“Grind these wheat grains once to remove the bran, then sift several times before grinding again.” After demonstrating the process, Zhao Yuanxi let You take over.
You was clever and managed to handle the task after watching just once, quickly turning the wheat grains into flour.
However, this flour still contained considerable bran. Zhao Yuanxi then instructed You to pour the flour into a winnowing basket and toss it against the wind. Since bran is lighter than flour, this achieved initial separation. Finally, after sifting several times with a silk sieve, what ancient people often called refined flour was ready.
Zhao Yuanxi planned to make pork and scallion dumplings. She chopped scallions into fine pieces and mixed them into the meat filling, added two eggs and blended everything together, then seasoned it simply.
The scallions in ancient times were more fragrant than modern ones, making Zhao Yuanxi smile with satisfaction.
The dough was kneaded, the filling was prepared—all that remained was wrapping the dumplings.
With a gentle pinch of her fingers, Zhao Yuanxi wrapped a dumpling with thin skin and generous filling.
Although dumplings didn’t exist in Qin at that time, similar foods had already appeared outside Qin, so Zhao Yuanxi wasn’t worried about drawing attention.
Soon, the aroma of dumplings filled the air. Zhao Yuanxi sniffed the scent, her stomach growling, while You beside her kept swallowing saliva.
The dumplings bobbed up and down in the boiling water, plump and white, looking utterly appetizing.
Zhao Yuanxi served herself a bowl and gave another to You.
Seeing You about to kneel again, Zhao Yuanxi stopped her in advance. “Those who work deserve to eat. Besides, without you grinding the wheat flour, I couldn’t have made these dumplings.”
“Your Majesty!” You sniffled, crying like a pear blossom bathed in rain.
What an adorable girl. Zhao Yuanxi couldn’t resist an itch in her hands and patted the back of You’s head.
Instantly, You’s face flushed crimson, and she stammered, “Your—Your Majesty!”
Zhao Yuanxi withdrew her hand awkwardly, pretending nothing had happened.
She had intended to invite You to eat together, but You refused, so she didn’t press further.
Being too intimate with her might not necessarily be good for You.
Moreover, she had no intention of promoting ideas of equality in this era. Every generation has its own way of living; deviating from one’s time would only lead to misery.
Zhao Yuanxi didn’t believe she had the power to change the world. All she could do was help those around her live better lives.
Around noon, the guard sent to Xianyang finally returned, bringing eight people with him.
“Are all these people mine now?” Zhao Yuanxi was both surprised and delighted. She didn’t mind that they were the King of Qin’s people—the more workers sent her way, the faster the farming would progress!
Gao Sheng carefully observed this imprisoned queen. Contrary to his expectations, her eyes showed no trace of despondency but instead blazed like fierce flames, resembling an eagle poised to soar into the heavens.
He had seen the queen from afar before. Back then, her eyes held only Marquis Changxin—a foolish woman unaware of her own folly.
At that time, Gao Sheng felt contempt. The esteemed queen of Qin was merely a woman blinded by love, and he assumed the King of Qin must be shortsighted too. But when he finally met the king, he understood what it meant to stand before a towering mountain—inspiring reverence and leaving no room for presumption.
Yet now, he saw the king’s imposing aura in the queen.
Zhao Yuanxi was pondering how to utilize these people, unaware that someone was secretly criticizing her in their heart.
“Are any of you literate?”
Out of eight people standing in a row, only two stepped forward—a young man and woman, both pleasant-looking.
Zhao Yuanxi asked the eunuch wearing brown Shenyi, “What’s your name and how old are you?”
“This humble servant is named Gao Sheng, eighteen years old.” Gao Sheng suppressed his inner excitement, hands clenched tightly beneath his robe, his lowered eyes concealing his ambition.
“And you?” Zhao Yuanxi turned to the palace maid beside him.
“This humble maid is called Changjin, fifteen years old.”
Dae Jang Geum?
Zhao Yuanxi felt slightly embarrassed and cleared her throat lightly. “From today onward, both of you will serve by my side.”
“Yes!”
“Yes—”
With the King of Qin’s permission, the guards no longer prevented Zhao Yuanxi from leaving the palace, only sending a team to follow behind her.
While the Qin palace interior was luxurious, beyond the palace walls and past the city tower lay only desolate scenery.
It was spring plowing season. People in the fields were busy working, but the young crops grew sparse and scattered.
Zhao Yuanxi saw a white-haired old farmer bending over to till the soil. Perhaps due to years of labor, his body was hunched in an unnatural posture. Behind him, a young child toddled unsteadily, burying seeds one by one into the earth.
“Though no land lies idle across the land, farmers still starve to death.” This verse seemed to materialize before Zhao Yuanxi’s eyes.
Though Qin had sparse population and abundant land, where an ordinary first-rank Gongshi could be allotted hundred mu of Qin land (equivalent to about thirty modern mu), this didn’t mean Qin people were prosperous.
Quite the opposite—due to limitations in farming techniques and seed quality, one modern mu typically yielded only about hundred jin of grain, merely one-tenth of modern yields. Qin’s taxes were extremely high, requiring one-third of harvests to be surrendered, sometimes even half during special periods.
A five-person family with hundred mu of Qin land would have only about two thousand jin of surplus grain annually. To eat their fill, they could only try to cultivate more land to sustain themselves.
This wasn’t just Qin’s problem—the Qianshou of the other six states all lived like this, except for nobles and wealthy gentry.
Zhao Yuanxi felt something blocking her throat. If she had initially come here with just a mission-completion mindset, now something seemed to be sprouting in her heart.
She wanted to do something—she urgently needed to do something!
“Your Majesty the Queen Dowager, we have arrived.” Gao Sheng lifted the curtain and helped Zhao Yuanxi descend from the carriage.
“Don’t call me Queen Dowager outside! Call me Madam!”
“Yes.”
Most land around Yongcheng was held by the Qin royal clan. The land Zhao Yuanxi currently possessed had been allocated to her by her nominal son.
But she seemed to have underestimated this land’s size!
This place didn’t just have hundred mu—it must have ten thousand mu.
Zhao Yuanxi’s eyes seemed to glow. Her nominal son might be temperamental, but he was truly generous!
She felt she had become a major landowner herself.
Pah, pah—what major landowner? That didn’t sound like anything good.
Moreover, she only had usage rights to this land—the actual landowner was her nominal son.
Zhao Yuanxi grabbed a handful of brown soil—it formed clumps when squeezed—
The soil quality was good, but unfortunately, due to excessive cultivation, the land was showing signs of degradation. If they continued with the same farming methods this year, they’d likely face poor harvests.
Even if she planted corn, the yield would definitely not reach a thousand catties per mu—this task was indeed not so easy to complete!
However, as an agricultural Ph.D. from two thousand years in the future, improving these ten thousand mu of farmland wouldn’t be difficult for her.
Once she grew the corn, she could use it to coax her cheap son. Given his clear distinction between rewards and punishments, her land holdings would likely multiply several times over.