Back at Zhou Mansion, it was almost dark. Zhou Lizhong was surrounded by Zhou family members talking about the court meeting. When he saw Zhou Man coming back, he immediately surrounded him, "Are you tired? Go wash up and rest?"
"Do you want to eat first? I heard from Li Zhong that you have been in meetings all day."
Zhou Man waved his hand and said it was okay. He went back to his house and changed into casual clothes. Then he went to see Mrs. Liu and told her about selling the new grain seeds from Longzhou to the Ministry of Household Affairs. "
Mrs. Liu is not obsessed with money. If she can exchange money for an official career, it will be a very cost-effective thing for her.
So she just asked, "Can't we leave even a single seed?"
"No, we can keep rice seeds for ourselves," Zhou Man said: "Choose more when choosing seeds. Grandma, I have divided some fiefs over in Yueyang. Although I only collect taxes and do not manage them directly, the people under the fiefs have passed
If it’s good, it will benefit me too, so I plan to plant some grain at the spring equinox next year.”
Mrs. Liu understood and asked, "How do you plan to take care of it over there?"
She said: "Before, you were the head of the village and the county, and your fiefdom was not very large, so you could hand it over to the county government. But now that your fiefdom has expanded so much, I'm afraid it's not appropriate to hand it all over to the county government."
If the county government cannot receive money from the fiefdom, it may not be more concerned about it. When the time comes, it will not only be a loss for Zhou Man, but also the people in the fiefdom, and Zhou Man's reputation will not be very good.
Zhou Man thought for a while and then said: "My brothers and sisters-in-law are not suitable for dealing with the county government. Lijun's place is already very busy. I can't bear to bother her with everything. Grandma thinks Bai's side is suitable."
people?"
Mrs. Liu raised her lips slightly and said to her: "If you feel at ease, leave this matter to me and I will choose someone for you."
Zhou Man smiled and said: "Of course I trust my grandmother, then I will leave everything to her."
There will be no more suitable person than Mrs. Liu.
Zhou Man stood up and said, "I'm going to tell my parents that I will leave enough seeds at home, and the rest will be sold to the Ministry of Household Affairs."
She paused and lowered her voice: "Grandma, I only sold the food from my natal family and our family, to my cousin..."
Madam Liu raised her eyebrows slightly and said with a smile, "I will write to him."
Zhou Man left happily.
Just hoard the grains in Mr. Bai's hands, and those in Lijun's hands.
With Senior Brother Yang here, when these grains are in the hands of the Ministry of Revenue, they will be distributed equally among the states. Some well-informed wealthy people will definitely find ways to buy them from other places. At this time, the grains in Mr. Bai's hands
The batch of rice seeds comes in handy.
The Zhou family had no objections to Zhou Man selling grain to the Ministry of Household Affairs. It was great that so much grain was still priced at regular prices.
Except for Zhou Lijun and Zhou Lang, no one in the Zhou family could have imagined the price of new wheat seeds that year.
After everyone dispersed, Zhou Man asked Zhou Lizhong to go to the study with him to discuss matters. Zhou Lijun and Zhou Lang were already there.
Zhou Lizhong glanced outside and said, "Sister-in-law, why did you only call us?"
Zhou Man said: "The four of us are enough. There are too many people and it will be noisy."
She turned to look at Zhou Lijun, "How's the harvest at Zhuangzi over there at Xiang's house?"
"The output is no lower than that in the village."
Zhou Man nodded and said to her: "Brother Yang has always been fair and considerate. He will definitely issue laws to crack down on fake new rice seeds and new rice seed prices. You must be aware of it. You can make money, but don't lose your capital."
point."
Zhou Lijun responded, "Don't worry, sister-in-law, I know."
Zhou Man nodded, and then said to Zhou Lang: "The new rice seeds cannot leave the customs. They have not been tested in the Jiangnan area, and they cannot flow there. If you want to sell them, you can only sell them in the Central Plains area."
Zhou Lang, "Can they still block the path to Jiangnan?"
"There is no need to block it, but there should be no large inflow to avoid disaster if the new rice seeds are not adapted to Jiangnan. If someone wants to try planting, we will not stop it," Zhou Man said: "Sinong Temple will choose test fields in various places later.
, to try planting new rice seeds, and wait until next fall to find out whether Jiangnan is suitable for this new rice variety. I don’t want you to go through this muddy water."
Zhou Lang touched his nose and said, "Okay."
Zhou Man reached out and patted Zhou Lizhong on the shoulder and said, "Tomorrow I will take you to Sinong Temple to report. His Majesty will make you the Prime Minister of Sinong Temple. I'm afraid you won't get used to it."
She said: "The habits in the officialdom are that I have been in the court for many years and there are things I am not used to, so you don't need to be too accommodating to them. Although we are in the court as officials, it is not for some great future. Look closer.
, this is just a job for us to make a living, so what we were in Zhuangzi before is what we are now."
She said: "I can't stay in the capital for a long time. I will go back to Qingzhou after the new rice seeds and the medical department are confirmed. If you have any doubts, please ask Mr. Zhuang."
Zhou Li nodded.
Zhou Lang asked her, "When will you go to Qingzhou?"
Zhou Man shook his head, "I don't know either. It depends on the speed of the DPRK's discussions."
She and the Imperial Medical Office have been operating the reorganization of the Medical Office for more than half a year, but they still have not yet completely finalized it. Although the emperor's consent was obtained this time, who knows how slow the officials in the court will be?
After discussing the matter, Zhou Man asked them to leave. She sat on a chair and thought for a moment, then took out the letter paper and wrote a letter to Bai Shan.
After seeing the words, I complained aggrievedly. Your Majesty came forward and I sold all our new rice seeds to the Ministry of Household Affairs at the normal price of grain. Previously, we thought of using it to make a fortune like the new wheat seeds back then.
If the matter is settled, there should be an official letter from you in the near future...
In Beihai County, most of the new rice seeds were used by Bai Shan on official fields.
Except for his share of the official farmland, the rest of the harvest belongs to the county government.
If the imperial court wanted to forcefully conscript them, they wouldn't even have to pay.
Zhou Man wrote a letter to prepare Bai Shan mentally.
After Zhou Man finished writing the envelope, late at night, she stretched herself and put the envelope on before going back to the house to sleep. She decided to sleep in tomorrow!
As a recalled official from outside the country, she didn't have to go to the Yamen to order mao, and even the Chongwen Museum didn't ask for it.
So Zhou Man slept until dawn. If she hadn't been woken up by the cake, she would have slept until noon.
She reluctantly opened her eyes and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Madam, someone from the palace is here, and they say they want you to go to court."
Zhou Man pulled the quilt up to his head, turned over and rolled up the quilt around his body, and said in a muffled voice: "You were cheated. You just finished attending the court meeting yesterday, how can you still do it today?"
"It's not a big court meeting, it's a small court meeting. Madam, get up quickly. The chamberlain is still waiting outside."
Zhou Man opened the quilt and sat up, looking confused, "Xiao Chao meeting? I don't need to go to Xiao Chao meeting."
Having said that, she still hurriedly got up, washed her face in a hurry, put on her official uniform, put on her boots and ran out, "Madam, the old lady has prepared food for you, please take it with you to eat."