Only then did Lao Zhoutou remember to ask, "Manbao, how much money did you borrow from the Yamen and how much do you have to pay back?"
Man Bao said blankly: "Three liang..."
Lao Zhoutou breathed a sigh of relief, "Just three taels?"
Man Bao nodded affirmatively.
Lao Zhoutou immediately said to Qian: "Hurry up and open the money box. Tomorrow, let the boss and the second son go and settle the credit account. Is the money in the yamen so easy to get on credit? By the way, how do you calculate the interest?
He can't ask us for one month's interest for a day's credit, right? Man Bao, please quickly calculate how much one day's interest is."
Qian went back to open the money box and quickly took out three slings of copper coins. Old Zhoutou asked her to give the money to Zhou Dalang.
Zhou Dalang took it hesitantly, but couldn't help but glance at Man Bao subconsciously.
Man Bao saw his father sitting on the threshold with weak hands and feet and was unwilling to move, so he simply sat down on the ground, facing him, "Dad, what we borrowed was silver, so we have to pay back the silver, not the copper coins."
"
"Then repay the silver," Old Zhoutou said to Zhou Dalang: "Go to the county town to find a silver house and exchange it for silver."
Man Bao said quietly: "One thousand two hundred coins can be exchanged for one tael of silver."
Lao Zhou's eyes suddenly widened. His feet and hands were no longer weak. He jumped up and shouted, "Why?"
Zhou Lang hurriedly stepped forward to appease him, and told him everything about their cattle credit today, emphasizing that the amount they exchanged for copper plates was the same amount, so if their family exchanged silver, would they get it back at this price?
Losing money.
Old Zhoutou said thoughtfully: "Is there any silver that is worse than official silver? Then let's change it to that kind and the Yamen will take it, right?"
All the Zhou brothers' eyes widened. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Lang did not expect such an operation, but Zhou Dalang, Zhou Lang and others thought of it but did not have the courage to do it.
As for Man Bao, she gave her thumbs up and praised her father, "Dad, you are so amazing, you can even think of this."
Lao Zhoutou glanced at her and said, "I'll settle the score with you after I settle this matter. If your mother doesn't beat you up, I, too, will beat you up."
Man Bao was unhappy and said: "Dad, aren't you afraid that the harvest will be bad this year, so you want to save money for precautions?"
Lao Zhoutou couldn't help shouting: "If you know this, why do you still want to borrow cattle?"
"If we don't pay it back this year, it will be the same next year and the year after that. Dad, we won't lose anything on credit."
"It's strange that it's not a loss, the interest rate is so high..."
Man Bao couldn't help but said: "The interest rate is not high at all, Dad, the ones borrowed by Fourth Brother to gamble are considered high interest rates. Although I think the Yamen can actually lower the interest rate..."
Zhou Lang, who was just watching but was suddenly hit by a stone:...
Man Bao is not an ignorant child, and she knows her father well and why he reacted so violently. Seeing that her brother and sister-in-law were all there, and everyone's faces were somewhat worried, she simply asked Da Tou to go to the kitchen to find a roast for her.
The passing branches come.
Lao Zhou's family always kept burnt sticks and branches in the kitchen, because everyone found that these things were particularly effective at writing on the ground and stones.
Datou and the others like to use it to practice calligraphy.
Manbao showed her father a drawing of a branch, "Dad, you said it, can a cow do the work of two adults? Buying a cow means I have two more brothers to work for you.
Son, how much more land can be cultivated..."
The difference between plowing the land once and plowing it twice may not be very big. One acre of land is estimated to produce a few kilograms more grain, but after plowing it twice, spreading some more fertilizer, carefully weeding, and catching some bugs, that acre will
It is possible to produce more than ten or twenty kilograms of grain from the land.
But doing all of this requires manpower.
One more cow means two more people. How much work can two people do in a day?
How much work can you do in a year?
And how much are these jobs worth when converted into value?
Listening to Man Bao's calculation, Lao Zhoutou swallowed his saliva.
Then Manbao added: "Dad, our cow is only three years old now. It can work for seven or eight years, or even ten years. If it earns you so much in one year, how much will it earn you in ten years?"
Zhou Lang calculated awkwardly in his mind and exclaimed: "Isn't this equivalent to getting two eldest sons for nothing?"
Lao Zhoutou couldn't help but glared at him and said, "What are you talking about? He is your son. Can he give you grandchildren?"
Man Bao became excited and said, "Okay, just wait until it grows up and marry it a wife."
Everyone:......
But Lao Zhoutou began to think deeply, "That makes sense. If the calf is born, we will also sell it. We will sell it for three taels per head. How much will it cost..."
Qian interrupted his daydreaming and asked, "Man Bao, where is the cow's number plate? Bring it to my mother and keep it."
Old Zhoutou immediately came back to his senses, "No, even if the cow is worth buying, we have to pay back the money first. We can't let the Yamen eat our interest."
"Dad, what if God doesn't reward you this year?" Man Bao said, "You can't keep money for self-defense?"
This is why Lao Zhoutou has always been unwilling to spend money. He always has some savings at home to be prepared to save lives even if there is a natural or man-made disaster.
So he feels that if he earns less, he will earn less, and it doesn’t matter if his sons work harder. He doesn’t feel anxious when he has money in his hands, right?
But Lao Zhoutou also had another insistence, "You can't owe debts, especially debts with interest."
It's not that Lao Zhoutou has never owed money to others, but there are two kinds of money that he has never been willing to owe. As long as he has money, he will pay it back.
One is that the other party's family is not rich either, and he feels uneasy owing such money;
The second type is a debt with interest, which means that for every additional day he owes, the money he owes will increase. This is more deadly to him than the first type, because every night, he feels his heart trembling.
trembling.
But Manbao thought this loan method was acceptable. She said, "Dad, our family can afford to repay the interest. We have three years. So we don't need to use the 'life-saving' money left at home to repay this."
Money. Because now we can borrow money to buy cattle on credit, but if there is a natural or man-made disaster and money is needed urgently, our family cannot borrow money from the government at the current interest rate."
Old Zhoutou: "...this interest."
"This interest rate is not very high." The reason why Man Bao can say this is because the information Keke searched for her shows that this interest rate will not appear to be very high even in the future.
Qian glanced at Lao Zhou and asked Man Bao: "When do you plan to pay it back?"
Man Bao said confidently: "In the short term, it may be this winter, in the long term, it may be next winter."
Mr. Qian nodded, "If God rewards me this year, my family will repay the money. The cow is bought for the family to use. If you have money, just pay it back. If you don't have money, you still have a family."
This means that Manbao can do it with confidence and boldness.
Lao Zhoutou couldn't help but glance at his old wife. Was he planning to pamper his daughter to the sky?
Qian said calmly: "Man Bao is the reincarnation of a fairy. I don't believe her luck will be bad."
When everyone in Lao Zhou's family heard this, they immediately cheered up, and even Lao Zhou's face became much more relaxed.
Keke: ...It is somewhat certain now, and Qian seems to think so too.