Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 120 - 118: The Plan for a Year Lies in the Spring

Chapter 120: Chapter 118: The Plan for a Year Lies in the Spring

The Emperor closed the register delivered by the Ministry of Justice, feeling much more relieved.

What he had read the most recently were all about smuggling salt!

The report from Huyijia, Governor of Liangjiang: 22 ships smuggling salt were captured, 40 ringleaders were caught, with more than 100,000 jin of smuggled salt...

The report from Sun Nandi, Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi: 60 ringleaders of salt smuggling captured, 200,000 jin of smuggled salt...

...

Reports like these, he could see every ten days or half a month, the rampant salt smuggling, was simply infuriating!

If not stopped, arrested! His kingdom could be handed over to someone else!

"Xuanye has done a good job this time! Finally managed to catch a big worm that eats rice."

"Salt smugglers are rampant everywhere, just caught the biggest old fox!" He also vented a little anger at someone.

Shangguan Xuanye looked at the orange-red moon in the sky from the window. Tomorrow would be the Lantern Festival, and after the Lantern Festival, he could leave the palace.

――

After the winter festivities, it’s time to till the fields after the New Year’s meal.

Many peasant families started to repair their farming tools, preparing for the forthcoming farming season.

"Dad, the blacksmith shop has been doing good business recently, can Fourth Uncle handle it?"

"We hired two more people a few days ago, it’s much better now."

Hearing this, Xiao’er nodded.

"Dad, the 100 acres of fertile land we bought, shall we plant it all with rice?"

"Sure." Why not? Those were all fertile lands, and rice sold for a high price, so planting rice was obviously a good idea!

In recent months, the family mostly ate rice, only having some coarse grains for breakfast. The children all loved to eat rice, so they definitely needed to plant more!

"I want to plant cotton on the wasteland across from us. The toy store needs a lot of cotton."

"But cotton is hard to grow and the yield is low. I think it’s better to plant sweet potatoes, peanuts or corn than to plant cotton!"

"Your dad is right, you can’t eat cotton! And it’s not easy to grow, it’s too risky!" Mrs. Liu also disagreed.

With so much land, all used to grow cotton, if it’s not grown carefully, wouldn’t they lose this season’s crops!

"The yield of cotton is low because the cultivation method is wrong. If the method is correct, the yield is considerable."

When Xiao’er said this, both of them knew that Xiao’er knew how to grow cotton, so they didn’t oppose anymore.

The master that Xiao’er made up in their hearts was truly great!

"We also need to plant corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts, sesame and other beans."

Xiao’er nodded, they needed to be planted, but the remaining wasteland was enough.

The leaves of sweet potatoes can feed pigs, sweet potatoes can be made into glass noodles and dried sweet potatoes; peanuts can be used to extract oil; corn has a high yield, and if they can’t finish eating it, they can feed it to poultry; in her previous life, some chickens on farms were fed on corn, it was very tender and smooth! It also has a golden color!

However, in this era, grain production is very low, people can hardly have enough to eat, how can they afford to use corn to raise poultry!

"Dad, Mum, we should dig two more fish ponds in the backyard, and raise some fish, shrimps and crabs to sell."

The couple thought of the extreme fishing bait made by Xiao’er, and both nodded!

"But I think one fish pond is enough, didn’t you say you were going to dig a pond on the top of the mountain? Raising so many fish, the restaurant in town won’t need so many!"

"Remember the three shops we bought that were connected together? I plan to demolish them and rebuild them! The ground floor will be a supermarket, the second floor will be a tea house, and the floors above will be a hotel."

"Demolish and rebuild!" Mrs. Liu was a bit taken aback. This was too extravagant and wasteful! Those shops are still in good condition.

"That’s too wasteful, can’t we remodeled instead?" Shen Chengyao was also shocked by Xiao’er’s idea!

"I’ve considered it, those shops are actually quite old, just renovated to look good. Rebuilding is better than remodeling, once and done, saving the time to maintain and fix leaks every year!"

"To demolish and rebuild, will require much more silver. And more than three floors? Xiao’er, tell me honestly, how many floors do you plan to build?"

"I haven’t decided how many floors yet, the dividends from the toy store will be available soon, and the furniture shop has also made quite a bit of money, so there should be enough silver." She hoped to build the first rooftop garden hotel in this era!

"With our own tea house, we will no longer have to worry about selling the fish from our fishpond!"

"We also have two mountains, one for growing medicinal herbs, the other for growing fruits. We should also start some vegetable plots..."

"With so much land, our family can’t manage it all, we should hire some long-term and short-term workers as soon as possible."

"We can’t hire people from our village to be long-term and short-term workers, there would be too many social constraints."

The family carefully discussed the upcoming major farming tasks.

The next day, Shen Chengyao and Xiao’er went to the broker in the town to hire long-term and short-term workers.

They ended up hiring twenty short-term workers and ten long-term workers, agreeing that they would come to help at the beginning of spring.

"Father, should we also buy some servants? We could also assign a scholar to each of my brothers!" Xiao’er felt that there were too many chores at home, they should buy some servants to help with those.

In the future, there would only be more work at home. Mrs. Liu, as the head of the household, had to learn to read and write, to keep accounts, to raise children, and to do housework. Xiao’er saw that she was constantly busy!

"Buy servants? No family in our village has servants, won’t that be too ostentatious?"

"How can that be? Doesn’t our uncle in town have servants?"

At this point, Shen Chengyao didn’t say a word. He knew Shen Chengguang had many secrets, but how did Xiao’er know?

Thinking of Mrs. Liu’s everyday hustle and bustle, he nodded again, agreeing to the proposal.

Shen Chengyao asked Broker Yang to introduce some maidservants, matrons, and scholar boys.

Broker Yang thought for a while and then said, "Brother Shen, I currently have two families on hand. These two families are all pretty good, men, women, old, and young, how about you take a look? It’s also good timing now for you to buy people, as the Imperial Court recently caught many corrupt officials involved in illegal salt trading, leading to the seizure of many large families, and as a result many of their servants were sold off!"

After hearing this, Xiao’er said, "Father, why don’t we take a look first?"

Shen Chengyao nodded his agreement.

Broker Yang brought over the two families.

One was a middle-aged couple with three sons, two daughters, and an old father.

The middle-aged man had once been the steward of a wealthy household’s accounting room, and the woman had been the matron in charge of the kitchen.

The other family was a couple with two elderly parents and a pair of children!

The man had once been the steward of a villa.

Xiao’er looked at the two families and asked, "Why were you sold off?"

Both families said, "Our master was entangled in legal trouble, so we were all resold by the Imperial Court."

"My family is just an ordinary farming household, and not some grand, wealthy clan. Would you be willing to serve in such a family?"

Both families consulted with each other and then nodded.

In fact, serving in farming households was simpler, without the cutthroat politics of large clans. It was easier to serve these kinds of masters!!

"We only plan to buy a few of you, not the elderly. If you’re willing, please step forward!"

Upon hearing these words, the faces of both families changed, "Miss, please also buy my father. I will work hard, we cannot be separated from our father!"

"Miss, we also do not wish to be separated from our elderly parents."

Xiao’er nodded, "Father, let’s buy these two families!"

Each of these two families had open and honest eyes and a forthright demeanor. Their clothes were neat and clean, plus they didn’t want to abandon their elderly, which Xiao’er judged to be quite commendable.

Shen Chengyao agreed, as he thought these two families were both good choices and nodded in approval.

Upon hearing this, both families quickly knelt, kowtowing in gratitude.

And with that, they had assembled all the people they needed to buy.

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