Chapter 312: Plan
Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Yangling’s heart ached. Her voice became even gentler as she asked, “Then who brought you here?”
“I followed my uncle and aunt here. My uncle is in the military camp, and my aunt has gone to the workshop. I also have a male cousin and a female cousin. There’s nothing to eat at home…”
Mu Yangling looked at the increasingly embarrassed boy and roughly guessed that it was already not bad for her uncle and aunt to bring his female cousin here.
Mu Yangling looked at the children on the grass. How many of them were orphans like him? Qi Haoran had actually recruited all of them into the military households. He probably wanted to use them to increase the farmland quota, but what should they do about these children?
Without adults, they could not even support themselves. Mu Yangling frowned.
Mu Yangling could foresee that the money in her purse was rapidly disappearing. She stroked the child’s head and said, “Alright, follow your older brother closely and don’t run around.”
The boy heaved a sigh of relief and hurriedly pulled his brother to kowtow to Mu Yangling before turning to run.
When it was time, everyone began to put down the bowls and chopsticks to collect the tools to work. As the bowls and chopsticks were all prepared by themselves, the person in charge of the food did not have to help them wash them. Seeing Mu Yangling enter the kitchen, the people eating porridge hurriedly stood up.
However, Mu Yangling brought over two large sacks of flour and said, “This is white and black flour. Mix them to make steamed buns. Cook another 15 pots of porridge for lunch. There are cabbages in the house next door. Go and get them yourself. Since you’re all experienced cooks, you should know how much to cook for 3,000 people. Do the estimation yourselves.”
The few of them thought about it. Although there were 3,000 people, more than half of them were children under the age of eight. Children had a small appetite, so there was really no need to cook so much.
Not wanting to lose this job, the few of them quickly pondered.
Mu Yangling went out to be a supervisor. Although she was a supervisor, she was also helping with the work. She carried the pasture that the children had cut onto the cart before pulling the cart back.
These pastures did not grow naturally. Instead, they were from seeds planted by the Hus in the past. After the Hus retreated, no one cared about this place anymore. However, as winter passed and spring came, the pasture seeds fell to the ground and grew again. Because no one had grazed here last year, most of the pasture seeds had fallen to the ground. Furthermore, because of the spread of the wind, the pastures in this area grew to be very lush.
Back then, the reason why Qi Haoran chose this area for her as a cattle farm was not only because this place was close to his horse farm, but also because the area within a radius of 20 miles from here was completely uninhabited. It was also filled with pasture, making it very convenient for them to graze.
However, no matter how much pasture there was, it would definitely not be enough with so many cows and horses working hard. Therefore, she had to plant more pastures next year. She wondered if she could talk to the magistrate and ask him to rent the nearby land to her.
While Mu Yangling was letting her imagination run wild, Qi Haoran had already arrived in front of her. He raised his voice and asked, “What are you thinking? Why aren’t you answering me?”
Mu Yangling straightened up and placed the pasture on the cart. She glanced at him and asked calmly, “Are you so free?”
Qi Haoran jumped off the horse and said smugly, “Now, even the deputy can supervise the training. There’s no need for me to follow them around all the time. Unlike you and Zijin, who do everything by themselves. No wonder you two are so busy.”
Then, Qi Haoran lectured her on the principle of knowing how to use people well.
Mu Yangling said in distress, “Of course I know that I have to know how to use people well. It’s impossible for me to do everything myself, but I don’t have anyone to order around.”
“I told you to buy a few servants to order around. This way, you don’t have to worry about your family everywhere you go.”
Mu Yangling shook her head. “My family isn’t used to using servants, and I don’t want my younger siblings to develop that kind of bad habit. It’s better to do things on their own.”
Qi Haoran said indignantly, “How is ordering a servant a bad habit? I’ve had servants since I was young. Am I not a good person?”
Mu Yangling was stunned. Seeing how angry he was, she said with a smile, “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that we’re a farming family. Which farming family doesn’t throw their children into the fields at the age of four or five? It’s already good enough that I didn’t force them to go to the fields. But I can’t let them develop the habit of being waited on hand and foot.”
Mu Yangling handed the cart to a child and pulled Qi Haoran towards an empty spot. “I have something to discuss with you.”
Qi Haoran indicated that he was all ears.
“You brought back so many children this time. What are you going to do with them?”
Qi Haoran said in distress, “I don’t know. Back then, when I said that I could give them traveling expenses, I hoped that other than those young and strong people, it would be best for everyone else to leave. But who knew that they were so smart? Who knew that the lone ones would all choose to stay behind? Just the orphans alone numbered more than 700… But there are also benefits. I listed them all as military households and obtained a lot of military fields. When the time comes, I’ll rent the fields out. The money I’ll earn should be enough to support them.”
Mu Yangling wished she could knock his head. “Do you think the people of Hanzhong Prefecture lack land to farm? Magistrate Fang distributed land to every family as soon as they came over. As for the military households, the military households alone have 100 acres of military fields, and that doesn’t even include the freehold fields they get. Who do you think will rent those children’s fields?”
Qi Haoran opened his mouth wide and stuttered, “Th—then what should we do? You can’t expect me to keep paying for their expenses, right?”
Frowning, Mu Yangling said, “Are their plots far apart?”
“It’s not far. In order to make it easier to rent out and manage, I’ve asked for the orphans’ land to be all in one place.”
Mu Yangling gritted her teeth and said, “I’ll rent them all.”
“Are you crazy?” Qi Haoran couldn’t help but jump up and shout.
Mu Yangling shook her head. “I originally planned to build a nursery and let all the orphans live there.” Mu Yangling looked at Qi Haoran. “Don’t tell me that when you asked your subordinates to build houses for them, you also built houses for the orphans.”
Qi Haoran rubbed his nose awkwardly and said, “I was hoping the people who rent their fields would bring those children back to raise them. Time is tight now, and everyone can’t build so many houses.”
Mu Yangling looked at him disapprovingly. “But you can’t hand the children over to the tenant farmers. Who knows if they will treat the children well?”
“I originally planned to build a nursery and put all the children in it to manage them uniformly. Then, I’ll hire a few teachers to teach them a few words and let them learn some skills. Yes, we’ll also teach them how to farm and weave. They’ll come out from the nursery after they turn 14 years old. At that time, you’ll have to be in charge of their houses. When they leave the nursery, I’ll return the land to you. I originally thought that this would be a loss-making business. Since you plan to rent out their land anyway, rent it more cheaply to me as a reward.”
Qi Haoran felt that Mu Yangling was here to take advantage of him. However, even if he wanted to rent out the land, no one would probably take it up. Just as she said, in the vast and sparsely populated Hanzhong Prefecture, no one lacked land.
Therefore, he agreed.
Neither of them asked the orphans. There was really no need to. The youngest was only one year old, and the oldest orphan, at only a little over 12, couldn’t even plow in the fields.
“You have to build a house in the nursery for me. I’ll get someone to draw a blueprint later. Get someone to build it according to the blueprint.” Mu Yangling couldn’t help but sigh. It would be good if she had a large bunch of subordinates at a time like this. Whatever she wanted to get done, she could just wave her hand and let them handle it.
“Do you know how much it costs to raise more than 700 children? Not to mention the annual food supply, just the cost of two seasons of clothes, medical treatment, and medicine. Moreover, you even plan to hire teachers for them…”
Mu Yangling looked at Qi Haoran solemnly and said, “Children are the future of a country. If we can’t even protect our children, will our country still have a future?” Mu Yangling sighed at this point. “I really admire Yuan Hui. How did he gather these people together? Could it be that all the orphans, elderly, and weak in Tongchuan Prefecture are gathered here? Otherwise, why are there so many orphans, elderly and weak?”
Qi Haoran didn’t dare to answer “yes” because that was more or less the truth. Yuan Hui seemed to treat everyone similarly, but in fact, he was more soft-hearted and tolerant of the elderly and children. Hence, whenever he encountered the elderly and children along the way, he would take them in. He only skipped over the elderly and children who were being led by young men.