After a lot of effort, Li Zhi finally picked up his daughter.
Feeling her weight, I couldn't help but sigh in my heart. It seems that I am really old...
However, the sadness in his heart did not show on his face. He just smiled at his daughter and said, "Chen'er, there is no need to be sad about this. This is the cycle of life."
"Your Majesty..." Wu Zetian wanted to say something, but was stopped by him shaking his head.
Li Zhi held her in his arms and walked towards Renshou Hall. Wu Zetian followed beside him, and couldn't help feeling a little melancholy.
"That being said, I only realized this in recent years." Li Zhi said to his daughter with a smile, "At first I even thought about taking elixirs to achieve immortality!"
"Thinking back carefully, if there really is an elixir of life in this world, what is the point for me? I can only watch my wife and children die, and my grandchildren will die too..."
Li Zhi had a relieved smile on his face: "At least from this point of view, I think I am stronger than the late emperor!"
Li Yuechen leaned his head on his shoulder and whispered, "In my opinion, Grandpa has surpassed the late emperor!"
Wu Zetian beside him also smiled: "It is the same in my opinion. The territory has exceeded that of the past. Now Chen'er has increased the grain production, and has researched so many new things. There will be more money in the future..."
Hearing his wife's words, Li Zhi nodded, as if it was indeed the case.
If calculated in this way, whether it is the territory, economy, or grain industry, it has indeed surpassed the Zhenguan Dynasty.
Thinking of this, Li Zhi smiled even more: "That's true."
Following this line of thought, his ideal of surpassing the previous emperor can be realized here!
"In this case, I think Your Majesty should change your title." Wu Zetian suddenly said, "How about the Emperor?"
"Yes." Li Zhi nodded, "Yes, the Emperor and Empress, speaking of it, can also avoid the title of the former emperor and the latter and the latter."
Huh? What the hell?
Li Yuechen, who was held by Li Zhi, suddenly raised her head, not understanding why the topic suddenly came here?
These two old people with second-year syndrome really come up with one thing after another!
Feeling that Li Zhi's arm was shaking a little, Li Yuechen took the initiative to get off him.
Putting his daughter down, Li Zhi thought to himself that by next year he might not be able to hold her anymore.
A sense of reluctance suddenly rose in his heart, and he suddenly said, "Come on, Chen'er, get on my back!"
"Don't be silly, young slave!" Wu Zetian admonished, "How can you carry her on your back?"
"Why can't I carry my daughter on my back?" Li Zhi asked back, then squatted down, "Chen'er, come quickly!"
The strength on the back is naturally much greater than that on the arms. Li Yuechen did not act pretentiously and simply lay down behind Li Zhi and let him carry her on his back.
After carrying his daughter on his back, Li Zhi smiled and said, "It's okay. I can still carry her. It's not too hard."
The family of three returned to Renshou Hall while chatting.
Wu Zetian continued to review memorials, and Li Zhi played with his daughter for a while. After lunch, Li Yuechen left.
…
Although the scorching heat of June has passed, the weather in July is still hot.
Li Yuechen had nothing to do, so she took Shangguan Wan'er and her two sisters to Jiuzhou Pool to swim.
Princess Xuancheng seems to be more talented in this area and has already started learning freestyle swimming.
Princess Yi Yang and Shangguan Wan'er were different. They didn't seem to have much athletic talent and were only average at breaststroke.
Even his usual hobbies are basically playing chess and drawing, which is very quiet.
To be honest, Li Yuechen really likes their hobbies, but let’s talk about it in the next life.
If I could travel back in time after dying here, I might consider learning poetry and music.
After swimming with them for a while, Li Yuechen felt a little tired, so she came to the glazed pavilion on the shore and planned to have a drink and take a rest.
Just then I saw Fu Lai jogging in, so I sat on the railing waiting for him to come, and squeezed out all the water from my hair.
Arriving at the Glazed Pavilion, Fulai bowed and saluted: "Your Highness, the matter at the Royal Manor outside the city has been resolved."
"Oh, together or separately?" Li Yuechen asked.
Some time ago, Li Zhi promised her that he would continue his grain experiments on the royal farm, but he didn't know whether all these lands were together.
"Together." Fu Lai replied, "In addition, the manpower and fertilizer are also ready."
Li Yuechen nodded: "Okay, it's getting late today, let's go and have a look tomorrow. Let's go down."
“Yes!”
After lunch the next day, Li Yuechen couldn't wait to get on the carriage and head to the royal farm outside the city.
This farm is not small and is not too close to Luoyang City. It took almost half an hour to get there after leaving the city.
After getting off the bus, I found that this was just a village, and all the people living here worked for the royal family.
The village chief was an old man with a head full of white hair. He was waiting at the entrance of the village with all the men, women and children in the village.
Seeing Li Yuechen coming over, he quickly came over to salute: "Greetings, Your Highness!"
"No need to be polite." Li Yuechen came over and raised his hand, "Old man, is there anyone in the village who can read?"
"Your Highness, the people in this village have been farmers for generations, and there are no literate people."
Li Yuechen couldn't help but sigh at this answer. Although she had expected it, it was indeed troublesome.
Although I was counting on these people to carry out farming experiments for me, it was a bit troublesome to teach them since they couldn't even read the words.
But there is no other way, just take it step by step.
So he waved his hand and asked everyone to return to the village, and announced to them in the courtyard: "I'm sure you all know why I'm here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!"
The village chief took a step forward, bowed and asked, "May I ask your Highness, if we fail in researching crops , won't we have no harvest for the whole year?"
"Don't worry about this. How can I let you starve? Even if we fail and there is no harvest, I will ensure that you can have enough food and clothes!" Li Yuechen smiled. "Besides, if you have surplus food on weekdays, you can only take it to the city to sell. During this period, I will naturally pay you! Don't worry about survival."
Hearing her words, both the village chief and the villagers were delighted.
In the past, farming did not produce surplus grain every year, but nowadays, being paid is naturally much better than unstable farming.
Li Yuechen was not worried that they would take the opportunity to slack off or something, because they simply didn't have the courage to do so.
Then they followed the village chief to see the fertilizers that had been collected. Li Yuechen explained to them how to mix the fertilizers. Then he said, "In addition to what , you can also try other methods on the extra land. If you can develop a new fertilizer formula, I will still reward you handsomely!"
The village chief and others nodded to show that they understood.
After telling them about the fertilizer ratios I knew, I asked them to try a controlled experiment using different planting densities with the same fertilizer to find the best planting method.
In addition, we need to try different crops to see which one is the most suitable, etc.
Fortunately, although these people were illiterate, they were all experienced farmers and could understand what she explained.
After explaining everything, the village chief and others repeated it several times, and after confirming that there were no problems, Li Yuechen was relieved.
Thinking that since I was already here, there was no rush to go back, I decided to take a look around the village myself.
The village chief has already arranged for people to start trying, to see if there are any mistakes before His Highness leaves.
Unconsciously, they arrived at the courtyard in the village. Fu Lai flattered him in a low voice: "Today, I have finally opened my eyes. I didn't expect that there are so many things to learn about farming."
Li Yuechen shook his head: "That's just a small amount... I only know a tiny part. If I understood all the knowledge here, I would have scared many people to death this year."
"Yes, yes, yes..." Fu Lai thought she was just being modest and answered casually.
Li Yuechen was too lazy to explain anything about this. He wouldn't understand even if she explained it, so she could only shake her head and let him imagine it.
At this moment, Li Yuechen turned her head inadvertently and saw the children from the village in the distance gathered together, looking at her gorgeous clothes with envy.
Most of these children were as thin as sticks, and their clothes were very old, some even had holes in them.
The only good thing about this place is that it is not far from a tributary of Luoshui River. I can go to the river to soak every day and my body will be relatively clean.
Li Yuechen felt it was a pity when he saw this scene. These children would have no chance to turn their lives around when they grew up. They could only stay in this small village all their lives, marry people of the same age from other villages, have a few children, and live their lives in numbness.
She thought of her previous idea. After her master Li Chunfeng passed away, Li Yuechen thought about opening an orphanage or free school to allow children from poor families to go to school.
Now this idea came to her mind again, but the problem was... she didn't have that much money now.
It costs money to open a school. It is easy to find a place, but the problem is that to teach them, you need paper and pens.
Paper was not cheap in those days, so if you really wanted to teach these children to read, it would be a costly thing.
Just when he was feeling sorry for it, he suddenly thought of something and raised his head and said, "Go get some charcoal sticks."
Fu Lai agreed and waved his hand to ask the guard next to him to go and find it quickly.
Li Yuechen came to the earthen wall outside a thatched house and raised his hand to feel the wall twice.
There are some cracks on the wall, which is inevitable, but overall the quality is acceptable.
Although it's a bit brittle, it should be able to withstand the charcoal pencil sliding on it. After all, it's just writing a word, how much force can you use?
After a while, the guard came back with some burnt charcoal sticks. Li Yuechen took one out and wrote one, two, three... until ten on the wall.
Looking at the clear handwriting on the wall, Li Yuechen smiled and nodded, then turned around and waved to the dozen or so children: "Come here!"
Several children were too timid to come over. It was an older child who took the lead and came over. He bowed and said, "Your Highness, please forgive me. They are still young and a little shy."
"No problem." Li Yuechen smiled and waved, "Come on, everyone!"
Children actually pay a lot of attention to appearance. In their opinion, good-looking people are all kind.
Seeing Li Yuechen's easy-going smile, they all moved closer to her.
"Your Highness, this..." Fu Lai wanted to stop her, but she waved her hand to stop him.
Li Yuechen pointed to the ten words on the wall and said, "Read after me, one!"
The children were stunned and looked at each other, not knowing what this meant.
It was the older child who waved his hand to remind them and started to recite first: "One!"
The children then spoke at the same time: "One!"
Li Yuechen moved his finger back a little: "Two!"
This time the children learned their lesson and followed suit: "Two!"
After teaching them to read the ten words, Li Yuechen smiled and said, "Each of you should take a piece of charcoal and write these ten words on the wall until you remember them! From now on, I will come to teach you the ten words every five days."
The leading child asked in doubt: "I don't know what your Highness means? We are all farmers and have no right to learn characters..."
"Wrong! It's not that you don't have the qualifications, it's that you don't have the capital!" Li Yuechen smiled and shook his head, "Because you can't afford to buy paper and pens, and can't afford to hire a teacher. Today I teach you these, if one day you can learn something and make contributions to our Tang Dynasty, you can live a good life."
The child opposite had a questioning look on his face: "But we can neither fight in battle nor..."
"To achieve great things, you don't necessarily have to fight in battle or become a high-ranking official." Li Yuechen shook his head. "If one day you can double the grain production, it will also be a great achievement! No matter what industry you are in, as long as it is beneficial to the Tang Dynasty, it will be a great achievement!"
Seeing the child across from him nod, Li Yuechen smiled and said, "Just as agreed, I'll come back to check in five days. You must remember these ten words well!"
"Yes!" the other party agreed solemnly.
"Do you have a name?"
"My name is Boss Zhang!"
Hearing this name, Li Yuechen couldn't help but grin: "What a good name!"
I looked up and saw that it was getting late, so it was almost time to leave.
However, as soon as she turned around, she saw many middle-aged men and women kneeling down and kowtowing to her.
"What are you doing?" Li Yuechen ran two steps forward and asked in front of them.
A middle-aged woman raised her head with red eyes: "Thank you, Your Highness, for teaching me knowledge! This great favor will never be forgotten!"
Others also expressed their gratitude and said various words of thanks.
Li Yuechen breathed a sigh of relief and raised her hand: "Okay, no need to be polite! Fulai, go back to the palace!"
“Yes!”
The carriage wobbled away, and the children's parents still saluted the carriage: "Farewell, Your Highness!"
Hearing the voice behind, Li Yuechen couldn't help but grin.
Fu Lai couldn't help but wonder, "Why did your highness do this? Even if we teach them to read, it will be useless if they have no books to read."
Li Yuechen leaned against the carriage, raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Why don't we make a bet? How about a dollar?"
"Okay, I'll make the bet!" Fu Lai nodded.
Anyway, it's just a Kaiyuan Tongbao. If you win, it's like a reward from His Highness, and if you lose, it doesn't matter.
Li Yuechen murmured to himself: "These are the seeds I sowed here. If I'm lucky, maybe one of them will grow into a towering tree in the future..."