Chapter 73
Gu Chen paused and muttered, "I was thinking about your grandmother from the Chen family coming..."
Gu Xinxin pretended not to hear and said to Gu Daniu, "Let Dad handle the land reclamation. I don't know much about it. When the time comes, do we need to ask the village chief to take a look at the survey?"
Gu Daniu nodded: "There are many tricks here, you won't understand them even if you go there. Give me two more taels of silver and I'll buy some pig's head meat and go to the village chief's house for a visit."
When the time comes, if the village chief lets go and gives an extra ten feet and two feet per acre of land, how much more will be left over from ten acres of land?
Measurement is very flexible.
And then you have to set boundaries. There are two types of boundary setting: one is the upper one, which is to put a stone or something and put it there like a monument. But this kind of boundary setting has a disadvantage, which is that it can be easily moved by others. Not to mention, some people do this kind of thing that harms others and does not benefit themselves.
The other way is to bury it underground. You can find a place to bury it and ignore it at ordinary times. But if there is a dispute, for example, two families quarrel over the boundary, you can dig it out to see whose house the boundary belongs to.
Everyone in the village used the second method, but because the fields were adjacent to each other, it was difficult to move them secretly. If yours had a marker, so would everyone else. But if they were at the foot of the mountain, Gu Daniu's attempt to bury a landmark would be... quite a stretch.
The village chief also needs to record this landmark.
Gu Xinxin went to the house to get the silver. Gu Chen said sourly, "Xinxin is really the head of our family now. Even you, as a father, have to ask Xinxin for money when you want to spend money or do something serious. By the way, do you know how much money we have at home?"
Gu Daniu really doesn't know.
He could only count up to a hundred. Counting… within a hundred was fine, but anything above a hundred was a problem. He had tried this before, calculating based on an income of three taels of silver a day, but gave up after half a month. It wasn't that the calculations were difficult, but simply too tedious. He'd become confused as he went along. He'd seem to have reached a hundred, then seem to have reached the second hundred. In short, some of the calculations were unclear.
Anyway, each family only needs one accountant. Since he can't trust Gu Chen, he can only trust Gu Xinxin.
Gu Xinxin handed the silver to Gu Daniu and went back to the house to settle the accounts. She now had more than 100 taels of silver in her hand. She didn't have to pay taxes in the first year of land reclamation, and she started to pay taxes in the fourth year.
We first need to calculate how much it would cost per day to hire people. Let's assume Gu Danniu hired twenty people, and twenty mu of land—one person per mu—and it would probably take about ten days to finish the work.
Land reclamation involves clearing away debris from the ground, such as branches, weeds, and stones. Then, use a pickaxe to turn over the solid ground. This step is the most difficult, as the ground has become very hard and solid due to the long absence of crops and the frequent comings and goings of people. It would take a lot of effort for ordinary people to dig it up.
The hardest and slowest step.
After digging, you need to apply fertilizer and then turn it over again. If you started digging from the east end, then you should turn it over from the west end, which is equivalent to digging in the opposite direction. But since you have dug it once before, you only need to turn over the previous soil block.
After turning over, you need to plow the land to turn large clods into small clods and make uneven ground slightly flat.
After plowing the land, it is combed again with a ten-finger rake. The plow is a big thing, and the ten-finger rake is a small thing, one is rough and the other is delicate.
Only after being combed by ten fingers is it considered finished and ready for sowing. For the first crop, it is best to sow something that is easy to grow, but Gu Xinxin wants to plant sugarcane, so that she won't have to buy seeds in the future and can have her own sugarcane harvest.
For the first batch, she didn't expect the sugarcane to produce much sugar, she just wanted the seedlings.
After finishing the plan, Gu Xinxin went to look at the sugarcanes she had bought earlier. After removing the cloth covering them, she was speechless and turned around to ask, "Who touched my sugarcane?"
Gu Qiuhe was practicing writing in the yard and quickly said, "I didn't have it. I knew your thing was useful, so I didn't dare touch it."
Gu Chen also popped her head out of the kitchen: "I didn't move. If I did, wouldn't you chop me to pieces?"
Even Gu Daniu has surrendered to Gu Xinxin. As her stepmother, she should not mess with Gu Xinxin. It’s not worth it.
Gu Xinxin looked at Mrs. Gu's room, but there was no movement from her side. She paused and went to Mrs. Gu's room. Mrs. Gu was sitting at the table. When she saw Gu Xinxin come in, she panicked: "At my age, my teeth are no longer useful..."
Gu Xinxin didn't listen at all. She first lifted the quilt to look, and then looked under the bed. There was no third step. She directly pulled out a bamboo basket from under the bed, and there were sugarcane residues in it.
She looked at Mrs. Gu, who was initially guilty, but then said confidently, "I'm already this old, what's wrong with eating something before I die?"
"Don't you say you have bad teeth?" Gu Xinxin asked. Old Mrs. Gu coughed lightly and said, "Then you can taste the sweetness if you sip it slowly."
"This stuff of mine is useful. I told you not to touch it this morning." Gu Xinxin put down the bamboo basket and called out to Gu Chenshi, "Eating too much of this stuff will cause internal heat. Grandma is old now, and she's eaten it all. We can only find a way to prevent her from getting internal heat. Make her something light these few days, like porridge. Corn porridge. The corn is fresh and new. Eat this three times a day."
Mrs. Gu was anxious: "No, I'm not angry..."
Gu Chen responded loudly in the kitchen: "Okay, I get it. Getting angry is no small matter. I really need to empty my stomach."
Gu Xinxin added, "Grandma is so old, I can't bear to let her eat alone. You can eat with her, and both of you can have corn porridge."
Gu Chen couldn't believe it and rushed to the kitchen door: "I want to eat too?"
"Yeah, you're a daughter-in-law. Don't you have any idea what she can and can't eat? You've been at home all day and you couldn't even keep an eye on her. If you don't accompany her to eat porridge, who will?" Gu Xinxin said angrily, "If you don't want to accompany her, that's fine too. Choose either Gu Qiuhe or Gu Wenshu."
Gu Qiuhe immediately looked at Gu Chen eagerly. Gu Chen shouted, "You can't do this. The old lady is an elder. As her daughter-in-law, how can I stop her from eating? Qiuhe and Wenshu are still growing up. You can't treat them harshly."
"You think they're growing up now? Then why didn't you think of Xiang Rong taking care of me when I was sick?" Gu Xinxin sneered, "Choose one of the two: you, or Gu Qiuhe and Gu Wenshu. If you don't choose, then wait for Dad to come back and let him choose for you."
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