"Xiao Qi, remember in the beginning, your village used crab baskets. If there is such a good method, why not use it then?"
Feng Gui followed the team, and a total of 6,000 people from 22 villages in Xuancheng County, including Xiaqiu Village, were dispatched.
There are only 20 people in Xiaqiu Village in charge of leading the team, and a team of 300 people is scattered in parts of Danyang Lake and Shijiu Lake.
Compared to the two lakes, six thousand people are still too few. These two lakes were once inhabited, but they were always flooded.
The fields and houses that were finally built were destroyed by the floods.
At present, there are only about 200 households living in this area scatteredly, and the court is not willing to take care of it. They come here to collect the land tax personally, and the wasted time is spent doing other things, which is more than collecting the land tax.
In recent days, they have seen people coming to catch crabs, and they have joined in to get money.
"The riverside at that time was not suitable for digging holes, and there were few manpower. The work was tiring! I didn't eat well, and I couldn't slow down."
When Xiao Qi mentioned what happened in the past, she couldn't help but sigh, and she finally got through it.
"Yes! I have fifty large animals in Xihe Village this year, which is enough. If I make more money, I will share it with everyone. I will follow the example of your village and keep some money for the minister."
Feng Gui then lamented that they were all living the same hard life. Fortunately, Xiaqiu Village tied up a fairy to lead everyone towards a better life.
Your own village must keep up. Once you fall behind, you will not be able to catch up.
"Zhu Xiaoqi, come here." A man of nearly fifty years old greeted Xiaoqi.
Xiao Qi glanced at Feng Gui and walked over: "Uncle Wu, I won't give you the money until tomorrow morning!"
"I know, I know. I've been here for ten days. I come to work at night and get paid in the morning based on the number of crabs I catch.
Let me discuss something with you. I heard everyone say that your Xiaqiu Village leads a group of villages to make money.
I used to have contacts with your village, but then there was a war and it was a mess, so I didn't want to go out.
Do you think my land can grow wheat? After harvesting the rice, nothing has been planted! "
The man named Wu was slightly bent at the waist, with a sad look on his face. He was obviously stimulated, and others began to eat a lot of food.
He did not pay land taxes or do any labor, but his life was miserable.
Xiao Qi showed a sympathetic look: "Uncle Wu, if you can plant it, you can plant it in time. We are south of the Yangtze River. If we move to the north of the Yellow River, it will be too late to plant wheat and there will be no seedlings."
"Then my family will give the money they made recently to your village. Your village will rent our livestock and sell us some seeds. You can go back and discuss it with the village chief?"
This Wu Boti asked. He used the light to carefully look into Xiao Qi's eyes, with a look of pleading in his eyes.
"Uncle Wu, listen to me. Don't worry about the money. You will pay it back after harvesting the wheat next year. You have to eat something good. After planting the wheat, you need to topdress and weed the weeds.
Stay up, you guys usually... ugh! Come with me tomorrow to bring the livestock. First, dig out the land and apply basal fertilizer.
I asked other people to see if they were willing to do it. They happened to be together, with more than 200 households, but they were relatively scattered. "
Xiaoqi nodded and agreed, and he would not charge immediately, but let people use the money to buy things, especially seasonings, cooking fish, and the fish... were in the lake.
"Are you going to discuss it now?" Uncle Wu looked at the stars and estimated the time.
"Discuss with the district chief? No need. The district chief is busy in Nanjing City, so I have the final say. Asking the district chief for everything will tire him out. Hehehehehe..."
Xiao Qi laughed as he spoke. Naturally, the whole village laughed in unison, wanting to laugh.
"Xiao Qi, it doesn't matter what you say...it doesn't matter..."
"What he says works. The business in Xiaqiu Village is booming. What does this mean?" Feng Gui confirmed from the side.
"Great, I'll ask them. If we succeed next year, we will also pay the land tax, but we can't ask the government to catch us. If we are poor, they won't care. If we have more food, they will definitely come to our door."
Uncle Wu said that he would go find other people living nearby. No matter how far away he was, he would have to wait until tomorrow. He could not delay catching crabs.
He thought it through. The yamen really didn't care when there was nothing. If you grow a large area of wheat, you must pay a land tax.
Seeing that at midnight, a boat came over and said: "For each village, our village chief wrote back and asked everyone to pick chrysanthemums with their free hands and use them as medicinal materials. The villages will collect them."
"Where are the chrysanthemums? I haven't seen them near my village. I should have known where to plant some."
"Yes, go east. There are wild chrysanthemums in the tombs. Go pick them."
"I have many villages. I used to look at it and then ignore it. Since it is medicinal material, I picked it."
"Last year they said they were medicinal materials, but your village didn't listen? There were also a lot of them that looked like grass. I sold them to Xiaqiu Village last year and got 422 Wen."
"Your village is close to Xiaqiu Village. Who in our village is in charge of delivering messages? It will delay my making money."
The boat left here and continued to other places to tell the story. The people here tied the crabs with straw and put them in baskets while talking about collecting herbs.
When they get sick, those who are close to the county seat will go to the Huimin Pharmacy in the county seat. They take the medicines available in the pharmacy for home use.
If the drug store didn't have it, they asked which medicine was better and went to the drug store in Xiaqiu Village to get some.
Many medicines in Xiaqiu Village are provided by Tai Hospital, which is equivalent to the village's Huimin Pharmacy. If others come to get medicine, they have to give it to them.
The only drawback is that there is no one to see a doctor, so we can only get prescriptions from outside.
"Collect crabs. They are eaten by rich people. Such a big shell and a little bit of meat are not enough to fit between your teeth."
"It doesn't matter how much it is, as long as it makes money, why don't you take a few back and steam them?"
"Can I go back and buy meat with the money I earn? Do you think I am going to eat crabs? Get some bacon, chop it with vegetables, make dumplings and fry them in oil. This year, in addition to selling the rapeseed oil used to buy livestock, my family also There’s still a lot of gas left.”
"The same goes for my family. I think ramie oil is more fragrant than rapeseed oil. Eating oil really saves food! The leftovers after pressing the oil are used to feed livestock and chickens."
“Without Xiaqiu Village, I can’t imagine how long the hard life would have been.”
…
"Awesome! The masters from Xiaqiu Village are really awesome!"
On the tenth day of September, Magistrate Song went to the government office in the morning and saw the people from Xiaqiu Village and the things they had brought, including crabs and honey.
It was sent to the officials of Quan Ningguo Mansion again. As before, the government officials of Ningguo Mansion and Xuancheng got a share, giving them cotton cloth and salted duck eggs.
It is not suitable for government officials to eat crabs and honey, as they are too luxurious.
The prefect of Song Dynasty paid more attention to the reply. In order to deliver the letter quickly, he sent a small boat all the way down the Qinhuai River and then upstream for a while.
Then came the long journey back. Everything in Xiaqiu Village was delivered, but the boat was still on the way and had not returned.
Magistrate Song invited people from Xiaqiu Village in. He sat at the table and read the letter to express his admiration.
An expert is worthy of being an expert. For the same thing, an expert will do something shady or take advantage of the situation.
Obviously, the people were asked to help with dredging and desilting, and then fertilizing and topdressing.
As a result, the government suffered a loss, the people took advantage, and the quota was limited.
Don't worry, people will definitely work hard. Then the mining of phosphate rock can also be done in the same way, and the people will take it home and grind the stone.
(End of chapter)
