Sweet Potatoes for Two Wen

The coachman nodded and said:

"Everyone's watching this strange thing now, aren't they?"

However, only Zhou Wanwan can use that lake, because she has surrounded it.

They arrived at the destination quickly. Lord Fang jumped off the carriage and stood blankly by the river, saying:

"This... this is simply impossible. Did this river fall from the sky?"

Even with thousands of able-bodied men, it would be impossible to dig it open.

Bah! Even tens of thousands of able-bodied men couldn't possibly dig such a long river channel in such a short time!

It's simply a miracle! I heard someone made another bet with the Little Ancestor yesterday?

The clerk beside him nodded and said, "They say it's a group of salt and grain merchants. Miss Wanwan made a bet with them, and if they lose, they have to provide an equivalent amount of grain and cotton cloth."

Lord Fang scoffed coldly, "What an overconfident fool."

The advisor quickly nodded and said, "Miss Wanwan has indeed taken a rather big gamble this time."

A group of people nearby echoed this sentiment:

"That's right, those salt and grain merchants are no pushovers."

"Besides, they've been in business for so many years, how could they not have any savings?"

"Miss Wanwan is definitely going to lose this time. I heard the stakes are tens of millions of taels of silver!"

"What did you say? Say it again! Tens of millions of taels?"

My goodness! Even if you sold Zhou Wanwan, you wouldn't get this much money!

Luo Shuang was stunned:

What does "tens of millions of taels of silver" mean?

Could Zhou Wanwan, a mere young girl, possibly come up with that much money?

Those salt merchants must have been swindled, right?

Suddenly, someone said, "Why is this river so deep? And why are the sides so high? How are we going to draw water?"

The places Zhou Wanwan chose were mostly surrounded by mountains, and all of them had carved-out mountain paths, making it difficult for ordinary people to fetch water.

Lord Fang stared at the scene before him in disbelief and said:

"My goodness! How many people are actually working for her?"

"How could such a large project be undertaken without tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of people?"

Zhou Wanwan stepped down from the carriage and said, "Lord Fang, are you here to inspect our work?"

Lord Fang bowed to Zhou Wanwan and said:

You're making fun of me, how could I dare?

I heard that a big river has been dug here; is this water from the Yellow River being diverted here?

Zhou Wanwan looked at him calmly and said, "That's right! You should thank me, because this way, we'll never have a drought here again."

Lord Fang was both surprised and delighted. "Yes! This will save many lives; you've done an immeasurable deed!"

That was indeed what Lord Fang thought; he admired Zhou Wanwan immensely.

Zhou Wanwan looked at him and said:

"You know I made a bet yesterday, right?"

You said that with these rivers, every household can grow things, so don't you think the prices of grain and salt will drop?

Lord Fang quickly nodded and said, "We must surrender! We must surrender! You tell me how you want us to surrender, and I will surrender accordingly."

Zhou Wanwan said calmly:

"I know many people want to make a lot of money, to make a fortune from these grains and salt."

But have you ever thought that you should work diligently to achieve good results in Dongshan Prefecture? Only then will you have a chance to be promoted.

People should broaden their horizons.

Lord Fang wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "I know, I know, I also want to achieve good results in my political career."

Zhou Wanwan looked at him and said:

"It's winter now, so planting sweet potatoes on a large scale shouldn't be feasible."

But as you know, the situation in Dongshan Prefecture is dire; refugees have all flocked here.

You know in your heart how many refugees came from other prefectures."

Lord Fang sighed and said, "The pressure is just too great. Every county town is packed with people now."

Zhou Wanwan looked at him and said, "Then what are you going to do?"

After thinking for a moment, Lord Fang said, "I plan to set up a few refugee camps so they can live there."

Zhou Wanwan shook her head and said, "Do you think these refugees won't riot because they have no food?"

Lord Fang was also quite hesitant:

"But even if our Dongshan Prefecture is very wealthy, it can't support so many people."

Moreover, Curry doesn't have much food left.

Zhou Wanwan looked at him and said:

"Grain and salt must be controlled. If anyone maliciously hypes them up, you should arrest them."

I made a bet with the salt merchants; if I won this time, they would give me grain of equal value.

You need to understand what tens of millions of taels of grain means.

This money will allow these disaster victims to get through the winter safely.

Next comes winter, and we need to plant crops. We not only need to feed those disaster victims, but we also need to help them become citizens of Dongshan Prefecture.

In ancient times, human resources were the most valuable asset.

Why was it so important to have sons in ancient times? It was because men were the primary source of labor.

People from the other prefectures threw all the disaster victims over, intending to kill Dongshan Prefecture.

Lord Fang immediately understood Zhou Wanwan's meaning.

He laughed and said, "I'll get on it right away."

Lord Fang had several refugee camps set up and then began distributing porridge on a large scale.

He then gathered all the able-bodied men together, and because Zhou Wanwan had a lot of land, he sent them to Dongshan Prefecture to farm.

However, Lord Fang was also quite puzzled. It was already autumn, and winter was just around the corner. Wasn't it too late to start planting now?

But Zhou Wanwan didn't say anything, so he pretended not to know.

Zhou Wanwan had the people in the mountain village make a lot of tarpaulins, and then started building greenhouses.

Soon, greenhouses appeared one after another in the field.

As for salt and grain, Zhou Wanwan began to sell off large quantities; she had plenty of salt at home.

We have hundreds of trees on our land, which are now enough to make salt at the seaside.

So during this time, these trees have been by the sea, and as long as they can replenish their energy, they can continuously produce salt.

Moreover, the salt produced by these trees tastes better and is purer than ordinary salt.

It's all fine salt.

Zhou Wanwan's salt was also sold very cheaply, more than half the price of the salt sold by the salt merchants.

"We've sold off two warehouses' worth of salt today alone; salt isn't selling at all on the market now," the Old Scholar Tree said.

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said:

"Next, we'll start selling off the grain, beginning with the sweet potatoes from three warehouses."

Anyway, we have plenty of sweet potatoes in our warehouse; this year's sweet potato harvest is bountiful.

Autumn is the season of harvest.

Zhou Wanwan's sweet potatoes absorbed energy, resulting in yields of several thousand kilograms per acre.

Zhou Wanwan owns too much land; the sweet potatoes are piled up like mountains.

These sweet potatoes are very cheap, selling for only two coins per pound.

The entire grain market was thrown into turmoil.

Many people buying grain looked at the sweet potatoes and said, "Are these sweet potatoes tasty? Why are they only two coins a pound? That's incredibly cheap!"

The grain store owner smiled and said:

That's because my young lady is kind-hearted and knows that everyone is struggling to afford food right now.

Not only do we sell sweet potatoes, but we also sell other sweet potatoes if you're worried about them spoiling.

There are also sweet potato starch, dried sweet potatoes, and sweet potato noodles.