Chapter 68: Befriending the Village
Zhao Liya and the others had inquired about Magistrate Yin. He wasn't a particularly good person, but he wasn't a bad one either. As long as there was money to be made, he certainly wouldn't mind it being too little.
Now that the land has been bought, Zhao Liya feels relieved.
Next is the busy farming season of autumn harvest. These purchased wastelands do not need to be reclaimed for the time being. It will not be too late to reclaim them in November or December. A workshop for making potato vermicelli will also be built on the land of Bajiaozhai, including warehouses, tool rooms, offices and other buildings.
With previous experience, two months is more than enough to order the construction materials first.
In Bajiaozhai, everyone had smiles on their faces and was eager to get to work.
Bajiaozhai was slightly smaller than Zaihu Village, with a little over 260 households. They would finally have what Zaihu Village had.
Even though potatoes are easy to grow and have a high yield, people don't pay enough attention to them, so not many people plant them.
In addition to selling, each family kept some potatoes for seeds for next year. Many families who did not plant this year also bought or exchanged them, and got a lot.
Therefore, even though Zhao Liya and the others accepted everyone who came, everyone who knew the news dug up all the stocks in their own fields and sent them over to sell. After the final inventory and settlement, they collected a total of about 200,000 kilograms.
This is not a lot. You have to know that if we plant 600 acres next year, we will need about 180,000 kilograms of seeds.
In other words, almost all of the purchased crops will be kept as seeds, and only about 20,000 kilograms can be processed.
Twenty thousand catties, that's really not much. Zhao Liya decided to keep the twenty thousand catties and not sell them to restaurants in the city.
One hundred and eighty thousand kilograms were stored in the warehouse of the sugar-making workshop. Zhao Liya hired the Li Guangwu brothers and several people from Zaihu Village to help guard it, and patrolled it twice a day at irregular intervals.
Brother Li Guangwu patted his chest and made a promise to reassure them.
As long as word gets out that this is something protected by Zaihu Village, no one will dare to touch it.
Otherwise, you deserve to be caught and beaten half to death.
Zhao Liya kept her word and taught everyone several potato dishes: spicy and sour potato shreds, stir-fried potato slices with three fresh vegetables, braised potato cubes with sauce, steamed potatoes, fried potato pancakes, and potato stew with meat. In short, potatoes can be paired with almost everything and can be cooked in any way.
Hot and sour potato shreds, three fresh vegetables and braised potato cubes with sauce are particularly popular and everyone loves them.
As for the stewed meat, you know it's delicious without even trying it—what dish doesn't taste good with meat? But then I tried the braised chicken with potatoes, the pork belly with potatoes, and the pork ribs with potatoes and tomatoes. They were all delicious, and truly different from the others!
Everyone's horizons were broadened, and the door to a new world suddenly opened up. They were able to draw inferences from one instance to another and come up with countless new approaches.
When people found out that it could really replace food to satisfy hunger, they became even more enthusiastic about it.
Potatoes became popular and developed rapidly in the Lingnan region.
Everyone hasn't forgotten the Zhao family. When talking about potatoes, everyone expresses gratitude. Many legends and anecdotes about the Zhao family and potatoes have even spread. If it weren't for Miss Zhao's explanation, everyone would have simply treated potatoes as an ordinary crop, never realizing their many benefits.
There are 20,000 kilograms of potatoes left at home, which is a great treat for our taste buds.
They cook it in different ways, and since their family is willing to buy meat, the potatoes they make are delicious and you can never get tired of eating them.
Zhao Liya also spread the word in Yan Village that if anyone wanted potatoes to plant as seeds next year, they could come to her house to buy them. She would sell them two pounds for five cents, and each family could only buy a maximum of fifty pounds.
Zhao Liya did this after careful consideration. There was not a single household in Yan Village that grew potatoes. Potatoes had only appeared in Gaolian County in the past three or four years. This showed that in the past few years, Yan Village had almost no contact with people from other villages.
It doesn't make sense that other villages have such good things but our village doesn't. Since they have purchased so much, why not make it easier for the village?
She wasn't greedy for the profit of two catties and a penny; selling it to everyone for two pennies a catty wouldn't be a bad idea. It's just that something you get without paying a penny doesn't necessarily make people cherish it.
If they make a little profit, no one will mind, and instead think it's their due. If they buy and sell at the same price, it would be like giving it away for free, and some people might be dissatisfied, thinking it's just the way it should be.
If we don’t do this in the future, we will be blamed.
Even so, Second Wife Gu and her companions didn't miss the opportunity to complain and stir up trouble in the village: "The Zhao family is obsessed with money, right? They're really calculating. They buy it for two cents a pound, then resell it to everyone and make half the profit! We're all from the same village, how dare they do that! Don't buy anything! Why should they be taking advantage of us for no reason?"
Everyone hummed and hawed in agreement with her, but they had already figured it out in their hearts.
Why not buy it? I heard that potatoes are good, so of course I buy them.
Five cents for two catties is really not expensive. You should know that some people in other villages want to buy it to take back as seeds, but if they act too late, they may not be able to buy it even at three cents per catty.
The Zhao family is so kind.
As expected, many people came to buy it. They could afford ten or twenty kilograms. They kept it as seeds and, if they took good care of it next year, they could mix it with grain and eat it to improve their lives.
In less than three days, nearly a thousand kilograms were sold.
When Mrs. Gu found out, she was so angry that she cursed people behind their backs.
However, despite the scolding, Mrs. Gu took her two sisters-in-law to the Zhao family and expressed her desire to buy it.
Not only buy, but buy more.
"My family wants to buy more. You've collected so much, so it shouldn't be difficult to sell us a few hundred or even a thousand kilograms. We'll pay you in cash and won't take advantage of you."
It's as if not taking advantage of them is giving them a huge honor!
How could Zhao Liya possibly sell them hundreds or even thousands of kilograms? She was dreaming.
"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Gu. We agreed that each village household would only sell 50 kilograms at most, so we've followed the rules. Besides, we can't supply more than that. Although we bought a lot, we have to keep it for seeds."
No matter what the Gu family's sisters-in-law say, fifty kilograms is fifty kilograms, not a kilogram more.
If it were any other family, Zhao Liya might have made an exception, but for the Gu family, it was considered kind of her not to target them and deliberately refuse to sell the item. This kindness was also done for the villagers to see, so that everyone would know that the Zhao family was a generous family.
The Gu family actually came to our house so arrogantly and tried to take advantage of us. Who would tolerate them?
Mrs. Gu was anxious and said something without thinking: "I say, you are too stingy, aren't you? You said all the nice things, but you won't help with such a small thing?"
Widow Qu couldn't help but interrupt and laughed, "Big sister, this is where you're wrong. The Zhao family can't just go back on their word! Instead of saying you're embarrassing them, you're calling them stingy?"
Sisters, please help me~
(End of this chapter)
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