Chapter 980: The Peasant Girl’s Splendid Manor
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Chapter 980: Autumn Harvest, Seeking Treatment (1)
As soon as the Chushu solar term passed, August arrived with steadily cooling weather—even though the noonday sun still blazed fiercely. Few people dared to work in the fields under that relentless heat, but compared to the raging inferno of June and July, those few heat-sensitive fellows had it much easier.
August is also the season of harvest, and the Mo family’s orchard is enjoying an abundant yield. Although the fruit trees have not yet fully blossomed, the fruits hanging on them are so heavy that the branches bend under the weight. Without the need to weigh each one individually, it is clear that this year’s harvest is at least five times greater than last year’s.
Last year, the number of fruits was rather modest. Mo Yan and Yan Junyu set aside a small portion while sending the rest directly to the palace. Those fruits turned out to be far superior in quality to the so-called tribute produce shipped from the south, and even the palace couldn’t quite divide them all among themselves.
Thus, with this year’s orchard yielding such a prodigious output, Mo Yan had no worries about selling the fruit. Even if the palace could not consume all of it, there were plenty of people outside eager to buy, and the prices would surely be high.
Now, with the fruits nearly ripe and ready for picking in less than ten days, Mo Yan instructed Aunt Tong to oversee the arrangements. She even sent advance notice to Yan Junyu, asking him to have his men come over in ten days to load up and take away the share of fruit that belonged to him. As for her own share, it would be hauled away separately. Either way, her silver coins wouldn’t be any less—and it would save her a good deal of work.
Over a hundred acres of rice in the low hills had also turned yellow. In three to five days, it would be time to harvest. As usual, Mo Yan entrusted the matter to Uncle Ding, asking him to hire workers to help with the harvest, with the wages calculated just as in previous years.
However, the rice that had just been sown this year had already been requisitioned by the court. After harvest, it was slated to serve as seed rice for trial planting throughout the Dachu region. As for the grain from last year, it had already been allocated by the court to various imperial estates early this year. These, too, would be harvested in the coming days and then used as seed rice for experimental planting in various locales.
Mo Yan mulled over the prospect of how much silver the combined income from the fruit and rice would bring to the family. Just then, Xin’er stepped in and, gently sliding a string of counting beads through her fingers, asked, “Sister, when you were given the title of County Princess, the Emperor awarded you that estate—aren’t you planning to go take a look at it?”
Last year, Mo Yan had received a title alongside that of County Princess, along with a string of awards. Among those awards was a thousand-acre estate. That estate lay about thirty li south of the city. Its size was considerable, and it was all fine-quality farmland—worth no less than over ten thousand taels of silver if measured purely by price, an amount that would be impossible to come by by any ordinary means.
That imperial edict of awards had completely stunned everyone in the Mo family. None could fully grasp the array of rewards—and the deed for the thousand-acre estate tucked among them was hardly noticed. When Mo Yan received the imperial decree, she simply enshrined it without a second thought, inadvertently overlooking that the family now possessed a vast estate.
It wasn’t until this spring when the estate’s overseer, noticing that the new mistress had yet to dispatch anyone to arrange the spring plowing and related matters, had to go through much trouble to track her down in Liuyang Village. Only then did Mo Yan learn that her family actually owned a thousand-acre estate—and she also discovered its origins.
The previous owner of the estate had been a corrupt high official. A couple of years ago, when his household was confiscated, the estate reverted to the court. The original fifty tenant households, who once farmed it, continued to rent and cultivate the land—but now the rent and taxes they paid went straight to the court.
That very overseer had once served as a servant to the corrupt official. After the estate was absorbed by the court, he became a sort of official retainer, continuing to manage the estate. Once the estate was granted to Mo Yan, he naturally came to serve the Mo family—or more specifically, Mo Yan herself.
At that time, Mo Yan was as busy as a dog and had little energy to manage the estate. She simply left the estate’s affairs to that overseer, instructing him to handle all the necessary arrangements. All she knew was that the estate actually contained two hundred waterways for rice cultivation. With that knowledge, she provided him with high-yield rice seeds, explained the general planting method, and sent the overseer on his way.
(End of Chapter)
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