Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 364: A Smart and Kind Person

After listening to the report from the shadow guard, Emperor Shengwu, who was sitting behind the desk, tapped the table with his knuckles. After a long while, he said, "This Hua Nong Zheng is really a smart and kind person, and Pei Tanhua is also a person of real talent."

This unsatisfactory waterwheel finally did not cause any major disturbance.

The first water wheel has been installed on the barren mountain, and several more water wheels need to be installed next.

Because except for the pond on the top of Dongshan Mountain, which does not require a waterwheel, Hualei dug ponds halfway up each mountain, and then also dug a pond in the basin surrounded by four mountains.

So according to this calculation, the Ministry of Industry must make at least four water wheels for Hualei.

This waterwheel was difficult to make. With so many people in the department, it took more than a month to make this one. The next six months were just wasted work for Hualei.

Those who had some complaints in their hearts at the beginning, all shut up after Hualei on the barren mountain made a move. Now he can keep his job because of the good intentions of Master Hua.

Anyway, I have a lot of money every month, so I can give the waterwheel to anyone. If I give it to Master Hua, I can eat snacks for a longer time, which is good. Minister Li started to help Hua Lei make the second waterwheel without any complaints.

On Hualei's side, a water wheel has been installed. Although the extra water tank was a bit of an eyesore at first, it still performs its function diligently, so Hualei now likes it.

All the plants on the north mountain that needed watering were watered, especially the kudzu roots on the south slope, which were also watered.

After watering, they applied enough fertilizer to the kudzu root. Then they asked Uncle Fu to lead a group of people to plant a batch of kudzu root that could be planted, thus expanding the territory of the kudzu root a lot.

Uncle Zhao led a group of people to recheck and maintain the wild grapes on the northern slope, watering and fertilizing them, and then transplanted a batch of new grape seedlings according to the buds and built support racks, thus expanding the territory of the vineyard.

Hua Lei thought that the area of ​​the barren mountain was large, and there were land reclamation workers to help with the work this year, so many things could be done. However, there might not be enough manpower next year.

So next, Hualei plans to plant a batch of medicinal herbs to alleviate the dilemma of insufficient manpower in the future.

When Hualei first got the barren mountain last year, he wanted to plant a batch of perennial medicinal herbs when he was planning the barren mountain. This not only saved the need to tinker with it every year, resulting in a shortage of manpower, but also had high economic benefits.

Because Hualei discovered that in the current Dasheng Dynasty, very few medicinal herbs are grown, and the medicine shops in the capital city generally buy wild medicinal herbs.

The Imperial Medical Bureau does have a special group of people who cultivate medicinal materials, but the medicinal materials they cultivate are for the Imperial Medical Bureau's own use and will not flow out to the pharmacies in the capital city.

Although he had no experience in growing medicinal herbs, his study contained many random books bought from printing houses, as well as various books brought back from various places by ships.

After such a long period of accumulation, I have several books on medicinal materials. I have read them several times.

I have a general understanding of the environmental requirements for growing some medicinal herbs, and I spent a long time choosing what varieties to plant.

Taking into account the situation on his own barren mountain and the economic benefits of medicinal materials, he carefully selected the flower buds, and finally chose wolfberry, which has strong cold-resistance and drought-resistance.

Wolfberry, which can grow in the desert, must be resistant to barrenness. These characteristics make it suitable for planting on the northern slope of Dongshan Mountain.

You know, the East Mountain and the North Mountain are staggered in a diamond shape, so the north slope of the East Mountain is directly exposed to the wind and snow and is the coldest, but there is also sunshine.

At the beginning, Hua Lei was also worried about the sale of this medicinal material, but the fact that the Imperial Hospital took the initiative to come to the barren mountain to purchase Pueraria root gave Hua Lei confidence. She felt that as long as she grew it well, there would definitely be a market for the wolfberry.

So Huabud is preparing to plant a batch of wolfberry seedlings. It usually takes three years for these wolfberry seedlings to bear fruit.

Then it can bear fruit continuously for more than ten years, and the longest can even reach twenty years. Therefore, growing wolfberry can be said to be a once-and-for-all thing.

After deciding to plant wolfberries, Hualei made a lot of preparations in advance. The first preparations were made last year when the Imperial Hospital sent people to buy kudzu root.

When Hualei first sent Pueraria to the Imperial Hospital, she saw a lot of wolfberry seeds in the hospital's warehouse. The person in charge of the warehouse said that these were spare wolfberry seeds.

At that time, I heard that these were spare seeds, so I shamelessly asked for a large bag. The person in charge of the warehouse looked at Hualei's official uniform and the ingot of silver in his hand, and gave it to her readily. There were already a lot of spare wolfberry seeds.

Moreover, the Imperial Hospital used cuttings and division to grow wolfberries. The wolfberry seeds were only used when there were not enough cuttings and divisions, and they were almost never used. Therefore, the flower buds were cheap.

Moreover, Hualei once again showed his spirit of striking the snake while it is still under attack, and went to the Seedling Department of the Imperial Hospital, flattering the department with his eloquence and spending a sum of money to ask them to keep a batch of cuttings for him when they were growing wolfberry seedlings this year. If there were any extra plants, they would also be kept for him, and the money would be easy to negotiate.

Every year when the Imperial Medical Service raises seedlings, no matter what kind of seedlings, it will leave some room, and the excess seedlings will usually be thrown away directly.

Now that Hualei wants it and has paid the money, there is no reason to push the money away, so I promised Hualei that as long as there is any extra, I will leave it to her.

Of course, the quality was definitely the ones that were left over by the Imperial Hospital. However, for Hualei, this was better than nothing, so he happily paid a deposit and settled the matter.

Of course, this was Hualei's own preparation. In addition, she also collected some wild wolfberries still hanging on the branches when she was sweeping Beishan last year.

Although some have been eaten by birds and some have dried up, the flower buds have been collected, so it's better than nothing.

Who made me miss the peak season of wild wolfberry? After collecting the wild wolfberries, Hualei asked people to cut them open with a knife, dig out the wolfberry seeds inside, and dry them for preservation.

Also, at the beginning of this year, news was released on Yuanyingzhuang, saying what was needed to replace wolfberry cuttings and divisions, and specific requirements were also made.

In addition, Uncle Zhao also personally led a group of people to the ownerless mountains to collect wolfberry cuttings and divisions.