The farmers were busy in the fields, a scene little different from what Chong Houhu had imagined. They did not want outsiders like High Officials and nobles interfering, but they could not defy orders.
Most of the farmers wore short tunics with short sleeves. Ever since the sweater-and-mounted-archery initiative at the end of last year had removed all restrictions of etiquette on clothing, they had discovered the advantage of such clothes-convenience.
Especially when working in the fields, short tunics and sleeves had become standard attire. They did not pick up dirt easily and were easy to wash. The farmers carried load after load of composted manure on shoulder poles, tipping and spreading it over the fields, complaining about the stink while joking and laughing.
At that moment, the farmers were deeply conflicted. Both the short tunics and sleeves and the manure fertilizer had come from King Zhou. Both made farming easier, allowing people like them, who scraped a living from the soil, to enjoy better lives.
Yet King Zhou had also sent High Officials who knew nothing about farming to make a mess of things, leaving them unsure whether to laugh or cry.
Watching this scene he had never witnessed before, Chong Houhu sighed inwardly. He had been a marquis for decades, yet he had never known how people farmed.
This was the first layer of King Zhou's intent: to let the High Officials learn how the common people farmed during their time in the countryside. Only then could they govern better and handle agricultural affairs. How could an official who did not even know how crops grew in the fields encourage farming or devise policies that benefited farmers?
Besides, there were benefits for the nobles as well. King Zhou hoped they could experience the hardships of common life and