Crossing the famine, I am a poor fish, and my descendants have to work hard

After hurrying along the way, Zhao Yuanzhen arrived at the Yellow River ferry in mid-to-late March.

As soon as he arrived at the ferry, he heard Zhang Xinbai calling him.

"Mom! Mom, you're back!"

Zhang Xinbai happened to be inspecting the shop at the ferry recently when he saw his mother coming back.

"Well, I'm back. Xin Bai, are you coming to inspect?"

"Yes, mother, I missed you so much. You are finally back. Let's go inside and talk."

"Ah."

Zhao Yuanzhen’s previous bedroom has been kept.

Zhang Xinbai briefly told her what had happened in the past six months and the situation of the shop.

The shops are doing well, and their turnover is increasing steadily.

Six shops at the ferry have been rented out, and the rent alone is over 6 yuan per year.

While the transport team was there, Zhao Yuanzhen went to the county town near the ferry and left a lot of seedlings and various small livestock pups in the warehouse.

A lot of the fish raised at the ferry were killed because of the market.

The market is now very large, and the large market sheds she built before are no longer enough. Some of the things that came late can only be placed outside.

The ferry has also become a trading ferry integrating wholesale and retail.

The amount of bulk cargo traded daily is huge, and with the availability of transport teams and convenient transportation, the ferry business has improved a lot.

It takes about three days to get from the capital to the ferry. If the road is built, the journey can be shortened by one day.

When she returns to the capital, she will ask Zhao Yuanlan to help submit a petition to apply for the construction of a road from the ferry to the capital.

After Zhang Xinbai finished checking the shop's accounts, the two returned to the capital together.

When we returned to the capital, we took a horse carriage, which was swaying and slow. It took us three days and it was already evening when we got home.

"Wife, Xinnian, sister-in-law, come and see who is back."

Before Zhang Xinbai entered the yard, he had already started shouting in a loud voice.

"It's coming, it's coming! Stop shouting."

Qian Xiaohui saw the convoy coming back and knew that Zhang Xinbai had returned.

"What's wrong? What are you shouting for?"

"Wife, look, who's back."

Zhang Xinbai helped Zhao Yuanzhen out of the car.

"Mom! Mom, you're back!"

Qian Xiaohui hurried forward to help Zhao Yuanzhen get out of the car.

"Xiaohui, I'm back."

"Mom, let's go upstairs first. I think you two haven't eaten yet. I'll ask the kitchen to make some more dishes."

Having said that, he ran to the kitchen in a hurry.

After a while, he ran out again in a hurry and followed Zhao Yuanzhen into the house.

"Mom, I've told them to bring hot water. Please wash up and get rid of your fatigue."

"OK, all right."

Qian Xiaohui prepared everything for her and went out.

When she finished taking a bath, she found that her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren were waiting for her in the main room.

She walked over, took her little granddaughter, held her in her arms and teased her.

Although he hadn't seen his grandmother for half a year, Zhang Ziyou was not shy and giggled at Zhao Yuanzhen.

The whole look is cute and tight.

"This little girl is so cute. She's really rare."

"Mom, you don't know, she is usually very smart and shrewd."

Li Zhijuan knows her own daughter's character very well.

"It's good to be smart, and smart people should not be bullied."

He made the little girl giggle, then put her down and hugged Zhang Zipei again.

Little Pei was a little shy. Although he was not afraid of Zhao Yuanzhen, he just curled up in her arms obediently, with his head resting on her shoulder.

"Mom, Zipei is a little shy and doesn't like to smile."

"It's okay. Boys are not afraid of being shy. This is restrained and heavy."

Little Zipei hugged his grandmother's neck and lay there like a little quail, without making any noise.

"Mom, now that you're back this time, are you still leaving?"

"Let's go. I'll go back after I finish my work in the capital."

"Okay, then how long will it take you to finish your work, mother?"

"It hasn't been decided yet. How's things going at home lately?"

"Everything is fine at home and in the shop. I'll show you the account book tomorrow, mother."

"It's fine if you guys just read it. I won't read it anymore. I'm going to the farm tomorrow."

"Okay, Mom, I'll go with you."

"That's fine. I plan to buy all the fields and wasteland around Zhuangzi's farmland to expand our farmland."

That piece of land should be more than 1000 acres, plus the 1000 acres at home, that should be enough.

The capital city is located in the Central Plains, so the solar terms are very good. If the farming plan is good, two crops can be planted.

We planted wheat last year but not rice, so this year we are still eating old rice from the year before. We have to expand our own fields and plant some of the food we need to eat.

"Okay, mother."

Afraid that Zhao Yuanzhen would be tired, he let her eat and then rest quickly.

They all went back to rest.

After a night's rest, I slept very comfortably. After breakfast, I went to the farm.

"Hello, ma'am. You are back."

"Well, how is the farm these days? Have you tilled and tidied the fields?"

"Madam, everything is fine at the farm. The fields have been tilled."

"Okay, take a few people who know how to dig the land with you, and go with the young master to measure the wasteland next to the field. Then ask if anyone is selling the fields next to it. If it's hard to get them, you can offer a slightly higher price and try to buy all of them."

"Yes, ma'am."

The wasteland was measured and was found to be about 320 acres. Zhao Yuanzhen took the data to Beijing and bought the land first.

"Sir, I want to buy a piece of wasteland. It is located in the southern suburbs of Beijing, next to my land title. It is about 320 acres. I want to buy it."

"let me see."

The prefect of Jingzhao compared the title deed with the map and found the specific place.

"The price of land in the suburbs of Beijing has always been high. Yours is a large tract of wasteland, and it costs 5 taels of silver per acre."

This price is higher than the price of ordinary land.

Zhao Yuanzhen didn't want to miss out on this piece of land because of a few hundred taels of silver, so he agreed.

"Okay, sir, I'll take all of this."

"Well, OK, I checked. It's registered as about 320 acres."

320X6=1920 taels of silver.

Zhao Yuanzhen paid the money, put the title deed, the previous title deed, and the title deed given by Zhao Yuanlan together on a piece of paper, and changed it into a red title deed.

It is not known how much of the remaining land Zhang Shang and his team can buy back, but the newly purchased land needs to be reclaimed and tidied first.

There might not be enough farmers in the farm now, so Zhao Yuanzhen went to the dental clinic again.

"Hello, Mrs. Zhang, I haven't seen you for a long time. I thought you had forgotten about our dental clinic."

"I haven't been in the capital recently. I just came back to see if there are any cooks or servants. It would be best if the servants can read."

"Yes, yes, please wait a moment, I will call someone over for you."

The dentist brought a group of cooks, 32 in total.

Zhao Yuanzhen picked 20.

The boy picked too many and one shop didn’t have enough, so he went to another shop and picked 80 in total.

Twelve of them are literate.

After settling the money, he took them back to the village.

Zhang Shang had not returned yet, so Zhao Yuanzhen found a warehouse manager to distribute various daily necessities, clothes and bedding to them, and also arranged accommodation for them.

There were 80 servants, 50 of them did farm work, and the remaining 30 stayed in the farm to be trained, including the 12 who could read.

These literate people selected a few literate and smart ones in the village and sent them to various shops to learn how to be shopkeepers.

The servants who did farm work were handed over to the team leaders of the farmers' group and assigned to various groups. The farmers' groups were also asked to get the emperor out as soon as possible so as not to delay the planting of rice.

In the evening, Zhang Xinbai and others came back.

"Mom, we went to the village based on the plots of land and discussed with the village chief. We asked him to help buy them. The price was 8 taels per mu. Almost all of them were sold. There were a few who wanted to raise the price, but they were also adjusted by the village chief. We bought land from two villages, a total of 2 mu of land. We gave the village chief a bribe of 794 taels of silver. We will exchange the land deeds with the village chief tomorrow. They are all red deeds."

Then all the land in this area belongs to them, which is about 2114 acres.

Fortunately, the land we bought later were all farmland, so there was no need to reclaim them, we just had to convert them into rice fields.

"You guys are amazing. You bought so much land. It's really beyond my expectation. You did a great job. I will reward you with a big dinner tonight."

"Mom, these are just trivial matters. I feel embarrassed to be praised."

"Yes, ma'am, this is all our job."

"I know how to distinguish rewards from punishments. Let's have hotpot tonight. Let's go to my house. Let's go now. Zhang Shang should come with us."

"Great, I love hotpot the most, let's go quickly."

"Yes, ma'am."

Zhang Xinbai hurriedly took his men back.

I haven’t eaten hotpot for a long time. When my mother is not at home, I always feel that hotpot doesn’t taste good.

After arriving home.

Zhao Yuanzhen went to the warehouse to get ingredients.

Beef rolls, mutton rolls, pork rolls, chicken rolls, various vegetables, meatballs, seafood, hot pot base, dipping sauce, drinks, etc.

The base of the pot is a shuangxiang pot, one is tomato soup and the other is spicy hot pot.

The main focus is comprehensiveness.

Qian Xiaohui asked Bai Zhi and Bai Wei to prepare the ingredients for the hot pot.

Wow! There was a whole table full of food.

There are more than twenty kinds of condiments on the table.

It was Zhang Shang’s first time to eat this kind of hotpot. There were so many dishes that he had never even seen them, let alone eaten them.

I followed the young masters to prepare the dipping sauce.

"Zhang Shang, don't be restrained, eat as you like. There are wine and drinks here, drink as you like."

"Yes, ma'am."

Bai Wei was helping to serve the dishes. The meat was eaten in large plates. As soon as it was cooked, half a plate was gone with a big chopstick.

The speed of eating is almost slower than the speed of eating.

It has been a long time since Zhao Yuanzhen had such a delicious hotpot. Hotpot is more fun when a group of people are scrambling to eat it.

"Grandma, I really miss you so much. Even meals taste so good when you're at home."

"Really? Then you should eat more. Come, grandma will help you grab some meat so you can eat your fill."

"Thank you grandma. I know you love me the most."

"Then eat quickly."

The chopsticks of several people were almost leaving afterimages. The quicker you are, the more you get.

It took more than an hour to finish most of the food on the table.

"Oh no, I'm too full. I need to digest it."

"Me too. I haven't eaten so much in a while. I want to go for a walk too."

Since fleeing the famine, life at home has improved. We can eat well and have enough food every day. I haven’t eaten so much in a long time.

"Dad, wait for me, I'll go too."

Zhao Yuanzhen touched her stomach and found it was indeed a bit bloated, so she decided to drink some sour plum juice to help digestion.