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

Chapter 660 No More Starving Dead!

"What? You're saying that Zheng saw it with his own eyes?"

Li Mingyuan asked with a look of surprise.

"Not bad!"

Zheng Qiuyan nodded: "During the autumn harvest in Chenjia Village, I personally invited my father and a group of county magistrates from Taicang County to Chenjia Village. There, my father and the others witnessed the wheat harvest in Chenjia Village, and the yield per mu was exactly 800 jin."

"There really is a miraculous seed in the world that can yield 800 jin per mu."

Li Mingyuan muttered to himself, feeling both shocked and delighted.

For Li Mingyuan, who served as the prime minister of Xia Kingdom for more than a decade, it was an incredibly difficult task to ensure that the people had enough to eat. He had worked hard for half his life, all he wanted was for the people to have enough to eat and live a prosperous life.

However, this seemingly simple thing was something that Li Mingyuan couldn't achieve even after spending most of his life on it!

The reason for this is that the land in this world is limited. As times progress, the population on this land increases, but the land does not increase. On the contrary, due to the land grabbing by landlords and powerful families, the land in the hands of ordinary people becomes less and less.

Limited and ever-decreasing land simply cannot support such a large population, so...

As the population of Xia Kingdom grew, the land per capita became increasingly scarce, making it harder and harder for the people to have enough to eat, until the current situation of widespread famine across the land has emerged.

This is the biggest and most fundamental problem for the Xia Kingdom.

Li Mingyuan's previous solution to this problem was to reclaim the land from powerful clans and distribute it to the common people for cultivation.

But to Li Mingyuan's utter surprise, this trip to Qingzhou revealed yet another method:

That is... to increase the yield of food crops!

This was a method Li Mingyuan had never considered, because increasing the yield of grain crops was not an easy task, even more difficult than seizing land from powerful families.

But at this moment, Li Mingyuan saw the possibility of increasing crop yields...

No, he has already seen the real thing—a high-yield crop!

"Great!"

Li Mingyuan suddenly became happy and laughed loudly: "With such high-yield wheat, there will be no more starving people in the whole country!"

Having lived for seventy years, Li Mingyuan had seen far too many people starve to death because they didn't have enough to eat. Especially in the years since he was dismissed from his post, he had traveled all over the country and witnessed countless human tragedies caused by hunger.

It was precisely because he had witnessed so many human tragedies that Li Mingyuan made the grand vow to ensure that all people could have enough to eat and wear. Therefore, when he saw the high-yield grain varieties, he was particularly excited, as if he could already see the beautiful scene of no one in the land going hungry.

"niece."

At this moment, Li Qiao suddenly asked curiously, "Such a divine seed should have been known throughout the Nine Provinces by now, so why have we never heard of it?"

Upon hearing this, Li Mingyuan also turned his gaze to Zheng Qiuyan. Logically speaking, the common people would definitely welcome such a high-yield grain variety with open arms. Why is it that Qingzhou has such a high-yield grain variety, but other prefectures have never heard of it?

"Because the grain seeds are from Chenjia Village."

Zheng Qiuyan explained, "Although Chenjia Village had grain seeds before, it never distributed them to other areas. It wasn't until after this autumn harvest that Chenjia Village handed over the grain seeds to various counties in Taicang Prefecture."

"Chenjia Village..."

Li Mingyuan kept repeating the name Chenjia Village. Since arriving in Qingzhou, the name Chenjia Village had been the one he heard most often, which aroused his endless curiosity about the village.

"In any case, having such high-yield grain varieties is a good thing!"

Li Qiao said with a smile, "A wheat variety that can yield a thousand catties per mu and grow even in the freezing cold is truly an auspicious sign for the people of Kyushu!"

Li Mingyuan nodded in agreement. A yield of 1,000 catties per mu meant that the same land could produce more than three times the amount of grain as before. If the people could all grow such grain, then there would be no more worries about food shortages in the Nine Provinces.

but……

Recalling the farmland he had seen outside the city, Li Mingyuan remarked, "It seems there aren't many grain seeds here?"

"indeed so!"

Zheng Qiuyan nodded: "Chenjia Village provided a limited amount of grain seeds this time. Each county in Taicang Prefecture can only get a small portion, so they can only be planted on a small scale. If we want to plant all the farmland in each county with high-yield wheat, we will probably have to wait until next year."

"Pity."

Li Mingyuan couldn't help but sigh with regret. This was the most difficult time for the people of the entire Kyushu. If they could plant this high-yield wheat as soon as possible, they could surely save more lives.

However, Li Mingyuan knew that such things couldn't be rushed, so he didn't dwell on it too much. Instead, he looked towards the second floor of Zheng Baolou and said, "Shall we go up and take a look?"

"Mr. Li, please come with me."

Zheng Qiuyan nodded and led the two to the second floor of Zheng Baolou.

Previously, the second floor of Zheng Bao Lou mainly sold medicinal herbs used by martial artists, but now it has changed. It mainly sells goods such as blood-feathered chickens and red-blooded chickens from Chenjia Village.

Therefore, as soon as Li Mingyuan and Li Qiao stepped onto the second floor, they saw the blood-feathered chickens and red-feathered chickens with bright red feathers, which were kept in cages.

"This is the Bloodfeathered Chicken?"

Li Mingyuan walked up to a cage, looked at the blood-feathered chickens inside, and asked Zheng Qiuyan.

"Exactly."

Zheng Qiuyan nodded and explained, "The Blood Feather Chicken is a breed of chicken that is effective for ninth- and eighth-rank martial artists. Its blood has a strong effect, which can help martial artists quickly increase their qi and blood and break through bottlenecks. Its meat has a mild effect, which can gradually improve the physical condition of martial artists. Whether it is the blood or the meat, the effect is much better than common herbs. Therefore, most of the low-rank martial artists in the county nowadays buy Blood Feather Chickens to help them cultivate and rarely use herbs."

"That's quite amazing."

Li Mingyuan carefully observed the Blood Feather Chicken in the cage. Even with his extensive knowledge, he had never seen a chicken with such bright red feathers before, let alone one that could help martial artists cultivate.

"The Zheng family must have made a considerable profit from this blood-feathered chicken business, right?"

Li Mingyuan asked with a smile.

"indeed so."

Zheng Qiuyan did not deny it: "The effects of Blood Feather Chicken far surpass those of herbs, and it is very popular among the martial artists in the county town. As a result, it sells very well, and my Zheng family has also made a lot of profits."

Li Mingyuan nodded, then walked to another cage and asked, "So this is the Crimson Blood Chicken?"

"Exactly. Crimson Blood Chicken is a breed of chicken that is effective against seventh-rank martial artists, so it will be priced higher, but that still cannot dampen the enthusiasm of martial artists in the county town to buy it."

Zheng Qiuyan pointed to a spot not far away, where several martial artists were asking Zheng Baolou's shop assistant about the price of Crimson Blood Chicken. After learning the price, they quickly paid for and bought several Crimson Blood Chickens.