Widow Qu was making plans in her heart. If Qu Yutao went out more and met more people, maybe she would fall in love with someone?
Zaihu Village is a very good choice.
Her daughter is already very good. If it weren't for her status, how could she not be found in a good family?
Here in Lingnan, men and women are not that particular about defense.
With the matter settled, Qu Yutao happily followed Zhao Liya to Zaihu Village.
Along the way, she was so excited that she kept chattering and asking questions.
She gave Zhao Liya the impression of being gentle and quiet. She didn't expect to talk so much. Of course Zhao Liya was happy to have someone to talk to. She was very enthusiastic and told her everything in detail. The two of them talked to each other.
, we chatted happily, and the more we talked, the closer we became, and they really looked like good sisters.
When they arrived at Zaihu Village, everyone was very happy to see Zhao Liya coming and greeted her with a smile.
All six hundred acres of land have been cleared, and piles of weeds are piled on the edges, waiting to be dried and burned.
The ones that were relatively fresh were picked back to be padded in the pig pens and cow pens.
The chopped trees had all their twigs and leaves removed, and they were piled in piles. Brother Li Guangwu smiled enthusiastically at Zhao Liya and said, "Take this back to dry and it can be used as firewood. I'll call two bullock carts later."
Miss Zhao, please send her back."
Zhao Liya looked at this hill-like pile of firewood. There were countless piles of cleared firewood on the 600-acre land. A bundle of roughly larger firewood in their family could burn it for more than half a month, which was just for cooking and boiling water.
, I am afraid that so much firewood will be piled up into rotten wood and I will not be able to burn it all.
Zhao Liya then smiled and said: "We don't need so much, so let's just ask Brother Guangwu to help me find two oxcarts and send them over. Let's divide the rest among us."
Everyone was very happy after hearing this and thanked him one after another.
Now that the ground is clean, it's time to pay out three days' wages.
The day before yesterday, Zhao Xiang went to the city to exchange copper coins and came back. Today, Zhao Liya and Qu Yutao came over and distributed their wages to everyone.
Each person who did the work received one hundred cents, which was a big windfall for each family, and everyone was happy.
Before Zhao Liya and the others came, they had clearly counted the copper coins, one hundred coins each, and handed all the money coins to the two elders of the Ruan family and the Li family.
The two clan elders led a dozen or so villagers who could count, and then they randomly checked dozens of strings. The numbers were all correct, so they nodded and agreed with a smile, took the money from Zhao Liya and the others, and distributed the strings one by one to each family.
Go down.
Most of the villagers couldn't count to a hundred at all, but they believed in the clan leader that such a heavy bunch would feel very secure in their hands, so they would not be short of it.
Even if a few are missing, it doesn’t feel bad.
Anyway...so many!
Zhao Liya smiled at Qu Yutao and said, "If you don't mind me, cousin, why don't you go back and follow my father to read and learn arithmetic? It will be easier to do things in the future."
Qu Yutao is also a very thoughtful girl. She knows that with her status, getting married is not a good way out, but making money is. When she heard this, she was surprised and happy, and nodded quickly: "That's great! Can I really do it?"
Zhao Liya nodded and smiled: "Of course!"
After the ground is cleared, the next step is to open up wasteland.
Zhao Liya asked the village's top farmers to go to the fields to see where she wanted to dig a canal to divert water.
We also need to set aside about thirty acres of land to build a sugar-pressing workshop, various tool houses, warehouses, etc. Where is the best place to leave it?
Several old farmers were worthy of their rich experience. After some discussion and discussion, they seemed to be pointing the finger at the country, and finally came up with a reasonable planning route and land for the workshop.
Zhao Liya expressed her gratitude and asked Brother Li Guangwu to lead a few people to dig shallow pits along the canal route and spread lime to mark the width.
The land reserved for the workshop was also surrounded with lime.
The land reserved for the workshop is in the northwest corner of the whole land. Zaihu Village is separated from the village by the back mountain, walking through the valley of the back mountain, climbing up the high mountain ridge, standing on the ridge of the mountain ridge and looking into the distance.
You can keep the workshop in sight. If there is any abnormality, you can easily find it.
It won't take long to reach it after coming down from the mountain ridge.
If we start from Zaihu Village and reach the workshop from the back mountain, it will only take about twenty minutes based on the normal walking speed of an adult. If we walk faster, we can reach it in less than fifteen minutes.
Very convenient.
With this matter settled, the next step is to dig and prepare the land.
Planting sugar cane requires deep plowing of the land, at least to a depth of twenty centimeters, to facilitate the growth of sugar cane roots.
Naturally, this matter was left to the people of Zaihu Village, and they paid twenty cents a day, and the work was completed every five days. Brothers Li Guangwu were responsible for coordination, and Zhao Liya and Qu Yutao personally supervised the work and checked whether the depth of the land met the standards.
Even if the digging speed is slower, it doesn't matter. This first step must not be done perfunctorily.
After deep plowing, ditches must be dug and fertilizers applied. Before planting sugarcane, the seeds must be soaked in lime water with a concentration of about 2% for one day. This can make the sugarcane more drought-resistant and prevent diseases and insect pests to a certain extent.
As for fertilization, Zhao Liya planned to use farmyard manure, so she had to find it in advance.
Almost every household in Zaihu Village raises pigs, and many families raise cows. The composted manure can be used as long as they are willing to sell it.
But Zhao Liya needed a large quantity, and the compost retting fertilizer in Zaihu Village was obviously not enough. So she hired another twenty people from the village and went to Bajiao Village and other villages next door to buy it. As long as the compost was retting and no manure was produced, the village
The big bamboo basket was filled with five cents.
A basket like this can be sold for five cents, which is quite cost-effective. A large pile of retting manure can hold more than one basket, and some can hold more than a dozen baskets, earning dozens of cents. When you count the coppers, you will not make the neighbors envious.
Already.
After all, this is not the time of year when we need fertilizer for spring plowing, so why not sell it? As for the manure needed for spring plowing next year, isn’t that simple? Just spread more grass into the pig pen!
When the ditching began, Hu Ling came back from Suixi County with the first batch of sugarcane seeds.
These sugarcane seeds were piled up in the yard of Uncle Ruan Gui's house, and two large pits of medium depth and medium depth were dug in the open space outside his yard for soaking the seeds.
That is to say, this time, the conditions were poor and we had to make do.
When the workshop is built, several ponds will be built with blue bricks specifically for soaking seeds. There will also be a special warehouse for storing sugarcane seeds.
Fortunately, the people in Zaihu Village are simple and kind-hearted in nature, and the Zhao family has brought them extra income. Everyone cherishes it and will not do anything behind their backs.
Even if there were a few people who were a bit talkative, they were suppressed by Li Zheng and the clan leaders.
Li Zheng, the patriarchs have a longer-term thinking in mind. Zhao Xiang was once the number one scholar. No matter what happens now, his knowledge must be good! They also hope that they can ask him to teach the children in the village in the future.