Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Chapter 783 Collecting Grain from the Rich

Tang He said: "If we keep going at this pace, it will probably be almost done by next year."

The main reason is that the terrain at the end of the field is steep, making construction difficult, and there are huge rocks blocking the ground, otherwise it would have been faster.

Zhou Guo said: "You decide. If these salty and bitter lands can really be improved, you will be the biggest contributor."

Tang He smiled faintly.

Old man Zhang and his son look after the experimental field diligently. Apart from some minor problems, there are no major issues and they can be corrected.

After visiting Song County, we also visited several other counties, especially Huayuan County. Because there was no rush to build the house, the village was built much better than the one in Song County and is now in use.

People from other states and counties nearby come here to get their fertilizer, and there are quite a lot of people.

The farms in various places were running steadily and busily, and she also returned home.

There is still no news from the south. Zhou Dacang has been away for so long and hasn't even sent back a letter. It's really worrying.

……

Before autumn arrived, crops had already been harvested in various parts of the north.

This year Zhou Guo was unable to visit every household in these villages in the north, so he could only pick some to look at, including those from previous years and those who had just come to buy fertilizer this year.

A comparison between the two places reveals the difference.

That land has been cultivated for so many years, and the same acre of land can produce nearly two more bushels of grain than the land that has just been cultivated. For families with good seeds, one acre of land can produce nearly half a stone more!

She decided that this year, she would sell part of the wheat produced in her family's fields as seeds, except for the wheat she would keep for herself.

To be on the safe side, she decided to expand slowly, planting in her own county first. A family could only buy one or two acres of land to plant.

The villagers have been using her family's wheat seeds for many years. After several generations of breeding, their harvest is now better than that of people in other villages.

However, these are all things for later.

Now the task of harvesting grain is in full swing.

The several prefectures are large, and it is inconvenient to transport the grain back from far away, so they simply store it on their respective farms.

We'll wait until the grain is harvested and then decide what to do with it.

Because the land is so congested this year, more than 80% of the grain-collecting trucks used are rented, and they are rented by truck dealerships in various counties.

Every county and every village happily harvested grain, and they also happily went to haul it, and every family was happy.

Those big households were incredible. For the first 100 households, Zhou Guo personally led a team to collect the goods from them.

She has to give face to families like this, as the fertilizer they want weighs several thousand stones.

She also knew that these people did not do it for her sake, but for the big banner behind her. But what did it matter? After all, they really paid the money.

When she arrived at the door, the head of the wealthy family came to greet her. After all, the general's child, being able to come to their house was giving them face, and they had to know what was right and wrong.

The wealthy families were all smiling and prepared delicious food and drinks, entertaining us very well.

Zhou Guo felt that he couldn't bear it anymore, so he said, "Why don't we go collect food? I don't seem to be very hungry."

"Hey, what are you talking about, Master Zhou? It's a great honor for you to come to our house. A meal is worth nothing. It's a blessing for our family that you can come. Or is it that these dishes are not to your liking?"

Zhou Guo had no choice but to sit down again, looking at the other person's smiling face that was even a little servile, feeling very uncomfortable. Did this person misunderstand something?

Thinking of those rumors, she felt even more uncomfortable. She was really not the general's illegitimate son or daughter. If the general's wife knew about this, would she still be alive?

After finally finishing the meal, I was able to go to the farm to collect grain.

By this time, all the grain carts had been loaded and there were so many ox carts that there was no end in sight.

Zhou Guo was a little excited. He had been harvesting grain for several years, but this was the first time he saw so many cows and so many trucks transporting grain together. Although the weather was a little dry this year, fortunately it did not have a big impact and the harvest was still good.

"Mr. Zhou, this fertilizer is really good. I bought so much fertilizer this year that the harvest is 20% more than in previous years. The grain you took away was really taken from that 20% of grain."

Zhou Guo smiled and said, "The Wu family is truly a wealthy family, and few can compare to them."

The amount of grain she took away was at most more than 10%. If you add it up, the Wu family’s grain really piled up into a mountain!

Big business!

Mr. Wu knew that he had said the wrong thing. He saw that Zhou Guo was young and didn't seem to have any ulterior motives, and he sincerely wanted to show off and flatter him, so he said this.

He immediately smiled and said, "No, no, no, all this land is not mine. The Wu family has several other branches and many side branches. I am the head of the Wu family, and I will take care of all these matters."

In fact, to be honest, this amount of food is not much for a family like theirs. Isn’t the Wu family the family with the most food in the North? But don’t we also have the Li family and the Wang family?

There are many other companies, aren’t they stronger than them?

But Zhou Guo is a country bumpkin, she has no experience. Just think about it, last year, they harvested so much grain in the whole city, but it was still not as much as other people's family produces in a year. The Wu family is really rich and has so much land.

I secretly think that next year the price I give to these people won’t be the same as the price I give to ordinary people.

There are good crabs, and the fat ones can be sorted into good and bad. One stone can get at least 220 coins. They make some money, and she makes even more, so why not do it?

The Wu family requested 8,000 shi of fertilizer this year, making them one of the families that requested the most.

Several other families also wanted 8,000 koku.

She went to each of the people's homes one by one to collect the grain, and these people received her warmly, enthusiastically and even a little flatteringly.

Zhou Guo appeared calm on the surface, but her brows were knitted with worry inside. It was true that she wanted to borrow the power of the general, but this was not the right way to borrow it. If she was not careful, she would become the general's child left outside.

It would be fine if the child was just an orphan, but if it is an illegitimate child, then she would be finished, right?

It’s a pity that Zhou Dacang went south, otherwise I would have asked him about whether he had met the general’s wife.

……

After visiting the wealthy families in other prefectures, it is time to visit the wealthy families in Yunzhou.

The Wang family is the largest family in Yunzhou, but she has no feelings towards them. She feels unhappy when she thinks of what happened during the Lantern Festival that year. But she can't be picky about anything but food. The Wang family has a lot of money, land, and people!

Besides, the Wang family was actually quite nice to meet. They were neither overly enthusiastic nor awkward. It was like a spring breeze, and she felt like she was back home.

I thought to myself, no wonder the Wang family is the largest family in the north. An old man from an unknown branch of the family is so good at dealing with people, so the master of the family must be even more amazing.

For more than a month, she has been going from house to house of various wealthy families, eating, drinking, chatting and collecting grain.

More than a month passed, and the grain from the lower levels had been almost harvested, and she had also almost harvested the grain from the larger households.