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

Upon hearing this, Wang Guangjin bowed to Wang Wanying and said teasingly, "It's my brother's fault."

"Okay, stop teasing your sister."

Mrs. Lu handed the account book to Wang Guangjin: "This is the property that Wanying and I have counted. Come in and take a look."

Wang Guangjin took the account book but did not look at it. Instead, he handed it to Shen Zheng with both hands.

"I hope you will accept the kindness from my mother and I."

Shen Zheng pushed the account book back.

Just now she had been thinking that it would be too greedy for her to accept all the banknotes and land deeds.

But she couldn't bear to accept any of them, so she had to think of a way.

She said, "One thousand taels of silver is required for the ransom, but the county government cannot accept other silver notes."

The mother and her two children were about to speak up to persuade Shen Zheng, but she raised her hand to stop them.

"I have a solution that will satisfy both parties. I hope you will listen to it."

The mother and her two children nodded.

Xu Zhubu on the side was also quite curious about what method Shen Zheng could come up with this time.

Shen Zheng said, "I have a large number of rice seeds, and I am worried about the good fields for experimenting with seedlings. Although there are many empty fields in the county, most of them are thin fields. If I want to sow, I have to fertilize the thin fields first."

"The yield of this batch of rice should be much higher than that of ordinary rice. It is closely related to the food and clothing of the residents in our county, so I don't want to wait."

Before Shen Zheng could finish her intention, Wang Guangjin said, "I am willing to offer the good farmland of the Wang family to you to grow rice!"

Shen Zheng shook her head.

"I don't want the ownership of your fertile land. I just want you to grow some seedlings for me. After the seedlings grow, I have to transplant them and plant them."

Nowadays, most county residents grow millet and not rice.

First, there are no ditches in Tongan County to irrigate the fields. Second, the rice yield per mu in this world is not high, and the difference in harvest between growing millet and rice is not much.

As a result, the county residents naturally became unwilling to grow rice, as it was laborious and thankless.

If Shen Zheng forces the county residents to grow rice now, it will definitely cause their dissatisfaction.

So she had to use the experimental field to grow seedlings and plant them first.

When everyone sees the rice harvest, they will rush to plant it without her saying anything.

After hearing what Shen Zheng said, Wang Guangjin bowed and said, "I am willing to help you solve your problems."

For landlords, farming is as simple as pie.

"One more thing."

Shen Zheng continued, "If we want to promote rice planting throughout the county, we have to dig ditches and build canals. Most young and middle-aged people have wives, children and elderly people to support. I don't want to force them to work."

"But the county government is too poor now. By then, not to mention wages, even food supply will be difficult."

"Just now I saw two hundred dan of grain in the account book. Can I lend it to the county government first and return it to you after the rice harvest?"

After saying this, Shen Zheng felt a little embarrassed that as a county magistrate he had to borrow even food.

Wang Guangjin was anxious when he heard this: "What are you talking about with us, sir? I will have someone bring all the food to you when I get home!"

Mrs. Lu also agreed and said, "This is a good thing that benefits the people. If you don't even accept the food, it will be a great loss to us mother and son."

Shen Zheng had no choice but to agree, thinking that she would be able to pay it back when the rice was harvested.

Just give it to them when the time comes.

After saying that, Wang Guangjin took the banknotes from Mrs. Lu's hand, took out a stack and placed it on the table.

Then he took Mrs. Lu and Wang Wanying and quickly walked out of the court.

"I will go home and count the food first!"

Shen Zheng picked up the silver note on the table and took a look. There was no one thousand taels at all.

This stack weighs a total of three thousand taels.

Shen Zheng took note of it and handed all the banknotes to Xu Zhubu.

"Please ask the chief clerk to record it."

Xu Zhubu took the banknote, still thinking about the rice that Shen Zheng had just mentioned.

"I don't know what kind of rice you are talking about. The yield per mu is much higher than that of ordinary rice."

Shen Zheng didn't know how to explain this, so she could only act mysterious.

"When the harvest comes, the chief clerk will know."

Then she asked, "Has the case notice been written?"

Xu Zhubu nodded and said, "It's finished."

Shen Zheng was thinking about digging ditches and building canals soon, so she asked Xu Zhubu to write another document to recruit workers.

"We will recruit up to 500 people. You must bring your own tools. Three meals a day will be provided. In addition, the salary is 50 cents a day."

As Xu Zhubu was picking up his pen to write, Shen Zheng regretted it again.

"No, no, forty cents is better."

Xu Zhubu looked at Shen Zheng's frowning face and couldn't help but laugh, "How much is it?"

"Forty! Just forty!"

The average wage for ordinary laborers in the county is 40 to 50 cents a day, but they have to take care of their own meals.

Her treatment of forty cents a day with three meals included was already very good.

In fact, the three thousand taels of silver in the county government's account are not enough to last for long.

"Post it once you've written it. We'll start working when we've recruited enough people."

After Shen Zheng finished speaking, she returned to her room.

She took out the map rewarded by the system. In addition to the town where the county government was located, there were six villages within the jurisdiction of Tongan County that also needed to be planned.

In fact, compared with other counties, her Tongan County is extremely small. Some large counties have dozens of villages within their jurisdiction.

The starting point of the ditch was set at Xiahe Village, the northernmost part of Tongan County.

To the north of Shanghe Village there is a wide river running from west to east.

Shen Zheng copied the map onto cloth, carefully depicting the farmland area in Tongan County.

She then drew the general direction of the ditch based on the terrain, which basically covered the entire farmland area of ​​Tongan County.

At this time, Xu Zhubu outside had also written the recruitment documents and posted the case notice in the notice area.

People nearby gathered around.

"What is written here? Can anyone who can read read it?"

"It should be the Wang family case notice, why are there two of them?"

"Make way! Here comes someone who can read!"

Outside the crowd, a middle-aged man came over, pulling a young man who looked like a scholar.

The crowd quickly made way for them.

"Read it quickly! What does it say? Is the young master of the Wang family going to be beheaded?"

The scholar quickly glanced at the two notices and shook his head.

"The notice said that Landlord Wang beat Miss Wang. When Young Master Wang stepped forward to protect Miss Wang, Landlord Wang took out a pair of scissors and tried to kill Young Master Wang. During the struggle between the two, Landlord Wang stabbed himself to death!"

"Stab yourself to death? How is that possible? Doesn't that mean the prince won't have to be beheaded?"

The people standing by did not quite believe the bizarre fact that Landlord Wang stabbed himself to death. They were more curious about whether Wang Guangjin would be beheaded.

The scholar nodded: "Mrs. Wang paid a thousand taels of silver for the ransom, so Young Master Wang should have returned home."

"A thousand taels!"

There were cries of surprise from the crowd. Most of them had never even seen a hundred taels of silver, let alone a thousand taels!

"Damn, this damn landlord is really rich!"

"Isn't this just buying a life with silver? Killing someone and paying the silver is fine, but is there still any law? I think all the officials sitting in the county government are corrupt!"

The person next to him pushed the man who was cursing.

"Keep your voice down, we are still at the gate of the county government office."

"What am I afraid of? I'll just curse at the corrupt officials!"

The two constables at the gate of the county government were the same two who were in the court yesterday.

How could they bear to hear their master being slandered? They held the iron bars at their waists and walked towards the crowd.