Chapter 501: Chapter 271: Prince Chu Manages Liangzhou Very Well
In the evening, Zhao Yao returned from the Eighth Prince’s quarters after dinner and saw Dou Le waiting at the entrance of his courtyard. He hurried over.
As soon as Dou Le saw Zhao Yao, he stepped forward and greeted Zhao Yao with a bow: "Greetings, Your Highness the Tenth." Saying this, he took a letter from his chest and handed it to Zhao Yao. "Your Highness the Tenth, this is a letter from the Prince for you."
Zhao Yao happily took the letter, saying, "I figured you would be bringing me a letter soon."
Nearby, Tong Xi joked, "Dou Le, if you didn’t bring His Highness Prince Chu’s letter today, His Highness would have been anxious these past few days."
Dou Le smiled and said, "I know His Highness the Tenth has been waiting for the Prince’s letter, afraid that His Highness would be anxious, so as soon as I received it, I brought it."
"Thank you for your hard work." Zhao Yao put the letter into his chest and smiled at Dou Le, saying, "Come inside with me and let Tong Xi offer you some tea and snacks."
"Thank you, Your Highness the Tenth." Dou Le followed Tong Xi into the house.
Zhao Yao needed to write a reply to Prince Chu, so Dou Le had to stay for a while, waiting for His Highness the Tenth to finish writing his reply.
Returning to the study, Zhao Yao couldn’t wait to open Prince Chu’s letter, which consisted of twelve sheets of paper.
Prince Chu was not a verbose person, rarely speaking much to anyone, not even to Princess Li. Zhao Yao was the only one to whom Prince Chu would write extensively.
Previously, Prince Chu’s letters to Zhao Yao were only two or three sheets, briefly detailing what he had done over the past fortnight, which Zhao Yao considered perfunctory.
Zhao Yao demanded that Prince Chu’s letters to him should be at least ten sheets. Since then, every letter from Prince Chu consisted of more than ten sheets.
Every two weeks, Prince Chu wrote a letter to Zhao Yao, a practice that had never been interrupted over the years.
Opening the letter, as expected, he first asked if Zhao Yao had been studying well over the past fortnight.
Zhao Yao read the letter while internally lamenting: "Fourth Brother, can’t you start with something different?"
In the letter, Prince Chu mentioned the situation in Liangzhou and his son’s affairs.
Before Prince Chu took over Liangzhou, it was somewhat chaotic, mainly due to the unsettled public sentiment, as it had long been occupied by rebels.
The rebels cared little for the people’s lives, only knowing how to exploit them, leaving the people of Liangzhou in misery. After the rebels were eliminated, the court sent officials to manage Liangzhou, and life improved somewhat for the people.
After taking over, Prince Chu managed Liangzhou meticulously, allowing the people to lead stable lives. Before leaving, Zhao Yao had gifted him an improved plow. Zhao Yao called it the "Qu Yuan Plow."
The Qu Yuan Plow was more convenient and labor-saving than previous plows.
Since the Qu Yuan Plow came into use, farming had become somewhat easier for the people.
Good plowing leads to better planting of crops. Good planting results in a good harvest.
Thanks to the Qu Yuan Plow, many areas of Great Zhou had seen significant yield increases over the years, particularly in the Jiangnan region.
In recent years, the grain yields in Jiangnan had increased by thirty to forty percent compared to previous years. Liangzhou’s grain yield had also increased significantly.
Due to the Qu Yuan Plow, Zhao Yao, the Tenth Prince, earned substantial goodwill among the masses, and his reputation among the common people was now extremely high, rivalling that of the Crown Prince and Prince Dai.
Aside from gifting Prince Chu the significant present of the Qu Yuan Plow, Zhao Yao also mentioned in his letter to Prince Chu the benefits of collecting more sheep manure to fertilize the fields.
There were many people raising sheep in Liangzhou, so sheep manure was abundant. With sheep manure as fertilizer, many fields in Liangzhou had become much more fertile.
Speaking of sheep manure, Zhao Yao once instructed Liang Run to have people purchase sheep manure in the Western Regions.
Compared to Great Zhou, there were more sheep in the Western Regions. Furthermore, people there engaged in less farming.
When the people of the Western Regions heard that the people of Great Zhou wanted to buy sheep manure, they found it strange and secretly mocked them. However, since the fools of Great Zhou were willing to buy their sheep manure, they were naturally happy to sell it; though it was sold very cheaply, even a penny was still money.
In truth, Zhao Yao had originally intended to produce chemical fertilizers, but upon further consideration, decided to develop them when he went to Lingnan in the future.
The common people of Great Zhou hadn’t anticipated the usefulness of sheep manure, sparking a wave of sheep farming among the people of Great Zhou.
When Prince Chu was still in the palace, he often read books on agriculture and had personally consulted experienced old farmers. He even wrote a book on agriculture. He was highly knowledgeable about farming matters.
Upon reaching Liangzhou, he cared greatly about the region’s crops, frequently inspecting the rice or wheat in the fields himself.
During the spring plowing season each year, he would personally go down to the fields to plow and plant rice seedlings. When the autumn harvest arrived, he would personally go down to the fields to reap the rice and wheat.