Chapter 317: Chapter 304: Sweet Potato

Translator: 549690339 |

Having spoken, the man at the front walked away briskly.

The other two quickly followed him.

After two more days of busy work, a breeze blew in the scorching dog days.

The wind brought no characteristic sense of stuffiness and suffocation as usual, but rather, a slight coolness that made people feel comfortable.

Zhuang Qingning, riding in the carriage at this moment, didn’t feel hot at all.

Ding Gaochang was also quite pleased with today’s coolness. After all, if it were hot and he would be sweaty, it would inevitably be awkward to share a carriage with Zhuang Qingning.

Luckily, the weather was cool, making it an ideal day for travelling.

Perhaps this could be called taking advantage of both the heaven and earth.

Ding Gaochang was in a good mood because of this, and his tone was slightly upbeat while talking to Zhuang Qingning.

“Since Miss Zhuang mentioned last time about adapting to local conditions, I returned to the County Government Office and ordered people to investigate what kind of crops the surrounding towns and villages mainly produce, and what the villagers are good at.”

“Our county is a small one. The peddlers, who often roam the streets and alleys, quickly figured out what was produced and what was made in each location. In this Miao Village, the nearby lands are sandy, where only sweet potatoes can thrive. But these sweet potatoes have black skin, and eating too much can cause acid reflux. Also, sweet potatoes are common produce, hard to sell, and cannot be exchanged for food crops. Consequently, farming here is the least profitable profession.”

“Because of this, most of the villagers find ways to do work outside to earn some silver to support their families. Those left behind in the village are the elderly, weak, women and children. They are so busy with the crop fields that they can only leave them fallow. But if the fields are not planted, this would be a waste of perfectly good land. Nowadays, the emperor emphasizes agriculture and the fields are the basis of the country’s stability. If this continues, with fields lying fallow and people all turning to business, it will be greatly inappropriate.”

“Also, the people of Zhangqiaozhuang mainly cultivate cotton. The cotton was previously sold to a cloth weaving workshop in a neighbouring village. The business of spinning thread and weaving cloth made fair progress. But the workshop has since closed down due to poor business, causing the trade of cotton in Zhangqiaozhuang to decline. Even though cotton is still being sold today, the price has dropped by a third, and it can no longer be sold at a high price.”

“Nowadays, many families have stopped growing this troublesome cotton and started planting corn. But the yield of corn is not good, either. These years, many people have been complaining about their conditions.”

“And there is Lijia Village, where people mostly grow watermelons. In Songjiazhuang, people mainly rely on the nearby bamboo forests for a living…” “In short, just saying these things might be a bit confusing, so I decided to take Miss Zhuang to take a look in person to evaluate the quality of these products and see what could be made of them.”

Zhuang Qingning listened to Ding Gaochang’s words and nodded slightly.

She had to admit that although Ding Gaochang was the county magistrate, overseeing security and criminal matters, he also deeply cared about the livelihood and prosperity of the common people. He had thoroughly investigated these matters over this period of time, and was able to present the findings fluently. It was clear that he had put in a lot of effort into the research.

Having a governor like Ding Gaochang in the county was truly a blessing.

“Uncle Ding was very detailed. I have noted down some points in my mind. As Uncle Ding suggested, let’s go have a look first. Depending on the quality of these things, 1 will then think about what kind of workshops to open, or see if we can find some alternative ways to help the villagers.”

Zhuang Qingning lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked at the shaded willow trees outside, “So, where are we going first?”

“Let’s go to Miao Village first. It’s nearby, not far ahead,” answered Ding Gaochang.

“Okay,” Zhuang Qingning acknowledged as she lifted the curtain and continued watching the receding scenery outside.

The further they moved forward, the more cultivated fields appeared on both sides of the road. Just like what Ding Gaochang mentioned, the fields were covered with stout sweet potato vines. The sweet potato leaves grew vigorously, competing with each other. Occasionally, people could be seen weeding and pulling vines in the field, or picking some fresh sweet potato leaves, preparing to cook or make noodles with them.

While Miao Village was not small, perhaps because many people had to work outside, few people could be seen. Ding Gaochang and Zhuang Qingning went straight to the village chief’s house.

The village chief, Miao Hongjin, heard that the county magistrate, Ding Gaochang, had come. He hurriedly ordered his family to prepare some chicken and meat to entertain the guests for lunch.

“I mentioned earlier that I would come to understand the village’s situation; there is no need for such formality,” Ding Gaochang quickly stopped Miao Hongjin. “Just serving a cup of tea and having a chat would be enough.”

“If you really want to entertain us, you might as well bring out the sweet potatoes. Let’s examine their quality, and perhaps we can come up with some ideas to help the villagers turn these sweet potatoes into silver.”

“Alright, alright,” Miao Hongjin agreed, his eyes moistening slightly.

This was after all the county magistrate. He should have been busy with matters big and small every day, yet he actually cared about their little village’s sweet potato selling business. Miao Hongjin didn’t know what to say.

He could only think that it was a blessing from heaven that they had a governor like this; it must have been the result of good deeds done in their previous lives.

Miao Hongjin called his wife to make tea and went to the kitchen himself to bring out a basket of items.

Slices of sweet potatoes that had been dried under the sun, which could be used to cook rice or be ground into sweet potato flour at any time, freshly harvested sweet potatoes from spring, and ground sweet potato flour.

However, as these sweet potatoes were planted in spring, they were not as good as those planted in the summer. The size of the sweet potatoes was a bit small.

“Our sweet potatoes here are floury and sweet when steamed. If people get tired of eating white flour and rice, eating this from time to time, or adding it to the rice porridge, would taste quite nice. But if people eat this every day, it won’t work.”

“And these sweet potatoes, even though they taste better than those grown in other places, they are still just sweet potatoes. They can’t turn into meat and fish, nor are they any delicate ingredient. Every household has them and they don’t sell well.”

“If one is lucky, one can sell a basket or two at the county town. But sweet potatoes are cheap; a large basket is only worth two or three coins. The effort required to transport them to town wouldn’t even cover the cost of hard work. Over time, nobody has been willing to make this effort..”