Traveling through time as a peasant girl to turn things around

Li Dong made a spinning machine and a loom. Guoguo experimented with them herself. Old Lady Li also learned to spin and weave. Little Milk Bag's space had flowers. Soon, Old Lady Li mastered the art of spinning, becoming increasingly skilled with practice and soon able to produce fine thread. She discovered that good patterns produced finer and stronger threads, resulting in thin, delicate fabrics. Poor patterns resulted in rougher, thicker fabrics, which provided warmth in winter. When the first piece of cloth was ready, Guoguo personally presented it to the Emperor. Chai Zhen followed her, and when both arrived at the Emperor's table, the Emperor stroked it with his hand and uttered a single word: "Good." He immediately rewarded Little Dumpling with fine silks and satins. The emperor said: "Guoguo, can it be dyed? White clothes don't look good." Little Dumpling said softly, "Sure, let the emperor take a look at the cotton cloth first, and then do the work." The emperor said: "Okay, Guoguo has a plan." Little Dumpling continued, "Fine cotton cloth can be dyed to make clothes. If it is not dyed, it can be used to make quilts. Quilts need two kinds of fabrics, the lining and the cover. The outside can be dyed, and the inside must be white. It can also be used to make clothes. It has many uses, including military uniforms. We need to wear cotton clothes in winter. Now that we have flowers, we can put cotton inside to prevent cold in winter. Thick cotton cloth is most suitable for winter clothes.

The emperor shouted, "Okay." "I'm issuing an edict, calling on the whole country to plant flowers. Wear thick cotton clothes in winter." Seeing that he had said enough, Chai Zhen said goodbye and left the palace.

A large group of people followed behind him, carrying him, and he walked out in a grand manner behind Chai Zhen.

"Where are you going?" a minister asked. Chief Steward Ma: The emperor has obtained a treasure, and this is a reward.

The minister wondered what a treasure this was, to deserve such a large reward. Little Baby walked forward, his head held high and his chest puffed out, heading out of the palace with a gait that disregarded all relatives. Chai Zhen watched and followed behind, smiling.

As soon as they left the palace, the little girl turned around and stretched out her hand, "Hold me." Chai Zhen laughed out loud, "Why don't you leave?" The little girl said, "Guoguo is tired." When the child said this, Chai Zhen quickly bent down and picked up Guoguo. The child was still young, so he just held her.

……

Back home, Little Milk Bag went to the fields. Rewards trickled in and were placed on the ground. Little Tuanzi picked up a silver ingot and gave it to Steward Ma, saying, "Thank you, Grandpa. Don't think it's too little." Steward Ma: "Of course it's not too little. Thank you, Princess, for the reward." Little Tuanzi: "Well, don't think Guoguo has received so many rewards. I'll spend them all over time." He whispered to Steward Ma, "Guoguo is building a large academy for the Emperor. It's a massive project and requires a lot of money. We need to find a way to collect the money." Steward Ma was startled. What kind of talk? Frightened, afraid it was a secret, he said, "This old servant knows how to keep it secret." Little Tuanzi: "Okay, thank you, Grandpa." Steward Ma said goodbye, returned, and quietly told the Emperor what Guoguo had said. The Emperor didn't know either, thinking he'd ask Ye Heng first. But the rewards were substantial, with tens of thousands of taels of gold alone.

At this time, little Tuanzi was checking the rewards with a smile. The boxes of gold blinded Guoguo's eyes. Otherwise, why would little Tuanzi squint? Guoguo took away all the rest except the cloth. Guoguo didn't want to let anyone else have too much of the pearls and treasures, so she kept them. She only took away the cloth that was suitable for Xiaodong and Yeheng. The rest were left in the yard. "Grandma, grandma put away the silks and satins, they are all good things." Old Lady Li came out and said after seeing so many, "Let everyone come. See who wants to make some clothes and choose the cloth themselves." Chai Zhen asked someone to move them to the house. When everyone came back in the evening, they would divide them. Chai Zhen picked out three pieces of cloth for Xia Hua and his child and took them away. Guoguo looked at Old Lady Li and said, "Grandpa always put Guoguo first in the past, but now he almost forgets Guoguo." Old Lady Li hugged Guoguo and said, "Your great-grandfather has you in his heart, and you still have grandma. For the whole family, you are the first. "Little Dumpling smiled. "Guoguo was just saying that on purpose. He didn't know to pick the first piece for Guoguo." Old Lady Li poked Guoguo on the head. "Come, let Grandma choose some cloth for Guoguo and make new clothes for me." Little Dumpling said, "Well, Grandma is still the best." She started singing, "Grandma is the best in the world. Children with grandma are like treasures." Old Lady Li laughed and said, "Wherever Guoguo is, there is laughter."

Old Lady Li found a piece of satin that looked suitable for summer clothes and took it into her room. Then she came out and searched and picked and chose until she found a few pieces of good material for Guoguo's winter clothes. There were apricot colors, smoky colors, purple, and light green. Guoguo took them all and put them in her room.

That evening, after Zhang Baohua returned from dinner, Old Lady Li asked her to go pick out some fabric, saying, "Pick out two more bolts." She also sent word for Li Dong's wife to come pick out some cloth. The two of them picked three bolts of cloth. Li Dong said, "My wife has one." "Let's get one for the child." Guoguo, hearing this, also went to look for some fabric, thinking of making clothes for her younger brother. Guoguo chose beige satin and a bolt of navy blue satin. She carried the cloth into her room and put it in a box.

Old Lady Li asked how many months it had been. Zuo Xiaoqian replied, "Second Auntie, more than three months." Old Lady Li replied, "You're almost showing. Make her something loose-fitting." Old Lady Li helped select a few bolts of fabric for Li Dong to take, and sent them off. She was thinking about making clothes for Ma Xiaohong and the others. They needed nice clothes in the capital, unlike back home where they could just get by with anything. So, Old Lady Li picked out a few more bolts of fabric. She had Guoguo store the rest in her space. Some was sent to the women's workshop warehouse to be made into clothes for sale. Little Milk Bag thought it would be better to keep them and make them into clothes to sell. She went back to her space and bought a large batch of fabric, all pure cotton. Mostly black, khaki, army green, dark blue, and creamy white.

Old Mrs. Li weaves and spins at home.

Guoguo and Chai Zhen went to Xiaowangzhuang to check on the harvest. Three hundred acres of cotton had been planted here this spring, and the cotton had piled up like a mountain inside the house. Seeing Guoguo, Wang Youzhi said, "Master, you're finally here! There's no place to store the grain, and the new houses are overflowing with it." Chai Zhen said, "Great! A bumper harvest!" "Yes, master. Each acre yields 1,500 kilograms of grain, a very high yield. The grain has been dried and can be stored. This year, I'll have each family keep 30% of the grain and 70% for the master. Half the seeds were left before the New Year, enough for planting this year." Little Tuanzi said, "Okay, find someone to harness the grain into a wagon and bring it to my house." Wang Youzhi said, "Master, you only have one wagon, but you have many ox carts." "Then use the ox carts," Little Tuanzi said decisively. "Let's go to the fields and see how the cotton is doing." All the cotton balls in the master's yard had been collected and stored in the space. The men in black were collecting the cotton seeds. "We've already received 500,000 jin of cotton," Xiao Shunzi told Guoguo. Arriving at the cotton fields, they saw many unopened cotton flowers. Little Milkbag told Wang Youzhi that it was snowing, so they should pull the cotton bolls and their trees home to harvest the blossoms. Wang Youzhi took note. Little Tuanzi asked each household how much grain they had and how many jin of grain each person received. It came to between 400 and 500 jin per person. Little Milkbag, figuring it wasn't enough, asked, "Is that enough for a year?" Wang Youzhi replied, "Two harvests a year, and then there's enough corn and millet for the last six months. And if we add up the vegetables, there's still some left." "Okay. Just one harvest this year, and next year should be enough." Little Tuanzi asked his great-grandfather to dig out a sweet potato. "Hey, big sweet potatoes, this is enough to eat. We'll give everyone some rice later." Little Tuanzi offered to share rice with everyone. Wang Youzhi was moved to tears. He had lived to such an old age, and no one had ever cared if they had enough to eat.

"Remember to turn over the rice seedlings," said the little dumpling as he turned them over. He rolled the rice seedlings into a roll, "Don't let the rice seedlings grab the ground." The little dumpling said: "You can keep the sorghum and soybeans for yourselves. The cows will also eat them, so I won't collect them. You can keep half of the peanuts and I'll collect the other half." Wang Youzhi said: "Okay, I'll listen to you, Master." After turning around for a while, the little milk bag went home with Chai Zhen. The ox cart was still swaying on the road. After Chai Zhen got home, he found twenty horse carriages, went to the warehouse to load five hundred bags of rice, and took them to Xiaowangzhuang. On the way back, he took the wheat. "Ask Wang Youzhi to give each person a bag of rice."

The carriages took three days to haul all the grain. Seeing this, Ye Heng said, "Guoguo, sell the grain to the Ministry of Revenue." Little Tuanzi agreed and sold it to the Ministry for eight cents. Little Tuanzi made a lot of money. Over thirty thousand taels of silver, and that was a low price. Even though Little Tuanzi gave away five hundred bags of rice for nothing, he still made a profit.

Xiaowangzhuang now had a wide variety of food, including white and yellow flour, rice, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peanuts, millet, and rice, along with a variety of vegetables, meat, and eggs. Life had improved. Chen Jun treated the people and they all had good health. All children under fifteen were enrolled in school, and all boys and girls aged five and over went to school.

In winter, Xiaotuanzi went to Xiaowangzhuang to water the wheat with the spiritual spring water. He also instructed every household to dig a cellar to store potatoes and sweet potatoes. He specifically instructed that potatoes with tusks should not be eaten, but saved for planting in the spring or fall.