It was already noon, so Zhao Xian prepared to go back.

"Brother Zhao, let's have lunch here. Sister Xiaoxiao cooked some wild game, it's delicious," Li Guang said.

“My family doesn’t know I’m coming to the farm. They’ll definitely be waiting for me for lunch. If I eat here, they don’t know how long they’ll have to wait.”

"Oh, is that so? Well then, we won't keep you here. Brother Sheng will also be having lunch here."

"Okay, I understand. Don't cook here tonight. Let the family get together and have dinner together. Xiao Sheng is plowing the fields over there, so I won't go over. Please tell him." Zhao Xian said and left.

At lunchtime, Zhao Xian saw that Ouyang Nan and his sister had already gone home from school and were in good spirits, so he felt relieved.

After the meal, Zhao Xian did not rest. He went directly to the village head's house. The village head was still eating. When he saw Zhao Xian coming, he immediately put down his chopsticks.

"Scholar, you've arrived. You've been in Qing'an Prefecture for quite a while this time. The restaurants there must be doing well."

"It should be pretty good. It's only been open for a few days, so who knows what will happen in the future."

"I've eaten at your restaurant, and your liquor is absolutely top-notch, so your business must be doing very well."

Zhao Xian smiled and steered the conversation to other topics.

“Uncle Village Head, I heard from my family that many people in the village are raising ducks. This will become a unique feature of our Shuixian Village. I wonder what you think, Uncle Village Head?”

Wang Lizheng immediately became interested when ducks were mentioned. Shuixian Village has been very poor for many years, mainly because the village has no resources.

However, if the villagers all start raising ducks, the situation will be different. There are many rivers of all sizes around Shuixian Village, and a large amount of duckweed grows in these rivers.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to having a lot of duckweed in the river. In particular, when rice paddies are irrigated, a large amount of duckweed enters the paddies. Too much duckweed is not good for the growth of rice, so farmers generally dislike duckweed.

In the past, few people in the village raised ducks, and most people did not know that ducks like to eat duckweed. Later, someone tried to collect some duckweed for the ducks to eat and found that it worked very well.

Gradually, more and more people in the village started raising ducks, and more and more people went to the river to collect duckweed. However, there was too much duckweed in the river, and it grew very fast, so no matter how much they collected it, it seemed to have no effect on the duckweed in the river.

Since Zhao Youzhu started making preserved eggs, the demand for duck eggs has surged. The village's duck eggs are simply not enough, so they have to buy from neighboring villages, which has led to an increase in the price of duck eggs.

Seeing that raising ducks to lay eggs could make money, villagers started raising ducks one after another, which led to a shortage of ducklings and a surge in prices, putting the villagers in a very difficult situation.

"I want every household in the village to raise ducks. These high-quality feeds only require a little effort to collect, but the rising price of ducklings has dampened the villagers' enthusiasm for raising ducks," Wang Lizheng said with a hint of helplessness.

“That’s easy. I know a hatchery in town where you can buy ducklings. And they’re not expensive, only five coins each. These ducklings are very healthy and easy to raise,” Zhao Xian said.

Zhao Xian said this because the system also sells ducklings, which are of good quality and inexpensive.

Zhao Xian's words made Wang Lizheng's eyes light up. He was worried about not being able to buy ducklings, but he didn't expect Zhao Xian to have a way.

"There's an incubator in town, how come we didn't know about it?" The village head was a little puzzled.

"I only heard about it from someone a while ago. This hatchery's chicks and ducklings are specially delivered to some large-scale farmers in the county. They do wholesale, not retail. It's normal that Uncle Wang doesn't know about it." Zhao Xian began to deceive Wang, the village head.

"Oh, so that's how it is. There's even a hatchery in town that specializes in wholesaling chicks and ducklings. It seems like this hatchery is quite large." The village head suddenly realized.

"Since the hatchery cannot wholesale less than a thousand ducklings at a time, Uncle Lizheng can take a count of the villagers' needs. If the quantity is enough, I will go over and wholesale the ducklings."

"Great! I'll go do the inventory after I finish eating and try to buy the ducklings by tomorrow," the village head said excitedly.

In the evening, the village head came to find Zhao Xian and handed him a list, which showed the number of ducklings that some villagers needed.

"Nearly 100 households in the village want to buy ducklings this time. The number varies, with most people buying about 20 ducklings and some buying 50 or 60. In total, there are more than 2,000 ducklings. This quantity should be enough for wholesale."

There are more than 160 households in the village. Nearly 100 households wanted to buy ducklings, which means that most people in the village want to raise ducks. Some villagers already raise ducks and do not need to buy more. As a result, almost every household in Shuixian Village is raising ducks.

The village head went to almost every household in the afternoon; it was truly a tiring job.

Zhao Xian nodded and handed the list to Wang Lizheng.

"There are a total of 2,250 ducklings. I've noted it down. I'll go to town tomorrow to buy the ducklings and then have someone deliver them to the village."

"Then I'll trouble you. Tomorrow, just leave the ducklings at the patrol team's place at the village entrance, and I'll have the villagers pick them up there," the village head said excitedly.

Early the next morning, Zhao Xian went to town. In addition to buying ducklings, he also wanted to find out about the market situation.

To make soap, the first thing to do is to solve the problem of raw materials, and lard is an important raw material for making soap. He went to town mainly to find out the price of lard.

The carriage arrived in town quickly. Zhao Xian asked the servants driving the carriage to wait at the market entrance, and he began by learning about the pork market prices.

In my past life, I often went to the market to buy vegetables. Fatty meat was very cheap there, less than half the price of lean meat. But it was different in ancient times. People used lard for cooking. Although vegetable oil existed then, it wasn't used for cooking.

Therefore, fatty meat is often much more expensive than lean meat in the market. Although the price of fatty meat has dropped a lot compared to the previous period, it is still 30 yuan per catty.

The main raw materials for making soap are oils and caustic soda. In addition, hardeners, preservatives and foaming agents are also needed. Since the amount used is small, they can be purchased in the system.

According to preliminary calculations, the cost of ten catties of fatty meat is three hundred coins. If it is rendered into lard and then used to make soap, the quantity would be about forty bars. At one hundred coins per bar of soap, that would be four taels of silver. If pigments and fragrances are added, it could be made into scented soap, which would be even more expensive.

There are plenty of meat vendors in the market. Since the town's consumption level is not high, it is not difficult to buy large quantities of fatty meat every day. Procurement of raw materials is not a problem for opening a soap workshop.