Flowers in full bloom

Fortunately, the puddles did not smell or turn green, probably because it had rained some time ago. In addition, various weeds and aquatic plants were growing in the puddles.

Hualei took a quick look at the situation and couldn't help but sigh. This puddle was more serious than she had imagined.

Most of the members of these sixteen farm households are old, weak and female. Think about it, the young and strong farm households have either found their own way out or have been transferred to other farms by their employers. The rest are the old, weak and sick.

When I bought Baihuazhuang before, although the unit price was high, the rice, peaches, and peppers were almost ripe and could be converted into cash in a few months. But here, it’s completely blank and nothing can be converted into cash.

If you buy them, the initial investment will be a large sum of money, and there may not be a return. After all, raising ducks and geese is also very risky. There is a saying that goes, even if you have a lot of wealth, the feathers don't count. If you want a return on ducks and geese, you have to wait at least half a year. It's not like in the past when there was special duck feed that could produce ducks in a hundred days.

The fields were not satisfactory, the farmers were not satisfied, the initial investment was large, and the breeding risk was high. Hualei was a little discouraged.

Manager Chen, who had been following her, also noticed Hua Lei's hesitation, so he asked, "Miss Hua, are you dissatisfied?" Hua Lei smiled bitterly, "No one is satisfied. The fields are dissatisfied, and the farmers are dissatisfied. Although the price is nearly half cheaper, you see, these remaining ones are not worth 1,600 taels at all."

Hua Lei calculated that based on the actual usable area of ​​250 mu of inferior farmland, it was worth at most 500 taels. There were 68 farmers, 39 of whom were female, all of whom were old and young. Of the remaining 29 males, at most 13 or 14 were young and strong, and 13 were boys and girls under the age of 12.

Although farmers can choose not to buy or choose to buy, if they do not buy, they may be sold to wealthy families as slaves, and the family may be separated and even die.

Just now when she expressed her intention not to be a farmer, the group of people, young and old, kneeling in front of her with tears streaming down their faces made Hua Lei feel very embarrassed.

If you choose to buy it yourself, the consequence will be the same: separation of family and wife. Hualei would never do such a cruel thing as causing the separation of family and wife through your own hands.

But if she bought them all, it would be really not cost-effective. An old woman who could hardly stand was priced the same as a young and strong man. Hua Lei felt uncomfortable, as if she had spent money to buy meat buns, but the boss forced her to give her steamed buns. Not only did she not get the other party's gratitude, but the other party also thought she was easy to bully.

"Miss Hua, this house is still okay. Although it is not new, it has many rooms and is worth several hundred taels of silver." Manager Chen was a little speechless about the former landlord, but for his own commission, he still picked out the good points. "No matter how many houses there are, what is the value of this puddle? It is not inside the imperial city gate, on East Street, it is indeed valuable." Hua Lei said bluntly.

"Then how much silver do you think you can accept for this farm, Miss Hua?"

"I don't want it now, so..."

"Well...how about I give you a little more discount?" Manager Chen took a step back and said.

“What’s the cheapest?”

"How about one thousand five hundred taels?"

"Forget it, it's not worth the price." "Then how about Miss Hua name a price?"

"How about this, including the man and the farm, a total of 1,100 taels, I will take it."

"I don't think this will work. The owner won't sell it."

"Forget it then, Manager Chen, I'm sorry to have made you come here for nothing. Let's go back first."

"How about this, Miss Hua, you can add a little more, and I will ask the boss to see if he can lower the price. Is this okay?" Hua Lei smiled bitterly, "Manager Chen, you can see that the fields are not good, but this boss is not honest. In the warehouse, not only did he not keep the wheat that was just harvested this year, but he also did not leave any last year's black flour or coarse grain flour for the farmers. These farmers must have not had enough to eat for half a year, and they are all pale and skinny.

There were no farm tools, plows, or oxen, not to mention chickens or ducks. Isn't this a bit ugly?" Hualei felt that the previous owner was really stingy.

Manager Chen laughed dryly, "Okay, I'll go ask the owner in front to see if he can sell it. If he is willing to sell it, I'll ask Brother Youdi to give you a message."

"Okay, thank you for your help, Manager Chen. We'll go back first." After three or four days, Manager Chen asked Brother Fang Youdi to pass on the message, saying that the previous employer agreed.

On June 13, Hua Lei paid the silver and went to the government office with Manager Chen to handle the transfer procedures.

Hualei was lazy and did not give the newly bought farm a new name. He kept the original name, still calling it "Yuanying Farm".

Except for Uncle Zheng and his wife who stayed in Baihua Manor to look after the next wheat harvest, most of the other people were temporarily transferred to the new Yuanying Manor. They also took with them several mule carts of food, including white flour, mixed flour, and brown rice from the manor. They were asked to feed the people in the manor according to the standard of three meals a day, otherwise they would not be able to do anything.

They also brought a fat pig weighing 200 to 300 kilograms and a dozen chickens and ducks from Baihua Village, slaughtered them, and cooked several large pots of meat for the farmers in Yuanying Village. The farmers, who had not eaten meat for more than a year, had a good meal, crying as they ate, which made Hualei feel sad.

After the meal, Aunt Zhao, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law led the people on the farm to do some personal hygiene, washing their hair and trimming their nails, cleaning themselves from head to toe.

After asking Aunt Fu to go to the cloth shop opposite Qingyun Lane to bring back dozens of rolls of linen and cotton cloth, and taking the women in the farm to make a set of summer clothes for everyone in the farm overnight, the spirits of the people in Yuanying Farm finally seemed to be better.

Then I asked Doctor Lin from Xinglintang to go to the farm and check everyone's pulse, prescribing medicine for those who needed it and treating those who needed it. After the examination, everything was fine.

Except for five older women and four children who were in poor health and needed to take medicine, the others were fine and just needed to eat their fill. It seemed that they were still hungry.

Then he asked Uncle Zhao to take a group of people to renovate the three houses on the farm according to his own requirements.

The Zheng brothers took some people from the farm to measure the land again. According to Hualei's requirements, they divided the farm into several different areas to meet the growth needs of various crops.