Chapter 121
Three days later, the number of new infections had dropped to double digits per day, and the critically ill patients had also started to recover. Some of the more physically fit were even able to get out of bed and walk around.
The unceasing good news made Song County Magistrate feel extremely grateful.
In the past, whenever a plague occurred, which time was not filled with grief and sorrow? This time was no exception either. The neighboring few counties were already nearly overwhelmed, and there were even refugee riots occurring.
But in his governed Bai Chuan County, just because of Li Yao, they were able to get through it so easily. Only a few people who were too weak physically had died, and the vast majority of people were now healthy and energetic.
This Li Yao really was a godsend!
"County Magistrate," Zhang County Captain said, "Should we block the roads to prevent refugees from other places from coming in?"
"This..."
Song County Magistrate was somewhat hesitant, and finally looked to Li Yao.
"No need," Li Yao said. "Most of the people in our county have already been infected. It's just because they drank the medicine early and had enough food, the symptoms were very mild, or they didn't even feel any symptoms. So even if there are outsiders, as long as everyone pays attention to hygiene, they won't be easily infected."
There was actually something like this?
Song County Magistrate and Zhang County Captain were convinced. These obscure facts were things they had never even heard of before.
"Since that's the case, then hurry up and start working on repairing the roads," Song County Magistrate said.
Bai Chuan County's stockpiled grains were limited. They could not keep distributing them for free indefinitely. If they wanted to obtain food, the refugees would still need to contribute labor.
However, it seemed that this time, he would be able to commend Li Yao again for her merits.
...
As more and more people signed up, Bai Chuan County's gravel roads progressed at a rate of three to four li per day.
In just half a month, all the roads leading to the various villages were completed.
Time also came to March.
Boom boom-
The long-absent thunder rumbled throughout the land, and the clouds gathered in the sky made everyone excitedly spread the news.
"It's going to rain, it's finally going to rain!"
After experiencing two full years of drought, the entire Daling Nation was waiting for this rain. The heavenly god did not fail everyone's expectations either, and soon a spring rain came down.
Tens of thousands of refugees also began returning home.
With the refugees leaving, Song County Magistrate did not properly rest for a few days before bringing people to Hé Wān Village.
He remembered Li Yao said that now was the time for planting sweet potato seedlings.
Li Yao naturally did not let the heavenly god's grace go to waste, and began planting sweet potatoes with her family.
"Tie the ropes tight."
Standing at opposite ends of the leveled land, Li Yao and Wang Xiao Si pulled on a long thin rope.
And in the field, Da Zhuang led Wang Er, Wang San, and the enthusiastically volunteered Song Zhe, plus more than a dozen villagers who came to help, used hoes to build ridges.
Surrounding the fields, there were more than a hundred villagers watching and learning.
After building a straight ridge, they took a sweet potato, used a small shovel to dig a small hole in the ridge, added a little fertilizer, and buried the sweet potato in.
"So planting sweet potatoes is this simple?"
"But with this planting method, how many would you need per mu of land?"
"I guess at least a few hundred catties right?"
"This is just for raising seedlings," Li Yao said. "After the vines grow out, each vine can be cut into several sections, and each section can be planted."
"So it's cuttage propagation," Song County Magistrate understood. "I thought only garden balsam and willow trees could do that, I didn't know sweet potatoes could too."
"That's right," Li Yao said. "One mu of land is enough to raise cuttage seedlings for 10 mu."
The villagers were a little worried when they heard this.
Most families had kept enough sweet potatoes for planting, but they didn't have so much land to plant them all, so keeping so many sweet potatoes was pointless.
"Everyone, don't worry," Song County Magistrate said loudly. "You all just go ahead and plant. I will have people from other villages come and buy the raised seedlings for planting."
"That's great, hurry back home and start tilling the fields!"
In an instant, all the villagers in Hé Wān Village began raising sweet potato seedlings.
Li Yao planted all the leftover sweet potatoes at home, a full two hundred mu.
This was a huge project that she definitely couldn't complete alone, so in the end she still hired a lot of labor.
After the sweet potato seedlings were planted, Li Yao had Da Zhuang transport the potatoes back.
"Planting potatoes is different from sweet potatoes, you only plant them once."
Li Yao cut each potato into several sections, making sure each section had two to three buds, then threw them into a pile of grass ash beside her.
"Mother, why coat them with ash?" He Xiaoya asked.
"The grass ash is fertilizer, and can also prevent pest damage," Li Yao said. Planting potatoes didn't require ridging. You just directly buried them in holes.
The over three thousand catties of potatoes were planted in just 10 mu of land.
Although not much, this couldn't be helped. They could only slowly expand it later.
The land for sweet potatoes and potatoes was all budgeted. There was still over one thousand mu left, so Li Yao had Da Zhuang plant it all with alfalfa, cabbage, and rapeseed. In the gaps between the fruit trees on the mountain, she also scattered alfalfa and rapeseed seeds.
Alfalfa could be used to feed cows, while cabbage and rapeseed could feed pigs.
The family now had 31 cows and 100 half-grown piglets that needed to eat a lot of fodder every day.
Just this thousand or so mu, Li Yao estimated would still fall short of the supply needed.
But it was fine. After the sweet potato seedlings grew, they could cut some to feed the pigs as needed.
Additionally, the chili pepper seedlings had also sprouted, planted in a full 5 mu of land!
Just wait another four months, and there would be more chilies than they could eat. Li Yao looked forward to it very much.
...
In the blink of an eye, it was already April. The weather grew hotter by the day.
The sweet potato seedlings in the fields had already grown over two chi long, covering the entire ground in lush greenery that was very pleasing to the eye.
Li Yao pinched some tender sweet potato sprouts and brought them home to wash clean. She waited for the oil in the wok to heat up and fried the smashed garlic until fragrant before throwing the sweet potato sprouts in to stir fry.
In just a short while, a plate of tender stir-fried sweet potato sprouts came out of the wok.
What a pity the seedlings were for cuttage propagation and couldn't be eaten daily.
Boom boom-
After a few spring rains, the sweet potato seedlings visibly grew by leaps and bounds, soon reaching lengths of over two meters.
"They can be transplanted now."
Wearing straw hats and rain capes, Li Yao brought her family to the fields to cut the seedlings.
Each sweet potato vine could be cut into four or five sections, about fifty centimeters each.
The cut seedlings were brought to the prepared holes dug in the fields, buried halfway down, and that was considered planted. After that, just apply fertilizer and water, and they could grow very well.
For the few hundred mu of seedlings, Li Yao only demonstrated. She had other people hired to do the rest.
Her family had raised enough seedlings for 300 mu of land, but they would use at most 100 mu themselves. The rest was prepared to sell to villagers from other villages.
Song County Magistrate attached great importance to this matter, and came to Hé Wān Village almost every day these past few days.
After the villagers planted their own family's fields, he had people from each village come and purchase the surplus.
However, he really did not know how to set the price for this.