Traveling through time and space and becoming a deposed prince, he just wants to survive!

The sugar beet that Zhao Sheng needed was the sugar beet in later generations. Its rhizome should be as thick as a radish. Such rhizome is the best raw material for making sugar. The leaves on it not only have a slightly fishy smell, but also taste bitter when grown in saline-alkali land.

Because the seeds delivered looked very much like spinach roots and radish seedlings, Zhao Sheng was not sure whether they would be useful after growing them.

So when the village chief of Zhaojiazhuang arrived, he informed these people of the risks. Anyway, there would be benefits when the time came, so just make sure no one else took advantage of them.

After beets were introduced, they were mostly cultivated, and no one knew how to collect the seeds. This gave Zhao Sheng a headache, so he had to find someone to complete this glorious task.

After Zhao Youfu became the village chief, and now almost all the crops grown in Shigang Village are soybeans, all of which are cultivated for Zhao Sheng.

The task of growing sugar beets naturally fell to him. Zhaojiazhuang was given a truckload of sugar beet seedlings, with a requirement that at least half survive. But who could guarantee they would survive these past few seasons?

This is the drawback of this era. The beet they grow is not the beet in the south. Although the names are similar, the beet in the north likes warmth but prefers to grow in the cold season.

This was the case with the beets purchased by Mr. Zhao this time. Ten days later, according to Mr. Zhao's method, they were covered with straw at night to keep warm and dried in the sun during the day.

After ten days of such careful care, the survival rate of the beets in Shigang Village reached more than 80%, while the survival rate in Zhaojia Village was only 40%.

When Zhao Changsheng learned of this, he severely scolded the villagers. Worse still, three months later, the sugar beets in Shigang Village were growing differently than those in Zhaojiazhuang. After all, Shigang Village had used compound fertilizer, while Zhaojiazhuang had not.

After the third prince Zhao Hui went to Beijing to report the changes in Zhao County to the old emperor Zhao Hengzhen, he also sent people from the Secret Service to conduct a secret investigation, and the conclusion was almost the same as Zhao Hui's.

The Zhao family of Zhao County and the Zhao family of Imperial City were of the same lineage, but the Imperial City Zhao family's uprising was linked to Yuzhou, so they chose Yuzhou as their birthplace. Therefore, even if there were positive signs in Zhao County, it would only affect people's livelihoods. This was indeed a good thing for the reigning emperor.

"Your Majesty, Zhao Guangyi, the magistrate of Zhao County, is a member of the Yuzhou clan. Should he be promoted for such great achievements?"

The speaker was the Third Prince, Zhao Hui. Zhao Wei felt there was something else going on, so he stood up and objected, "Father, Zhao Guangyi has been the county magistrate for so many years, and his governance of Zhao County has been only average. If it weren't for the efforts of the Zhao family in Zhao County, I'm afraid..."

Zhao Wei's words were self-evident. He didn't want anyone else to win over any court official because he wanted to keep these people under his control.

"Then what should the prince do?" Zhao Hengzhen obviously felt that the second son was a bit too much, but it could not be said that he was completely unreasonable.

"On the other hand, the Zhaoxian branch of the Handan clan has made contributions to the locust plague and other disasters. I think granting them a plaque is a good demonstration of the emperor's kindness to the people. Why should a mediocre official be promoted to the position?"

At this time, the Left Prime Minister Wei Rong said, "Your Majesty, the treasury is currently empty and the official posts are fully filled. I believe it is unnecessary to promote a county magistrate who has done little."

After saying this, he glanced up at the emperor, and seeing no change in his expression, he continued, "Zhao County belongs to a branch of the Handan clan, and shares a common kinship with Yuzhou. Your Highness's suggestion is a very good one, and I, this old minister, believe it is."

Seeing his uncle's support, Zhao Wei gave him a look of approval. His followers also came forward to echo him, saying, "Your humble servant agrees with Prime Minister Wei's suggestion!" "Your humble servant agrees with Prime Minister Wei." "Your humble servant believes that Prime Minister Wei is absolutely right..."

Flattery filled the court like crazy, but it became increasingly irritating to Zhao Hengzhen. Ever since his eldest son was falsely accused, subtle changes had occurred in the court.

To put it simply, most factions are leaning towards the Second Prince, and fewer and fewer people are telling the truth.

But the old emperor now has no other choice. He cannot come up with a new idea of ​​appointing a crown prince, especially the eldest prince's rebellion, which itself is suspicious. They are all people in the East Palace, so how can there be talk of rebellion?

However, under the control of the power center headed by Prime Minister Wei, evidence of Crown Prince Zhao Kang's intention to rebel was soon piled up in the court.

The old emperor knew that there was something fishy going on, but he did not defend the prince at the time.

First, as the crown prince, Zhao Kang had assisted in the administration for many years but had achieved nothing.

Secondly, the people around him all seemed to be capable and ambitious, but they were all superficial and had no sense of responsibility. This was also the reason why the prince was framed, but no one dared to come forward to refute him.

Third, he had no patience towards his brothers. When Zhao Sheng was placed by his side, in the eyes of the old emperor, Zhao Sheng was the safest one and would certainly be loyal to the prince in the future. However, the prince ignored him.

So when Crown Prince Zhao Kang collapsed, the old emperor Zhao Hengzhen had no intention of saving him, but after seeing what the second prince Zhao Wei did, he felt even more disappointed.

In the current imperial palace, the crown prince has been deposed and imprisoned in the harem, the second prince has become the regent prince, the third prince has been enfeoffed in Yanjing, and the fourth prince Zhao Hong has been enfeoffed in Pengcheng County.

The fifth prince, Zhao Heng, has been weak and sickly since childhood. At the request of Concubine Wei, he has been kept in the palace. Now he is twenty-two years old and has been granted the title of King of Chu, but he has never been to his fiefdom.

Zhao Hengzhen was actually very optimistic about Zhao Hui. He had managed the northern barbarians in an orderly manner during his years in Yanjing, especially against the Huns' invasion from the south, and repelled them several times.

In the past five years, the military of Yanjing has expanded to 250,000 people, and these are only the personal soldiers of the Prince of Yan.

Li Xin, a king of a different surname who responded to him, had an army of only 200,000. Unlike the King of Yan, the Zhenbei Army was responsible for defending the border.

Zhao County is very close to Dingzhou County, only about a hundred miles away. The grain for this military reserve was produced in Luancheng, between Dingzhou County and Zhao County.

Because it was military grain reserves and the matter was handled by the princess, the Prince of Dingzhou granted Luancheng to Li Shuya as the princess's fiefdom.

Luancheng is actually not the name of a city, but the name of a small county town. Because it is too close to Zhengding County, everyone seems to have overlooked this place.

After being designated as the base for military reserves, Zhao Sheng's initial idea was to rebuild Luancheng. Since it was the princess's fiefdom, Li Shuya was the city lord.

Luancheng is also the hometown of the three Su brothers, specifically Nanzhao Village and Suqiu Village located northwest of Luancheng County.

Taking these two villages as his target, Zhao Sheng moved five miles to the east and built a military reserve production base covering an area of ​​1,000 acres. Moreover, this place was close to a river, and Zhao Sheng planned to build a water conservancy plant here.

Some people in this era also used water resources, but most of the time this was only possible when there was a large difference in water levels.

Since Zhao Sheng wants to use water power, he has not yet considered whether it is a water-powered stone mill or something else, but the task of transforming the river channel is necessary.

He was not stupid. He did not think that putting a few pieces of wood to make a windmill could drive a huge machine. The river channel must be transformed into a place where water flow can be formed, or a water level difference can be formed, before the next step of hydraulic issues can be considered.