Cheng Zongyang's words caused Chen Kaishan to fall into deep thought.
He understood the need for manpower to till the land. He also understood that anyone who could farm—man or woman, young or old—would suffice.
However, he had no idea how Cheng Zongyang was cultivating these seeds, and he knew without a doubt that the other man would never tell him.
But to find that many people, he would need to communicate with his superiors. Still, anything could be justified in the name of profit—especially when they were only asking for insignificant death-row inmates and serious felons.
If Cheng Zongyang could provide two million jin the following year, that would mean a profit of one million taels of silver from selling the rice seeds alone. And that wasn't even counting the future profits from purchasing the harvested grain and reselling it.
If these rice seeds were sold to nations with food shortages or difficult farming conditions, the profits would be even greater.
