"Why are you taking so long this time?" The yard was now full of people. Shufeng was holding Changxing and babbling. Shuduo had gone with Pan'er to help feed the cows.
"We've been stuck in the countryside for almost ten days. It's not easy to go to the mountains to collect things." Yan Bingfa looked at Zhou and smiled, "You must be worried sick at home."
"Or I'll just have to spend more money in the future. It's still troublesome to go to the mountains."
"Mom, how can you buy cheap things without trouble? Besides, nowadays, even if you want to avoid trouble, you can't buy anything in this county."
"This time we even went to the countryside in the next county, otherwise how could we have received these? Fortunately, hard work pays off, and it was all worth it."
"You ran so far, even to the next county?"
"Dad wanted to find some land, but we haven't collected all our things yet, so we decided to go to the next county."
"How much did you buy?"
"500 jin of each, a total of 4,000 jin, costing a total of 320 taels of silver."
"By the way, Chunxiao, the five oxen and the cart cost 65 taels of silver, and there are 15 taels of silver left." Yan Dashan took out money from his pocket.
"Forget it, big brother. You must have spent a lot on the journey. I didn't contribute much, so you have to pay for the expenses. Take it." 500 kilograms of each item, which can last for more than a year. Not bad. She looked at Yan Bingfa and asked, "Have you found the land?"
Yan Bingfa shook his head in disappointment. "I haven't found a suitable farm. I did look at a lot of land, selling dozens of pieces at a time, but it's too inconvenient to manage dozens of pieces of land so far away. I think I'll just forget it. The real estate agents are all listing them for sale, so if there's nothing I can find right away."
"There's no rush for land. Let's just look for it slowly. Maybe one day we'll get lucky and find it."
Yan Bangfa and the others had arrived, so the task of eating the pig-slaughtering meal naturally fell on their shoulders.
The next day, Chunxiao and her three cows went to town with happiness and joy. Master Zhong had returned to work after the snow, but he was still not home. It seemed that this matter would have to wait until after the New Year. They went straight to the village.
When they saw Wang Shiwen and the others, they all looked dejected and said, "Boss, a lot of soybeans in our fields have died."
"It's just that there are still quite a few." Chun Xiao even felt a little relieved. "I expected that a lot of people in the village died. It's okay. As long as we can grow some to pay the taxes, it will be good. With such heavy snow, it's good enough to save some."
She looked at the cotton field and asked, "Have all the cotton stalks been pulled out?"
"I've already pulled them all out. Yesterday, I went with the villagers to collect fertilizer. I also bought bean dregs. In a few days, when the ground is not so frozen, I'll prepare the land and apply base fertilizer."
Chunxiao pointed at their ox cart and said, "I've got five new oxen. I'm bringing three over today and two more tomorrow. We won't be driving the oxen over there later. You can just take us to town."
Wang Shiwen ordered someone to pull the ox cart away.
"I want to build another row of six houses next to the yard and hire some workers later. I couldn't find any craftsmen today. Let's talk about this after the New Year. I'm telling you this first."
"Do we need to prepare the materials in advance?"
"No, I don't want to go through so much trouble. I'm familiar with the craftsmen, so I'll just give it to them and ask them to be sincere."
She looked around the field and saw that quite a few soybeans had indeed died, about 30%. Fortunately, the other 70% were very strong, much better than those in the village. "At the beginning of the year, I'm going to raise four pigs on the farm. Whether you have meat to eat in the future will depend on them. You should build a pigpen in the backyard, and the money can be paid from the account. I think it would be best to find a few people to be responsible for livestock management."
"Then I'll send someone to buy some bricks and mortar tomorrow. We have wood and straw in the warehouse, so it won't be difficult to build a shed."
"No rush, just get it done before the New Year." After inspecting the farm, she asked Wang Shiwen to take them to the town.
They originally wanted to take the village's ox cart back, but now there were no ox carts available. They had no choice but to walk back. Fortunately, the ground was now dry.
The next day, Xingfu and Meiman sent the remaining two cows over.
In early December, when everyone was happily preparing for the New Year and looking forward to the future, the state government's decree came out.
All tax fields in Qingzhou Prefecture are only allowed to plant grains at the beginning of the year, and no other crops are allowed. When harvesting, 50% of the crops must be sold to the prefecture at the prefecture price, with the town as the harvesting point.
As soon as the news came out, the entire Yanjia Village was about to explode.
This is the government's version of forced buying and selling. It might be okay for other villages, but it is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for those who want to make money by growing cotton.
For a while, people came and went in the village head's office again, but since it was a notice issued by the state government, what could a small village head like him do? This was undoubtedly a huge blow to the villagers of Yanjia Village who had just tasted the sweetness of making money.
The Yan family got together again.
"What's going on? We can certainly grow this kind of food, but we've lost the chance to grow cotton. What the hell are the officials doing these days?"
"It must be related to the war in the north. Maybe this year's tax grain is not enough for military pay." This is the only thing Chunxiao could think of. If there was no shortage of food, why would they force others to grow crops? You know, there are so many kinds of crops, besides cotton, there are also hemp, sugarcane and many more.
"I think Chunxiao hits the nail on the head. This must be the reason."
"We can't disobey the order from the state government. Fortunately, we haven't sold any grain yet, so it should be enough for seed."
"Then now the only place where cotton can be grown is at the end of Chunxiao's village, and that place is not a tax field." Tian felt very unwilling when she thought about it.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
