A husband found in the village? I bought a regent for a penny!

Gu Xixi walked unsteadily, which made people tremble with fear. They repeatedly reached out to help her, afraid that she would fall.

Gu Xixi forcefully shook her arm and said, "I'm not drunk. How could I do anything if I were drunk? I would have gone home to sleep just now."

The military dependents didn't know Gu Xixi that well, so they could only look at He Jinglan with questions.

He Jinglan shook her head in confusion, then pointed to Gu Xixi, indicating that she would follow along and see how things went.

The land originally allocated to the dependents' village was all located near the village.

Just turn a corner at the village entrance and you'll soon see fields of oats stretching out before you know it.

At this moment, Gu Xixi suddenly sped up and started running.

He Jinglan was startled, thinking that she was having another drunken tantrum and had come up with some new trick, so she quickly took off after her.

"Gu Xixi! Gu Xixi!! Where are you going? Stop right there!!"

The villagers, unaware of what had happened, were shocked and had no choice but to run and follow closely behind.

Unexpectedly, Gu Xixi slowed down after running a short distance and turned into the oat field.

When the others followed to take a look, they saw Gu Xixi squatting on the ground, sometimes looking left and right at the roots of an oat plant, sometimes digging at the soil and picking at it with her fingers.

I don’t understand, I really don’t understand.

Aunt Lin said with difficulty to He Jinglan, "Otherwise, we should persuade Boss Gu to go back..."

He Jinglan put her index finger to her lips, making a shushing gesture, "Shh..."

"Judging from her appearance, she is indeed working, not acting out due to drunkenness."

The military dependents nodded with awkward smiles.

"It's good that Boss Gu isn't drunk."

Watching Gu Xixi busy herself, He Jinglan thought to herself, "She's really working, and she's probably really drunk too."

After a while, Gu Xixi spoke up, "The soil activation is still not enough."

"However, the method of applying fertilizer in small amounts and frequently was quite effective, and with sufficient rainfall during the grain-filling period, the oat growth this season has basically met the standards."

"After the harvest is complete, we will take significant steps to further improve the soil."

"It's too late to plant millet a month later, but we can plant sweet potatoes and pumpkins. These things are easy to store and can also be used as a supplement to our food supply."

Aunt Lin listened attentively, tried her best to sort things out, and extracted the key questions:

When can we start harvesting?

Gu Xixi turned her head, "Now, anytime, the timing is perfect!"

Aunt Lin then asked, "So what are you talking about in terms of major actions? What do we need to do to improve the soil?"

"No rush." ​​Gu Xixi waved her hand. "Let's harvest first, and I'll think about the rest later."

Then Gu Xixi insisted on walking through every single field in the village.

The conclusions reached were largely consistent.

The oats are ripe and ready for harvest, a truly bountiful crop.

When they returned, Aunt Lin and the others were very happy and discussed the harvest arrangements in a lively atmosphere.

"I need to sharpen my sickle right away!"

“I used to be an expert at harvesting rice back in my hometown. If any of you can’t do it, I’ll teach you.”

"Hey, have you ever eaten oats? I heard that the Hu people feed oats to their horses. Isn't it too coarse and hard to swallow?"

"If horses can eat it, then people can eat it too. Even the coarsest oats are still wheat. Once ground into flour, they'll taste better than sorghum flour, right?"

……

Gu Xixi chuckled a few times and said, "You can rest assured about that."

"After the wheat is harvested, I will tell everyone how to handle it."

"If oat flour is made well, it can be just as good as wheat flour noodles, it just takes more effort."

The women were overjoyed to hear this.

"Besides teaching us how to grow oats, Boss Gu is also going to teach us how to cook dishes we've never eaten before?"

Gu Xixi shook her head vigorously, "No, I can't cook, I only know how to eat it."

The women looked at each other, wondering what the difference was between the two.

Just as they were about to ask more questions, they saw Gu Xixi, like a puppet with its strings undone, suddenly collapse and fall to the ground.

Thanks to He Jinglan and a few others who were closest to her, they reacted quickly and caught her at the same time.

He Jinglan wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, thinking, "Nothing really was delayed."

Gu Xixi did indeed carefully examine every single plot of land.

After completing the pre-harvest assessment,

From the source of the oats in the field to its end, everything that needed to be said had been said, and only now did it collapse.

That means nothing gets delayed.

Half asleep and half dreaming, Gu Xixi heard He Jinglan's voice.

"You've already done your best, go to sleep peacefully."

The next morning, soldiers from the cookhouse came to the courtyard to deliver supplies.

Besides a bunch of common green vegetables, there was also a basket of wild leeks and a piece of fresh, rosy venison.

The cook said apologetically, "The sun has been too strong lately, we're short of fresh vegetables, and it's inconvenient to go far away to buy them."

"We could only find some wild chives to fill the gaps."

"But this venison was hunted last night, it's very fresh."

Gu Xixi said, "It's just the two of us eating, and having meat and vegetables is good enough."

He Jinglan took the shopping basket, her eyes flashing, and said with a smile:

“I see you’ve been busy enough these past two days, and you still have time to dig for wild vegetables. Why don’t you just give me the space and we can dig them ourselves?”

She paused, then said with a worried expression, "The general has already started the war, and we really can't cause any more trouble for the army."

He Jinglan's politeness left the cook at a loss for words.

"No, no, I was going out to dig for wild vegetables anyway, it was just something I did on the side."

"You two young ladies have come to help our Northwest Army reclaim wasteland and store grain. You are both honored guests, so please don't stand on ceremony!"

Gu Xixi and He Jinglan exchanged a glance without leaving a trace.

There was no denial, so it seems that war has indeed broken out.

Although the situation in the Northwest is temporarily stable, the situation could change at any time once Huo Jiang officially breaks with the imperial court.

Gu Xixi immediately made two decisions.

First, reduce the time spent at the border to three days, complete the tasks as soon as possible, and return to Huachidu Village.

Secondly, the portion of the newly harvested wheat that was originally intended for sale should be sold off as soon as possible and converted into easily portable banknotes.

If things get chaotic and the roads become impassable, making it impossible to get home and sell the grain, that would be terrible.

If the war really spreads to the Northwest, having stored grain at home to survive and silver notes on one's person means that even if one is unfortunately forced to leave home to escape famine, one will still have some confidence and support.

Gu Xixi said seriously to the cook, "I need to go to the fields now. I wonder which general is in charge of this area. Could you please show me the way?"

The cook seemed relieved and said happily, "Boss Gu, please come with me. In fact, General Liu has been waiting for you two distinguished guests over there since early this morning."

The three of them went out the door, and He Jinglan asked with a smile, "You said that General Liu was already waiting, so why didn't you mention it at all just now, but waited until Boss Gu said he wanted to go before you said this."

The cook scratched his head. "Because General Liu only sent me to take a look, and told me not to rush him. Everything is up to our distinguished guest."

He Jinglan smiled and said, "This General Liu is really interesting. Even if he's not afraid of delaying his own business, we're worried that if we stay too long, we won't be able to go home."

The cook forced a dry, forced smile.

He Jinglan suddenly asked, "With war about to break out, has any major news come from the General's side? For example, is someone who was thought to have been dead for a long time actually still alive?"