22 Chapter 22
◎A pair of uncle and sister-in-law are the boss◎
Gui'er told him about building a backyard at home. Zhao Datian's head was full of questions, but this was not the place to talk. He said, "I'll go back in a couple of days and bring the stones back directly. It will probably cost 500 coins. Do you have any?"
Gui'er: "Yes, of course. Just bring it back. We'll talk about it when we get home. We still need to find someone to fetch water."
Zhao Datian's voice was a little weak, "We're still digging a well at home..."
Guier has already run away.
They went to the home of the water collector outside the city, placed a deposit and asked for the price. The family said it depended on the situation and how deep the water was dug, between two and five taels of silver.
The price is acceptable.
Back home, Guier made a cage and put the three hens in it.
"I bought pig's trotters and mutton, and I'll keep the chickens for now and eat their eggs."
The house is really small, but fortunately Qi Song has been working day and night these days, and the house in the backyard has taken shape. Next, he will build kangs for the two new houses, build a stove in the kitchen, and drill a well and level the ground in the courtyard.
"The person who fetches water has been chosen. He may come at any time."
Mu Yun told Cheng Mu about his trip to town today and gave her the remaining silver.
"The grain seeds will be arriving soon. You and Uncle Qi should clean up the barn first. The earth walls need to be dried, the padding needs to be thicker, and a layer of wooden planks should be laid on the ground. Then install the door and lock it. You have the key."
Cheng Mu's arrangement of the escort agency to escort the grain could reasonably explain the origin of her grain. Some of the things in the space could also be mixed in. After thinking about it, she instructed, "When the water fetchers come, see if they dig a cellar. Dig another cellar in the kitchen."
"good."
Mu Yun walked around the backyard and chose a suitable location for digging a cellar. Then he thought that he also had to mark out space for storing firewood and raising chickens. The space was not big enough and there was no shed for the cows.
How about building a barn?
For dinner, we stewed a pig's trotter with soybeans and pumpkin. The trotter was stewed for a long time and became soft, glutinous and sweet. Dong'er helped Yu cook and the aroma kept tempting her.
At the dinner table, Yu said that the pork, chicken and mutton were all bought for her breastfeeding baby, and asked her to eat more.
Dong'er didn't receive such good treatment when she was in confinement at home. When she gave birth to her first son, she ate two old hens. When she gave birth to her second daughter, her mother-in-law only gave her a few eggs. Later, when her daughter died, her mother-in-law asked her to go out and sell her milk.
The bowl is filled with shiny tendons and crispy meat, which is soft, tender and delicious when you bite it.
Dong'er's eyes were filled with heat. She lowered her head and endured it, not understanding why the pig's trotters were so delicious that they made her want to cry.
Cheng Mu picked up some tendons for everyone and said, "Uncle Qi has worked hard repairing the house, Aunt Yu has worked hard taking care of the children, and Mu Yunguier, you have also worked hard by going wherever there is work. Eat more. In the future, we will raise pigs, chickens, and sheep, and have meat for every meal."
Gui'er blurted out, "Really?"
Qi Song said, "You let the hens lay eggs and hatch chicks. The chicks grow up and become hens and hatch chicks again. Then you will have plenty of chickens to eat."
Guier nodded, thinking that this method was feasible.
Mu Yun asked Mrs. Yu, "Aunt Yu, what are we going to do with the open space between our house and Daddy's? What about the land behind the yard? Can we use it?"
"That's for building houses for my children and nephews." They no longer need it. Thinking of her late husband and son, Yu always felt so sorry.
Mu Yun asked Cheng Mu, "Can we build a barn?"
Cheng Mu: "Of course, the livestock manure can be collected and used as fertilizer. I also have an idea to build a greenhouse to grow vegetables."
Everyone started discussing where to build it and how to build it.
Although they were with the boss, everyone was united in heart and mind and worked together. The boss saw everything everyone did and never treated anyone unfairly. Dong'er's tears fell.
The next day, Zhao Datian came back with two trucks of gravel.
Mu Yun paid the money and piled the rubble on the place where he was going to build the stove.
Zhao Datian stayed after he came back. He cleaned up his house. We hadn't seen each other for more than a year, and he had a lot to say.
More than a year ago, after the second brother and nephew died suddenly, the niece wanted to go to Puyang City to seek revenge. The sister-in-law had no opinion and wanted to go with her niece. They were unfamiliar with Puyang City and were completely in the dark. For poor peasants like them, seeking revenge on the rich people in the city was like hitting a rock with an egg.
Gui'er was a child who could not be reasoned with, and Yu refused to listen. She left without saying anything to her family. When she left, Yu said that they were going to die and would never come back.
If they come back, they must have taken revenge and are not dead yet.
The Zhao Datian brothers were not brave people, and their children were all like them. However, only the girl Guier was very brave. He wanted to ask her how they had taken revenge and were still alive.
Yu made stewed lamb legs and invited Zhao Datian to come over for dinner and chat.
After the family members introduced them one by one, Zhao Datian found out that Yu had mortgaged all her houses and fields, and that an uncle and his sister-in-law were the owners.
"If we pawn it for three years, we'll get ten taels of silver. If we work for the owner, we'll get three taels of silver a year."
Yu's words echoed deep in his eardrums again and again.
There is such a good thing in the world.
"Why don't her father and her mother have such good fortune..." Yu sobbed. Unable to catch a handkerchief, she pulled up the back of her clothes to wipe her tears.
This sentence hit Zhao Datian's heart like a heavy hammer, "They, they..."
On the day Yu and Gui'er returned to the village, they heard about what happened in Zhao Datian's family. They were both shocked. How could a healthy person die?
The villagers said that he was injured by a huge insect from Donggang Mountain and died a few days after being brought back. Gui'er tried to find someone to carry the insect's body, and there were two of them. It was the female insect that Gui'er and his team had killed.
Zhao Datian burst into tears, "You have avenged them and their mother, you have avenged them..."
If we ask further, we will find out that not only did they kill the tiger, but the rich man in Puyang City was also killed by Guier, and the late emperor personally acquitted her!
At this moment, Zhao Datian was so excited that he burst into tears. A forty-year-old man burst into tears without any image. He didn't cry like this even when his wife and children died in an accident. Revenge is good, revenge is so satisfying...
Dong'er, who was eating in the side room, couldn't stop wiping away tears. This kind of bizarre thing was actually happening right next to her.
Zhao Datian thought about it all night and made a decision at dawn.
I got up, washed, lit a fire, had a meal, and came here to find Yu's boss.
"Madam Cheng, do you still want the land? I have 20 acres of land at home."
Cheng Mu sat with him at the square table in the hall, and Yu brought over some tea. Cheng Mu took a sip and asked, "Are you going to pawn it? Like Aunt Yu?"
"Well, I'm the only one left at home, and I can't take care of so many lands."
Cheng Mu heard from Gui'er that Zhao Datian had two daughters who had already married and moved to other villages. But in this era, once a daughter got married, she belonged to another family, and he was the only one left in his family.
"What's growing in the fields now?"
"After my sister-in-law left, I planted alfalfa with their twenty acres."
Zhao Datian's wife and children died a few days ago, and cultivating 40 mu of land with three people is not an easy task. Zhao Datian said that he has an apprentice who will come to help when he is busy.
They grow alfalfa, which they plant in spring and harvest the first crop in June. They can harvest it three to four times a year, dry it, and sell it to horse farms.
“What’s the yield of alfalfa per acre?”
"Fresh grass is less than one stone, and only 20% when dried."
"How much is one stone worth of silver?"
"One penny."
Twenty acres of alfalfa are planted twice a year, spring and autumn, and harvested three or four times each time. They can only be sold for three taels and two cents of silver throughout the year. Naturally, it is better to pawn it to her.
"I bought land to grow winter wheat," Cheng Mu reminded her, "how are you going to harvest your 40 acres of alfalfa?"
He could earn 8 cents from 40 mu of alfalfa, but it was obviously an impossible task for him. Alfalfa had to be harvested before the peak flowering period, and there were only ten days left. He could only harvest one mu a day. If he asked his apprentice to help, it would take two people 20 days to harvest the 40 mu of land.
Zhao Datian rubbed his hands, looked at Yu who was washing diapers not far away, and said cruelly, "I will return the 20 acres of land to my sister-in-law, and the alfalfa in the field to her as well."
Twenty acres was his limit.
"Okay." Cheng Mu nodded. "Then Uncle Zhao, you can finish processing the alfalfa in the field first. I will deal with the alfalfa in Aunt Yu's field myself."
Since the deal was done, Cheng Mu called Mu Yun over, wrote a contract on the spot, and Zhao Datian put his fingerprints on it.
After putting away the deed, Zhao Datian had something else to say, "Madam Cheng, I'm a carpenter. Do you think I can be of any use to you?"
Cheng Mu poured out the remaining tea and smiled sideways, "You want to work for me? Like Aunt Yu?"
"Yeah." He didn't want to care about himself anyway.
Cheng Mu asked him to wait a moment, then went to her room and found two blueprints. She showed him one first and asked, "Can you do it?"
Zhao Datian looked at it carefully and asked, "What is this?"
Never seen before.
"This is a push sickle. In the past, there was a county magistrate named Huimin Youwei who condensed his life's experience into a book on agricultural techniques, which describes this push sickle."
Cheng Mu pointed to the blueprint and explained it to him one by one. "This is the handle. The sickle is embedded in the fork, and there's a crossbar running through the middle. This is the wheel. Push it across the field. As the wooden wheel rolls, it cuts through wheat stalks, rice stalks, alfalfa, and so on, saving effort and time."
"I've never heard of it." Zhao Datian was confused but surprised. This kind of sickle does not require hunching over, and can be used to harvest the crops in one push. If he had this kind of farm tool, he could harvest ten acres of land a day!
"There's another one." Cheng Mu showed him the other one.
Both are called push sickles, but the second one is like a pair of walking scissors that need to be pushed and cut manually. There is a rope to control the direction in which the grass stalks fall. There are two rows, and the left and right sides work at the same time.
Cheng Wei explained, "This is more suitable for harvesting intercropped crops in separate ridges."
Seeing Zhao Datian's eagerness to try, Cheng Mu said, "You will work with me. When it's busy, you will go to the fields. When you're not busy, you will make farm tools. I'll give you other tasks. Food is provided."
Just live in your own home, it’s so close.
"Two taels of silver a year." The court paid artisans six fen of silver a day, or about two taels a year. Cheng Mu paid according to this high standard. Yu, mother and daughter, received three taels of silver, or one tael and five qian per person per year.
Zhao Datian thinks it’s okay.
Cheng Mu asked him to try making a single-cut sickle first, which could be used to harvest alfalfa if it was ready.
You can buy any materials you need in town. If they are not available in town, go to Puyang City or Yanyun City to buy them.
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