He stretched out first, but his butt didn't hurt because Tao Zhu sewed him a very comfortable cushion.
But after sitting for too long, his shoulders hurt. He moved his hands and feet, then opened the door and walked out.
Tao Zhu's attention was always on the main room. It was getting dark and Li Qiao was about to come out. At this time, he really saw Li Qiao. He immediately stood up from the bench and said, "Are you tired? Brother Qian sent it over. A basket of pomegranates, quite sweet, come and have a taste."
Zheng Qianqian also saw Li Qiao at this time and said hurriedly: "Brother Qiao, come and eat pomegranates, otherwise Li Dashan will eat them up!"
"I didn't!" Li Dashan immediately cried out: "I left it for my uncle!"
"Okay, let me try one."
Li Qiao smiled and spoke.
Transportation in this world is inconvenient, fruits from other places cannot be transported to Pingcheng, and there is no technology to counter-season, so Li Qiao eats very little fruit since he traveled across the world.
Zheng Qianqian's family has a pomegranate tree. Now that the pomegranates are ripe, he has to eat a few more, otherwise he won't be able to eat them in winter.
"The pomegranate that Brother Qian brought over was big, red, and quite sweet, but it was infested with bugs," Tao Zhu said.
"It doesn't matter." It's normal for there to be bugs on the pomegranate, so Li Qiao doesn't care.
When he sat down at the table, Tao Zhu placed a small bowl of peeled pomegranate seeds in front of him, with a spoon in the bowl: "Eat it."
"Thank you, Brother Zhu. Brother Zhu is so kind." Li Qiao thanked him first, then picked up the spoon and started eating.
Tao Zhu smiled softly, picked up another pomegranate, and continued to peel the seeds.
Zheng Qianqian looked at this scene and glanced sideways at Li Dashan: "Li Dashan, hurry up and find a husband who can peel pomegranate seeds for you."
"...I don't want my husband to skin me, I will skin my husband." Li Dashan said quickly.
"Hmph." Zheng Qianqian gave him another look, and then said to Tao Zhu: "Brother Zhu, I don't know how your sweet potatoes are like. Anyway, my sweet potato harvest is bumper this year. My father said that we should eat more sweet potatoes this winter. , otherwise it will definitely go bad."
He said and sighed: "I don't like sweet potatoes."
"I don't like it either. We can definitely eat together." Li Dashan interjected.
Zheng Qianqian ignored him, but still said to Tao Zhu: "Your sweet potatoes are not yet mature. Can I ask my father to send over some sacks? You and Brother Qiao will help you eat some."
"Dashan just brought three sacks with an oxcart in the afternoon. Now my family is not short of sweet potatoes." Tao Zhu shook his head.
"The autumn taxes will be paid in a few days, and my family will pay the sweet potatoes." Zheng Qianqian's face wrinkled.
He really doesn't like sweet potatoes.
"Then when the road is built, everyone will definitely be eating sweet potatoes."
Tao Zhu said.
The summer tax must be paid on wheat, but the autumn tax does not have so many regulations. All miscellaneous grains can be paid.
Some families grow a lot of corn, so give it to them.
Some families grow a lot of sweet potatoes, so they’ll give in sweet potatoes.
After paying the autumn tax, you will immediately have to perform corvee service.
The corvee work in Sanliu Village is to build roads and dig rivers. Each family has a male. The male brings half of his own dry food, and the government will also provide some meals.
The meals provided by the government come from the grain collected in the autumn tax of that year. There are many sweet potatoes in the autumn tax, so the meals provided by the government will definitely be sweet potatoes.
Corn, millet, sorghum and other grains can be stored for a year or two without any problem, but sweet potatoes cannot.
Under normal circumstances, if sweet potatoes are stored in the cellar, they can be stored for three to six months. However, if they are stored longer than this time, they will go bad, so you must eat them as soon as possible.
As for cutting and drying sweet potatoes directly, the government doesn’t have that skill.
The government will only try to eat the sweet potatoes as soon as possible.
"That's true, but I don't have to eat it. My family has to pay for the corvee every year."
Zheng Qianqian said.
You don't have to do corvee labor by paying the money. Five hundred cash per person is enough money that the Zheng family can afford.
In the past, the Tao family could not afford to earn a living, and Tao Zhu looked like a man, so from the age of fourteen, he was the one who did the corvee work for the Tao family.
"My family will also pay money this year," Tao Zhu said.
"But your family must pay for food. Why don't you pay for sweet potatoes too? I'll sell my sweet potatoes to you and Brother Qiao at a cheap price, and you can help consume them."
Zheng Qianqian still wants to push her sweet potatoes out.
His family has no shortage of food, and they keep the sweet potatoes they grow every year for their own consumption. But this year the sweet potatoes are growing well, and the yield per acre is one-third higher than last year, so his family has more sweet potatoes.
In the past few days, there have been sweet potatoes every meal in his house. He doesn't like to eat sweet potatoes, and he wants to get rid of the sweet potatoes at home.
"Li Qiao, what do you think?" Tao Zhu turned to look at Li Qiao, asking for Li Qiao's opinion.
"You can make the decision, it's a small matter." Li Qiao swallowed the sweet pomegranate in his mouth, this is really a small matter.
"Then buy the sweet potatoes from Brother Qian's house," Tao Zhu said.
"Okay! I'll go home and tell my dad." Zheng Qianqian was very happy.
"Let's go back after dinner. When Li Qiao came back today, he caught some small fish. They will be fried later and paired with the barbecue sauce made by Li Qiao. It will definitely taste good."
Tao Zhu wanted to stay with Zheng Qianqian for dinner.
"Okay!" Zheng Qianqian nodded without thinking.
Anyway, the work at home is finished today, so he will stay a little longer.
Well, the business at home has been getting better and better recently, and he has to do a lot of work every day. Li Dashan only sees this fool every day when he goes to his house to buy meat.
After finally coming to his Brother Zhu's house, he stayed a little longer.
Tao Zhu wanted to buy sweet potatoes from Zheng Qianqian's family. The Zheng family delivered the sweet potatoes the next day. This year's sweet potato harvest was bumper, but things are rare and expensive, so the price of sweet potatoes this year will definitely not be as good as last year's.
Like corn, almost every household here in Pingcheng grows sweet potatoes. They grow more in the countryside. People who don’t grow sweet potatoes in the county consume less and cannot transport them. In addition, sweet potatoes are more productive than corn, so the price of sweet potatoes has always been higher than that of corn. Low, two cents a pound.
Tao Zhu didn't ask the Zheng family to lower the price and bought 1,500 catties at two cents per catty.
The reason why we buy so much is because the yield of miscellaneous grains is higher than that of wheat, so the amount of miscellaneous grains taxed in autumn is larger than the amount of wheat taxed in summer.
In addition to paying taxes, Tao Zhu also wants to make some dried sweet potatoes.
Although he hasn't eaten the soft and glutinous dried sweet potatoes made by Li Qiao yet, he believes in Li Qiao.
Now the family has a lot of expenses, and although they earn a lot, in fact, he and Li Qiao have no savings at all.
And now, by three or four o'clock in the afternoon every day, he and Li Dashan and Li Chuntao can finish all the snacks and finish their business, and the remaining time is his own.
He either washes clothes, does housework, or becomes literate, but the clothes cannot be washed every day, and he can finish the housework quickly. If he is literate, he will not take the imperial examination, and he will not have to work as hard as Li Qiao.
In the past, he could still be with Li Qiao, but now Li Qiao was concentrating on studying, so he wanted to find something to do and see if he could develop dried sweet potatoes into a small business.
Naturally, Li Qiao strongly supported Tao Zhu's idea.
If the soft and glutinous dried sweet potatoes are not cooked well, they will not only stick to the teeth, but will also be difficult to chew, but the ones he made certainly do not have these shortcomings.
The dried sweet potatoes he makes are slightly chewy but not chewy, making them suitable for all ages. If it is put up for sale, it will definitely be sold.
The weather has been good recently, so it is very convenient to dry sweet potatoes. If winter comes and the weather is gloomy, it is not suitable for drying sweet potatoes.
Li Qiao asked Tao Zhu to do more cooking while the weather was nice.
"If we make more, if we can't sell them out within a certain time, it will be in our hands." Tao Zhu hesitated.
"Don't worry, this kind of dried sweet potatoes can be stored for a long time. If you can't sell them all in one day, then sell them slowly." Li Qiao said.
"good!"
With Li Qiao's words, Tao Zhu naturally let go.
That evening, Li Qiao stopped reading as usual when it got dark. He came out of the room and prepared to help Tao Zhu and the others make dried sweet potatoes.
At this time, a person appeared at the door of the courtyard. Li Qiao looked carefully and saw the appearance of the person clearly. He was a little surprised.
It was actually the village chief Zhu of Zhujia Village.
Village Chief Zhu was carrying two chickens in his left hand and two ducks in his right hand, with a bright smile with a hint of flattery:
He asked Li Qiao for something.
Wangyuelou's corn business is booming. According to this trend, Wangyuelou will be able to consume all the corn in every household in Sanliu Village before the corn matures next year.
There is no corn in Sanliu Village, so Wangyuelou must buy corn from another company.
He came to Li Qiao, hoping that Li Qiao would give their village the opportunity to supply Wangyue Tower.
Li Qiao's family's three acres of farmland are in his Zhujia Village, and Li Qiao has also fallen in love with the ten acres of special land. In the future, Li Qiao will definitely come to him when buying land.
Therefore, as long as Li Qiao is willing to give the supply quota to Wangyue Tower to Zhujia Village, from now on, the villagers of Zhujia Village will spare five days every month to work for Li Qiao for free.
Although there are only about twenty households in Zhujia Village, if one person from each household works for Li Qiao for free for five days, a lot can be done.
For example, if Li Qiao planted corn and sweet potatoes this year, more than 20 people could not only harvest all the corn and sweet potatoes in five days, but also plant winter wheat.
Li Qiao didn't expect that Village Chief Zhu was looking for him for this matter. After thinking about it for a while, he nodded and agreed.
Village Chief Zhu has a good attitude and offers good conditions, so he has no reason to refuse.
However, he had to confirm with Shopkeeper Wang first to see if Wang Yuelou could consume all the corn in Sanliu Village before the corn matures next year.
It happened that Li Qiao was going to the county town to pick up the iron pipes that were used as sewer pipes on the second day, so Li Qiao made a special trip to Wangyue Tower.
He also brought dried sweet potatoes made by Tao Zhu.
Shopkeeper Wang was very happy to see Li Qiao.
When it comes to the corn business, I feel even happier.
"Last time, the young master Shen Hua, who was learning from the Zheng family, suddenly came to buy a hundred portions of corn juice and fried corn. My dear, the whole Wangyue Tower was busy. I even rolled up my sleeves and shook the meat grinder."
"After I finished my work, I found out that it was Shen Hua's cousin who came to Pingcheng with his friends, so Shen Hua bought so many copies."
"Needless to say, the taste of corn juice and corn braised. Yesterday, a few rich guys came to Wangyue Tower. They are all from Fucheng. They came here specifically to taste the grilled sausage green dumplings with corn juice and corn braised."
Shopkeeper Wang was grinning from ear to ear. There were actually guests from Fucheng who came here to taste the delicacies.
The business has reached Fucheng!
Li Qiao couldn't help laughing after hearing this.
very good.
