After traveling through time, I led the whole village to become rich!

Chapter 204: Hope that every household can achieve a well-off life

By December, the Zhang family was ready to leave for the capital at any time.

Zhao Guoliang's family had a happy event in December. Zhao Cheng's wife gave birth to a boy.

Zhao Guoliang, Zhou and Zhao Cheng went to Zhang Hulan's house and thanked her very solemnly.

It wasn't because Zhang Hulan lent money to Zhao Cheng that he couldn't have this child now.

Even if the three of them worked together to earn money, it would take at least one or two years for them to save enough money to go to the provincial capital to see a doctor.

Even if the disease is cured and you can get pregnant, it may not be a boy.

When the baby was one month old, Zhang Hulan and her family were not at home, so Zhang Hulan sent gifts in advance.

During this period, some villagers came to Zhang Hulan and asked if the lotus roots could be dug up, and also asked Zhang Hulan whether he would really buy them for one cent per two kilograms.

Regarding this matter, Zhang Hulan thought it would be better to call all the people who grew lotus roots together to discuss it.

Zhao Guoliang called everyone to Zhang Hulan, and then Zhang Hulan said to them, "I will be going to the capital in a while and will not be back until after the New Year. I will probably be back at the end of the month.

You can wait until after the New Year to dig up the lotus roots. Regarding the purchase of lotus roots, I have a suggestion. Let me see what everyone thinks."

So everyone just listened, and no one asked any questions.

Zhang Hulan continued, "I think everyone knows that lotus roots can be made into vermicelli, so my suggestion is that everyone should make their own vermicelli and sell it, so that the income will be higher.

About five or six pounds of lotus roots can produce one pound of vermicelli, and currently one pound of vermicelli can be sold for ten cents on the market.

However, as more people make vermicelli, the price may drop.

Besides, it is impossible to sell all of them in retail by ourselves, so we will probably sell them wholesale to merchants, and the price may be around six cents per pound.

But even so, it is still more profitable than selling dry lotus roots, six pounds of which can only be sold for three cents.

The price difference is one cup, and it just takes a little longer to make the vermicelli. What do you think? "

The villagers began to discuss, and someone asked, "Hu Lan, can you help us calculate how much silver one acre of lotus root could sell for if it were made into vermicelli?"

Zhang Hulan said, "I'll calculate based on 3,000 catties per mu of land. 3,000 catties of lotus root can produce 500 catties of vermicelli. If one catty costs six coins, that's three taels of silver.

If you sell the lotus roots directly, you can only get one and a half taels of silver per mu of land."

Some people began to get excited when they realized they could earn three taels of silver per acre of land.

However, some people who were not good at accounting asked, "Hu Lan, didn't you say before that one mu of land could be sold for two taels of silver? Why can it only be sold for one and a half taels now?"

"I calculated it based on 4,000 catties per mu, but I just calculated it based on 3,000 catties. Regardless of whether it's 4,000 catties or 3,000 catties, the profit from making vermicelli from it is twice as much as selling it directly. In other words, if you sell 2 taels of dry lotus root for 4 taels of silver after making vermicelli from it."

Someone else asked, "But we don't know how to make vermicelli?"

Zhang Hulan said, "I'll teach you how to do it then."

"How much should we pay you then?"

Zhang Hulan smiled and said, "I don't want any money, I'll teach you for free. We're all from the same village, and I hope everyone can earn more money. I hope every household in our village can achieve a well-off life in the future."

Ma asked somewhat embarrassedly, "Hu Lan, what does it mean to strive for a moderately prosperous society?"

Zhang Hulan smiled and said, "To achieve a moderately prosperous society means that every household will live in a big house and have a carriage to travel. We can't say we can have meat every meal, but at least we can eat meat every day."

"It would be nice if we could really live the life Hu Lan described."

The villagers all laughed, and they all believed what Zhang Hulan said.

Their lives are much better this year than in previous years. They don't have to worry about having enough food in the winter.

They all earned some money this year and planned to buy new clothes for their children during the New Year.

They were excited to think that they could earn three or four taels of silver per mu of land. If they cultivated ten or eight mu of land, wouldn't they earn thirty or forty taels a year?

Zhang Hulan finally said, "I've already explained the situation to everyone. You can make vermicelli noodles to sell or sell the lotus roots to me."

Only a fool would not make vermicelli if he could earn twice as much money. They are uneducated, but not stupid.

Ma continued, "Hu Lan, you're teaching us for free. How about we make vermicelli noodles and sell them, and give you some of the money? How about one penny for every pound of vermicelli noodles?"

Ma is no longer the same as before, and she is grateful to Zhang Hulan from the bottom of her heart.

Now Liu Yonggui no longer works at Zhang Hulan's Zhuangzi Mountain, but she still helps Zhang Hulan feed the pigs and earns a few hundred coins every month. Life at home is really getting better day by day.

Zhang Hulan smiled and asked, "Sister Ma, are you really willing to give me a penny for every kilogram of vermicelli?"

Ma said, "It's just a penny, what's there to be reluctant about?"

Zhang Hulan said, "Have you ever calculated that one mu of land yields 500 kilograms of vermicelli noodles? Then you have to give me 500 coins."

"Five hundred wen? That's so much?"

Seeing Ma's surprised and painful expression, Zhang Hulan couldn't help laughing.

Some villagers also laughed.

"Okay, Sister Ma, I don't want your money, you should keep it for yourself."

Zhang Hulan looked at everyone and said, "I don't want any compensation from you. To be frank, I don't need this little money right now. Let's all work hard together and live a good life."

Speaking of this, Zhang Hulan thought of a problem. Making vermicelli is a strenuous job. The most important thing is that when beating the vermicelli, the lotus root must be crushed completely before the starch inside can be filtered out.

If the powder is ground manually, the efficiency will be too low and it will be very tiring. We have to find a blacksmith and a carpenter to make a semi-automatic powdering machine.

But Zhang Hulan didn't know whether it could be done here. She could only come up with an idea, but she didn't know how to do it specifically.

Moreover, making this thing is probably not cheap. I wonder if these villagers are willing to pay for it.

If they don't want to, we can only let them make it by hand.

After all the villagers left, Zhang Hulan took some lotus roots and went to the county town.

But when she showed the lotus root to the blacksmith and asked him if he could make something that could quickly crush the lotus root and separate the pulp from the lotus root residue, the blacksmith looked confused and could not understand what Zhang Hulan wanted to make at all.

Zhang Hulan sighed. The blacksmiths here basically made farm tools and cooking utensils. It was a bit difficult for them to make something complicated.

Finally, Zhang Hulan had no choice but to ask Ye Hongyun if she knew a skilled and knowledgeable blacksmith who could make complex things.

Ye Hongyun told Zhang Hulan that when he arrived in the capital, he could ask the craftsmen of the imperial Ministry of Works.

The best craftsmen in the world are basically in the Ministry of Works.