They sold all the rice.
A bag of rice weighs 100 jin (50 kg), but after hulling, you can only get 60 jin (30 catties) of rice. After removing the broken grains, the refined rice is at most 40 to 50 jin (20-25 kg).
After paying their taxes, the villagers who grow rice will sell the remaining polished rice for money, keeping the broken rice for themselves. Some even more frugal families will exchange the broken rice for brown rice.
This way, you can both fill your stomach and save money.
Yan Xia had eaten the brown rice here before, and she always thought that things with the same name were the same.
On the contrary, the brown rice here can't be called rice at all. It's a round grain. Because it's difficult to thresh, it always has a husk-like outer layer on top, which is light red and has a groove in the middle. It's hard to eat when cooked into porridge or brown rice, and it can be a bit rough on the throat.
Anyway, she doesn't like it.
However, because of its high yield and the fact that it is not particular about the quality of the land, most farmers who do not have first-class fertile land will grow brown rice.
Of course, wasteland is an exception, as few people cultivate it here.
Because the yield was too low, the wasteland was not fertile, and there were various stones, the effort put in was not commensurate with the reward.
People without land would rather rent land than cultivate it.
Even though Yan Xia nurtured her family's wasteland for a while, this year's harvest was still not as good as that of other families in the village.
She had looked around online; some sellers offered high-yield seeds, while others offered magical potions that could fertilize the soil and increase yields tenfold.
But a small bottle costs a thousand points.
The seeds are cheaper, but they still cost five hundred.
She was penniless, without a single point, and couldn't afford to be associated with him, so she could only work hard and honestly to earn money.
From the time I traveled to the present, not counting the money I've spent, plus the money I made selling rice today...
Yan Xia had a total of 1700 taels on her.
She plans to save up enough money to buy a big house in town so she won't have to live in the village every day.
The shop can earn an average of 30 taels of silver per day.
If there are new products, the amount will be doubled.
Yan Xia began to become more indifferent. For several days in a row, she handed over the work of the shop to her children and stopped asking about it, only checking the accounts every day.
She began to devote herself to researching new products. The two cows she had just bought were producing milk every day, but the milk was not much and could not compare to that of modern dairy cows.
But buffalo milk tastes ten thousand times better than cow's milk.
It's not fishy at all, and has a unique sweet aroma; the taste is absolutely amazing.
Its nutritional value is also higher than that of regular milk.
At first, they only produced about seven or eight pounds of milk a day. After feeding them well for about half a month, their milk production increased.
Each head can produce 10 jin (5 catties) of milk per day.
The two ends weigh about 20 jin (10 catties).
But it is far from being able to match the modern dairy cows that can produce 60 to 70 kilograms of milk a day.
Before Yan Xia could develop a new product, Zuo Li brought news of Sun Duomiao.
The county magistrate was kind-hearted. Considering her advanced age, he only cut off two of Sun Duomiao's little fingers, gave her 20 lashes, fined her 3 taels of silver, and then released her.
What if there's not enough silver to cover the losses? Use grain as payment.
So Sun Duomiao's family really lost both their wife and their army.
We've lost a fortune.
That's not all.
After she returned home, she was driven out by Zhang Lizheng and the villagers before she could even eat.
A family of nineteen.
Without exception.
They had lots of bags and nowhere to go.
The houses in the village didn't originally belong to them; they were just occupied because no one lived there. Zhang, the village head, didn't care, which is why they lived there for several years.
They had nowhere to go after leaving Shoucheng Village.
Because of their theft, the villages surrounding Shuangqiao Town refused to take them in.
Left with no other option, Sun Duomiao's family had to flee to a neighboring county.
But life in the neighboring county is not as good as here.
Although they settled in a village, every family was so poor they couldn't even afford to eat.
They could only find lodging in thatched huts.
The weather is getting colder and colder, and the house is drafty at night. Luckily, the whole family is crammed into two rooms, so we don't feel the cold. But it would be unbearable if it snowed in winter.
"Mother, what should we do? All the grain has been used to supplement the silver. Now we only have twenty catties of rice left, which my wife secretly hid. We can still dig up some wild vegetables and tender tree roots on the mountain now, but when it gets cold, we won't have anything to eat. Are we going to starve to death?"
Sun Duomiao's eldest son, Feng Dagen, said with a dejected expression.
He had initially disagreed with his mother hiding so much rice. If she had followed his advice and concealed 50 jin per mu, none of this would have happened. But his mother was very greedy, and he couldn't stop her.
"Let's rent some land first and plant some radishes and cabbages. Then sell Da Niu and Er Niu and buy some grain. My fingers still hurt and are still bleeding. Remember to buy some medicine for me. Oh, and by the way, repair this thatched hut. We haven't made winter clothes yet. Sigh... everything costs money. Luckily, you wanted to throw Da Niu and Er Niu into the mountains to feed the wolves, but I stopped you. When things are tough, girls are the 'lifesaver'!"
"I understand, Mother. You should rest well at home tomorrow. Let my second and third brothers go rent land. I'll take my eldest and second daughters to the city by myself. By the way, should we sell them to be maids?"
Feng Dagen felt no reluctance whatsoever.
He even looked a little impatient.
"Of course, we'll sell her to a brothel. Isn't that obvious? Da Niu is already 14. What kind of maid would she be? Wealthy families prefer to buy girls under 7 years old. They're easier to manage that way. A brothel can give four or five taels of silver, but selling her as a maid would only get you two taels at most. It's a huge loss. If Da Niu and Er Niu were prettier, we could marry them off. But she looks just like you, brother. What a pity. We'd be lucky to get one tael of silver as a dowry."
The speaker was Feng Ergen.
Sun Duomiao's second son.
Her three sons all have the same name, except for the middle character.
Distinguish them using the numbers one, two, and three respectively.
"Alright, then sell him to a brothel. Go to sleep here. It's drafty, so don't let Da Niu and Er Niu hear you."
The two brothers quickly fell asleep.
However, in another room, Da Niu's eyes widened.
She wept silently.
Although he was beaten and scolded from a young age, and never had enough to eat or wear, he still had to work every day.
But she never expected that her grandmother and father would treat her like this.
She hadn't slept all night, and before her father got up, she took Erniu and her mother to the corner outside.
"Mom, Grandma told Dad he'll take Erniu and me to the city to be sold today. I'm scared, Mom, I don't want to be sold. I'll eat less, I can do anything. Please beg Dad, please beg Grandma, okay..."
The girl's eyes were full of tears, but she dared not cry out loud.
Her pitiful appearance did nothing to stir the motherly heart of the woman in front of her.
"What are you crying for? Is this some kind of funeral so early in the morning? Your grandmother isn't even dead yet and you're already crying. So what if you're being sold? You don't think you can get married off in a grand sedan chair, do you? Look at you, you're ugly, and your complexion is even more sallow than mine, a woman who's had several children. What blind man would marry you? Go wash your face and dress neatly later so you can get a good price. Don't forget your parents and your brother after all the good life you've had. Remember to secretly save some money. I heard that people in brothels can redeem themselves at 35. When that time comes, come home and give the money to your mother. I'll manage it for you."
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