Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

Even though this pot of black persimmons was Yin Wencai's favorite, if Shen Zheng liked it, he would give it to her without blinking an eye without her even asking.

But is Shen Zheng the kind of person who would take away what others like?

She shook her head and pushed the small basin back. "Lord Yin, you treat it with sincerity, so it looks so good here. I just met it for the first time, and I don't think I can take care of it as carefully as you do, so it may not look as good here. You should keep it. I will come to see it next time."

Potted plants, like beautiful flowers, can only show their unique beauty in the hands of people who know how to appreciate and care for them.

——A gentleman does not take away what others like.

Hearing the word "next time", Yin Wencai became visibly happy. He handed the brewed tea to Shen Zheng and the others and asked, "Sir Shen, why are you here this time..."

Shen Zheng took a sip of tea and interrupted him, "Master Yin, please tell me and Master Liang first what happened in the county? Why would someone pretend to be me and cheat people in the county? And where are they coming for?"

It was true that she came here to do business, but she could not ignore the affairs of Baiyun County.

Yin Wencai lowered his head upon hearing this, thinking about what had happened and finding it difficult to speak.

He sighed lightly and blamed himself: "Master Shen, Master Liang, to be honest, it is because I am useless that the people are targeted by those with ulterior motives."

Hearing this, Shen Zheng had a guess in her mind, and asked, "But the high-yield rice seeds have been targeted by someone?"

At present, Baiyun County is poor except for feldspar. Others don't know what the feldspar is used for, so they must be targeting the rice seeds that she "sold" to Baiyun County before.

Yin Wencai took a sip of his tea and nodded, "It's rice seeds. The New Year is coming, and after the New Year, it's time to plant seedlings in the spring, so I distributed the rice seeds to the people before and let them keep them... After the spring, they can plant seedlings themselves."

"Keep them by yourself and grow them by yourself?" Shen Zheng was a little confused when she heard this. "Aren't you going to grow the seedlings together and then distribute them to the people?"

Like the previous Tongan County, the seedlings were raised uniformly in Wangjiazhuangzi, and after the fields were irrigated, they were distributed to various villages for planting at the same time.

Unified seedling cultivation has advantages and disadvantages, but in Shen Zheng's opinion, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Yin Wencai lowered his head and explained: "Mr. Shen, you don't know that the public fields in the county are all medium-sized fields, and the top-quality paddy fields are in the hands of the people and landlords, so it is impossible to uniformly grow seedlings on the public fields..."

This is quite similar to Tongan County.

There is no good public land in Tongan County. The previous county government’s inaction caused the good land to become poor land.

"What about the landlords?" Shen Zheng asked, "The common people don't have much paddy fields, so the landlords should have enough, right? Why don't you borrow their fields to grow seedlings?"

This question struck Yin Wencai directly in the heart, and also brought out a fact that had troubled him for a long time: "I don't trust the landlords in the county, and the people don't really trust them either."

Shen Zheng sighed when she heard that.

There is a saying, which is not a joke, but Shen Zheng has never encountered it in Tongan County - the "local gentry families" who have been stationed in the local area for a long time, their power can even suppress the local government.

For example, the Wang family in Tongan County is still headed by Wang Guangjin's father, and Shen Zheng would not let the Wang family help the county to grow seedlings.

The gentry and noble families are not easy to mess with. If you don't pay attention, they can threaten the government with the livelihood of the people. And those who can be called "noble families" all have some connection with "the upper level" to ensure that their family will last for a long time.

Yin Wencai has been in charge of Baiyun County under this environment for a long time, and the pressure is enormous.

Shen Zheng had already guessed what had happened, and Yin Wencai's subsequent narration further confirmed her guess.

"A few days after the rice seeds were delivered to the people, outsiders came to the county. At first, there were only one or two of them. They knocked on doors one by one, asking the people if they were willing to sell them rice seeds."

"The people are not stupid. They know that high-yield rice seeds are extremely valuable. Moreover, they only have so many rice seeds. If they sell them, their livelihoods will be in jeopardy next year, so they are unwilling to sell them."

This sounds normal and the other party did not behave out of line.

"Then they came several more times, and more and more people came, but the people were still unwilling. Perhaps this angered them, and the rice and flour shops in the county began to have problems one after another."

This corresponds to what Shen Zheng saw on the street today.

"Even the shop owner doesn't know what's going on. The upstream merchant suddenly said that he would no longer supply them and asked them to find other ways. Lord Shen, you also know that several of our counties suffered poor harvests last year, and the people simply didn't have enough grain at home. They could only buy grain from the rice and flour shops to fill their stomachs. Once the grain shops stopped supplying..." Yin Wencai sighed.

Liang Fu thought about it and asked, "The county is a bit far from the government office, but... can't we go to the surrounding counties to buy food? It's just a bit more troublesome to go back and forth."

Speaking of this, Yin Wencai smiled bitterly: "Qingzhu County was also affected, and the food supply is barely self-sufficient. If it weren't for the previous order from His Majesty to pay less tax and the return of some food from the government, I'm afraid the people would not be able to hold on until now."

Shen Zheng frowned, "They have joined forces with merchants from above to put pressure on several surrounding counties, hoping to force the people to starve to death, and then propose to exchange rice seeds for food."

If the rice seeds were in the county government office, it would be difficult for the other party to take action. However, with spring planting approaching, the rice seeds are in the hands of the people, so there are more loopholes that can be exploited.

Yin Wencai nodded, "But the people would rather eat only a meal of porridge a day than sell the rice seeds. Then there was... as mentioned before, someone pretended to be you and cheated in the county."

In fact, Shen Zheng couldn't understand this. She didn't understand how the other party could use the identity of "Shen Zheng" to commit fraud?

Yin Wencai's next words made Shen Zheng feel so angry that she couldn't get rid of it.

All I heard him say was, "After the grain shops in the county ran out of supplies, I occasionally left the county to look for other grain merchants. But this gave those people an opportunity to take advantage of me. They took advantage of my absence and claimed to be you... coming to inspect."

"How to patrol?" Liang Fu suppressed his anger and asked in a low voice.

Liang Fu said: "They are very smart and cautious. They only 'inspect' and will not take the initiative to mention rice seeds."

"When the people can't help but express their respect for you, they will gradually guide the conversation, and finally lead the people to actively invite them to check whether their rice seeds are well preserved and suitable for planting, and then teach them how to plant in the spring."

Shen Zheng understood and gritted her teeth and said, "Since you want to see the rice seeds, then you can get the rice seeds."

Liang Fu replied: "If we get the rice seeds, we can replace the original with the new one."

This group of people used Shen Zheng's reputation to commit fraud, relying on the trust and respect that the people of Baiyun County had for Shen Zheng.

The people who had been honest for most of their lives would never have thought that someone would be so bold as to impersonate an official appointed by the imperial court.