At the beginning, I was a rich female prisoner

Yu Yunxin was eating jelly when she heard this and immediately choked and coughed and said, "Brother, is there anyone who sells girls like you?"

"Xin'er, please pay attention to your etiquette. Your Highness the Crown Prince, Xin'er is too young to be suitable for the Crown Prince. Lin Shan just spoke out of turn after drinking. You don't have to take it seriously." Yu Tinghai said, trying to ease the atmosphere.

"Master Yu, you don't need to say anything. I have my own plans. Thank you for your hospitality today. I have one more thing to tell you. When I return to the palace, I will tell my father about the second crop of rice and the ducks killing locusts. By the way, Xin'er, your ducks are on their way back. Both times we had a good harvest thanks to your ducks. I thank you on behalf of the people of Yuzhou and Quanzhou."

"Your Highness, you're welcome. I just acted on impulse. In fact, I have no idea about the second crop of rice. Other states and counties rely on your decision. If your Highness did not care about the people of the world, how could he allow the people in the east, west and south to have a second harvest?" Yu Yunxin replied.

"I think in terms of harvest, only your Wangshan County can produce five or six stones per acre of land. What's the reason?" asked the prince.

Yu Yunxin took out two notebooks and handed them to the prince, saying, "Your Highness, this is my detailed record of the past month. It also tells you how to make organic fertilizer from compost. If you want to have a good harvest, this fertilizer accounts for a large part of it."

The prince took it and said, "It is true that other places are following suit and not strictly following your requirements, but now there are three to four shi per mu, which is a great harvest for the people. I will give these two books to the Minister of Agriculture."

"This is actually not just my credit, but also the credit of the agricultural officer who recorded it with me." Yu Yunxin said truthfully.

The meal lasted more than an hour. As the prince looked at Yu Yunxin's watery eyes, he began to slowly fall in love with this smart and capable girl.

After seeing off the prince, Yu Yunxin felt much more relaxed. The prince was not very old and had just come of age this year. He was also handsome, but she didn't have that mindset. Now she was only thinking about making money. She wanted to make back the more than 100,000 taels of silver she had spent. More importantly, her town of Huyuezhai was short of money!

These days, she was still in the wine-making workshop in the tea garden in the morning as she used to be, watching the various fragrant wines brewed with mountain spring water.

"Miss, this is the sesame-flavored wine that I brewed with everyone." Qiu Yingying took a spoonful of the freshly brewed sesame-flavored wine and handed it to Yu Yunxinwen, saying, "We are also brewing the sauce-flavored, strong-flavored, and light-flavored wines you mentioned. I think this wine workshop is not enough, and we have fewer and fewer people."

"After the water conservancy is completed, the men of you Huyue Village will also come back. Except for Snake Eyes and Zhang Bao who will be executed, my father has decided that half of the others will stay in the tea garden, and the other half will go back to Huyue Village. I will develop a small town there. As for you, you can't leave Wangshan County for the next three years. As long as you don't cause trouble and work hard, maybe your imprisonment will be released earlier, and you will be given a household registration after your service period." Yu Yunxin said to comfort Qiu Yingying.

"Really? That's great. Thank you, Miss and Lord Yu." Qiu Yingying was about to kneel down when Yu Yunxin supported her.

"Don't kneel. I don't want to shorten my life." After saying this, Yu Yunxin took some women to work in the fields.

She found a sunny spot to plant the Hemp Flower, which can cover about five mu of Hemp Flower. She also planted about eight mu of Cape Gooseberry and Agar-agar Grass. The rest of the land is now used to raise cattle and sheep. She also has some land near the pond where she wants to keep hundreds of thousands of ducks, some of which are female ducks for laying eggs. She has also decided to make salted duck eggs and preserved eggs after the ducks lay eggs.

Isn’t there a ready-made winery here? She can use some wine to make salted duck eggs. Preserved eggs are also simple to make. Just wrap them in lime powder and wood ash and put them in a dry and ventilated place.

There are few people in the tea garden now, so she assigned the work of cooking and frying grain to nearby villagers, thus reducing the workload of the women in Huyue Village. The secret recipe of this wine will not be known to others.

Two days later, two death row prisoners were to be beheaded at the execution ground in Wangshan County. It was the slack season during the farming season, so many people came to watch the execution. Some women took rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs and threw them at Snake Eyes and Zhang Bao who were dragged out of the county jail and paraded through the streets.

In the past two months, the two men wore anklets every day to dig soil outside the county town. They were not well fed and did not get enough sleep. Even their former good friends did not come to greet them. Of course, no one dared to talk to them. Besides, the brothers in Huyue Village were also very busy.

Because of his young age, Xiao He was not sentenced to death, but was sentenced to eight years of hard labor. Now he follows the people of Huyue Village to dig canals every day. At night, he will be sent back to the county jail by a prisoner car. Sometimes Yu Tinghai will send some enlightenment books to Xiao He. If he doesn't understand a word in the jail, he will ask the jail officials. These jail officials are basically students and scholars. In ancient times, it was already very impressive to be a student, not to mention a candidate. In the county, some students and scholars who have reached the age will have another way out for themselves. Some backgrounds will naturally work in the county. As for the assignment of jobs, you also need to take an exam. If you don't do well in the exam, you will be in the county jail and watch the jail for the rest of your life.

They also felt sorry for Xiao He. It was a pity that he had to go to jail at such a young age. They would teach him any questions he asked or words he didn't know how to write. He was a hard-working and studious person.

This time, Snake Eyes and Zhang Baolian had no one to escort the executioners to the execution ground, only the two of them were there. It was hot now, and although it was not as hot as the previous days, the midday sun was particularly dazzling. It was also Yu Tinghai's first time to Wangshan County, and he was naturally the supervising officer this time. He had supervised the executions of gangsters and white-timers who were more powerful than these two, so these two minions were nothing to him. When a bamboo plaque with the word "behead" was thrown to the ground on the stage, the executioner raised his nine-ring broadsword and fell, and the two people's heads fell to the ground in the blink of an eye. Seeing the two people's heads fall to the ground, the victim's family was the happiest and immediately knelt down and said, "God has eyes, and my daughter's revenge has finally been avenged."

Because the two men had no relatives, Yu Tinghai finally asked Qiu Yong, the leader of Huyue Village, and Liu Junshi to collect the bodies of the two men, find a grave to bury them, and also perform rituals for the two men. As brothers, this was the most they could do.

"Brother!" Qiu Yingying came to the two earthen mounds and burned some paper money, saying, "County Magistrate Yu said that after the canal is repaired, half of us should go back to Huyue Village. I went there to see that Miss Yu turned our Huyue Village into a small town. There are not only inns but also food courts, hot springs and even opera troupes. Although our father has passed away, his puppet show skills have been passed down to you. I will talk to Miss Yu and let you do puppet shows in the future."

"Yingying, you have worked hard these days. By the way, I saw Jin Chen. He seemed to be working for a wealthy businessman. The more than 200 brothers he brought with him were also digging a canal in Nanling County." Qiu Yong said.

When Qiu Yingying heard this, she immediately looked at the people on both sides and said, "Don't tell anyone about this. I don't blame him. He has his own ambitions. I am now making wine in the tea garden in Huashan Village, which is also good."

Qiu Yong said, "Okay, from now on we will pretend that we don't know him. My sister is so pretty that I'm afraid no one will want her. After we are free from labor service, I will hold a martial arts competition for you to marry her."

"Brother, what are you talking about?" Qiu Yingying blushed. The brother and sister talked about some family matters at the two graves and then separated.

The tea garden was also very lively. Everyone was watching a strange pot. It was actually a popcorn machine made by Yu Yunxin based on the old popcorn machines from the 1970s and 1980s. She put corn into the pot and then kept spinning it over the fire for a while. Yu Yunxin asked everyone to move aside, took out the cloth bag that had been prepared long ago, and put the popcorn machine directly into the cloth bag. She also stuffed cotton in her ears in advance. With a sound, white smoke came out of the popcorn machine.

Yu Yunxin leaned closer and took a look, and a burnt smell hit her face.

"Miss, it's been too long and it's burnt." Qiu Yingying said as she picked up the bag of burnt corn.

Yu Yunxin did not answer. She took a look at the popcorn and thought that although this popcorn machine was almost the same, it lacked a thermometer. Maybe it was because she had been spinning for too long or the temperature was too high?

He smiled and said, "Maybe it's because of the long time and the high temperature. It's okay to do it again."

Fortunately, there were two harvests this year, otherwise Qiu Yingying would really miss this bowl of corn.

After three attempts, she finally succeeded on the third try. The crispy and delicious popcorn was immediately added with the butter she had prepared while it was still hot, and then distributed to everyone in the wine workshop for them to taste first.

The first to get it were Qiu Shuang and Chun Yu. After Qiu Yingying tasted it, she said in unison: "So fragrant and crispy."

Yu Yunxin also took a bite of the popcorn in her hand and said, "It tastes good. Should we make more and sell them? How much do you think it will cost?"

"It's so delicious, I don't know how much I should sell it for?" Qiu Yingying replied.

"We put the popcorn into bamboo tubes and carve Wangshan Butter Popcorn on the outside of the tubes." After Yu Yunxin finished speaking, she took people to the bamboo forest and found more than 30 bamboos of similar thickness. Each bamboo tube could hold about a bowl of popcorn. If the product is to sell well, it must be packaged well.

Within a day, more than 50 people worked together to make more than 100 packages of popcorn. Each bamboo tube was covered with a bamboo tube lid, which could be opened by simply pulling the lid lightly.

"Can we set the price now?" Qiu Shuang asked, holding a packaged bamboo tube.

"Then let's charge one hundred coins each. Let's take the packaged popcorn to Boss Yang." After Yu Yunxin said this, she had the horses load the popcorn onto the carriage.

She also taught Qiu Shuang how to make rice cakes, some made from wheat, some from rice, corn, sorghum, etc. Peanuts, various melon seeds, walnuts, and many other varieties were added to the rice cakes. The sugar was maltose, which was also made by Yu Yunxin herself. It tasted crispy and delicious, with moderate sweetness.

Everyone in the wine workshop praised Yun Xin when they saw the food and said, "If we knew these skills, we wouldn't have become bandits. It's a pity that we are not as smart as the young lady."

Yu Yunxin looked at everyone and smiled, "Now you can divide the work between brewing wine and making popcorn cakes."

Yu Yunxin taught all these to Qiu Yingying and others. She was not afraid of the secret recipe being leaked. After all, these people were all criminals, and they were also people who valued friendship and loyalty. After they were free in two years, these would be the skills they would need to settle down.

She took Qiu Shuang and Chun Yu to Nanling County again. There were three carriages this time. In addition to several types of wine, there were also popcorn and rice cakes. As soon as they left Huashan Village, there was a team of cars. They were her ducks. They were all locked in the wooden house. They were all fat. Now that the weather was getting cooler, she could start stewing duck, roasting duck and making various duck dishes.

The thought made her drool. Yu Yunxin asked the driver to move closer. The one in charge of driving the ducks this time was the Ding family from Donghe Village in Xiayu County next door. The Ding family had four brothers, and they all went to drive the ducks together. When the eldest brother saw Yu Yunxin's carriage, he immediately got off and said, "Miss Yu, there were two thousand and thirty ducks that died in the place we went this time. They died of exhaustion from falling all the way. We are willing to compensate for these two thousand ducks."

"Okay, that's enough. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has already given you the money. Go to the tea garden in Huashan Village and drive all the ducks to the pond in the tea garden! Then go back to the county office and tell the master that I will give you two months' wages." Yu Yunxin didn't care about the death of more than 2,000 ducks. After all, if the ducks had to be driven so far, it would be exhausting to drive all the villages in the counties of the two states. She could accept the death of more than 2,000 ducks.

"Didn't we get a bonus? Why do we still have to be paid?" Ding Er was puzzled when he heard that they still had to pay us.

"The bonus is a bonus, and the wages are wages. You guys go." After Yu Yunxin finished speaking, the flock of ducks began to quack one after another. The quacking sound was too loud. Yu Yunxin made a gesture helplessly, and the coachman drove the carriage away.

In the imperial palace in the capital, Emperor Cheng was very happy to receive the news about the second crop of rice in Nanling County, Yuzhou, Quanzhou, and the southwest. He had originally wanted to ask the Ministry of Revenue to allocate another wave of grain to the three disaster-stricken states, but now he not only has a harvest but also has tax revenue from the second crop of rice. He was very happy with Yu Yunxin's idea of ​​using diabolo to divert water and ducks to kill insects. Now in his imperial study are several chief ministers of the Ministry of Revenue, who are carefully looking at the records of the second crop of rice and the composting method sent back by the crown prince by carrier pigeon.

"You are the ministers of agriculture of Dacheng. Why haven't you thought about the potential of the second crop of rice?" asked Emperor Cheng.

"Your Majesty, I took a look at the second crop of rice and found that only the climate in the southern region can produce a second crop of rice. The climate in the north is not suitable. However, this composting method is suitable for all crops and can also increase the per-acre yield of crops. I wonder who is the master who came up with this idea," said a gray-haired official in his sixties, touching his gray beard.

The various off-season fruits and vegetables in the imperial palace in the capital are all under the charge of the Grand Minister of Agriculture. Emperor Cheng also knows the capabilities of the Minister of Agriculture in front of him.

"It was Yu Tinghai's eldest daughter, Yu Yunxin, who came up with this idea. If she were a boy, I would have given her an official position." Emperor Cheng said.

"This girl was able to come up with these two good things that benefit the country and the people. Although women cannot serve as officials in the court, Your Majesty can confer the title of princess on her." said Li Zhangnongsi.