Chapter 384: Didn’t disappoint me as expected

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation  Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

The next day, Shi Qingluo went to chat with Old Lady Xiao.

With the excuse that Eldest Grandson Xiao’s injuries were still not ideal for travel, they delayed their journey to Northern City.

Old Xiao’s family didn’t suspect her.

After all, Eldest Grandson Xiao’s injuries were indeed very serious this time.

Moreover, they could not wait for Ge Chunru and her brother to suffer more, so they had no objections.

Then, Shi Qingluo and Xi Rong went out to look for Russian dandelions, while Liang Youxiao brought Xi Rui to build a workshop.

While Xiao Hanzheng was dealing with the problems left behind by the previous county magistrate, he also used the small amount of government expense left by the county magistrate to build a workshop.

He also sent people to buy a lot of food and recruited workshop labors in the entire county.

Not only would they receive an allowance, but also food.

This caused many to be tempted.

As a result, many people from nearby villages and towns came to sign up for work.

Everyone was thinking that if the county magistrate didn’t pay up, they could at least have two full meals a day and save some food for the family.

The originally quiet county had also gradually become lively.

A few days later, Shi Qingluo finally found Russian dandelions in the wilderness.

There were quite a lot of them.

She then brought all of them back for planting.

Manpower was scarce, but there was a lot of land.

Every village had a lot of wasteland, which was just enough to cultivate Russian dandelions.

Shi Qingluo picked out a few nearby villages that were more suitable for planting, and Xiao Hanzheng asked the village chiefs of the respective villages to come to the county office.

The few village chiefs sat there nervously.

Xiao Hanzheng walked in with Shi Qingluo, a gentle smile on his face.

After introducing Shi Qingluo to everyone, he added, “You should know about corn, which my wife harvested.

“This time, I asked you all to come because my wife wants to try planting another plant in your villages.”

Of course, the village chiefs had heard of corn before.

They heard that it was a high-yield crop, but it had not reached their hands yet.

Thet didn’t know when their village would have it and they didn’t expect that Mr Xiao’s wife was actually the one who offered the seeds.

Now that they heard that she wanted to try planting another plant, they couldn’t help but be curious.

One of the village chiefs asked, “May I know what kind of plant Madam wants to plant?” What are we going to do?”

Shi Qingluo said, “I want to plant Russian dandelions. You just have to let the villagers plant it in the wasteland. When it’s time to harvest, the county government will buy it from you.

“If the county government can’t buy everything, my friends will buy all of it.

“Then we will sign a contract to guarantee that as long as you plant them, we’ll pay you.

“You can’t sell it to anyone else for three years, and we’ll still buy it at the same price.”

She took out the contract that she had prepared and handed it to the village chiefs.

The village chiefs carefully took the paper and let the only literate village chief read it.

After listening, they could not believe that there would be such a good thing.

Moreover, it was completely tax-free from the county government for the first three years of the wasteland reclamation.

In other words, as long as everyone worked hard to grow the plants, they could sell them for money.

According to the price set in the contract, one catty of that Russian dandelion was three times the price of one catty of grain.

If it really succeeded, everyone would be able to earn quite a bit of money.

A more brilliant village chief asked, “Is it difficult to grow Russian dandelions? If it doesn’t work, do we have to compensate you?”

“As long as you plant it according to my instructions, the possibility of it not growing is very small,” Shi Qingluo said with a smile.

“If the seedlings really can’t be planted due to non-human factors, then there’s naturally no need to compensate. We’ll bear the risk.

“But if someone deliberately doesn’t plant it properly, doesn’t add fertilizer at the right time, and doesn’t do it according to my requirements, you’ll have to compensate if the plant dies.

“I’ll tell you how to grow Russian dandelions. It’s not difficult. As long as you plant it with care, your next year’s income will definitely not be bad.”

It wasn’t uncommon for unruly people to appear in poor mountains and turbulent rivers.

She had to take precautions and clearly explain the responsibilities and risks of both parties.

Hearing her words, that village chief was not completely relieved.

He was really afraid that the new county magistrate was using a new method to collect money.

When the Russian dandelions failed to grow, he would ask the villagers to compensate him at a high price.

Or, if the villagers bought the seedlings at a high price now, but the county government found all kinds of reasons not to buy them during the harvesting season, they would suffer a big loss.

Everyone was poor to begin with, so how could they afford it?

“We want to plant it, but we just paid the tax not long ago. The villagers don’t have any money, so we can’t buy seedlings from you.”

Shi Qingluo agreed with his cautiousness.

He was probably tricked by the previous county magistrates a couple of times and was more fearful.