In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

If one mu of land yields an extra 400 jin, ten mu of land yields an extra 4000 jin. How much more grain can be produced from ten thousand mu, one hundred thousand mu, or even the entire Liangzhou region?

Thinking of this, Yang Zheng immediately became agitated and asked, "Why can Chenjia Village achieve a yield of 400 jin per mu, while Yongliang County can only achieve 1800 jin per mu?"

"Because of the difference in fertilizers."

Having already learned about the situation, Tang Qing replied without hesitation: "Chenjia Village has a large population and little land, and it also raises a large number of livestock. Therefore, the fertilizer in Chenjia Village can be said to be inexhaustible. With no shortage of fertilizer, the crops planted in Chenjia Village can naturally grow better and produce higher yields."

In Kyushu, where chemical fertilizers are unavailable, human and animal excrement is the best fertilizer for crops, bar none.

Chenjia Village has only about a thousand acres of land, but tens of thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of livestock. The manure produced by these people and animals, after being composted, is more than enough to fertilize the thousand acres of land. Therefore, the crops grown in Chenjia Village often yield high yields.

In contrast, Yongliang County...

The population density is far lower than that of Chenjia Village, so fertilizer is naturally much scarcer, and the yield of Fugui wheat per mu is also far lower than that of Chenjia Village.

"I see."

Upon hearing Tang Qing's explanation, Yang Zheng suddenly understood. Having come from a background as a cowherd, he had naturally been involved in farming and knew the importance of fertilizer for crops. Therefore, he easily accepted the result that the yield per mu in Yongliang County was 400 jin lower than that in Chenjia Village.

but……

Thinking of the extra 400 jin per mu, Yang Zheng still asked with reluctance, "Mr. Tang, I wonder if the yield of this Fugui wheat can be increased a bit more? I don't expect it to catch up with Chenjia Village's 2200 jin, but 2000 jin would be good too!"

When Yang Zheng asked the question, he didn't expect Tang Qing to be able to answer it, but to his surprise, Tang Qing nodded and said, "Yes."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Zheng's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked, "What's the solution?"

"Buy fertilizer from Chenjia Village!"

Tang Qing replied, "Chenjia Village doesn't have much farmland, so the village has more fertilizer than it can use. Naturally, Chenjia Village can't waste this surplus fertilizer, so Mr. Chen gathered many of the village's old farmers together to find a way to turn this fertilizer into organic fertilizer."

When the words "organic fertilizer" were mentioned, Tang Qing's expression became somewhat strange, because the term was completely unfamiliar to him.

"This organic fertilizer is the name given to manure by Chenjia Village. Under the skillful hands of the old farmers and craftsmen of Chenjia Village, manure is no longer that smelly thing, but a granular organic fertilizer with little odor. And this organic fertilizer is sold to the outside world by Chenjia Village."

Tang Qing continued, "As far as I know, the government offices of various counties in Taicang Prefecture have purchased a lot of organic fertilizer from Chenjia Village. Therefore, the yield of Fugui wheat in various counties of Taicang Prefecture is not low, with an average yield of about 2000 catties per mu."

"2000 pounds!!!"

Upon hearing this number, Yang Zheng was immediately taken aback. Among all the places that grow the rich wheat, Liangzhou had the lowest number, which was truly hard for Yang Zheng to accept.

Why doesn't Yongliang County purchase organic fertilizer from Chenjia Village?

When Yang Zheng asked this question, he was somewhat annoyed. Since they knew that organic fertilizer could increase production, why didn't Tang Qing and the other officials in Yongliang County buy organic fertilizer from Chenjia Village? Were they just sitting idly by?

"Because Yongliang County is poor!"

Tang Qing complained, "Although the organic fertilizer from Chenjia Village is not expensive, how much farmland does Yongliang County have? If we want to use organic fertilizer on all the farmland in Yongliang County, even if we emptied Yongliang County, we still wouldn't be able to come up with that much money!"

"..."

Faced with Tang Qing's complaints, Yang Zheng opened his mouth, but was speechless.

He knew perfectly well how poor Yongliang County was. In fact, the entire Liangzhou was poor, and officials in various places were complaining about their poverty. Even when dealing with affairs in Mingzhou, many Liangzhou officials would send letters from afar to Mingzhou to complain to Yang Zheng and ask for money.

But Yang Zheng wasn't a god of wealth, so where would he get so much money to allocate to officials in various places? Thus, he could only ignore their complaints.

"King Liang".

After complaining for a while, Tang Qing looked at Yang Zheng expectantly and asked cautiously, "This organic fertilizer is the key to the high yield in Yongliang County. I wonder if the Prince of Liang could allocate some silver so that Yongliang County can grow more grain?"

Faced with the expectant gazes of all the officials in Yongliang County, including Tang Qing, Yang Zheng's lips twitched. These officials all had keen senses and knew that he had made a fortune in Youzhou. They were all eyeing the money and grain he had seized from the Lu family.

However, most of the seized money and grain had already been used to aid the people of Youzhou, so...

What they had their eyes on became the gold and silver treasures in Yang Zheng's hands.

Although gold and silver are not as useful as grain, they can be used to purchase many things from Chenjia Village, including high-yield grain seeds, organic fertilizer, livestock, and so on. These things can undoubtedly improve the living conditions of the people in the areas under the officials' jurisdiction.

"Your Majesty, Yongliang County is too poor! I hope Your Majesty will have pity on the people of Yongliang County and allocate some silver so that the people of Yongliang County can have a better life."

"Your Majesty, the organic fertilizer from Chenjia Village is key to increasing grain production. I implore Your Majesty to grant Yongliang County some silver to help it grow more grain."

"We hope that the King of Liang will have pity on the people and allocate some silver!"

"..."

The officials present pleaded with Yang Zheng one after another, and what they were implying was only one thing: they wanted Yang Zheng to allocate funds.

There's nothing they can do; the government has no money, so even if they're highly talented, they can't do anything about it!

Buying fertilizer requires money, repairing bridges and paving roads requires money, and helping the elderly and weak requires money. Money is needed everywhere. Whether it is for the better development of the people of Yongliang County or for their own benefit, they all need to ask Yang Zheng for funding.

"Alright, alright!"

Yang Zheng waved his hand, signaling everyone to stop talking, and then said, "Calculate how much silver is needed to buy organic fertilizer, then write it down and submit it to me. I will approve it at that time."

"Thank you, King Liang!"

Upon hearing this, the officials were overjoyed and knelt on the ground, shouting "Long live the King of Liang!"

"Be flat."

Yang Zheng calmly gestured for everyone to stand up, then asked Tang Qing, "Mr. Tang, when will the harvest of the Fugui wheat begin?"

"It'll be tomorrow."

"it is good!"

Yang Zheng nodded in satisfaction and said, "Let's go into the city first! Tomorrow, the King will personally participate in the autumn harvest."

"As ordered."

As Yang Zheng entered Yongliang County, he could feel the joyful atmosphere permeating the county. With the autumn harvest approaching, the people who were about to reap the rewards were naturally very happy.