Chapter 36: Escape from the Troubled Times 34
Everyone came to a shop that specializes in selling water tanks and buckets.
When the Qi family saw Lin Xia wanted to buy a large water tank, they thought that their family also needed one, so they also bought one from the store.
This kind of heavy goods can be delivered to your door free of charge within the county, but you have to pay for shipping outside the county. It cannot be delivered if it is too far away. Wuliao is not far away, so it is within the delivery range that can be delivered for a fee.
The two families just split the cost and took the delivery waiter and the donkey cart to the grain store to buy grain.
The eldest and second daughters-in-law of Qi took advantage of the time when they were buying food to buy other things, which made things easier with a car.
Lin Xia bought 100 kilograms of food this time, which can probably last for more than three months.
When they finally went back, the donkey cart couldn't carry so many people, so only Lin Xia, Qi Xiu'er and Qi's second wife went home together.
It’s true, a two-hour journey only took half an hour to get there, which made Lin Xia want to buy a donkey.
I gave up this idea after a moment. It was unnecessary and too extravagant.
*
The days that followed were peaceful but busy.
Lin Xia spent a month and finally started planting rice, which is cause for celebration.
The whole process was so hectic that I had no time to pay attention to the disturbances outside.
One day, Qi Xiuer came over, approached Lin Xia with a mysterious look on her face, covered her mouth with her hands, and gossiped with Lin Xia in a low voice, "Sister Lin, do you know? Xiangzhou has completely broken out!"
Um? ? ?
Lin Xia was puzzled, "Where did you get the information?"
"Sister, didn't you tell me earlier that there were more refugees passing by? I went to ask Hutou what was going on, but he didn't know. Then I asked his grandfather, and his grandfather said that a prince had a fight with the Yi'an Army."
Hutou is the grandson of Village Chief Wan, and is only five or six years old.
"After the fighting started, no one cared about the area from Xiangzhou to Lingzhou. Lingzhou received many people. Didn't we come here secretly? Now we don't have to come here secretly.
"Qi Xiu'er was a little gloating, thinking about the difficulties and dangers they had encountered along the way, and Xiangzhou would not let them cross the river. Now they can hardly protect themselves.
Lin Xia gave a thumbs up and praised Qi Xiuer. Look at how sociable and well-informed she is!
"Xiu'er, you are really Xiu'er! You know everything, keep it up! Tell me if you have any more news, I welcome you anytime."
Qi Xiuer didn't recognize Lin Xiabi's gestures, but she knew at a glance that Sister Lin was praising her. She enjoyed this kind of praise and also liked the feeling of Sister Lin treating her like an adult.
"Okay, then I'll go ask Hutou if there is any other news." After saying that, he ran away in a hurry.
Time passed quickly, and Qi Xiuer came to tell Lin Xia all kinds of news every day, from big news like the county hiring workers for building houses on a hill to small news like how many piglets the sow in the village had given birth to. Lin Xia knew it all.
She is an invisible person who has never been active in the village, but because of Xiu'er, she knows every detail of the village affairs.
One afternoon, she walked slowly out of the mountain, holding a pheasant with a broken neck in her hand. As she reached the gate of the yard, she saw Qi Xiuer squatting on the ground counting ants.
"What are you doing at the door?" Lin Xia walked straight past Qi Xiuer and took out the key to open the door.
"Sister Lin, you're back! I have something important to tell you... Hey~ You went up the mountain to hunt again!" As he said this, he stared at the pheasant, swallowed his saliva, and with difficulty moved his eyes away from it.
"Don't look at it, it's your share. Tell me quickly, what big thing happened?" Xiu'er's mouth is deceiving people. The last big thing she talked about was that the bird that built a nest in front of the village chief's door flew away and never came back.
Qi Xiuer chuckled and acted as if she was whispering something.
"I heard that several nobles came to the county yesterday."
"Don't nobles often come to the county?"
"This time it's different. I heard that the county magistrate came out to greet us personally."
Lin Xia seemed to be guessing, "Is there a young lady leading the group?"
"I didn't find out about it, but it seems like there is." Qi Xiuer scratched her head and thought carefully.
Maybe it was because the heroine Zhou Hean came. Lin Xia was a little interested but not much. Now she was a real farmer who only cared about farming and didn't care about anything else. Look, the rice she planted will be ripe in two months.
"These things are far away from us. Okay, don't worry about it. Come in and help me pluck the chicken feathers." Qi Xiu'er, who wanted to say something, instantly forgot all her thoughts and followed Lin Xia into the house.
Since settling down, Lin Xia was so busy reclaiming wasteland and farming that she didn't even want to cook. Later, when she had free time, she went to the mountains to hunt pheasants and rabbits every day, which fully exercised her stone-throwing skills and she had no shortage of meat.
There was no shortage of food, and Lin Xia was not stingy. She gave the meat as a reward for bringing news to Qi Xiuer to cheer her up. This helped her grow a lot taller in this month, and she was no longer the pitiful refugee she was before.
For this, Aunt Qi came to apologize at night, and after much persuasion, they blushed and agreed. For this, Aunt Qi also took on the work of weeding and watering in Lin Xia's fields.
*
The days were not peaceful for a few days.
The village was in an uproar because of a major event that happened that was closely related to them.
Lingzhou rebelled!
Everyone was discussing heatedly. They had never thought that such a big thing would befall them. There was a fight outside, but Lingzhou had been living in peace. Who would have thought that something big would suddenly happen!
Ding ding ding......
Village chief Wan called the villagers together and had something to announce.
"Sister Lin, hurry up, something big has happened!" Qi Xiuer ran over, took Lin Xia's hand and ran away.
Lin Xia and Qi Xiuer came to the open space in front of the village chief's door together.
At this time, the open space was full of villagers that Lin Xia did not recognize. The two of them walked through the crowd and came to Qi's house.
"Everyone, be quiet! I'm sure you've already heard about what happened. I won't say much. This is not something you and I can decide."
The crowd was in an uproar and was about to ask something, but Village Chief Wan silenced them with a gesture.
The village chief continued, "Be quiet. You can ask questions after I finish. Now let's talk about something that is closely related to us."
"It's good for us that the city has announced some new policies."
"Village Chief, what's the good news?"
Village Chief Wan glared at the other party and said, "I told you to wait until I finish speaking before asking any more questions. Now shut up!"
The person being scolded subconsciously shrank his neck and covered his mouth tightly with his hands.
"First, the taxation has changed. First, the land tax has been reduced from 15% to 10%."
"Then the poll tax was changed to a ding tax. This means that instead of everyone paying money every year as before, it will only be paid to adult males. From now on, each adult male will have to pay 2 dan of rice every year and perform 20 days of unpaid corvée labor every year."
After these words were spoken, everyone could no longer keep quiet and kept making noise for most of the day. Village Chief Wan did not stop them or say anything, but just watched quietly.
This matter was very clear to Lin Xia. There were only benefits. No money was required, and only 10% of the rent would be paid after three years.
"Let's talk about the second thing. Recruiting soldiers. No, that's wrong. It's recruiting soldiers."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and waited nervously for the verdict.
"That is, there will be no forced conscription. The principle of voluntariness will be adopted. As long as you join the army, you will receive five taels of silver as resettlement fee, which you can get on the spot. If you want to make achievements, you can go to the city gate to ask."
Everyone immediately let out a sigh of relief and started whispering.
"Third, it's about the academy's enrollment. There's an academy in the county town, which is divided into a school for studying and a boys' and girls' school. The academy recruits children aged 6 to 12, and there's no tuition fee!"
"As for the boys' and girls' schools, they only recruit children over 10 years old. They teach everything, such as carpentry, handicrafts, and needlework. You can go to the county town to find out the details."
All the women and men present widened their eyes. This incident refreshed their worldview, and a path to heaven seemed to appear before their eyes.
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