Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 258 The arm cannot twist the thigh

In early February, the transformation of the puddles finally began, but it was not as smooth as Hualei had expected. After all, there were more than 8,000 acres of puddles and dozens of owners, so it was really difficult to work together.

The farms that had turned into puddles were no longer valuable. One hundred acres of puddles were worth four or five hundred taels of silver at most. Now the initial investment required a large sum of money, which might not be recovered. The owners of these puddles were very hesitant.

In their eyes, no matter how many vegetables are grown in the field, if there are no buyers, won’t they just rot in the field? No matter how many chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs are raised, if they can’t be made into sausages and preserved food, won’t they just eat more?

How can the money invested in this way be recovered? Apart from this, if there is another flood, wouldn’t the money invested be even more wasted?

Therefore, even though the Ministry of Agriculture took the lead in the transformation, only a few owners responded. This was beyond Hualei's surprise, and it was also beyond the surprise of the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The officials of the Ministry of Agriculture originally thought that with themselves taking the lead and getting those in prison to help with the manpower transformation, with Hualei providing experience, and the owners of the puddles providing money for vegetable seeds and poultry and livestock, the transformation of the puddles would be a natural thing.

After all, the ready-made templates are available, and all you have to do is follow them. However, the officials of the Agriculture Bureau overestimated their appeal. Indeed, you are now asking people who have committed crimes and are in jail to help with planting and breeding, but planting and breeding are continuous and rolling processes. Once you have finished the first batch and the people leave, who will do the next round of work?

Don’t think that the owners of Shuipudi didn’t have any ideas. In fact, when Hualei was in its first year, they had been keeping their eyes on what Hualei was doing.

The vegetable planting in this swamp is much busier than the fields that have two crops a year. One batch of vegetable seedlings has just been transplanted, and another batch of vegetable seeds are sown. One batch of vegetables has just matured and been picked, and the empty field is immediately turned over and planted with another kind of vegetable. Round after round, there is no free time.

There are also livestock and poultry like this, but they need to be fed several times a day. At that time, your Ministry of Agriculture will be responsible for sending chickens, ducks, geese and piglets to us, and you will collect the money for the piglets and feed them for ten days or half a month. Who will do the feeding for the next few months? Don’t you still need to buy slaves to feed these poultry and livestock? This investment is too large. Not only do you have to pay for the poultry and livestock, but you also have to spend money to buy slaves.

All the follow-up needs to be done by myself, and I have no experience. Although I can ask Hua Lei, that girl is just lucky. There has been no chicken plague, swine fever, or floods during this period. If any of those happened, the girl would have no place to cry. What's the use of her experience?

Also, back then, in order to ensure that life in the capital would not be affected, you officials closed the city gates, causing our fertile fields to be soaked for more than a month before turning into the puddles we have today. We collectively opposed it at the time, but you didn't come up with any better measures. Afterwards, your government didn't compensate us either, and we only suffered the losses.

Now you are asking us to pay for the renovation of the puddles. You have provided more than three months of manpower and experience that may be of little use, but you are asking us to pay a large sum of money for poultry and livestock. Why should we do this? We have already suffered a loss once, and we don't want to suffer a second loss.

The decision to close the city gates was not made by the Ministry of Agriculture, so they underestimated the resentment of these puddles owners towards the government.

A few days later, many owners came to the brokerage to sell their farms in the swamps, and the prices they offered were almost the same as the prices of the best farmland before the flood, which clearly meant that they wanted to sell them off, so they would not invest any more. For a time, the transformation of the swamps was at a stalemate.

However, Hualei didn't need to worry about these. When she returned to the Marquis' Mansion, she told Old Madam Pei about this matter and suggested that if the owner of the water puddles sold the water puddles, she could buy them if the price was right. In the future, she could help make preserved meat, sausages, etc.

The issue of the water holes was at a stalemate for a while. Finally, the Ministry of Revenue came up with several plans. All the water holes that needed to be sold were to be sold at a standard of no more than 500 taels of silver per 100 mu, slightly lower than the price of 6 taels per mu of medium-sized farmland. However, the prices of vegetable seeds and poultry and livestock needed for the water holes in the first year were all reduced by 20% by the Agricultural Science Office and the Du Mu Cao under the Ministry of Revenue and supplied to the owners of the water holes.

The owners of the swamps can choose to follow the Ministry of Agriculture to grow vegetables and raise livestock and poultry. If they do not want to grow crops or raise livestock, they can also go to Caiyun Mountain in the northern part of the city to dig soil to fill the swamps and transform them into fertile fields. The Agricultural Science Academy under the Ministry of Households also cuts 20% off to supply various crop seeds.

Of course, you can also choose to sell one hundred acres of puddles at a price no higher than five hundred taels of silver, but they must be sold within one month. If they cannot be sold within one month, you still have to do it yourself. In any case, the puddles are not allowed to continue to be abandoned.

The employers who refused to comply would be reported to the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Personnel, and the county government where the household registration was located. The family would not be allowed to buy or sell land or farmland within 30 years. The sons of the family who passed the imperial examination, whether civil or military, would not be employed, and the officials, whether civil or military, would not be promoted. For merchants, all transactions would be taxed 20% more within 10 years.

As soon as the news was announced, it caused an uproar. There were endless curses. The owner of the merchant family thought that his family had a lot of business, and if the tax burden was increased by 20%, it would not take long for the tax money to buy a good farm. It would be better to sell the current farm at a low price.

The bosses of official families thought that there might be loopholes they could find as they were not allowed to buy or sell land or farms within 30 years. However, the two rules that the children of this family would not be admitted to the imperial examinations and would not be promoted as officials were a chokehold on them.

It really proves the saying that the arm cannot twist the thigh, so even though these dozens of owners cursed and were unwilling, they dared not openly resist the government's decision.

Therefore, those who really wanted to sell the farmland in the water hole quietly went to the brokerage to lower the price to less than 500 taels per 100 mu. In fact, those who didn't want to sell it just wanted to vent their anger, but they had to swallow their anger and quietly withdraw the news of selling the land from the brokerage.

The release of the Ministry of Revenue news once again made Hualei feel the consequences of trying to stop a chariot with a mantis arm. In any dynasty, it was difficult for ordinary people to fight against the government. Not to mention the owners of dozens of puddles.