bayedsolid Chapter 181 The Sweet Potato Production Shocks Everyone
Chapter 181 The Sweet Potato Production Shocks Everyone
Aunt Zhang shook her head and said, "More than that! The sweet potatoes are so big. I think this acre of land can produce at least 2,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes."
Shen Wanning chuckled to herself. Two thousand or three thousand pounds? It must be at least four thousand pounds. But the exact amount wouldn't be known until they dug it out.
After the rice was cooked, it was served on the table. Everyone looked at the steamed sweet potatoes, but no one took the first bite.
Shen Wanning smiled and put a piece of sweet potato into Aunt Zhang and Lin Dashan's bowls respectively. "Mom and Dad, try this steamed sweet potato. It tastes much better than eating it raw."
Lin Dashan leaned over and took a sniff. "It smells sweet. Let me try it."
Aunt Zhang picked up the sweet potato, blew on it, and took a small bite.
Everyone stared at Aunt Zhang and Lin Dashan, wanting to hear their opinions on the steamed sweet potatoes.
Aunt Zhang took a bite of the sweet potato and said, "Oh my goodness, this is much better than a raw sweet potato! It melts in your mouth and doesn't strain your teeth at all. Even an 80-year-old toothless woman could eat it. And it's much sweeter than a raw sweet potato, almost as sweet as honey."
Lin Dashan followed up, "Yes, it tastes much better than cassava, and it doesn't need to be soaked in water. It's really a good thing."
As soon as they said this, the others couldn't wait to pick up their chopsticks and start eating. Xu exclaimed, "It's so delicious, mother! If there's a famine in the future and there's no white rice to eat, I'd like to eat this every day."
"Don't talk nonsense! God bless us, our summer will be blessed with good weather and good harvests, and the people will be free from illness and disasters." Aunt Zhang folded her hands and muttered a few words.
After finishing the sweet potato, Captain Yan gave it a thumbs-up and praised, "Not bad, not bad! This sweet potato tastes really good! I didn't have high expectations for the taste of steamed sweet potatoes when I ate them raw, but the taste of this steamed sweet potato really exceeded my expectations. It's delicious!"
Having said that, Captain Yan took another piece of sweet potato into his mouth without hesitation, nodding as he ate.
In short, everyone praised the steamed sweet potatoes. At the end of the meal, there was still a lot of rice left, and all the sweet potatoes were eaten.
Just after lunch, Xu was washing dishes in the kitchen, while Shen Wanning, Aunt Zhang, and Lin Dashan went out to call for help, preparing to ask the refugees to come and help dig sweet potatoes.
When the original villagers heard that they had to dig sweet potatoes, they spontaneously brought their hoes to help dig sweet potatoes.
I had experience digging cassava before, and since it had just rained and the ground was still wet, I dug quickly.
I originally thought it would take several days to dig up an acre of land, but with everyone's help, we finished digging up the sweet potatoes in just half a day.
Seeing the large and numerous sweet potatoes dug out, everyone was very excited. They all wanted to see how many sweet potatoes an acre of land could produce, so they worked harder and harder.
At around four o'clock in the afternoon, all the sweet potatoes in an acre of land were dug up and filled the entire yard.
"Oh my God! We have only planted one acre of land. Why are there so many sweet potatoes?" The village head looked at the sweet potatoes in the yard in shock.
"That must be over 3,000 kilograms! Sweet potatoes are this big, much bigger than cassava!"
"I don't know if these sweet potatoes are delicious. If they are, we'll plant more next year."
"With these sweet potatoes, we no longer have to worry about not having enough to eat. We can grow them even in drought years. It's great!"
"I can't wait to see how heavy these sweet potatoes are. With so many, the Lin family probably can't finish them all, right?"
"Hurry up, everyone, lend a hand and help weigh them to see how many sweet potatoes there are!" Lin Dashan said as he put the sweet potatoes into the bag.
Everyone rushed forward to help and put the sweet potatoes into bags. Then they went home and took out their own scales to help weigh the sweet potatoes.
Almost everyone in the village gathered here, waiting to see the sweet potato yield.
When we finally weighed it, the total weight was more than 5,400 kilograms.
This number shocked everyone! After so many years of farming, they had never heard of any crop yielding 1,000 kilograms. They didn't expect that the sweet potato yield would not only reach 1,000 kilograms, but also more than 5,000 kilograms!
Aunt Zhang excitedly grabbed Lin Dashan's hand and said, "Dashan, did you hear that? One acre of sweet potato land can produce over 5,000 kilograms! Over 5,000 kilograms! That's enough for everyone in our village!"
"If only we had discovered sweet potatoes earlier! My parents wouldn't have starved to death!" A woman whispered, wiping tears from her face.
"Why are you crying? Now that we've discovered the crop of sweet potatoes, people will no longer starve to death in the future and the people will have enough to eat. Isn't this a good thing?" said the man next to her.
Some villagers beat their chests and stamped their feet, saying, "Oh, the sweet potato yield is so high. I should have planted more! Oh, I didn't plant enough! I planted too little!"
"It was good enough to have some seeds. There were only so many sweet potato seedlings back then. There were so many people in our village, and each family could only get so much!"
"Hey, Wan Ning, can these sweet potatoes be grown into seedlings? I must plant more next year. It doesn't matter if I plant less rice, as this stuff will keep me full."
"Yes, yes, Wan Ning, you must teach us how to grow sweet potato seedlings next year! I want to plant more too!"
Not only the villagers, but even Captain Yan became excited. "I thought Sister Ning was joking at the time, but I didn't expect the sweet potato yield to be so high! Once sweet potatoes are promoted, no one in our Great Xia Dynasty will starve to death anymore!"
Constable Zhao on the side quickly said, "Captain, let's go back and report this to the master! If the master knew, he would be so happy!"
"Yes, yes, I can't wait any longer. Let's go back to the county town now." Captain Yan said excitedly.
Shen Wanning called out, "Hey, wait a minute, Brother Yan, you should finish your dinner and leave tomorrow morning! There's no rush."
"Oh, how can I not be anxious? Seeing so many sweet potatoes, I feel itchy in my heart and can't sleep well at night without telling the adults!" Captain Yan said with a smile.
"My second brother hasn't come back yet. If Brother Yan goes back to the city now, he has to take a ox cart to the town first. It's better to wait for my second brother to come back and send Brother Yan to the county town." Shen Wanning said politely again.
Captain Yan thought about it and decided that since they had a house in the county town, he could stay there for a night after Lin Jingcheng took them there. So he agreed.
With so many people still guarding the Lin family's gate, Shen Wanning said, "Thank you all for coming to help today. I will still pay you half a day's wages at fifty cents. I will not let you suffer any loss."
Chen Zihao took the lead and said, "We don't want any wages. We only worked for less than half a day, how can we ask Miss Shen for half a day's wages? I said we are here to help. In this village, who doesn't have some urgent matter to help with?"
The village head continued, "Yes, we are here to help, so how can we ask for any wages? Do we have to pay Wan Ning for helping us in the future?"