The border line of Huangmo Pass is too long, and there are countless wastelands waiting to be reclaimed. The wastelands in Baixing Town and Baituo Town have become in short supply. After all, they are still some distance away from the border line. If foreign races attack, there is still time to react and escape.
However, the rights to reclaim and purchase the wasteland there were granted to the craftsmen by the people in the General's Mansion, hoping to use this method to allow them to settle down here and contribute to the construction of the border.
The Lin family and other disaster victims assigned to the Huangmo River had nothing and could only come here to open up wasteland.
In order to stimulate the people's enthusiasm for reclaiming wasteland, the General's Mansion not only reduced taxes, but also encouraged disaster victims and the people to purchase reclaimed wasteland so that the General's Mansion could recover its funds. In this way, taxes for the people would be reduced. The tax on the wasteland reclaimed for the General's Mansion was 50%, but if the wasteland was returned to the General's Mansion, the tax would be reduced to 20%.
In this way, 80% of the grain harvest will be given to the people, so that every household can have enough food and clothing and live a good life.
Now everyone is working hard to open up wasteland, just waiting to turn the wasteland into fertile farmland, and then save money by eating frugally to save up money to purchase the reclaimed wasteland. Little by little, life will eventually become manageable.
After arriving at Huangmo Pass, everyone had their fill. General Xing had accomplished what the emperor could not do. General Xing had protected the people whom the emperor could not. General Xing's prestige in the hearts of the people reached its peak, and they believed that they could only live a good life under his rule.
Lin Rui and three other people drove ox carts to transport the sprouted bean sprouts to the nearest market. In the middle of winter, the market was as gray as the Huang Moguan statues. Only a few people were buying food at the stalls, while most of them were buying winter clothes and coats. Among them, the furs of various ethnic groups were in great demand.
The yellow color of the bean sprouts is particularly eye-catching in the snow, especially when the ox cart is filled with these yellow-green bean sprouts, which are tender and juicy. This makes people who have been eating pickles and porridge at home since the winter salivate at the sight of them.
Then Lin Rui discovered an embarrassing scene. Since he set up the stall, more and more people passed by to look at the bean sprouts. They all admired them, but they just didn't buy them.
It’s not enough to just look and not buy! If they don’t buy, how can they accumulate their first pot of gold?
At this moment, a woman with a scarf tied on her head came up hesitantly and said, "Little brother, what kind of dish is this? I have never seen it before."
Lin Rui explained: "Auntie, these are bean sprouts. You can buy them to cook or make porridge. They are very crispy and tender. Try them, I'm not kidding!"
The woman didn't seem to expect Lin Rui to be so generous as to pluck a handful of bean sprouts from a corner and place them in her hand. Vegetables were so precious in winter. The woman had never eaten fresh vegetables in the winter at Huangmo Pass, and had basically made do with pickles and dried vegetables. But the more you lack something, the more you want it. That's why she was so fascinated by the fresh bean sprouts that she couldn't walk.
The woman had never seen a young man doing business like this before. Before she even paid, the man ripped off a handful for her to taste. The woman immediately took a step back and shook her head, saying, "Little brother, it's no use giving me a taste. I don't have any money to buy it!"
Lin Rui smiled and said, "Auntie, these bean sprouts are not something precious. I'll just give them to you to try."
The woman smacked her lips in amazement. Aren't such fresh vegetables precious in winter? Then what is precious? Most of the land in Huangmoguan is barren, so seasonal vegetables are not abundant, let alone out-of-season vegetables.
The woman took a bite and found that these bean sprouts were just as Lin Rui had described, crisp, tender, and sweet. She immediately liked them and asked, "Little brother, how much is this per pound?"
Lin Rui smiled and said, "Aunt, it's just a small business, how expensive can it be? Yellow bean sprouts are two cents per pound, and mung bean sprouts are more expensive, four cents per pound."
The woman was a little bit unbelievable: "Is it really that cheap?"
Lin Rui still nodded: "Yes, Auntie, how many pounds do you want?"
"I want two... four pounds, four pounds of soybean sprouts!" Four pounds of bean sprouts filled up my aunt's bamboo basket, and she even needed to use one hand to drag some of the bean sprouts before she could leave.
The aunt's purchase broke the deadlock when bean sprouts first came on the market. Everyone felt that the woman's dress was just that of an ordinary citizen. Since she could buy it, it shouldn't be too difficult for them.
"Little brother, I want two pounds of soybean sprouts."
"I also want two pounds of soybean sprouts."
The people of Huangmoguan live only slightly better off. They spend every penny as if it were two. How could they possibly pay twice the price to buy similar mung bean sprouts?
The embarrassing thing is that the soybean sprouts were sold out very quickly, and the only things left were the mung bean sprouts that the other half hadn’t touched.
Lin Rui was not disappointed. After all, the money he spent on buying the soybean sprouts was enough to break even. If he couldn't sell the mung bean sprouts, he would take them home and consider it as a way to improve the taste.
The people who learned the news late were all disappointed that the bean sprouts were gone so quickly.
Lin Rui immediately recommended his mung bean sprouts: "Uncle, these mung bean sprouts taste better."
The old man waved his rough hands and said, "It's no use saying it's good, kid. The price is two cents more expensive. These two cents are enough for me to buy a cake for my grandson."
Lin Rui really couldn't refute this point. Life was very difficult for the people in ancient times. They would rather suffer themselves and squeeze out some food from their teeth to give to their children.
Just as he was about to sell the mung bean sprouts at two cents per pound, he saw a sturdy, round man trotting over and said, "Hey, hey, hey, wait a minute, are you selling those bean sprouts?"
Lin Rui nodded in confusion: "Yes, it's me, what's wrong."
"I'm glad it's you." The man breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve in the middle of winter. He finally caught up with the man and shouted, "Brothers, we found it. Come and take the things away."
There are more than 200 kilograms of mung bean sprouts. One person cannot carry it without an ox cart or a horse cart.
Following the man's shout, four or five of his men quickly followed behind him. No matter their complexion or figure, they were not comparable to the skinny and chicken-like disaster victims and civilians at the border. It was obvious that they were not short of money.
The burly man gave the order: "Pick it up, pick it up."
Without saying a word, several of his men immediately used their own baskets to carry the bean sprouts from Lin Rui's ox cart one by one.
"How much is a pound of Wen?" the man asked, reaching into his arms as if to take out money.
Seeing how straightforward he was, Lin Rui said, "Big Brother, soybean sprouts are two cents a pound, and mung bean sprouts are four cents a pound. The ones left here are all mung bean sprouts, and the price is a bit high, so they're not selling well. To be honest, we're all planning to take them back home to eat."
"We have shipped a total of 225 jin of mung bean sprouts. At four wen a jin, that's 1,000 wen. If you want all of them, I'll give you 200 wen. You can give me 800 wen. I hope you can come back and patronize us next time."
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