Five-year-old little girl: Mom has thousands of acres of material space

Due to years of drought, the villagers do not think it will rain again in their area. Hail, a disaster that has not happened once in decades, should not happen again. Therefore, half of the villagers insist on harvesting rice early. Opposing attitude.

"Those ignorant villagers just don't make sense!" Jiang Wei drank the water in the cup in one gulp, with some anger on his face, "Li Zheng simply asked the villagers who are willing to harvest rice in advance to go home and prepare, and start harvesting tomorrow. , as for those who don’t want to, just ignore it and let them go.”

Jiang Xiaoxiao shook her head helplessly after listening.

There is nothing we can do about it.

There was a heavy rain yesterday, and it was still a little cold at night, but today, as soon as the sun rose, it became as hot as ever. The villagers must have thought that it would not rain again. As for the hail, I won’t even believe it.

However, the damage caused by this hailstorm must not be limited to Yuhe Village. If those villages also hold such thoughts, it would be terrible...

After Li Zheng's efforts to persuade, more than half of the households in Yuhe Village were finally willing to harvest rice in advance.

In the past few days, more than half of the people in Yuhe Village have been busy day and night. In addition to infants, even 70-year-olds have been involved. It took five or six days to collect the rice from the fields.

Qiulian's family was also one of those who supported early harvesting of rice. Zhao Youcai and Liu Dagang both went home to harvest rice. Even the old man Zhao who was responsible for driving the carriage for her family also went home to harvest rice.

In this era, fields are the foundation of farmers. Even the poorest families have a few acres of fields. Speaking of which, in the entire village, there are only two families without fields.

The Jiang family, and Sister Zhao, who had just separated from each other.

Some of the etiquette and laws of this era are not like the world she lived in. Generally speaking, after a woman divorces her husband, she should return to her parents' family. However, there is no such hard requirement in this era. A married woman can choose to start her own family and live alone. .

In the yard, Jiang Xiaoxiao leaned under the shade of a tree and read books about soap making. After reading for a while, she got up and moved around. When she turned her head, she could see Mrs. Zhao waiting for the kiln outside the yard. She went inside from time to time. Add fuel.

Her mother-in-law had told her that the temperature of the kiln should be kept at a certain standard, otherwise the limestone inside would not be fired enough. Mrs. Zhao did not dare to relax at all and kept an eye on the kiln all the time.

In the past few days, Mr. Zhao took leave to go home to harvest rice, so her mother-in-law delivered the goods in the town.

Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but think that when she made money from selling soap, her family would buy a few acres of fertile land and grow some rice, wheat, etc., but they wouldn't be able to eat the food in her parents' space every day. day, but as a farmer, it is necessary to have several acres of fertile land at home.

She couldn't stay at home, so she went to the village for a walk.

Walking on the dirt road in the village, she could see that there were still a few households that had not finished harvesting their rice, but most of them had finished harvesting and were drying it in their yards.

The men thumped the rice ears and knocked off the rice grains. The women took pitchforks to pick the threshed rice straws aside to dry in the sun. After they were dry, they were tied up and piled into haystacks.

These dried rice can be kept in winter for great use. They can be used to start fires, spread on beds, or stuffed into quilt covers to keep out the cold.

Cotton already existed in this era, but after all, it was not an edible food. There were few people growing it and the output was also small. Cotton batting was not cheap and villagers generally could not afford it. Clothing and bedding to keep out the cold in winter were usually made of straw or reed catkins. as filler.

Autumn harvest is the busiest time for farmers. After Jiang Xiaoxiao walked around, no one noticed her. Everyone was immersed in their work.

Jiang Xiaoxiao was walking and suddenly arrived at Li Zheng's house. The courtyard door of Li Zheng's house is wide open, and the whole family is drying rice.

"Brother Dagang!" Jiang Xiaoxiao shouted and walked in.

Liu Dagang was tying straw with dry straw. Hearing the sound, he looked towards her and grinned: "Why is Xiaoxiao here?"

Jiang Xiaoxiao glanced around the yard and saw that his wife was pulling the rice stalks with a pitchfork. Next to him, there was a broad-shouldered woman who was removing rice grains. She was sweating profusely from exhaustion.

Jiang Xiaoxiao had the impression that this person was Liu Dagang's sister-in-law. Liu Dagang had an elder brother above him, but he stayed away from home all year round and worked as a bookkeeper in the town.

There is also an old lady in her seventies, who must be Li Zheng's mother, who is carefully picking up the rice grains scattered on the ground.

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked around the yard and saw Li Zheng sitting alone on the steps, looking at a booklet in his hand with a sad face.

She couldn't help but walked over and took a closer look. The booklet was filled with every household in Yuhe Village, and the number of acres of land each household had in the back was marked in detail.

"Uncle Liu, what is this?" Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but ask.

"Hey, Xiaoxiao, you're here. This is our village's tax roll." Li Zheng held the book and sighed deeply, "This year's land tax and head tax have come down. Every household in our village in Yong'an County Every household must turn in 15% of their grain..."

"Fifteen percent?!" Jiang Xiaoxiao took a breath, "You want that much?!"

Li Zheng sighed and said: "There are still few this year. There were frequent wars in the border areas a few years ago, and more taxes were levied. Thirty percent of the grain was required to be handed over a year. In addition to this, every person in every village Every household must have at least one male over sixteen years old serving as a corvee."

Jiang Xiaoxiao knew about this that her biological father in this body was pushed out to do corvee by the Li family five years ago.

But now the wars in the border areas are not as frequent as in previous years, and we still have to pay such high taxes!

Due to drought and hail this year, the harvest in the fields was not very good. In previous years, one acre of land could harvest 15 kilograms of grain. This year, one hundred kilograms of grain could be harvested from one acre, which is incredible. One hundred kilograms of grain must be turned over. %, that’s only over kilograms left.

No wonder each family in this village has at least twenty or thirty acres of farmland, but they don’t get much food after a year of hard work.

For a normal family of eight, the most farmland in the family does not exceed thirty acres. Some families have even less, only more than ten acres. The grain harvested in one autumn is barely enough to eat after paying taxes.

Fifteen percent tax was simply appalling to Jiang Xiaoxiao, but to Li Zheng, it was indeed a small amount. What he was worried about now was the new head tax.

In previous years' poll tax, adults from the age of fifteen to fifty-six had to pay a poll tax of 800 coins, and children from the age of seven to fourteen had to pay a poll tax of 200 coins.

But this year, the tax threshold for children has been raised to six years old!