Spring comes to the desperate place

Of course, it was impossible for Aunt Song to only pack pork floss and dumplings, so he took out the silver ingots from his home and placed them at the bottom of the food box. After the eunuch returned to the palace, he opened the food box and saw the silver at the bottom, a full thirty taels. He thought that although the Song family came from humble origins, they were quite generous. Afterwards, he spoke well of the Song family in front of the emperor and the empress dowager many times, but that is another story.

The Song family had such a big happy event that naturally everyone in the village envied them. The head of the neighborhood and the village chief also benefited from it this time. After the eunuch who announced the edict left, everyone was curious and wanted to see what the imperial edict looked like. Grandpa Song naturally refused. He put the imperial edict carefully into a box, intending to keep it for his descendants to admire.

Although the imperial edict could not be seen, the Song family still had a lot of gold, silver and jewelry, all of which were placed in front of the hall. Ten large boxes were filled with precious corals, pearls, and jade ornaments. The exquisiteness and complexity of the jewelry made everyone amazed.

"Oh my goodness, this must be worth a lot of money, right?"

The woman next to him spat, "You are really obsessed with money. These are all treasures given by the palace. You can't buy them even if you have money."

The people around him also echoed it. The man who had just spoken withdrew his hand that wanted to touch it. This thing was very precious to him, so he decided not to touch it, for fear that he would have no money to pay for it if he broke it.

There was a happy event in the family, and Mr. Song was very happy. Before everyone left, he announced that he would treat everyone to a drink tonight to celebrate this year's harvest.

When everyone heard that there was a banquet, they cheered and some of those who were quick on their feet rushed home to move tables and chairs.

Because the decision was made suddenly, Song Dazhuang had no time to buy any vegetables. He drove with Song Chunlin to the town. The two of them brought back half a pig, more than twenty slaughtered chickens and ducks, and a large bucket of live fish.

Every household in the village has green vegetables. Knowing that the Song family didn't prepare any, almost everyone who came to the dinner brought some vegetables. Most of them were freshly picked from the fields, which were fresh and delicious.

As soon as the women arrived, they started to wash and pick vegetables. When Song Dazhuang's carriage came back, everyone was stunned by the amount of meat. It was only after Song Dazhuang reminded them that they came to their senses and unloaded the half pork, as well as the twenty or so chickens and ducks. No one was picky about the dishes and cooked whatever was available. The chefs were Song A'mo and Song Qinshi. Their current cooking method was taught by Song Chunlin. The seasonings on the stove were all modern seasonings, with oyster sauce, soy sauce and bean paste, and they could easily stir-fry a home-cooked dish.

The men killed and chopped the live fish and made sauerkraut fish with the Song family's pickled cabbage. The pork was deboned and made into two large pots of braised pork with potatoes. The bones were used with radishes to make soup. The chicken and duck were chopped into small pieces, one was made into three-cup chicken and the other into beer duck. Of course there was no beer, but Song Dazhuang bought rice wine, which was also very fragrant.

The winemaking technology of this era was still at the stage of the simplest rice wine. The alcohol content was not very high and the wine was relatively thick. Song Chunlin tasted it out of curiosity and felt that it was just rice wine without added sugar.

But everyone liked it very much. Song Dazhuang bought three jars, weighing a total of 60 kilograms, and set up more than ten tables for the feast. Everyone enjoyed the meal until the evening.

After three rounds of drinking, even Grandpa Song was a little drunk. He sat at the same table with old guys like the head of the neighborhood and the village chief. The table was full of compliments from everyone. Grandpa Song's face was beaming. He never thought that when he was old, he could still show off through his grandson.

The head of the village looked at him enviously, then looked at his son who only knew how to eat meat. Comparing oneself with others will only make one angry.

"Xiao Song is lucky. My husband is just a debt collector. He is a grandfather, but sometimes he still doesn't do things in a proper way."

"I think he's doing well. Didn't you just get a great-grandson?" the village chief reminded him.

Speaking of his precious great-grandson, the village head narrowed his eyes and smiled: "This is not his ability, but the ability of my good grandson. He has two children in three years. Hehe, if he has another little girl next year, then we will have both a son and a daughter."

Everyone said that the village head was lucky. He was in good health at such an old age and had many children and grandchildren. Isn't that a good life?

The banquet lasted until the moon was above the treetops. Everyone left with great satisfaction. After seeing off the last guest, Song Dazhuang collapsed in his chair due to exhaustion and could not get up.

Song Qin put the dirty dishes together, planning to wash them and send them back tomorrow morning. As for the tables, chairs and benches, Song Dazhuang would have to deliver them himself.

Seeing his wife still busying around, Song Dazhuang didn't sit down. He walked over and took over the work from Song Qinshi's hands.

"Just sit there for now and do your work tomorrow morning. It won't go bad if you leave it overnight."

Song Qin thought about it and decided to just leave it alone. Song Chunsheng happened to heat up the water, so the family simply washed up and went to bed. After a busy day, everyone fell asleep as soon as they touched the pillow.

Except for Song Chunlin, he only had time to study the imperial edict after the guests left. He didn't understand much of what the eunuch read during the day. Now when he spread it out and took a look, there were only the key words in the first few sentences, and a long list of names of treasures to be rewarded at the end. Song Chunlin skipped the names and only focused on the first few sentences to study.

The imperial edict was written in classical Chinese. Fortunately, Song Chunlin had received nine years of compulsory education and could barely understand the meaning of the previous and next sentences.

"All the potatoes and sweet potatoes produced by the Song family in the past three years will be confiscated by the national treasury and distributed to various counties...hiss~" Song Chunlin realized belatedly that the emperor was planning to play something big. He was wondering why he had to beat drums and gongs this time so that everyone in the capital would come to his house to watch the fun. It turned out that he wanted to snatch all the grain first.

Thinking of the previous emperors' policies of buying land and settling down, Song Chunlin vaguely sensed a conspiracy here.

As for several aristocratic families in the capital, someone is destined to have sleepless night.

As expected, someone from the Song family came to the door the next day and asked Song Dazhuang to sell potato and sweet potato seedlings. However, Song Dazhuang's potatoes and sweet potatoes had long been taken to the capital by Gu Fengyun. At this moment, the Song family only had a small portion of potatoes and sweet potatoes left for their own planting, and there were no more left.

"Yesterday's imperial edict clearly stated that all our family's output will be handed over to the national treasury. If I gave you these seeds privately, it would be deceiving the emperor and I would be beheaded. I won't do it. You guys leave now or I'll kick you out!"

The visitor begged earnestly, saying that just a little would be enough, but Song Dazhuang still refused to give in.

"Master Song, my master sincerely wants this. You just need to let a little slip through your fingers. My master promises not to tell anyone. When the time comes, you can just say that it was sold to my master before. This will be good for both of us."

"No, you can't do that." Song Dazhuang still refused.

Seeing this, the visitor gritted his teeth and gestured with his hands, "Well, Master Song, our master is willing to pay this amount, fifty taels per catty, you just need to split it into one hundred catties, that's it! You know, the best green glutinous rice is only one tael of silver per catty, this amount is not low!"

When Song Dazhuang heard the price of fifty taels per catty, he was shamefully shaken, but soon he began to shake his head frantically.

"No, if this is discovered, I will be beheaded, and my whole family might even be implicated. I have elderly parents and young children to take care of, and I can't drag my family down with me. You'd better leave. No matter how much money you offer, I won't sell it to you!"

Seeing that Song Dazhuang was unmoved and looked like he was going to fight to the death, those people were too lazy to argue with him. They thought that there were some people in the village who also grew potatoes and sweet potatoes, so they went to buy from them.

However, to their surprise, none of these families were willing to sell.

"The court asked us to grow these things, why should we sell them to you?"

"That's right. We all heard it clearly yesterday. The Song family's three-year output must be turned over to the national treasury. They have already handed it over, so they will definitely not give us any more. We only have this little left. It's not enough for us to grow ourselves, so how can we have any extra to give you?"

"Go away, go away, don't block us from working."

Those people were turned down, but were unwilling to go back. They walked around the village for a few times, but when they saw that no one was willing to sell, they went back in shame.

When the masters saw them coming back empty-handed, they all wanted to chop them into pieces.

"What's the point of raising you? You didn't tell us about such a good thing earlier, but let that emperor's son snatch it first. It's really unlucky!"

The servant dared to be angry but not to say anything, thinking that he had reported the sweet potato matter to you a long time ago, but you thought that the thing was not presentable, so you didn't do anything. Now even the emperor has discovered the benefits of this thing, and you still want to get a piece of it. It's good enough if others can let you smell it.

Of course, he only dared to say these words in his heart and did not dare to really contradict his master.

The man vented his anger, but still felt unhappy, so he went out cursing and headed straight for the largest paradise in the capital to have fun.

Grandpa Song watched Song Dazhuang send away group of people, and finally he just sat at the door with a stick in his hand, and beat away anyone who came to buy seeds. Seeing that Song Dazhuang was so tough and unreasonable, those people also retreated. After several times, everyone realized that the Song family was a tough nut to crack, and finally stopped coming here to test them.

Song Dazhuang was finally quiet now. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, put away the stool and closed the door. He planned not to go out for a few days. As for the potatoes in the field, he would wait until they were ripe.

When Grandpa Song saw him coming back, he also asked, "Are you all gone?"

Song Dazhuang replied: "They all left. I saw a few of them go to the village."

Grandpa Song didn't take it to heart: "Those people in the village are all savvy, they won't sell it. This thing is wanted by the court, and anyone with a sharp mind won't sell it."

Sure enough, as Grandpa Song expected, those people all returned empty-handed. They originally thought that they could get a lot of sweet potatoes in return by paying a high price, but they didn't expect these people to be so stubborn. They offered sky-high prices, but those people still refused to give in. These family heads were so angry that they smashed things at home to vent their anger.

Gu Fengyun naturally knew what was happening here, so when the Song family's potatoes were ripe, the emperor directly sent a team of imperial guards over. The well-trained imperial guards quickly collected all the potatoes. Song Dazhuang had already written down the precautions for storing potatoes, as well as a guide to eating and the most important planting tips. A large part of this was added by Song Dazhuang himself later, which was more comprehensive than those in the Ministry of Agriculture.

The commander of the imperial guards who was accompanying him originally brought a legal advisor with him, intending to let Song Dazhuang dictate and then record it down. Unexpectedly, a farmer actually compiled all these things into a book.

The commander of the imperial guards flipped through it casually and found that although Song Dazhuang's handwriting was a bit ugly, it was surprisingly small. He didn't know what kind of pen and ink he used, but the handwriting was thin but the ink was not visible. The text was popular and concise. They could read it to the farmers word for word without worrying that they would not understand.

This thick booklet made the commander of the imperial guards think more highly of Song Dazhuang, and his tone became much more polite afterwards.

As usual, enough potatoes were left for the Song family to plant next year. Perhaps because of the booklet, the commander of the imperial guards also left two extra baskets, saying that they were for the Song family to eat.

Song Dazhuang had not expected this, because there was a pile of potatoes in Song Chunlin's space. If they wanted to eat them, they could just take them from Song Chunlin's space. However, this was someone else's kindness, and Song Dazhuang appreciated it.

The imperial court wanted to collect the Song family's potatoes, but of course it was not for free. After the commander of the imperial guards weighed the potatoes to be taken away, he purchased all of them at the price of one hundred coins per catty.

This price is nearly seven times higher than those the emperor had collected before. Song Dazhuang was shocked. It seems that what Song Chunlin said was right. The emperor really realized the preciousness of these things this time. Raising the price can be regarded as a disguised compensation to the Song family.

After sending the imperial guards away, Song Dazhuang immediately closed and locked the door. This time, he refused to open the door to that group of aristocratic people no matter what.

"Dad, come and eat."

"Oh, I'll come."

The dinner table in the evening consisted of vinegar-fried shredded potatoes, mashed potatoes, and Song Dazhuang's favorite braised pork with potatoes. The shredded potatoes were crispy, the mashed potatoes were soft, and the potatoes had absorbed the broth from the braised pork, and the taste was full of meat.

These potatoes were just harvested today. Grandpa Song said that they were grown by themselves, which means they are of great significance and they taste especially delicious.

"Grandpa, do you think they will come again?"

Grandpa Song was unsure: "I guess they won't be so blatant. The Imperial Guards' coming today is also a disguised warning to those people to stop targeting our family."

Song A-Mo was still a little worried: "It's not so easy for that kind of people to stop. How about this, Chunlin, before you go to bed at night, collect all the potatoes and sweet potatoes in the warehouse. We will ask your father to dig a cellar tomorrow morning. Isn't it said that cellars can be used to store vegetables? We will put everything in the cellar so that they can't find it. If others ask about it later, we will have a cover."

Everyone agreed with the idea proposed by Song Amo, so that night Song Chunlin collected all the potatoes and sweet potatoes in the warehouse. After the cellar at Song Dazhuang was dug, he moved those things into the cellar. Unexpectedly, this action really came in handy in the end.