Yang Lizheng was also taken aback when he saw the crabs in the bucket eating the snails that Chang'an had thrown in.
Yang Li immediately cupped his hands towards Gu Lili and said, "Princess, is what you just said true? Can we really buy these crabs to remove the snails?"
As soon as Gu Lili came in, she informed Magistrate Yang that Uncle Facai had enough crab seedlings.
Therefore, when Yang Li saw the crabs eating the golden apple snails, he immediately realized what was going on.
The blue crab seedlings that Gu Lili mentioned were used to help them get rid of the golden apple snails.
With over a dozen villages of varying sizes and thousands of acres of rice paddies in Donghai Town, it was clearly impossible for them to give away the blue crabs for free; Yang Lizheng was well aware of this.
Therefore, Yang Lizheng asked Gu Lili whether she was buying, not giving.
Gu Lili didn't keep anyone in suspense and repeated what she had said to the villagers in Gu Village to the village head present.
"Your Highness! Is Uncle Fortune really willing to provide it to everyone for free?" Magistrate Yang asked excitedly.
With so many crab seedlings, Magistrate Yang even began to suspect that the wealthy Uncle had something wrong with his head.
Gu Lili smiled faintly, "Yes, but the villagers must sign a document with Uncle Facai and then go through the government. You should listen to the conditions first. If you agree, go and calculate how many crab seedlings are needed, and then go to the seaside on the east side of Gu Village to find Uncle Facai to sign the document and order the crab seedlings!"
After hearing what Gu Lili said, everyone became curious about what the conditions were.
Gu Lili didn't keep them in suspense and continued, "First, Uncle Facai will provide the crab seedlings. By the time of the autumn harvest, everyone must return the grown crabs. And they must be grown crabs; small ones cannot be used to make up the numbers. Second, if someone cannot return the same number of crabs, the villagers will have to pay to make up the difference. Each crab seedling costs ten coins. Third, every villager who receives the crab seedlings must sign and put their fingerprint on the document to prevent anyone from cheating."
After listening to Gu Lili's explanation, everyone agreed that it made sense.
After all, so many crab seedlings, even at one penny each, still add up to a lot of money.
It wouldn't be right to ask someone to spend money to help you for nothing; that's obviously impossible.
"Alright, alright, we'll go back to the village and do the statistics right away!"
"Yes, we'll go now and try to bring the crab seedlings back as soon as possible!"
"......"
The village leaders rushed home to inform the villagers, all eager to get the crab seedlings to their own village's rice paddies as soon as possible.
Gu Lili quickly stopped everyone, "Please wait a moment, everyone. I have some more suggestions. To prevent villagers from stealing crabs from each other, I suggest that each village take all the crabs together, and everyone sign a document together. When returning the crabs, they should all be returned to Uncle Facai. If there are any missing crabs, the villagers should share the cost equally."
Human nature is unpredictable; someone might steal crabs from their own rice paddy to pay off a debt.
There were also malicious people who killed the rice plants in other people's rice paddies.
Furthermore, crabs naturally have legs, so crawling around is normal.
By having the entire village share the crab seedlings, everyone's interests are tied together.
This way, there's no need to worry about anyone causing trouble, and everyone will work together towards the same goal. Most importantly, it also makes it easier for Uncle Fa Cai to manage things.
All you need to do is remember how many crabs each village took, and then go to the village head of each village when the time comes.
"The county magistrate is right! I'll go back and take the statistics right away!"
"I'll go too, this humble subject takes his leave!"
"This humble subject takes his leave!"
The village leaders and magistrates of more than ten villages got up again, took their leave, and went back to count the number of rice paddies.
Inside the county government office, only Gu Lili and her group remained.
"Tomorrow, I will trouble you, Magistrate, to take the yamen runners and your seal to the eastern outpost of Gu Village," Gu Lili said to Magistrate Yang with a smile.
With Magistrate Yang in charge, things won't go wrong.
After all, everyone is thinking that they should prioritize their own rice paddies first, otherwise everyone might start fighting over them.
Magistrate Yang quickly cupped his hands and said, "It's nothing. Today's events are all thanks to the county magistrate for coming up with a solution, otherwise the people of Donghai Town would have been doomed!"
Gu Lili waved her hand, and after finishing her business, she headed home.
Magistrate Yang had been busy all day and hadn't eaten yet, but there were still many things to do.
"Master Li, hurry, grind the ink. I need to report today's events to the imperial court and also write to the other county magistrates to ask if they have encountered the same situation. If so, we need to make plans as soon as possible."
Li, the clerk, swallowed his words of advice to Magistrate Yang.
Because he knew that these things were more important than eating.
"Chang'an, it seems our plans to go to Jiangdu will have to be put on hold for now!" Gu Lili said to Chang'an apologetically.
We had originally planned to take Chang'an to Jiangdu to see if we could find his family.
I gave Chang'an the dream so early, but now it's going to be postponed. I wonder if he'll be unhappy about it.
Chang'an drove the carriage, a smile on his face, glancing at Gu Lili before quickly looking ahead again.
"Lili, it's alright. We might not find our family in Jiangdu anyway. The rice seedlings are the priority. Let's finish this busy period before we go," Chang'an said with a smile.
Gu Lili nodded; that was the only way.
Upon arriving at the village entrance, Chang'an saw Yang Dadan and Lai Mazi still kneeling there, and hurried away.
The two of them had already knelt until they were too exhausted to do anything else.
Chang'an drove the carriage directly to the village head's house. When the village head heard the carriage, he quickly came out of the courtyard.
Before Gu Lili and her group had even come to a complete stop, the village head was already standing outside the courtyard.
Judging from the looks of it, he must have been waiting in the courtyard for news of Gu Lili.
Gu Lili quickly informed the village head about going to the village entrance to collect crab seedlings the next morning, and the village head immediately breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
Good thing the crab larvae are taken care of! I can finally get a good night's sleep tonight.
As for taking the crab seedlings, the village head plans to get up early tomorrow morning to inform the villagers.
After finishing their business, Gu Lili and Chang'an went home.
There was still light in the main room. When they heard that Gu Lili had returned, Gu Chenxi and Old Madam Li quickly came out.
"Lili, you're finally back! Chenxi told me everything that happened today. We live in the same river, and I'm afraid there are apple snails in my rice paddies too. Do you think you could talk to your friend about it..."
Before the old lady could finish speaking, Gu Lili interrupted her, knowing what the old lady wanted to ask.
"Grandma, don't worry. The village head of your Li family village already knows about this tonight. Then, the people from your village will go to Uncle Facai's place to get the crab seedlings." Gu Lili smiled and comforted Grandma Li.
Upon hearing this, Grandma Li immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"Then I'll go home tomorrow! I'll take this opportunity to see what the rice paddies are like," Grandma Li asked Gu Lili.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com