Chapter 89 Gender Crimes 89
Qin Shuangshuang, with complex emotions, asked her master Fang Zhongyi to select the most talented and suited children for martial arts training from among the orphans. It’s not that Qin Shuangshuang didn’t want to treat them all equally, but the kids with good martial arts aptitude would have a better chance of surviving on the battlefield in the future!
Since arriving at the border city, Fang Zhongyi had been idle for a long time. The land was cultivated by tenant farmers, the houses were built, and he had even married the one he loved. Although he was happy spending his days with Mrs. Bai, he was feeling a bit itchy from lack of exercise. Now, teaching a group of kids martial arts seemed like a decent pastime.
From the hundreds of children, Fang Zhongyi selected a total of one hundred and eight kids with good aptitude, among which there were surprisingly twelve girls.
Since she wanted to cultivate her own team, Qin Shuangshuang could no longer have General Qi spend money to support these children. However, supporting so many kids was no easy task, especially since they needed martial training, which required significant physical energy. Children practicing martial arts must eat three full meals a day, including meat, lest their bodies suffer severe issues!
Fortunately, the money Qin Shuangshuang saved from killing barbarians recently was enough. She could first build a large courtyard for the kids to live in, hire over a dozen tenant farmers, purchase a thousand acres of land, and breed some pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks. This way, her household could be self-sufficient.
Handling all these matters at once was not easy, but fortunately, Qin Shuangshuang had some connections now. In the border city, if there was anything in abundance, it was land. Qin Shuangshuang found buying a thousand acres quite easy and the price was not high: four taels of silver per mu for top-quality fields, three taels for medium-quality fields, which was two taels cheaper than the land prices in the Qin Family Village.
It did take some time to find tenant farmers. It was thanks to Qi Pengju, who, seeing Qin Shuangshuang struggling, relocated ten households of settlers who were building the border city to serve as tenant farmers for her. This prevented Qin Shuangshuang’s thousand acres of prime land from lying fallow.
Qin Shuangshuang also built pig pens and sheep pens, chicken coops, and duck pens with high-quality blue stones. She hired four long-term workers, waiting for spring to come and start raising livestock. Meanwhile, the pens would stand empty during the winter.