Chapter 313: Division of Labor
Editor: Atlas Studios
The children on the cattle field had been working hard, but some of the elders stared at Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran from the corner of their eyes. Seeing that they were chatting merrily, they gradually deflated. Seeing as Little General and Miss Mu had such a good relationship, they would probably really lose a layer of skin if they caused trouble. Hence, everyone became much more obedient.
Mu Yangling didn’t know that talking to Qi Haoran would have such an effect. She was discussing the address and various supplies of the nursery with Qi Haoran.
As the children were still young and there were both boys and girls, even if the older kids could take care of the younger ones, they still needed the adults to take care of them. Hence, the nursery still had to hire some people to cook for the children. As for washing clothes and cleaning, because children above the age of six were capable of such chores, Mu Yangling planned to let them do that themselves.
“TWhat are you going to do with so much land?”
“Plant grains.” Mu Yangling said, “Two-thirds of them will be used to plant grains, and one-third will be used to plant pasture. Both the rabbit sheds and the cattle farm need pasture.”
“These lands belong to more than 400 households, spanning more than 60 hectares. Do you have so much manpower?” Qi Haoran said, “You won’t be able to hire so many people even if you want to.”
The current Hanzhong Prefecture did not have so many idle laborers.
Smiling, Mu Yangling gestured for him to look at the cattle farm with her chin. “Do you think those commoners who can’t even eat their fill will have the money to rent my oxen?”
Qi Haoran looked at her with widened eyes. “They’re going to use labor to exchange for it?”
Mu Yangling nodded. “When the time comes, I’ll set a number. They’ll have to help me farm a certain area of land for however many days they rent the ox from me. If it really doesn’t work out, I’ll pay a high price to hire some help. Anyway, the land can’t be left idle.”
Qi Haoran rolled his eyes and said, “I’ll help you.”
Mu Yangling patted his shoulder with a smile. “Forget it. You should go back and train your soldiers. It’s not as if you know how to farm.”
Qi Haoran expressed that although he didn’t know how to farm, he could still do other things. After thinking for a moment, Mu Yangling handed the nursery to him. “Speaking of which, considering they’re all from your 5th Division, it makes sense for you to take care of them.”
Qi Haoran was wondering which of his subordinates to deploy when Xiuhong jogged over to look for Mu Yangling with a small box in her arms.
“Cousin, why are they all children?” Xiuhong asked breathlessly. Although Zhang Liu had said that they were hiring many people to expand the cattle farm, she never expected that a large number of them would be children. When she ran all the way down, she even encountered a child who could barely walk. The kid was not even as tall as the pasture.
“You brought the things?” Mu Yangling looked at the box in her hand without answering.
Xiuhong nodded and said in a low voice, “Half of the family’s money is here.”
After the family had more money, Mu Yangling naturally couldn’t hide tens of thousands of taels of silver at home, so she deposited most of the money into two banks. Half of it was left with Shu Wanniang, and the other half was left with Xiuhong.
Mu Yangling gestured for her to look at the children and said, “Xiuhong, you have to go to Hanzhong Prefecture to buy some cloth and cotton to make a set of winter clothes for these children.”
Stunned, Xiuhong looked around and saw that there were children everywhere. “Cousin, this isn’t just ‘some’.”
“I know, so I have to earn money. Didn’t Butcher Qin send me a message two days ago? I have to reply to him. Let’s continue with that business.”
Xiuhong frowned. “Cousin, don’t you think it’s too tiring to sell sheep? It’s so time-consuming.”
“But we’re in a hurry to use money now. Besides, how can it not be tiring to earn money?” Mu Yangling had said that previously because she’d felt that her family had enough money. Moreover, she’d wanted to focus on the cattle field, so she had not agreed to it immediately.
Now that Hanzhong Prefecture was no longer under martial law, Butcher Qin and the others could come here to sell sheep themselves. However, because they had more money now, they wanted to make it more hassle-free. Secondly, it was because Mu Yangling was more familiar with this area. Thirdly, it was because they were strangers to Hanzhong Prefecture. If they wanted to do business here, they had to pay bribes to the government office. In that case, they might as well give the money to Mu Yangling and let her earn some of it. This way, they could save a lot of effort.
At this moment, Mu Yangling only sighed. Indeed, money was never enough.
Qi Haoran listened from the side. In order to express his support for her, he planned to donate all his money to Mu Yangling to run the nursery.
This time, Mu Yangling did not decline and accepted it with a smile.
Mu Yangling watched over the cattle farm for a day. After confirming that no one was causing trouble, she handed it to Zhang Wu and Zhang Liu. She tasked Xiuhong with settling the children’s cotton-padded clothes while she went to buy the seeds for next year.
Typically, farmers kept their seeds for themselves. Sometimes, the Imperial Court would also distribute them. However, they usually only distributed seeds to counties in difficulties. Furthermore, it was only a small quantity. The rest were bought from grain stores.
Before Mu Yangling bought the seeds, she rode her horse around the plot of land. The plot of land that Qi Haoran wanted to rent out was not bad. There were a total of 65 hectares with two small streams. Although it was dry now, it should be able to store some water when rain fell, so it should not be a problem to plant rice nearby.
With the stream as the center, wheat could be planted around it, and corn could be planted around the wheat. Lastly, the outer ring could be planted with pasture.
Mu Yangling checked the condition of the soil and felt that the moisture level was alright. The overall situation was better than her own land.
Satisfied, Mu Yangling began to look for the grain merchant to discuss buying seeds.
Actually, there was one advantage to using their own seeds, for they would have a very good grasp of the characteristics of the crops. But there were also huge drawbacks. The more seeds they kept, the lower the yield. Even if they specially chose those plump seeds when choosing which ones to keep, the quality would still deteriorate after three generations.
Therefore, generally speaking, after using their own seeds for more than three years, everyone would go to the grain merchants to buy new seeds.
Hence, the seeds sold by grain merchants were usually of the first generation, so they were naturally expensive.
Mu Yangling naturally had to be more cautious when buying so many seeds at once, afraid that others would sell her inferior seeds while disguising them as good-quality ones. However, in terms of research, she couldn’t compare to the elderly. Therefore, Mu Yangling planned to go back and pick up Great-aunt. She decided to buy some in Mingshui County, Xingzhou Prefecture, and Hanzhong Prefecture. This way, it wouldn’t be eye-catching and she would be able to compare the quality.
Actually, Mu Yangling was more inclined to cultivate higher-yielding seeds herself. She had no plans for wheat for the time being, but rice could be hybridized.
Why did Hanzhong Prefecture and Xingzhou Prefecture plant so little rice? Wasn’t it because there was less water and rice couldn’t withstand drought?
However, it might take ten or even 20 years to produce hybrid rice. This was because it took one year to hybridize a rice with a certain characteristic. Furthermore, it required constant selection, elimination, and searching for rice without ears1. It could be said that there was a long way to go. Moreover, even if they found it, it was not certain if they could successfully hybridize it.
Mu Yangling did not dare to yearn for the yields achieved by future generations, but it was already not bad to reach 50% of that. Moreover, since an improvement in farming techniques was also a factor, Mu Yangling felt that it was already not bad to realize 500 catties per acre.