He has a spatial ability and saves three children on his escape route.

Chapter 121 Full of Harvests

Xia Yichen, carrying Wen Yuxia's painting of sugarcane and beets, led his guards in a month-long search through the vast mountains, but they couldn't even find a trace of sugarcane.

Today is a lucky day, because soon Xia Yichen will be able to see the sugarcane standing tall in the field.

An Yi was the first to discover the sugarcane. After spending two months in the mountains, An Yi missed the magnolia tree in Xia Yichen's mansion—no, he missed the little nest he had carefully built in the tree.

So whenever he had free time, he would leap up into the tree and gaze towards the capital. This morning, as usual, An Yi jumped onto a branch, longing for his little nest.

Suddenly, he spotted a sugarcane grove hidden at the edge of the woods. As a qualified bodyguard, no matter how excited he was inside, he shouldn't have shown any emotion on his face.

An Yi maintained his perpetually icy expression and coolly said, "Master, look, isn't that sugarcane standing there?"

Xia Yichen leaped and ran towards the sugarcane field. Indeed, the stalks standing in the ground were sugarcane, exactly as Wen Yuxia had drawn, and the colors matched Wen Yuxia's description.

Everyone sat on the ground, each with a sugarcane in hand. According to Wen Yuxia, they peeled the sugarcane, chewed it, swallowed the juice, and then spat out the pulp.

"So sweet," Li Jiating said with a grin. The Emperor had already entrusted him with the management of the sugar factory and the alcohol workshop. To make sugar, they needed to find the sugarcane or sugar beets that Wen Yuxia had mentioned.

The green grass on the ground had turned yellow and withered, and it wasn't the right season to look for sugar beets. Their only hope was sugarcane, but Wen Yuxia said it was the peak season for sugarcane.

In fact, beetroots can be preserved in the ground for about three months. Since Xia Yichen and the others did not see the beet leaves, they naturally did not know where the beetroots were buried.

"Jia Ting, send a group of soldiers from nearby to help harvest the sugarcane," Xia Yichen said, having finished his meal and wiping the sugarcane juice from his hands. He then handed the military tally to Li Jia Ting.

The military tally in Xia Yichen's hand was different from that of the generals guarding various regions. His tally was engraved with the words "Royal," and with it, he could command troops throughout the Great Xia Dynasty.

The Emperor's intention in carving this military tally was clear: to prevent the generals guarding the borders from becoming too powerful. The reason he entrusted the royal military tally to Xia Yichen was because Xia Yichen was his designated successor.

The imperial military tally cannot be lost in the slightest. When the Emperor entrusted the tally to Xia Yichen, he said that if necessary, the tally must be destroyed rather than fall into the hands of outsiders.

Li Jiating went to mobilize troops alone with the royal military tally. Xia Yichen was worried about him, so he sent half of his secret guards to follow and secretly protect Li Jiating and the royal military tally.

Gu Zhuangzhuang sent someone to inquire when the No. 3 fruit wine, which had been distilled and bottled, could be transported to the tavern. Wen Yuxia was eager to taste the citrus wine, which was ready to be brewed.

That afternoon, they took Bei Yi and Bei Er out of Beijing to a farm in the suburbs. Looking at the jars of citrus wine displayed in the storeroom,

Wen Yuxia said with a faint smile, "Manager Gu, call all the workers from the distillery over so everyone can taste it together."

The orange-yellow citrus wine was poured into a bowl, the rich aroma of oranges mixed with a faint fragrance of wine. Wen Yuxia picked up the bowl and took a deep breath. It was fragrant, sweet, and smelled wonderful.

"Tomorrow I'll send a jar of fruit wine to the palace. The day after tomorrow, you should deliver fruit wine number 3 to the tavern first thing in the morning. Also, tell Manager Zhou that fruit wine number 3 is priced at three taels and one mace of silver per catty," Wen Yuxia said thoughtfully.

The Emperor is her greatest backer. Sending the newly brewed wine to the Emperor for his first tasting is a sign of respect, and this must be maintained consistently.

Slightly raising the price of fruit wine would not only boost sales but also increase profits. Wen Yuxia decided that three taels of silver per jin (500 grams) would be the minimum price for pomegranate wine, and subsequent new fruit wines would be priced one to five qian (3.5-4.5 grams) higher.

With a fruity flavor and a hint of alcohol, citrus wine became an instant hit with wealthy ladies and young women upon its release.

To expedite the purchase of citrus fruits, Wen Yuxia returned to the estate on the outskirts of Beijing. The cellar beneath the main courtyard was not used for storing wine; all three cellar entrances were locked. The cellars had become a place for Wen Yuxia to store her personal belongings.

Wen Yuxia opened the cellar entrance in the corridor and went into the cellar alone, while Bei Yi and Bei Er guarded the entrance to prevent others from peeping into the cellar's secrets.

The cellar was filled with grain, cloth, cotton, salt, sugar, and other supplies, all of which Wen Yuxia had moved there using her spatial manipulation device.

Standing on the stone steps at the cellar entrance, Wen Yuxia gently waved her hand, and the mountain of supplies piled up in the villa and the vegetable garden in the backyard was moved to the only open space in the cellar.

She reserved the open space specifically for storing her spatial supplies. Every time she went shopping, Wen Yuxia would empty all the supplies from her spatial storage.

Leaving the farm, the three of them rode south on horseback. The tangerines in the south were even sweeter. Wen Yuxia planned to travel south, buying as she went, and return to the capital when her storage space was full.

After the first batch of sugarcane was transported to the capital, Xia Yichen's luck improved considerably. He discovered sugarcane fields one after another, and batch after batch of sugarcane was sent towards the capital.

Wen Yuxia traveled south, buying up large quantities of citrus fruits wherever she went. Her aggressive purchasing caused a slight increase in citrus prices in the areas she passed through, bringing smiles to the faces of local fruit farmers.

Ten days later, the space was filled with tangerines. Wen Yuxia, still not satisfied, waved her hand and instructed Bei Yi to rent twenty carriages from the carriage shop.

With twenty cartloads of tangerines, the master and servants set off on their journey back to the capital, completely satisfied.

Meanwhile, the sugar factory and alcohol workshop built by Zhang Jinxuan at the royal manor on the outskirts of Beijing were also completed. The tools for pressing sugarcane were drawn from Wen Yuxia's imagination.

A thick, round wooden pestle stands upright in the ground. A hole is drilled about three feet above the ground, and then the opening is carved out to create a space just big enough to hold the sugarcane.

Then, a small wooden stick is inserted through the hole, squeezing the sugarcane and causing the juice to flow down. A bamboo tube is nailed below the hole to collect the juice, which then flows into a wooden basin on the ground.

Zhang Jinxuan has already juiced cabbage and carrots, proving that the juicing tool provided by Wen Yuxia is very useful.

The first batch of sugarcane arrived at the sugar factory, and Zhang Jinxuan personally took charge of pressing the sugarcane juice. Since Wen Yuxia wasn't in Beijing, Zhang Jinxuan didn't dare press too much; he stopped after extracting two basins of juice.

Next, the sugarcane juice needs to be boiled into sugar. Zhang Jinxuan boiled the sugarcane juice into syrup according to the recipe written by Wen Yuxia. During the boiling process, he kept skimming off and discarding the foam floating on the surface of the pot. Finally, he poured the syrup into a special wooden container.

Zhang Jinxuan rubbed his sore arm and said happily, "It's done!"

What followed was a long wait. After the syrup solidified, the sugar cubes were cut into powder with a knife. Once it was confirmed that the sugar had been successfully made, Zhang Jinxuan excitedly shouted, "Let's get started!"