novel-bin Chapter 423 Negotiation
Chapter 423 Negotiation
Yang Zian suppressed the bitterness in his heart and looked at Shangguan Qingyue.
"Qingyue, if you want to teach these villagers a lesson, I have a plan."
"Brother Yang really understands me. Please tell me quickly."
This sentence instantly made Yang Zian's gloomy mood better. He said with a warm smile on his face:
"Right now, about 40% of the village's income comes from the herbs grown in the fields. If Baicaotang reduces the planting of herbs next year, it should give them a sense of crisis."
Although the land used to grow medicinal herbs in the village belongs to the villagers, once the land rented by Baicaotang is reduced, the villagers will directly lose two amounts of silver.
One is the rent for the land, and the other is naturally the wages for growing medicinal herbs.
Seeing Shangguan Qingyue remained silent, Yang Zian continued:
"In fact, Baicaotang already has more villages to choose from for cooperation. Both the rent for renting land and the wages of villagers are much lower than those of the first few villages.
Furthermore, herbs are best grown in the right places, and they can’t be confined to a limited place.”
Because of the initial affection and the relationship with Shangguan Qingyue, Yang Zian was reluctant to make changes.
Shangguan Qingyue naturally understood it as soon as she heard it.
If something is too easy to get, we won’t know how to cherish it.
So she nodded in agreement.
"Brother Yang, this idea is good. In my opinion, we should just do it according to the actual needs of Baicaotang, even if we just reduce the quantity by half next year.
Also, if there are no good children in the village, there is no need to force them. We had agreed at the beginning that only qualified ones would be sent to the store as apprentices, and if they were all useless, we would ignore them. "
"Okay, I'll go talk to the headman about this tomorrow. If there's anything else you need from Baicaotang, Qingyue, just tell me. I've always treated you like a younger sister, so don't be polite to me."
Yang Zi'an looked at Xuanyuan Yan frankly. Although he still couldn't let it go, he would never do anything dirty that would cause misunderstanding.
"Let's wait a few days until Qingqing buys the village school, so that they won't notice anything unusual and cause any trouble."
Xuanyuan Yan's words were agreed by everyone, and the village's affairs were settled.
The day for Shangguan Lan to take up his post in Fengshi County soon arrived. Although he really wanted his young fiancée to accompany him, they were not married yet after all, so he had to reluctantly leave her in Xiangxue Village.
On this day, everyone gathered together and surrounded the gate of Zhao's house to see him off.
The previous county magistrate of Fengshi County originally wanted to emulate the way Xiangxue Village got rich, but he failed to achieve his goal.
After a lot of hard work and a lot of wasted money, in the end not only did they not make any money, but they also ruined a lot of good farmland.
Because of this incident, he was directly dismissed from his official position and beaten out of Fengshi County like a rat by the people who had suffered greatly from him.
Therefore, Shangguan Lan took over a mess when he took office this time, and it is unknown how long he will be troubled by it.
Many villagers came to join in the fun, including Li Shoucai.
Through many twists and turns, he learned that Shangguan Lan was the magistrate of Fengshi County, and for this reason he began to look down on the Shangguan family in the capital.
No powerful family would let their son go to Fengshi County to be an official. So, Shangguan Qingyue might have come to the village because she was unhappy in the capital.
Thinking this in my heart, I couldn't help but ask:
"Miss Shangguan, do you plan to live in our Xiangxue Village for a long time? Are you not used to the house in the capital?"
Li Lanxiang immediately frowned, she reached out and tugged at her father's sleeve, lowering her voice and saying:
"Dad, what are you talking about? If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense!"
Li Lanxiang had lived a comfortable life since she married Li Dali, but gradually, she became more and more estranged from her parents' home.
The two families live in the same village, just a few steps away from each other, but they visit each other less and less often.
She actually knew the reason. She thought that after Qingyue came back, the villagers including her father would restrain themselves, but she never expected that they would become even worse!
Li Shoucai felt a little embarrassed to be scolded in public by his daughter, but he was so used to loving his daughter that he couldn't say anything too harsh. He just glared at her fiercely.
"Has the village head discussed the matter of the village school with the villagers? Why don't we go home and discuss it in detail now?"
Shangguan Qingyue reached out to support Li Lanxiang and patted the back of her hand twice to comfort her.
She had already heard from Li in private that her aunt-in-law was almost three months pregnant and it was not worth getting angry over such a small matter.
When she heard that they were going to talk, Wan Linglong put away her feelings for the departure, said hello and went back to Qingyue Villa. Winter was about to come, and she had to speed up the improvement of the floor heating in the house.
As for Xuanyuan Yan, he planned to go to the county town with Shangguan Lan to prepare for the establishment of the academy.
Li Shoucai had originally intended to bring up the matter of the village school, so he agreed immediately.
But thinking about the price he had negotiated with the villagers, he felt a little nervous. He took a deep breath, encouraged himself secretly, and then raised his feet to follow.
Zhao was working on her handicrafts in the hall, and when she saw the visitor and heard that he wanted to discuss something, she was about to leave, but was stopped by Shangguan Qingyue.
"We are talking about the affairs of the village. There is nothing to hide. Grandma, you don't need to avoid it."
Seeing that she was sitting on the wheelchair that Wan Linglong had spent three days making, she smiled and asked:
"Grandma, are you comfortable sitting in this wheelchair?"
“It’s not just comfortable, it’s incredibly useful!
Linglong is as her name suggests, she has very skillful hands. Even the old carpenters in our village who have been doing carpentry work all their lives are not as good as her. "
As she spoke, she placed her hands on the wheels on both sides, and with a little effort, she was able to make the wheelchair turn by itself and move forward.
Although Li Shoucai found it curious, he lost interest after looking at it for a few more seconds when he thought that it would be of no use to him once he recovered.
Seeing that Shangguan Qingyue left him aside and chatted leisurely with Zhao, and was not in a hurry to talk about the village school, he gradually became a little anxious.
Could it be that the other party actually doesn't care much about the village school? If so, then the price they negotiated would be out of the question! !
Thinking of this, he coughed lightly, interrupting the conversation between the grandfather and grandson.
"Well, Miss Shangguan, how much money do you plan to pay for the village school and the thirty acres of land around it?"
Oh, are you taking her for a fool?
Shangguan Qingyue sneered in her heart, but before she could say anything, Zhao couldn't sit still anymore.
"It's meaningless for you to ask this, head of the village. Would you sell our child for ten taels of silver?"
"Well, look at what my in-laws said. If this place belonged to me, I could give it to Qingyue. But this place belongs to the whole village, so we can only negotiate it out!"
"Humph! In order to build this village school, Qingyue of our family spent countless efforts.
In the past, every household was eager to send their children to school, but after just over a year, everyone has left and the school has become unpopular! "
Zhao looked at Li Shoucai, whose face was already very ugly. She didn't want her daughter-in-law to be caught between the two families, so she slowed down her tone and said:
"Don't think I'm being harsh, head of the village. I'm just worried about my granddaughter. You guys continue talking. I won't interrupt you."