After hearing this, Ms. Yang shook her head: "This half-fresh sheep is not cheap!"
Su Guangfu also nodded: "Yes, not to mention there is a rabbit. I originally said that I would let you come to eat, but in the end, you added so much!"
Sun Guixiang put a mouthful of green vegetables into her mouth: "Sister, it's boring for you to say that! Then why didn't you tell me that I used so much salt to pickle the radish strips?"
Li San'er also nodded hurriedly: "Salt is really...can't stop eating it, but it's so expensive! What's more, it's refined salt!"
Su Guangfu and Yang looked at each other. The two of them had not told anyone that Su Qingluan could refine salt by herself - and they could not tell anyone.
Otherwise, once this hole is opened, if someone takes the refined salt made by Su Qingluan and sells it, the Su family will not be able to tell how many mouths there are.
So when they faced each other, they could only say that the refined salt was bought from outside - anyway, the Su family could easily spend a large sum of money to renovate the house in the courtyard. Buying some refined salt should be a no-brainer and would not arouse any suspicion.
But the fact that the Su family could afford it still couldn't change the fact that salt - even coarse salt - was expensive.
In fact, Su Qingluan has long discovered that in this era, seasonings are more luxurious and expensive items than ingredients.
Hearing her husband's sigh, Sun Guixiang's smile also faded: "Isn't that right? The price of salt has increased recently - our Huaxi Village is obviously so close to the salt mine, but the use of salt is not cheap at all!"
Li San'er pushed his wife and lowered his voice: "Keep your voice down! What are you talking about about the price of salt?!" He glanced at Yang and Su Guangfu opposite him, "I also want my brother and sister-in-law from the Su family to be kind people, otherwise if I don’t know what will happen if I’m told!”
Su Qingluan was shocked when she heard this: Yes, in this era, the price of salt is monopolized by the government. Common people are dissatisfied with the price of salt and talk about it. Isn't that...
Sun Guixiang also realized that she had made a mistake. She mumbled and said nothing for a long time, and finally turned to another matter: "The price of salt has risen, and the winter vegetables this year will be much less."
Su Qingluan raised her head and looked at Sun Guixiang: "Auntie, what winter vegetables are you talking about?" Is it the winter vegetables she was thinking of?
She really guessed it right.
Sun Guixiang and Li San knew that Su Qingluan had just been recognized not long ago. Although they did not know about her high fever and amnesia, they felt that the adoptive family might be elsewhere and the living environment was different from that of Huaxi Village, so they talked about it. She talked about what it was like in the village every winter.
It turns out that although Huaxi Village is not located in the extremely cold north, there are still one or two months every year where the weather is freezing and the ground is frozen for thousands of miles.
In this kind of weather, all the wild beasts and birds in the mountains migrate southward and hide in winter; the fish and shrimp in the streams are almost extinct because of the thick ice layer.
As for the fields that were originally rich in crops, not a single blade of grass grows in winter.
Under such circumstances, in order to survive the winter, the villagers naturally have to prepare various winter vegetables to cope with the lack of food in the long winter - after all, although it is only about two months when the ice is frozen for thousands of miles, it will last from late autumn until the following spring. When flowers bloom every year, the time span for lack of food can be much longer than a month or two.
In this era, there were no root crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes that were particularly cold-resistant and could satisfy hunger, and there was no culture of Chinese cabbage that could survive the winter and was very durable in storage.
Therefore, in many cases, people can only pickle and dehydrate the food as much as possible, and then dry it to make dried vegetables, or wrap it in heavy seasonings and turn it into jerky, etc., in order to preserve the food for a long time.
However, the biggest problem is that many villagers have not even eaten their last meal, let alone stored winter vegetables or preserved meat - they don't even have the extra money to buy a lot of meat.
Su Qingluan couldn't help but think of the time when she had just traveled through time, and how the Su family looked like they had little soup and little water all day long, and had plenty of wild vegetables every day.
She couldn't help but be a little curious - obviously everyone was farming, why didn't everyone pick the vegetables and grains from the fields to eat, except for the vegetables in their own small gardens?
Su Qingluan was really curious, so she asked, but Sun Guixiang sighed in surprise: "Hey, my dear, were you adopted by some fairy priest before? You don't even know that. Does Tian need to collect rent?”
Being a little embarrassed, Su Qingluan's face turned red: "Of course I know, but not all the harvest goes back to rent, right? You can always eat some for yourself..."
"Who would dare to eat so much before paying for food?" Li San shook his head and smiled bitterly, "If there is a natural disaster and there is not enough food, not to mention whether there is any leftover, I am afraid that hard labor will be used to replace the non-payment."
Su Qingluan gasped when she heard it: "How much tax do you have to pay!"
"Our land is owned by an owner. If we can get more than five out of ten, it will be considered good!" Sun Guixiang sighed.
Su Qingluan had actually heard before that in ancient times, from a national level, taxes in many dynasties were not high, basically less than one-tenth. However, a lot of farmland is privately owned by landlords, so many ordinary people often pay taxes at multiple levels, so the tax rate is very heavy.
It’s no wonder that everyone is working hard to farm and hunt and work to support their families, but there are still not many people who have any savings at home.
This was the first time she realized the weight of ancient "exorbitant taxes".
"Hey... every year, many children and elderly people in the village who cannot stand it freeze to death and starve to death..." Sun Guixiang couldn't continue mid-sentence.
Su Qingluan understood that being frozen to death was the next best thing. More importantly, in this cold weather, without enough food, starving to death would be a matter of time.
In fact, Su Qingluan had heard before that the winter in Huaxi Village was difficult, so she was so anxious to make money so that her family could have enough energy to prepare winter vegetables and survive the long winter.
Now, she already has money that others think will last her half a lifetime, so she doesn't have to worry about storing vegetables for winter - as long as she prepares plenty of dried vegetables and dried meats before winter comes, her family will definitely be able to survive the long period of time. Winter.
So what if it takes a lot of salt to prepare pickled food? Their family can afford it.
But now, looking at Li Sanshu and Sun Guixiang, whose faces were still fresh but worried about storing vegetables for the winter, he thought of his new friends Tian Xing'er and Liu'er, as well as the many people around him these days. Or some of the neighbors who helped her and her family...
Although there are occasional weirdos like Zhao Tianbao's family, the vast majority of people are kind and enthusiastic. Although Su Qingluan didn't get along with these villagers for a long time, he had gradually developed a attachment to this small village - just like he did to his father, mother, younger brothers and sisters in the Su family.
This place seems to be gradually becoming her second home after her previous life.
But maybe after this winter, those friendly, enthusiastic, and vivid faces in my memory may turn into cold corpses.
Does she really want to watch this tragedy happen?
