Chapter 388 Persuasion
Old Zhou finally remembered to ask, "Manbao, how much money did you owe the government? How much do you have to pay back?"
Manbao said blankly: "Three taels..."
Old Zhou heaved a sigh of relief. "Just three taels?"
Manbao nodded affirmatively.
Old Zhou immediately said to Qian, "Hurry up and open the money box. Let the eldest and second sons settle the debt tomorrow. Is it so easy to borrow money from the government? Oh, and how is the interest calculated? It's only one day's credit. He can't charge us a month's interest, right? Manbao, quickly calculate how much the interest is for one day."
Qian went back and opened the money box, and quickly took out three strings of copper coins. Old Zhou asked her to give the money to Zhou Dalang.
Zhou Dalang took it hesitantly, but couldn't help but glance at Manbao subconsciously.
Seeing his father sitting on the doorstep limply and unwilling to move, Manbao simply sat down on the ground, facing him, and said, "Dad, we borrowed silver, so we have to pay it back in silver. We can't pay back copper coins."
"Then return the silver," Old Zhou said to Zhou Dalang, "and go to the county town and find a silver shop to exchange it for silver."
Manbao said quietly, "One thousand two hundred coins can only be exchanged for one ounce of silver."
Old Zhou's eyes widened, his feet and hands still unmoved. He jumped up and shouted, "Why?"
Zhou Silang hurried forward to appease them, and told them the whole story of their cattle purchase on credit today, emphasizing that the amount they exchanged for copper coins was also the same, so if their family went to exchange for silver, they would not lose out by getting it back at this price.
Old Zhou said thoughtfully, "Is there any silver that's even worse than the official silver? Then we can exchange it for that kind, and the government office will accept it, right?"
The Zhou brothers all widened their eyes. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Sanlang had never thought of such an operation, while Zhou Erlang, Zhou Silang and others had thought of it but did not have the courage to do it.
As for Manbao, she gave her father a thumbs up and praised him, "Dad, you are really amazing. You can even think of this."
Old Zhou glanced at her and said, "I'll settle the score with you after I've settled this matter. If your mother doesn't beat you up, I'm going to beat you up too."
Manbao was unhappy and said, "Dad, aren't you worried that the harvest will be bad this year and you want to save money as a precaution?"
Old Zhou couldn't help but yell, "If you knew that, why did you buy cattle on credit?"
"If we don't pay it back this year, we can pay it back next year or the year after next. Dad, we won't lose anything by selling the cattle on credit."
"It would be strange if I didn't lose money, with such a high interest rate..."
Manbao couldn't help but say, "That interest rate isn't high at all, Dad. The money my fourth brother borrowed to gamble is considered high interest. Although I think the government could actually lower the interest rate a bit..."
Zhou Silang, who was just watching when he was suddenly hit by a stone: ...
Manbao was not an ignorant child, and she understood her father and knew why he reacted so strongly. Seeing that her brothers and sisters-in-law were all there and everyone looked somewhat worried, she simply asked Datou to go to the kitchen to find her a burnt branch.
There are always burnt sticks and branches in the kitchen of Lao Zhou's family, because people find that these things are particularly easy to write on the ground and stones.
Datou and his friends like to use it to practice calligraphy the most.
Manbao took a branch and drew a picture for her father. "Dad, didn't you say that one cow can do the work of two adults? Buying a cow is like having two more brothers to work for you. How much more land can be cultivated..."
The difference between plowing the land once and twice may not be that big, and one acre of land may only produce a few more kilograms of grain. But if you plow the land twice and then spread more fertilizer, weed it carefully, and catch some insects, that acre of land may produce more than ten or twenty kilograms of grain.
But doing all this requires manpower.
One extra cow means two extra people. How much work can two people do in a day?
How much work can be done in a year?
And how much are these jobs worth in terms of value?
Listening to Manbao's calculations, Old Zhou swallowed his saliva.
Then Manbao said, "Dad, our cow is only three years old now. It can work for seven or eight years, or even ten years. If it earns you so much in a year, how much will it earn in ten years?"
Zhou Sanlang clumsily calculated in his mind and exclaimed, "Isn't this like getting two eldest sons for free?"
Old Zhou couldn't help but glare at him and said, "What nonsense! He's your son. Can he give you a grandson?"
Manbao became excited and said, "Sure, when it grows up, we can find a wife for it."
Everyone: ...
Old Zhou pondered for a moment, "That makes sense. When the calves are born, we can sell them too. Three taels each, how much would that be?"
Qian interrupted his daydream and asked, "Manbao, where is the cow's ID card? Bring it to me and keep it safe."
Old Zhou immediately came to his senses and said, "No, even if the cow is worth buying, we still have to pay the money back first. We can't let the government take our interest."
"Dad, what if God doesn't favor you this year?" Manbao said, "Don't you have to save money for self-defense?"
This is also the reason why Old Zhou has always been reluctant to spend money. There must always be some savings at home, so that they can save lives even if natural disasters or man-made disasters occur.
So he thought that it didn't matter if he earned less, and it didn't matter if his sons worked harder. As long as he had money in his hands, he wouldn't be worried, right?
But Old Zhou had another insistence: "You can't owe debts, especially debts with interest."
It’s not that Old Zhou has never owed people money, but there are two types of money that he has never been willing to owe, and he will pay it back as long as he has the money.
One is that the other party's family is not well-off, and he feels uneasy about owing such money;
The second type was a debt with interest, which meant that every day he owed more money, it was more painful than the first type because every night he felt his heart trembling.
But Manbao thought this kind of credit was acceptable. She said, "Dad, we can afford to pay back the interest. We have three years to do that. So there's no need to use our 'life-saving' savings to pay it back. We can borrow money to buy cattle now, but if a natural disaster or man-made disaster strikes and we need money urgently, we won't be able to borrow money from the government at the current interest rate."
Old Zhoutou: "...this interest."
"This interest rate is not very high." Manbao could say this because the information that Keke searched for her showed that this interest rate would not seem very high even in the future.
Qian glanced at Old Zhou and asked Manbao, "When do you plan to pay it back?"
Manbao said confidently: "At the shortest, it will be this winter, at the longest, it will be next winter."
Qian nodded and said, "If God is kind this year, my family will pay me back. I bought the cow for the family to use. If you have money, you can pay it back. If you don't have money, I still have my family to help you."
This means that Manbao can do it with confidence.
Old Zhou couldn't help but glance at his wife. Is he planning to spoil his daughter to the sky?
Qian said calmly, "Manbao is the reincarnation of a fairy. I don't believe her luck will be bad."
When everyone in the Zhou family heard this, they immediately became excited, and even Old Zhou's expression relaxed a lot.
Koko: ...It is now somewhat certain, and Qian seems to think so too.
(End of this chapter)
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