The next day, Jiang Sanlang bought a lot of New Year items in the county town and prepared to take them back home.
He secretly told his daughter that he had sold all the looms at the price of fifty taels per loom.
"This time I earned more than 1,800 taels of silver."
Jiang Sanlang smiled and said, "We have bought a large piece of wasteland on the south slope. We will hire someone to open up the wasteland in the spring of next year and build a pepper garden there.
When I have more pepper in the future, I won’t soak white pepper anymore. I have heard from people that if you pick half-ripe pepper fruits and dry them directly, the black pepper will taste more fragrant. ”
If you make white pepper, the pepper fruit will have an odor if soaked in water for a long time. If not handled properly, it will stink slightly and will not be as spicy as black pepper.
So Jiang Sanlang decided to dry black pepper in the future.
Yingbao: "That's not bad, it saves a lot of processes."
Jiang Sanlang nodded and said, "My family has bought a lot of high-quality paddy fields, and there are also a lot of low-quality dry fields. I plan to use those low-quality fields to grow cotton."
He bought it at the right time, as it was the end of the year and many poor farmers in the village could not make ends meet, so they mortgaged their land and ran to Dongchen Village with their children to work as hired farmhands.
Because Dongchen Village is now wealthy, the villagers have saved up some money and bought some land.
With so many fields, it would be impossible to cultivate them all with the limited labor available at home, so they hired people to do the farming.
After a long time, the employed poor farmers felt that it was good to be a hired farmer in Dongchen Village. At least they did not have to worry about how to pay the land tax twice a year. They could also secretly learn the skills of growing golden ear and snow ear in Dongchen Village. When they saved money, they could also buy some mushroom seeds.
The villagers of Dongchen Village have freed up their hands to grow more golden fungus, snow fungus, pepper, cotton, etc. In this way, everyone feels that they can make money and farm at the same time.
Jiang Sanlang continued, "I plan to build a few tiled houses on the open space outside the yard. Your mother said she wanted to build a textile workshop there, and then buy ten looms and twenty spinning wheels, and invite the weavers to come back to spin yarn and weave cloth in the future."
"Okay!" Yingbao raised both hands in agreement.
In this way, no matter how much cotton you grow, you don’t have to worry about not being able to sell it or being forced to lower the price by wealthy merchants.
Speaking of paddy fields, Yingbao suddenly remembered something.
After the Chinese New Year, I will be six years old. In May and June of that year, the villages along the Chuan River will suffer a severe flood.
Although this flood was not as destructive as the one that occurred a few years later, people were definitely killed in the flood.
The farmlands along the coast will also be washed away by the floods, and all the seeds and seedlings in the farmlands will be destroyed.
After hesitating for a moment, Yingbao decided to tell her father about this now so that he could think of a solution earlier.
"Dad, let me tell you something very important."
Yingbao said seriously, "I dreamed of a flood again these past few days."
Jiang Sanlang was stunned: "Dream about it again?"
He almost forgot that the original intention of moving his family to the south slope was to prevent floods.
"When will it happen?" Jiang Sanlang did not doubt the truthfulness of his daughter's words at all.
Because it turns out that the little girl is like a witch...ah! Like a little fairy, every word she says is as accurate as an oracle.
"Probably in May or June." She really forgot the exact date.
All I know is that those few days were extremely hot and humid, and then there were lightning, thunder and heavy rain, which lasted for several days.
"I dreamed that the farmlands around the Chuan River were flooded. Not only our village, but all the villages and farmlands near the Chuan River were washed away by the flood."
The following sentences were made up by Yingbao.
According to her speculation, this is most likely the case.
The upper reaches of the Chuan River is a big river, and what they have here is just a tributary of that big river.
If the water level of the upstream river rises sharply, it will naturally affect the water level of the downstream tributaries. A few small towns alone will not be able to stop the flood rushing down from the upstream. The only way is to evacuate the villagers in advance to reduce casualties of people and livestock.
Jiang Sanlang looked serious and said, "Let me go back and discuss with Sun Lizheng to see what to do."
This matter is of no trivial importance.
Not only do we need to prevent casualties, but we also need to discuss how to prevent the surrounding people from losing all their seeds.
Once floods hit and the crops were completely destroyed, the people would lose a large amount of grain seeds and face the pressure of summer taxes. It would be difficult for them to survive in the future.
The imperial court will not pay any attention to such small-scale disasters, and taxes will not be reduced. In the end, the people will have no choice but to flee the fields with their families.
If you think that your fellow villagers' escape from farming has nothing to do with you, you are totally wrong.
Because the taxes they don't pay will be borne by the rest of the people.
The more people who escape, the more taxes will be borne by the remaining people.
This results in if one family flees, the ten families that have jointly guaranteed their lives will follow suit, even if they have not suffered much loss.
If ten companies flee, then dozens of related companies will also have to flee.
In the end, the entire town may have to flee.
Although the people of Dongchen Village were wealthy, they could not afford the taxes of the entire township.
Therefore, we must not allow the people to suffer too great a loss, and we must not let them feel that they have to escape.
This matter must be communicated with the village head, who will then step in and ask the villagers in each village to prepare for the flood.
Afterwards, Jiang Sanlang hurried back home with his two nieces, twin sons, and a bunch of things.
Yingbao, Jiang Quan and Jiang Cheng will not go back for the time being.
Because they want to make more money during the year-end period.
These days, the shop's business has been getting better and better, and the chestnut cakes and persimmon cakes in the warehouse are almost sold out.
Not only that, the golden ear and snow ear were sold out, and there were only two samples of gourd left, placed at the door, one with a label saying "bring in wealth and fortune" and the other with a label saying "make a fortune every day."
This is because Jiang Quan didn't allow them to be sold, otherwise these two would have been bought by someone else.
"The people in the county are really rich." Jiang Quan sighed and turned to ask his eldest brother: "Have you counted the accounts? How much money can we earn this month and last month?"
Jiang Cheng was busy with his abacus and ignored him.
Yingbao had a rough estimate in her mind that the money was definitely enough to build a few large houses.
When spring comes, she will build three, no, five large tiled houses, and a large fireproof and waterproof warehouse.
Then use precious wood to make a row of tables and chairs, which will be elegant when receiving guests in the future.
Most people who buy things from my shop have some financial resources, and I can't let people think that my shop is not presentable.
She wanted to build a specialty store that belonged exclusively to the Jiang family in the county town, so she would not be afraid even if someone followed suit and competed with her store in the future.
She has rootless water and special-effect pills at home. If all else fails, she will set up a sign to see patients, specializing in treating difficult and complicated diseases, and always attracts a lot of customers.
Seeing that his elder brother ignored him, Jiang Quan spoke to his younger cousin again: "If we make a lot of money this time, let's buy another carriage."
It would be too inconvenient to use only one car for everything.
Hearing this, Jiang Cheng raised his head and said, "You are right. How about taking out a hundred taels of silver from me first? You and Yingbao can go to the mule and horse market to buy a carriage. It will be convenient for us to travel during the New Year."
Yingbao clapped her hands in agreement: "Yes, yes! Let's buy a carriage and go now."
It was too late and the mule and horse market was not open because everyone had gone home to prepare for the New Year.