The First National Preceptor of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 180

As he spoke, he pointed to Prime Minister Liu in front of him and said, "Prime Minister Liu, if you don't believe he can cultivate this batch of wheat with such a high yield, then I'll make a bet with you. How about it?"

"Bet?"

"I'll bet that he will cultivate a batch of wheat with extremely high yields. If he fails, I will give you a piece of jade."

"Your Majesty, how dare I gamble with you?" Prime Minister Liu said helplessly.

"What does it matter? If you lose, Minister Liu, then I will take a jade artifact from you." Li Er continued with a smile, "How about it, Prime Minister Liu, are you willing to bet with me?"

Prime Minister Liu smiled. Now that Li Er had asked him to make a bet, how could he possibly refuse?

"Seeing that His Majesty is in a good mood, I might as well make a bet with him."

“Alright, then it’s settled.” Li Er nodded and said.

Li Er especially trusted Xu Tian. He always felt that Xu Tian had a kind of magic that seemed to make him succeed in whatever he did.

Moreover, he was really looking forward to the surprise Xu Tian would bring him.

He chatted with Prime Minister Liu for a while longer. After Prime Minister Liu left, he said to the eunuch beside him, "Eunuch, since I have already made a bet with Minister Liu, I must do something to win, right? So please take my instructions and tell Grand Tutor Xu that he can do whatever he wants while cultivating that high-yield wheat."

The father-in-law smiled and replied, "Yes."

Just then, a military report came from the front lines. A man hurriedly entered the hall and said helplessly to Li Er, "Your Majesty, there is a shortage of food on the border. This has been mentioned several times. These past few days, their food supply has run into trouble again."

This man was none other than the Minister of War.

Li Er looked somewhat worried upon hearing the Minister of War's words.

The border region often suffers from food shortages because their food supplies consist of leftovers from the distribution of grain from major cities. Given the large population at the border, this remaining grain supply is naturally insufficient.

If food supplies are insufficient, and war breaks out on the border, the Tang Dynasty's borders will surely collapse quickly.

This really worried Li Er.

Li Er had no choice but to say, "Then let's send another batch of grain to deal with the emergency."

The Minister of War readily agreed, knowing that the border region was often short of food, and no matter how much more was sent, it would be difficult to make up for the huge gap in the lack of food reserves.

But nowadays, having food is already considered a good thing.

Meanwhile, Xu Tian received a message from the Western Regions in his courtyard.

Before he left, a batch of wheat seeds that he planted in the Western Regions have now sprouted, and the green sprouts are quite large, much larger than ordinary wheat sprouts.

Upon hearing this news, Xu Tian thought to himself: I was right after all, these mutated wheat seeds do indeed have a higher yield.

So he made his next decision: to mass-produce all this wheat, which would greatly solve the problem of food shortage.