Chapter 529 Plundering the People's Wealth

Since Dahe Village expanded, Wangjiadun has been adjacent to Dahe Village, and can be said to be the closest to Dahe Village.

Many people from Wangjiadun work in Dahe Village and have always followed in Dahe Village's footsteps. When Wang Lizheng mentioned this matter in the village, the villagers almost unanimously approved it. The only ones who did not approve were the widowed and orphaned people. The village covered the cost for them. Thus, Wangjiadun became the first village to sign a contract with Cheng Wanwan to borrow money to build a waterwheel.

With Wangjiadun taking the lead, some slightly wealthier villages, such as Lijia Gou, Chengjia Village, and Qingshuizhuang, followed suit. Soon after, the magistrates of Hekou County, Fenghuang County, and Baiyun County heard about the matter and rushed over to sign the contracts. Under this trend, the poor villages could no longer sit still. They couldn't let everyone else have an easy time while their own villagers were still struggling to carry water. So they went to Cheng Wanwan's house to borrow money and signed the contracts.

The waterwheel was designed by Lord Zou and his group, and Lord Shen gathered people to start the construction. He hired twelve carpenters and four blacksmiths, streamlined the process, mass-produced parts, and then assembled them. The construction period was about three months, which was just in time when cotton needed a lot of water to grow.

Among them, Cheng Wanwan was responsible for providing money to the villagers.

Despite the fact that the whole process involved many parties, none of them made a single penny. In fact, Lord Shen even paid out of pocket, both openly and secretly.

The task of Lord Zou and his group was actually completed after the cotton experiment. Later, in order to study the waterwheel, they stayed for more than half a month. After the waterwheel was developed, Lord Li and Lord Yu had other ideas. After communicating with Cheng Wanwan, they once again plunged into the room to do research, working day and night.

“Sui’an people, I must return to report. We need to get the prefect to issue an order to promote cotton as soon as possible so as not to miss the season.” Lord Zou stroked his beard and said, “Lord Li and the others will stay here to continue studying these agricultural tools, hoping to make new discoveries. This waterwheel… is truly amazing. If it weren’t for the guidance from Sui’an people, we probably wouldn’t have been able to figure it out even after twenty or thirty years. I will definitely report this matter to the court truthfully.”

Cheng Wanwan declined, saying, "This is all thanks to the esteemed officials; I only did the talking."

"People of Sui'an, please don't be so modest. I hope you will use your words more often in the future. This is a blessing for the people of our Great Yu Dynasty." Lord Zou stood up and cupped his hands. "We have done a good job this time. On behalf of Lord Li and the others, I would like to thank the people of Sui'an in advance."

After packing up, Lord Zou headed to Huzhou.

Three days later, the decree concerning cotton was issued from Huzhou, reaching all the counties and towns under Huzhou, and then the county magistrate notified the village heads.

The towns and counties near Ping'an County knew about this before the government order was issued and had already made ample preparations. When the first batch of cotton seedlings sprouted in Cheng Wanwan's area, people from various villages came to buy the seedlings.

Ten cotton seedlings cost one coin, and about two thousand seedlings can be planted on one acre of land. That means it costs about two hundred coins to plant one acre of land, a price that most people can accept.

It's only March now, so planting cotton is a bit early, but it's not impossible. People from each village took the cotton seedlings down to the fields. Some families had a lot of land and specially set aside one or two acres, while others had less land. So, following Cheng Wanwan's suggestion, they intercropped the cotton seedlings along the edges of the unharvested wheat fields. This way, the two crops could grow in the same field without affecting each other.

After the surrounding villages bought cotton seedlings, villages further away also came.

The village heads of these villages all came to purchase the goods collectively, and then transported them back to their villages for distribution. The village heads of dozens of villages came by oxcart.

Manager Yan and Zhao Dashan were in charge of handling this matter. They led the village heads to the seedling nursery and carefully explained the precautions for transplanting cotton seedlings, as well as the possible mortality rate. If there were no problems, they could pay on the spot and take the cotton seedlings away.

"Ten stalks for one coin? That's way too expensive!" An elderly village headman frowned. "I went to the city to buy rice seeds, and this big bag only cost a dozen coins. You're selling them for such a high price; you're robbing me!"

"That's right, that's right. People in Sui'an aren't short of money, how can they cheat us ordinary people?"

“We’ve come all this way, and traveled for most of the day, so let’s make it cheaper, how about twenty for one coin?”

"A packet of rice seeds costs only ten coins, and if you plant them, you can get several hundred rice seedlings. Twenty seedlings for one coin is still too expensive."

"..."

The crowd was buzzing with discussion.

Zhao Dashan said calmly, "The price of these cotton seedlings has already been announced. You all should have known the price before you came. If you couldn't accept it, you shouldn't have come. Since you're here, you shouldn't make a fuss about it."

In order to promote the program throughout Huzhou, the seedlings were started 20 days earlier this year. The temperature was not very stable, so many seedlings died. He was heartbroken. At one cent for ten seedlings, his family could not make any money at all. In fact, they lost money. They lost manpower and resources and wasted a lot of time.

Because my mother was from Sui'an, she felt it was her responsibility and obligation to help the imperial court promote cotton cultivation, so she never spoke of these losses.

But these people actually said that their mother cheated them!

Although Zhao Dashan was an honest man, he also had his own temper. He said coldly, "If you think it's too expensive, then leave. We're short of cotton seedlings anyway."

"Young man, how can you be so heartless?" The old man looked at him reproachfully. "I know you are the son of Sui'an people, but you can't just ignore us ordinary people like this."

Some people echoed, "Everyone says that the people of Sui'an care about the people, but I think it's all fake. Bah! They only know how to exploit us."

"Let's not buy cotton seedlings here. I heard that there's a merchant from the south in Wanquan County who brought cotton seeds from the south. You can buy a big bag for five coins, which is much better than this. Let's go and buy the seeds and raise the seedlings ourselves."

"It's only March now, it's still early. We'll grow our own seedlings and plant them ourselves, we won't rely on this damn Sui'an people."

A large group was coming together, marching in a grand procession.

Zhao Dashan walked home in a rage. He felt so sorry for his mother; all her sincerity had been wasted.

However, on his way home, the villagers of Dahe Village greeted him with smiles one by one. Some gave him some seasonal wild fruits to take back for his mother to try. Some children picked wild strawberries on the mountain, but they were reluctant to eat them themselves and forced them into his hands, saying that Aunt Zhao liked to eat them. On his way back, his hands and pockets were full of food given to him by the villagers.

His anger dissipated without him even realizing it.

It's true that some people don't appreciate it, but so many others remember their mother's kindness, and that's enough.

Back home, he washed the fruit and brought it to the flower room. He sat down with Cheng Wanwan and recounted the day's events in a relaxed tone.

Cheng Wanwan put down the book in her hand and raised an eyebrow in surprise: "They really aren't going to buy it? They really intend to buy the seeds from the southern merchants?"

Zhao Dashan nodded. Things have gotten this bad, those people probably won't come back. Otherwise, the people of Dahe Village would drown them with their spit.

Cheng Wanwan smiled and said, "They won't come back this year, but they will definitely come back next year."

Her seeds came from the market; they are a suitable variety cultivated by modern agriculture, easy to survive anywhere, and have a high yield per acre.

The cotton seeds that merchants brought from the south were accustomed to the southern climate and needed to be tempered by at least four or five generations to gradually adapt to the northern climate. In other words, in the first few years of planting, there were many dead seedlings, few flowers, few fruits, and poor quality. When comparing the two, those people realized how wrong they were.