Chapter 193 Autumn Harvest
Li Sandong went to Shangwan Village again and asked his uncle's family if they wanted to set up a stall to do business. Both families had never done business before, and the autumn harvest was coming soon, so they had no time to set up a stall, so they declined at first.
Li Sandong asked them to send someone to Daohua Village with a letter when they wanted to set up a stall.
Three days later, Qingfeng came in a carriage to pick up Li Sandong.
With everyone's repeated reminders, Li Sandong embarked on a journey away from home for the first time in his life.
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Hibiscus flowers are hanging on the bamboo fence, and green and yellow mountain fruits are hanging.
I know the wind across the water has a purpose, it brings the fragrance of rice flowers for ten miles.
In the blink of an eye, it was time for autumn harvest.
The golden and plump rice ears hang down, the result of farmers' hard work.
Li Wanyue's family had few paddy fields, and they only planted three acres of rice. Together with the two brothers Zhao Wenhu, they harvested all the rice in two days.
The grains were easily threshed using a thresher. This time, there was no need to take them to the threshing ground. They could be dried directly in the open space next to the house.
After drying, the rice needs to be pounded and husked.
When Village Chief Li first learned about the thresher, he discussed it with the villagers and jointly invested to build another one, so there are two machines in the village.
Li Youshan lent his thresher to the villagers, and the villagers thanked him by giving him some firewood.
It is much more efficient than using a flail, saving time and effort.
After harvesting rice, Li Wanyue's family started planting potatoes.
After harvesting rice, families also started planting potatoes.
Village head Li Jianzheng has already told everyone that since there are not many potatoes and sweet potatoes at the moment, the ones everyone grows are all for the government.
So the seeds were given to them for free, and when it was time to harvest, the government charged them five cents per pound.
Because they were the first batch to plant the fruits, they offered a high price.
At five cents per catty, one mu of land can yield about 2,300 catties, which means an income of about eleven and a half taels.
If they pay tax at one-tenth of the rate, they will still have ten taels left after paying the tax.
My God, one mu of land can bring in ten taels of income, so if you plant ten mu of land, you will get a hundred taels.
This was unthinkable before.
Of course, this is only because the supply of potatoes and sweet potatoes is small now. When the supply increases next year, the price will no longer be this high.
So everyone wants to seize this opportunity.
The Li family recruited a large group of children around ten years old to help plant potatoes. They didn't know how to harvest rice, so they just helped pick up rice ears.
Just let them put the potato pieces into the dug hole as taught.
Ten cents a day.
It took two days to plant six acres of potatoes, and a few acres were left for planting sweet potatoes.
Potatoes were also planted in the Li family’s old house.
Zhao Suying asked Li Erhu to go to the Zhao family to explain the situation. The Zhao family also planted eight acres of potatoes and prepared to plant sweet potatoes on the remaining eight acres.
Wang Guixiang's parents' family and Sun Xiuqin's parents' family each received three acres of potatoes and three acres of sweet potatoes.
Because there are not enough points, otherwise I could give more.
This time, there was no need for Xie Yan to take them away. They had already planted all the potatoes, and it was still not enough.
I pulled some more from Xie Yan.
All the sweet potatoes are grown as seedlings.
The rice, which had been dried for a few days, was almost dry, and was then put into a mortar and pestle for pounding.
The pounded rice is put into the grain blower to remove impurities and then stored in the warehouse.
After ten days of hard work, it's finally done.
The punishments for County Magistrate Cao, Chief Secretary Zhu and others were also implemented.
When the Gao family in Kaoshan Village heard the news, they finally gave up their worries.
Gao Conghui covered her face and cried bitterly. She had originally held out a glimmer of hope, thinking that they could turn things around.
There was no hope now.
A bowl of medicine was immediately given to her, and the baby in her belly was killed.
Mrs. Cui was also worried. What would happen to her daughter in the future?
Without her chastity, who would want her? She was unwilling to marry a widower, and she couldn't stand the hardship of digging for food in the fields.
Liu Ruyun was also worried.
Ever since Gao Zhiyuan knew her past, he was no longer so concerned about her.
In the past, things that I didn’t want to do could be avoided by just saying a few soft words.
Now no matter what she said, Gao Zhiyuan would only say one thing: if his sister-in-law could do it, why couldn't she?
He would only say a few nice words to coax her when he was in a good mood, and would point at her and scold her when he was unhappy.
It's totally crazy.
Now she not only has to cook, but also wash clothes, feed chickens, and sometimes collect firewood.
How could she have done so much work?
I felt extremely aggrieved.
I want to go back to my parents' home, but life there is not easy either, and I have to face the cold stare of my elder sister-in-law.
I just hope Gao Zhiyuan can pass the imperial examination as soon as possible so that he can teach in an academy or open a private school.
But she had heard that Daohua Village had set up a village school with about a hundred students, each paying fifty cents per month, which amounted to several taels of silver per month.
If Gao Zhiyuan opened a private school, he would charge 200 wen for each child, which would be two taels of silver for ten children.
She can then buy a servant to serve her.
…
Rice Flower Village
Early in the morning of that day, Zhao Wenhu and Zhao Wenliang were eating voraciously.
In the past half month, they helped to harvest rice and work. Although it was tiring, at least they had enough food to eat and could even eat meat.
Gradually, they forgot about the indenture.
After the two of them finished their meal, Li Youshan walked over and asked, "Have you finished eating?"
"I'm done."
"We're done eating, let's go in a bit."
"Go? Where to?" Zhao Wenhu's eyes lit up: "Uncle, can we go home now?"
Li Wanyue said calmly: "Still want to go home? Have you forgotten that you have signed the contract to sell your bodies?"
The two men's faces suddenly became gloomy. Zhao Wenhu asked, "Where are we going?"
Zhao Wenliang thought of what Li Wanyue had said before, and immediately said, "Cousin, uncle, we really know we are wrong, and we will never block you again. Even if we are slaves, let us work for your family, and don't send us to someone else's place."
Zhao Wenhu also reacted and immediately begged: "We won't do stupid things again, please don't let us leave."
Here, they are relatives after all, and there is also my aunt, so it won’t be too much. If they are sent to someone else to be slaves, how can they be good?
"I've told you before, if it weren't for the autumn harvest, I wouldn't have kept you until now. The family doesn't need you to work anymore.
However, if you are sent to someone else, you will also be paid. As long as you work hard and each person saves up thirty taels, you can redeem your indentures and resume your status as a good citizen.”
The two of them suddenly felt hopeful.
Zhao Wenhu said, "Cousin, I see that there are always people working in your house. Can't we work in your house and earn some money?"
"I bought you, do I still need to pay you? Do you want to go earn money from others and regain your freedom, or do you want to stay here and be a slave forever?"
The two thought about it, and finally gritted their teeth and said, "We are willing to make money."
Afterwards, Li Dachuan sent them to Hongchang Construction Team in the county town.
Li Wanyue had already made an agreement with the manager Zhou Da to let the two of them work with their construction team, even if it was just doing odd jobs like moving bricks and mud.
Let them suffer a little so that they can live in peace when they return home.
Because Zhou Da helped Li Wanyue build a house, he also heard many new ideas from her.
As for toilets and bathing rooms, it was the first time he heard that they could be built like that.
Even if other people's houses don't have the same good conditions as hers and can't have underground drainage, at least he can figure out a suitable method.
Now the business of the store is getting better and better. The boss has increased his salary and made him the general manager.
So when he heard that Li Wanyue wanted to send him two people, he agreed immediately.
The two were also assigned to a skilled craftsman.
If these two people can study hard, they will be able to master a skill in the future.
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