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

Shen Zheng originally thought that Ji Benchang was coming for the "water diversion weir".

Who would have thought that after calculating all the costs, he would focus on "labor costs".

He said to Shen Zheng: "If we want to finish the construction before the flood season, we have to compress the construction period into one month, and the manpower required will be in the hundreds..."

Shen Zheng understood what he meant.

Materials are a mandatory investment for building the dam this time. Even if the Ministry of Revenue wants to save money, it can't do much, so it can only work on labor costs.

But it is the spring planting season now, and every household is busy. If the court forces the people to perform labor service to repair the river embankment, it will not only affect their livelihood, but will also cause their dissatisfaction.

"So I want to find a compromise." Ji Benchang said: "For the construction of the river dam this time, we can't let the people do corvée labor, we can only recruit workers. It takes time to announce the use of work instead of relief, and now it's too late. So I thought, let me ask you today, is there any way to make the people willing to work while saving money? If there is really no other way, we can only pay them wages..."

"This..." Shen Zheng looked thoughtful.

If we want people to work willingly, we can either give them money, food, cloth, or...

Grain seeds.

Thinking of grain seeds, an immature idea popped into Shen Zheng's mind.

Seeing her hesitation, Ji Benchang said, "Xiao Shen, just tell me what you think. If there is anything wrong, we can discuss it again."

Shen Zheng raised her eyes, thought for a moment, and then asked in a low voice: "Master Ji, after the high-yield rice harvest this year, what do you think of the grain seeds that were screened out? How does His Majesty want to distribute them?"

"Rice seeds?" Ji Benchang was slightly surprised. "You mean..."

This is too bold!

Shen Zheng nodded: "I think that we can recruit people from the capital or the suburbs to work on the river embankment and pay them with rice seeds. But this is just a preliminary idea. Whether it is feasible or not depends on your and His Majesty's opinions."

"This..." Ji Benchang lifted his chin and pressed his thumb on the side of his face, "Your Majesty mentioned a little about this year's rice seeds to me before."

He recalled and said, "Your Majesty said that Shangjing is the face of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Next year, a large amount of rice will be planted in the farmland outside the capital. While benefiting the people of Shangjing, it will also be convenient for the agricultural division of the Ministry of Revenue to record the growth of rice..."

As he was talking, his eyes lit up and he slammed the table and said, "This seems to be really feasible!"

The Ministry of Revenue was originally going to sell rice seeds to the people in the capital, and now it’s just changing the method. Why not?

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed to him, so he quickly took out a pen and paper to record it.

The tip of his pen slid across the paper, and he wrote down the work while saying, "This time, we will only recruit people who have land in the suburbs of Beijing."

Shen Zheng nodded and added: "After the common people sign up, they need to be examined in many aspects. First, their character, second, whether their fields are suitable for growing rice, and third... they need to sign a contract with the court."

"Deed?" Ji Benchang paused slightly.

Shen Zheng considered the situation among the people and nodded, saying, "Two points need to be emphasized in this contract. First, laborers cannot work for others in exchange for rice seeds. Second, the rice seeds obtained in exchange cannot be sold or given away, and must be kept for planting in the next year."

Ji Benchang took notes and nodded, "That makes sense. This way we can prevent most people who are interested."

Next, the two discussed a few details. After Ji Benchang wrote them down one by one, he talked about another matter.

"Two days ago, Lao Yue handed me the brochure of materials for the blast furnace." He clicked his tongue twice, "I asked Shen Xingjian to do the math, and it's really not cheap. Fortunately, we managed to coax the Xiongnu and the Arabs onto the ship that day..."

As soon as Shen Zheng heard Shen Xingjian's name, she remembered something.

The key thing is... Shen Xingjian only made promises but didn't fulfill them, which made Shen Zheng extremely disgusted with his character.

It’s a good dance.

It was agreed that the man would dance wildly.

The man who was supposed to be dressed coolly danced.

"......" She paused and asked Ji Benchang tentatively: "I wonder... when will Lord Shen finish his work?"

"Hmm?" Ji Benchang was stunned for a moment before he reacted. "Shen Xingjian. After he and the Ministry of Industry checked the materials for the blast furnace, he didn't have any important work to do. What? Do you want to see him for something?"

Shen Zheng chuckled, "It's just a small matter, but it's not that important."

It doesn’t matter if it’s just random dancing or something.

The main fear is that Shen Xingjian will develop bad habits and not keep his word.

Ji Benchang nodded, "Then I'll ask him to come find you after he's done with his work. By the way, after I figure out the cost of the blast furnace, I'm going to go fight the Hu people. The Arab envoy has repeatedly wanted to see you, do you want to go with him?"

The Arab envoy?

A figure appeared in Shen Zheng's mind. She hesitated for a moment and shook her head, "Forget it. I'm busy lately, so I won't..."

"Ji Benchang!"

Before he finished speaking, an angry roar came from outside the hall.

The two looked up and saw Yue Zhenchuan walking in front, furious, his official robe fluttering. Chen Shiing-Shen followed behind, wanting to stop him but not daring to.

"Ahem..." Ji Benchang stood up from the table and said to Shen Zheng, "Well, I have to go to the palace. Xiao Shen, you..."

"How shameless of you!" Yue Zhenchuan stepped into the main hall, pointed at him and shouted angrily: "It's fine if you come to the Ministry of Works to rob people, but you don't allow people from my Ministry of Works to come to the Ministry of Revenue? What? Is your Ministry of Revenue a den of robbers?"

"Look at you, we are all officials, what are you talking about, robber or not..." Ji Benchang said, then walked around him and ran out of the hall, "Old Yue, His Majesty has something to ask me, so I'm leaving first!"

......

After returning home, Shen Zheng received two invitations.

One was sent from the Yongning Earl's Mansion, and the other...

"The fifth one?"

After seeing the signature on the visiting card, she was slightly stunned.

Before, she was thinking about taking time to visit the fifth old man, but she didn't expect that he sent her an invitation first.

Although she is an official and the Fifth Old Man is just a commoner, the old man is quite old and the Fifth Family has done a lot of work for Tongan County. Regardless of their social status, she should pay him a visit.

She looked at the fifth post first.

The post must have been written by the fifth old man himself. The cursive script was extremely elegant and quite free and easy.

The content of the post was very simple - the old man wanted to visit her and asked her to set a time.

After reading it, Shen Zheng opened the post from the Yongning Earl's Mansion again.

Yu Shizhang said two things in the post.

One is that he will come with the Fifth Old Man, and the other is...

Shen Zheng's eyes lit up when she saw it clearly.

The results of the provincial examination are out!

Yu Shizhang did not write the result on the post, but attached the letter sent by Yu Zhengqing to the post.

Looking at the folded letter paper, she suddenly felt a little nervous. After taking two deep breaths, she took the letter paper to Zhenliuyuan.