Chapter 2899 A thought
"I built it," the village chief said aggrievedly, "the road you came to the village looking for was built by us."
Bai Shan: "...You call this road construction? Even horses can't get in."
Village chief: "Sir, you can still come in even if you are not on a horse."
Bai Shan didn't bother to continue the question and asked directly: "When was the last time you repaired the road?"
The village chief said uncertainly: "Four years ago? Or five years ago?"
"Where do you send your corvée labor every year?"
The village chief immediately said: "There are official roads and some canals outside the mountains, and sometimes we have to go to the seaside to build docks."
Anyway, there was no corvée labor assigned to their own village.
Bai Shan frowned, "There's a dock in Beihai County?"
The village chief said, "There was one a few years ago, in the Longchi area, but it was later abandoned."
Bai Shan: "Why waste it?"
Village chief: "Because you have no money?"
Bai Shan: ...
Forget it, it would be better to wait until he meets County Magistrate Fang and County Lieutenant Dong to ask about this matter. How could he ask a village chief who couldn't even understand the corvée labor in his own village?
Bai Shan reached out and touched the wheat in the field, and said to the village chief, "It's all ready to be harvested. You can work. When the busy farming season is over, I will issue you labor orders and build a road out of the village."
The village chief was worried and asked anxiously, "Do we need to repair it outside right away?"
Bai Shan: "I do have such an ambition, but you are not many people and the mountain road is difficult. If you don't transfer laborers from other places, it would be great if your village can build a road outside within five years."
He said, "We can't waste the farming season just for a road."
The village chief breathed a sigh of relief.
Bai Shan saw this and said, "But you guys shouldn't be lazy either. It's very important to have a way out. If your village had a way out, would you still be trapped here when bandits come and can't even ask for help?"
Bai Shan believes that the reason why the bandits can attack Xiaoliu Village without scruples again and again is because it is isolated and helpless.
The mountains on all sides protected the village, but also blocked their way out, so they had to find a road.
Moreover, they are surrounded by mountains. Even though the land is fertile, they only have enough food. But life is not just about food, there is also the need for clothing, shelter, and even more so, knowledge.
When we live, we must leave something for this world, so that our life will not be in vain, right?
All this can only be achieved if Xiaoliu Village has access to the outside world.
Bai Shan's heart moved. If this is the case in Xiaoliu Village, why not Beihai County?
Beihai County is small and has few people. Many caravans will go to Laizhou after arriving in Qingzhou City and go out to sea from Laizhou Bay. Except for the caravans that are interested in salted fish, other caravans come here to sell things, and few take goods away from Beihai County.
But Beihai County has a small population and is poor, so how many merchants can come here to sell things?
Even if they eat delicacies from land and sea every day, they will not leave much money for Beihai County, so they still have to find ways to attract more merchants.
How to attract it then?
"Sir, sir?" Seeing Bai Shan in a daze, the village chief couldn't help but call out twice.
Bai Shan came back to his senses, suppressed his thoughts, and said to the village chief, "Have you sown your rice seeds?"
"Yes, they have already sprouted."
"Let's go and take a look."
The village chief then turned around and took them to see the fields where seedlings were grown in the village.
There are not many people in their village, and most of the rice seedlings are grown in the fields at the end of the village, and the river that flows through their village is right next to them.
The river is not big, so there is no danger of flooding. At this time, the water in the river is flowing gently, and the fields on both sides are full of green seedlings.
Bai Shan walked down the ridge of the field to take a look, and reached out to pull out a seedling to look at it. At this time, it was only a finger high, but the color was already turning dark green, which showed that the soil was quite fertile.
He looked at the rhizomes of the seedlings. They were a bit thin, and the root system was not as good as the rice seeds that Datou had planted in Putian Village for experiment.
However, there is no shortage of water here, so it is normal for the seedlings to have underdeveloped root systems.
Bai Shan asked the village chief, "What was the average rice yield per mu in the fields last year?"
The village chief opened his mouth but couldn't answer. Why were they calculating the average yield per mu for no reason?
Bai Shan then changed the questions, "How many acres of land do you have? How many acres of rice did you plant last year? How many bags of rice did you harvest? Did you weigh them?"
The village chief was able to answer this question because he had a good memory and the annual harvest was very important.
Bai Shan listened carefully, calculated in his mind, and had a general understanding. He asked, "Whose family in the village had the best land last year?"
The village chief also knew about this and said, "As for Erzhu's family, his old man is an old hand and a good farmer. He has two very fertile fields and can produce a higher yield than other families every year. What a pity."
Bai Shan sighed, it was a pity. He was thinking of renting a few acres of experimental land here and letting the best growers to plant it.
He turned to look at the village chief and asked, "Is there anyone in the village who wants to rent out land?"
The village chief said, "...No need. With hard work, we can still finish the crops. Even if Erzhu's wife and her mother can't finish the crops, the villagers will help them plant. We are all from the same village, so why should we rent someone else's land?"
Bai Shan said: "I want to rent land."
The village chief didn't know what was going on in his mind, and the smile on his face was a little forced. He said, "Why rent it? If you want to farm, my family has a few acres of land. Why not give some to you?"
Bai Shan glanced down at him and said, "My home is in Longzhou, and my family is in the capital. What do I need the land here for?"
village head:……
Although I was criticized, I was inexplicably happy and breathed a sigh of relief again.
Bai Shan looked away, then looked at the rice paddies where seedlings were being grown. "I think the climate in the mountains is good," he said. "I have some new rice seeds that I'd like to try out here. This kind of field is called a test field, and I don't need much. Just two or three mu will be enough."
He said, "There's no rush. I don't have the rice seeds, so even if I want to plant them, it'll be next year. First, ask who's willing to rent out their land, and then find me someone who's honest and capable of farming."
The village chief immediately agreed. As long as they didn't want the land, they could rent it out for a few years without charging a penny. The county magistrate should be promoted in a few years, right?
Bai Shan returned to the village before dark. The village was bustling with smoke rising from the chimneys. Because they were harvesting wheat, the villagers had dinner late today.
Manbao and his friends had just closed their stall, and the two of them had something to say to each other as soon as they met.
Bai Shan paused and said, "You speak first."
Manbao said, "I've seen enough of the people in this village. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to leave the village and provide free medical treatment in several nearby villages."
Bai Shancai said, "I also want to visit several nearby villages. There are bandits in the mountains. It's impossible for them to just rob Xiaoliu Village, especially a bandit den with about a hundred people. They can't survive by just robbing Xiaoliu Village, so I want to see what's happening in other villages."
See you at 6pm
(End of this chapter)
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