Chapter 74: Planting Mulberry Trees and Raising Silkworms
When Peng Liang arrived outside the county government office, the bailiffs had already set up the execution platform.
In the center of the execution ground knelt the first group of bandits to be executed, their faces pale and trembling with fear.
He looked at the dark clouds beginning to cover the sunlight, and according to Li Ji's instructions, he threw a token fiercely .
"Start killing!"
Before he finished speaking, people suddenly heard a loud shout:
"Spare his life!"
When everyone looked, they saw a carriage speeding towards them on the road west of the government office.
The carriage stopped outside the execution ground with a bang.
A young girl helped an old lady get off the carriage.
The girl called out:
"Spare his life. We want to see Lord Li, the governor of Xingyang."
When Yu Cheng saw that the old lady was over 90 years old but still in good health, he knew that she was no ordinary person.
He hurried forward and, together with the girl, helped the old lady into the county government office.
Li Ji stood up hurriedly and said, "Old man, what do you want to talk to me about?"
The old lady said, "My name is Tan Li, and this is my granddaughter Tan Jie."
The girl said hurriedly: "The three men you killed in the fierce battle were my brothers."
Li Ji's face darkened. You wanted to plead for mercy, but they were rebelling, why didn't you stop them?
"Your brother is gathering a crowd to rebel, did you know that?"
Tan Jie bowed and said, "My grandmother and I tried to dissuade them, but they refused to listen. They said the world was in chaos and they wanted to occupy the county government and then attack Xingyang County."
"Miss, rebellion is absolutely not allowed on my territory. Xingyang is my world, and you are destroying stability by causing trouble."
The old lady hurriedly said, "Master Li, they have brought this upon themselves. We are talking about the villagers outside. Please let them go."
"The main culprit has died in battle, and these are just following the crowd. Sir, please show some mercy and spare their lives."
The girl said, "Our Tanjia Bay is the birthplace of sericulture. These people are good at raising silkworms. If you let them go, they can continue to raise silkworms."
Li Ji thought, this is a new thing. Planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms is not something that everyone can do. These people have experience, so let them stay.
"I believe what you said, young lady. But I want to go to your farm for an on-site inspection."
He shouted, "Ask Lord Peng to come in."
After a while, Peng Liang walked in.
"Master Li, what do you want?"
"This one is Tan Hu's grandmother, and that young lady is Tan Hu's sister. They asked the people outside to intercede for them and put them in jail first."
Peng Liang knelt down and said loudly, "Yes, sir."
Li Ji and Yu Cheng led their personal guards and walked directly towards Tanjia Bay along the avenue in front of the county government office.
As soon as I entered the village, I saw rows of mulberry trees in the fields.
With the mulberry trees, it seems that the villagers are really raising silkworms.
We arrived at a manor and saw five large gold-plated characters "Tanjiawan Tan Mansion" written on the manor's door.
Li Ji knew that this was the residence of the Tan family.
After a while, the young lady's carriage followed from behind.
After the young lady and the old lady came down, they invited Li Ji into the manor.
The young lady took Li Ji to visit the silk reeling workshop and the silkworm breeding room.
Li Ji was very happy when he saw it, and thought that promoting sericulture, silk reeling and clothing making in Xingyang would be a good thing for the people.
He smiled and said, "Miss, you should make amends for your crimes. I will pardon all these people."
Li Ji's expression changed. "However, you should continue to expand the sericulture industry and set an example in Xingyang. I support you."
Tan Jie blushed slightly and opened her red lips: "Okay, Master Li, with your support, I, Tan Jie, will definitely make Tanjia Bay a landmark of Xingyang."
Li Ji looked at the graceful and elegant Tan Jie and thought, another heroine.
He shouted: "Yucheng, listen to my orders!"
Yu Cheng knelt on his knees, "I am here!"
"Quickly go to the Mi County government office and inform County Magistrate Peng to release the prisoners."
"Yes!" Yu Cheng took the order and left.
All the detained villagers returned to Tanjia Bay, and they all knelt down to express their gratitude.
Li Ji named Tanjia Bay "Xingyang Sericulture Breeding Base" and appointed Tan Jie as the leader of the base project team.
With Li Ji's support, Tan Jie and his colleagues went up the mountain to pick wild silkworm cocoons, boiled them in a pot, and then stirred them with wooden sticks.
Then, the white filaments were drawn out.
The experiment was successful, and Tan Jie arranged to raise silkworms at an increased cost, and use the cocoons to reel silk and weave satin to make clothes.
A series of measures implemented by Li Ji gradually reduced the area of wasteland in Xingyang, and the villagers who had fled abroad also returned home one after another.
For a time, people wanted to return home.
The tax revenue of Xingyang County has also been on the rise.
After the morning meeting that day, Li Ji had nothing to do, so he read Confucius' "The Analects" in the county government office.
Suddenly, Yu Cheng, the captain of the personal guard camp, came in and reported that two merchants from the south wanted to pay a visit to Lord Li.
Upon hearing this, Li Ji put down the copy of The Analects and hurried out of the county government office.
He looked up and was amazed again. These two guests from afar were none other than Lao Yang and Lao Yu.
"Haha, what a rare visitor! Old Yang, we haven't seen each other for a long time."
As soon as Old Yang entered the county government office, he gave a thumbs up.
"Xiaoxian, you are becoming more and more promising. You first governed the Mountain God Temple, then went to Pingyuan County to govern the army, and now you govern the county in Xingyang."
Lao Yu also smiled and said, “Xiaoxian, the more you play, the bigger it gets.”
Li Jifa poured each of them a cup of tea and said with emotion:
"Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish. Governing a county or eight or nine counties is not as simple as governing a mountain temple."
Lao Yu picked up the water cup and continued to praise:
"I've seen wastelands everywhere in other counties in the Central Plains, but the land in your counties is planted with crops. This requires some means."
"What kind of means are there? The harvest is not good this year. I just optimized the wheat seeds."
Li Ji took out a basket of wheat seeds from the storage cabinet.
"This is called Da Sui New Wheat No. 121. '12' refers to the 12th year of Daye, and '1' is the serial number of the new variety."
Lao Yang took a sip of tea and said loudly, "Xiaoxian, this is a new variety. Can you sell this wheat seed to us?"
Li Ji waved his hands and said:
"To be honest, this is a product from my test field, and it has not yet been mass-produced."
He said mysteriously: "I also need to eat, support the troops, and the county government must operate normally. In other words, I need money."
Lao Yu smiled and said, "Then let's sign a sales agreement. I'll pay first, and when you plant in bulk, you can sell it to us."
"When the production volume increases, you can go directly to the Xingyang granary to pick up the goods. My granary is under construction."
"Okay, let's sign the agreement first."
Li Ji thought, let's sign the agreement. The country is in chaos now, so we can talk about it later.
Lao Yu was very generous and directly ordered 500 shi of Da Sui No. 121 wheat seeds.
He took out two thousand taels of silver as a deposit from the carriage.
When Li Ji saw that he had received such a large deposit, he was immediately filled with joy.
“Money makes things easier, and soldiers fight with strength.
"Okay, give it to me, Lao Yu, and I'll keep it."
He ordered Yu Cheng to accept the silver and send it to the silver vault in Xunfu for safekeeping.
As Yucheng left, Li Ji suddenly heard Lao Yang shouting...
