Zhulan explained, "You will get married in the future, and I hope that the girls around you all have families. At least Dashu will get married with you, and her family will be in my hands and will not dare to betray you. Or I will not leave the Wan family, but give the whole Wan family to you, and you can keep them yourself."
She was really worried about the three new girls, especially Li Qiu who volunteered to sell herself at the age of ten. She really threatened her family and was the most likely to betray. Zhulan thought, no wonder in ancient TV dramas, big families all liked to have children at home!
Xue Han was educated. "Mom, why didn't you buy all the servants in the family, and why did you buy Li Qiu?"
Zhulan smiled, "Let's not talk about where to buy so many servants from a family, let's say the house can't be full of servants from the same family. Mother is also on guard against them, lest they marry each other and unite to fool us in the future. If we buy some servants and maids, these servants and maids can only rely on their masters and will be the most obedient. There need to be two voices in the house. You must remember that everything must be balanced. If you want balance, you need checks and balances. There is a lot of knowledge in this, and mother will slowly teach you in the future."
Li stood aside and listened for a long time, her mind was confused. What checks and balances, what marriage alliance, she was confused. Forget it, she didn't want to think about it anymore, she just listened to her mother.
Li said, "Mother, I'm going back to the courtyard with the silk flowers. I want to go to the market with the head of the household. Yesterday, everyone lined up to get food. Today, I want to see if there are any people in the market."
Zhulan: "Go ahead."
When Zhulan was left alone, she divided the family's silver, leaving 5,600 taels for household expenses, and kept the remaining 7,000 taels.
I asked Zhou Shuren yesterday, and he said that wasteland is not included in the 200 acres. She decided to buy only 20 acres for family use, and the rest will be used to buy mountain land. The eldest brother doesn't need to go today, and can just leave it to housekeeper Ding.
Butler Ding has more experience than Boss Zhou. It took him less than two hours to buy the mountains and fields. He was delayed on the way out of the city to see the mountains, otherwise he would have returned faster. He bought 180 acres of mountain land, which was considered a free gift, for a total of 216 acres, 15 acres of dry land and 5 acres of paddy field. There are few paddy fields in Lizhou City and the price of paddy fields is 13 taels of silver per acre. Dry fields are cheaper than those in the northeast, and good land costs 4 taels of silver per acre.
It cost almost four hundred taels of silver to buy the land, including the tax and money for exchanging the deeds.
The eldest couple didn't come back until almost noon. Zhulan frowned, "Why did you come back so late? Steward Ding has been back from buying land for almost half an hour."
If there weren't so many people following her, she would have thought something had happened.
Zhou Laodao said, "Mother, there were people selling wild vegetables and fish in the market today. I felt that there were too few. A few children selling wild vegetables said that they had some at home. We felt sorry for them and said we would take them all. However, it would take time for them to walk back. Li and I couldn't bear it, so we took them back in a carriage."
Li continued, "When we got to the village, many families knew we were here to buy wild vegetables and asked if they wanted more. I remembered that every year we buy wild vegetables to dry in the winter, so we stayed to collect them, which wasted a lot of time."
Zhulan looked at the eldest and Li. They were the most sympathetic of the Zhou family. "How much did you buy?"
Li grinned, she knew her mother-in-law wouldn't be angry, "Mom, I bought two carts, and I also told you that I'll have people collect the wild vegetables when you pick them in the future."
Zhou Laoda added: "Mom, I bought it at two cents a pound, and I bought more than 300 pounds."
Zhulan, "... ..."
This must be buying all the wild vegetables from several nearby villages!
Zhulan waved her hand, "Don't pile them up after you buy them. Let them dry quickly before they rot."
Li left quickly, "Mom, I'll go and dry it now."
At noon, there were more wild vegetables and fish on the Zhou family’s table. The fish were quite big, and the people risked their lives to catch them in the river in order to exchange them for money.
In the afternoon, Zhulan changed her clothes and took a carriage to see the mountain land she had bought. The mountain land was close to Lizhou City. The wild vegetables on the mountain had been dug up long ago, but there was still some vegetation. The mountain land of more than 200 acres was really not small.
Boss Zhou looked at the mountains in front of him and asked, "Mom, are these two mountains ours?"
Zhulan: "Yes."
Boss Zhou was worried again, "Mom, there are too many hills here? Are we going to grow sweet potatoes and potatoes?"
In Boss Zhou's impression, only sweet potatoes and potatoes are usually grown in the mountains.
Zhulan could imagine what the orchard would look like, and said with a smile, "I plan to plant apple trees on the land near the top of the mountain, and plant some watermelons at the foot of the mountain. After the watermelons are harvested, I will plant winter wheat."
Boss Zhou took a deep breath. With such a large piece of mountain land, many fruit trees could be planted. "Mom, we should buy a lot of fruit trees!"
Zhulan had a clear mind after looking at the land, and said with a smile: "Of course, after the fruit trees are planted, the mountain land will be handed over to you in the future. Lichun will follow you, don't let mother down!"
The only thing Boss Zhou could show off was farming, but he had never won an apple tree or a watermelon. He felt a little nervous for a moment. It was also the first time he had to take care of such a big matter at home, and he had no idea what he was going to do.
Zhulan saw that Boss Zhou was not confident and that he still needed to practice hard, "I'm not asking you to do it yourself, so why don't you hire someone to do it?"
When Zhou Laoda heard this, he realized that since he became the eldest uncle of the Zhou family, he had become more and more comfortable with spending money. He was really good at spending money, "Mom, I will definitely take good care of the mountain."
Now that they have the land, Zhulan's family needs to hire a lot of people. They brought a lot of food from home, and Zhulan is also prepared to pay the workers half food and half silver, which can also help Zhou Shuren ease some of his burden.
In the following days, not only Zhou Shuren was busy, but Zhulan was also busy. She calculated how many fruit trees she needed to buy and how many people she needed to hire. She also needed to dig an ice cellar at home. Butler Ding and Boss Zhou were both sent to Chuanzhou to select fruit trees and hire fruit farmers.
By the time Zhulan shipped back batches of fruit trees, it had been ten days since the Zhou family arrived in Lizhou City.
Zhou Shuren had already started the work of building roads and digging ponds. People were working everywhere outside the entire Lizhou city, and Lizhou city had begun to stabilize.
After Zhulan's family dug the ice cellar and hired nearby people to plant fruit trees and fields, Zhulan was finally able to take a breath. At night, she said to Zhou Shuren, "You said we have been in Lizhou City for almost a month, why didn't the wife of an official invite me?"