Picking Up a General to Plow the Fields

Chapter 162: Nursery

Over the next few days, Lian Fang Zhou only went out with Ah Jian and Lian Ze and did not bring Lian Fang Qing and Lian Che with her, nor did she let Lian Ze bring his bow and arrows.
She promised him that when things were finished, he could take two or three days to go hunting.

She planned on digging the rest of the tree stumps now so she didn’t need to come back later.

In two days, the three of them had dug up more than 400 wild fruit trees for their rootstock, 200 of which were wild persimmon trees.

When they had discovered the persimmon grove, Lian Fang Zhou had not been too excited.

There were two types of wild persimmon trees.
One was the same as the trees from the orchard but the other was unfamiliar and she didn’t know when it matured and dropped fruit.
The other kind also had very small fruits with large seeds and barely any flesh.
It did not taste as food, it was a true wild species.

This second type was called ‘bird persimmon’ because the birds liked to peck at the mature fruits.

The trees that Lian Fang Zhou had found were bird persimmon trees.

However, despite the different name, it looked the same as an ordinary persimmon tree so it was fine to use it as a rootstock.

Satisfied, Lian Fang Zhou and the other two dug away all the suitable pieces.

After a busy few days, the work came to and end and before she knew it, it was December.

At the construction site at the village entrance, Lian Fang Zhou went every day to observe their progress.

According to Gu Shi, the work should be completed in just over half a month.

At present, Lian Fang Zhou still had two things to do.
One was to reorganize the cotton seedlings and the other was deciding on whether to start hiring workers.
It was quite a dilemma.

It seemed easy enough when she had bought everything earlier in the year but now she was struggling with how to arrange everything.

Even if the big warehouse at the entrance was completed, it was just an empty shell, it wasn’t like anyone could live there!

After discussing it with Ah Jian and Lian Ze for a while, they finally decided to sort out the nursery land first.
As for hiring people, they could just talk with Zhao Liu and have him introduce one or two people the next time they went into the city.
If there were suitable workers, then it was fine, otherwise it was okay to wait.

As for the nursery land, Lian Fang Zhou decided to use the land closest to the village in Sanchakou, 150 acres would be enough!

Once everything was decided, Lian Fang Zhou turned her mind to the issue of fertilizer, feeling distressed.

She had already planned to use the cowshed manure for the cotton nursery in the spring and would likely buy more, if she could.
Chicken manure, animal manure, even human manure could be collected.
There was also plant ash, which was simple to find.

Lian Fang Zhou considered the pond mud again, the silt at the bottom of a fishpond after it was drained.

This was also good fertilizer.

To run so many nursery fields, it was obviously not enough to rely on only their small family.
Lian Fang Zhou would need to hire someone.

After breakfast the next day, she and Lian Ze and Ah Jian drove the donkey cart to the city again.

“Let’s go to the blacksmith first!” Lian Fang Zhou said as they entered the city.

Lian Ze and Ah Jian smiled and agreed.

They had discussed it last night.
Today, apart from talking with Zhao Liu about hiring workers and buying farm tools, they would go to the forge and order two iron bows and some arrows for hunting.

At the blacksmith, the three parked the donkey cart on the side of the road and jumped out.

Ah Jian talked to the blacksmith for a while, after which the blacksmith nodded and agreed with a smile.
They paid the deposit and went to look for Zhao Liu.

In the end, Lian Fang Zhou hired 30 people and invited Zhao Liu to make the arrangements.

As per their previous discussion, the thirty people Zhao Liu arranged were the people originally hired to reclaim the wasteland.

Lian Fang Zhou paid the intermediate fee, smiled, and said goodbye.
The three of them headed to the market.

In addition to buying some daily necessities and odds and ends, they also bought ten pairs of bamboo woven skips with poles, twenty bamboo baskets, and ten pairs of iron tongs and poles made out of thin iron.

The items were very large, and the cart was soon very full.

The next day, the thirty workers showed up at the field on time.
Lian Fang Zhou asked someone to measure the land with a survey line.
One piece of land would be one acre and 150 acres were sorted into 150 pieces, arranged in order.

Lian Fang Zhou explained in detail how fine the soil should be and how thick was appropriate.

Fortunately, they were all familiar with each other and had a tacit understanding.
Whether it was an order from the master or the comprehension of the workers, their communication was very efficient.

As usual, Lian Fang Zhou reiterated the rules of working for her.
There would be soup and egg or meat pancakes at noon and the wages would never be late.
Anyone who tried anything sneaky would not be welcome the next day!

This was necessary to do.
Although everyone was familiar with the process, it was difficult to guarantee that people would not change.
After all, people sometimes became more lazy when they were familiar, and it could become a mess.

It was said that if someone knowingly committed a crime, you could be more confident in driving them away, so as to not invite villains to complain and hold grudges.

After the arrangements were finished, Lian Fang Zhou called Li Qing and Wu Xiao Mao publicly and asked them to take the lead.
When she and Lian Ze were gone, the workers could look to them for anything.

Li Wing and Wu Xiao Mao both smiled and happily agreed.

After watching the workers dispense, Lian Fang Zhou and the other two drove to Yangjia Village in the cart, the twenty large bamboo baskets in the cart bed.

Lian Fang Zhou did not want to go to Yangjia Village at all but it was the nearest village and only Yang Yuan’s family had a fish pond.

There were not many people who raised fish these days.
It was hard to find fry and they were often not worth raising.
If you raised too many, they often died if the owner did not understand what they were doing.

Yang Yuan’s family still raised fish in their two ponds because his family liked to eat fish and he enjoyed fishing.

They traveled to Yang Yuan’s house without problems.
Both Lian Fang Zhou and Lian Ze secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank god Ah Jian was there.
The Yang family, what did they matter to him?

When Sir Yang heard Lian Fang Zhou’s intentions, he was reluctant at first.

However, when Lian Fang Zhou spoke bluntly and smiled, Yang Yuan finally agreed.
After all, this was related to the face of the Su family in Shuangliu County.
Of course, he did not mention this to Lian Fang Zhou.

Otherwise, he would definitely not agree.
Even thought Lian Fang Zhou said that she would pay him, how would he be able to enjoy the money?

Sir Yang called his account manger and had him take care of the matter, waving his hand.

For fishing convenience, the two ponds had been built near Yang Yuan’s home.

The two ponds sat side by side, each about five acres big, and were connected by a waterway.
Currently, one pond was full, blue and sparkling, while the other pond was dry to the bottom.