The Comeback of the Cannon-Fodder Supporting Actress

Chapter 1032: Chapter 1009: Glory Amidst Chaos 77

After Xiao Yuan had occupied half of the South, it was already time for the New Year before he could stabilize the situation.

This year’s New Year was extremely busy for the Xiao Family.

Since Old Madam had recently passed away, the New Year celebrations were not grand. Anning merely found a good embroidery woman to make two sets of new clothes for each child, while the girls of the house wore two additional sets of jewelry; everything else was kept simple.

No red lanterns were hung in the manor, nor were couplets pasted, making the New Year very plain.

On New Year’s Eve, Xiao Jue went to invite the Old Master to celebrate the New Year with him, but the Old Master refused and spent the New Year alone in his small courtyard.

Fortunately, there were people to serve him in that courtyard, so he was not lonely.

After the New Year, Anning became even busier.

She was busy overseeing the spring planting while traveling to the various counties and villages of Southern Yi, inspecting the fields. As the weather warmed, last year’s autumn rice and wheat were ready to be harvested.

Anning’s experiments with sweet potatoes and potatoes were almost ready for harvesting as well, and she planned to dedicate a manor to planting them and improving the varieties.

Xiao Yuan was also extremely busy.

He needed to stabilize the situation and gather useful information from the spies he had sent out to various places.

Additionally, Xiao Yuan had to deal with the northern court.

Now, with rebellions in the northwest and southwest, and people in various parts of Jiangnan struggling to make a living and revolting, Da Qi was engulfed in chaos. At this point, Xiao Yuan thought it better not to act. He sent a letter to Emperor Jingqing to pay his respects and requested an official position.

Emperor Jingqing was already overwhelmed with suppressing bandits in all directions and was powerless to conquer Southern Yi. Xiao Yuan’s request for an official position expressed submission to Emperor Jingqing, which made him pleased.

To Emperor Jingqing, Southern Yi was a wild and worthless land. It didn’t matter if someone occupied it, as long as the occupier didn’t have intentions of rebelling against the court and was willing to serve; this was good.

Thus, Emperor Jingqing generously appointed Xiao Yuan as Marquis Zhenan, implying that he should oversee Southern Yi and also suggesting giving the land of these southern prefectures to Xiao Yuan.

With the imperial decree issued, Xiao Yuan had legitimate authority to occupy the Southern Barbarian Prefectures, allowing him to act more expansively.

He built several salt fields by the sea for drying sea salt and established several glass factories for producing glass, along with many factories for crafting delicate items.

Meanwhile, Anning began encouraging some people to plant cotton and rear silkworms. She improved the spinning wheels and looms, producing cotton threads that were finer and more resilient, and cotton cloth that was especially soft and delicate.

Additionally, Anning created a tie-dyeing technique that produced beautifully colored and patterned fabrics, naturally increasing the fabric’s value.

The dyed fabrics from Southern Yi were sold everywhere and transported to the South Ocean to exchange for precious spices, gemstones, jade, and pearls.

In this bustling activity, the season for harvesting rice and wheat arrived quickly.

In many areas of Southern Yi, Anning had provided rice and wheat seeds last year, and during harvest time, Anning and Xiao Yuan specifically went to inspect them.

In high-quality water fields, over a thousand pounds of rice could be harvested per acre, even medium-quality fields could yield eight or nine hundred pounds, and wheat yields were exceptionally high, often exceeding a thousand pounds per field.

This astonished the officials accompanying Xiao Yuan for inspection, leading from surprise to sheer joy.

With such high-yield grains, unless Southern Yi faced major disasters, in a few short years, these prefectures would become prosperous.

After the counties in Southern Yi Prefecture had harvested their grain, Anning exchanged other grains for these quality seeds from the people, distributing them to various prefectures for planting.

Previously, Xiao Yin had specially asked her to train the naval forces for public relations work, informing the prefectures’ people that Third Young Master had provided grain seeds for everyone to plant, which had been planted across Southern Yi last year with particularly high yields, some rice yielding over a thousand pounds per acre.

With these real data, the people naturally were willing to plant them.

Once the grain seeds were distributed, people across the counties began planting these excellent rice and wheat.

Anning also planted sweet potatoes and potatoes in the manor, with special personnel assigned to care for them, recording their growth daily.

After over a year of development, the Southern Barbarian Prefectures had become very prosperous.

During this time, Da Qi faced constant disasters everywhere, and there were uprisings among the homeless, making life particularly difficult for the people.

Meanwhile, Xiao Yuan sent people to various places to promote the stability and prosperity of Southern Yi, attracting many people to migrate south and live here.

The population of the Southern Barbarian Prefectures nearly doubled, while in many parts of Da Qi, nine out of ten households were empty, but in Southern Yi’s villages, smoke wafted from the chimney; some areas of Da Qi looked desolate, but everywhere in Southern Yi felt thriving and prosperous.

Besides the population growth, major roads were paved, and cement roads reached the villages. Anning and Xiao Yuan also established many workshops, generating impressive profits.

Moreover, Xiao Yuan established schools in the countryside of Southern Barbarian Prefectures to cultivate talent, dividing them into male and female schools, encouraging children of the village to attend. Every child aged six and above could go to school, and in some places, attendance was even mandated, with penalties for not sending sons and daughters to school.

Of course, these schools were all free.

In addition to free schools, Xiao Yuan also invited many doctors from Da Qi to Southern Yi, helping them set up numerous clinics to provide medical care for the villagers.

During this year, with the planting of high-quality seeds, the people of the Southern Barbarian Prefectures lived particularly abundantly.

This area, vast and sparsely populated, provided everyone with their own farmland, ranging from ten to dozens of acres.

Previously, with low yields, the harvest from ten acres barely sufficed for living after the autumn tax.

Back then, high-quality water fields only produced about three hundred pounds of rice a year, totaling just several thousand pounds from ten acres.

But things were different now. High-quality water fields supported two crops per year, yielding over a thousand pounds per acre per crop, resulting in over two thousand pounds annually, equivalent to around thirty thousand pounds from ten acres, which was more than enough for consumption.

Some families planted dozens of acres, harvesting tens of thousands of pounds of rice annually.

Since Xiao Yuan took charge of Southern Yi, he redesigned the agricultural taxes, significantly reducing the autumn tax, prohibiting officials from imposing arbitrary taxes, preventing clerks from collecting excessive taxes, and made the autumn tax transparent, informing people of the accurate amount due, and allowing them to report if overcharged.

Therefore, the local governance became quite clean, certainly better than before.

Originally, the tax rate was four out of ten, but Xiao Yuan reduced it to two out of ten, stating that it would be even less in the future.

If a family harvested fifty thousand pounds of rice a year, they would only have to pay ten thousand pounds in tax, leaving forty thousand pounds for themselves, and even with three meals a day of white rice, it wouldn’t be used up, leaving them with a plentiful life.

The people of Southern Yi almost treated Xiao Yuan like a revered figure.

Xiao Yuan was like a deity in Southern Yi, and if anyone spoke ill of him, the citizens would intervene before the government could, and the people might verbally berate them to death.

For those with a bad temper, if anyone dared to criticize Xiao Yuan before them, they truly might draw a knife and fight them.

As the people would say, anyone scolding Mr. Xiao is simply tired of a good life.

If Mr. Xiao is not good, who is?

Mr. Xiao not only ensured everyone had enough food and clothing, but also built smooth roads and established schools everywhere, allowing both sons and daughters to study. Mr. Xiao worried about people’s illnesses and invited many doctors specifically to treat citizens, thinking about everything for their sake, what else could they desire?

Mr. Xiao managed everyone such that they were free from concerns of food and clothing, not afraid of disease, able to afford treatment, and even let their children study. Even one’s own parents might not outdo him.

Indeed, before Mr. Xiao came, could any common family guarantee their children could study and learn literate skills? Promise three meals a day of rice to satisfy hunger? Ensure meat once in ten or half a month?

No kidding, just being able to fill one’s belly with thin rice porridge was truly fortunate.

Now, the people of Southern Barbarian Prefectures sing praises of Xiao Yuan from their hearts.