Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 286 Private Visit

After getting on the carriage, Emperor Shengwu's last stop was Baihua Manor, where corn was grown, a crop he had never seen before. It tasted sweet and sticky, and was really delicious. The information sent back by the shadow guard said that the corn was about to mature and could be picked.

He was very curious. Wouldn't the corn mature when it was tender? What would the corn look like when it matured? How to eat it? However, from a distance, he saw a retired soldier with a broken hand sitting at the gate of Baihua Manor, guarding the gate.

So, he turned around and did not go to the farm, but went directly to the cornfield next to it with two shadow guards. The corn stalks in the cornfield were very tall, and the tops of some corn stalks were almost as tall as himself. Emperor Shengwu looked at these corn stalks, which had corn cobs growing on them, and there were several corn cobs on each stalk, some high and some low.

He walked up to a corn cob and was about to break one off to take a closer look, but he heard a clear voice coming from the cornfield, stopping him, "Wait, wait, sir, this corn is not ripe yet. If you break it off now, it will be useless."

Emperor Shengwu turned his head and saw a girl of about fifteen or sixteen walking through the furrows between the corn stalks. She was wearing long sleeves and long pants, with her cuffs and hems tied tightly with cloth strips, and a wide-brimmed hard straw hat on her head to protect her face from the corn stalks.

At this time, because of the hot weather, the whole face was a little red, and a few strands of hair came out of the straw hat and stuck to the side of the neck. A pair of smart almond eyes were staring at his hand that was still holding the corn cob.

Emperor Shengwu suddenly felt a little at a loss, and quickly let go of the corn cobs that were still on the corn stalks, saying, "I... I was just looking at it, just looking at it, I didn't mean to steal it."

The girl opposite smiled and nodded, "Well, this gentleman is dressed in silk and satin, and he is obviously a wealthy gentleman. Naturally, he will not steal this corn. Besides, this corn is past its tenderest and most delicious time, so it is useless to pick it.

Master, do you live in the capital? Do you have a farm nearby? "Recently, people from nearby farms often came to the corn field to check out this rare commodity, so Hua Lei naturally thought that Emperor Shengwu was also the owner of a nearby farm.

Emperor Shengwu nodded randomly and changed the subject, "What's your name, young lady? Are you a farmer on this farm?"

Hua Lei smiled and said, "My last name is Hua, and this is my family's farm."

Emperor Shengwu was stunned. He didn't expect that the little girl in front of him was the flower bud mentioned in the letter from Marquis Pei, who made countless good things, nor did he expect that she was the flower bud who wrote "The country is peaceful and the people are prosperous."

Is she still working in the fields? Shouldn't she be sitting in her boudoir reading books, writing, and giving advice to Zhuangzi? Why is she working in the fields? Emperor Shengwu looked incredulous.

Hualei looked at Emperor Shengwu, thinking that he was still curious, and said with a smile, "You have never seen this corn before, are you curious? Then I will show you."

As he spoke, he stepped forward and gently tore off a small piece of the corn husk from the top of the corn cob that Emperor Shengwu had let go of. He pointed at the tip of the corn cob and said to him, "Look, it's like our teeth, arranged neatly. This is a better-growing corn cob."

Then, he tore open another corn cob and said, "Look, this one didn't grow well. The kernels are sparse and many of them are not full. This one is considered to be very poorly grown."

Emperor Shengwu looked at the sparsely grown corn cobs, nodded, and asked, "Miss Hua just said that the corn is not yet ripe. When will it be ripe? I have never seen this kind of corn before."

"In about seven or eight days, when the corn kernels are almost hard, we can pick them. This kind of corn is really rare in the capital, it's a new variety." Hua Lei replied.

"Oh, I wonder where Miss Hua bought the seeds from? I think this is not even available in the Great Sheng Dynasty?" Emperor Shengwu stared at the flower buds in front of him.

Hualei walked slowly along the furrows of the cornfield, checking the corn cobs on the corn stalks, and replied, "This was also by chance. My family's boat was out delivering goods and saw this new corn seed and brought it back.

I tried to plant it, and to my surprise, it actually grew. But it wasn’t good enough. Many of the seeds didn’t sprout when I was hatching them, and many of the ones that sprouted didn’t sprout, and many of the ones that sprouted died halfway.

Hua Lei's tone was flat, but her narration was very clear. Emperor Shengwu followed Hua Lei slowly on the track.

"How do we eat this corn when it's ripe?" Emperor Shengwu asked again.

"Well, peel the corn kernels and grind them into powder, which is almost the same as our flour now, called corn flour. It can not only fill your stomach, but also tastes very good. There are still many people in other places in the Great Sheng Dynasty who cannot get enough food. With this, they can have a full meal.

Don't think that my corn field is not growing well, with many shriveled corn cobs. In fact, corn is a very high-yield crop. This is my first time planting it, and I have no experience, so many of them are not growing well. When I have experience, if every corn cob is plump, that will be good, and more people can have enough food.

When the people are full, they can also grind the corn into corn crumbs and feed the horses on the border. The nutrition is also very good. I heard that the weather in Western Xinjiang is hot and there is less grass. Many livestock do not have enough feed, so they can feed them with ground corn crumbs. Of course, corn has many other uses. "Hua Lei's voice became lighter and heavier as she bent over from time to time.

The shadow guards behind Emperor Shengwu were so angry. But Emperor Shengwu didn't seem to think anything was wrong and continued to follow Hualei slowly. A girl who was only in her teens planted crops that were not available in the Great Sheng Dynasty. Didn't she know that this was a great achievement?

"Then can you make a lot of money with this in the future? After all, rare goods are valuable." Emperor Shengwu asked again.

Hualei sighed softly, "Oh, the corn has grown." When she first saw the corn seeds, she was ecstatic and really thought she could make a fortune. Because she originally thought that after growing the corn, she could press oil. After all, soybean oil is so expensive now. If the corn she grew could be pressed for oil, it would be a rare commodity and money would roll in.