Chapter 63: Planting Blessings (Part 3)
Huo Chong himself did not expect that the conflict with County Magistrate Xu would break out at this time. But after all, it involved two thousand taels of silver, and Huo Chong could not afford such a loss at the moment.
The sixth-rank official probably didn't expect Huo Chong to reject the idea without even discussing it, so he just gave a few words of advice.
Huo Chong answered without hesitation: "Will the new official admit old grievances?"
The two officials in front of Huo Chong showed a little embarrassment and stopped talking for a while. Huo Chong said nothing more, stood up, bowed, and turned to leave. Xu Zhixian was so angry that he shouted from behind: "Huo Chong, you have no respect for officials."
This statement did not scare Huo Chong. Although the county magistrate is not as good as the current one... Well, County Magistrate Xu is the county magistrate. Huo Chong at least has an official position, even if it is just a donated official that is looked down upon by scholars, and there is no chance of taking office. But this simple official position is enough to withstand many things. At least County Magistrate Xu is unlikely to find an excuse to deal with Huo Chong.
Xu Youlin chased out, and Huo Chong said with a dark face: "Brother Xu, don't try to persuade me. I can't give in on this matter."
"I know. A new official won't admit old grudges." Xu Youlin said with a wry smile.
"Brother Xu, you and I are still brothers. I will sell you anything you want to buy."
"I wanted to buy Glazed Fire, but now it seems that Brother Huo, you can't sell it to me."
After hearing this, Huo Chong felt that Xu Youlin was really a smart man. As long as he didn't act too smart, smart people were indeed worth cooperating with. Thinking of this, Huo Chong made a decision. "Brother Xu, do you want to sell Liuli Fire in Jiangnan?"
"right."
"Then I'll ask you to do me a favor and buy me some land from your place. I'll send people to plant beans there. Then we can make Glazed Fire. It costs so much to transport Glazed Fire back and forth. It's a lot of money to make it directly there!"
When Xu Youlin heard this, he couldn't believe it. "Brother Huo, are you kidding?"
Huo Chong replied seriously: "What kind of joke am I playing with you? There is no joke when it comes to making money."
"Okay. But..." Xu Youlin hesitated.
Huo Chong asked about the land price near Zhenjiang where Xu Youlin was, and found out that he could buy one mu of good land for only four taels of silver. Huo Chong took out the fifty taels of official silver that he had prepared for County Magistrate Xu and handed it to Xu Youlin. "You don't need very good land, just ordinary land, buy twenty mu. If it's not enough, I'll make it up to you when you come back."
Xu Youlin held the large ingot of silver and asked straightforwardly, "Just tell me how much you want?"
"Forty acres. I can't use any larger."
"I'll be back as soon as possible." Xu Youlin put away the silver.
Back in the village, Huo Chong continued his life. The people sent to sign the contract with others came back. Even though everyone expressed their sincerity in signing the agreement, the farmers heard that Huo Chong himself had never planted on a large scale and was not sure about the harvest in the first year. Except for two families, the others chose to refuse to sign the agreement.
There was no support from outside, so even Huo Chong's tenant Liu Sijin came. Last year's bean harvest was very good, and those families joined the Fubao planting project this year. But Liu Sijin did not come to show his firm support for Huo Chong. Seeing his solemn expression, he came up and asked: "Huo... Mr. Huo, are you going to try to grow something new again?"
"yes."
"You don't know what your new thing will look like?"
"yes."
Liu Sijin complained loudly: "Master Huo, I am farming your land, can you please stop torturing me?"
"Fourth brother, I can't count on anyone else except you." Huo Chong said with a wry smile.
"Master Huo, why don't you hire someone? I'll recommend one to you, but this person wants to grow everything except farming."
Huo Chong became interested as soon as he heard it. This guy is simply a gardener. Just as he smiled, Liu Sijin sighed, "I think Mr. Huo just likes it, but he just doesn't like to do serious things."
"It would be good if you are willing to set up a test field."
Three days later, this guy appeared in front of Huo Chong. Huo Chong chatted with him for a while, and felt something was wrong. He no longer talked about his interest in planting, and Huo Chong directly invited this guy to drink. The wine was soju, and after a small cup, this guy was a little drunk. Huo Chong took advantage of the alcohol and said, "Brother, I think you have never been praised in your life."
The face of this nearly 30-year-old Zhang brother suddenly turned even redder. He lowered his head in shame, then suddenly raised his head after a while and said loudly, "What do you mean? Do you look down on me?"
Huo Chong's evaluation of this person was a little too high. In any case, this person did not show the unique state of people who attribute everything to external things. If this person attributed everything to external things, it would be that he attributed all his failures to the outside world.
The Americans are a typical example of external attribution. When faced with the coronavirus, they blame China. When faced with an economic recession, they either say that the Japanese stole American jobs, or that China stole American jobs.
After Huo Chong told a fact, Brother Zhang did feel ashamed and obviously felt that there was something wrong with him. This is good, but it is far from enough.
"Brother Zhang, I have done things that I am very proud of, and I have also done things that ." Huo Chong said frankly. Huo Chong felt ashamed when he thought about being plotted against in the 21st century. In this Qing Dynasty, kneeling down with numb legs and being unable to stand up was another kind of great shame. If there is a chance, then the other party must pay back.
Brother Zhang turned his face away and ignored Huo Chong. Huo Chong liked this boy even more. "I think you must have thought about it. If someone can help you, don't say those hurtful words when you encounter new things that haven't been planted. If you can give you more money, buy more land..."
"I don't want others to give me more money, I just don't want them to say that kind of things!" Brother Zhang's face was full of stubbornness and pain.
"Brother Zhang, I have grown much less than you. But I have met many more people than you. Don't give up on this matter. If you fail to grow crops once, you have to start all over again. It's not like you can dig a hole in the ground and use the soil you dug out as a stepping stone. As long as you dig a hole, you will fall into it sooner or later. Really learn something from failure. Fill the soil back in the same way you dug it out. If you don't fill it back in, you will stay in the hole and can't climb out."
Brother Zhang was stunned. After a long while, he suddenly realized what was going on and grabbed Huo Chong's hand, shouting, "Master Huo! Master Huo! You are absolutely right!"
An old man tightly grasped his hand, almost crying with excitement, and even looked like he was about to rush over to hug him. Huo Chong felt a little scared. However, Huo Chong thought that this man was indeed an internally attributed planting interest, so Huo Chong thought he looked cute.
Huo Chong grabbed Brother Zhang's hand and patted it, "Brother Zhang, don't worry about the land. I'll give you the land. You don't have to worry about the money and manpower. If you work for me, I only want one thing, which is to grow something and make it clear. If it doesn't grow, I'll make it clear."
Brother Zhang was obviously interested in growing things, so he soon had a conflict with the people sent by Huo Chong. Huo Chong called both sides together and asked them about their purpose. Brother Zhang's purpose was naturally to find out how the crops grew like this, while the people on the other side only cared about whether the crops would grow well after being planted.
When the two sides started talking, Brother Zhang felt that the farmers were vulgar people, while the farmers felt that Brother Zhang was a nonsense person.
Huo Chong smiled and said, "Everyone, stop arguing. Brother Zhang likes to grow things, and I invited him here to try to grow those things. Since everyone knows what everyone thinks, can you just work and don't talk. As long as everyone talks, it's a quarrel."
The peasant brother was the first to make concessions. "Master Huo, I think this brother... forget it, we won't say anything. We will do whatever he tells us to do."
Brother Zhang was a little bit unwilling to give in. But he looked at Huo Chong and just said "hmm".
Seeing that both sides at least knew their bottom line, Huo Chong continued with his own business.
After personally visiting and persuading them, ordinary farmers still refused to invest their land in high-risk planting. Their reasons were very simple. Since there was a high possibility of getting nothing, they couldn't let themselves and Huo Chong suffer. Even if Huo Chong was willing to pay to bear all the losses, it would not work.
The peasant brothers were even more honest. Because Huo Chong was willing to take such a big risk, they couldn't let him suffer any losses.
Huo Chong tried his best to persuade the villagers. Some villagers, seeing that his attitude was too sincere, reluctantly proposed that if Huo Chong was willing to let them work in Zhu's winery and pay them monthly wages, they would be willing to give their land to Huo Chong for one year.
This is exactly the purpose of the second phase of planting Fubao, which is to take advantage of the job opportunity conversion so that Huo Chong can control the land use of these villages. Huo Chong of course readily agreed to come.
Liu Sijin, the tenant farmer, was surprisingly persistent and refused to plant those high-risk things. Huo Chong spent four or five days to gather more than 40 acres of land in different terrains.
In addition, Huo Chong used his knowledge of botany from junior high school and high school to train technician Zhang. He also built a batch of relatively large glass culture jars for technician Zhang to observe the growth of plant roots.
Half of September had passed, and Huo Chong had not started producing solid alcohol. Instead, he was making various preparations step by step.
On the 16th, Li, the captain, and a few other people came to Huo Chong's door. After seeing Huo Chong, they immediately asked him to go to the county town. These people had already prepared horses, and almost without saying anything, they put Huo Chong on the horses and set off in a hurry.
Huo Chong wanted to ask what happened, but before he could open his mouth, the horse bumped and bit the inside of his mouth. Huo Chong then realized that the saying "don't talk while riding a horse, otherwise you will bite your tongue" was actually true.
When they arrived at the county town, there were already several people waiting for Huo Chong. Huo Chong had some impression of one of them. He seemed to be the Fourteenth Master's Geshiha. As soon as he saw Huo Chong, Geshiha asked directly: "Huo Chong, how many of the colored glaze fires that the Fourteenth Master asked you to make did you make?"
