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The next day, Jiang Sanlang bought quite a few items in the county town for the New Year, ready to take them back to the countryside.

He quietly told his daughter that he had sold all the looms at a price of fifty taels each.

“In total, I’ve earned over one thousand eight hundred taels of silver.”

Jiang Sanlang laughed, “We’ve bought a large swath of wasteland on the South Slope, ready to be cleared in the spring. I plan on planting a pepper garden there.

With more peppers growing in the future, we won’t need to soak white peppers anymore. I’ve heard that if you just pick semi-ripe pepper fruits and dry them directly, the black pepper produced has a stronger aroma.”

If you make white pepper, soaking pepper fruits in water for a long time can result in an odd smell, and if handled improperly, it will stink. Black pepper is spicier and more fragrant in comparison.

Hence, Jiang Sanlang had decided to sun-dry black peppers from now on.

Yingbao: “That’s not a bad idea. It does save a lot of steps.”

Jiang Sanlang nodded, and said, “We’ve bought a lot of prime rice fields in our home, and there’s also a lot of inferior dry land. I plan on using this land to grow cotton.”

He had bought property at the right time, right at the end of the year. Many poor farmers from various villages were struggling and had pawned off their land, bringing their children to Dongchen Village to work as hired laborers.

Now that Dongchen Village had become more prosperous and villagers had savings, they all bought land.

With this increase in land, it was impossible to farm all of it with just family labor, so they hired people to help.

In the long run, the poor farmers who worked as hired laborers found it preferable to stay in Dongchen Village. At least they didn’t have to worry about paying the yearly land taxes, and they could also learn the craft of planting golden mushrooms and Xue’er mushrooms in Dongchen Village. After saving some money, they also bought some mushroom spawning to plant.

The villagers of Dongchen Village were thereby able to grow more golden mushrooms and Xue’er mushrooms, as well as peppers and cotton. Everyone felt that they could both make money and farm the land successfully.

Jiang Sanlang continued, “I plan to build a few tile-roofed houses on the open ground outside the yard. Your mother said she wanted to build a spinning mill there and purchase another ten looms and twenty spinning wheels. In the future, we’ll invite weaving mothers to come back to spin yarn and weave fabric.”

“Great idea!” Yingbao raised both hands in agreement.

In this way, they wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to sell the large quantities of cotton they grew, and avoid being exploited by wealthy merchants by having their prices lowered.

Speaking of rice fields, Yingbao suddenly thought of something.

After the New Year, she would turn six years old, and during May or June of the year she turned six, the villages along the Chuanhe River would suffer a major flood.

Although this flood wouldn’t be as destructive as the one a few years later, people would definitely lose their lives in the flood.

The farmers’ fields along the river bank would also be destroyed by the flood, and the seeds and seedlings in those fields would be washed away.

Hesitating for a moment, Yingbao decided to tell her father about it now so he could think of solutions ahead of time.

“Father, I have to tell you something important.”

Yingbao said solemnly, “I dreamt about a flood again in the past few days.”

Jiang Sanlang was taken aback, “Again?”

He had almost forgotten that the original reason their family moved to the South Slope was to prevent floods.

“When will it happen?” Jiang Sanlang didn’t question the truth of her words one bit.

Because the facts have shown that his little girl is like a sorceress… no, like a little fairy. Everything she said was as accurate as an oracle.

“Probably around May or June.” She did forget the exact day.

All she knew was that those days were particularly stuffy and hot. Afterwards, thunderstorms would come down, lasting several days.

“I dreamt that all the farmlands around the Chuanhe River were flooded, not just our village, but all the nearby villages and farmland were washed away by the flood.”

The last few sentences were made up by Yingbao.

She guessed that nine out of ten times, it would turn out like this.

The upper reaches of the Chuanhe River are a major river, and their river is merely a tributary of the larger one.

If the water level of the larger river upstream rises abruptly, it would naturally affect the water level of the downstream tributary. With only the power of several small townships, they would have no way to resist the flood coming down from upstream. The only solution is to evacuate the villagers in advance and minimize the damage to people and livestock.

Jiang Sanlang’s expression was serious as he said, “I’ll talk to Sun Licheng when I get back and see what we can do.”

This was a serious matter.

Not only do they need to prevent the loss of life, but they also need to figure out how to prevent locals from losing all their seeds.

If a flood hits and the crops in the fields fail, and the villagers lose a large number of grain seeds, combined with the pressure of summer tribute, life would be even harder.

The Imperial Court won’t pay attention to these small-scale disasters, and when the time comes, the taxes will not decrease. In the end, the villagers would have to pack up their families and flee the fields.

If you thought other people fleeing the fields had nothing to do with you, then you were gravely mistaken.

Because the unpaid taxes from those who fled would be shared among the remaining people.

The more who flee, the more taxes are shared among the remaining people.

This results in one family fleeing, causing the ten families who secured them to flee as well, even though they may not have lost much.

And when ten families flee, dozens of families who were linked to them must also flee.

Eventually, it could lead to the entire township fleeing.

Although the people of Dongchen Village had become wealthy, no matter how wealthy they were, they couldn’t bear the county’s taxes.

So, they couldn’t let the villagers lose too much, and they definitely couldn’t let them feel that the only option was to flee.

This matter had to be communicated with Lizheng, with Lizheng leading the villagers in preparations to face the flood.

Afterwards, Jiang Sanlang, along with his two nieces and twin sons, together with a heap of items, hurriedly rushed back to the countryside.

Yingbao, Jiang Quan, and Jiang Cheng didn’t go back just yet.

Because they wanted to make as much money as possible during this end-of-the-year period.

These days, the store’s business did really well, and the chestnut cakes and persimmon cakes in the warehouse were almost sold out.

Not only that, but golden mushrooms and Xue’er mushrooms were also sold out, with only two sample gourds left at the entrance of the store, one with “Attracting Wealth and Treasure” and the other with “Incomes of Gold Everyday”.

These were kept because Jiang Quan didn’t let them be sold. Otherwise, these two would have also been bought.

“The people in the county really have money.” Jiang Quan sighed, and turned his head to ask his elder brother, “Did you balance the accounts? How much have we earned this month compared to last month?”

Jiang Cheng lowered his head to operate the abacus, ignoring him.

But Yingbao had an approximate estimate in her heart. They would definitely have enough money to build a few big houses.

When spring arrives, she plans to build three, no, five large tile-roofed houses, and a large fireproof and waterproof warehouse.

She also wants to make a series of tables and chairs with precious wood. In the future, they can entertain customers more glitzily.

Most of the people who came to their shop to buy items came from relatively well-off families. They couldn’t let those customers think that their shop wasn’t up to snuff.

She wanted to build a special product shop that belonged to the Jiang Family in the county town. Even if others followed suit in the future and competed with her store, she wouldn’t be afraid.

Because they have Rootless Water and special effect pill. If worse comes to worst, she could hang a sign and seeing patients, specifically curing difficult and complex diseases, which would surely attract many customers.

Jiang Quan, seeing that his elder brother didn’t pay him any attention, started a conversation with his younger cousin, “If we make more money this time, let’s buy another horse carriage.”

It was too inconvenient to only use one carriage for everything.

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng raised his head: “You’re right. Why not take a hundred taels of silver from me first? You and Yingbao go to the Mule Horse Market to buy a horse carriage to bring back, so it’ll be convenient for us during the New Year.”

Yingbao clapped her hands in agreement: “That’s right! Let’s buy a horse carriage. Let’s go now.”

If it gets too late, the Mule Horse Market won’t open, and everyone will be back home preparing for the New Year.