Chapter 91
It was clear from Xu San's anxiety to collect the oranges and ship them to the north that now that the oranges from the two major growers were missing, there was a big gap in the orange market. If she could plant the orange trees, she would definitely make a lot of money.
After all, in the first life, his family also had an orange orchard, and he was quite experienced in growing southern oranges. Otherwise, he would not have noticed that the orange trees of the Zhu and Liu families were suffering from yellow tip disease.
Moreover, even if she did not have enough experience in growing oranges, the Zhu and Liu family's orange orchards had gone bankrupt, and there must be many farmers who had lost their jobs. She could just ask those who were good at growing oranges and hire them.
The problem is, where to grow oranges?
The two largest orange growers in Donglin Township both lost their land because their orange trees were infected with psyllids. It will take a long time to restore these two plots of land and make them suitable for growing oranges. She lives in Xiaxi Village, which is quite close to Donglin Township. Many people in the surrounding villages have bought oranges from the Liu and Zhu families. In addition, every village has people planting three or two orange trees for their own consumption, so they are afraid of bringing psyllids here intentionally or unintentionally.
To be on the safe side, you cannot plant orange trees in your own village.
Gu Ran sighed softly and dug out a huge konjac from the soil.
"What's wrong with Sister Gu? Is this konjac plant bad?" asked Mai Xiang, who was also wearing gloves and digging konjac.
After teaching Mai Xiang how to grow konjac, Gu Ran only went to Nanyu Village twice. Seeing that the konjac was growing well, he naturally felt relieved. Now, after seeing the first batch of konjac leaves wither and fall to the ground, Mai Xiang remembered Gu Ran's teachings and asked someone to send her a message to come and check whether it could be harvested.
Gu Ran followed the promise and came over to take a look. It was indeed time to dig konjac, so she helped Mai Xiang to dig konjac.
In fact, I also came to take a look at the environment of Nanyu Village and see if there is any place suitable for growing orange trees.
"It's okay, it's pretty good." Gu Ran smiled at Mai Xiang and carefully dug out the big konjac with a bunch of small konjacs.
"I think the crops are well grown too." Mai Xiang also had a smile on her face.
Ever since Sister Gu borrowed ten taels of silver, my mother was no longer in a hurry to arrange a marriage for me. Later, when the He family came to Nanyu Village in person to find me to sign the contract, the konjac planted in my field became a hot commodity in my mother's eyes.
Even her business has become the most favored business in the Mai family. Not only does she take care of it herself, but even her father and brother keep an eye on it from time to time, just to see how the konjac is grown, how much money it can be sold for, and whether it is worth expanding the cultivation.
Therefore, it is crucial to know how much silver this first batch of konjac can be sold for.
When Gu Ran planted the first batch of konjac for Mai Xiang, he spaced them out widely, planting an entire acre of land at a time. This was different from the konjac he had grown naturally in the island forests. With Mai Xiang's family taking care of it and sufficient fertilizer applied during planting, this first batch of konjac that could be harvested not only grew larger, but also produced more small konjacs that could be used as seed stems.
As for the konjac tubers dug out now, the big ones are kept and the small ones are immediately planted separately. According to the original planting spacing and the current fattening situation, it is estimated that the small konjacs harvested first can not only fill the original acre of land, but also plant one more acre.
And this was only less than half an acre of land.
It is estimated that after all the konjac on this acre of land is harvested once, another three acres can be planted.
Konjac can generally adapt to various soil environments and is cold-resistant and drought-resistant. It is estimated that after harvesting the previous acre of konjac, another batch of konjac planted now can be harvested, and the small konjac that grows can be further expanded, so the number of acres that can be planted will be even greater, and it can be grown all year round. It is a very suitable crop for widespread cultivation.
Now, the He family's two branches in Yongchang County and the herbal jelly shop in the capital city have gradually introduced konjac as the second main snack. However, if the konjac cultivation in Maixiang develops smoothly and if the He family's business remains at its current scale, it is estimated that supply will soon exceed demand, and the konjac grown by Maixiang will have no market.
Gu Ran thought of a way out for Mai Xiang.
Konjac can not only be used to make desserts and snacks, but also to make tofu, flour and noodles. In order to avoid competition with the He family, Mai Xiang took these flour and noodles made from konjac and sold them to Xu Sanlang, who then transported them to the north, saying that they were special products from the south, and there would probably be no worries about sales.
However, precisely because she was planning to do this business in partnership with Mai Xiang, she could not choose Nanyu Village as the location for her orange tree.
First of all, it’s too far away and it’s not convenient to take care of it myself.
Secondly, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket.
In Nanyu Village, the Yang family grows grass jelly for the He family, and now Maixiang is growing konjac. So they have two profitable businesses. They definitely cannot keep the third business in Nanyu Village.
So, Xiaxi Village and Nanyu Village are not suitable, she has to find another place suitable for growing orange trees.
Which one should I choose?
This problem was not solved until she left Nanyu Village and went all the way through the provincial capital to the county town.
At the county pier, Gu Ran noticed that many unfamiliar officers and soldiers had come to the city recently, so he did not go into the city. Instead, he found a small boat at the pier to go back to Donglin Township and took the boat back.
Because he bought a donkey cart and no longer had to go to the city every day to make a living, Gu Ran took the boat less often.
Going south along the river, Gu Ran watched the broken island gradually approaching from afar and squinted his eyes.
In order to prevent the yellow tip disease from resurfacing, the place to plant orange trees must be far away from Donglin Township, but preferably close to Xiaxi Village, otherwise it will be inconvenient to take care of them yourself. Therefore, in fact, Dayu Forest can be considered.
But there is a lot of miasma in the Lantau Forest, and it is not certain whether the environment inside is suitable for growing orange trees. She has been in and out of the Lantau Forest for so long, but she has never seen wild orange trees there.
Speaking of wild orange trees, Gu Ran was reminded of the wild persimmon tree in Dayu Forest.
It's time to go into the woods and pick persimmons.
The persimmon cakes and persimmon jam made from the persimmons I picked last year are both delicious!
And Li Mengzi.
It's harvest time too.
The boat happened to pass by the island forest at this time. Gu Ran couldn't help but take a look at it, and then looked at Dunzi Island facing the island forest.
I thought silently and watched the boat arrive at the ferry in Donglin Township. After getting off the boat and walking into the market, I couldn't help but look back at the pedestrians coming and going at the ferry.
Then he returned to Xiaxi Village.
Pei Liu did not go to Nanyu Village with Gu Ran because Nanyu Village is in Geyan County.
As someone who already knew that the number one thief was involved in the Zhou family massacre in Geyan County, in order to avoid suspicion at such a critical moment, he of course chose not to go, so he stayed at home to take care of the kittens.
This was the first time he waited for Gu Ran to come back in the cottage. Seeing that Gu Ran looked tired and dusty, he immediately put the cat down, turned around to get her some water to wash, and then made a pot of hot tea. He then went to the kitchen to prepare meals for the two of them.
As it was Gu Ran's first time back to the cottage, someone brought him hot water and tea, and he could hold the kitten while waiting for the meal. He couldn't help but feel happy and relaxed.
Pei Liu's cooking skills were naturally not as good as Gu Ran's, but fortunately, since he had to prepare his own food since he was a child, he had no problem making the food edible. In addition, he had been with Gu Ran for quite a long time, and had helped him many times. Naturally, he knew some little tricks through observation and observation.
Now, I have managed to make a simple meal: the main dish is braised rabbit meat cubes, the side dish is Persian vegetable with taro paste, and there is also a bamboo fungus fish soup. The dishes look average, but they taste good.
Gu Ran, who was only responsible for eating, was in a very good mood and ate three parts of the delicious food and made it six parts.
It’s better to have a companion. When a companion comes back, you can eat home-cooked meals without having to do anything, and you can also take a break!
Gu Ran was happy both physically and mentally.
After finishing his meal, he told Pei Liu that he was going to Dayu Forest the next day. Pei Liu naturally wanted to go with him.
The kittens don't need their constant company and know how to find food on their own, so there's no need for anyone to stay in the cottage to look after them. Just like today, Big Orange and Little Orange didn't go back to the cottage to spend the night.
As grandmothers, they don’t have to worry too much anymore.
Early the next morning, Gu Ran and Pei Liu went out with bamboo baskets on their backs and entered the Dayu Forest.
The weather gets cooler in October, and the activities of poisonous insects, snakes and scorpions in the forest gradually decrease. It is the best time to enter the forest.
Because he was going for the wild persimmons in the woods and planned to go back and forth on the same day, Gu Ran didn't take a detour. After entering the woods, he went directly to these two places.
Although Pei Liu had followed Gu Ran into the miasma forest, he had actually been there only a few times. He followed behind obediently all the way without saying a word. It was not until he saw the tree full of wild persimmons that he realized that there were such wild fruits in the miasma forest.
The whole tree is full of golden fruits, like small lanterns hanging on the tree.
When Gu Ran walked under the persimmon tree, he started to pick the ripe fruits from the lower branches. He also put down his bamboo basket and helped pick them.
Gu Ran couldn't help but smile when he saw Pei Liu picking persimmons and putting them into the bamboo basket.
Last year, after she discovered these wild persimmon trees, she had to make two or three trips to pick them all. Now there are two of them. Although the picked persimmons cannot be placed in the space, Pei Liuniang is very strong, so she can pick a lot and carry them back.
After all the persimmons on the lower branches were picked, Pei Liu was responsible for climbing up the tree, while Gu Ran was responsible for catching the persimmons she dropped with a bamboo basket on the ground. As for the persimmons on higher branches, Gu Ran had also made preparations. When she passed by the bamboo forest on the way into the mountains, she cut a bamboo to use as a walking stick. Now she handed it to Pei Liu and asked her to knock the persimmons down from the high branches.
Because he was afraid that the ripe persimmons would break when knocked down from a high place, Gu Ran specially brought a piece of cotton cloth.
Last year she came alone to pick wild persimmons from this tree, and she also knocked down the persimmons from high up.
There are generally two types of persimmons commonly found on the market based on their taste: one is the crisp persimmon with a hard flesh, and the other is the soft persimmon with a soft flesh.
This wild persimmon is not a crisp persimmon, but a sweet persimmon.
So at that time, many ripe persimmons fell to the ground and broke. She collected some of the ones that were not seriously damaged to make jam, but many other ripe persimmons were smashed to pieces and could not be used.
I learned this lesson when picking persimmons this year. I can’t waste them.
Pei Liu knocked in a fixed direction, and she spread out the fine cotton cloth to catch the persimmons in that direction, one direction at a time. Sure enough, the persimmons that fell on the cotton cloth were intact, and few of them were broken when they fell down.
Gu Ran was very happy.
It seems that there will be more persimmons that can be harvested this year than last year.
The persimmons on this tree kept the two of them busy for two days. They picked almost all the persimmons on the tree. The remaining ones were too high to be picked, so they had to give up.
When we returned to the cottage these past two days, both of our bamboo baskets were filled to the brim and felt very heavy.
After washing the persimmons, they were divided into three groups: intact ones, slightly damaged ones, and those that were not fully ripe.
Those that are intact can be eaten directly or made into preserved fruits. Those that are slightly damaged can be used to make jams or dried fruits. Those that are not fully cooked can be washed and dried, and then placed directly in the rice jar. Cover them tightly with rice, and they should be cooked in four or five days at the fastest, or seven or eight days at the slowest.
After covering the persimmons, Gu Ran took Pei Liu into the mountains. This time, they went to pick lemons.
Because the konjac was about to mature, I took a detour to the other side of the deep pool to take a look. I dug out the konjac that had withered and could be picked, carried the big ones away, and buried the small ones again in the ground.
Now that the Mai family is expanding the cultivation of konjac, Gu Ran has a stable income. Since she earned money from selling oranges, she has become a wealthy woman with hundreds of taels of wealth, so she is not in a hurry to grow these konjacs herself.
Bury all the extra konjac, and when it is necessary to expand the planting in the future, use these konjacs as seeds.
After harvesting the konjac, they took a detour to the place where the lemongrass grew. When they climbed up the valley slope and saw the mountains, the Wujiang River beside the forest, and the Dunzi Island opposite, Gu Ran subconsciously glanced at Pei Liu.
Pei Liu was climbing the mountain silently. Feeling Gu Ran's gaze, he returned a look:?
"Well, I remember, Liuniang, you have been to that island, right?" Gu Ran pointed to Dunzi Island in the distance.
Pei Liu followed the direction of Gu Ran's finger, saw the island, and nodded.
"Why are you going there?" Gu Ran asked curiously.
Pei Liu was silent for a moment before he said, "Looking for my sister!"
"Isn't that a deserted island?" She had never heard anyone say that there were people living on Dunzi Island!
"I heard there's an orange grove up there."
"So you think your sister is on that island?" Gu Ran understood.
"Um!"
That meant she definitely hadn't found her sister, but, "There's an orange grove on Dunzi Island? Are there really people there?"
"No, I thought there was." Pei Liudao.
"But the orange grove?"
"They're wild orange trees, not many, so they can't be considered a forest," Pei Liu explained. "I'm afraid it was spread by people who occasionally visited the island."
"Ha." Gu Ran's heart moved, "Did you see it with your own eyes?"
“I saw it with my own eyes!”
"So, is that Dunzi Island as dangerous as the miasma forest?"
Pei Liu was originally following Gu Ran downstairs, but when he heard Gu Ran ask this, he stopped.
"Are there many wild animals in there? Are there any extremely dangerous beasts? And..." Gu Ran felt that no one was following him, so he stopped and turned around to see Pei Liu standing still. "Liu Niang?"
When Pei Liu heard Gu Ran mention the danger, he remembered the old madman he had met on the island.
It's dangerous. It's naturally dangerous to have an old madman who you can't beat.
"I've only been there once, and before I could find out anything, I met a madman and was beaten by him. I almost died. That island is not good."
Madman? Gu Ran also remembered.
Yes, Liu Niang almost died because she met a madman, and it was she who saved her.
"You said it was indeed a deserted island with no people living on it, but how could there be a madman on the island?"
Pei Liu shook his head, "I don't know."
Gu Ran sighed.
But once a thought arises, it is a bit difficult to eradicate it.
"Sixth Lady, can you take me to Dunzi Island?"
"Why?" Pei Liu was puzzled.
"I'm thinking of finding a place to grow oranges myself."
"What does that have to do with Dunzi Island..." Pei Liu was halfway through his sentence when he realized, "You want to plant orange trees on Dunzi Island?"
Gu Ran nodded.
"Since you said there are wild orange trees on Dunzi Island, the environment on the island must be suitable for orange trees to grow, so I want to go and take a look."
Pei Liu was in a dilemma.
"Can't we plant it in the village, or in this forest?"
"Of course not." Gu Ran shook his head. "You forgot that the Liu and Zhu families who grow oranges in Donglin Township just had their entire orange orchards burned down by yellow tip disease. Our village is so close to Donglin Township, and those who bought oranges from them might have been infected too, but they didn't know it because the disease hadn't yet broken out."
Of course, she didn't plant just a few trees. She wanted to plant hundreds of orange trees, which was not cheap and would take a year to take care of. If any of them were destroyed by yellow tip disease, it would be fatal for her.
Didn’t you see that the Liu and Zhu families were severely damaged by this incident?
She was not as wealthy as the Liu and Zhu families. If she wanted to plant an orange orchard, she would have to bet her entire fortune.
Therefore, site selection is particularly important.
This is why she chose Dunzi Island.
This Dunzi Island is far away from Donglin Township, separated by a river. It is an isolated island and seldom visited by people. The soil there must be healthy, and there is no need to worry about citrus psyllids crossing the river!
She had heard of growing citrus fruits on the island in her first life.
There is not only Orange Island, but also Jeju Island.
The oranges from Orange Island were brought here for viewing. They are beautiful, but I haven't tasted them, so I can't guarantee how they taste. However, she has tasted oranges from Jeju Island, which is a local specialty. Speaking of which, the taste is quite good.
The oranges on Jeju Island are delicious because the environment and climate are favorable and the orange trees have plenty of water.
The environment in Minzhou is also suitable for the growth of orange trees, not to mention that there are wild oranges growing on Dunzi Island. She can just buy Dunzi Island and use it specifically for growing oranges!
That’s right, with a net worth of several hundred taels, he might be considered a wealthy man in Xiaxi Village, of course, excluding the wealthy family besides the Shen family.
I don’t know how much that Dunzi Island is worth, and I don’t know if she can afford it!
“But there are crazy people on that island.”
"What are you afraid of? Once I buy it, the island will be mine. I can just drive that lunatic out."
"That's a lunatic. Do you think he'll listen?"
"He refused to listen, so I ordered the soldiers to fork him out."
"Do you think the officers and soldiers will do this for you?"
Too.
Gu Ran was a little embarrassed, and then looked at Pei Liu.
"Sixth Lady, even though you're so powerful, you can't deal with him?"
Pei Liuyi was embarrassed.
Damn it, why am I not as skilled as others?
"So, if there are two of you who are powerful, can you handle that lunatic?"
"Can you find two of me?"
"No, I'll hire someone as good as you."
"Who?" Pei Liu was not convinced. Did she know someone as powerful as him?
"Do you remember Officer Li Jie, who escorted us to Minzhou?"
Pei Liu thought about it and quickly remembered. He snorted coldly. He was an official from Zhengzhou. "How did you hire him?"
"Oh, you didn't know that Li Jieguan was also exiled to Minzhou, and he's in our village."
Although Pei Liu lived in Xiaxi Village, he usually liked to stay in his small house and did not like to socialize with people in the village. Therefore, after living there for so long, he still did not know that Li Jie Guan had settled in Xiaxi Village.
When Gu Ran told Pei Liu about Li Jieguan, he was stunned for a long while before coming to his senses.
"You said that old lunatic is difficult to deal with. Then, can you, together with Li Jieguan, subdue him?"
Pei Liu glanced at Gu Ran dimly.
He also remembered that Li Jie Guan was quite skilled in martial arts, as evidenced by his response when he encountered the wolf disaster. No wonder she set her sights on Li Jie Guan.
That is, Li Jieguan had been an official in the Zhengzhou government office, so he had to keep his identity as Pei Liuniang secret.
"Should, can?"
Of course you have to try it to know if it works!"
Gu Ran immediately became excited and picked the lemons faster.
Since she had thought of opening an orange orchard on the isolated island, the Liu and Zhu families might also be looking for a suitable place to grow oranges because their original orange orchards were destroyed. What if they also thought of buying Dunzi Island to grow oranges?
If they thought of planting on Dunzi Island and bought it first, then my plan to plant an Orange Island would be ruined.
No, we have to take over Dunzi Island before the two wealthy families notice it.
So after returning from Dayu Forest, she asked Pei Liu to go back to the cottage to prepare dinner, and she went directly to Village Chief Wu's house.
Village Chief Wu happened to be at home. When he heard Gu Ran asking about the size of Dunzi Island and how much money it would cost to buy it, his first reaction was: "Are you crazy?"
Gu Ran touched his nose, feeling embarrassed.
Well, ordinary people would never think of buying a deserted island to mess around with, so it’s not excessive for Village Chief Wu to think of himself this way.
"Mrs. Gu, are you burning the money in your hand?"
It would be fine if he used all the money he saved for a year to build the windmill without saying a word, after all, it was to dispel the miasma and save his life. But now, for no reason, he wants to buy a deserted island between two rivers, which is rarely visited by people. Isn't that a waste of money?
"Well, as for me, you see, it's okay for me to go in and out of the miasma forest when I come to Xiaxi Village. Dunzi Island is just a deserted island, and I thought there might be some mountain treasures I want there, so I wanted to buy it first so that it would be convenient for me to go in and out in the future!"
"Dunzi Island is a deserted island now. No one dares to go there. Even if you want to go there without hesitation, no one will stop you!"
"Since Dunzi Island is a deserted island and no one goes there, it seems okay for me to buy it, right?"
Village chief Wu glared angrily.
"You said it was a deserted island, why did you buy it?"
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