Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 60 Chen Tao's Suggestions

Bian Shichun took the banknotes, counted them, and asked in surprise, "Do you need so many?"

This time, Chen Gu directly gave Bian Shichun 20,000 taels of silver.

"It's just the first batch. We'll need more in the future!" Bian Shichun thought for a moment and said, "My gunpowder is so powerful because it has been purified. The demand for raw materials is huge."

"Concentrate its essence?" asked Bian Shichun.

"That's right!" Chen Gu nodded and said with a smile: "So, I didn't actually make any money from you?"

Bian Shichun curled his lips and said, "If you don't give me unnecessary explanations, maybe I will believe it."

"Well, actually I made a little profit. You help me buy the saltpeter and sulfur first. When you want to buy bombs next time, I will give you a discount!" Chen Gu said with a smile.

Sulfur is actually relatively easy to buy, after all, it is used in dyeing cloth and making paper. But the uses of saltpeter are much smaller. Apart from making gunpowder, it is only needed in small quantities in pharmacies.

Chen Gu had no way of buying in large quantities without alerting others. Since it would attract attention anyway, he might as well let Bian Shichun buy it for him, which would be relatively cheaper.

Chen Gu purchased saltpeter and sulfur in a ratio of eight to one. Because sulfur was more expensive, he purchased three hundred taels of silver worth of sulfur and one thousand seven hundred taels of silver worth of saltpeter, which was a total of more than ten thousand kilograms of saltpeter.

You have to know that at this time there were still White Lotus rebels rebelling in the upper reaches of the Jialing River, so they would be even more sensitive to these two things.

Considering the inconvenience of transportation, Chen Gu simply went back to get a silver note and went to the cattle and horse market to purchase another twenty mules and horses. Anyway, the mountain stronghold would be building a large-scale project soon, so twenty mules and horses would be needed.

The processing fee for one pound is about fifty cents, but ordinary people cannot buy it. It is purchased by the imperial court.

The price that Bian Shichun paid to Chen Gu was 100 wen per pound, which was 20% cheaper than the market price.

There are two ways to produce saltpeter, one is mining, and the other is boiling manure. There are people collecting nightshade in every city. The feces and urine collected every day will be boiled to extract saltpeter before being sold as fertilizer.

Originally, Luluhu, Sanlang and Lao Nian were all responsible for purchasing saltpeter and sulfur. Now that Luluhu has returned, he has not found a way to buy saltpeter and sulfur in large quantities.

Moreover, bandits can evolve into horse bandits if they have horses, and they will be more powerful when they are sent out.

These things are now on the ship. Chen Jue has to go to the small dock in Longhua Field to pick up the goods, and then transport them back to the mountain village.

Of course, just because ordinary people can’t buy it doesn’t mean that big families like the Bian family can’t buy it.

It is not known whether Sanlang and Lao Nian will get anything, but Chen Gu estimated that it would be unlikely. After all, they had never come into contact with them before. What's more, these two things are controlled items. Anyone who inquires about them will attract attention, let alone find the source of the goods.

The Southwestern Dwarf Horse is relatively small, and there are very few with a back height of 1.5 meters. They can only carry two to three hundred kilograms at a time, but they have great endurance, are very stable when walking on mountain roads, and are very docile.

Even people like Chen Gui and Zhang San who are not very good at riding horses have no problem riding for the first time, and they become very skilled after riding a few times.

He asked the horse seller to help deliver the horses to Longhua, and then help transport saltpeter a few times, and each person only needed 100 coins a day. After arriving in Longhua, Chen Gu went to the dock to receive the goods, and handed over the transportation to Zhang San, while he went to the mountain village to check the progress of the land reclamation.

At this time, the mountain behind the village had become a scene of bustling noise and activity.

Most people were picking up stones and piling them up on the side, dividing the land into small pieces of 300 square meters.

Before picking up stones, you have to cut down trees and cut grass. Basically, they are some small trees or thorns, which are easy to cut down.

Relatively speaking, mowing the grass is a bit troublesome, because the grass here grows very well, whether it is Miscanthus, yellow eel vine, oil grass, or even Houttuynia cordata, they are all two or three feet tall and grow very densely. In addition, you have to pick up pebbles while mowing the grass, so the progress is very slow.

However, the progress was even slower when picking up stones. There were many pebbles of different sizes, especially some large ones, which were big enough to be used as stools or pillows. It took two people to lift one stone.

The pebbles are so big that they are stuck in the soil and need to be pried out with steel fibers.

Chen Gu stood on a high place and roughly counted. The result was quite good. He had cleared more than 200 plots of land of 300 square meters, which was almost 100 acres.

Scar was digging the cleared land with a two-toothed hoe, picking up pebbles as he dug. More than ten pebbles had already been dug. Scar was not the only one digging, there were several other people digging with pickaxes, probably specifically cleaning up the larger pebbles.

Chen Tao was using a four-toothed iron rake to make ridges in the dug land, picking up stones as he went. After making a ridge, he used a hoe to make a hole. There were two plots of land that had already been prepared nearby.

When Chen Gu got closer, he found that the nest on the ridge had been sprinkled with wood ash.

"Has anything been planted here?" Chen Gu asked curiously.

Chen Tao looked up and saw Chen Gu. He smiled and said, "Prajna is here. The two plots of land have been planted with soybeans. The one on the side is the first plot of land that has been prepared. The soybeans have already sprouted."

"Let's take a break!" Chen Gu said as he grabbed two handfuls of dried hay and placed them on two large pebbles. After sitting down, he asked, "Brother, do you think this pebble land can be used for planting?"

“Yes, although it is a little more difficult to open up the wasteland, it is only more difficult in the first year. This land does cause great wear and tear on the hoe, but the wear and tear on the two-tooth hoe is minimal.

Using a two-tooth hoe to dig the land before planting is basically the same as planting other lands. There is definitely some profit. Prajna has immeasurable merits, and Jiangjin County has gained countless more lands that can be used to grow food. " Chen Tao said, patting Chen Jue on the shoulder.

In fact, Chen Tao didn't feel much about how much more land Jiangjin County had, but since the Chen family had taken the lead, Chen Tao thanked Chen Gu from the bottom of his heart.

Chen Gu smiled and said, "It's good to be able to grow more food. It's always good to grow more food!"

People always need to eat. No matter what you want to do, you must first fill your stomach. That is why agriculture is the foundation of industry. If you can’t even get enough food, then there is no point in talking about anything else.

Chen Tao thought about it and suggested: "In fact, there is no rush for the two-tooth hoe at the moment. Instead, we can make some more sickles and cut all the grass first. After burning it, we can dig some holes to plant pumpkins.

I heard you want to raise pigs, pumpkins are very suitable, not only do they have a high yield, but they are also easy to store. Pigs not only like to eat them, but they also help them grow meat. If we clear all the land, we won’t have enough time to grow anything.”

(End of this chapter)