Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 616 Lobster Farming
The heavy rain continued, and the next day, two guests arrived from Hubei.

These two were hired by Qin Dahe for 20,000 yuan to teach him how to raise crayfish.

I've already prepaid 10,000 yuan, and I'll pay another 10,000 yuan once the lobsters start to be harvested.

All travel expenses will be reimbursed, and food and lodging will be provided. We will be staying in the village for a month.

This price is not small.

As one of the more successful branches of the Qin family, Qin Dahe was unwilling to be like the second branch, who didn't care about anything.

If someone bullies you because they resent the rich, no one will help you.

He spent this money to hire the eldest son's wife, the third son's wife, and his second uncle; these are the only people who are willing to believe him right now.

Because of their large populations, the eldest and third sons of the family were allocated a considerable amount of land, and they were the ones who cultivated the land belonging to Qin Dahe's family.

Last year, we deliberately didn't plant rapeseed, just for the crayfish farming plan.

Of course, this is the first year of trying to raise crayfish. If Qin Dahe really loses all his money, he can't just ignore it. Everyone knows that.

The people stayed at the old man's house, and then he taught them step by step.

My second uncle mentioned this during last year's Chinese New Year: he started raising crayfish because he was making money from them.

But at that time, Qianjiang had not yet figured out a stable breeding model. It wasn't until last year when production surged that Qin Dahe finally settled on this matter.

Thin-shelled crayfish from Hubei can sell for five yuan per kilogram. Spicy crayfish have become a huge hit in the Jiangnan region. As long as they are raised well, making money will not be difficult.

It's still better than growing cotton, even though cotton prices have been falling for the past two years, which seems to be due to large-scale planting in the Northwest and border regions.

These areas are flat and the cotton itself is drought-resistant, so the cost of starting up large harvesters is much lower than in the Jiangnan region.

Not only cotton, but also cotton ginning factories have seen a significant decrease in profits. Inland cotton farmers, due to their limited land, find it difficult to compete with the "big landowners."

In Qin Dahe's memory, it seems that after 10 years, people rarely planted cotton anymore, and now it's 03.

That evening, in the Qin family's living room, the dinner was much more lively this time.

All six members of the three households gathered together, along with two lobster farmers and the second uncle. Qin's father sat in the main seat, enjoying everyone's compliments.

Because there were many people, Yan Yan and the others went to the new house in the back to eat, since there was plenty of space at home.

Qin Dahe kept pouring wine from the wine jug, as everyone present was considered his elder.

Before my family became wealthy, we rarely interacted. At most, we would nod to each other when we met, and chat during holidays.

The situation is different now.

"Boss, you're so lucky."

"Dahe is starting to own a big factory now, I guess he'll be getting a Mercedes soon."

"Haha, his car is no cheaper than a Mercedes-Benz, but the little guy is very clever and never shows off in public." Mr. Qin chuckled as he raised his wine glass.

He had long since come to terms with the fact that his son was doing well and was even better than him.

Although everyone was praising their son, they were secretly very happy.

"Thank you both, I'll have someone pick up your shrimp this year," Qin Dahe said, pulling the two chefs aside.

Brother Qiang also wants crayfish, and he's pre-ordered even more this year.

Qin Dahe needs to send a truck to Hubei to deliver bait, and it won't be a problem to pick up a truckload of crayfish on the way back. They can save on transportation costs and the driver can even make a profit.

"No trouble at all, Mr. Qin, you're too kind. Mr. Wan has already spoken to us, and he told us that we must teach him."

"Your place is very clean and the conditions are much better than ours."

"Good land is useless, it doesn't make money." Third Master was quite excited. "Anyway, since you're here, there's plenty of food and drink. We're all brothers." Since giving up the fishpond, Third Master planned to cultivate a few acres of barren land to retire on. The money from selling fish last time was still in his pocket.

He is in poor health and cannot take care of too much land.

But raising crayfish gave him hope of making money. According to the two men from Hubei, raising crayfish was much easier than farming.

It's not that he wants to work hard, it's just that his son has gotten into trouble again, and he's already so old, he has to keep working hard.

"Don't worry, we'll definitely teach you well. Our breeding farm has also paid us."

When they learned that the locals were coming to expand their breeding scale, some of them were actually unhappy, as they had finally figured out a way to achieve high yields.

But the breeding farm was overjoyed; being a state-owned enterprise, they had many more considerations.

The fact that crayfish farming technology has been promoted nationwide is an incredible achievement.

When the two were leaving, the technician from the breeding farm wished he could come to Anhui himself, but the leaders held him back because they were worried that the shrimp fry would not adapt to the local environment.

Anyway, since they've successfully raised them here, the credit still belongs to them.

However, the two chefs were overjoyed to receive a promotional fee of 2000 yuan.

The matter hasn't been settled yet, but everyone has already received 6000 yuan. It's only for a month, so family members can just do more work.

The wine was served round after round. A whole case of Yingjia Gongjiu was opened, and with Qin Dahe and ten other men, it was quickly finished.

While Third Master was still urging everyone to drink, the head chef refused.

"Judging from this situation, there shouldn't be any heavy rain tomorrow. We'll go out and survey the area this morning; there are quite a few things that need to be changed."

"That's alright, my friend has an excavator, we'll just use the excavator then," Qin Dahe said, patting his chest.

However, everyone was very happy that the Hubei native had shown his attitude.

"Having an excavator would be ideal, but we need to consider intercropping rice, which also requires a lot of manual labor."

You all probably know how to grow rice, right?

"Haha, we are a land of fish and rice, and we have been paying grain taxes for a long time. Dongxiang has always been the highest in the county."

"That's right, we switched to growing cotton because it wasn't profitable anymore."

Cotton isn't profitable anymore, so we have to find a solution.

Farmers are shrewd; they plant whatever makes money, especially since they are wuwei (a type of farmer).

Despite being labeled as an impoverished county, farmers have been living better and better lives thanks to this "shrewdness" of not being forced to plant crops under guidance.

"That's good. However, the rice used for raising crayfish is different from ordinary rice. The seeds should be selected to be more resistant to pests, and pesticides should not be used frequently."

After drinking enough, it was time for bragging, the two master chefs' turn to shine.

They recounted everything they had learned, even taking out the guidebook given to them by the seed farm from their bag.

Qin Dahe went to the back room and brought out the camera. He took clear pictures of every single one, so everyone would feel reassured.

"The paddy field ridges also need to be raised. The year before last, we lost a lot of shrimp. The shrimp farmers next to us made money. When we pulled up the nets, the shrimp were all black (scary)."

"Now that the Awakening of Insects has passed, bring the shrimp larvae over in half a month, and you can harvest your first batch of shrimp in April or May."

Everyone was immediately delighted to hear this, as it was much better than cotton and could be shipped out in fifty days.

Planting a few bunches of cotton, you're busy all year round but it's all for nothing. The little money you make can't even last a year.

(End of this chapter)