Chapter 145 Trial Planting
Chapter 145 Trial Planting

Thirty miles north of Yingtian Prefecture is Beishan Imperial Farm.

In fact, to be more precise, the so-called Beishan Imperial Farm was not the imperial farm in the usual sense in the later period of Zhu Di.

Instead, it was government land, managed by officials from the Ministry of Revenue or the Ministry of Rites.

For example, the Beishan Imperial Farm in front of us is managed by Li Guodong, the director of the Ministry of Revenue's Seal Verification Department.

"I'm Li Guodong, the head of the Seal Verification Department of the Ministry of Revenue. I'm honored to meet His Excellency the Captain!" Although Li Guodong called himself a humble official, his words and actions did not show any respect that a subordinate should have for his superior.

Ever since Zhu Yuanzhang established his rule over the world, there was no place for military generals to use their talents. Instead, a large number of civil officials were needed to help govern the country. These Confucian scholars, who were timid during wartime, suddenly became arrogant again, and always put on an attitude of self-proclaimed integrity when facing the military generals.

Just like Li Guodong in front of him, he was only a sixth-rank official, but he dared to be rude to Ye Xuan, who was a fifth-rank official.

Ye Xuan didn't take it seriously. He was just there to teach the tenants of the imperial farm how to plant potatoes, and he would leave once the planting was completed.

So it doesn’t matter what Li Guodong’s attitude is, as long as it doesn’t interfere with his potato planting.

Ye Xuan bowed his hands and did not dismount, "Lord Li should have received the imperial edict, right?"

Since Li Guodong acted so aloof, Ye Xuan was too lazy to be polite with such a person.

However, Ye Xuan didn't care. Li Guodong seemed to be greatly insulted. He flicked his sleeves and said angrily, "I have received your Majesty's order. I will try my best to cooperate with you in whatever you want me to do."

Ye Xuan frowned when he heard this. This person in charge of the Sealing Inspection Department has a rather bad temper!

Ye Xuan was standing by when Zhu Yuanzhang issued the imperial edict, so he naturally knew the contents of the edict clearly.

Although Old Zhu had said that Ye Xuan would be in full charge of the potato trial, that was only regarding management. The specific matters would naturally be handled by the officials from the Ministry of Revenue who were in charge of the management of the imperial farm.

After all, Ye Xuan had just arrived and didn't plan to stay for long. It was impossible for him to do everything himself, or even get to know all the low-level managers in the imperial farm before slowly starting the trial planting work!

He never imagined that this Lord Li Guodong was originally ranked first in the second class of the palace examination, and was only a little bit away from being the third place in the first class.

As a result, due to this slight shortcoming, he failed to enter such an important position as the Hanlin Academy, and was finally assigned to work as a minor clerk in the Seal Verification Division of the Ministry of Revenue.

If it were just that, it would be fine, but as soon as I entered the Ministry of Revenue, I was assigned to look after the imperial farm, and I did this for five years!
During these five years, he was away from the court, had no chance of promotion, and spent his days with a group of peasants.

Now we have to obey the command of a military officer. This is simply outrageous!

After all, the Palace Herald is considered to be a man of great knowledge, but I don't know how he ended up like this.

But even if he knew, I guess Ye Xuan would just sigh and say, "It's none of my business."

With a sneer, Ye Xuan said without giving any face: "Since Lord Li said so, then I will not be shy."

After that, he looked directly at the group of small officials of the Ministry of Revenue behind Li Guodong and said, "Except for Lord Li, who among you is the highest!"

The words fell and no one responded.

Everyone looked at Li Guodong, who had a proud look on his face.

You are just a military officer, and you want to stand above us civil officials and give orders. Who will pay attention to you?

Seeing that no one answered, Ye Xuan sneered: "You are silent because there is not even a ninth-rank official, or are you openly disobeying the order?" As soon as these words came out, everyone was in an uproar.

Everyone in the court, whether civil or military, knew what kind of temper Zhu Yuanzhang had.

If this accusation of disobeying the imperial order is proven true, the person will surely lose his head.

One of them knelt down immediately and said in panic, "Your Excellency, I am Yao Guang, the Supervisor of the Seal Inspection Department. I am the highest-ranking official here besides Lord Li."

"Very good," Ye Xuan nodded and pointed to a cart of potatoes behind him and said, "Please store these things first, and then cooperate with me to distribute the seeds to the farmers for planting. If you do a good job, I will say a few good words for you in front of the emperor."

Yao Guang was quite surprised when he heard this. Could it be that the captain of the Jinyiwei in front of him was bragging?

How could a captain of the Jinyiwei, a fifth-rank official, actually have the power to speak to the emperor?

Li Guodong was already angry when he saw that Ye Xuan not only did not submit to him, but even started to order his men around in front of him.

Upon hearing Ye Xuan's words, he immediately sneered without any scruples, "If Captain Ye was a Jinwu Guard, I might believe that you could see His Majesty often, but it is impossible for you to talk to His Majesty casually, not to mention that you are just a Jinyi Guard! I'm afraid you can't even see His Majesty normally!"

"You can believe it or not, but the imperial edict is true. If Lord Li continues to be so sarcastic, don't blame me for writing to the emperor and accusing you of disobeying the emperor's order!"

Ye Xuan smiled and said cruelly, "You said I am a Jinyiwei, so do you think the emperor will read my impeachment memorial?"

"You..." Li Guodong was speechless. "Humph, Captain Ye, please do whatever you want, but don't accuse a good person casually!"

The two of them had completely fallen out, and Li Guodong simply stopped pretending and just walked away with his sleeves rolled up.

The remaining clerks in the Ministry of Revenue were dumbfounded. They didn't know whether to follow their chief officer and leave, or stay where they were.

He was afraid that Li Guodong would make things difficult for him in the future, and he was also worried that Ye Xuan would do what he said and file an impeachment complaint, which would implicate innocent petty officials as well.

Ye Xuan naturally saw what these people were thinking, and directly took out the token bestowed by Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "Do you recognize this thing? I advise you not to waste your time."

When they saw the words on the token, they immediately realized that what Ye Xuan said before was not false, and they immediately groaned in their hearts.

He wondered what happened to Li Guodong today, as he had offended this great god in front of him.

Since Li Guodong had already left, everyone had no choice but to obey Ye Xuan's orders.

As Ye Xuan issued a series of instructions, Yao Guang was the only one left among the seven or eight clerks at the scene.

"Your Excellency, we should try to plant potatoes at the intervals you mentioned. These two thousand kilograms of fruit can only be planted on six acres of land at most, and it will take less than a day to plant them all."

Ye Xuan nodded helplessly when he heard this. This was one of the reasons why Ye Xuan opposed it when Zhu Yuanzhang said he wanted to promote it nationwide immediately.

Even if all of these 2,000 kilograms of potatoes were used as seeds, they could only produce 6 or 7 acres of crops. There would be no surplus to be shipped across the country.

Therefore, the best way at the moment is to plant on a small scale in Yingtian, so that we can further observe the potato yield and areas that need attention;

Secondly, it is also necessary to cultivate a large number of seeds to facilitate later planting.

(End of this chapter)