Chapter 61 060. You really dare to say that
The new rice in the village is weighed uniformly.
Because new rice is subject to tax, one season's tax is paid for one season's rice, and two seasons' tax is paid twice. Calculated based on the yield per mu, the tax rate is about 10%.
Taxes are a big deal for the country and the court, so the village chief must weigh them carefully and record them in the file. When the government officials come to collect the tax rice, he will check them one by one through the tax book.
Originally, they were called in order, with the village chief's house being the first, followed by the head of the village, the middle of the village, and finally the end of the village. Lei Li's house was the last.
Lei Li was not in a hurry. He was just planning to have lunch before riding the ox cart to plant rice, but he didn't expect Niu Ershu to call them there early, saying that it was the village chief who asked him to go.
That's fine.
It is better to know it earlier.
This is the slack season for farmers.
Many people in the village came to watch the fun, to see which family planted the least rice and which planted the most, and whether they could learn from their experience and plant as much rice next season.
We are all from the same village, we see each other every day, and most people won't hide anything from others.
But there are only a few methods: choose good seeds, pull out more weeds, apply fertilizers at the right time, and divert water at the right time. All of these can be discussed in casual conversations.
——Except the Lei Li family.
His family raised ducks and fish in the fields. They didn't often pick out snails and went to the county town to open a shop, as if they had abandoned the paddy fields.
The gossip in the village started again.
"Farmers are the ones who dig for food in the fields. If we don't work on the fields, how will we eat next year?"
"Now that I'm rich, I'm making a living in the county town..."
"Even business can go wrong someday. The land belongs to us and can be passed down to our sons and grandsons. Besides, didn't the Lei family buy another piece of land? They planted some sweet potatoes and left it alone. Really..."
"Maybe they don't like these little sweet potatoes anymore."
At that time, the news of Lei Ji Fast Food Restaurant's booming business had not yet spread back to the village.
When they found out that Lei Li and Zhou Yi were indeed making money, those gossipers in the village started discussing how much they could earn. Those who loved to calculate started to covet the Lei family's money again - or to put it bluntly, they wanted to wipe out the family.
But after seeing Zhou Yi's lack of understanding of romance and Lei Li's ruthless methods - after intimidating all those who wanted to steal her away, the calculating ones stopped talking.
Those who love to gossip are doing very well, and they even gossip across the village to the next door. Only the village chief still remembers the "rice-fish-duck farming system" that Lei Li told him in the spring.
He wanted to see if this thing was useful. If the rice didn't grow much, an extra harvest of ducks and fish would also be good, and autumn planting could be promoted in the village.
As soon as they saw Lei Li's family coming, the village chief immediately asked people to make way for them. Hundreds of people stared at the rice scale of Lei Li's family with sharp eyes.
Zhou Yi felt a little uncomfortable being stared at, like a gorilla performing in a zoo.
A sack of rice can hold about 200 kilograms.
But some families grow less rice, so in order to save face, they will pack less rice in the bag. More than 180 or 190 kilograms of rice are also considered one bag.
Lei Li's family had five bags, which looked full and no one could tell how much was in them.
All weighed.
Then add them together.
The village chief looked at the number in the account book, was stunned for several seconds, and then said, "One thousand and six kilograms. Lei Dashan's family, two acres of medium-sized paddy fields, produced one thousand and six kilograms of new rice."
"Young Master Duo?"
Some people were so shocked that they were speechless.
"1006 jin."
The village chief said slowly, "That means one mu of land produces 500 kilograms of rice."
“Oh my god…”
"One acre of land yields 500 kilograms of rice..."
"How long has it been since our village produced 500 kilograms of rice per mu? Only the village next door..."
There was a lot of discussion at the moment.
Lei Li is a butcher and is very sensitive to weight. He knew roughly how much rice his family could produce a few days ago, so his expression didn't change much.
Lei Dashan and Liu Ye'er had heard about it from Lei Li and had an idea in their minds, but now when they heard the exact number, they were a little shocked and also felt a sense of pride.
You always say that we don’t know how to farm and ruin the land. Now you know who is more awesome, right?
Only Zhou Yi didn't know the agricultural output here and thought it was a little low. He whispered to Lei Li,
"I think this rice seed is not good enough. When I return to the county, I will ask Zhang Daqiang at the port if he has rice seeds that can produce 600 to 700 kilograms."
Zhang Daqiang has been in the port for many years. He has many brothers and is well-informed about gossip. He is much more reliable than Niu Dashu and Niu Ershu who just listen to the nonsense of businessmen.
“…”
Lei Li glanced at him and said, "How dare you say that? We just produced 500 kilograms of rice and you're already asking for 600 or 700 kilograms."
"……ah?"
Zhou Yi didn't understand what was going on, so he whispered seriously, "Don't you think it's a little too little?"
Zhou Yi's thinking is still stuck in the modern era, so he subconsciously uses modern times for comparison.
Modern rice fields can produce 900-1200 kilograms per mu. In the "Grain King Competition" held in Zhou Yi's hometown, some farmers were able to achieve an astonishing yield of 800 kilograms per mu, which is more than 1600 kilograms.
But this is the Daiyu Dynasty with low productivity.
"Do you know?"
Lei Li looked like a fool who couldn't tell the difference between different kinds of grains. "The family in the village that grows the best rice and has the best paddy fields only produced less than 500 kilograms per mu last year. The others, including the village chief's family, only produced 350-450 kilograms per mu of paddy fields."
"Do you know how much silver one mu of land with 500 catties of rice can fetch? Based on the county's price of five cents per catty of rice, that's five taels of silver, or two and a half taels of silver."
One mu of land produces 50 more kilograms.
After paying 10% tax, you can get nearly 45 kilograms of rice, which is enough for an adult man to eat for more than a month, and for two months if a boy eats less.
"oh……"
Zhou Yi suddenly realized something, and then he noticed another point, "New rice in the county town is indeed quite expensive. It only sells for three cents and a half per pound in the town market."
"It's expensive to sell, but much cheaper to buy. If it's sold at the government office, it's only three cents."
Lei Li curled his lips and said, "A year's worth of rice at the county rice shop also sells for three cents, but the county government collects a lot and pays quickly, so some wealthy landowners will also sell to the county government."
"The rice shop charges four cents per pound, but they can't afford this much new rice, and they might even delay paying."
While Lei Li and Zhou Yi were talking, the village chief and the farmers in the village had already started chatting with Lei Dashan about farming.
Although the rice-fish-duck symbiotic system was proposed by Zhou Yi, the person who actually implemented it was Lei Dashan, who had been taking care of the paddy fields, so he knew the details best.
"By the way, when do you want to sell those ducks and fish?"
Zhou Yi asked Lei Li, "If we keep them in the fields, we still have to feed them. Now we can sell them and save time and effort. Or we can take them back to the store and cook them so we don't have to buy meat anymore."
"Let's raise the duck a little bigger."
Lei Li thought for a moment and said, "As for the fish, we'll ask the villagers if they want any. If they do, we'll sell them at a low price. If not, we'll cook them in the store."
The rice field fish is carp.
There are relatively few bones and the meat is relatively delicious. Many people in the village like to eat it, but it tastes better when stewed with wolfberry leaves or with big fish head and tofu.
That's why Lei Li always accused Zhou Yi of being a spendthrift. He clearly had fish at home, but he still went out of his way to buy fish heads to cook, saying that carp have small bones and are full of them, and he was afraid that Zhou Yi would scratch his throat...
How old is he?
Can you prick yourself while eating fish?
—
In the afternoon, Lei Li and Zhou Yi returned to the county town with four bags of new rice and two buckets of rice field fish.
The fish were what was left after being sold to the village.
Lei Dashan and Liu Ye'er stayed in the village to look after their home and fields, and passed on their experience to the farmers in the village. Now that their store in the county town had become stable, they decided not to go there anymore.
Lei Li left a bag of new rice for the two elders.
He refused to sell the four bags of rice he brought, and kept them for himself and Zhou Yi to eat. It was mainly because Zhou Yi begged him to do so, saying that old rice was bad for Lei Li's health, while new rice was nourishing, that Lei Li agreed.
Otherwise, you can sell it in the county town and buy old rice in the town market, and make a profit of about one or two taels of silver from the difference.
The old rice in the town is cheap.
During the days when rice was harvested in the village, Lei Ji Fast Food Restaurant was not open, but as soon as I came back, it was full of customers.
"Since your restaurant is closed, I've tried all the fast food restaurants around here. Some of them are terrible and expensive. There are two that are good, but the flavor is a little off."
Bald Zhang Daqiang ate the meat with big mouthfuls and said loudly, "It's clearly all chicken, duck, fish, and meat, all cooked with oil, salt, and fire. I don't know how your husband cooked it, but the more I eat, the more delicious it becomes. I don't feel sick at all."
"My husband's exclusive recipe, passed down from generation to generation, is naturally delicious."
Lei Li smiled and said, "By the way, besides the rice seeds, my husband asked me to find some chili peppers for Daqiang. Has Daqiang got any news?"
"have!"
Bald Zhang Daqiang patted his chest and said smugly, "Brother Qiang is here, one man is worth two!"
"Don't you want grass with green leaves, small white flowers, and long, red fruits? I asked dozens of brothers and finally found it for you."
"There's a village in Zhongchuan Prefecture that grows this kind of grass. The village becomes vibrant red in summer and autumn, and it's often sold to landlords and nobles in the county and prefecture for viewing."
"Zhongchuan Fucheng?"
Lei Li had the impression that there was this provincial capital, but it was very far away from here, almost one in the center of Dayou Dynasty and the other at the southern end of Dayou Dynasty.
"It's Yuan."
Zhang Daqiang smiled and said, "You're lucky. A big rice merchant came to our county to collect new rice to sell in the north. He happened to have brought a few pots of red fire grass. You can buy some from him."
"And he'll be here tomorrow."
It's like a pillow is given to you when you are sleepy.
Zhou Yi was still wondering about the lack of chili powder to make sour wild vegetables two days ago, but now he knew where the chili peppers were, and he got up early the next day excitedly.
Although the boat didn't arrive until noon.
But Zhou Yi was full of energy. He went to the butcher's shop to buy meat and collected vegetables from the vegetable seller. He opened the shop an hour earlier than usual.
Lei Li looked at him with a half-smile, whispering teasingly in his ear, "If I had known you were so energetic, I shouldn't have let you sleep quietly last night..."
"ah?"
Zhou Yi blinked, then realized what Lei Li meant. His ears turned red, and before he could say anything, he heard Zhang Daqiang running over and saying,
"Zhou Yi, the big merchant's ship has arrived!"
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