inspire-indiana Chapter 851 You want to give it away for free?
Chapter 851 You want to give it away for free?
After seeing the endless grain train, Zhou Dacang was speechless for a long time.
Zhou Guo didn't say anything. She stood on her horse and watched the grain trucks passing by her. Thinking of the grain stored in the cave last year, she felt extremely proud and complacent.
Although she owned many grain shops and sold a considerable amount of grain every year, she did not touch the grain in the caves.
The things sold in the shop were all the ones she collected from various villages and the leftovers.
The grain harvest was abundant this year, and she kept a lot of it. Even if she didn't go to the village to collect grain, it would be enough to sell in so many shops.
At night, after dinner, everyone waited until there was no one around and started carrying food up the mountain.
Zhou Guo carried two bags in each hand and went up the mountain, while Zhou Dacang carried two bags on his shoulders. It was dark and they walked for about half an hour. After many twists and turns, they finally arrived.
It was pitch black outside the cave, but there were lanterns lit inside. It wasn't brightly lit, but it wasn't blind either.
This was the first time Zhou Dacang came here. When he entered the cave and saw the neatly piled up half-filled cave, he was shocked and speechless.
Zhou Guo put down the grain bag and said to him, "Uncle, look, the grain in here is all ours. I saved this last year. This year's grain is more than last year's. This cave will be full in two years. We will have to find a new cave by then."
It's just like a hamster, hiding food everywhere.
Zhou Dacang walked around the cave as if in a dream, and then asked her, "Are there many caves like this or is this the only one?"
Zhou Guo smiled and held up three fingers. "There are three, one in Song County and one in Cangshan Village. However, this one is the largest, and the one in Cangshan Village is the smallest. It can't hide much."
He leaned in close and whispered, "Our family's total grain supply now amounts to two million dan, which is enough to feed an army of four hundred thousand for more than half a year during a war."
Zhou Dacang looked at her expressionlessly, and after a while he said, "Are you going to give away these grains for free?"
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Who said it's free? Aren't you still in the camp? As long as you are in the camp for one day, these food of mine are not free. When the day comes and the rewards are given according to merit, you will not be able to escape your share."
Zhou Dacang was silent for a long time before he said, "Your uncle doesn't need these. I'm fighting hard in front not for you to pave the way for me."
Zhou Guo said: "I know, I just said that. Look, the tax revenue in the North has been getting better and better in the past two years. Maybe I won't be needed by then."
The five prefectures have a good harvest, and every family here can earn so much grain by selling a little fertilizer, so the tax revenue will be even more than what she collects.
Thinking about it this way, hundreds of thousands of troops really don't need her to deliver food.
Thinking about it this way, I feel quite boring. I wanted to contribute and show off, but I couldn't find a place and no one saw me.
It took five nights to transport all the food. Zhou Guo and Zhou Dacang spared no effort and worked for two nights.
In the end, all the food was put into the cave, more than double what was at the beginning.
Zhou Dacang finally sighed as he looked at the grains, "I never thought that our Zhou family would become a major grain producer one day. More than two million dan of grains, you are holding a mountain of gold."
Zhou Guo said: "That's not the case."
I began to list the wealthy families in the North. "The Wang family is the largest family in the North. No one knows how much land they have, but the amount of fertilizer they buy from me every year is never out of the top three. The Yang family is second... The Wu family collects a million dan of grain every year, but they are not the richest family in the North. You can imagine how much grain the top families in the North can collect every year. My grain is not even ranked high in the North."
But once she has reclaimed all the saline-alkali land and planted her family’s rice seeds, she doesn’t know what will happen then.
Zhou Dacang looked at her in surprise, "You know all this? How did you, a fat seller, find out all the details about these people in the North?"
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "The head of the Wu family accidentally let the cat out of the bag. I don't know whether what he said was true or false, but if he was lying, he wouldn't be stupid enough to exaggerate. The secret harvest would only be higher than this number, at least one million shi."
Zhou Dacang calculated the number and said, "There are so many lands in the North?"
Isn’t it said that the North is barren?
Zhou Guo said, "Then there must be more than just land in the north. Families like them must have land in other places besides these five prefectures. They must understand the principle of a cunning rabbit having three burrows better than us. We have land in these five prefectures. When you take over the neighboring prefectures, I plan to buy some land in other prefectures as well."
After all, who would complain about having too much land?
Zhou Dacang was silent for a moment and said, "Why don't we buy less? Too much will only attract attention."
It’s better to keep a low profile.
Zhou Guo said: "I know, I won't buy too much. Besides, I pay taxes honestly every year. I pay the land tax and the poll tax. I even pay the poll tax for Wu Jiang and others."
Although she had a lot of land, she paid all she was owed.
Zhou Dacang nodded and said, "You know these things better than me. If what I say makes sense, then listen to me. If it doesn't make sense, just ignore it. After all, I don't have the ability to go from being penniless to earning food for hundreds of thousands of troops for more than half a year in just a few years. There are not many people in the world who have such ability."
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Uncle, your ability is not here, your ability is on the battlefield. Haven't you heard that it is easy to get thousands of soldiers, but hard to get a general? You are a person who wants to go down in history. Such a person is hard to find even in millions of miles. Seriously speaking, your ability is greater than mine."
The uncle and nephew praised each other and made each other laugh.
After all, Zhou Dacang couldn't be out for too long, so after sealing up the cave with all the food in this area, he returned to the camp.
Zhou Guo also started to take people down to harvest seeds.
She did not take advantage of them. The grain was collected as seeds and the price she paid for it was higher than ordinary grain.
Everyone was happy to leave the food for her.
By the time other grain merchants got the news, all the grain had already been harvested, and they stamped their feet in regret!
New grain seeds!
High-yield grain!
If we can harvest this, we can sell it at a high price next year.
Someone reminded them, "It's useless. Think about the Zhou family. Will they allow you to sell at a high price? Don't forget that these grains came from them."
Others thought this made sense and said angrily, "I don't know where this bastard crawled out from. He won't even try to make money. He's so stupid and hypocritical. He deserves to be a mud-legged peasant. He will be poor for several lifetimes, and his descendants won't have a good life..."
The scolding was quite harsh, but Zhou Guo couldn't hear it. He was looking at the grain seeds in the warehouse and flipping through the account books in his hands, his face beaming with joy.
Hu Zi asked, "Master, will these seeds be enough for several cities to share next year?"