Lucky husband

For a conservative old man like Li, planting a new variety of grain that he doesn't understand will make him feel nervous all day long, worrying that he won't do it well. [-]. The harvest of the two acres of land is very poor, and it will not affect the family's food.

But as an old farmer for so many years, old man Li always hopes to produce as much grain as possible in the field. After working so long from spring plowing to autumn harvest, the satisfaction brought by a full harvest of grain cannot be replaced by other things. of.

So when Li Chengshi said that the output of purple potatoes was lower than that of sweet potatoes, the old man Li basically gave up the idea of ​​growing purple potatoes. Anyway, they are all coarse grains. No matter whether the price is high or low, in his opinion, it is a loss.

Li Chengshi and Li Chengzhi didn't think about changing their father's thoughts for many years, as long as he was happy.

After talking about the purple sweet potato, the conversation between Mrs. Li and Li Chengli ended. Mrs. Li successfully persuaded Li Chengli to give Li Mingcai to the old couple during the slack season and go out to find something to do.

Before that, because of what happened at home, Li Chengli was actually a little worried that his parents didn't like Mingcai so much and didn't want to take him with him. He didn't expect that his mother would ask him to ask him to help take care of the child during the Chinese New Year. Li Chengli was moved and moved guilt.

Mrs. Li didn't tell everyone what she said to Li Chengli on the night of the New Year's Eve. Anyway, Li Ming would follow them. The old couple, Li Chengli, would definitely give them rations, and they didn't need the help of the eldest and third families to take care of their grandchildren. There was no need to ask for help. Their opinions need not be stated in advance. In fact, Li Chengzhi and Li Chengshi will not have any opinions.

After offering sacrifices to the ancestors on the first day of the lunar new year, the old lady Li told the elder son, the third son and the two daughters-in-law about it. All four of them said that it was okay, as long as they didn’t tire their elders. If there is anything that needs their help To put it bluntly, brothers are welcome.

After the first day of junior high school is the second day of junior high school, those who should go back to the door on this day, those who want to go out to set up a stall to earn money, go to set up a stall, the old lady Li only asked Li Chengli to bring Li Mingcai to the main house, together with the two elders Get along and try.

Li Mingcai was taken aback by the experience of going to Lijia Village last time, he was always obedient at home, he did what his father told him to do, he didn't dare to complain casually, he did well in the main house on the second day of junior high school.

When Li Chengshi and the others came home in the afternoon, they found that the second room was still there, and they were not surprised when they were going to have dinner together, and their expressions were very calm.

But after dinner, Li Chengshi went to his second brother alone and talked about planting purple potatoes.

This was the idea that Jiang Zhiyun had after hearing them talk about purple sweet potatoes on the night of her thirties. As the person who stayed at home most often, Jiang Zhiyun could be said to be one of the people who knew everyone's situation best.

Because Jiang Zhiyun has a gentle temper, is willing to listen to Mrs. Li's nagging, and can help out with ideas, she is now Mrs. Li's favorite daughter-in-law, and Bai Xiuhe is temporarily behind.

She knew that her mother-in-law wanted the three brothers to maintain a good relationship. For this reason, the gap between the three of them should not be too large.

The big brother’s family will only earn more and more money from selling rice noodles. Not to mention the monthly silver from their husband, they can also earn money from embroidery, and the dividends from the rice noodle stall. They have saved a lot of money in a year.

Only the second elder brother's family can only rely on him to farm the land to support the three children. If no changes are made, the gap between the big house, the third house and the second house will become wider and wider.

This question was not only thought about by them, but also by Li Chengzhi, the boss, who wanted to ask his second brother to help at the rice noodle stall in the first place.

Jiang Zhiyun later heard from Granny Li that she felt that the elder brother's idea was not good enough. It would have been fine to arrange it this way when she was not planning to buy a shop before. After buying a shop, she would not need to push the cart to the county town every day. Sister Ye is enough, too many people are useless.

In the case of the second brother, what suits him is to go out and do odd jobs. He can indeed earn money, but the wages are not so hard, so he has to think of other ways.

So when Jiang Zhiyun heard Xianggong and elder brother talking about the new variety of purple sweet potato, she immediately thought of her second brother.

Li Chengli is a good farmer. There are no crops that he can't grow well. Now purple potatoes are not popular in the whole country, and the price is high. You can earn a lot of money in one round of planting, which is better than boring sweet potatoes that everyone is tired of eating. more, and planting purple sweet potatoes would not prevent him from going out to find work during the slack season.

So on the way back to her natal home, Jiang Zhiyun mentioned her idea to Li Chengshi, and asked Li Chengshi to talk to her second brother after returning home to see if he would like to try it.

In fact, after Mrs. Li chatted with Li Chengli on the night of the New Year's Eve, he didn't sleep well for the past two nights, thinking over and over again what he could and would do this year.

Li Chengshi's suggestion made him listen to his heart, and seriously consider whether to give it a try.

Early in the morning of the third day of junior high school, Li Chengli put Li Mingcai in the main room, told him to listen to his grandma and not to make trouble, and left Shanghe Village in a hurry.

There are indeed purple potatoes for sale in the grain shop in the county town, which costs four cents a catty, which is twice as expensive as ordinary sweet potatoes, because this kind of food is expensive and not many people are willing to buy it.

Li Chengli asked the shopkeeper of the grain shop how to eat purple sweet potatoes, and then bought six small purple sweet potatoes for ten cents, intending to take them home and eat them to see if the taste was really better.

The two kinds of potatoes are eaten in the same way. Compared with the sweet potatoes that everyone usually eats, the taste of purple potatoes is sweeter and softer. After steaming, there is a tangy aroma, which is indeed more caring than sweet potatoes of the same weight. full.

After confirming that the taste and texture of purple potatoes were better than sweet potatoes, Li Chengli went to his younger brother Li Chengshi to discuss whether to plant purple potatoes.

Li Chengshi's suggestion is that it can be planted. He believes that purple sweet potatoes are a new food. At present, the price is a little inflated by everyone because of the small quantity. After two years, when more people grow purple sweet potatoes, the price of purple sweet potatoes There will definitely be a decline, but that will be a few years later, and now is the time to make money from growing purple potatoes.

Besides, even if the price of purple sweet potatoes drops during the autumn harvest this year, purple sweet potatoes can still be eaten as food for the family, and there will be no loss.

At this time, Li Chengli had a total of two acres of paddy fields and four acres of dry land, of which two acres of paddy fields and two acres of dry land were given to him when the family was separated, and the other two acres of dry land were opened up by him last year.

Paddy fields must have enough water to grow rice. All the land in Shanghe Village that can divert water has been developed, and there are basically no new ones, so he tried his best to open up only two acres of dry land.

The newly opened land cannot grow food in the first year, only beans and the like, and the beans cannot be harvested after the beans are mature, they must be turned into the soil together with the bean stalks, so that there will be more food in the next year. reward.

Since the newly opened wasteland does not collect land tax for the first three years, all the food grown in the field will be owned by himself, and he will not worry about paying taxes on the confiscation. Otherwise, Li Chengli wants to plant purple potatoes on the newly opened two acres of dry land.

On this side, he hasn't made a complete decision yet, on the other side, Li Mingjin had a dream that night, which was related to his second uncle and purple potato.

That night, he dreamed that his second uncle had planted two acres of a new variety of purple sweet potato. Because his second uncle took care of it very carefully, the purple sweet potato in the field had a good harvest in autumn.

In the dream, he saw that his father and his second uncle were still discussing that the price of purple sweet potatoes was still high, and they would definitely be able to sell at a good price. The next day, it was raining heavily, and it rained for three days in a row. The ripe purple sweet potatoes were not harvested in time, and most of them rotted in the ground.

After waking up, Li Mingjin felt very strange. Now that the spring plowing has not even started, why did he dream about the autumn harvest?

After thinking about it for a long time without understanding what was going on, Li Mingjin felt that perhaps this dream was a reminder to tell his family that the autumn harvest should be earlier this year and not wait until it rained heavily.

Because it was still early, Li Mingjin waited until after breakfast to find his parents, talked about his dream last night, and told them that they must remember that this year's autumn harvest should be early.

Li Mingjin didn't understand why this dream came earlier, but Li Chengshi probably guessed it. This dream not only reminded them that it would rain during the autumn harvest, but also told them that the price of purple sweet potatoes won't drop this year, and they can plant more.

Li Chengshi thought of what Brother Jin said about the second brother who only planted two acres of dry land of purple sweet potatoes, and went to the next door to look for him without delay. This kind of opportunity in front of him should not be missed, and he must be firmly grasped.

Yesterday, Li Chengshi just persuaded Li Chengli to consider planting purple sweet potatoes, because purple sweet potatoes are new and expensive. After one night, Li Chengshi's tone changed. Fortunately, all his four acres of dry land were planted.

Li Chengli is a person with relatively simple ideas. He has always felt that his elder brother and third younger brother are much more knowledgeable than him, and he is willing to listen to their opinions when encountering problems.

But what kind of food to grow is too important to farmers. After hearing what Li Chengshi said, Li Chengli couldn't make up his mind to plant all purple potatoes. He planned to ask his elder brother when he came back in the afternoon.

Li Chengzhi is the elder brother of the three brothers of the Li family, and he is also the most adventurous among them, otherwise he would not have taken Bai Xiuhe out to do business without hesitation.

So when he listened to Li Chengli's entanglement about how many purple potatoes to plant, he only thought for a while before giving a reply: "I think I can try it once and make more varieties."

Then, Li Chengzhi made an account for Li Chengli about the output and value of different grains.

The dry land on their side generally grows three food crops: corn, sweet potatoes and wheat.

Wheat is the most delicate of these three crops, and it takes a lot of effort to take care of it. It is no less troublesome than growing rice. One mu of land can harvest two hundred catties of wheat, and the white flour obtained by drying, peeling and grinding into powder is almost One hundred catties of white flour costs fifteen copper plates, and one hundred catties of white flour costs one tael of silver and five hundred wen.

Corn and sweet potatoes are much simpler. You don’t need to spend too much time managing them after they are planted. Just remember to fertilize, weed, and water occasionally.

One mu of land can harvest [-] to [-] catties of corn, and by drying and threshing the corn and grinding it into flour, you can get almost [-] catties of fine cornmeal. Baiwen.

The price of sweet potatoes is the cheapest. During the autumn harvest, two catties of sweet potatoes can only be sold for three pennies. One mu of land can harvest about [-] catties of sweet potatoes, and the selling price is about the same as three hundred catties of fine cornmeal.

Compared with the time and energy spent and the money that can be sold in the end, families with a little more than two acres of land are more willing to grow corn or sweet potatoes than wheat.

Now there is another kind of purple potato that is very similar to sweet potato. Although the yield of purple potato is lower than that of sweet potato, it can be as low as [-] catties per mu. The purple sweet potatoes produced in the field can be sold for two and a half taels of silver, almost catching up with the price of rice grown in an acre of paddy fields.

Compared to Li Chengshi simply persuading Li Chengli that growing purple potatoes can make money, Li Chengzhi gave comparative data that is more intuitive, as long as a person with a good brain knows how to choose.

Having said all this, Li Chengli still hasn't made up his mind whether to plant so many purple potatoes, because he is worried that the price of purple potatoes will drop after the autumn harvest. If the yield is low and the price cannot be sold, it is better to plant honestly sweet potato.

Li Chengzhi is the eldest brother, so he would not be so polite when facing his younger brother, and he directly said to him: "What I just told you about feelings has become nonsense. If you want to make money, you have to take risks. How can there be such a cheap thing as sitting safely at home and having money in your hands."

"Think about it, besides the dry land, you also have paddy fields. There is no tax on the two acres of dry land, and you can go out to do odd jobs during the slack season. Even if you don't make money from planting purple sweet potatoes, you won't lose anything. At worst, your efforts will be wasted. If you're a little tired, you don't even have this bit of determination, and those who are timid in doing things are not as good as your two girls!"

Li Chengzhi's words made Li Chengli's cheeks flush, and after thinking about it all night, he decided to listen to his elder brother and third younger brother, and plant all four acres of dry land with purple sweet potatoes.

Purple sweet potato is a new variety. I don’t have seed potatoes at home, so I can only go to the county grain store to buy them. One mu of land needs about 250 catties of seed potatoes, and four mu of land costs [-] catties. Maybe it needs to be replanted. Li Chengli gritted his teeth and took out a tael of silver, and bought [-] catties of purple potatoes to go back.

This is because it is the first time to plant this year, so I need to buy so many. When I plant again next year, I have reserved seed potatoes, so I don’t need to spend money to buy them outside.

250 catties of purple sweet potatoes, basically wrapped up the remaining purple sweet potatoes from the grain shop in the county. After all, this is a new kind of grain. I sold some a few years ago, and now there are only less than three hundred catties left.

After buying the purple potatoes, Li Chengli carefully transported them home and put them in a dry and cool place in his granary, and then opened them for spring plowing to prepare seedlings.

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