Chapter 38： joyfully

  Chapter 38 Joyful

  Widow Qu's heart is full of calculations. It's good for Qu Yutao to go out and meet people more, maybe she will be right with someone?

  Zaihu Village is a very good choice.

  Her niece is already very good. If it is not because of her status, what kind of good people can't be found?

   Here in Lingnan, men and women are not so particular about defense.

  The matter was settled, and Qu Yutao happily followed Zhao Liya to Zaihu Village.

   Along the way, she was so excited that she kept chirping and asking questions.

She gave Zhao Liya the impression that she was gentle and quiet. She didn't expect to talk so much. Of course Zhao Liya was happy to have someone to talk with. She was very enthusiastic and told her everything carefully. The two of you talked to each other , They had a very happy conversation, and the more they talked, the closer they became, and they really looked like good sisters.

   Arriving at Zaihu Village, everyone was very happy to see Zhao Liya coming, and greeted with a smile.

  The 600 mu of land has been cleared up, and piles of weeds are all piled up on the edge. After drying, they can be burned with a fire.

   There are those that are fresher and tender, so I picked them back and put them in the pigsty and cattle pen.

The miscellaneous trees that were cut down cleared away all the twigs and leaves, and piled them up in piles. Brother Li Guangwu smiled enthusiastically at Zhao Liya: "Take this back and dry it so that it can be used as firewood. I will call two ox carts for it later." Miss Zhao, send it back."

Zhao Liya looked at the pile of firewood that looked like a hill. On the 600-acre land, there were countless piles of firewood that had been cleaned up. A bundle of roughly larger firewood in their house could be burned for more than half a month, just for cooking and boiling water. , I am afraid that so much firewood will be piled up as rotten wood and it will not be burnt out.

  Zhao Liya smiled and said: "We don't need so much, so how about it, brother Guangwu please help me find two bullock carts, and just send the two carts there, and share the rest."

  Everyone was very happy after listening, and thanked one after another.

   Now that the ground has been cleaned up, it's time to pay the wages for three days.

  The day before yesterday, Zhao Xiang went to the city to exchange copper coins and came back. Today Zhao Liya and Qu Yutao came over, just in time to distribute the wages to everyone.

  One hundred cash per person who has done the work is quite a windfall for each family, and everyone is happy.

  Before Zhao Liya and the others came, they counted the copper coins clearly, a string of one hundred coins, and handed all the money strings to the two elders of the Ruan family and the Li family.

The two clan elders led a dozen or so villagers who could count, and then spot-checked and counted dozens of strings. The numbers were correct, so they nodded and smiled. go down.

  Most of the villagers couldn't count to one hundred at all, but they believed in the patriarch, such a large and heavy string is very solid in the hand, so naturally there will be no shortage.

   Even if a few are missing, I don’t feel bad.

   Anyway, so many!

  Zhao Liya smiled at Qu Yutao: "If my cousin doesn't dislike it, why don't you turn around and follow my father to learn how to read and write, and make plans to learn arithmetic, so that it will be more convenient to do things in the future."

  Qu Yutao is also a very thoughtful girl. Knowing her status, getting married is not a good way out, but making money is the way to go. Hearing this, she was surprised and happy, and nodded quickly: "That's great! Can I really do it?"

  Zhao Liya nodded and smiled: "Of course!"

  The ground has been cleaned up, and the next step is to open up wasteland.

  Zhao Liya asked the farmers in the village to go to the field together to see if she wanted to open a canal to divert water, where would be the best place to dig?

   Also set aside about 30 acres of land to build sugar mills, various tool houses, warehouses, etc. Where is the best place to stay?

  Several veteran crop leaders are worthy of their rich experience. After some discussions and discussions, they seemed to point their fingers at the country, and finally came up with a reasonable planning route. And workshop reserved land.

   Zhao Liya expressed her gratitude, and quickly asked Brother Li Guangwu to lead a few people to dig shallow pits along the canal route and sprinkle lime to mark the width.

  The land reserved for workshops was also enclosed with lime.

The land reserved for workshops is located in the northwest corner of the entire plot. Zaihu Village left the village from the back mountain. The workshop can be held in sight. Once there is any abnormality, it can be easily found.

  Come down from the mountain ridge, and it won't take long to arrive.

  If it is calculated from Zaihu Village, from the back mountain to the workshop, the distance is about 20 minutes based on the normal walking speed of an adult. If you walk faster, you can reach it in less than fifteen minutes.

   Very convenient.

   Now that the matter is settled, the next step is to dig and prepare the ground.

   Planting sugarcane requires deep plowing of the land, at least to a depth of 20 centimeters, which is conducive to the growth of sugarcane roots.

   This matter is naturally left to the people in Zaihu Village, who are paid 20 Wen a day, and once every five days. Brother Li Guangwu was in charge of coordination, and Zhao Liya and Qu Yutao personally supervised the work and checked whether the depth of the land met the standard.

   Even if the speed of digging the ground is slower, it doesn't matter, this first step must not be perfunctory.

  After deep plowing, ditching and fertilization are required. Before the sugarcane is planted, the seeds are soaked in lime water with a concentration of about 2% for one day. This will make the sugarcane more drought-resistant and prevent pests and diseases to a certain extent.

  As for fertilization, Zhao Liya plans to use farmyard manure, so she has to find it in advance.

  Almost every household in Zaihu Village has pigs, and many have cattle. Compost and retting can be used as long as they are willing to sell it.

   But Zhao Liya needs a lot, and the compost in Zaihu Village is obviously not enough. So she hired another 20 people from the village, and went to Bajiaozhai and other villages next door to buy them. As long as they were retting compost and no manure was required, the big bamboo baskets in the village were filled with five cents a basket.

   Such a basket can sell for five cents, which is quite a bargain. A large pile of retting manure can hold more than one basket, some can hold more than a dozen baskets, and earn dozens of coins. When counting copper coins, the neighbors will not be envious.

   After all, this season is not the time of spring plowing when fertilizer is needed, why not sell it? As for the manure needed for spring plowing next year, isn't that simple? Just sprinkle more grass in the pigsty!

  When the ditching started, Hu Ling led the first batch of sugarcane seeds back from Suixi County.

   These sugarcane seeds were stacked in the yard of Uncle Ruan Gui’s house, and two large pits were dug in the open space outside his yard for soaking the seeds.

  That is, this time, the conditions are simple and can only make do.

  When the workshop is built, several ponds will be specially built with blue bricks for soaking seeds. Sugarcane species will also be stored in special warehouses.

  Fortunately, the people in Zaihu Village are simple and kind by nature, and the Zhao family has brought them extra income, which everyone cherishes, and there will be no moth behind their backs.

  Even if there were a few who were a little talkative, they were suppressed by Li Zheng and the patriarchs.

  Lizheng and the patriarchs thought more in their hearts, Zhao Xiangna was the number one scholar in the past, no matter how he is now, his knowledge must be good! They also hope that they can ask him to teach the children in the village in the future.

  (end of this chapter)