"Brother, what are we doing here?" Liu Xiaomei held her brother's hand. If the mule and horse market got lost, it would be a big trouble.

"I didn't go around beforehand. If you see anything you want to eat, tell me." Liu Xin looked like he was having fun, but in fact he was learning about the market conditions.

A strong ox on the market costs about 6,000 to 8,000 yuan. A plow horse and carriage horse cost more than 10,000 yuan but less than 20,000 yuan. Horses that can go on the battlefield cost more than 20,000 yuan, and most of them cost between 50,000 and 100,000 yuan.

During this period, some particularly good horses cost more than 200,000 yuan.

The price of a sheep is 500 to 900 yuan, and the price of a pig is 1,000 to 2,000 yuan. You don't need to weigh anything when trading. It all depends on your vision and experience. Trade when you feel it is suitable.

Liu Xin also saw that there were dogs selling here. An ordinary puppy cost 200 yuan, and there were also some special breeds of dogs raised by aristocratic families, which cost tens of thousands of yuan. After talking to the stall owner, he realized that these were fighting dogs.

Dog breeds.

Cockfighting and dogfighting were popular in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Many aristocratic families hired chicken trainers and dog trainers at high prices. The price of some trained fighting dogs could reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, which was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

After visiting the mule and horse market, Liu Xin estimated that there were more than 600 horses and more than 2,000 cattle. From this, we can roughly see the strength of the entire Zhuo County. The people selling livestock here are all Zhuo County.

People from the county have the most buyers from the south.

The younger sister followed Liu Xin, with various snacks stuffed in her mouth and a lot in her pockets. The two of them saw a large group of people standing outside the market in the distance, waiting for their employers to show up to help with work.

Liu Xin came to a group of people pushing carts. When they saw Liu Xin, they all came up and asked if they wanted to hire a cart.

"I need two carts of cow dung and two carts of soil, which are in the fourth row of alleys on the west side of the city." Liu Xin said.

"Cow dung? Why do you need this thing? If you want to pull it from the market, it will cost you twelve yuan for two carts. If it is dirt, it will cost eight yuan for two carts. You pay twenty yuan and I will pull it." A young man said to Liu Xin

said.

Liu Xin watched the young man find a shovel and look for cow dung everywhere in the mule and horse market. Now the market was full of livestock. Soon he got a full cart. Liu Xin and his sister took the young man back home.

.

"My benefactor is back!" Mrs. Cui was washing clothes with her child on her back. The smell of batter came out of the kitchen. Liu Xin asked the driver to pile cow dung in the corner of the door.

"Yeah!" Liu Xin saw that Mrs. Cui had already made the batter and was about to deliver it to his mother. He and his little sister also had a quick lunch and followed the driver to the Lue Horse Market.

Liu Xin ignored the driver pulling the cow dung. He hired another cart with five qian and went to Carpenter Sun's house. He paid the money for the wooden boxes and filled ten wooden boxes with sawdust. He gave Carpenter Sun's apprentice two more coins.

Just came back.

When I got home, the second cart of cow dung had been put away, and the cart driver was waiting for Liu Xin to come back at the door. Liu Xin gave the two cart drivers money and asked them to put everything away, and then they started to prepare the earthworm attractants.

"Brother, we have been busy all morning just for this cow dung?" the younger sister looked at Liu Xin and asked.

"Yes, write all this down and get me half a basin of wheat husk." Liu Xin directed the little girl.

He separated some cow dung and some soil from the cow dung pile, poured half a bucket of water to humidify the soil, then thoroughly mixed the cow dung and soil, and waited for the little sister to get the wheat husks and added some wheat husks and sawdust.

"Get some more weeds and leaves!" Liu Xin directed his little sister to run very fast because he bought her new cloth shoes and a lot of snacks today.

Weeds and leaves are easy to find. My little sister went out and got a big basket. Liu Xin chopped the weeds and leaves with a machete and mixed them with cow dung.

"It's done!" Liu Xin said while looking at the bait mixed in front of him.

"That's it? Mixing cow dung? Brother, what are you doing with this? I can make it so simple." The little girl said when she saw the bait mixed in front of her.

"This is used to raise earthworms. This is prepared bait. Earthworms will grow very fast in it." Liu Xin said to the little sister.

"Why do we need to raise earthworms? There are so many earthworms on the river outside the city, we can just catch them!" Liu Xiaomei said.

"How many can I catch in a day? I am raising a large number of earthworms to feed the chickens in the future. Write down the method I used to prepare the bait today. Pay attention to the humidity of the bait. The amount of water added cannot be more or less.

, it feels wet when you hold it with your hands, but it doesn’t drip." Liu Xin demonstrated to her younger sister.

The baits provided could only be used for a small part of the four boxes. Liu Xin poured the baits into the boxes, placed them at the corner of the wall, and asked the younger sister to grab a lot of hay and put them on top.

Earthworm bait needs to be moisturized. Earthworms like darkness, so they need to be covered with hay when raising. This can also ensure that the temperature of the bait box is constant.

Everything was ready. Liu Xin and her little sister planned to leave the city. Earthworms like soil with high humidity, so they need to go to the river outside the city to find some. Liu Xin happened to go to Qilin Mountain to see how his house was being built.

It took half an hour for the two of them to walk twelve miles. At this time, the time had just arrived. Liu Xin took out two shovels and two rakes from the basket on his back, and then he and his little sister looked for earthworms by the Green River.

The two shoveled a large piece of wet soil with a shovel, broke it up with a rake, and then began to search slowly.

It's strange to say that I usually don't look for earthworms, and I can see several earthworms just by digging up a piece of soil. Today, I carefully looked for earthworms, but the number was very small. Liu Xin dug more than ten pieces of soil and found 4 earthworms, one of which was even...

He broke it.

Liu Xiaomei dug up a few pieces of soil and found only one earthworm. She sat on the ground tiredly and looked at Liu Xin complainingly. Finding earthworms was not an easy task.

"Stop digging, I'll dig it out and you can look for it. This way we can be more efficient." Liu Xin quickly dug the soil and asked the younger sister to concentrate on looking for earthworms. This way, their speed was much faster, and they found 20 earthworms in less than a quarter of an hour.

many lines.

Liu Xin had the strength, but finding earthworms from the soil was the most troublesome. He dug out hundreds of mud lumps, but his sister only found more than thirty. Liu Xin stopped and looked for earthworms with her sister.

"Why didn't I feel so tired when I was digging in the soil to look for earthworms?" Liu Xiaomei turned her head and scratched her neck while searching, and she was already getting a little impatient.

"You used to play, but now you work. When you have to work, you become lazy!" Liu Xin concluded to her little sister.

"No!" Liu Xiaomei said dissatisfied.

At this time, several children appeared in the lower reaches of the Lvyin River. They were all children of tenant farmers in Zhangjiazhuang. They came to the river with their families to wash clothes and catch fish and loaches in the river. When they saw Liu Xin and Liu Xiaomei catching earthworms here, they all gathered around them.

The children were very playful and followed Liu Xiaomei to catch earthworms to help Liu Xin. When Liu Xin saw this, he asked the little sister to bring out snacks to share with everyone. Children from tenant families rarely have access to snacks in the city. They all

Rushing for help, Liu Xin caught hundreds of earthworms in a short time. Liu Xin weighed them and weighed about 4 kilograms.

***The author has something to say***
Chapter completed!