Capítulo 1679: Chapter 1654: Use Your Brain
Old Zhou was a bit curious, “What does Bai Shan want a cow for?”
Suddenly he thought of sothing and widened his eyes, “This kid wouldn’t be thinking of eating the cow, would he?”
Zhou SiLang hadn’t spoken yet, and Old Zhou had already exclaid, “That would be such a waste!”
Zhou SiLang said, “He said it’s a gift for soone; a classmate of his wants it. But the ones bought outside all have numbers, and records are kept at the office.”
The court is quite strict with the control of oxen now. Zhou SiLang’s cow was brought back from the grasslands. Before it was numbered, he could do whatever he wanted with it. Once numbered, it beca a draft animal.
Old Zhou expressed so dissatisfaction with Bai Shan’s extravagant behavior of gifting a cow, then asked, “Will the recipient return the favor?”
How would Zhou SiLang know?
But to put his father at ease, he nodded without hesitation, “They definitely will.”
Only then did Old Zhou feel relieved.
Manbao, who was set to receive gifts, had no intention of preparing a gift for Bai Shan. After seeing Ms. Cui stabilize, she planned to pack up and head ho.
Yang Heshu stayed her, saying, “Tang Zhihe will be coming over at lunchti. Why not stay and have a al together?”
Manbao thought that she hadn’t seen Lord Tang for a while, so she nodded in agreent.
Tang Zhihe indeed ca over for lunch. Since Ms. Cui couldn’t leave the birthing room yet, it was just the four of them and so serving staff in the dining room.
Tang Zhihe smiled and asked Manbao, “I heard you have your own official land now. How is it? Is the land distribution given by the Ministry of Revenue satisfactory?”
Manbao nodded, “It’s great, much more fertile and flat than our land in Qili Village. The Guanzhong Plain is vast and better than our Sichuan region.”
She thought for a mont and said, “Other than being too hot in the sumr and too cold in the winter, there’s not much else to complain about.”
Tang Zhihe: …
He turned to Yang Heshu and said, “Quite picky, isn’t she?”
Yang Heshu chuckled and asked Manbao, “Have you found any tenants?”
Manbao nodded, “It’s mostly the forr tenants who are renting it.”
Yang Heshu raised an eyebrow and asked, “How are you collecting rent that they’re willing to continue renting your official land?”
Tang He wasn’t familiar with these matters and curiously looked up, “Why, are tenants in Yongzhou hard to hire?”
Yang Heshu glanced at him; obviously, the county magistrate was unaware of the nuances within official lands. He said nothing, just looked at Manbao.
Manbao swallowed her food before saying, “I only collect forty percent rent. I provide all the wheat seeds and half of the rice seeds, while they handle the rest themselves. Besides, I plan to give them twenty cows.”
Before County Magistrate Tang could speak, Madam Tang already said, “With only a forty percent rent and giving so much, how much will you make in a year?”
Manbao smiled, “Perhaps the first couple of years might yield less, but later on, it will increase.”
Madam Tang raised an eyebrow, “Why, are you planning to raise the rent later?”
Manbao shook her head, “Scholarly sister-in-law, the most precious things aren’t just the official lands but their manpower. So gains might not be visible imdiately, but they will be over ti.”
Yang Heshu recalled their little manor in Qili Village and, as a frequent visitor in every sense, could roughly calculate their profits there.
Yang Heshu asked her, “With such good terms, do you have any conditions for them?”
Manbao nodded, “I ask them to listen to us entirely. Anything related to the manor is divided sixty-forty.”
Madam Tang didn’t think this counted as a condition, “Aren’t tenants supposed to listen to their landlords?”
Manbao thought for a mont and said, “There is a difference between willing obedience and unwilling obedience.”
The three of them were montarily puzzled.
Manbao gave an example, “Mr. Zhuang once gave the I Ching to read. I couldn’t even get through two pages in a whole morning and didn’t retain any understanding. But when I read storybooks, it’s different; I can finish half a book in a morning without blinking and rember everything.”
The three of them: …
Manbao said, “That’s the difference between willing and unwilling.”
Madam Tang held back for a while and asked, “Farming is not like reading, it doesn’t require brains.”
Yang Heshu sowhat disagreed, saying, “Farming isn’t entirely about brute force.”
Manbao was more direct, “Who says farming doesn’t require brains? If farming doesn’t use brains, it shows they’re unwilling, so the crops they produce aren’t as good as others’.”
Manbao said, “My family has a few plots adjacent to others’. With similar soil fertility all around, whether growing wheat or rice, our harvest is always a bit better than the others’ because my Third Brother is especially good at farming.”
She continued, “It’s like cooking; with the sa ingredients, my eldest sister-in-law’s dish tastes one way, and my second sister-in-law’s another. So it’s not just reading that’s like this; I feel everything in the world is similar. They fall into categories of using one’s brain and not using it. When they willingly work for , the results are naturally different.”
“Even if I only take forty percent, with a larger total, I get more, and they get more, too. Isn’t a win-win better than just winning?”
Madam Tang was taken aback, while Yang Heshu thought deeply and told Manbao, “Sit still and see how your yield per mu is in two years.”
Manbao nodded.
County Magistrate Tang asked her more directly, “Tell us, what do you want us to do?”
Manbao just giggled, “Senior Brother Tang knows well.”
She said seriously, “I want to buy so hatching eggs for them to raise chicks, but Lijun looked around and found that hatching eggs are hard to buy in the capital.”
Not that they are unavailable, but they’re hard to buy in large quantities.
Manbao plans to have each family raise twenty chicks, and such a large number of hatching eggs is hard to co by at once.
Manbao then asked County Magistrate Tang, “Senior Brother Tang, could you help find so?”
Lord Tang was surprised at her request, “Where am I, a county magistrate, supposed to find eggs for you?”
Manbao said, “You’re a county magistrate. Shouldn’t that make it easy?”
“Who told you magistrates are good at finding eggs?”
Manbao directly turned to look at Yang Heshu.
Yang Heshu, having eaten enough, rinsed his mouth with tea and, after a mont, wiped his mouth and said, “Leave this to . How many do you want?”
Manbao: “Two thousand?”
Yang Heshu only frowned slightly before nodding, “Just send soone with the money later.”
Manbao took out a small piece of silver from her purse and gave it to him, “Here, three taels, no need to give change.”
Yang Heshu: …
He then realized that although two thousand eggs sound like a lot, they’re really not that expensive. Three coins for two eggs, and three taels exchanged for copper coins would still leave so change.
Yang Heshu took the silver and said, “I won’t take advantage of you. I’ll have soone send the leftover money back to you later.”
Tang He was very curious, “How does a Ministry of Revenue official go about buying eggs? Did you buy eggs for them when you were a magistrate in Luojiang County?”
Yang Heshu said, “Not only did I buy them, but I also helped them sell.”
That’s why he’s a frequent visitor, isn’t it?
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