After dinner, sitting by the campfire, Mi Guo casually placed sweet potatoes and potatoes into the embers to roast.
Her sister had said to balance meat with vegetables, and after the grilled meat, roasted sweet potatoes and potatoes sounded good.
The sweet potatoes and potatoes were bought by Gu Qingcheng from the supermarket's produce section. They were large and emitted an enticing glow of food.
Gu Qingcheng took them out, intending to tell Dai Fa that once the weather warmed up, they should prioritize planting sweet potatoes and potatoes on the mountain. Gu Qingcheng had called Dai Fa and the other small team leaders for a meeting tonight.
With everything needing to be rebuilt, meetings were constant.
The reason for planting these two crops was their high yield, fast growth, and low land requirement. Potatoes, in particular, fix nitrogen, which improves soil fertility.
Unexpectedly, Gu Dou had thrown them all into the charcoal to roast.
Since Mi Guo was roasting them, Gu Qingcheng couldn't say much and could only use the sweet potatoes and potatoes in the charcoal as a topic of discussion.
"Young Master Gu, are you saying we should plant these crops on all the land we're clearing? Are they good to eat?"
Dai Fa had never eaten a sweet potato before, so Gu Qingcheng wasn't surprised. Sweet potatoes and potatoes were not native, and they hadn't been introduced from abroad yet, so this was normal.
"This is called a sweet potato. Conservatively estimated, the spring harvest yields about 3,500 kilograms per mu, and the summer harvest yields about 2,500 kilograms per mu.
This is called a potato. The yield ranges from 1,000 to 6,000 kilograms per mu, depending on field management. The better the management, the higher the yield."
"What? Such high yields per mu? Does that mean we won't have to worry about not having enough to eat?"
Not only the small team leaders but even the well-traveled Dai Fa was astonished.
"If they can be grown, then we naturally won't have to worry about grain shortages. However, we can't plant them now because they are not cold-resistant. In this kind of snowy weather, they would definitely freeze to death and wouldn't grow.
So, for now, we can only plant millet, which is the most cold-resistant crop. Oh, it's also called xiaomi. The yield is 300 to 400 kilograms per mu. Spring planting is after Guyu (Grain Rain), maturing in over 130 days. Summer planting is in June, maturing in about 100 days. The only issue is that I don't have any millet seeds on hand right now and need to look around to see if I can buy some."
The farming proverb says, "Only green mountains can dry out bamboo, never has millet on the ground died of drought." This shows millet's exceptional drought resistance. It tolerates drought and barren soil, is not afraid of acidity or alkalinity, and is planted in arid regions and impoverished mountainous areas in modern society.
However, Gu Qingcheng didn't know if millet existed here now.
When she first arrived in this world, she was on a refugee journey and had never seen grain seeds or rice seeds, though she had seen unmilled rice.
Therefore, she felt apprehensive when she proposed planting millet.
"Young Master Gu, my family brought some millet seeds. Although not many, we've been reluctant to eat them on the way, hoping to plant them once we reach the south. Since you plan to plant them, I'll donate them first."
Unexpectedly, team leader Wang You spoke up.
"Ah? That's great! How much millet seed do you have?" Gu Qingcheng was immediately relieved, realizing that millet was already being planted here.
"There were ten people who fled from our village, and seven of them reached Phoenix Village. Each of them had about five to six jin of millet seeds on them."
Wang You was well-informed about the villagers' situation.
"That's nearly forty jin of seeds, which is enough for now. Have them all bring it out. I won't take it for free; I'll give five hundred wen for each jin of seeds."
Gu Qingcheng generously stated.
"Alright, no problem."
They were going to plant it anyway. Now that it was being promoted to the whole village and they could exchange it for a good price, why not? Wang You readily agreed and said he would handle it.
"How much millet seed is needed per mu?" Gu Qingcheng, not very familiar with farming, asked humbly.
"About 2 jin of millet seeds are needed per mu. With forty jin, we can plant 20 mu, and one mu can yield at least 12,000 jin of millet.
If we also plant sweet potatoes and potatoes, by next year, our village's grain problem will be solved."
Gu Qingcheng counted on her fingers, feeling a bit excited.
By then, the sweet potatoes and potatoes were roasted in the charcoal, emitting a unique aroma. Gu Qingcheng asked for them to be dug out for everyone to taste.
"Besides roasting them like this, they can also be ground into slurry, dried into starch, made into noodles, used in soup, or dried for preservation."
Gu Qingcheng listed them all like a family heirloom, leaving everyone stunned.
Gu Qingcheng also conducted a loyalty test and found that the loyalty of these small team leaders had increased significantly. It seemed that finding a settlement had made them very satisfied, strengthening their loyalty to her.
Since the system had detected Gu Qingcheng's large-scale testing of people, it had optimized the loyalty test values. The previous simple and crude distinctions of unqualified, qualified, and loyal were refined into 100 points for each stage. The closer to full marks, the higher the loyalty, greatly facilitating Gu Qingcheng's identification.
For these small team leaders, their scores had risen from the qualified 60 points to 70 points, a significant increase from the beginning, indicating a substantial improvement in loyalty.
"Young Master Gu, are the yields of these two crops you mentioned really that high? Then our villagers won't starve to death."
One of the small team leaders asked with joy.
"With these crops, I can clear all the mountains here and plant them all."
Another small team leader said, clenching his fists.
Everyone had been starved and longed to plant grain in every patch of muddy land.
"I never lie. When the snow melts, everyone should prepare the land and get ready to plant sweet potatoes and potatoes.
Mi Guo, please take out the potatoes and sweet potatoes for everyone to try."
Gu Qingcheng instructed.
There were seven small team leaders, plus Dai Fa, making a total of eight people.
Mi Guo had only roasted four sweet potatoes, so she broke each one in half for everyone.
However, she had roasted eight or nine potatoes, so each person received one.
After tasting the sweet potatoes and potatoes, several people were amazed. Were there such delicious grains?
"Young Master Gu, I originally thought that if you could provide us with food and drink for one or two months, you would already be a great benefactor. Relying on you for food long-term would definitely not work. I didn't know what your plan was and, to be honest, I was a bit worried.
But now, seeing you produce the seeds for sweet potatoes and potatoes, I finally have confidence."
Team leader Wang Lei said frankly.
"Indeed, if my old village had been able to plant sweet potatoes, our entire village wouldn't have been reduced to only a few households."
Zhao Hu said sadly.
"Alas, let's not talk about it. Haven't we all experienced such things?
Wives and children all died, and we were displaced.
Fortunately, now that we follow Young Master Gu, we have hope again!"
Some saw a glimmer of light in life amidst despair.
"Work hard, and you won't be let down!"
Gu Qingcheng didn't intend to say too many emotional words. She wasn't here to be a leader, but since she had the ability, she would do what she could.
However, her unpretentious demeanor unexpectedly earned the goodwill of these people.