I played as an assistant in ancient times

Lu Guan rubbed his brows and said, "I was granted 200 acres by the emperor, plus the ones I bought and gave away, the total is more than 300 acres.

Except for 52 acres of land that have been converted to soybeans and cabbage due to excessive depletion, there are currently 308 acres planted with cotton.

Moreover, in the past two years, they brought in some refugees to live in thatched houses scattered around the fields. At present, they just seem to be alive.”

"Are they the refugees who came from Jeju two years ago?" Shen Xiaoye couldn't help but lean over to ask, but attracted a look of disapproval from her uncle. She had no choice but to retract her head and carefully calculate how much cloth could be woven from several hundred acres of cotton.

Lu Guan shook his head: "It is said that they came to the capital from the war in the north, and the reason why they were arranged to live in the corner of the field is because there are two or three Dada people among them.

Fortunately, they are just women who married into the interior of China, otherwise I would not be able to explain it clearly. "

"What are you going to do with the cotton after the harvest this year?" Shen Changsui didn't let him continue with the previous topic.

Lu Guan pondered for a moment and said, "It would be easiest to just sell it. I'm studying at the Imperial College now and don't have time to take care of this.

The main reason is that I don’t have the manpower, so I plan to return the land that was forcefully purchased first, and then encourage my eldest brother to return the land that was given to him by others.

Unfortunately, the Derun Cloth Shop that sent the gift got involved in trouble and now the owner cannot be found.

My eldest brother had to go find someone this morning to transfer the land he bought back to the original owner."

In fact, the several people he was taken to the Gongwei Division for identification should be the owner of the cloth shop.

"Derun." Shen Changsui and Shen Xiaoye looked at each other. This cloth shop really has more than one backer.

Shen Xiaoye tried to say, "It's more profitable to sell the cloth. The villagers nearby have already bought looms, so it's a win-win situation for both sides to ask them to weave."

“Although the cotton yield per mu today is only a few dozen kilograms, 300 mu of land can produce more than 10,000 kilograms, which can produce about 4,000 rolls of cloth.

If you only sell lint, you will lose more than 200 taels of silver." Shen Changsui quickly calculated that if he had so much cotton, he would definitely process it himself.

Shen Xiaoye felt that it was a pity to sell the lint cotton, "How about you rent the land to us?"

"My 200 acres are fine, but the other 100 acres are not. I already got my own land deed before coming here, and I don't plan to get mixed up with my elder brother and his wife." Lu Guan also seized the opportunity of being caught to take back the land to avoid further entanglement in the future.

He added: "Besides, after the hidden households are reported, you have to pay people to do the work in the fields. It is inevitable that the cotton fields will have a reduced yield after continuous planting. You have to calculate whether it is cost-effective.

If you can only earn a few or ten taels more in the end, you might as well sell the cotton to specialized merchants like Derun Cloth Shop."

At this time, Shen Changshou suddenly said: "There is a Derun Cloth Shop in Linghe County, and the escort agency once escorted them to the northwest Guanzhong years ago.

The escorts said that the cloth there is not cheap, ordinary blue cloth is eight cents a piece."

"So expensive?" Ever since Lu Guan learned about the market prices from the servant Xuan Shen, he also figured out the current exchange rate of gold, silver and copper.

Generally speaking, one tael of gold can be exchanged for five taels of silver, and one tael of silver has ten coins, which can be exchanged for about one thousand copper coins. The exchange rate between them is actually floating.

However, since the amount of silver in circulation among the people has increased, the above ratio has basically been maintained.

“It is said that there is a lot of sand and wind there and there is less cotton, so naturally the price is higher.

But how much do you want to charge for a piece of cloth? We charge for top-quality fine cloth based on size. A piece of top-quality cloth that is 40 feet long and 2 feet 5 inches wide costs 1.8 cents.

The best quality cloth, which is 32 feet long and 18 inches wide, costs one coin and four cents per piece.

If the price is higher than this, there is no need to look at it. "The eldest uncle Shen Changshou was the first to state this point. He saw that his younger brother was very familiar with the other party, so he reminded him not to charge a high price.

Lu Guan here assured: "The cloth in the manor is all top-quality selected by the head of the manor. You can check them one by one."

He did what he said. After entering the manor, he led everyone straight to the back room. When they opened the door, they saw a row of fine cotton cloth.

Shen Xiaoye didn't hesitate, and randomly pulled out a piece of fabric to touch. The fabric was tight and smooth, "Let's unfold it and see."

The two uncles opened it on the left and right, and she took the tape measure and started measuring. "Four feet."

"How much did it sell for before?" Shen Xiaoye took a rough look and saw that there were several hundred horses.

Lu Guan, who was drawing out another piece of cloth, hesitated slightly, and Shen Changsui noticed it. "The price offered by Derun Cloth Shop must be higher than the market price."

"Well, it's all fine cloth, and each piece is sold at two cents, regardless of quality, but this calculation is obviously unreasonable.

Because of the high price, the head of the village deceived his superiors and subordinates and underreported the quantity to the government. He then colluded with a shopkeeper of Derun, bought the cloth at a lower price, and then sold it to the cloth shop at a higher price so that they could share the profits.

Last year, I was forced to buy dozens of acres of land because my eldest cousin's wife checked the accounts, and the village head bought it to make up for the accounts. "Lu Guan decided to tell the truth.

He said, "I'll buy these cloths at your price."

"Xiao Ye, count first." Shen Changshou didn't care about his previous prices.

The four of them quickly finished counting, there were a total of four hundred and fifty horses.

Shen Xiaoye said: "Eighty-one taels, the remaining silver we have is definitely not enough to buy all of them."

“You can take it away first and settle the bill when we meet next time.” Lu Guan was not afraid of not being able to get it back.

But Shen Changshou didn't want to, "Sui Ge'er, take Xiao Ye to check the cloth, I'll go back to get the silver."

"Brother, are you planning to ride the mule back?" Shen Changsui also agreed.

Lu Guan said: "Why not ride my horse? It has great endurance and is not afraid of strangers."

"Okay." Shen Changshou was not a fussy person. He didn't have many opportunities to collect hundreds of pieces of high-quality cloth at once. He would feel at ease if he could take them home as soon as possible.

Not long after, the three watched him ride away on horseback.

Shen Xiaoye said: "Actually, I can exchange satin for cloth with you."

Lu Guan didn't understand what satin was and was confused when Shen Changsui suggested, "Let's find an open place to talk."

So the three of them came out from the back door. When Shen Xiaoye passed by the hay house, he saw several women and children who were being held captive.

Their hair was disheveled and they shouted at the top of their lungs for mercy, saying that even if they had no credit for taking care of the farm, they had worked hard, but Lu Guan didn't even look at them.

Shen Xiaoye only showed sympathy for a second and left quickly. He earned hundreds of taels of silver a year through hard work, and everyone knew whether this job was really hard or not.

There was a vegetable garden behind the farm. The three of them walked towards the cucumber field. The little black cat ran faster than them. It spotted a butterfly and started chasing it for fun.

Shen Xiaoye picked a tender cucumber and said, "Uncle, I think we can rent the cotton field."

"Grandma won't agree." Shen Changsui said, "But we can reserve cotton at the market price. What do you think, Lu Guan?"

Lu Guan: "Sure, you can come when we harvest cotton, and I can also provide you with a vehicle.

But it’s only for this year. Next year, all the cotton fields must be planted with other crops, otherwise my 200 acres of land will be wasted.

I discovered that I also love the land in my heart.”

"I also want to have such a farm. Lu Guan, I really envy you." Shen Xiaoye washed the cucumber with the water she brought with her, and ate it while squatting on the ground in a very ungraceful manner.

Lu Guan smiled bitterly: "You don't know how nervous I was. Before today, I was always being watched."