Chapter 231: Reciprocity
Editor: Atlas Studios
Even if Liu Ting had the intention to repair the water conservancy facilities, it wouldn’t be done in a short period of time. Hence, he still brought people over during the day to help the Mu family build a house. At night, he would go back and think of a way to convince everyone.
First were the people from Liu clan, then the entire West Village, and finally the people from the two neighboring villages.
Madam Liu-Zhao took her sons, Liu Lang, and Liu Lun over to help plow the land. Mu Yangling pulled a plow in front while they took turns to support the plow behind. As Madam Liu-Zhao paid attention to the ground under her feet, she said, “Our family has also decided to plant about 20 acres of winter wheat. We’ll see how it goes this time. If the results are good, we’ll plant it like this next year.”
“Then after plowing my family’s land, I’ll help you plow your land.” Mu Yangling said, “Uncle and the others also have a lot of work to do. Wouldn’t it be nice if every family had an oxen? That way, it will be much easier on everyone.”
Smiling, Madam Liu-Zhao said, “That’s what rich families think. It’s already not bad for our five families to share one oxen. Who can afford it when one oxen costs eight taels of silver?”
Mu Yangling wanted to buy one. She thought that after the new house was built, she would build a row of small houses on the left side of the courtyard to store oxen.
“Aunt, since there’s no cattle farm in this county, where can we buy oxen from?”
“That depends on luck,” Madam Liu-Zhao said. “Those calves are all sold after the cows give birth. Only those in urgent need will sell adult cows. It’s because cows are rare that they’re expensive.”
“No one specializes in raising cows to sell?”
With a smile, Madam Liu-Zhao said, “I’ve only heard of people specializing in raising horses to sell. I’ve never heard of anyone specializing in raising cows to sell. Rich people don’t care for this, and only rich people can afford to raise them.”
Mu Yangling could not help but have an idea. At present, almost everyone relied on manpower to farm their land. Because of the war, labor was already in short supply. If they could ensure the supply of plowing oxen, the development of agriculture would definitely speed up.
In the first season, her experiments had already yielded results. For the planting of wheat on the high-grade land, when seeds were more densely planted and the double-sided rake was used, yield was 28 catties higher. That was when compared to planting the fields more sparsely and when covering the seeds with soil using one’s feet. For medium-grade land, the difference was 16 catties.
In the low-grade fields, yield was four catties less in the densely-planted field compared to the sparsely-planted one. However, using the double-sided rake, yield was 6.5 catties higher than when soil was covered manually with one’s feet.
It could be seen that in the high-grade land and the low-grade land, the seeds of wheat should be planted more densely, and the seeds should be covered with a thinner layer of soil. That could be achieved by using the double-sided rake. In the low-grade land, perhaps because the land was not fertile enough, the density of the seeds had to be reduced.
This was an experiment on planting methods. She planned to conduct a more advanced experiment with the seeds in the future. Since Mu Yangling had already decided to farm in the future, she naturally hoped for better development within the industry. With the plowing oxen, agriculture would only develop faster.
It was a pity that she didn’t have a place to raise cows now. She had to go back and see if there was a place nearby that she could rent or buy. She would buy a plot of land to plant pasture, build a row of cow sheds, and raise dozens of cows. She didn’t believe that she wouldn’t be able to make plowing oxens mainstream in five to six years.
Now that she had this idea, she started paying attention to the nearby area.
This large area was all classified as a military district, but only about a third of it was farmed. The remaining half was dense forest, and the other half was wasteland.
When Mu Yangling was free, she would go to those wastelands to walk around, but she realized that they were not connected. It was not ideal to set up a ranch here to raise cows.
She had no choice but to look further away. Finally, she set her sights on the land behind Chef Mountain.
Seeing that Mu Yangling had returned in the dark again, Great-aunt asked, “You’ve been going out every evening. What exactly are you looking for?”
“It’s nothing.” Mu Yangling scooped some water and washed her face. She looked at the house next door that was already more than half-built and asked, “Great-aunt, how long will it take for this to be done? Can we live in it before winter?”
“With the current speed, it’ll be done in seven to eight days. We’ll definitely be able to live in it before winter. Haven’t you finished plowing the land for the winter wheat today? Tomorrow, go to your uncle’s house to help and bring Xiuhong along.”
“Xiuhong should stay. She still has to feed grass to the rabbits. If she goes, who will look after the rabbits?”
“Don’t you still have me and Xiulan?” Great-aunt said, “Your aunt and her family have been working hard with us for a few days. It won’t make sense if Xiuhong doesn’t go. Bring her along tomorrow and help flatten the land.”
Mu Yangling thought for a moment and nodded. “That’s fine too. The hay is already piled up in the shed. You can just throw it down after measuring the right amount. I’ll go up the mountain tomorrow morning to see if I can catch prey. We’ll bring some over and let them have a good meal too.”
Great-aunt had no objections.
Mu Yangling had kept the traps on the mountain there all along. From time to time, she could find one or two prey in the traps. This morning, she went up the mountain early in the morning. Because she was already familiar with this area, she walked straight into the deep forest.
Mu Yangling squatted in the forest for a long time. Finally, she saw a strong roe deer. Mu Yangling drooled. Autumn roe deer…
She nocked an arrow and shot through the roe deer’s neck, before running out and stepping on the struggling roe deer. Seeing that it was dead, she carried it and ran home.
Mu Yangling couldn’t be bothered to deal with it, so she directly called Xiuhong over. “Carry the basket on your back. We’ll deal with it when we reach Uncle’s house.” Then, she untied the two pheasants and a rabbit from her waist and left them at the kitchen door. She said to Great-aunt, “Great-aunt, give them this extra food. I’ll go first.”
Mu Yangling and Xiuhong walked out quickly. Shu Wanniang rushed out and shouted, “Come back early tonight. Your father has the day off tomorrow and will be back soon…”
Mu Yangling responded loudly and disappeared into the morning fog with Xiuhong.
Carrying the basket on her back, Xiuhong rubbed her arms and said, “Cousin, the weather is starting to turn cold. Look, I’m getting goosebumps.”
Mu Yangling glanced at her and said, “Isn’t it starting to get cold? In another ten days or so, we’ll be planting the winter wheat. When this is done, I won’t go to the fields anymore. I’ll focus on raising our rabbits. In addition, I’ll just make a trip into the mountains every day. You guys should rest too. It’s been a tiring year.”
“No matter how tired I am, I’m not as tired as you. I haven’t seen you rest for the past year.” Xiuhong said, “My grandmother said that farming is neverending. When it’s time to rest, you have to rest.”
“Yes, that makes sense.”
Xiuhong carefully took a few glances at Mu Yangling and said thoughtfully, “Cousin, actually, I think raising rabbits is much more cost-effective than farming. Look at the money Young Master Fan brought over the last time. We can earn more than 500 taels just from one batch of rabbits. If we can raise more rabbits, won’t we be earning even more money?”
Mu Yangling shook her head, smiling. “That’s because we’re lucky. If not for Young Master Fan’s recipe and him selling the stuff to the south, how could we have sold so many rabbits? If we think this way, others will think the same. If we don’t farm anymore, we won’t be able to buy grains no matter how much money we have in the future.”