Chapter 122 Bayberry Soup
But thinking about the next fifty sets of orders, the smile on Carpenter Liu's face gradually froze.
He stood up by holding onto the door frame and bowed sincerely, "Madam Qin, you are very capable and knowledgeable. I will do whatever you say next. I will fully cooperate without hesitation."
Qin Yao patted his shoulder and said, "I've been waiting for you to say this. Let's go inside and talk. Time is short, so we need to get the charter out today."
For those who harvest early in autumn, the tools have been moved to the fields today, and people will start harvesting the rice tomorrow.
Her family starts two days later, on July 12th.
Today is the 9th, and she still has two days to make arrangements. When the autumn harvest is over, she will immediately recruit people to buy materials and start work!
Qin Yao and Carpenter Liu talked for a long time at home, and the two of them went through all the families in the village who had wood.
Carpenter Liu knew all this information. He knew everything that was ready and what was still in the mountains and forests.
If we calculate the materials needed for the fifty waterwheels, we can come up with a figure that the wood from Liujia Village alone can supply them.
Qin Yao and Carpenter Liu quickly divided the work.
There were only two things she had to do.
First, establish a production workshop.
Second, recruit people and make grinding discs.
Carpenter Liu is responsible for ordering wood and compiling the data so that he can make arrangements after the autumn harvest.
As for the stone materials, Qin Yao was not worried. With such a huge mountain of stone there, there was no need to worry about not having enough stone materials.
However, if we cross the part of Liujia Village, we will have to negotiate with people from other villages.
There are fifty sets of small stone mills, and the stones within the boundaries of Liujia Village are enough.
The two people worked together, each responsible for an important part, Qin Yao also took on the overall coordination, and Carpenter Liu cooperated with them. The two of them finalized the next course of action in one afternoon.
Now that he had a clear idea of what he was supposed to do, Carpenter Liu finally felt relieved.
In the evening, everyone went home to have dinner. After dinner, Carpenter Liu took a pen and paper and went door to door to find people to place orders for wood.
If you have some ready-made at home, have someone send it to your yard and keep it there first.
Qin Yao instructed her four children and went out alone to discuss issues related to the land use for building a production workshop with the village chief and the clan leader.
Knowing that her waterwheel factory had received a large order of fifty sets, the village chief and clan leader were both surprised.
Then he thought of what Qin Yao had said before about the economic pillar driving the whole village out of poverty and towards prosperity, and happily said that she could choose any piece of land, and as long as it did not hinder the villagers, they could help her finalize it.
But after building the workshop, the situation is a little different.
The village chief said uncertainly: "I'm afraid I have to ask the village head. I don't know whether we need to report our situation to the government."
Setting up a workshop means running a legitimate business and you have to pay business taxes.
If we don't report it, it will be difficult to explain when the government comes to collect grain taxes and finds out.
If you meet a difficult one, they will just give you a random name and do something bad to you behind your back.
If the village chief hadn't reminded her, Qin Yao would never have thought of this.
"Thank you for the reminder, village chief. I will go to the county to ask about it."
It just so happened that Liu Ji was about to return home, so she went to pick him up on the way.
Of course, the main thing is that there are so many scholars in the academy, and you can ask them first.
Thinking about this, Qin Yao did not dare to delay for a moment, for fear that it would delay the establishment of the production workshop.
However, her workshop is just a small one, only 200 square meters at most, and it may not last long. If the government wants to collect taxes from her, it would be too unfair.
After a good night's sleep, I woke up in the morning and heard the dull sound of threshing coming from the foot of the mountain.
Those families whose crops matured early have begun the autumn harvest.
Old Man Liu owns dozens of acres of land facing the sun, which is already mature. When Qin Yao returned home yesterday, she passed by the old house and went in to ask the three Liu brothers about recruiting workers.
When they found out that she was going to build a workshop, they didn't dare to delay for even a minute and hurried to start the autumn harvest in advance so as not to miss Qin Yao's first batch of recruitment.
Therefore, as soon as the sky turned light this morning, the whole family, young and old, went out together, carrying square buckets, and went to the fields in two groups to start harvesting.
There was still dew in the morning, and the harvested rice was spread out in the fields to dry. When the sun rose, they began threshing.
In the kitchen, Dalang, Erlang and Sanlang, the three brothers were busy like little adults.
Si Niang was not willing to be left behind, and she caught insects in the vegetable garden to feed the chickens.
The four chicks given by Granny Wang and her grandchildren have now grown to more than two kilograms under the careful feeding of the four brothers and sisters.
There is a hen and three roosters. Si Niang is looking forward to the hen laying eggs every day. She and her little brother have built a nest for the hen to lay eggs with straw in advance, ready to put it in the chicken coop at any time.
Qin Yao felt that these four people at home were really worry-free, and Liu Laosan made him look like a genetically mutated weirdo.
Knowing that Qin Yao was going into the city, Erlang filled a bamboo tube with the bayberry soup they had successfully made last night with rock sugar and wild bayberries for her to drink on the road.
It tastes sour and sweet and can quench your thirst.
Qin Yao was so busy yesterday that she didn't even have time to taste the fruits of the children's hard work for most of the day.
Everything has been cleaned up now, and I am just waiting for Dalang to make breakfast. When I have a little free time, I ask Erlang to pour me half a bowl of breakfast to taste.
Qin Yao didn't have any expectations at first, and was even mentally prepared for blind praise.
Unexpectedly, after drinking a mouthful of the dark red bayberry soup, I found it to have a perfect blend of sour and sweet. A little less would be too sour, and a little more would be too sweet.
"How is it?" Erlang asked expectantly.
Dalang, who was making dough pancakes in an iron pan, and Sanlang, who was lighting a fire, also looked over anxiously.
Qin Yao took another sip, savored it for a few seconds, and gave a thumbs up, "Very good!"
If there were ice cubes, it would be so refreshing!
The three brothers laughed when they heard her say this.
Erlang said expectantly: "Then let's go get some wild bayberries and make more, so we can drink it every day."
Wild bayberry has a unique aroma, but it is too sour, so only boys and girls with good teeth can tolerate it.
But if you add rock sugar, it tastes especially good even when soaked in water.
It's just that sugar is expensive and people are reluctant to pick it. The wild bayberries all over the mountain are so ripe that they are about to fall off, but not many people pick them. Erlang feels it's a pity just thinking about it.
"If you make so much without ice to store it, it will go bad in two days. Can you finish it so quickly?" Qin Yao scooped a bayberry into her mouth and put it in her mouth to chew, while reminding Erlang to consider the reality.
"Yesterday you boiled all the bayberries that Carpenter Liu brought. It was a big bamboo basket. We have two large jars at home. If you can't finish them tonight, they will have a fermented and sour smell tomorrow."
Erlang's eyes rolled, "Then can I sell it?"
"Sure, but don't cry if you can't sell it." Qin Yao encouraged them to try more, but also gave the little ones some preventive measures in advance.
Of course, if it's a sale at a loss, just pretend she didn't say anything.
Erlang would never sell it at a loss, Dalang thought to himself.
But according to what Erlang said, if a bowl is sold for two cents, I'm afraid there will be very few people willing to spend that.
Forget it, if I can't sell it, I'll give it to Jinbao Jinhua and the others to drink!
Seeing that they were in a good mood, Qin Yao didn't say much. She drank the bayberry soup in the bowl in one breath and burped with satisfaction.
It just so happened that Dalang had just cooked some vegetable soup with noodles. After the five of them, mother and children, had breakfast together, they went about their business.
Qin Yao went out first and walked to the river. She saw the farmers working hard in the fields under the scorching sun. She drank bowl after bowl of water and thought that maybe she could sell a few bowls of Erlang and his friends' bayberry soup.