Chapter 232: Hearing the Gong Sound Again (Insect)
Zhou Cunzheng's family is quite lively. Like the Shen family, the Zhou family was only allocated a few rammed earth houses. However, the Zhou family has more people than the Shen family, so they live in a rather crowded house.
When Sang Luo arrived at the Chen family, Mrs. Chen had just returned from a visit to the Zhou family. When she saw Sang Luo and Shen Ning from a distance, the old lady quickened her pace.
"A Luo is here? Are you feeling better today?"
Sang Luo: "Better now, has A Ge had breakfast?"
Granny Chen smiled and said, "I ate it. I couldn't eat it last night, but today I heard that Dashan was back. I was probably happy, so I ate a few bites. But it was very tiring."
Chen Ning smiled and handed over the bowl of sour jujube cake in her hand, "Grandma Chen, my sister-in-law made some crystal jerky. Can you give it to Sister-in-law A Ge to try?"
The little girl is very shrewd. What she calls sour jujube cake at home is definitely crystal jerky outside, and she even blurs out the time in her words.
"And this?" Mrs. Chen knew about crystal preserved meat. Sang Luo had given it to her family to taste when she first made it. It was sour and sweet, and it was perfect for pregnant women. She happily took the bowl and said, "This is good, this is good. Come on, Ah Luo, come and sit down."
He also told Shen Ning that the little girl was at Zhou's house and asked her if she could go over to take a look.
Shen Ning saw that her sister-in-law was at Chen's house, so she had nothing to worry about. She told Sang Luo that she would be back soon after going for a walk. Sang Luo waved her hand and said, "No need to rush back. Go and play if you want to. Aren't you making brushes with Xiaoya, Qiao'er and Wenyin? Just go and do your thing. I'll be back soon."
Chen Ning was indeed making brushes. Four little girls worked together to make them. They planned to send them to the pen and ink shop next to the provincial school to ask if they could be put on consignment there.
She had asked her eldest sister-in-law about this, and she and Wen Yin had also asked Wen Yin's father, and they all told her to give it a try. The Xu family had a spacious house with many rooms, so the four of them had been doing this at Xu's house when they had some free time recently.
Chen Ning thought about the fact that the rabbits, chickens, and sheep had been fed in the morning, so he said, "Then you should be careful, sister-in-law. If you are hungry, eat some rice cakes. If you want to eat something, wait for me to come back at noon to make it."
When we were not doing farm work, we used to have two meals a day, but since my sister-in-law is pregnant, one person eats for two, so Shen Ning thinks it should be three meals a day.
Sang Luo laughed: "Go ahead."
When Shen Ning ran away, Mrs. Chen smiled and said, “A Ning is so close to you.”
While leading Sang Luo to the front door, he said, "Did you hear about the fact that Dashan went into the mountains and found your Aunt Zhou's family?"
Sang Luo nodded: "Wenqing just went to my house. I heard that it was Aunt Zhou and her sister-in-law, nephews and nieces?"
Granny Chen nodded happily, "Your Aunt Zhou was so happy that she was laughing and crying, but her mother and sister-in-law were so envious of our farm. On the way, they heard from Dashan that we registered our household registration in Shezhou, and they were also tempted to go back to Qiyang County. But where can we find a place nearby? Even if we come back a day or two earlier, we can still catch up."
The old lady didn't know that her grandson was troubled by the Lin family members when he went to pick someone up. She said with enthusiasm, "It's said that Dashan can help to ask Mr. Xing to intercede. A place a little further away is also fine. It's better than going back to Qiyang County. Qiyang County is really sparsely populated right now."
As they were talking, they had already reached the door of the house. The old lady wanted to bring a chair for Sang Luo, but Sang Luo waved her hand and said, "No need. I'll go see A Ge and will be back soon."
"Okay, let's do it together."
In Zhou Ge's room, he was lying down with his clothes on, probably because he had just suffered a lot during breakfast. He stood up when he heard Sang Luo talking. Mrs. Chen took the bowl in her hand and said, "Here, A Luo made some crystal jerky. It's sour. Try to eat it and see if it makes you feel better. I think A Luo looks much better this morning."
Zhou Ge had no idea what crystal jerky was. She was afraid of eating it now. But she heard that it was sour, and seeing Sang Luo nod, she tried taking a piece and took a bite. It was actually quite good.
Seeing that she didn't vomit after eating, Mrs. Chen smiled and said, "It works! Then you can eat a little to suppress it, so that your face won't be so pale. Dashan will be heartbroken when he comes back later."
These words made Zhou Ge blush, but before he could reply, he heard the sound of a gong outside.
This voice...the three of them looked at each other.
I haven't heard the sound of gongs for many years. In the years before I went into the mountains, whenever the gong sounded, it meant nothing good. Even Zhou Ge subconsciously felt a little nervous.
Mrs. Chen waved her hand and said, "I don't know what it is. You guys stay in the room. I'll go out and take a look."
After the gong sounded, someone could be vaguely heard saying something. When the second gong sounded, the voice was closer and it sounded like someone was asking everyone in the village to come out.
People who were working in the mountains came down the mountain one after another. Old Man Chen, Chen Youtian, and Qin Fangniang all came down. They didn't even put down their hoes and went to the side of the man beating the gong first.
Sang Luo and Zhou Ge left the room and saw that there were quite a few people gathered there. From a distance they could also see Manager Xu, Uncle Xu, the Zhou family, the Lu family, and the Shi family coming out of their respective mountains.
Sang Luo thought of the long convoy yesterday and felt that it was not a bad thing. She said, "Let's stand farther away and listen."
…
Choose Muramasa.
Sang Luo didn't expect it to be this.
That's right. At present, there are actually no village heads or li heads in each village. There were actually not many people outside Shezhou city before yesterday. Some people moved out of the city, some came out of the mountains, and then there was the group brought back by the governor's wife yesterday. The population outside the city was probably just over a thousand.
The clerk's voice was very clear. He repeated the situation and said, "Our Lord Chu means that the village chiefs of each village and town can be nominated and selected by you. The candidates should be literate and able to win the support of the people. Of course, if there is no such person, an ordinary person can also be selected. After the selection, you can report to the government office from today to tomorrow evening."
"Second, our governor and his wife thought it was difficult for the common people. After several years of chaos, they are short of poultry, livestock, and grain. There is also a shortage of labor for spring ploughing. The governor's wife has traveled thousands of miles from Taiyuan and Chenjun to bring some poultry, livestock, and grain. After the village chief is selected, you can be led by the village chief and take your household registration to the provincial government to buy poultry, livestock, and grain."
There were two things, neither of which was unrelated to everyone, especially the purchase of poultry and livestock. Everyone was thinking of the cows they saw yesterday.
"Sir, can I buy the cow?"
The person asking the questions was Shopkeeper Xu.
Their family was most in need of labor. After a life-and-death experience, they returned to Shezhou. After discussion, the family decided to release Uncle Xu from his household registration and make him a good citizen. Although Uncle Xu was unwilling to leave at all, he was leaving the household but not the home. He always referred to the old lady, A Lang and the madam, and even when he was cultivating the land, he would first cultivate the land of the master's family.
But there are so many plots of land. Together with Wei Qinghe's, there are 90 mu of farmland and more than 60 mu of mountain land. There will be more in the future. How can we manage it all? Once the children go to school, he will not stay at home for long. Manager Xu is also preparing to find one or two helpers in the surrounding villages.
If they had cows, both their own family members and their helpers could save a lot of time.
When he asked this, the official said, "Yes, but those cattle belong to our governor and his wife, so they are not many. Moreover, the governor has to take care of the entire Shezhou, and each county will get a share. Therefore, although they can be sold, they are limited. Each village can only buy one, and a large village with more than ten households can buy two. The same goes for poultry, which is limited by the number of households. Each household can buy a certain amount."
Everyone understands that if Shopkeeper Xu had not brought some chicken and ducklings into the mountains, and if there had not been pheasants later, and the pheasants and pheasants had not continued to reproduce with the domestic hens, these people would probably not even see a feather of chicken or duck when they go out of the mountains now.
The wars of several years have brought so much disaster.
Zhou Cunzheng continued, "I wonder what the price of that cow is now?"
Every family wants a cow, but not everyone has the confidence to buy one. People like Old Man Chen, Old Man Lu and Shi Erlang didn't even dare to ask the price.
The world is relatively peaceful nowadays, but the old grain in the grain store is still sold for more than three hundred coins a dou. Thinking about the past price of grain when it was sixty coins a dou, it is really more far-fetched than even in dreams. They can still dream about it, but they can't even touch the normal price of grain.
As soon as Zhou Cunzheng asked this, everyone looked at the official.
The official smiled, with pride and honor in his smile: "Everyone, because we know that we are going to have spring ploughing here, our governor's wife brought us oxen in their prime. They are not expensive, only fifteen taels each."
Fifteen taels. Sang Luo's eyes showed a look of surprise.
She had no land before entering the mountains, so she didn't know the price of the cow. However, fifteen taels, compared with the current rice price, was only the price of five stone of rice.
How could that be?
Sure enough, the crowd watching started talking.
Sang Luo lived not far from the Chen family, and she couldn't believe what Chen Youtian said: "Dad, the price of cattle has only doubled compared to before."
The price of grain is five times higher than before, but cattle, live cattle, are only twice as expensive?
Old Man Chen's hands were shaking a little: "Yes, yes."
The property they had worked hard for half their lives was basically destroyed by the natural disasters in those few years. Later, they fled to Qiyang County and started over again. After nearly ten years of hard work, they could not withstand the heavy taxes and exploitation. It was not easy for them to live a good life, let alone buy cows. They had to work like cows every year when plowing the fields.
However, being unable to afford one does not mean that one does not care about it. As an old farmer, who doesn't want to own a cow? Occasionally, when I go to the county town, I will go to the cattle market to take a look.
Fifteen taels. Before the war, a bull would weigh seven or eight taels.
If we go to the East Market now, I'm afraid that if that cow is sold as beef, the price would be much higher than this, let alone a live cow?
"Good official, we have met a good official."
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