The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 743 - 732: Kill with a Borrowed Knife II

Chapter 743: Chapter 732: Kill with a Borrowed Knife II

Zhou Dalang and his brothers also lived in the small courtyard that Zhou Silang had recently rented. In the evening, the brothers gathered in a room to count silver, while Manbao and Zhou Lijun sat on the side, checking the accounts and calculating everyone’s wages so that they could go home and distribute the money.

The brothers carefully stored all the silver ingots in carry pouches, and Zhou Dalang put the carry pouch in the middle of the bed. He decided to sleep with the silver that night.

Zhou Erlang and Zhou Silang discussed, "Big Brother and Third have visited all the nearby villages. We’ve basically reserved all the good wheat for seeds. After one more round, there won’t be any left. If we want to buy more, we can only look to Old Master Bai."

Zhou Silang pondered, "One more round, and we’ll almost have enough for the County Governmental Office. The rest, we, the Zhou brothers, will slowly haul ourselves. Later, we can slowly look around, and we can continue to do business with some of the villages outside Yizhou City."

"That’s what I think," said Zhou Dalang as he put away the money, turning to add, "But don’t expand the business too much. We offer low prices, and it’s not certain whether Old Master Bai would be willing to sell us the seeds at such a low price."

Zhou Sanlang commented with emotion, "Before, it was Old Master Bai who bought wheat seeds from us. Now the tables have turned, and it’s come to the point where we have to ask others."

Having calculated the accounts, Manbao let Zhou Lijun transcribe them and, hearing the conversation, said, "That means our family’s business has grown."

"Growing big is not necessarily a good thing; it brings lots of trouble," Zhou Silang said. "I still prefer small business, free and easy. When nobody pays attention, basically nobody bullies you. But now, I’m afraid that’s no longer possible."

Manbao looked at Datou and Second Son with sympathy, saying, "It’s a pity you two brothers aren’t good at studying; otherwise, you could become our family’s backbone."

"Forget about it," scoffed Zhou Erlang, unimpressed. "Relying on those two is even less reliable than hoping for a breakthrough with Fifth and Sixth."

The latter two had only been able to speak for a brief time; how could anyone expect them to show any signs of intelligence?

Manbao fell silent for a moment, then asked, "How are Third and Fourth progressing with their studies?"

Zhou Dalang and Zhou Sanlang sighed in unison.

Hearing that, Manbao understood there was no need to listen further.

The only thing she could do was to reach out and pat Zhou Silang and Zhou Wulang on the shoulders, "Fourth Brother, Fifth Brother, it looks like it’s up to you in the future. Eh, Fifth could probably put in some effort too."

Wulang’s father, Zhou Sanlang: ...

Zhou Dalang looked at Manbao’s head and said, "It seems all the cleverness in our Zhou family has gone into your head."

Zhou Silang couldn’t help but mutter in his heart: That’s because she was born to good parents; her mother is also smart, so the problem lies with the fathers.

Clearly, many brothers shared Zhou Silang’s thoughts as they looked at Manbao’s head and heaved a deep sigh.

After all, it was their grandparents’ favoritism that gave all the good brains to their uncle.

Manbao: ...

Having received their first sum of money, the Zhou brothers went ahead and aggressively pursued their business, especially after seeing the profits calculated by Manbao and Zhou Lijun.

They were even more diligent, thoroughly examining every wheat seed for the sake of future long-term cooperation.

Old Zhou lost hair for three days, but when he saw the silver they brought back and heard about County Magistrate Tang’s generosity, he perked up, slept soundly at night, and stopped losing hair.

He woke up laughing several times in his dreams, and he quietly said to Ms. Qian, "County Magistrates like County Magistrate Yang and County Magistrate Tang are good people. Think of the previous county lords; how could commoners like us dare to do business with them? If we did, wouldn’t it be like throwing a meat bun to a dog, never to return?"

"Keep your voice down."

Old Zhou: "I’m just telling you."

The movement of the Zhou brothers this time was significant, even County Magistrate Yang took notice, but he just watched silently for a while.

Recently, a sudden influx of refugees arrived in their county. After making inquiries, he vaguely realized he had been set up.

But with people delivered right to his doorstep, there was no reason to push them away, right?

So, while taking measures like arranging corvée labor, constructing water conservancy projects, allocating land to refugees, building houses for shelter from the cold, and distributing relief food, he also registered the newcomers into the household records of Luojiang County.

Sure enough, not long after, County Magistrate Yang faced another impeachment.

Someone accused him of stealing people and taking credit, and this time, it was not the magistrates from nearby counties who impeached him but an imperial censor from the capital.

Two more petitions piled onto County Magistrate Yang’s desk, and he had to prepare his defense statements.

County Magistrate Yang sighed. Although he wasn’t afraid of being impeached, being constantly targeted could have a bad influence on him, such as leaving an impression of being hungry for glory upon his seniors in the court.

But who could understand his grievances? It was truly not him manipulating the situation this time; someone had delivered the people to him, and he felt it would have been wrong not to take care of them.

With the refugees settled, there was a need for seed grains. County Magistrate Yang decided to reduce by one-third the wheat seeds dedicated to the capital. Humph, they liked impeaching him? Let them, and see who would suffer more.

By now, Luojiang County’s superior wheat varieties had been acknowledged by the imperial court, which had already commended County Magistrate Yang, although they hadn’t yet rewarded him for his merits.

Since the situation was out in the open, naturally, the superior seeds needed to be provided to the Imperial Family’s estates and the Ministry of Agriculture.

Therefore, before this year’s autumn harvest, official documents from the court arrived, with the palace even sending an eunuch to negotiate.

Of course, he was not only there for the Imperial estates but also for this princess, that empress, and another prince; all their estates urgently needed such superior seeds...

Naturally, County Magistrate Yang wouldn’t give them away for free, but there were always those who wanted to take them without paying, making his mood quite foul recently.

When his mood was foul, he wanted to make others feel the same.

So, right after the Zhou brothers sent off their second batch of seed grains, he whispered to the eunuch still residing in the county town, telling him that at least half of the superior seeds in the county had been taken away by Yizhou City.

Now, even if he wanted to provide them, it wouldn’t be possible; he could only prioritize the Emperor and the Ministry of Agriculture first.

The eunuch was shocked, but facing the respectful yet composed Yang Heshu, he dared not speak out of line.

This was not just an ordinary county magistrate; he wasn’t someone the eunuch could get angry with.

He had to leave with pent-up frustration, starting his journey back to the capital, but not before a letter was swiftly sent to the capital.

The Zhou brothers joyfully completed the second wheat seed transaction with County Magistrate Tang, taking back two pouches of silver, distributing the wages, returning the carts and horses, and then happily heading home together.

The Zhou family’s savings doubled after these two trips, and Old Zhou was so elated he almost rolled around in the pile of silver.

The reason he almost rolled was that no sooner had they finished counting the money, Ms. Qian declared it was time to give the sons their share.

Of course, it wouldn’t all be distributed, but about half had to be shared, including Datou, Second Son, and Erya, who were also involved, so the sum to be divided was quite substantial.

As usual, Old Zhou felt a twinge of heartache, then favouritism prevailed as he gave Manbao an extra two ingots of silver before announcing, "Manbao isn’t home, so I’ll keep her share for her."