The carpentry work would probably take several months. There are more than 80 rooms, and Chunxiao ordered a standard configuration of one room with a 2-meter bed, a three-layer cabinet, a round table and three round stools.
On the 23rd, all the things in the main courtyard were purchased, and they moved in directly.
There were four master bedrooms: Chunxiao occupied one, Xingfu Meiman occupied another, and Yan Dashan and Shuwen shared a room. All the mattresses had been replaced, with 150 kilograms of old cotton replacing the 100 kilograms of new cotton. In total, they had 20 new and 30 old quilts. Each quilt was 2 meters long. Three quilts were used in each of the three rooms, and the rest were stored in an unoccupied room for future use.
Xingfu and Meiman worked in the fields during the day and worked overtime at night to make sheets and quilt covers. They finally finished making sheets for all three rooms.
The land has been completely prepared, and all the workers are now applying base fertilizer. The advantage of having more people is fully demonstrated at this moment. More than 100 acres of the 200-plus acres have already been applied to the base fertilizer, and another 100 acres will be completed in two or three days. Brick laying has already begun in all four courtyards, and by the beginning of February, almost everything will be completed. Everything is proceeding in an orderly manner.
Chunxiao has been to the farm in Linye Village twice. The main courtyard is about to be built. It has been decided to build a wall around the main courtyard and not to enclose the land outside. The main reason is that it costs too much money.
Chunxiao had already started asking the township government to find all the blacksmith shops to order tools. Initially, they would determine the number of people: 180 on her side, 30 on Yan Dashan's side, 220 hoes, 100 machetes, 220 scissors, and 40 sets of sleds. All of these would take time to make, so they had to be prepared in advance.
Since the township government makes the order, you can pay after receiving the goods, and the price will be relatively favorable.
On the 26th, the base fertilizer of all 300 acres of land had been covered, and the workers were divided into different places to help build the houses. With the addition of a large number of workers, the houses were built faster than ever before and were completed ahead of schedule on the 31st.
Chunxiao took happiness and Meiman to inspect the courtyard. It was indeed completed according to the design drawings, and the stone slabs in the courtyard were paved very flatly.
Chunxiao and six masonry teams received their wages. The construction materials for the five courtyards cost a total of 417.5 taels, plus the 98 taels of wages for the masonry teams, a total of 515.5 taels, not including the wages of the villagers.
After sending away the bricklaying team, Chunxiao did not send the villagers away. Instead, he asked them to help plant 300 acres of cotton. The villagers did not know how to plant it, so Happiness and Perfection demonstrated it to them on one acre of land, and they did as they were asked.
On the 3rd, all the seeds were planted. Chunxiao settled the wages for the last few days with all the villagers. When the villagers left, they left a message saying that if they still needed people, they could go to the village and they would definitely come.
After returning home and doing the math, she realized she had spent 250 taels on the wages of the villagers. It was truly staggering. With that amount of money, she could have hired dozens of people. Thinking about having to transplant the trees soon, she became restless.
After Yan Dashan came back, Chunxiao began to discuss with him about buying some people first.
"Buying people is secondary. People need food when they arrive, so we have to buy food first. Right now we only have cotton seeds, not wheat or rice seeds. We still need seeds."
Chunxiao felt that Dashan was sometimes very considerate. She was only thinking about buying more people and didn't even think about food.
"Also, how many people do you plan to hire first? It would be best to do it a few days later. My yard will take a few days to be ready, and I haven't bought the furniture or anything like that yet. I also asked the villagers to help me plant the seeds these past two days."
"I was too impatient. I thought that my main courtyard was finished, and the carpenters were busy making doors and windows for several courtyards. I asked them to finish the things for one courtyard first after the doors and windows were finished. I'm afraid it won't be that fast, so I forgot about it."
"If you can't buy this person, you can still calculate how much food to prepare. You can also help me calculate it based on 30 people. It doesn't hurt to prepare it early. Food is expensive in Tongzhou. See if that Chen Tingzhang can help you buy more through him."
"Then I'll do the math later and go to the township government tomorrow morning to ask."
"What kind of crops are you going to grow here, rice or wheat?"
"Wheat, let's say. Digging canals and irrigating rice is too much trouble. Big brother, I plan to put a large stone mill behind each courtyard so that we can grind flour ourselves after the wheat is harvested."
Yan Dashan thought about it and nodded, "I think it's feasible."
Chun Xiao smiled and said, "I mainly thought that now that I can benefit from the influence of the township government, I can tell them and we don't have to search around blindly. The price is also fair."
"Chunxiao, I always feel that God is very kind to you. Everything you do seems to go smoothly. It's really enviable."
"Really?" Chun Xiao touched his nose, "Maybe."
Although Chunxiao has 213 acres of fertile land, she decided to plant wheat on only 150 acres, given that cotton has higher returns. Except for the yard which occupies a few acres of land, the rest is planted with cotton. The harvest from 150 acres is more than 30,000 kilograms. Based on the amount for 180 people, 2,700 kilograms a month, and 30,000 kilograms a year are enough.
There were about seven or eight months between now and the wheat's ripening. She had to prepare eight months' worth of food, 2,700 kilograms per month, which would be around 22,000 kilograms in eight months. Add to that the 3,600 kilograms from her eldest brother's field, and she'd need almost 26,000 gold coins worth of grain. The soybeans in her eldest brother's field weren't growing well, so she didn't know how much they could harvest. Assuming a low yield of 100 kilograms per mu, the total harvest should be around 20,000 kilograms. But people couldn't eat soybeans every day; they had to mix them with rice. So, at least 10,000 kilograms of food would be necessary, which was the minimum requirement. Unfortunately, she couldn't make tofu; if she did, she could eat tofu every day.
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