Jiang Sanlang quickly agreed.
He returned home happily carrying the copper coins, took out 500 coins and gave them to his little girl, took 1,500 coins for himself, and gave the rest to his wife.
He took the copper coins to his eldest brother's house, called his two nephews, gave each of them a hundred coins, and gave his eldest brother and second brother five hundred coins each.
Because they all came to help his family when they built the bamboo shed and drying furnace.
He gave his parents another 300 coins as a gift, and then he said with a smile, "I sold the golden ears that Yingbao found in the woods today and got more than four strings of cash."
"More than four strings of cash?" Jiang Dalang was surprised. "That golden ear is probably made of gold. How can it be so valuable?"
Jiang Sanlang smiled and said, "It's more valuable than gold."
Then he said to his elder and second brothers, "I have grown another batch, and they are just beginning to sprout. When they are ripe, I will give some of the golden ear roots to you, and teach you how to grow some as well."
Jiang Dalang and Jiang Erlang nodded happily.
Jiang Erlang was embarrassed to accept the money from his third brother, so he declined, saying, "I still owe you three strings of cash, how can I take five hundred coins?"
Jiang Sanlang smiled and said, "Second brother, you can use it first, and return it to me when you make money."
"Okay then." Jiang Erlang took back the money and sighed in his heart.
After the divorce, he had to take care of two children alone, and life was not easy, but he did not regret it. He also made up his mind to make a lot of money in the future so that he and his children could live a good life and not be laughed at by others.
But making money is easier said than done.
I have been busy with farm work recently and have no time to find a job outside. I don't even have ten cents on hand.
If it weren't for his eldest brother and sister-in-law asking his family to come back for dinner every day, he probably wouldn't even be able to afford two meals a day.
Well, if my third brother's golden ears can really be sold at a high price, then I will have hope. If I follow my third brother and grow some, why should I worry about not making money
Thinking of this, Jiang Erlang suggested that he wanted to go and see the golden ears cultivated by his third brother.
Jiang Sanlang was naturally happy and brought his second brother, eldest brother and old father to his yard.
Today, Jiang Sanlang's yard is extremely cramped. Not only are there chicken and deer sheds, but there is also a bamboo shed and a two-person-high earthen kiln.
There is a wooden rack in the bamboo shed. The rack has two layers, and each layer is filled with ten dead mulberry trees that are one tuan long.
A dozen holes were drilled in the mulberry trees, which were then filled with rice husks and sawdust and planted with golden ear roots.
At this time, the golden ear has already grown fungi, and it looks like a golden dot, which is very pleasing to the eye.
"If all of these grow, how much will they sell for?" Jiang Dalang exclaimed. He counted them and found that there were twenty dead mulberry trees.
If every mulberry tree grows ten golden ears, that would be two hundred.
Two hundred golden ears, how much silver would they sell for after drying
Jiang Dalang's heart was trembling.
He also came to see his third brother when he was baking golden ears a while ago, but he didn't pay much attention to it.
After all, no one has ever seen this thing, and no one knows whether it is really valuable.
Now that Sanlang really sold it at a high price and earned more than four strings of cash at a time, how could he not be envious
Just a dozen dried golden ears can be sold for so much money, so how much money can be made from these two hundred or so golden ears
Oh, I dare not even think about it.
Jiang Dalang turned to his third brother and asked, "Sanlang, where did you find the golden ear seedlings? Why don't we go look for them and plant them together with you?"
He couldn't wait any longer and had to go into the mountains to find Jin Er immediately.
Jiang Sanlang scratched his head and said, "This was found by Yingbao. I'll go ask around."
So, when Yingbao came back from walking the deer, she was surrounded by her uncles and they asked her expectantly where she found Jin'er.
Yingbao blinked and said, "We found it in the woods over there, but it's gone now. Why don't we go to the North Mountain to look for it?"
She still remembered what the ragged boy said, that the firewood was cut at Shita Mountain in Beishan.
"Okay! Let's go to Beishan to look for it." Jiang Dalang slapped his thigh and said excitedly. Beishan has many forests and mulberry trees, maybe we can find it.
The next day, Jiang Sanlang carried his daughter on his back and led his elder brother, second brother and two nephews into the mountains.
Just in case, they all carried bows and arrows, ropes, machetes and backpacks.
There are many fruit trees in Beishan, and it is early spring in March, so the whole mountain is full of peach, pear and apricot blossoms, which is a beautiful sight.
This reminded Yingbao of the fruit seedlings in the cave. She had to find a way to plant them in Nanshan as soon as possible.
The group walked and stopped, ran over several hills, and searched countless trees, but they did not find any golden ears. However, they unexpectedly discovered several snow ears as big as eggs.
Yingbao was surprised and didn't allow her father and the others to move. She only asked them to cut down the dead mulberry tree and carry it back home.
Because it was a dead tree, Jiang Sanlang did not hesitate and worked together with his elder and second brothers to cut down the dead tree which was as thick as a bowl.
"I don't know who owns this land. No one comes to take care of it."
Jiang Dalang muttered, looked around, and urged his two brothers to leave quickly. "We can't be seen by others, let's go quickly."
He was worried that the owner of the land would find out that he and his brothers were stealing other people's trees. If they were caught, it would be a big fight.
Jiang Erlang stood on the high slope and looked around for a while, then said, "It's okay. This piece of land should have been taken over by the public, and no one will come to manage it."
According to the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty, after the death of a landowner, the land under his name must be returned to the court and then distributed to other men who have just reached adulthood.
So the owner of this land either died or his entire family fled the fields, that is, escaped the famine.
Jiang Dalang was delighted when he heard this, and immediately told his two sons: "Hurry up and look around to see if there is any more snow fungus."
It was the first time for him to see this thing. He heard from his niece and third brother that it was called snow fungus and was very valuable. It was sold in Doctor Li's pharmacy, so he hurriedly asked his two sons to look for it.
Jiang Cheng and Jiang Quan agreed and went to look for him separately.
What's more, I actually found a mulberry tree growing snow fungus nearby.
The snow fungus on this tree is very small, only slightly larger than a fingernail, but there are so many of them, there are enough to grow into several clusters.
So Yingbao asked her father and the others to cut down the whole tree and take it away.
In the evening, several people from the Jiang family returned to the village carrying two pieces of dead trees.
The villagers they met were curious about why they carried back a whole dead tree, but they didn't ask any questions.
After all, every family has experienced a lack of firewood, and it is common to come back from the North Mountain to chop firewood.
The two dead trees were sent to Jiang Sanlang's yard. The three brothers cut off the heads and tails of the trees, leaving only the middle section, which they leaned against in the bamboo shed.
At night, Yingbao secretly sprinkled the cave pool water on the snow fungus on the two dead trees, and then sprinkled the golden fungus once again, and then went back to the house to rest.
When I checked again the next day, I found that the snow fungus was not only alive, but had grown a lot bigger.
Yingbao was very happy.
Seeing that there were snow fungus seeds soon, she wanted to get some to grow in the cave.
More than twenty days passed in a flash.
The golden ears in Jiang Sanlang’s bamboo shed can finally be harvested.
The snow fungus on the two mulberry tree segments also grew and were crystal clear, more beautiful than the golden fungus. However, the snow fungus was a bit loose and not well formed, and not as neat as the golden fungus.
He and Chunniang washed their hands and carefully harvested the crops with the newly bought thin knives.
Then, all the roots of the golden ears are removed and carefully placed on a hollow bamboo tray. Some are exposed to the sun while the other parts are baked in a kiln.
The snow fungus was also cut and placed scattered on the bamboo tray and pushed into the drying furnace together with some golden fungus.
The weather has been exceptionally sunny these days, and in just five days, more than a hundred golden ears of fungus have been dried in the sun.
Jiang Sanlang picked up one and looked at it, then compared it with the one he had baked himself and said, "The one baked in the oven is still drier, but the color is not as good as the one baked in the sun."
Chunniang thinks that drying produces better quality products, but it is too time-consuming and tiring.
Because someone had to watch the kiln all night, adding firewood and extinguishing the fire at any time to keep the temperature of the kiln neither too high nor too low. In these days, my husband has lost a lot of weight.