The two Lu brothers nodded very seriously: "Of course it's true. We are from Anping Village next door. The Lu Family Garment Workshop is our family's. You can find out when you go there. We came here to escape famine. It was really inconvenient not to have farmland, so we bought some land to cultivate."
In order to convince people that he wasn't a fraud, Boss Lu gave a very serious explanation.
Business is booming now, and the two brothers are very proud to talk about their workshop. They both have smiles on their faces.
"So it's the Lu family! No wonder!"
Speaking of which, the village chief's daughter works at the Lu family's workshop; he knows that, and he's heard that the workshop is very profitable!
As expected, the rich can be capricious; it's rare to see such a high price paid for crops like this!
"How much land do you need? If you can really deliver on your promise, my family can sell ten acres!"
The village chief looked intently at the two brothers, wondering if they could accept so much.
With such a good opportunity, he naturally thought of his own family first, and then asked his close relatives.
"The more the better!"
Following He Jiuniang's instructions, Lu Lao Er said, "One hundred mu is not too little, and five hundred mu is not too much!"
In those days, adult males could be allocated ten mu of fertile land. Families with many sons could have seventy or eighty mu of land, and it wouldn't be a problem for the surrounding villages to pool together several hundred mu to sell to the Lu family.
The village chief hadn't expected them to buy so much. Remembering that his daughter was working in his workshop, he kindly reminded her, "The harvest in this field is unpredictable. If you buy so much at once, and the harvest isn't good next year, you might not even earn your wages!"
“We know all this, but buying the land is a family decision. The village chief just needs to ask if any villagers are willing to sell their land.”
Seeing their state, the village chief knew he couldn't persuade them otherwise. Since they had money, he didn't need to worry about them. So he nodded and went out to gather the villagers.
After spending several days in a nearby village, the villagers with a lot of land were willing to sell some, totaling three or four hundred acres. They had only done a survey so far, and nothing was finalized yet. The two brothers noted down some of the villagers' questions and discussed them with their family when they got home that night.
"The first question is, can every family that sells its land have someone work as a farmhand?"
Boss Lu flipped through his simple notes, which were poorly written and contained very few words, so that only he could understand them.
"How can that be? What if we run into some lazybones who don't farm properly but only want to earn ten coins a day and leave the crops unattended? Wouldn't our family go bankrupt?"
Without a second thought, Mrs. Sun glared at her son. These men in the family seemed to be missing a screw; did they even need to ask such a question? Couldn't they make their own decisions?
Boss Lu also felt guilty about the matter, but still explained responsibly: "Few families are willing to sell land. They mainly want long-term laborers. Many families insist that one of their members must become a long-term laborer before they are willing to sell the land."
"Yes, my older brother and I went to ask them a couple of days ago, and they were all very averse to it."
Lu Lao Er testified that this matter was really difficult to handle. Land is the root of farmers, and they will only think of selling land when they are desperate.
If it weren't for the conditions offered by the Lu family, very few people would be willing to sell.
"We cannot compromise on that!"
Yu said, "Wouldn't that put us in their hands? We're buying the land for ourselves, not for them!"
“Sister-in-law is right. We should not compromise, otherwise it’s no different from buying the Qian family’s land. It just means that they sold the land and the farmhands were selected from their own family first.”
When He Jiuniang spoke, Boss Lu said, "Alright, we'll talk about it tomorrow. There's another issue: can those who don't sell their land also be hired as farmhands? Not only native villagers, but also refugees who have fled famine want to be selected. The problem is, most of the refugees are women..."
Lu didn't say what he meant after that, but his family knew what he meant.
Most of the work in the fields is physically demanding, and women are not as strong as men, so it will probably be very difficult for them.
"What's wrong with women? Boss, are you looking down on women, looking down on me?"
With her hands on her hips, Mrs. Sun berated her eldest son, her face full of displeasure: "Back in my hometown, I worked in the fields every day, just as much as you guys!"
Old Master Lu was shocked and shook his head repeatedly, hurriedly explaining, "Mother, I didn't mean that! I just think that kind of physical labor is bad for your health, and it's better to let men do it!"
He certainly didn't mean to look down on women, after all, the woman was the head of the household.
"People are starving to death, who cares about getting hurt? You're such a blockhead!"
Sun was genuinely angry. Her family had taken a shortcut to stay in Jingzhou together, but the others were different; most of them were elderly, weak, sick, or disabled.
Now that we have the ability, helping out even a little is considered doing a good deed, but the eldest son insists on thinking about those unreliable things. He's wasted his age!
Yu hurriedly slapped her husband and laughed, "I don't think there's anything wrong with women doing farm work. We used to do farm work at home too. Besides, women are meticulous and can take better care of crops. It's actually a good thing!"
He Jiuniang saw through Sun's thoughts and said, "In that case, eldest brother and second brother should go and tell those people that men and women are both fine. For men, priority should be given to those who have sold their land, and only the most diligent and careful ones should be selected. For those who have not sold their land, only refugees who have fled famine should be considered, and the main choice should be capable and unpretentious women."
"Furthermore, men and women are not comparable in ability, so a man is responsible for eight acres of land and a woman is responsible for seven acres."
"If the harvest is reduced due to natural disasters or man-made calamities, no responsibility will be borne. However, if it is due to negligence or laziness, corresponding compensation will be required. Moreover, if this happens even once, the employee will be dismissed and never hired again."
If it weren't for He Jiu Niang, the Lu family wouldn't be standing here intact. Now that they're doing well, it's understandable that they would help others within their means, without harming their own interests.
"OK."
Boss Lu nodded in agreement, jotting down the key points in his notebook, planning to tell the villagers about them the next day.
The family meeting came to an end, and everyone was about to go back to their rooms when they heard someone knocking on the door. Lei Zi went to open the door and, upon seeing who it was, politely greeted the village chief as Grandpa and Grandma.
The visitors were Wang Yuan, the village chief of Anping Village, and his wife, Liu.
Hearing the noise, the Lu family members came out to greet the guests. The village chief and his wife had come to their door on their own initiative, so they must have something important to discuss.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com