The Shi family lived a prosperous life, but the Wu family's life became increasingly difficult.
Originally, I could barely survive by relying on the few valuable things I kept privately.
But in the end, I pawned all my best clothes and only got a few copper coins in exchange.
In addition, no one in the family is willing to work in the fields. He has a large family and is allocated a lot of land.
But no one planted it, so naturally large areas became deserted.
By the time the Wu family thought of planting something in this land, the sowing season had already passed.
And, most importantly, the family no longer has the money to buy grain.
The whole family tightened their stomachs and looked sad.
Wu Hongyang's dignity, which was once regarded as high as heaven, has now been trampled to the ground.
Ms. Liu was forced to go to Wu Yingchun to get money to support her family.
But how could Butcher Liu be so easy to fool?
Not to mention that Wu Yingchun not only hated the Shi family, she also hated the Wu family from the bottom of her heart.
When he learned that his mother-in-law's family had no money to buy rice for cooking, in front of Ms. Liu, she laughed so hard that she pointed at her nose and cursed that the whole Wu family deserved to starve to death.
Mrs. Liu, who had not received a penny, returned to Wu's house dejectedly and told Wu Yingchun's words truthfully.
A few days later, the Shi family got the news that the Liu family had been betrayed by Wu Hongyang.
Shi Jiang didn't have extra time to listen to other people's gossip, after all, these sweet potatoes were dug out by Shi's father.
Shi's father followed her and planted the sweet potato seeds and raised the seedlings the way she had done before.
One sweet potato can produce many seedlings.
Excluding the sweet potatoes for seedlings, the sweet potatoes piled in the woodshed weighed more than 2,000 kilograms.
This made Shi's father's hands tremble when he weighed himself.
More than two thousand kilograms, what is this concept?
If they eat this lump of earth every day, their family may not be able to finish it for a whole year.
This is the amount produced by such a small amount of land in the backyard. If everyone in the village grows it, wouldn't the yield be amazing?
However, his thoughts were soon suppressed by Shi Jiang.
After all, you know what you grow.
If the whole village were allowed to plant this kind of dirt, others might think they wanted to starve everyone to death!
It would be better to wait until the current crop of grain in your own field is harvested, then you can transplant the cultivated seedlings into the field.
Anyway, when the grain is harvested in the fields here, they will just leave it like this after plowing it. Or some diligent people will plant some long-lasting vegetables such as Chinese cabbage and radishes in the ground, so that they can have vegetables to eat in winter.
Therefore, when the grain in the fields is harvested, their family will plant these dirt lumps, which will not attract so much attention.
However, when the sweet potato vines grow and the vines are turned over, some people will definitely wonder what they are growing.
"Dad, I think our family can buy two more pigs to raise?"
Shi Jiang did some calculations. How could the livestock at home eat all the sweet potato vines in the three acres of land?
If I can't finish it after buying two more pigs, I'll break off the tender sweet potato stalks and pickle them all.
When the time comes, chop it into pieces, add some chili and fry it, it tastes very fragrant.
Shi's father was a little hesitant. After all, Mrs. Shen was now raising all the livestock at home. If there were two more animals, she might not be able to bear them!
Unexpectedly, Mrs. Shen's eyes lit up immediately after hearing Shi Jiang's words.
"Master, miss, let alone two more, even if there are ten more, I can still make it in time. It would be great if I could raise more laying hens. In this way, in addition to boiling eggs for the lady every day, I can also
Save some eggs."
In Mrs. Shen's view, if there are many livestock in the house, it means that the people and livestock are prosperous.
The more of these things there are, the more food there will be for her at home.
Moreover, both the master and his wife are very kind-hearted.
In the end, I'm afraid at least half of these animals will end up in the mouths of these few people at home.
Naturally, she is considered a member of the family and has a share.
Therefore, if you raise more, she will also be able to eat more.
Looking at Mrs. Shen's bright eyes, Shi's father thought of Mrs. Shen's appetite, and the corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily.
"Okay, then go catch two more pigs. As for the chickens and ducks, just let Mrs. Shen take care of it."
When you raise more chickens and ducks, you can kill a chicken every few days to replenish the health of your wife and daughter.
Anyway, now there is no need to worry about running out of food to feed these animals.
After hearing this, Mrs. Shen quickly sighed and stopped the work.
There are people in the village who help people hatch eggs, and they only need to pay three cents or three eggs each time.
Generally speaking, the success rate is about 70%.
It is equivalent to giving the other party thirteen eggs and the other party giving you seven chicks.
If you ask the other party to buy a chicken, it will cost two cents each.
For poor people, they would like to break a penny into two pennies for use. Of course, every penny they can save is worth a penny.
On the day of the grain harvest, Shi's father directly called Uncle Cai's family to help with the harvest.
As expected, Shi Jiang expected, the output from three acres of land was less than one stone per acre.
That's it, you still have to pay two bushels of millet per mu, which is 240 big bucks when converted into money.
In addition to this, each household must also receive two pieces of silk cloth.
If you don't have silk cloth, it doesn't matter. Then you can convert it into 1,500 yuan and pay it.
If everything had to be paid in silver, the Shi family's annual taxes would cost one thousand, seven hundred and forty copper coins.
But if it all depends on the little output from the fields, after paying the taxes for a year, the rest will only be able to live a tight life.
Even this tax is considered light.
Not counting other exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, if we did, we would definitely be unable to survive without two or three taels of silver in a year.
Therefore, it is said that for farmers in ancient times, it was more difficult for them to have enough to eat throughout the year.
Shi Jiang looked at the little food and sighed. After paying the Cai family's wages, he didn't directly say that he would use the money to offset taxes.
As for millet, it's fine to just eat it occasionally.
If she was allowed to eat this every day, she wouldn't be able to bear it.
Therefore, the tax payable on grain is quite a lot.
As for the silk cloth, no one in their family knew how to weave, so naturally they could only use money to exchange it.
When the village chief came to collect taxes, the Shi family quietly paid what was due.
But when they arrived at the Wu family, not only did the Wu family have to break down the door before entering, but the Wu family didn't even have half of the food, not to mention silk and silver.
The village chief was so angry that he blew his beard and stared, so he tied Wu Hongyang up immediately.
He said that if he didn't come up with the money, he would send Wu Hongyang to do labor service to offset the tax.
Ning didn't expect that her husband would be arrested. After crying and crying, she had no choice but to find a wealthy family in the county for her daughter-in-law Wu Yingxue, and sent her as a concubine, and returned in exchange for twenty taels of silver.
With this money, Wu Hongyang was redeemed.
Shi Jiang was speechless. An old man like Wu Hongyang, who only wanted face but no children, could not earn half a copper coin, and did not work in the fields, why would he spend money to redeem him?