Meng Zhao asked, "You mentioned buying two cows before, is there any news?"
The village head nodded. "I've already found a seller and made arrangements with the county. I can pick it up soon." He then sighed. "It's a pity. If we had bought calves from a young age and raised them, we could have saved a lot of money."
Although the private buying and selling of draft cattle is now permitted, in order to facilitate management and protection, families with draft cattle must register them in the county in advance. If a cow dies, the cause of death must be reported in order to prevent private slaughter.
Meng Zhao comforted him, "As long as the ox can be put to use immediately after we buy it, it won't be a waste of money. Besides, we can rent it out to collect rent during the busy farming season, and even during the off-season, it can stay and help out at the starch workshop. It won't be a waste of money."
“That’s true. I’ll find some free time to go and bring the cows back. Ever since these people found out I was going to buy cows, they’ve been asking me eight times a day if you can just buy cows like that. I had to ask around for a long time to find out about these two.”
According to Meng Zhao's discussion with the village head, no rent will be charged for renting cattle during the land reclamation phase. As for the deposit, it can only be collected as a formality. After all, if the deposit is really collected at the same price as the cattle, probably no one in the village can afford it. So, in order to protect the cattle, Meng Zhao came up with a solution.
"When renting out the cow, the schedule is arranged in advance. When the first family uses the cow, the second family will feed it, and when the second family uses the cow, the third family will be responsible for feeding it."
A cow can only work for a maximum of 3-4 hours a day. If it is used for too long each day, it may cause disease or injury to the cow and affect its lifespan.
Meng Zhao was worried that if the villagers rented the oxen, they wouldn't care about their own cattle and would make them work themselves to the bone, which would eventually wear them out. So he came up with this idea.
In this way, when the first family uses the cow, the second family, who is responsible for feeding it, also has the responsibility of supervision. After all, the cow will soon be working on their own farm. If the first family uses it too much and it becomes weak when it comes to their farm, they will naturally be unhappy. Therefore, they will definitely keep an eye on how the first family uses it.
Similarly, when the first person uses a cow, they expect the cow to work well for them, and they will also ask the second person to provide more and better feed, because the cow can only work well if it is well-fed.
In this way, the two families supervise each other, ensuring that the cattle are not overworked and are well-fed.
The village headman also agreed with this method. He had lived in the village for most of his life and knew the villagers' habits very well. They wouldn't kill or steal cattle, but it was certainly not uncommon for them to feed the cattle less fodder to save money or make the cattle work for a few more hours to get more work done.
After settling the matter of the cattle, Meng Zhao brought up the purpose of her trip.
"Has the Shen family's courtyard been cleaned up yet?"
The village head nodded. "Yesterday, I had Yu Mei lead two workers to clean it up and put the pots on. I also had Gu Yun and his team prepare all the things you wanted. Go and take a look later. If you need anything, I'll arrange it for you."
Meng Zhao trusted the village head to do things, so she returned to the workshop, selected a few people she trusted, and led them to the Shen family courtyard, which had been empty for a long time. The village head also came along, wanting to see what she was going to do.
On the way, Li Yumei asked curiously, "Zhaozhao, what new trick are you planning to come up with this time?"
Meng Zhao chuckled, "It's hard to say right now. Anyway, once it's made, my sister-in-law will know."
When they arrived, the Shen family's courtyard was indeed spotless. As Meng Zhao had requested, two large wooden frames had been erected in the courtyard, with wooden sticks separating them bit by bit, making it look like an enlarged version of a melon trellis.
Meng Zhao directed the others to unload the starch from the truck. This starch had been specially prepared and dried for half a day. At this moment, the starch was half-dry and not dry. It looked like it had little moisture left, but if you squeezed it hard, you could still roll it into a ball.
Meng Zhaoxian demonstrated by picking up a lump of starch and squeezing it into a ball. The others followed suit and started making their own balls.
"Haha, this is great, it's like a snowball."
Meng Zhao said with a smile, "It really does look like a snowball, but everyone must remember to make sure the starch balls are firmly packed together, otherwise they will fall apart before we even put them in the pot."
Once all the starch had been rolled into balls, about two hundred in total, Meng Zhao had someone heat up a pot and put the starch balls into it one by one to cook. They were taken out when the surface became slightly transparent.
The starch balls are now cooked on the outside but still raw on the inside. Chop them all up and knead them into dough balls, just like kneading dough.
Just as Meng Zhao was leading the people and the dough, a person rushed into the courtyard and shouted anxiously:
"Village head, you'd better go and see! A few menacing-looking men came to the village just now. They wouldn't say what they wanted when we asked them, and they went straight to Granny Fang's house. By now, Granny Fang's house is probably almost smashed to pieces!"
"What?" Upon hearing this, the village head's expression instantly turned serious. Although this old woman Fang was not a very likable person, always liked to take advantage of others, and often stirred up trouble in the village, she was still a villager after all. As the village head, he could not sit idly by when someone came to his door to attack her.
So, the village head subconsciously glanced at Meng Zhao. Meng Zhao was also very surprised to hear this, thinking to herself that she hadn't expected it to be such a coincidence that she happened to be here on this day.
After thinking for a moment, Meng Zhao said, "Village head, you go ahead and do your work. Sister Yu Mei and the others can help me here. I heard that Yun Xiang fell into the river and hasn't fully recovered. It would be bad if something happened to her."
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