A Blessed Daughter - Chapter 034

It was only at the age of ten that the shop was officially started. But it was difficult to get started, and in a society like that, with no connections and no one to rely on, it was a struggle to get a foothold.

By now, she had only saved a total of 2000 taels of silver. A thousand taels of silver was half of Wei Ruo’s fortune, and if it failed, Wei Ruo’s financial situation would regress by another two years.

Wei Ruo felt that there was no problem and she could take it directly. So the nanny and Uncle Xu came forward and bought Xiaoyang Mountain for 1000 taels of silver. This silver would be given to Li Zheng of Yueying Village to be distributed according to each family’s respective shares.

Xu Zhengyong also spent a few days in the city, selecting a few unemployed fishermen who fit Wei Ruo’s description and hiring them as long-term workers.

It was the first time for the hired long-term workers to see sweet potatoes as a crop.

It was only through the explanation of the Xu family’s father and son that they learned that this crop had been widely planted in Huaibei Town and had achieved good harvests.

Regarding the origin of this crop, the father and son jointly stated to the public that a ship from Nanyang accidentally brought back a piece of sweet potato vine, which was discovered to be useful after being cultivated.

Immediately afterwards, the Xu family’s father and son, who already had a rich experience in planting the sweet potatoes on a large scale in Huaibei Town, personally took the lead and led the long-term workers to carry out the planting.

The sweet potatoes need to be buried in the soil first. Wait for the vine to grow, then cut the sweet potato vines for plant cuttings*.

*Plant cuttings: new plants that are created by cutting off a portion of an established plant. This “cutting” is placed in an environment that encourages it to produce new roots and/or stems, thus forming a new, independent plant. Make cuttings with a sharp blade to reduce injury to the parent plant.

The three wagons of sweet potatoes they transported from Huaibei Town could produce enough sweet potato vines for plant cuttings.

The long-term workers quickly mastered the essentials of planting and began to get busy.

The maintenance cost of planting sweet potatoes on hillsides was much lower than that of cultivating rice in terraced fields.

The long-term workers couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. They had thought that the employer would only hire a few of them to manage the whole mountain of rice, and just thinking about it would make them tired.

In the meantime, Mama Xu had also found a house to settle in, which was not too far from the Colonel’s Mansion. So it was easy to come and go.

After making these arrangements, Mama Xu went to the Colonel’s Mansion again, handed over the contracts signed with the long-term workers and the deed of the house she bought to Wei Ruo.

No matter what Wei Ruo said, the nanny would dutifully carry it out. These industries belong to Wei Ruo. They helped Wei Ruo with work, and they earned some wages without any extra money.

Wei Ruo had another task for Mama Xu.

“Nanny, help me find out about the wasteland in the south of the city. I heard that the Japanese pirates are mainly fleeing in the east of the city, and the south of the city is relatively safe.”

“The wasteland in the south of the city? It’s a very barren land, right? The land near the sea can’t grow crops. What you plant will die.”

“Well, it should be, if the land is not barren, I don’t think it would have become a wasteland.” This was within Wei Ruo’s expectation.

“Miss, why are you asking about that wasteland?” Mama Xu asked, puzzled.

“Help me to inquire about some information first, I might have a way of turning waste into treasure. If I can plant plants on saline-alkali land, it would give me lower costs of buying things and hire more long-term workers. The plants grown can also solve the problem of the need to buy a lot of stuff from other places and insufficient food supply in Xingshan County, allowing more people to eat.”

“Okay, I’ll go ask around when I get back.” Although Mama Xu also felt that planting crops on saline-alkali land was somewhat ridiculous, she believed in Wei Ruo unconditionally.

Over the years, the young lady had repeatedly broken their perception, making many things they thought were impossible to be possible.