It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

The changes in Dongshan Village are slow yet rapid. The elders are getting old and passing away one after another, while the innocent young children have grown up and are shouldering the burdens of life.

For the first time, Jiang Yan realized with such clarity and depth that she had very little time left to hesitate or wait.

After inspecting the farmland, Jiang Yan and a few others looked at the well-fed, fat pigs. Jiang Yan only stayed overnight in Dongshan Village before having to rush back to the county town the next morning.

Before leaving, Jiang Yan promised Jiang Li and the others, who were full of anticipation, that she would definitely bring Chunying and Tian Jiu with her when she returned to the village next time. There would be a share of the pig for them, and everyone would pick one to slaughter and have a pig-killing feast.

She then inquired whether anyone in Jiangwang Village was interested in raising pigs on a large scale. If so, she would discuss with the steward in charge of purchasing or the steward who regularly came to the mansion to report, in order to purchase pigs at the lowest possible price.

In addition, she took out several sheets of paper with drawings and annotations and handed them to Jiang Wang. These were materials she had found while browsing through books at the Grand Minister of Agriculture's office, which might be of further help in improving the village's farming tools and fattening.

Jiang Wang glanced through it briefly. Although he didn't absorb any of the content, his eyes were filled with joy, and he kept praising it.

He said to Jiang Yan, "During the holidays, several of the aunties came back to the village. They were so excited to learn that you had discovered warmer cotton. They all said they wanted to wait for the cotton seeds to be harvested and exchange them for planting at home. If this method of fattening can be improved, the whole surrounding area will definitely be thinking of you."

Jiang Yan's fertilizer, which she had developed a few years ago, was quite good. Unfortunately, she encountered a natural disaster, and then she was so frugal that there wasn't much left to compost, so even when she shared it, not many people tried it.

"Um... then we'll have to see if these things actually come in handy." Jiang Yan wasn't really sure; she had only remembered two feasible composting methods, but their effectiveness remained to be tested.

As for the new types of farm tools, she only thought they might be useful based on her imagination and limited experience. In particular, the book only recorded the appearance and simple internal structure descriptions, without detailed drawings, and she didn't know if the two old men, Jiang Shun and Jiang Qi, could figure them out.

Thinking of this, Jiang Yan quickly added, "If the two old men really manage to make those blueprints into actual objects that are useful, let's not spread the word to other villages yet. Let me find out the situation first."

Jiang Wang's voice softened upon hearing this, and he asked with some unease, "Did you secretly obtain these things? Won't someone come looking for trouble?"

"I learned the methods from other places by reading the documents from the imperial court and then memorizing them myself. I didn't see anyone paying attention to them before, but now that the Fu family is in charge, there shouldn't be any problems."

In an era where intellectual property protection is virtually nonexistent, Jiang Yan believes that as long as these things are not monopolized and privately hoarded by powerful families, no one will have the ability to travel across several prefectures to a small mountain village to hold them accountable.

However, to be on the safe side, she still thought it best to wait three to five months. According to the bits and pieces of information she had gathered, the Song and Xie families intended to form a temporary alliance to eliminate the strongholds or camps of powerful families entrenched outside their sphere of influence, and at the same time disband the private armies of the wealthy and powerful families within their jurisdiction.

Although Jiang Yan couldn't predict what the situation would be like on this land afterward—whether the two sides would maintain a delicate peace through a division between the north and south, or immediately turn against each other—she believed that at least for the next six months to one or two years, no one in Rongcheng County would dare to defy the trend and commit crimes.