In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 64 The Nobleman Chen Dao

As the number of adult yellow-feathered chickens increases, the rate of egg laying and hatching will also increase. During this period, there may only be 3-5 new yellow-feathered chicks per day, but after a few days, it may become 5-8, and after a while, it may become 10. If this rate of growth continues, the house will be overcrowded with chickens in just two or three months.

Of course, this number will not grow indefinitely. Although yellow-feathered chickens lay many eggs and have a short growth cycle, they also have their own disadvantages, namely... they age very quickly.

According to Chen Dao's observation, the first yellow-feathered chickens are now laying eggs less and less frequently. It is likely that before long, these yellow-feathered chickens will grow old and stop laying eggs. At that time, these yellow-feathered hens will completely lose their value in being raised. They will either be slaughtered for meat or raised into blood-feathered chickens and sold.

"Rice Brother, Rice Brother~"

Just as Chen Dao was pondering, a voice came from outside the door. Hearing the voice, which sounded somewhat familiar, Chen Dao subconsciously touched the little round thing on his shoulder and then opened the front gate.

"Gou-ge'er, what brings you here?"

As soon as the courtyard gate opened, Chen Dao saw Chen Gou's face, which was full of ingratiating expressions.

"Brother Dao, someone outside the village is looking for you. I came to call you for help," Chen Gou said with a smile.

Upon hearing that someone was looking for him, Chen Dao immediately thought of Wu Han. Besides Wu Han, whom he had made an appointment with, there was no one else who would come to Chenjia Village to find him.

"I understand, Gou-ge'er, wait for me a moment."

Chen Dao returned to the house, took out five catties of sorghum flour, and handed it to Chen Gou: "Thank you for your hard work, Gou-ge'er. Here, take these five catties of sorghum flour."

As Chen Gou received the sorghum flour, his eyes gleamed with fervor, and he repeatedly said, "Thank you, Brother Dao! Thank you, Brother Dao!"

Chen Gou never imagined that simply helping to notify others would result in a harvest of 5 jin of sorghum flour. He was naturally overjoyed and extremely grateful to Chen Dao.

"You're welcome."

Chen Dao waved with a smile, then went straight out to his own construction site, found Chen Da, and got straight to the point: "Uncle, the buyers of white-feathered chickens are here. How many chickens are you planning to sell this time?"

"Wu Han is here?"

Chen Dayi, who was unloading timber, paused for a moment, then said, "Let's sell 20 this time."

After a long period of exploration, Chen Da has learned about the breeding speed of white-feathered chickens.

Although white-feathered chickens lay eggs much less frequently than yellow-feathered chickens, they are not far behind. On average, a white-feathered hen can lay an egg every two days, and a new white-feathered chicken can hatch in about 10 days.

Now, Chen's family has more than sixty white-feathered chickens, and they have achieved stable breeding. Therefore, he does not plan to sell all the white-feathered chickens at once, but only some of the older ones.

“Okay, then Uncle, take the white-feathered chicken with you, and let’s go to the village entrance to see Wu Han together.”

Not long after, Chen Da returned home and took all the white-feathered chickens he needed to sell. Then the two of them went to the village entrance and met Wu Han and his three companions who were waiting anxiously.

In this cold weather, standing in such an open space at the village entrance waiting is really unpleasant.

Fortunately, at this moment, Wu Han saw Chen Dao and Chen Da approaching gracefully. Of course, his attention was mainly focused on the chicken coop that Chen Da and Chen Dao were carrying.

The clucking of chickens coming from the coop was, to Wu Han, the most beautiful sound in the world.

Brother Chen really didn't lie to me; he really does have a large number of white-feathered chickens here!

Wu Han was filled with excitement and hurriedly stepped forward to greet Chen Dao and the other man: "Brother Chen, Brother Chen."

"Brother Wu."

Chen Dao gave Wu Han a warm hug and said with a smile, "You've arrived really early."

After saying that, Chen Dao glanced at the three Zhang brothers beside Wu Han and said, "Brother Wu, with so few men, it's not safe for you to leave the city!"

Chen Dao had personally experienced the dangers of the official road outside the city and knew very well that Wu Han's manpower was simply insufficient to guarantee the safety of his own person and goods.

"There's nothing we can do about it!"

Wu Han sighed softly and said, "I know we are short-handed, but I simply don't have enough money to hire guards!"

There was one more thing Wu Han didn't mention: he wasn't sure if Chen Dao really had white-feathered chickens to sell him. Before he could see any profit, he naturally wouldn't be willing to invest heavily in hiring enough people to act as guards.

Fortunately, he has now seen the white-feathered chicken, which has put his mind at ease.

"Too."

Chen Dao didn't dwell on the matter too much. In his view, he had already left Wu Han with enough profit, and the risk of leaving the city should naturally be borne by Wu Han: "Then let's talk about the white-feathered chickens. I've already told you, Brother Wu, that these white-feathered chickens are priced at 400 coins each. Brother Wu, do you have any objections?"

"Of course not!"

Wu Han smiled, then said somewhat embarrassedly, "Brother Chen, I didn't bring enough money this time. Could you give me some time to pay you back next time I come?"

Although Wu Han was a businessman, he was ultimately just a small vendor with limited capital. Twenty white-feathered chickens would cost a whopping eight taels of silver, which Wu Han simply couldn't possibly have. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so troubled by the government's tax increases.

"Didn't bring enough money?"

Chen Dao paused for a moment, then thought for a second and said, "That's no problem."

Chen Dao wasn't worried that Wu Han would renege on the money. It was a simple matter: the white-feathered chicken business was a sure-fire way to make money. Anyone with a long-term vision would know that continuing this business was the right choice. Only short-sighted people would think of doing it once and then running away with the money.

"but……"

Chen Dao changed the subject and said, "Brother Wu, since you're going to pay next time you come here, how about you do me a favor?"

"What kind of help do you need? Brother Chen, just say the word," Wu Han said generously.

"Next time you come over, please exchange all this money for grain and bring it over for me, how about that?" This was Chen Dao's idea, and also Chen Da's thought. In this year's circumstances, having too much money is really useless. On the contrary, exchanging it for grain would make him feel more at ease.

"Instead of grain?"

Wu Han didn't think much of it and readily agreed: "No problem."

"If we can't buy enough grain, we can use grey-feathered chickens instead."

"can!"

After the deal was settled, Chen Dao gestured to Chen Da to put all the chicken coops on Wu Han's donkey cart, and then said to Wu Han with a smile, "Brother Wu, would you like to come into the village and sit for a while?"

"Next time."

Wu Han declined, saying, "I'm in a hurry to get back to the city and sell these chickens. Brother Chen, you know the roads are difficult to travel after dark. We need to hurry back, or we might be in danger if we stay too long."

The official road leading to the county town is relatively safe during the day, but after dark...