The Lucky Heiress

The three workshops in the village: the Five Spice Powder, Oyster Sauce, and Soy Sauce are all running smoothly. The Five Spice Powder and Oyster Sauce supplied to the Zuixian Residence have brought better reputation and customer flow, further solidifying their cooperation.

The production cycle of soy sauce is long, and so far, it has all been stored in jars and has not been sold.

The construction of the distillery is underway, with Uncle Xu still overseeing

the progress.

Wei Ruo currently has five shops in her hands: three Four Treasure Houses – one each in Huzhou Prefecture, Xingshan County, and Taizhou Government City. Each of them is slightly off in performance compared to last year, but t e overall profit is still substantial.

The grain shop opened in Xingshan County last year has been doing well and towards the end it was in a state of stock shortage because Wei Ruo mandated only a part of the grain reserve be sold. She wanted to reserve enough grain for herself and the people in the village for the next year, just in case of any natural disaster or calamity.

The sales of Xu’s Marinated Delicacies shop dropped somewhat this year after the New Year, due to the rise in meat prices and a drop in daily sales. But this is not a problem unique to their shop. Among many shops, Wei Ruo’s still performed well.

Overall, the shops are profit-making.

Weiruo’s focus is still on agriculture. The shops only need to maintain positive income and help to sell the output of the village and workshop. And whether the village can have a good harvest this year is of life and death importance.

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At the Military Prefecture, the new farmland that Madam Yun had been keen on was also purchased.

As the price of land near the Government City is high, Madam Yun temporarily

bought a small estate of two hundred acres.

Wei Ruo also kept her promise and accompanied Madam Yun on a visit to the new estate.

“What do you think, Ruoruo?” Madam Yun asked.

She had heard when purchasing the estate that although the land around the Government City is more flat and open than in Xingshan County, the quality of soil is not very good. The crops grown in previous years have not been very good, yielding mediocre profits.

-The soil fertility is not sufficient. It needs to be turned over and filled, or the straw ash burnt and farmyard manure applied. This should be repeated three times, each time applying half a cart of straw ash and half a cart of farmyar manure per acre.”

Wei Ruo gave out the solution.

The soil here is more or less the same. The way Wei Ruo had improved and fertilized the over a thousand acres of land she had bought, was the same process to be followed for this two hundred acres that Madam Yun bought. However, Madam Yun bought this piece of land late, unlike the farmland Wei ruo obtained last winter, which had sufficient time for improvement. The former is now all planted with rice.

Upon hearing this, Madam Yun showed a look of difficulty: “Turning over the soil is easy, the workers in the estate can get busy with it, but there’s nowhere to find straw at this time of year. Last year, in such cold weather, even if there was spare straw, people collected it for keeping warm at home.” “in that case, let’s apply manure directly after turning the soil. You can use the manure from cattle, sheep and other livestock, even human feces can work.

The volume is still half a cart of manure per acre,” said Wei Ruo.

“That seems like quite an expense,” said Madam Yun.

“Sharpening the axe will not delay the work of cutting wood. If you want a good harvest for the year, the soil must be sufficiently fertile. The initial investment is necessary,” said Wei Ruo, looking very serious.

“isn’t there any other way?” Madam Yun asked, not giving up.

She knew that applying farmyard manure would make the soil fertile, but it was the high cost of this material that made her wonder if Wei Ruo had any other better solutions.

“Mother, you cannot make bricks without straw. Soil fertility boils down to two points: inorganic and organic fertilizers; plus aeration and moisture content.

If the weather is favourable, with enough sunshine, if there are no major problems with the wind and rain, the crops will grow well. The straw ash or farmyard manure I mentioned are currently the cheapest fertilizers I can think of for the soil.”

Soil fertilization is not as sophisticated as the improvement of saline-alkali land Many farmers know about the methods, but sometimes they do not have the courage to decide, or they do not have enough silver coins in their hands to make such investments.

Madam Yun did not quite understand what Wei Ruo was saying about organic and inorganic fertilizers.

But she was not very satisfied with the solution provided by Wei Ruo. Seeing Madam Yun frowning and not making a decision for a long time, Wei Ruo did not say anything more.

She had already come to check the soil and made her suggestions according to her agreement. Whether or not to accept and follow this was up to her now. After a while, Madam Yun said: “I will arrange for people to get a couple of carts of sheep dung in advance and apply it as fertilizer.”

Wei Ruo could hear the hint in her words; Madam Yun intended to apply fertilizer, but she did not plan to follow the volume Wei Ruo had suggested. She only planned to fertilize once, and only use a few carts of sheep dung for two hundred acres of land.

Wei Ruo didn’t say anything, respecting Madam Yun’s choice and decision. -Also, the rice variety we talked about last time should be fine, right?” Madam Yun enquired.

“There shouldn’t be any problems.

“That’s good. With that variety of rice, even if the soil isn’t very fertile, it should still grow fine,” Madam Yun Adam put more hope on good rice varieties.

“I can’t guarantee that, after all, even the best seeds need good soil, one can’t go without the other,” replied Wei Ruo.

Then Madam Yun told Wei Ruo: “I also plan to plant some sweet potatoes in the estate in Xingshan County this year. I heard that they are easy to manage, not as delicate as rice. Last year, the family that planted sweet potatoes in Xingshan County not only had enough food for themselves but also sold quite a bit.”

Madam Yun didn’t know that the family she was talking about was actually Wei Ruo’s.

“Hmm ” Wei Ruo wasn’t surprised. Many households in Xingshan County have switched to planting sweet potatoes this year to ensure grain yield. This is a good thing.

Although eating sweet potatoes long-term might not taste as good as rice, in a bad year, the main goal of the people is to fill their stomachs, not eat well.

Then, Madam Yun talked about some issues related to the family business, Wei Ruo listened attentively, but basically did not comment.

Madam Yun’s overall planning of the family business was not problematic, apart from being reluctant to spend money on preliminary work, no other faults could be found.

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On the twentieth of March, one month later, the Taizhou prefecture’s control of the epidemic was rewarded by the court.

A public notice from the Government Office was specially posted in the city, with the names of those who made outstanding contributions in this matter written on it.

Wei Ruo’s two names both appeared on the notice. First was Xu Heyou, which was written in a prominent position along with Doctor Cheng and Doctor Cai. Second was Wei Qingruo’s name, which was on the notice for assisting Princess Jingmin in serving the people.

This honor was not only due to Wei Ruo’s contribution, but also the special care from Madam Yuan, which played a decisive role.

When the rewards were announced, the Government Office sent the court’s gratitude to the Military Prefecture.

As Wei Ruo is a member of the family, the merit was credited to the Military Prefecture when the rewards were announced, stating that the Military Prefecture had made contributions to the people of Taizhou prefecture and recorded one merit to Wei Mingting..