In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 911 Borrow

"The King of Liang should know that in the past, Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Mingzhou could not be cultivated in winter due to the cold weather. Every winter, the people could only leave their land idle. The wealthier families stayed at home to resist the cold, while the poorer families had to brave the cold weather to go out to work and earn a meager income to supplement their family income."

Tang Qing slowly said, "But with ice wheat, things will be different. With ice wheat, people will no longer need to leave their land idle in winter, but can make use of the land to produce more grain."

The more grain the people produce, the more taxes the King of Liang can collect. With sufficient tax revenue, the King of Liang will have more resources to wage war.

More importantly, the counties of Taicang Prefecture have already planted ice wheat once and have stored a considerable amount of ice wheat seeds. I once wrote to Prefect Zheng of Taicang Prefecture to inquire about this, and Prefect Zheng informed me that the ice wheat seeds currently stored in Taicang Prefecture are more than enough to plant throughout the entire territory of the four prefectures under the rule of the Liang King!

"really?"

Yang Zheng's eyes lit up. If ice wheat, which yields 1000 jin per mu, could be planted on all the farmland in Qingzhou and Liangzhou, what a wonderful thing that would be.

It is important to know that as the impact of the cold disaster deepens, crops cannot be grown normally in either Qingzhou or Liangzhou during the winter.

In other words, Yang Zheng's land could only grow one crop of grain in a year, but ice wheat could allow him to grow one more crop, and the yield was as high as 1000 jin or more. This was equivalent to the land that originally could not produce a single grain of grain suddenly producing 1000 jin of grain. How could Yang Zheng not be overjoyed?

"I personally questioned Prefect Zheng, and this matter is indeed true."

Tang Qing smiled and nodded, saying, "The King of Liang only needs to purchase ice wheat seeds from Taicang County and then plant them in Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Mingzhou. By the end of the year, the four prefectures under the King of Liang's rule will surely have a bumper harvest. At that time, with well-trained troops and sufficient food, the King of Liang can launch a campaign to completely overthrow the rule of the Xia Dynasty."

"Well……"

After listening to Tang Qing's analysis, Yang Zheng frowned unusually, looking constipated, and said, "This ice wheat is indeed a good thing, but I... really have no money!"

When Yang Zheng initially reached a cooperation agreement with Chenjia Village and Taicang County, he promised them autonomy. Yang Zheng is a man of his word; having granted them autonomy, he naturally wouldn't interfere in Taicang County's affairs. In other words…

The officials in Taicang County, including Chen Dao, Zheng Qing, and Xu Zhiwen, were ostensibly Yang Zheng's subordinates, but in reality, they were not in a superior-subordinate relationship but rather a cooperative one.

This can be seen from the fact that the tax revenue of Taicang County is not directly handed over to the Liang Prince's Mansion, but is used for its own development.

Under these circumstances, if Yang Zheng wanted to obtain the seeds of ice wheat, he naturally could not forcibly order Zheng Qing and other officials of Taicang County to hand them over. Instead, he would need to purchase them by spending money or through barter.

It is obvious that Yang Zheng was extremely cautious even when allocating funds to local officials who complained of poverty, so where would he get the money to purchase large quantities of grain seeds?

According to Tang Qing, Yang Zheng needed to buy not just a pound or two of grain, but enough to grow in the three states of Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Mingzhou. If Yang Zheng put in all his effort, he could afford such a huge amount of grain.

However, Yang Zheng still needed the money to develop his territory, maintain his army, and provide rewards and pensions to the soldiers of the Yang Family Army, etc.

In short, Yang Zheng has very little money at hand right now, which is far from enough to cover the cost of purchasing a large quantity of grain seeds.

"Your Highness need not worry about this matter."

Seeing Yang Zheng's worried expression, Tang Qing confidently said, "I consulted with the officials in Taicang County, and they told me that it is not necessary to pay in cash when purchasing grain seeds."

"Oh? What do you mean by this?"

"The Taicang County government said that the grain seeds can be lent to the Liang King as a loan, and then returned to them after the Liang King has finished planting and harvesting the grain."

"Is there such a good thing?"

Yang Zheng's expression brightened with joy.

"Don't be too happy, Prince Liang."

Tang Qing continued, "The lending of grain seeds is not without cost. After the grain seeds are lent, the Liang King will have to pay back 20% more interest on the grain he grows!"

In other words, if the King of Liang borrowed 10 jin of grain seeds from Taicang County, he would have to return 12 jin after the harvest.

"..."

Yang Zheng opened his mouth, quickly calculating in his mind. A 20% interest rate over six months would indeed seem high to people from Earth in his previous life, but for people from Kyushu, it wasn't really that high.

In the land of Kyushu, farmers often borrowed grain from landlords to grow crops because they could not make ends meet. Their loan interest calculation method was often nine out of 13!

According to the compound interest calculation method of "nine out, thirteen back", if a farmer borrows 90 jin of grain seeds from a landlord, he will have to repay at least 130 jin after the grain is harvested!

This was a relatively conscientious landlord. If it were a heartless one, the farmers would probably have to pay back more than 200 jin of grain.

Compared to those unscrupulous landlords, Taicang County's interest rate of only 20% is incredibly generous.

Not to mention, the grain seeds lent by Taicang County were high-yield ice wheat.

Therefore, Yang Zheng agreed to the matter with almost no hesitation: "I agree to the matter of borrowing grain! Mr. Tang, I will trouble you to handle this matter personally. After borrowing the grain seeds, contact Wei Zijie and have him distribute the grain seeds."

"As ordered."

As they spoke, the two had already returned to Yang Zheng's temporary residence. After signaling the servants to bring tea, Yang Zheng and Tang Qing sat in the living room and continued to discuss the matter of sending troops to Jingzhou. It wasn't until night fell that the two left the living room and went to their respective guest rooms to rest.

The next day, Yang Zheng woke up and found Tang Qing to say goodbye: "Mr. Tang, I have many important matters to attend to, so I will not stay in Yongliang County for long. Please take good care of the autumn harvest."

"Rest assured, Your Majesty, there will be no unexpected events during this autumn harvest."

"That's good!"

After giving Tang Qing his instructions, Yang Zheng did not linger. He and his personal guards mounted their horses and rode away from Yongliang County.

Yang Zheng's departure did not seem to generate much enthusiasm in Yongliang County. The people still harvested wheat in the fields with great enthusiasm and smiles on their faces.

"This wheat is growing so well! We can finally have enough to eat!"

"More than 1,000 jin of wheat grew on one mu of land. I have never seen such a high-yield wheat!"

"Waaah! If only this wheat had come sooner! My mother wouldn't have starved to death!"

"I've never seen such a high-yield wheat! The wheat grown from one acre is enough to feed my whole family for three months!"

"With this precious wheat, we'll never have to go hungry again!"

"..."