After fleeing famine, I have thousands of acres of fertile land

Ye Lao San drank some water, calmed down, and then spoke again. "It's the lobster business. Several people in the city are selling it."

"How is business? It should be good this year. People who loved eating lobsters last year will buy them again this year." Ye Qing thinks that drinking wine goes well with lobsters.

"Business is pretty good, with a lot of people coming around, and some even asking about our lobsters."

"Have you asked about the price? Have they raised the price?" This is what Ye Qing was most concerned about.

"The price hasn't increased. It's still the same price as last year." Ye Laosan went to the stall to inquire.

Ye Qing was relieved, "It's okay, Third Uncle, we will start selling after paying the tax. Do you want to sell the lobsters or go to other villages to buy lobsters."

Ye Qing felt that collecting lobsters was most suitable for his uncle, after all, he also had to collect pigs every few days.

Ye Lao San thought for a while and asked, "Qingya, how much do you think is a reasonable price per pound?"

"You can get it cheaper in the front, the same price as last year. But I suggest you buy a pond and raise the lobsters in it. The most needed thing in the back should be raw materials."

Ye Laosan decided to trust Ye Qing. He now went out to collect pigs once every three days, and he would collect them together with lobsters, still charging one penny per pound.

In the remaining two days, I picked up my own business and went to the city to sell vegetables and prepared lobsters.

Ye Laosan was calculating the money in his family, so he went to find the village head to buy a pond.

Ye Qing asked Ye Lao Da to buy two acres of land, so that the family had three acres of ponds.

The head of the village helped to complete the formalities for the pond, and then notified everyone to pay taxes, as well as the 100 kilograms of grain owed to the government last year.

This year, it was Zhang the yamen runner who brought people to Kaoshan Village to collect taxes. The villagers harvested 10% more grain this year, so there was more food for each family.

Zhang, the yamen runner, returned to the city with the harvested grain. The villagers' foreign debts had been paid off and they began to busy themselves with farming.

Ye Qing started a lobster business, but he did not collect the lobsters from his own village or Ji Village. Instead, he spread the word that he would collect them from surrounding villages.

Families with cows in the village drove their cars to the surrounding villages to collect the cows. Ye Qing charged three cents per pound, and they charged one cent per pound, making two cents per pound. Ye Qing also charged two cents per pound for snails.

Ye Qing threw most of the lobsters he received into the newly bought pond. Ye Laosan's family did the same, throwing all the lobsters they received into the pond.

Ye Qing sells 200 kilograms of lobsters and 100 kilograms of snails every day.

The job of selling snails and lobsters was given to Zhou Jia and Ye Lao San, who shared the profits equally. The wholesale price was 10 wen per pound for snails and 12 wen per pound for lobsters.

Both businesses were very good, and they could basically sell out in an hour. The lobster business also attracted some business to Ye Laosan's vegetable stall.

The Zhou family would also take the prey to sell, and they would be back around noon.

Ye Laosan had a lot of stuff to carry, so he didn't go home until the evening. A few scholars were picked up and dropped off, and they returned to going home every day.

Two more people joined the group on the way to recite the text. Wei Jia was well-educated, and the children from the Ye family would ask him some questions. The two sides got along very well.

Ji Village is five miles away from Kaoshan Village. Grandpa Wei felt sorry for his two grandsons, so he bought an ox cart and asked Ye Dalang to teach Wei Jia how to drive.

In the morning, several teenagers took turns driving and followed Ye Laosan's car into the city, and then followed him back in the afternoon.

Several families were relieved, and Mrs. Sun did not resign. Now she only had to cook lunch, and her monthly salary was reduced a little.

"Uncle San, the price of lobsters has gone up recently. We can no longer buy lobsters at one cent per pound. There are fewer lobsters in the river, so we buy them at two cents per pound." Ye Qing looked at the lobsters that were becoming less and less, and estimated that the time was about right.

Ye Qing's family has three acres of pond. The part he raises himself weighs almost one thousand kilograms. As for the remaining two, he has thrown in one thousand five hundred kilograms in recent times.

Ye Zhu has no time to cut grass by himself recently as he still has to study. Ye Qing ordered six more baskets of grass for the pond and he divided the work among his classmates, who went to cut grass and collect firewood after school in the afternoon.

Now he didn't have to work, and he had saved up a little silver. For a child, this was already pretty good.

There were more and more people doing lobster business in the city, and business of Ye Lao San and Zhou family was getting worse and worse. Ye Qing stopped the lobster business, but still bought lobsters from outside.

Gradually, there were fewer and fewer lobsters, and everyone started to raise the price of lobsters, from 15 cents per pound to 30 cents per pound.

People started coming out to buy lobsters, and the price rose from two cents per pound to twelve cents per pound.

There are fewer and fewer people selling lobsters on the market, and they can no longer buy lobsters.

Lobsters, which cost thirty cents a pound, are now in short supply, and you have to snatch them if you want to eat them.

After waiting for a few more days, the price of lobsters continued to rise, reaching 20 cents per pound, and Ye Qing decided to take action.

The family was too busy, so when Ye Jiang came to pay the rent, they decided not to rent the land. The family earned some money last year and bought a few acres of land themselves.

Boss Ye reclaimed ten acres of dry land and prepared to plant crops himself. When he was busy, he asked others for help.

Ye Qing gave all the lobsters from his family's three mu pond to his uncle Ye San, selling them at 20 cents per pound. The price of lobsters had gone up again.

Uncle Ye is a good businessman. He sells about 200 kilograms of lobsters every day. Now he has the most lobsters in Wu'an City and has direct pricing power.

The villagers also sold the lobsters they caught nearby to Ye Laosan.

Ye Qing handed the lobster over and left it alone. The watermelons at home were almost ripe, and she had to go to the fields several times a day for fear that wild boars would come down the mountain and destroy the watermelons and melons.

Two sheds were built on the watermelon and melon fields. Ye Lao Da and Ye Da Lang brought two dogs to watch over the melon fields at night to prevent anyone from stealing the melons.

Watermelon is a rare commodity nowadays. It is a variety introduced from outside, but not many people grow it. After all, everyone’s favorite thing is food.

That day, Ye Lao San came back from outside to collect pigs. He first told Zhou what Liu the matchmaker had said.

"Sister-in-law, matchmaker Liu asked me to tell you that she has contacted a family and asked us to go and see them. Dalang has been engaged, who else wants to see him?"

Zhou slapped her thigh, a little anxious, "I was so happy that I forgot to send a message to Matchmaker Liu. What should I do now?"

Mrs. Li glanced at her eldest daughter-in-law and said, "The children of the families you usually hang out with are old enough, so you can take them to see each other. Some of our children are studying, and some are learning a craft, so we can talk about marriage later."

Zhou was happy then, "Thank you for helping me pass on the message, Third Brother. Please stay for dinner tonight."

Seeing that he had nothing to do, Ye Laosan refused, "Mom, sister-in-law, I'm leaving first. I won't come over in the evening. I'm busy at home and the children have already prepared dinner."

Zhou followed Ye Laosan and saw him out. She said hello to Li and went to Lihua's house.

The two boys of Lihua's family were sixteen and fourteen years old respectively. The older one had been engaged before fleeing the famine, but the girl's family did not want their daughter to flee with them, so they called off the marriage.

Lihua and Zhou married to Kaoshan Village within the same year. They were both new brides at the time and their two families lived close to each other. They would go digging wild vegetables and picking mushrooms in the mountains together every day, and their relationship became better and better.