Chapter 7

Wagons of grain lined up in a long queue, and the people from Xiachuan Village, as well as those from Changmu Village, were busily working. Even those carrying grain bags would greet Bai Minghe with a friendly word when they saw him.

Not only was there grain, but also five shi of seed grain, which was the Lu family's gesture to Bai Minghe. After all, Bai Minghe was a juren (scholar-official), and there was no real enmity. It was a good thing to form some good connections, and a mere hundred shi of grain was nothing for the Lu family to worry about.

At this moment, Bai Minghe had become a hero in Xiachuan Village.

Bai Minghe, with his own strength, had reignited the old grudges of the thirty-two villages within eight li.

Especially his declaration that he would not participate in the imperial examination until the issues of the thirty-two villages were resolved, which shocked the entire area for dozens of miles.

This is what a scholar-official is!

Lanterns were hung and decorations were put up for the New Year, even in a poor village, there was a festive atmosphere.

Leshui County, which was less than forty li from Xiachuan Village, had been personally visited by the Lu family, who asked the county to send the sealed plans and the reasons for their previous failures to Bai Minghe.

The governor's office did not have the face to open the document archives just for the New Year.

When Sun Yuanjun returned home, the aroma could be smelled from afar. The village had slaughtered a chicken, and the largest and fattest one was sent to Sun Yuanjun to stew for Bai Minghe. There were also a few ounces of liquor and some other dried vegetables.

Sun Yuanjun brought hot water to wash Bai Minghe's face and said, "I heard that the Lu family only wanted you to write a letter, but you left the treasure mirror."

"You don't understand!" Bai Minghe smiled mysteriously.

Bai Minghe did not explain. He knew that the first reason was that his handwriting was so bad that he dared not write. The deeper reason was that a bronze mirror, if left here, would be unknown, but if placed in the Lu family, it would become more and more legendary, and its value would increase. Bai Minghe believed that in the Ming Dynasty, no one would dare to openly snatch a juren's belongings.

Of course, using power to force a purchase was possible.

But when the item became legendary, even forced purchases would not happen. In the end, it would become a powerful tool for him to win a princess. He naturally did not dare to tell Sun Yuanjun this, and he began to plan how to deceive a princess to be his concubine.

"You don't understand," Bai Minghe thought this was normal. But Sun Yuanjun, like a cat with its tail stepped on, gritted her teeth. As a wife, she could not question her husband, which made her even more angry. Sun Yuanjun lowered her head, thinking about how to bite Bai Minghe.

"By the way, I've heard of the 'husband's authority'?" Bai Minghe, after washing his face, said to Sun Yuanjun, "I'm hungry!"

Sun Yuanjun gritted her teeth, serving Bai Minghe his meal, and said, "In the 'Liji: Hanwenjia,' the three principles are: the ruler is the principle for the minister, the father is the principle for the son, and the husband is the principle for the wife. I really don't know how you passed the juren examination."

"My head was hit by a stone." Bai Minghe did not feel the least bit embarrassed.

When the bowl was brought close, it was a bowl of chicken soup with some dried vegetables. Next to it was a mixed flour pancake, which, for an ordinary small household, was already a good meal for the New Year.

Bai Minghe was stunned when he picked up his chopsticks.

In the chicken soup, there was only a chicken head and half a chicken claw, almost just clear broth.

"This..." Bai Minghe saw that there was a whole chicken in the pot, but he only got this much. He was about to ask a few questions, but then he saw that Sun Yuanjun was eating only half a chicken claw and mostly clear broth, and her pancake was even darker than his.

How poor! Bai Minghe sighed deeply.

He did not know that this was Sun Yuanjun's deliberate act. Who asked Bai Minghe to act so mysterious and cut off the conversation with "You don't understand"? Scorpio women are very vengeful and love cold wars.

"Cook some rice or make a white flour pancake." Bai Minghe made a request to Sun Yuanjun.

"The days are long, we can't eat today and ignore tomorrow." Sun Yuanjun refused. She was used to hard times.

Bai Minghe continued, "Do you believe that within ten days, I can make you have a hundred taels of silver?"

"Then after ten days, can we eat rice and white flour again?" Sun Yuanjun asked, but in fact, she was telling Bai Minghe that there was no way to eat well today.

"I am the hero of Xiachuan Village!" Bai Minghe immediately changed his approach.

Sun Yuanjun remained unmoved, "When the husband has merit, the village will certainly build a memorial archway for him. But for now, nothing has been resolved. Even if we borrow grain, we still have to pay it back. Although I am young, I heard from the messenger today and learned some of the past of the thirty-two villages within eight li."

Well, this woman is stubborn...

No, this woman is a Scorpio, Bai Minghe finally realized. She was sulking.

"Yuanjun, do you know why I left the bronze mirror with the Lu family?" Bai Minghe smiled, and Sun Yuanjun suddenly turned to look at him, but immediately lowered her head and said softly, "Whatever the husband decides, I don't understand, and I probably wouldn't understand even if I heard it."

This is stubbornness to the extreme.

Bai Minghe, coming from the future, had not truly married, but he had dated before.

He chuckled, "If you really have no interest, I won't tell you. This is a great plan, related to whether you can be ennobled as a lady!"

Hearing the word "lady," all of Sun Yuanjun's persistence and stubbornness vanished instantly, her eyes filled with anticipation as she stared at Bai Minghe. Bai Minghe ignored the birthmark on her face; her eyes were truly beautiful. Another characteristic of Scorpios is their charm.

"Two priceless pieces of jade..." Bai Minghe started with the story of two stamps, but replaced the stamps with jade. Then he continued, "The treasure we have is not a treasure. Only a large family like the Lu family can make the world recognize the value of the treasure mirror. Once its reputation spreads, the value of the treasure mirror will increase a hundredfold, a thousandfold. We will be the big winners!"

Sun Yuanjun was well-read, and the title of "female scholar" was not given in vain.

After a moment's thought, she understood that Bai Minghe was playing a very high-level strategy.

Immediately, the contents of both bowls were poured out, and the pot and the prepared white flour pancake were brought out, with the whole chicken placed in front of Bai Minghe. "It's the New Year, the husband should eat well. You've worked hard today," Sun Yuanjun said many caring and considerate words.

Bai Minghe was sweating profusely, and his heart was also cold with sweat. Would the days ahead be a constant battle of wits and courage?

On the first day of the New Year, the day to worship the ancestors, although Bai Minghe's surname was Bai, he was the son-in-law of the Sun clan and a juren, so he was naturally placed next to the clan elder.

Women in the Ming Dynasty had a relatively high status, and Sun Yuanjun's status also rose, standing in the second position.

With Sun Yuanjun's reminder, Bai Minghe barely completed the ancestral worship.

On the second day of the New Year, Bai Minghe did not dare to stay at home. He wanted to personally inspect the surrounding area, including the artificial water channel and the spring.

The donkey was the first means of transportation, and in addition, there were eight strong young men following, carrying a disassembled sedan chair. On roads where the donkey could not go, they could carry Bai Minghe. The reason was simple: the villagers thought that a juren gentleman naturally did not have the strength to walk on mountain paths.

Water channel, this damn water channel?

Bai Minghe cursed, this was essentially a canal, two zhang wide and one zhang deep. Even during the winter dry season, a flat-bottomed boat could carry four shi of grain and two people, moving normally in water more than a chi deep.

With so much water, how could it not be enough for irrigation?

Bai Minghe sat in the chair, watching the leaves slowly move in the water channel, silently calculating the approximate water volume.

"Mr. Bai, the water will be even greater in a few days. But for all the fields in Xiachuan Village, it takes two days to irrigate all the land by cutting off the entire water flow. The land cannot be irrigated just once; it needs to be done again in a few days."

After hearing this from the Sun family member, Bai Minghe stopped calculating the water flow.

Just by the number of days, the water looked deep, but the flow was extremely slow, meaning the water volume was small. For the thirty-two villages, even if one village took a day, the rest of the villages would all die of drought.

The amount of water needed per mu of land and the frequency of irrigation could be modeled mathematically.

In the water channel, the amount of water seeping into the ground could all be calculated.

But this was the Ming Dynasty, not the modern era. Bai Minghe did not have the means to calculate this, so he could only estimate a rough figure based on his intuition.

For the rest of the day, Bai Minghe had the Sun family members take him on a tour of the mountains and fields.

He had to admire the physical strength of the ancients. Bai Minghe was exhausted and could not speak after sitting in the sedan chair, but these young men were still energetic.

Before dark, they finally arrived at the upstream of the water channel, the mountain waterway.

A valley, an early quarry from the Yongle era, which had been abandoned for many years, was now barren. The people of Xiachuan Village carried Bai Minghe past this place, heading northwest for about two li to the highest point of the river.

"Stop!" Bai Minghe suddenly shouted.

Although the village chief of Xiachuan Village did not understand why, he still followed Bai Minghe's instructions.

Bai Minghe stood at the top of the valley, believing that this valley could definitely be utilized. Thinking this, he prepared to enter the valley, but was stopped by several villagers: "Mr. Bai, it's not safe to go into the mountains, and it's about to get dark. There are not only wolves but also wild boars in the mountains!"

Bai Minghe hesitated, but did not want to return now and come back tomorrow.

At this moment, a wisp of smoke rose from the valley.