The news that the newly built workshop in Dazhai Village was buying potatoes spread like wildfire, reaching countless surrounding villages in just two or three days. Every day, carts loaded with potatoes would come to the workshop.
Meng Zhao selected two workers, weighed the potatoes on the spot, and paid them. The villagers happily pocketed the coins and left. They had initially thought someone was just making things up, but they never expected that they could actually get paid for transporting potatoes.
With so many people around, and some trying to take advantage of the situation by bringing in inferior potatoes to sell, Meng Zhao used only one method: he had the worker in charge of weighing the potatoes ask the delivery person, "Which village are you from?"
The man answered for one village, and the worker then confirmed with some villagers who were queuing up to sell potatoes nearby whether what the man said was true. If it was true, they recorded it.
Someone asked curiously, "Young man, what do you remember?"
The worker answered seriously, "The owner said that if anyone brings rotten potatoes to sell, and does it too many times, they will stop buying potatoes from this village from now on."
The crowd was astonished. They had initially thought it was just for fun, some even wondering if the man could sneak in; if he could, they'd bring some rotten potatoes next time. But upon hearing the worker's words, the villagers couldn't sit still any longer. Some hot-tempered men immediately shouted angrily.
"Cheng Laosan, have you no shame? It's one thing for you to do such a despicable thing, but you also want to drag the whole village down with you and make a fool of yourself. I'm going back to the village and telling the village head, let's see how he deals with you!"
Although this tactic was underhanded, it was indeed effective. Those who tried to take advantage of the situation and had their names recorded were too ashamed to hold their heads up when they returned to the village. Gradually, the quality of the potatoes delivered to them improved significantly.
In addition to collecting potatoes at the workshop entrance, Gu Yun and Xu Ping each took two workers and drove mule carts to collect potatoes in villages further away in the county.
Once these potatoes are in the workshop, they can be used to make starch.
“Sister-in-law Yumei, all the utensils have been purchased, just like those in Shenjia Village. You are familiar with the process of making starch, so I will entrust the task of teaching you.”
Sister-in-law Yumei nodded and gathered a group of female workers to explain the production process to them. She instructed them to use a special peeler to peel the potatoes and then cut them into chunks.
With money in hand, Meng Zhao skipped the manual grinding process and simply used mules. Several stone mills and rollers were neatly arranged in the yard, each equipped with a mule, constantly grinding grain in circles. Every now and then, workers would come forward to feed them some fodder so that they would work hard.
Buckets of potato paste were ground and then manually poured onto a water vat with a filter basket. People kneaded the paste while pouring water, allowing the starch paste to drip into the water vat on the ground.
The filtered soybean pulp was placed in baskets and piled on a cart, ready to be transported to the pig farm to be fermented into pig feed.
The pig farm received twenty piglets on its first visit. Meng Dashan personally demonstrated his skill in castrating pigs to everyone at the pig farm, and from then on, he became a figure of fear to everyone at the pig farm.
While Meng Zhao was busy working diligently, another group of people were not so happy: the villagers of Shagang Village.
At this moment, a group of people were squatting in the village head's house when a deep voice rang out, with a hint of resentment in its tone: "I heard that the man surnamed Meng initially had his eye on that piece of land in our village, but the village head drove him away. Is that what happened?"
Upon hearing this, all eyes turned to the village head of Shagang Village. The village head, feeling embarrassed by the stares, blushed and paled in turns, and protested, "Liu Laisheng, explain yourself! What do you mean I chased her away? She offered too low a price. I only negotiated a lower price so you could get a bigger share. Who knew that little wench would be so stingy and leave so easily? Ultimately, it's because you were too slow. If you had come quickly and stopped her, the deal would have been done long ago!"
"I'm talking about you, why are you dragging us into this? How would we know so much? Besides, how did Dazhai Village even manage to get this deal? You couldn't get it done, do you know how much money Dazhai Village has made since they got this workshop?" Liu Laisheng didn't hold back at the village head and immediately retorted.
A villager nearby, unaware of what was going on, asked, "Liu Laisheng, what does this mean? How much money did Dazhai Village make? Didn't I hear that they sold that piece of land for a total of thirty taels? Even if it was divided up, each household would only get a little over two hundred coins."
Upon hearing this, another villager curled his lip and said, "What, are you a landlord? Two hundred coins is enough for our family to eat for two or three months. Why not exchange that useless wasteland for this much silver?" After saying that, he glared at the village head.
The village head was used to bullying everyone in the village, and he couldn't stand being humiliated like this. He was burning with anger, but had nowhere to vent it.
Liu Laisheng continued, "Since that workshop was built, Dazhai Village has benefited greatly. All the able-bodied people in the village went to work in the workshop. They can earn one or two taels of silver a month. Even the fifty-year-old woman can work and cook in the workshop and earn several hundred coins a month. If we had bought our land back then, would we still be sitting here doing nothing?"
"My goodness, is this some kind of golden egg? What does that workshop do? How can it make so much money?"
Liu Changsheng shook his head. "I went to inquire, but I haven't found out yet. All I know is that it's made from potatoes."
One villager seemed to suddenly remember something and exclaimed, "Oh, so the one that's been making a fuss about buying potatoes lately is that workshop. But why haven't they come to our village to buy them?"
Liu Changsheng rolled his eyes and said irritably, "Why do you think they'd come to our village to collect potatoes? The village head offended that guy surnamed Meng, so why would they come here to collect potatoes?"
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
