Chapter 129

Shuiqing was deeply moved!

Her family indeed lacked manpower at the moment.

A skilled adult could plant about one mu of land with potatoes in a day, while a child could manage half a mu.

At home, Yan Qiuxing was responsible for brewing wine, Dahe and Dahu were in charge of feeding the livestock, Fan Jin transported rice wine to the prefectural city in the morning and plowed fields in the afternoon, and Ling Ran plowed fields all day.

The only ones left to plant potatoes were Dajiang and herself after she finished cooking.

Dajiang had just turned ten. In Ming Dynasty, a ten-year-old child could be considered half a laborer. Over the past few months, Dajiang had grown much stronger, so he could be counted on to plant half a mu a day.

But the truth was, she couldn’t plant one mu in a day herself!

She had hardly ever worked the fields, and Fan Jin had not agreed to her planting potatoes. Even if he had, she wouldn’t have been able to plant more than Dajiang in a day.

She looked at Aunt Zhang, whose cracked, wrinkled face showed years of hard labor.

She had seen Zhang Xiaocao many times; the girl was very quick at work.

Muniu and Tieniu were thirteen or fourteen years old, and planting potatoes shouldn’t be a problem for them.

With these four joining in, they wouldn’t catch up to the plowing, but the difference wouldn’t be too great.

But, “What about your house? Will you have time?”

For the villagers, building a house was a top priority. Several families had already moved into new houses before the New Year.

Others had also moved in gradually during the first month of the new year.

Aunt Zhang’s family had been delayed due to charcoal burning last year, and now if they helped plant potatoes, moving into their new house would be delayed even further.

Hearing Shuiqing’s concern, Aunt Zhang laughed heartily, “Oh, it’s fine!

Compared to earning silver and planting fields, building the house can wait;

As long as we have food, drink, and silver, the house won’t run away, and it doesn’t matter if it’s built a little later.”

They did want to move into the new house, but in the face of food and silver, the house had to take a backseat.

She never wanted to experience the days of having no food and hearing her children cry out in hunger at night again. Nor did she want to face the helplessness of not being able to afford a doctor when her children were sick.

She had no great ambitions, only wanting to follow capable people and work hard to ensure her children were well-fed.

Hearing Aunt Zhang’s resolute answer, Shuiqing realized she wasn’t just committed to the potatoes but to her family.

Not wanting to make a hasty promise, she first inquired, “How much land do you have, and what’s your yield?”

Aunt Zhang answered honestly, “We have twenty-seven mu, most of it reclaimed wasteland, so the soil isn’t fertile, and the yield isn’t great;

We mainly grow corn. In good years with favorable weather, we can get over four hundred jin per mu; in bad years, it can be as low as one to two hundred jin.”

Shuiqing was shocked. In Huaguo, corn yields at least a thousand jin per mu, and with good soil, favorable weather, and good varieties, it can reach over two thousand jin per mu.

The difference was enormous.

No wonder Huaguo had a large population, and everyone was well-fed.

“Assuming an average yield of three hundred jin per mu, twenty-seven mu would produce 8,100 jin of corn. Is that enough for your family?”

Corn is different from rice, wheat, and potatoes; it has corn stalks in between!

The corn stalks are much heavier than rice husks.

“It’s enough to eat, but we need to be diligent in tending to the barren land and save on food. Even then, there’s still some left, but we can’t have corn for three meals a day;

Firewood doesn’t cost money, sugar can be avoided, oil can be used sparingly, but salt is a necessity. Without it, people lose strength, and we need money to buy salt;

When clothes and farm tools wear out, we need to replace them, and that costs money too;

All of this has to come from the yield of these twenty-odd mu of land, and what’s left isn’t enough;

Corn sells for nine wen a jin, but we have to exchange it for four-wen-a-jin black flour to eat, and even so, we often don’t get enough to eat.

This year has been the best one for the children in a long time, thanks to you,” Aunt Zhang said, wiping her tears with her sleeve.

Shuiqing took a deep breath, realizing how tough things were for them.

At the same time, she calculated: the potato yield per mu is about 2,000 jin. Even with less fertile land, 1,000 to 2,000 jin should be possible.

If Aunt Zhang’s family plants just seven mu, the yield would be over 8,000 jin, possibly more than 10,000 jin!

She never planned for Aunt Zhang’s family to plant all their land with potatoes.

Aunt Zhang’s family had a low risk tolerance. If there was no potato harvest, Shuiqing’s family would be fine, with their safety net of gold, sales of calligraphy brushes, and rice wine income ensuring their well-being.

But if Aunt Zhang’s family had no harvest, how would they survive?

Planting seven mu would be sufficient for their family to be well-fed.

By September, when the floods had receded, even if Aunt Zhang planted all her land with potatoes, they would be well-supplied with food.

Just as Shuiqing was about to speak, someone rushed in energetically.

“Shuiqing, Shuiqing! I just talked to my father-in-law about that thing you’re planting, and he thinks we should plant some too. I came to ask how we can trade for it?” Wang Guifen shouted from afar, afraid she might miss the opportunity.

Aunt Zhang quickly reminded her, “It’s potatoes! Underground beans. But I heard the kids call them ‘earth eggs.’ Honestly, earth eggs is a more fitting name.”

After all, beans are small, and eggs are big.

These potatoes were about the size of fists, similar to goose eggs.

Wang Guifen laughed, panting, “Hey, you’re right. Earth eggs is a more fitting name! Let’s call them that from now on.”

Shuiqing wasn’t surprised that the old village chief’s family wanted to plant potatoes.

Although he lived in the village, he was always wise, understood the importance of being prepared, and was willing to try new things.

She explained Aunt Zhang’s proposal to trade labor for potatoes.

Wang Guifen’s face lit up with joy at the idea of trading work for potatoes.

Aunt Zhang’s family needed to build a house, but her family didn’t, and since it was still the New Year period, there wasn’t much work available in the prefectural city.

Her family had plenty of good fields and paddy fields, but rice planting wouldn’t start until March or April, so this was their least busy time!

She asked, “How many more people do you need? Everyone in my family, except the elderly and children, can help!”

Shuiqing calculated. The old village chief had three sons and three daughters-in-law, all strong and experienced farmers.

With six additional people, the oxen and donkeys couldn’t keep up with the plowing.

However, having more people could mean reclaiming more land. Potatoes were cheap, only a few wen per jin. They could afford it!

Moreover, this would free up Fan Jin for other tasks—someone needed to dig up all those potatoes from the wild, after all!

And officially, Fan Jin would be the one going to the little grove to dig up the potatoes.