Chapter 325: Gao Zhuang's Choice

While Huang Dazhi was busy making various efforts to get married, Gao Mingcheng was already standing on Xiaofu Mountain and making a complete plan for the entire mountain.

Three hundred acres of mountain land is not big, but it is definitely not small either.

A batch of sugar oranges have been planted before. Some of them died, but most of them are still alive. As the weather gradually gets warmer, they will come back to life.

As for the planning of Xiaofushan, we had already made a rough plan before, and now that we are about to plant trees, we have to make the plan more detailed.

Then he started looking for people to do the work.

He looked for the people who had worked for him before, and before the spring ploughing, he cleaned up the entire mountain again, picking up all the large rocks, dead tree roots, etc.

Then terraces need to be dug on the steep slopes to facilitate tree planting and subsequent fruit picking.

Someone was invited to be in charge of the land leveling, while Gao Mingcheng himself took an axe and went to the remaining fir and pine trees.

These trees have always grown here and are good wood, so last year, since Gao Mingcheng was not in a hurry to plant fruit trees, he did not cut them down.

But now a large number of fruit seedlings are about to arrive, so these trees will have to make room.

He kept the fir for making furniture, and the pine could be cut into sections to grow Poria cocos.

After the tree is cut down, the bark must be peeled and the branches removed, then the trunk must be moved to a shady place to dry. The branches and other items must be piled in a firewood pile and slowly dried before being burned as firewood.

After finishing all this, Gao Mingcheng took a shovel and a sieve to the place where the Polygonatum sibiricum seeds were previously hidden in the sand. He dug out the soil inside and then used the sieve to sift out the seeds.

The cultivation of Polygonatum sibiricum is rather troublesome. When the seeds mature in autumn, they must be stored in sand to keep them moist until late March of the following year, when the seeds can be screened out and sown.

These polygonatum are not planted in the mountains, but on the flat land at the foot of the mountain. First, dig out the furrows, then evenly spread them in the shallow furrows on the furrow surface with a row spacing of about 15 cm, cover them with soil about 1.5 cm, press them slightly, water them, and finally cover them with a layer of grass to keep them moist.

After doing this, you can leave it alone for now and just wait for it to sprout. If you notice that it is about to sprout, you must quickly remove the grass covering it to facilitate the growth of the seedlings.

After that, it is not much different from growing vegetables, except that if the plants are too dense, thin them out; if they are afraid of the sun, provide shade; and you can transplant them after a year.

Wild Polygonatum likes to grow under the shade of trees, so the planted Polygonatum naturally also has to meet the conditions of shade. If it is in later times, you can cover it with a black shade net.

But now, let alone whether there are any or not, even if there are, Gao Mingcheng doesn't need them for the time being, because he only got a few seeds and the planting is not on a large scale, so there is no need to pull a shade net. He only needs to plant some taller plants on the ridges. Corn is a good choice. It can not only provide shade for the Polygonatum, but also harvest a batch of corn, which is killing two birds with one stone.

While Gao Mingcheng was busy with these things, Gao Zhuang would come to help from time to time.

Seeing him coming again, Gao Mingcheng put down his work and said, "Gao Zhuang, have you thought about what I told you last time?"

As soon as Gao Mingcheng came back, he found Gao Zhuang and told him that he wanted to take him to the city to do business.

Because this decision must be made early, you should rent out your family's land to others before the spring plowing season. Otherwise, after the spring plowing season, it will be difficult to rent out the land, and you will not be willing to continue farming on it.

By then, it will be delayed for another year.

When asked about this, Gao Zhuang was confused. He sat down on a rock and said, "My grandmother asked me to go to the county with you to do business and make money, but she wanted to stay in the village to farm. As for Xiuman, my grandmother wanted Xiuman to stay in the village to take care of the child, saying that the child was still young and it was not good for her to run around everywhere."

Gao Zhuang's daughter was only one month old, so she was still young. If she went to the county with him, she would not be able to help for the time being, but if she did not go with him, the couple would be separated again.

"Brother Mingcheng, my grandma and Xiuman want to stay in the village. I've thought about it and decided not to go to the county." Gao Zhuang stated his decision in a firm tone.

Who doesn't want to make money? But Gao Zhuang can't make this money.

His family was small, and he was really worried about leaving his grandmother and Xiuman at home to take care of the children and farm.

Another thing is that he was reluctant to be separated from his baby daughter. Gao Zhuang, who had just become a dad, really liked taking care of children. He would feel uncomfortable if he didn't hold the child for a day.

Gao Mingcheng listened and said, "How about this, I'll go to your house for dinner tonight and talk about this with your grandmother."

Gao Zhuang looked at him, thought about it, and did not refuse.

That evening, after Gao Mingcheng finished his work in the fields, he went to his grandmother's house carrying a small basket of eggs.

When he was in the county, Zhang Chengyuan helped take care of the chickens and sheep at home.

Zhang Chengyuan did not keep the eggs laid by the chickens, but put them in the drawer of the cupboard. When Gao Mingcheng came back, he found that there were already quite a few eggs.

When Gao Mingcheng carried the eggs over, the food had just been taken out of the pot and was still steaming on the table.

Seeing him coming, the grandmother smiled and greeted him: "Mingcheng, wash your hands and come to eat!"

"Okay." Gao Mingcheng responded and went to wash his hands.

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, there was a period of ice crystals falling, followed by a light rain. Although the rain was not much, it did moisten the dry earth to some extent.

More water was also flowing out of the old well in the village.

At the dinner table, Gao Mingcheng praised his grandmother's cooking skills again and again. One of the dishes was castor bean curd fried with garlic leaves, which tasted very good.

Their village has the custom of picking Castanopsis nuts and making Castanopsis tofu, which is often eaten as a dish in winter when there are few vegetables.

After dinner, Gao Mingcheng analyzed with his grandmother how much money they could make in a year by farming in the countryside, and how much money they could make in a year by doing business in the county.

If you just say the amount of money, the comparison between the two will make your heart beat faster.

Gao Mingcheng said, "Grandma, you are old now. There is really no need for you to stay in the village to farm. Otherwise, even if Gao Zhuang goes to the county, he will not be at ease with you."

"Besides, if Gao Zhuang goes to the county to do business alone, he will be very busy and exhausted!"

"I was doing business in the county. Not only did I bring Duomei and Shufang with me, I also hired another girl, so that I could run the business. If you let Gao Zhuang do the business alone, how would he do it? You can't just farm in the village and let Gao Zhuang spend money to find someone to help, right?"

"Listen to me, if you really want to go to the county to do business and make money, then go with the whole family! Rent a bigger house to live in, and when the business makes money, buy a house in the county to live in!"

"We can rent out the land in the village to people we know and let them pay the public grain tax."

What Gao Mingcheng said made sense. Xi Nainai and the others were tempted, but also a little hesitant.

Some people cannot see the current situation clearly and cannot seize opportunities. Perhaps many years later, they will sigh, for example, if I had started business earlier; if I had bought a house earlier; if I had started stock trading earlier.

Only when they completely miss a good opportunity will they come to their senses and feel regret.

In his previous life, Gao Zhuang followed him all over the country, but in fact it was not that Gao Zhuang wanted to do this, but he just followed him instinctively. He did it, and Gao Zhuang followed suit.

But the situation is different now. He and Gao Zhuang have both married and started their own families. It is impossible for Gao Zhuang to follow him unconditionally and obey his orders as he did before.

Even if what he asked Gao Zhuang to do was good for him, Gao Zhuang also needed to take care of Xi Nainai and He Xiuman's feelings.

At this time, the grandmother said with embarrassment: "Land is the root of farmers. I have been farming all my life. If I don't farm, I will feel sad. Besides, the villagers are very smart. If you rent the land to them, I don't know whether they will farm well, but once they rent it for a long time, the land will definitely become theirs! Even if they don't occupy all of it, they will occupy it bit by bit."

Grandma Xi has lived in the village all her life, experiencing times of domestic turmoil as well as times of reconstruction. She has experienced poverty and hunger, and her feelings for the land are not something that most people can understand.

Another thing is that deep down she was afraid of going to an unfamiliar county town.

She did not express this clearly, but Gao Mingcheng saw it in her eyes.

So he stopped persuading her.

There are plenty of opportunities to make money. If you can't do it now, you can still go in the future. As long as you have his help, it's never too late to go to the county to make money!

He looked at the baby in He Xiuman's arms again and said with a smile, "Okay then, the child is still young, so it's better to focus on raising the child now. After a few years, when the child grows up, it won't be too late to go to the county to do business."

After he said that, Gao Zhuang breathed a sigh of relief.

A trace of regret flashed across He Xiuman's face, but she didn't say anything.

She looked down at the child, her heart and eyes filled with the child's adorable appearance. In addition to raising this child, He Xiuman was actually planning to give Gao Zhuang another son after her health recovered!

Yes, although neither Gao Zhuang nor Xi Nainai expressed the idea of ​​favoring boys over girls, He Xiuman herself came from a family that favored boys over girls, which led her to desire to have a son more than Gao Zhuang.

Only by giving birth to a son could she feel secure enough and live her life with her back straight without fear of the villagers' pointing and criticizing.

Of course, because the child is still young, she has always kept this idea deep in her heart and has never told Gao Zhuang.

Gao Mingcheng failed to persuade Gao Zhuang and others to go to the city to do business, and he felt somewhat regretful. He always felt guilty that he had become rich but did not help his good brothers.

He quickly adjusted his mood and stopped mentioning this matter, but instead talked about spring plowing.

"Grandma, please help me raise the rice seedlings and potato vines this year! I will just come back to plant them when the time comes! By the way, you don't need to borrow cows to plow your fields. I will use a tractor to plow them!" said Gao Mingcheng. He has already bought the plowing machinery, and when the time comes, he will just need to remove the tractor's bed and install the plowing tools.

Although Gaojia Village is a small mountain village, it has produced many prestigious gentry families. At the foot of the mountain, there are seven or eight hundred acres of fertile fields connected together.

In ancient times, all the fertile land belonged to the landlords.

(End of this chapter)