Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

How could she not be anxious? Others were not anxious, but she was.

Fortunately, nothing serious happened now. She stayed at home for four days, calculating day and night, and finally figured out the account books.

This year's grain supply has also been determined.

She looked at the final total, nine hundred and thirty-eight thousand five hundred and fifty-six stones!

The five prefectures collected more than 900,000 shi of grain.

Including those from last year, she now has more than one million shi of grain.

If Zhou Dacang is really short of food, these grains would be enough to feed his 100,000-strong army for more than a year!

I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He fought hard for the honor and future of his family on the front line, and she did not fall behind, and supplies were always available.

The north had a bumper harvest this year; everyone had a big smile on their face and the air was filled with joy everywhere.

She began to send people to the countryside to collect people’s grain.

People would sell their surplus food to buy some things for their families, such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, clothes for the children, and medicine money for the elderly at home...

Because the price she offered was higher than others, when they arrived in the countryside, everyone was happy to sell all their grain to her. Besides, she was an acquaintance, and the people who sold fertilizer, collected grain and bought grain were the same group of people, and the price was high, so who wouldn't be happy?

As a result, other grain merchants who also went to the countryside were unable to receive grain.

After asking around angrily, he found out that it was Zhou Guo who was responsible.

Everyone fell silent.

"Why is this little ancestor here again? She is everywhere. Isn't she going to the countryside to buy food? Why is she joining in the fun at this time?"

"You don't know, but I also heard a piece of news. She is the mastermind behind the huge incident of selling fertilizer to pay for grain in several cities near the North. This year, the North has a bumper harvest, and this child has made a great contribution."

The group of people fell silent again.

What does this mean? It means that the entire North is her tenant, and they are all growing crops for her!

"She has so much food, why is she trying to snatch it from us? Is she trying to make us die?"

One person shook his head and sighed, "I don't think so. The price she offered is much higher than ours. One stone of grain is 3.8 cents higher, almost 4 cents. Even a fool would know how to sell it. I guess she really wants to raise the price of grain."

But in this way, they can earn less. They buy at high prices and sell at low prices, so they earn much less than in previous years.

"Well, forget it. We can't beat them. Who is behind them? Who are behind us? Fortunately, she didn't go too far and left us some room. Otherwise, I would fight to the death and not let her off easily."

Although the profit at this price is not as much as before, it is still some profit. If they really want to make no profit, they are not pushovers.

After a few days, grain merchants all sold grain at the same price.

Zhou Guo stopped harvesting after a few days. He couldn't block the road, he had to leave some for others. The grain he had harvested was enough, and with the grain left on the farm, there was enough to sell to the grain shops everywhere.

The grain merchants were happy to see that her people would not come later. They thought that she still knew some rules and left some soup for them when they ate the meat. They couldn't help but have a better impression of Zhou Guo and felt that she was not as hateful as they thought.

……

The best wheat from one acre of Zhou family's land yields more than 500 kilograms, and these grains were all cultivated by her over the years.

The best ears of corn from each household in the village are selected for hybridization and are now ready for mass production.

She collected the wheat, dried it, dusted it, and stored it well, and put it all in the granary as grain seeds, not planning to eat it.

Li asked in confusion, "You're going to save thousands of kilograms of grain for planting? Where can you get so much land at home? Can you plant that salty and bitter land next year?"

Zhou Guo said, "No, I plan to sell this wheat as grain seeds. I only have a few acres of land at home. Even if I plant all of it with wheat, how much can I harvest? It's different if I sell it to others. I'll let them plant it and harvest it when it's ripe next year. This way I'll have a lot of grain seeds, and I can supply the entire northern region with grain seeds the year after next."

Whether the grain harvest is good or not, besides fertilizer and management, the rest depends on seeds. The difference between good seeds and ordinary seeds is huge.

Li was stunned, "Can they sell it to you again?"

Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Why not? As long as I offer a high price, why wouldn't they sell it?"

The price of grain seeds is not the same as the price of grain. The price of grain seeds is much more expensive.

There are so many big households and so much land in the north, and the wheat seeds they need are not just a little bit, but a lot.

"So mother, don't touch any of this wheat. I'll need it for great use next year."

Li waved her hand and said, "I know. Anyway, there is so much rice at home. We can just eat rice."

Zhou Guo chuckled, "Rice is not good either, and it can't be eaten."

Li: "...You're also keeping the rice for seeds?"

Zhou Guo laughed, "Mom, the water conservancy projects in Song County are almost finished. The ponds dug at the locations selected by Tanghe are also filled with water. It is estimated that it will be completed before winter this year. By then, when the ditches are connected with water, we can irrigate and drain the water, wash off the salt, apply fertilizer, plant some pasture grass, and turn over some green manure. Then we can start farming."

Li calculated and said, "You can't plant the land until the year after next. What's the point of keeping it now?"

Zhou Guo said: "No matter what, we should plant a crop next year. Even if there is no harvest, we can use it to fertilize the land."

Upon hearing this, Li said, "You can use such good seeds to fertilize the land. Can't you use other rice?"

Zhou Guo touched his chin and nodded, "Alright, then put these grains in the farms outside. The farms in the prefectures have large areas of land. The key is that they are all arable land, not salty and bitter land like this. This year I have had people repair the water conservancy projects, and next year all the farms will be turned into rice fields."

Li had heard that those farms were big, but he didn't know how much land they had, so he asked hurriedly.

Zhou Guo said, "The four farms together have about 700 to 800 acres of land. We will plant rice on all of them next year. In autumn, all the shops in the north will be able to sell rice."

We have been reclaiming wasteland and building water conservancy projects all year, and also selling fertilizer and harvesting crops, so we simply won't be planting any land this year.

Li did the math and said, "In this way, even if the whole manor and everyone in our family eats rice all year round, it should be enough, right?"

Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Mom, I am the only one who can't live without rice every day. You can eat both noodles and rice. We have more than 20 acres of land at home, and the rice we grow now is enough for our family to eat."

Li said, "How can they be the same? You are such a big eater, and your brothers can eat too. Their appetites have been increasing over the past two years. Logically, they should have grown enough, so why do they eat more and more?"

As he said this, he looked at Zhou Guo, sizing him up and down.

Zhou Guo didn't care that she was going off topic, and continued, "It means that you brothers are still growing. You read so many books and do so much homework every day, which requires a lot of brainpower. It's also a physical job, so naturally you eat more. What are you looking at me doing?"