Chapter 370: No Complaints

Li obediently stretched out her arm for the doctor to feel. The doctor felt her pulse carefully, then quickly withdrew his hand and congratulated her with a smile, "Congratulations, old lady. The first wife is pregnant and has been pregnant for almost two months."

Zhu Lan paused for a moment and said with a smile, "There is another addition to the family, this is a good thing, Liu Ya will give the doctor a gift."

Zhulan now keeps some small changes of silver in a box. In the past six months, she has trusted Liuya more. Now Liuya can touch money, which was not allowed before.

The doctor received one or two taels of silver as a wedding gift and another one or two taels of silver as consultation fee. After telling the pregnant woman what she needed to pay attention to, Steward Ding sent the doctor away.

Li waited until the doctor left before she recovered. "It turns out she is really pregnant."

Zhulan saw that Li was not in a good condition. Li was indeed under a lot of pressure. Although Li and Wuchun's wife, Wu, were both loud-mouthed peasant women, Wuchun was a general appointed by the emperor himself and the second in command of the garrison. Even if someone despised Wu, no one dared to say it to her face.

It's different for Li. The eldest daughter has no official position and no achievements. After all, Li's confidence comes from the eldest daughter. Although Li is carefree, she will also be anxious. With Zhao and Dong coming, her anxiety will become even more serious.

Zhulan tried to be as gentle as possible to Li and said, "You are a married woman now. If you want to eat something, just tell the kitchen. If you want to buy something, tell me and I will find it for you."

As she spoke, Zhulan motioned to Liuya to bring the money box over. Zhulan opened the money box and took out two five-liang ingots and handed them to Li.

"Take this ten taels of silver. There are many shops on the street now, including those run by foreign merchants. Go and buy whatever you like."

Zhulan thought that giving Li money would make him feel much better, so she gave him a lot of money in the past six months, but he just refused to spend it.

Li held two gold ingots in her hand and asked, "Mom, can I really spend them?"

"Of course!"

Li burst into tears and cried again, "Mom, you are so kind to me."

Zhulan was silent. Li's emotions were fluctuating greatly. Oh, Silly Han had become a crying baby due to the pressure. "Well, it's getting late. You should go back and rest!"

Zhou Laoda was in the joy of becoming a father again. He had another child. "Don't cry. Let's go back and rest."

Li dodged Boss Zhou's hand and said, "I'll take the silver myself, take your hand away."

Boss Zhou, "......."

He just wanted to support his wife.

Zhulan was happy that she was still thinking about money at this time, and it seemed that her anxiety was not too serious.

Half an hour later, Zhou Shuren came back. Zhulan asked, "What did you eat at the government office tonight?"

Zhou Shuren was washing his face. "Mr. Chen's preparations are certainly not bad. Their Jiangnan chef is really good at cooking."

Zhulan had also eaten the food at Lord Chen's house, and it was indeed exquisite and delicious. Among the officials in Lizhou City, Lord Chen was the richest. Lord Chen was not just a nouveau riche, he was truly rich. His family had a large collection of books, including many rare books. Some of the precious rare books were worth tens of thousands of taels. Not counting the books accumulated by generations, just talking about the industry, there were many manors in Jiangnan. Zhulan had always thought that there was only one tea garden, but she didn't expect that Lord Chen's family had two tea gardens.

If you take into account the shop and the house, Mr. Chen's family is really rich.

Having said that, Lord He's family also has money, but Lord He's wife has the money, so he relies on his father-in-law.

Zhu Lan said quietly, "The Emperor specifically hoped that they would donate money out of their own pockets, but you came to stabilize the situation and didn't count on them."

Zhou Shuren changed his clothes and said, "Why do I feel that the emperor would rather confiscate the property?"

Zhulan, "........You are right."

Zhou Shuren stretched his back and said, "The autumn harvest has begun. I have arranged to collect taxes today, so I can have a day or two of leisure."

"I thought you would write a letter to apply for tax exemption this year, but I didn't expect you to apply for a 10% tax."

Zhou Shuren said, "It's not good to just waive it. If you waive it this year, you will want to continue waiving it next year. If you only charge 10% this year, you won't be reluctant to charge an additional 50% next year. But if you waive it directly and then charge 15%, there will be complaints."

Zhulan sighed that this was human nature, and changed the subject: "We dug a pond this year, and there is enough water for irrigation of the fields. It is also a year of good weather and good harvest. This year is a year of good harvest."

When the seeds were distributed, each household received one-third sweet potato seeds, one-third potatoes, and the remaining one-third was divided into half corn and half soybeans.

Even if I pay 10% tax this year, I won’t be able to eat enough, but at least I won’t be hungry.

Zhou Shuren not only went outside the city, but also visited several nearby counties. This year's harvest was indeed good. He also went to see the fat pigs, because he could get coarse grains for pig feeding from the government office. The pigs were growing well. Also, every seven days, special government officials went door to door, and the people did not dare to embezzle the grain for pig feeding.

He didn't even have to look for merchants, merchants would come to him. Sausages were so popular that he was always in short supply of pork.

Zhulan and Zhou Shuren lay down. Just before falling asleep, Zhulan realized that she had forgotten to tell Zhou Shuren that he had another grandson or granddaughter. Forget it, let's talk about it tomorrow.

The next day, Zhou Shuren heard the news, said he understood, and then that was it. In Zhou Shuren's heart, he had one more grandson, so he had to prepare an extra betrothal gift for one more grandson. And one more granddaughter, well, he had to prepare an extra dowry!

Time passed quickly and the autumn harvest was over in a blink of an eye. Zhulan's family did not plant potatoes and sweet potatoes. Instead, they planted corn, wheat and rice. The land in Lizhou City was really not as fertile as that in the Northeast, and the grain output was really low.

If Lizhou City does not develop some other industries, even if there is no war, Lizhou City will still be the foundation of all Zhili states.

Zhulan's food was not sold. After drying, it was all stored in the granary.

Zhou Shuren also collected taxes. One tenth of the grain was not much, but Zhou Shuren stipulated that one third of the grain should be sweet potatoes, one third potatoes, and the remaining one third corn or something else. It was not allowed to pay all sweet potatoes or potatoes.

The main problem is that sweet potatoes and potatoes cannot be stored in granaries because they will sprout before the end of the year.

Zhulan looked at Zhou Shuren with a frown on his face, "Hasn't the food tax been collected? Why are you still worried?"

Zhou Shuren said quietly, "Taxes are collected, but most of them are from sweet potatoes and potatoes. I thought of sending someone to learn how to make vermicelli with money, and then come back to teach some merchants who want to do vermicelli business. Of course, they can learn for free, but the prerequisite is to exchange grain for potatoes and sweet potatoes in the granary."

Zhulan likes to eat hot and sour noodles, and also likes to eat potato noodles. Why didn't she think of buying some noodles to eat? "You have already thought about it, why are you still worried?"

Zhou Shuren smiled and said, "I'm worried about who will pay for my studies. It's not easy to choose the right person."

Zhu Lan thought about it and realized that it was indeed a difficult choice. She patted Zhou Shuren on the shoulder and said, "I can't help you with this. Think about it slowly!"

There are two more

(End of this chapter)