Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 340 Gold Mountain, Silver Mountain, Barren Mountain

Except for the mountain on the north, the slope of the four mountains is slightly steeper. There are many trees on the mountain. Looking from a distance, they are high and low, so there must be some treasures there.

The slopes of East Mountain and South Mountain are relatively gentle, and there are not many trees. There are only some low bushes and weeds half a person's height. There should be no treasures.

The slope of the mountain on the west side is very uneven, and the mountain is overgrown with weeds. There are not even many thick trees, so there should be no treasures.

All I can say is that the terrain of each mountain is different, but basically there are no treasures. Even if there are, I guess they won’t be many or valuable.

In addition to the four mountains of Hualei, there are 20 to 30 similar barren mountains of different sizes in the north and west. Therefore, the four mountains of Hualei should be considered to be in the southeast corner of this barren mountain area.

The flower buds looked strange. According to the not-so-steep slope, it shouldn't be a barren mountain. Barren mountains are usually because ordinary people can't climb them and there are few people. Therefore, no one manages them, which leads to overgrown vegetation and barren mountains. This is obviously not the case here.

Hualei looked around the barren mountain. There were no large villages within a few miles. Occasionally, there were a few families living at the foot of the mountain in the distance. It was unclear whether they were farmers or hunters. Therefore, no one came here.

Generally speaking, it should be because there are too few people in the North City. Unlike the South City, there are a large number of people who escaped from famine in the past few years, and the mountains here are barren and there is nothing to harvest.

The common people also looked down on it, because other mountains and forests with rich vegetation were enough for them to pluck on a regular basis, so they were even more reluctant to come here. Over time, this place became the barren mountain it is today.

Looking at the barren mountain in front of her, Hualei was a little at a loss. What did Emperor Shengwu mean by this? Aren't the rewards already given? Why did he reward himself with a barren mountain?

There is nothing here. What use can I be of? Even some birds hiding among the weeds will run away when they see people.

Could it be that he wanted me to open up wasteland? This was unlikely. I was already busy with several farms at home, so it was very unrealistic to want to open up wasteland.

To transform this barren mountain, a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources are needed. Although I have some money in my pocket, it is still very stressful to use it to reclaim this thousand acres of barren mountain.

What Hualei didn't know was that the Great Sheng Dynasty was actually vast, but the population was still relatively small. When the capital was established here, there were many barren mountains and wastelands around, but not many people. Therefore, for such a long time, the court has devoted a lot of energy to the transformation of the wasteland.

Since Emperor Shengwu came to power, he has used many methods to develop more wasteland into fertile fields, either by getting wealthy families to buy the land or by letting the common people rent and cultivate it.

After all, having enough food and clothing is the most important thing in life, so there is basically no wasteland around Shangjing City now, and the barren mountains have been put on hold for the time being.

There are still many barren mountains around Shangjing City. After all, there are many mountains to the north of Shangjing City, and the area is also very large.

There are many big mountains that are not barren mountains. Hunters and ordinary people usually go to the deep mountains with many trees to hunt and pick mushrooms.

For a barren mountain with only low bushes, mushrooms usually don't grow as well or as many as those in other mountains. There is even less prey, so many people are unwilling to patronize here. There are no villages nearby, so this barren mountain is sparsely populated.

On the one hand, the wasteland developed in Shangjing City is enough for the common people to cultivate, after all, the productivity is very low. On the other hand, the common people certainly do not have the money to buy these barren hills, so for these barren hills, the common people are unwilling to spend energy to open up the wasteland except for plowing them for free on weekdays.

Although the wealthy and powerful families have money, they only buy things. They definitely prefer to buy green mountains with good trees and high output, and are unwilling to buy these barren mountains, so the barren mountains have remained barren until now.

Although Emperor Shengwu also tried many methods to turn barren mountains into green mountains, on the one hand he lacked money, and on the other hand it was indeed more difficult to transform barren mountains than to transform wasteland, and the output was not necessarily more than that of fertile fields. Therefore, the people were not as enthusiastic about transforming barren mountains as they were about transforming wasteland.

Emperor Shengwu had previously awarded some barren mountains to officials who had made contributions, but after the officials accepted them with gratitude, they were not enthusiastic about the transformation of the barren mountains.

At most, a few trees were planted here and there, but due to poor care, many of the trees did not survive, so the barren mountain remained barren. After all, there was a lack of fertilizer in the fields, let alone on the barren mountain.

However, after he personally visited the puddles in the South City District and Baihua Manor, and later asked the shadow guards to investigate carefully, Emperor Shengwu discovered that this girl named Hua Lei, although young, was very methodical in her work.

All the crops planted and raised in the puddles are linked together, with each producing and selling its own products, leaving no one missing out.

Even the usually inconspicuous pig bristles brought her huge economic benefits, and she made use of the chicken, duck and goose feces to produce many positive chain effects.

Therefore, Emperor Shengwu specially rewarded Hua Lei with a barren mountain this time. He wanted to see what Hua Lei would do.

If Hualei does a good job, the tens of thousands of acres of barren hills behind can follow Hualei's model, just like the puddles in the southern city area.

By then, this barren mountain will really become a gold mountain, and he can make a lot of money to fill the national treasury. Because he believed that Hua Lei would not give up this barren mountain easily like those other rewarded officials.

However, the facts were somewhat beyond Emperor Shengwu's expectations. It had been almost a month since the barren mountain was awarded as a reward, and Hua Lei had happily gone to the Ministry of Rites to kowtow and express gratitude and take away the land deed.

After visiting the barren mountain several times, there was no action. Could it be that this girl was also helpless against the barren mountain? Emperor Shengwu was somewhat suspicious.

In fact, Hualei was helpless on the one hand, and on the other hand, she was too busy on the farm. The second half of the year was the busiest season, so Hualei couldn't spare any manpower to do what he wanted. Recently, Hualei only hated herself for not having a few more eyes, because she almost didn't have time to check the account books every day.

Fortunately, Xiao Kong was very helpful. She sorted out many lists and account books, which relieved Hualei of a lot of burden.

The orders for cured meat and sausages at Huayingzhuang have been booming recently. Because of the incident in which Mr. Zhao wanted to get duck feathers for free and ruin his reputation, many people don't dare to have any other thoughts and most of them just send live chickens and ducks.