle. Every day, a large number of peasant women sat in the vestibule and peeled the corn kernels. The peeled corn kernels would be dried for another day and then packed into the warehouse. The cob of corn was piled together and became the fuel used in the kitchen during this time.

And the corn stalks in the field were not wasted. It happened that Wei Wei wanted to try to grow mushrooms artificially. When she looked through the information, she found a lot of popular planting recipes. Although mushrooms were the first thing she thought of planting, there were no mushrooms in Europe. So she gave up the original idea and chose the most common mushroom in Europe, which is the white mushroom she used to make mushroom MSG.

In the formula of the ingredients needed to grow white mushrooms, corn stalks are needed.