novelaction Chapter 253 Buying Grain
Chapter 253 Buying Grain
Zhou Guo turned around and saw the regret on her face, and said with a smile: "Mom, it's okay. When I have enough firewood, I will go into the mountains and hunt a big wild boar. Not to mention six hundred coins, one thousand six hundred coins is no problem."
After hearing this, Li felt that she was a little crazy. Her children were all very capable now, and there was enough savings at home. There was no need for them to waste their time on earning those hard-earned money.
……
In a blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed and the woodshed had been built. The neatly stacked firewood filled the woodshed.
There were also pieces of chopped dry firewood piled up under the eaves, and both walls were filled with firewood. There were dead trees carried back from the mountains and dead tree roots dug up by Zhou Guo. The firewood on these two walls was enough to burn for at least more than a month. Together with the firewood in the woodshed, it could last at least four months.
Three haystacks have been built in the backyard, and the fourth one is about to be completed.
Finally, I don't have to be so busy with housework anymore.
On this day, after breakfast, everyone stayed at home and did not go out.
Zhou Guo made a pot of tea and sat in the yard with the old man, drinking it slowly.
In fact, she didn't really like drinking tea, she was just bored. Since she had nothing to eat, a cup of tea would be nice. There were only four people in the family who would sit down and slowly drink tea, and the other two were Zhou Dacang and Zhou Mai.
Others couldn't sit still. They gulped down a cup of tea like a cow and left after sitting for only a moment. They said, "What's the point of sitting here all the time in broad daylight? They might as well go cut two bundles of grass or go out to herd the cows."
The grain in the village has now been harvested, dried, and handed in.
Zhou Guo wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to buy some grain from the villagers. She had already inquired about it. The grain shop lowered the price of flour from the villagers to 30 wen per dou. If she bought flour from the grain shop, the price of flour would rise to 13 wen per jin. Calculating the difference, the grain shop made more than half of the profit.
"Mom, the remaining grain at home will definitely not last until next autumn harvest. We should take advantage of this opportunity to buy some in the village. The grain shop has suppressed their prices too much."
Li nodded, then sighed, "I ran into your Aunt Chen yesterday and she said that this year's weather is better than in previous years, and the grain harvest is a bit more than in previous years. Who knew that there is more grain and the price is cheaper. I originally wanted to take this opportunity to sell some of it and buy some cloth for the elderly and children at home to make new clothes for the New Year, but now I can't do it. The pressure is so severe that many families in the village can't bear to sell."
The old man frowned. "If the harvest is good, the price of grain should fall. Why is it rising instead?"
Something unusual.
Zhou Guo couldn't figure it out either. "I don't know if the government is doing anything about it. People in the city can't afford the food, and people in the countryside can't sell it at a good price."
Zhou Dacang said, "Never mind. I think we should buy the grain from the villagers first. They will have money to survive the winter, and we will have food to eat."
"How much does it cost?" Zhou Mi frowned. If they gave too little money, it wouldn't work. If they gave too much money, it wouldn't work either. They weren't meant to be suckers.
Zhou Guo said, "Ah, I have also inquired about this. Last year, their grain price was 42 wen per dou. We will pay according to last year's price. Everyone in the village is willing to sell at this price."
Li said, "Okay, I'll ask your Aunt Chen to ask which families are willing to sell."
Zhou Guo nodded, "Then let's go and ask which families still need to buy food, so that we don't have to go to the food store later."
……
When the villagers heard that these newcomers were going to buy grain in the village at last year's price, they were all happy to give out their surplus grain.
The Zhou family collected 20 shi of grain and 3 shi of beans in the village in one go. The beans were mainly prepared for the family's cattle and horses.
The other families didn't need that much food. First, there were not so many people in their families, and second, they didn't have so many big bellies. Zhou Guo from the Zhou family was an exception, and the other guys were all very capable. Every meal now had to be steamed in a wooden barrel.
Even though they harvested so much, the Zhou family didn't feel it was enough. The main reason was that they ate too much at every meal. In more than a month since they arrived here, they had already eaten more than 400 kilograms of food.
During this period, the old man spent almost half of his time taking those with big appetites to catch prey in the mountains for lunch, and they never ate at home.
Li's brows frowned again. What a big eater!
If it weren't for the huge amount of savings and the old man, she really wouldn't know how to feed so many mouths!
At most, these are enough to last for four months, and I still have to buy more.
Zhou Gu was worried, "But the villagers don't have any extra food. They just squeezed out all the food they have."
Zhou Guo said: "Then go to the next village and buy some. If we buy some from the next few villages, there will definitely be enough."
If they don't buy it now, when they sell the grain to the grain shop later, they will have to spend more than one tael of silver per stone.
Li said, "That's easy. Your Aunt Chen's family is from the next village. It's a big village. I heard that there are many families who haven't sold their grain yet. I'll ask her to go ask tomorrow."
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "It's good to have Aunt Chen!"
"What's so good about Aunt Chen?"
As he was speaking, Chen's cheerful voice was heard from outside the yard, with joy in her voice.
Each member of the Zhou family called Aunt Chen with a smile, asked her to sit down, and poured her tea enthusiastically.
Chen looked at Zhou Guo with a smile.
Zhou Guo smiled slightly, and kind words came out as if they were free. "Aunt Chen is a beautiful and kind person, cheerful and generous, capable and hospitable, she has all the good qualities!" He said it very sincerely.
Chen laughed so hard that she couldn't close her mouth. She pointed at Zhou Guo and said, "Your little mouth is so sweet that it can make people sick. I don't know who will be lucky enough to marry you in the future!"
Li smiled and said, "Don't worry about her. You came at the right time. I just have something to ask you."
Chen stretched out her hand to stop her from talking, picked up the teacup and drank it all, then said: "Don't say anything, I heard everything, I also know that you have many children in your family, and they are all big eaters. I know that this little food is definitely not enough for you, so I went to my parents' house to say hello. You can go there tomorrow."
Li was so grateful, "I really don't know how to thank you."
Chen smiled and said, "What's the big deal? We are all from the same village. It's just a matter of running some errands. I also did a business for my mother's family. In the end, it's still our family that benefits. Okay, I'll leave first. I have a lot of things to do at home."
The Zhou family sent her out the door with many thanks, and then turned around to pack their bags. They had bought a lot of food.
The next day, I followed the rest of the family to the next village and harvested another 21 dan of grain. This grain, after being shelled, could last for more than eight months, but we had to eat two meals of dry food and one of liquid food. If we didn’t shell it…
It’s enough to eat dry food every day.
Zhou Guo was the first to express his unwillingness, "Mom, I don't want to eat unhusked wheat rice, I want to eat white flour."
It tastes terrible. Every time I eat it, my throat suffers.
Although Zhou Dacang and others didn't say they didn't want to eat, their expressions betrayed them.
Li said helplessly: "Okay, I'll just talk about it."
After saying this, he looked at the children of all ages in the room and couldn't help but let out another long sigh.