Chapter 382 Three-dimensional Farming
Chapter 382 Three-dimensional Farming
The sixth day of the first lunar month.
The snow-capped peaks stretched out into mountains, with half-foot-high icicles hanging from the eaves.
Pingyang County had a rare heavy snowfall last night. Half of my foot was sunk into the snow overnight. This is something that only happens once in two or three years.
Liang Qu sat quietly under the eaves, watching the ice crystals as big as salt grains bounce from the stone curtain and fall into the snow.
No practice, no reading, no chores.
Exhale, breathe in and out.
As my chest rises and falls, I feel the bitter cold of winter.
The cold feeling without any discomfort seeps into the lungs and turns into a different kind of clarity in leisure time.
What we pursue in life is nothing more than stability.
The sixth day of the lunar month.
I sat and listened to the snow falling all day long.
"Sir! Fan Hebo, Sir Fan is looking for you!"
"Let him in."
Liang Qu stood up with his hands on his knees, patted his shoulders, brushed off the thin layer of frost and snow, and returned to the hall to greet the guests.
Go to work on the seventh day.
The seven-day spring break in Hebo is about to end. Cha Qing and others have returned from their hometowns one after another, each bringing back a lot of local specialties.
Therefore, Liangqu started collecting another round of local specialties from the surrounding counties yesterday.
Since becoming Du Shui Lang, Liang Qu never went to buy tea again. He just bought all the "gifts" that one person kept sending him.
"A new year has begun. May Lord Liang be blessed with good health and happiness, and may everything go well for you!"
Fan Zixuan walked around the shadow wall and passed through the hanging flower gate, saying blessings with two flying dragons fluttering in his hands.
This year I went out and hunted two wild game animals and sent them over.
"Why spend so much money?"
"Your Excellency misunderstood. This year I went home to accompany some of the younger generation into the mountains and forests for training. I happened to catch a nest of six! It took a lot of effort."
After some reluctance, Liang Qu accepted it "reluctantly" and asked Fan Xinglai to take it into the kitchen.
As luck would have it, when Fan Xinglai was carrying the chicken across the door, a hazel grouse flapped its wings and passed by the corridor at the door.
The silly chicken flapped its wings alternately, moving back and forth, and crawled through the hall door little by little.
The black dragon behind it swung its tail and pounced from time to time, causing the flying dragon to jump out.
"Bitter!"
Liang Qu shouted and drove Wu Long away. Only then did Sha Ji get a chance to catch his breath and lay on the doorstep, sticking out his tongue.
Fan Zixuan was stunned. Although the chicken had become much fatter, it still looked vaguely familiar: "Sir, this flying dragon..."
"Oh, it's the one you gave me last year. Something happened to it, so I've been keeping it for a few months."
"Oh."
Fan Zixuan didn’t understand what had happened, but who could be sure about the affairs of important people?
Maybe Lord Liang likes raising chickens?
Look at the fat body of the flying dragon.
After a few pleasantries, Fan Zixuan left with a look of enlightenment in his eyes.
Liang Qu felt something was wrong in "Eye Consciousness", but he opened his mouth and remained silent.
Forget it.
A few days slipped away.
The Spring Festival atmosphere is gradually fading, some people are going to work, and some are shoveling snow.
On the evening of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Liang Qu reported for duty and went home.
I was ranked first in the performance appraisal a few years ago and received a great reward.
Although the major merits have been used up in advance and the remaining small rewards have not yet been received, attendance must still be guaranteed in the first few days of the new year to avoid gossip.
At the gate, Chen Qingjiang's family passed by one after another, from the oldest to the youngest, each holding a bamboo pole with bundles of straw tied to the top.
Liang Qu was surprised and asked what he was doing with the straw bundle.
"'Set a fire.'" "Set a fire?"
Liang Qu was even more puzzled.
He knew the custom of "setting off fire" on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
Commonly known as "watching the caterpillars" and "watching the wealth in the fields", it means hoping to eliminate all pests and look forward to a good harvest next year.
The villagers piled up the rice roots and weeds in the fields and burned them, which was called "burning away all the insects". They also burned the weeds on the roadside, graveyard, ditch bank and wasteland, which was called "eliminating insect nests".
At night, they would use reeds or straw to tie into bundles as thick as a bowl and wave them along the edge of the field, shouting a few times, "On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, we light fires. Other people's vegetables are as big as copper coins, but my vegetables are as big as baskets..." and so on.
The only problem is.
Chen Qingjiang's ancestors were fishermen. They relied on a black-sailed boat for their food and clothing. Where did they get the fields to burn?
This didn't happen during last year's Spring Festival.
Chen Qingjiang said: "After the rice harvest last autumn, I bought fifteen acres of land."
"Fifteen acres of land? Uncle Chen, you don't fish anymore?"
"Catch them, we must catch them."
“Who will farm the fields?”
Fifteen acres of land is not a small amount. Considering the current land price, it would cost at least seventy or eighty taels of silver, in addition to the corresponding two taxes each year.
The tax rate is based on the amount of land owned, so if you own land, you will have to pay more taxes.
The more land you have, the heavier the tax.
Chen Qingjiang is fishing. His two children are too young. The oldest, Shunzi, is only six. Oh, he is one year older this year and is already seven years old. He is not a labor force at all. There are only one elderly person in the family, Chen Renxing and his wife A Di. How can they manage the crops?
Chen Qingjiang said: "I don't plant anything. I only keep two acres for myself to grow some fruits and vegetables. I rent out the rest. I don't make much, and there's not much left after paying taxes.
But I plan to save all this money. After four or five years, when Shunzi is eleven or twelve years old, the money saved will be enough to send him to school. After two or three years of school, I will sell the land and send him to practice martial arts."
"That's not bad."
Liang Qu didn't expect that Chen Qingjiang, a fisherman, had a good sense of investment. He knew how to use the money in his hands to purchase assets for appreciation, and even planned his children's future early on.
Since you have your own visible connections, you don't have to worry about being exploited by officials. What you get is what you get.
Think for a moment.
"Uncle Chen, if you have time to rent, why not keep all the land and hire someone to grow crops instead of just rice? Go to the Changchun Medical Clinic branch in town and ask the shopkeeper Chen inside to buy some live black-spotted frogs and golden-threaded leeches in my name so that you can learn how to raise them.
Before summer ploughing, try growing rice and black-spotted frogs, or rice and golden-thread leeches together. "
"Black-spotted frogs and golden-threaded leeches?"
"Correct!"
These two herbs are often used for medicinal baths when Liangqu is at the stage of skin, flesh, bones and blood. They are very useful for promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis and increasing qi and blood.
The formulas of each martial arts school are different, but the pharmacology is similar.
Both are medicinal herbs used in large quantities by low-level warriors.
According to the development prospects of Pingyang County, the number of warriors will be in a stage of continuous growth and blowout in at least ten years, and the demand for basic medicinal materials will become greater and greater, which is a business that is sure to make a profit.
"Can it be done?"
Chen Qingjiang didn't have much confidence. He had never farmed before, and he was a little hesitant about both farming and raising frogs at the same time.
"Give it a try, count me in as a share, and then ask Manager Chen to join us.
It's too late today, let's do it tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll ask Libo and Jiechang to come and discuss with Shopkeeper Chen and get two herbal medicine merchants to provide advance payment."
There is definitely no problem raising black-spotted frogs and leeches. With such a huge demand from warriors, they must be bred, otherwise the supply cannot be afforded.
However, Liang Qu himself is not quite sure whether three-dimensional farming can complement each other.
If it succeeds and the scale is expanded, it will be a good income over time.
With about ten acres of land, the cost of the experiment can be covered.
"Okay, let's give it a try."
Chen Qingjiang himself had no confidence, but he believed in Liang Qu.
(End of this chapter)