Chapter 182: Calculation
Editor: Atlas Studios
Before Mu Yangling could refuse, Great-aunt took the rope from his hand and said with a smile, “Thank you, Big Brother Sun. You don’t have to specially let our family have the ox for three days. Just like everyone else, our family only needs it for half a day.”
Old Man Sun did not insist. Hearing this, he nodded and said, “Alright, bring it over to me when you’re done at noon. I’ll send it to the Hu family.”
Great-aunt agreed happily. After watching Old Man Sun leave, she said to Mu Yangling, “It’s better for the Sun family to hold the section commander position. At least everyone won’t have so much resentment.”
Now that Old Man Sun’s youngest son, Sun Yue, was the section commander, it was naturally the Sun family’s turn to distribute these resources.
The Sun family was very good at dealing with people. They didn’t make many changes to the Mu family’s previous rules. Each family still took turns having an oxen for half a day. But instead of deciding the order by means of a lottery like previously, it was up to the Sun family to arrange it now.
Just like the Mu family, the Sun family did not ask the people in the village to help with their farmwork. Instead, they did their own work. Although there were inevitably signs of favoritism in a few of the measures, with the Hu family as an earlier example, everyone accepted the current arrangement very well.
On the other hand, Mu Yangling didn’t have much of a reaction to this because she didn’t think that she would fight for those resources. Seeing that her great-aunt had accepted the ox, she couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Didn’t you say that the ox would always go astray and ruin the wheat? That it’s easier to order me around instead? Why did you accept it?”
Great-aunt glared at her. “How can you compare yourself to an ox? It’s good that we accept it. Otherwise, the villagers will think that we’re easy to bully when they see that we don’t want anything. Even if I don’t order this ox around, I’ll just spend half a day holding it.”
Embarrassed, Mu Yangling couldn’t help but say, “But Great-aunt, if the ox is in our hands, we have to be responsible for the fodder. Moreover, not only do we have to be responsible at this time, but we also have to be responsible for it in the future. Xiulan has to learn embroidery and help take care of the children. Xiuhong has to follow me to raise rabbits and do farm work. You also have to go into the city to set up a stall aside from doing farm work. My mother is busy with needlework all the time. Bowen has to go to school. Who has the time to be in charge of grazing the oxen?”
Great-aunt was dumbfounded. Only then did she remember that if they used an ox, not only would she have to be in charge of its fodder now, but she would also have to take turns grazing the oxen when farming was less busy in the future.
“Then, then can’t we just keep it for half a day?” After saying that, Great-aunt said with a determined expression, “It’s settled then. After lunch, I’ll talk to Old Man Sun. Considering your father is Little General’s most favored subordinate now, I don’t think he dares to arrange for our family to graze the oxen.”
“I wonder what he’s doing,” Mu Yangling muttered softly.
“What are you talking about?”
“I said, I don’t know how many barrels of night soil our family has to buy. Didn’t Grandpa Sun say that if everyone buys the night soil together, we can lower the price? We might be able to lower it to one copper coin a barrel.”
In the past, when everyone went to buy night soil, they would buy it individually or only go with a few families that they were closer with. However, this time, it was the Sun family who organized it. They would step forward and bargain down the price. Later, everyone would hand the money to the Sun family and the Sun family would give it to the person selling the night soil. They only had to bring buckets there to collect it.
After pondering for a moment, Great-aunt said, “We have a lot of land. Don’t you also want to fertilize corn and rice? Why don’t you just buy all the fertilizer needed in one shot? Otherwise, you’ll have to make a few trips. Later, help me calculate how many buckets you’ll need.”
When she returned at night, Mu Yangling took out a pen and paper, and looked at her great-aunt.
Great-aunt counted on her fingers as she said, “We must certainly fertilize the wheat and rice. There are a total of 72 acres of wheat. We’ve got to fertilize the low-grade land using two buckets per acre. The medium-grade land and high-grade land require a little less—one bucket per acre. That makes 74 buckets. Since the rice is all planted on high-grade land, just one bucket per acre, which makes 13 buckets. How many buckets so far?”
Without even needing to use her pen, Mu Yangling said, “87. There’s still the cornfield. Since the corn is all planted on low-grade land, we have to use more fertilizer.”
Great-aunt frowned. Actually, until now, she still didn’t have confidence in the corn harvest. She had heard that corn was planted in a similar way to wheat, but she had never seen anything like Ah Ling’s method. And now, everyone in the village felt that their 28 acres of corn were wasted on the corn, so Great-aunt naturally didn’t want to put in more effort.
Oblivious to what her great-aunt was thinking, Mu Yangling only bit the tip of her pen and pondered. “The plant spacing and height of corn are bigger than wheat. In other words, it should be able to bear more fertilizer than wheat. Since no base fertilizer was used previously, why don’t we just use three buckets per acre? It’s settled then.”
Mu Yangling wrote down the number 171 on the paper and blew on it. “Great-aunt, this year, our family will use 171 barrels of night soil.”
Great-aunt was dumbfounded. “This is too much. The fertilizer used on these 28 acres of corn is almost comparable to the wheat and rice combined. No, no, it’s too expensive.”
However, Mu Yangling was already deep in thought. “Great-aunt, why don’t we buy 300 copper coins worth of night soil? We’ll spread the excess on the pasture. This way, the pasture can grow better and the rabbits can be raised stronger. That’s right, how could I forget about this? The pasture has to be fertilized too.”
Great-aunt, who had never heard that even grass had to be fertilized, couldn’t help but ask, “Doesn’t grass simply grow on its own?”
Mu Yangling knew that it was a little difficult for her to accept this, so she said, “Great-aunt, just treat it as me cultivating the land. Think about it. In five years, my 67 acres of low-grade land will all become medium-grade land. In another five years, it will all become high-grade land. Just the thought of it makes me happy.”
Great-aunt punched her with a smile. “Nonsense. How can the quality of the land be enhanced so easily? Alright, our family doesn’t lack these few hundred copper coins now. I can earn it back by setting up a stall for half a day. If you want to buy it, just go ahead.”
Now that she went to the morning market every day to sell wild prey, Great-aunt could earn 300 to 400 copper coins a day. Therefore, she didn’t object to this as strongly as she would’ve in the past. Just as Ah Ling had said, if they fertilized the land, it would serve to enhance the quality of their own land.
Mu Yangling happily calculated and finally reported the number of 300 barrels.
The Hu family’s land was twice as large as the Mu family’s, but they only reported 300 barrels. Seeing the number of barrels reported by the Mu family, Old Hu couldn’t help but take a few more glances. When Old Man Sun saw this, he said with a smile, “The Mu family doesn’t lack this bit of money now. I heard that Ah Ling’s father asked someone to bring things back again. Moreover, their family can earn a lot of money just by setting up a stall in the city every day. Even the Liu family from the neighboring West Village has gained a lot of glory because they are relatives with them.”
Old Hu turned around and left without a word. Old Man Sun pursed his lips. Originally, because of the good relationship between the second daughter-in-law of the Hu family and Mu Yangling, as well as Madam Hu-Fang and Madam Ma-Liu, the Hu family had benefited a lot from the Mu family. Now that the two families had fallen out, the benefits were finally partially given to them.
Wasn’t that how his son’s section commander position came about?
Old Man Sun was determined to follow in the footsteps of the Mu family and build a good relationship between the two families. If nothing else, the fact that Little General would come here every few days was sufficient motivation for him to do so. If he adhered to this policy, he would not suffer.