When they got home, everyone was surprised at where they had caught the fish. Chen Laosi told them what had happened. Chen Laodie and the others were afraid that the fish was poisonous, so they let the chicken eat it first. When they found that it was not poisonous, they ate it with peace of mind.

Everyone speculated whether this kind of grass could be used to catch fish, and planned to have Chen Laosi try it in other ponds tomorrow. If it really could catch fish, then Laowu and the others would catch them, so they could have lots and lots of fish to eat.

The next day at noon, the family made fish soup and cooked all the fish they had caught. Zhou's uncles also got a bowl. Although the fish soup was a bit fishy and bitter, it was good to have meat to eat.

After trying it for a few days, Chen Laosi and his group concluded that this herb could indeed kill fish, but it was only effective in small ponds and not in rivers. However, they had eaten a lot of fish in the past few days, and there were no more fish to catch in the ponds.

For the next period of time, everyone worked tirelessly at home to make folding stools. Every few days, when they had collected about a hundred stools, Old Man Chen would have his eldest son and second son take them to town to sell.

As the Chen family sold about 400 folding stools, people in the town started selling imitation folding stools, and the price of folding stools gradually dropped from the initial thirty coins to twenty coins, eventually stabilizing at around ten coins.

After competitors began to appear, the Chen family sold over 600 folding stools when the price dropped to around 20 coins.

When the price of folding stools dropped to around ten coins, Old Man Chen discussed it with everyone and finally decided, "Everyone has worked hard these past few days. Now it's time for us to start preparing for planting. Besides, it's no longer worthwhile to spend time and effort making folding stools. Tomorrow, the eldest and second eldest sons will go to town to sell the remaining folding stools. After that, we will stop making them. Does anyone have any objections?"

Old Chen and Uncle Zhou both replied, "No objections!"

Old Man Chen said, "Since no one has any objections, we'll start dividing the money tomorrow after the eldest and second eldest sons come back from selling the folding stools."

After discussing it for a while, Uncle Zhou said, "In that case, we'll head back now."

Old Man Chen said, "In that case, after we divide the money tomorrow, I'll have the eldest son deliver it to you."

Uncle Zhou and the others declined, saying, "We're all family, no need to be so polite, so there's no need to give us any money."

Old Man Chen refused, saying, "No, brother, we should keep clear accounts even between brothers! Besides, you've been running around every day, working from morning till night, without complaining. Let's just roughly divide the money!"

Uncle Zhou and his family couldn't refuse, so they agreed and went home.

The next day, Chen Laoda and Chen Laoer returned after selling the folding stools and handed the money to Chen Laodie. Chen Laodie and Zhou Shi then started counting all the money they had earned from selling the folding stools during that time.

In the courtyard, Chen Kai and Xiao Tian roughly calculated that 450 folding stools priced at 30 wen were sold for a total of wen, 650 folding stools priced at 20 wen were sold for a total of wen, and 200 folding stools priced at 10 wen were bought for a total of 2000 wen. The total amount was wen, which is 28 taels and 500 wen.

After discussing it, Old Man Chen and Mrs. Zhou decided to send three taels of silver to each of Zhou's four maternal uncles.

After Old Man Chen and Mrs. Zhou finished calculating the money, they called everyone into the hall and asked Xiao Tian to calculate the amount each person would receive.

Xiao Tian roughly calculated that after deducting the money given to the Zhou family, there was still some money left. After deducting the official documents, there was 3,300 coins left. These were distributed among the families of Chen Laoda and Chen Laoer, and 790 coins each to the fourth and fifth sons. The remaining 140 coins were given to the children, with 20 coins given to each child.

Everyone was overjoyed after receiving the money, and they couldn't suppress their smiles.

Old Man Chen said with relief, "The money has been divided, and this matter is now settled. Let's start farming tomorrow."

The next morning, after breakfast, everyone in the family went to the fields to till the soil.

In the afternoon, Chen Kai wanted to go to the fields to take a look, so he took Xiao Tian and San Ya with him and carried a bucket of water to the fields to give water to Old Man Chen and the others.

"Dad, Mom, brothers and sisters-in-law, I've come to bring you water." Chen Kai's sweet voice came from before he even arrived.

Zhou immediately ran to the edge of the field and said happily, "You're such a good boy, my darling. It's hard to walk in the field, so don't come down. Just play on the edge of the field. Keep an eye on Xiaotian."

After dropping Chen Kai and Xiao Tian off at the fields, Daya went home to continue working.

The Chen family had two sleds. The eldest and second eldest Chen brothers pulled them from the front, while Zhou and her sisters-in-law supported them from the side. When they got tired, they took turns pulling. This was how everyone in the village did it. Agricultural technology in that era was backward, relying entirely on manpower, which was inefficient and time-consuming.

Although there are yellow cattle for sale in the town, they are expensive and ordinary families simply cannot afford them. The entire village only has two cows. The village chief owns one cow, and the other cow was a reward from the county magistrate because Anping Village had many children. It is considered common property of the village.

Because Anping Village has a large population, every household takes turns using the ox that was awarded by the government during planting season.

Every household in the village chipped in some money to have Chen Lao Er build an oxcart. When they weren't farming, the oxcart would be used to take people to the town market. Each person would earn one coin for each trip. The money earned and the cart were usually kept by the village head. Whenever the government distributed new seeds, the village head would use the money to buy seeds and then distribute them to the villagers.

The sleds in the Great Jin Kingdom are very heavy and cannot turn, nor can they plow deep. Moreover, the land here is not fertile, so usually half is plowed and half is left to rest. The land that is cultivated this year will rest next year, and the land that is not cultivated this year will be planted next year.

The people here don't compost or ferment manure, and there are no pesticides, so grain yields are very low.

Although the Chen family had a large population and was allocated a lot of land, they lacked manpower, so often some land remained uncultivated even after the planting season had passed.

Xiao Tian frowned and asked Chen Kai, "Do you have any way to help them?"

Chen Kai sighed and said, "Although I know some theoretical knowledge, I didn't study hard when I was in school. I need to think about the specific details more carefully."