Chapter 249 – Changing the Map for Live Streaming (Part 4)
“Young Master, you absolutely mustn’t…”
Xu Ke, quick-witted and fast, tried to stop Jiang Pengji from heading down to help.
It wasn’t that he thought her noble status meant she shouldn’t work like a farmer, it was just that things were already chaotic enough—he didn’t want her to add to the confusion!
Jiang Pengji turned her head, puzzled, and asked Xu Ke, “Why are you stopping me? It’s not like there are any monsters in the fields…”
At that moment, the audience in the live stream was already transforming into teachers, “hand-holding” Jiang Pengji with text, teaching her how to farm. Even if she didn’t know before, she could now regurgitate the instructions given by her live stream pals… Xu Ke was underestimating her.
Xu Ke was at a loss for words, and after a while he said, “The Young Master has an immensely noble status; how could you work like a peasant…”
Jiang Pengji tilted her head to look at him, her eyes glimmering, and she delivered the blunt remark.
“Speak plainly.”
Xu Ke’s face turned pale, and after a moment he mumbled, “It’s busy harvest time; please don’t add to the chaos, Young Master.”
Jiang Pengji: “…”
She didn’t want to look up at the live stream screen filled with laughter. She used to feel sorry for Xu Ke, but this time it was her turn to be pitied.
【Old Driver Alliance】: Hahaha, give this straightforward boy a candle! He really said that out loud.
【Drunkenly Slaying White Snakes Soup】: I was drinking something and almost choked! Xu Ke, my dude, what are you doing? Even if he thinks that way, he shouldn’t just blurt it out! I think the host’s expression is about to change; oh boy, young master, you better watch out for some trouble.
【Ink Dance in Flower Stream】: #Chin Propping, Young Master Xu Ke is breaking the mold. Normally, he’d be secretly touched; after all, the host is willing to stoop to work in the fields, and that’s a quality of a wise monarch. Yet, he’s acting all condescending!
【Cloud Qiming Meow】: Does anyone remember the host’s origins? By the way, in her era, could they even see crops?
Seriously doubting if the host even knows which one is grain and which one is straw.
Jiang Pengji felt like she’d been shot in the knee; she had indeed never seen real crops.
It’s like the viewers in the live stream have never seen a pig run but have eaten pork.
But that doesn’t mean they should look down on her knowledge!
【Host V】: Aren’t you all guiding me with your messages?
【Old Driver Alliance】: Most of them just searched it online; not sure how useful it is.
Jiang Pengji: “…”
【Baby Milk】: Honestly, I’m really curious. In the host’s era, there should still be farming, right? Did they use fully automatic machines for harvesting?
Jiang Pengji silently made eye contact with Xu Ke, who was not budging at all. Feeling frustrated, she squatted on the field edge, propping her chin on her hands as she watched the hardworking farmers.
While it seemed like she was losing, she was actually chatting with the audience in the live stream.
【Host V】: Do you know what being a landowner meant in my time? Two words—rich!
The audience in the live stream gasped, sending a series of exclamatory messages.
How much could farming earn?
Jiang Pengji thought for a moment and came up with a vivid analogy to give them a rough idea.
【Host V】: You all know the Dongqing Land Map, right? You also understand the general area of the kingdom.
The audience nodded, as the Dongqing Land Map was hung up in her study; it was hard not to see it.
Speaking of land area, it was roughly one-sixth the size of Huaguo, perhaps slightly larger.
This conclusion came from a data whiz in the live stream, who combined various information based on what the host shared.
And then what?
【Host V】: That vast area is roughly equivalent to a mid-sized farm.
In other words, the Emperor of Dongqing has less land area than a mid-sized landowner in her era.
The audience was left speechless: “…”
【Old Driver Alliance】: I may have drunk fake alcohol and watched fake stream… Suddenly I can’t look at the word ‘landowner’ the same way anymore.
【Little Ghost】: Can’t look +1, suddenly feel like my rural household registration seems fancier now.
【Moonlight Treasure Box】: Can’t look +2, urban household registrations are trembling in fear.
A farm the size of one-sixth of Huaguo’s territory? Completely unimaginable.
But with such a large farm, could one landowner handle it alone?
They assumed it could be managed, but they just couldn’t picture how that would work out.
【Old Driver Alliance】: Wait a minute, I think I’ve stumbled upon a terrifying fact. If there are farms that big in the host’s era, obviously the Earth can’t satisfy the needs of such landowners, there must be agricultural planets, right?
In other words, the host’s era has entered a stage of interstellar development, just like what many sci-fi novels imagine, the universe is filled with various habitable planets, and some are specially allocated for farming, giving rise to such terrifying landowners.
The viewers in the stream were pumped up and ready to go!
Jiang Pengji had no idea what the viewers were hyped about. She quietly watched a few tenant farmers in a field collaborate for mutual benefit.
The audience was unable to visualize how a landowner managed a farm as vast as Dongqing, because they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes. And before she had seen a harvest scene, she couldn’t imagine farmers actually harvested grains like this…
Seeing Jiang Pengji so quiet, Xu Ke felt uneasy and switched tactics, “If the Young Master is truly curious, it would be better to let an experienced tenant farmer guide you… These grains might seem trivial, but if harvested improperly, one could easily experience back strain or cuts…”
Jiang Pengji turned to him and said, “Then go find a tenant farmer to come over.”
The viewers in the live stream could only copy and paste search results; they weren’t much better than her.
Xu Ke had no choice but to get up and look for an experienced old tenant farmer, hoping his Young Master would retreat upon realizing the difficulty and not cause more trouble.
“Why not use tools?” Jiang Pengji, with limited knowledge of ancient times, couldn’t imagine what it was like in this era. Even after coming here and searching information from books and the outside world, she still needed to see things for herself; without tangible items in her mind, she couldn’t visualize anything.
The old tenant farmer, with trembling hands, replied, “To answer the Young Master, we do have farming tools, but they’re scarce, and oxen are precious… Generally, three or four households share. After one household is done harvesting, then it’s the next one’s turn. If experienced, the efficiency isn’t too slow…”
In truth, it still relied more on human labor than the power of tools.
Following where the old tenant farmer pointed, Jiang Pengji saw farmers in a certain field using crude tools and frowned slightly.
Relying on human strength to harvest grains? She simply couldn’t fathom that.
Not to mention those big landowners, even small landowners would likely never finish harvesting crops if they relied solely on one farmer.
To put it simply, the machinery in this era was too backward, relying only on manpower, without the aid of any external forces.
