The Female Officer Became a Farmer After Getting Reborn

  Chapter 40 Paying Taxes and Planting

  Li Yu came out of Li Mei's house, and when he got home, Mrs. Qian looked at Li Yu and frowned, "Xiaoyu, the village chief came just now, and the village chief said that he will pay the land tax and poll tax tomorrow."

  Li Yu looked at Qian, "Aunt Qian, do you still have to pay taxes if your family has no land?"

"Why don't you pay it! It's okay now, there are only the head tax and the land tax. I heard from the old man that there were various taxes in the previous dynasties. At the most, you even had to pay the tax for drinking water!" Qian Shi smiled bitterly, "Fortunately, you This earns wages, otherwise my family would not have the money to pay the head tax of 200 yuan per person."

"Yeah! It's still our common people who suffer." After hearing this, Li Yu felt that the people who lived at the bottom in ancient times were really hard. All kinds of taxes and labor, and when they encountered natural and man-made disasters, they could only sell them. Children sell their daughters and even starve to death on the streets. It is no wonder that the great poet Du Fu wrote poems about the stinking wine and meat of Zhumen, and the frozen bones on the road.

Early the next morning, when Li Yu went to the Shunfeng Inn, he saw the villagers pulling food in twos and threes to the village chief's house. After Li Yu returned from the Shunfeng Inn, he asked the yamen if he could pay for the grain, and he simply handed over the money. It also saves the need to send food to Qingshan City.

After the tax was levied, the yamen began to recruit labor to repair the river. The village was bleak for a while, and everyone sighed. The rich paid three taels of silver to be exempted from labor, and the poor could only do hard labor to repair the river. The money was paid to relieve Liu Changmin from the hardships of labor.

  After paying the taxes, Li Yu also had a mind and started preparing for winter planting.

Li Yu was about to start digging the cistern. Li Yu chose a few low-lying places, and went to the blacksmith shop to order two shovels and two wide-toothed iron rakes. He hired Chen Yaohui and his wife to take him with him. Together with Mr. Li and Mr. Qian, they dug several cisterns into two-meter squares, and left a water inlet flush with the ground to facilitate the drainage of water into the cisterns on rainy days.

  The soil dug out of the cistern was then raised and reinforced around the pond. Chen Yaohui borrowed a stone batter from the village and rammed the soil around the pond.

   Several people were busy for a few days before digging the reservoir. After Li Yu selected the fields for rapeseed and wheat, Chen Yaohui drove the oxen to plow the field, and Li Yu took Qian and Li to start spreading fertilizer.

   Mr. Li grabbed a handful of rotten leaf soil and smelled a sour and rotten smell. Mrs. Li felt strange. Where did Li Yu learn to use the rotten soil in the forest, Mr. Li wondered if it could be used? If it's a waste of time to repair the land, it will cost money and seeds.

Li Shi smiled and asked Li Yu, "Xiaoyu, look at the wasteland that others have opened up. The land is much fatter than yours, and it will take three or four years to raise it. You can really raise the land with these rotten leaves. come out?"

"Aunt Li, I'm just thinking about it, I think the leaves fall off in autumn and rot in the woods together with the weeds, piled up year after year, and tumbled into the ground, only to become this black rotten leaf soil. It may be the rotten leaf soil that makes the trees and weeds in the forest grow so lush, I thought that my family is not fat anyway, so I will try it with this rotten leaf soil."

   After hearing this, Mrs. Li felt that what Li Yu said also made sense, "Xiaoyu, after you said that, even I wanted to try it."

   Li Yu smiled, "Why don't you try it?"

After a few people finished spreading the fallen leaf fertilizer, Chen Yaohui plowed the ground again with a rake, dividing the ground into six-foot-wide compartments, and driving out the compartment and surrounding ditches for drainage. Everyone was busy until the end of August before all the land was plowed. tidy up.

   Li Yu's bean paste is also dried. After sealing the sauce tank, he will not stir it. He is ready to go to the restaurant to sell it when he has free time.

Li Yu began to tidy up the seed bed, mixed the rotten leaf fertilizer, fine soil and plant ash, and spread a thick layer on the divided ground compartment, ready to sow rapeseed. When the seed bed was ready, Li Yu put the The rapeseed seeds that have been screened for shriveled seeds were exposed to the sun for two days, mixed with plant ash and evenly spread on the seed bed, and then covered with the mixed fine ash soil.

   Mrs. Li and Mrs. Qian followed Li Yu to sow seeds and were surprised by Li Yu's intensive farming method.

   Rapeseeds were planted, and Li Mei's house was finally completed. Li Mei's family came to help Li Yu plant wheat.

Li Yu brought out the selected wheat seeds. In order not to make the wheat seeds rejuvenate, Li Yu spread the wheat seeds on the drying mat. After two consecutive days of drying, he mixed the wheat seeds with grass and wood ash, and took out the iron wide-toothed plow. Rake, tie a large rock to the back of the rake, pull the wheat field out of the trench, spread the wheat seed in the trench, and finally use the wooden rake to pull the soil to cover the wheat seed.

After the seeds were sown, a few people started watering, and it started to rain just after a day of watering. Li Mei also laughed at Li Yu's good luck. It started to rain when the watering started. It got colder when it stopped.

  Li Yu took out cotton and cloth and gave it to Qian, and asked her to make cotton-padded clothes and cotton shoes. He and Xiao An started to burn charcoal.

In the back mountain forest, Li Yu found a piece of Qinggang forest, planted the green gang fruit and let Xiao An go home. Li Yu specially picked the thick trunk and cut it down, and dug a few holes in the open space to burn charcoal. Fangjin covered the hole with soil and lit the fire, and Xiao An came to Li Yu to go back, saying that Ah Qing's husband had come to thank her.

  Li Yu pointed to the upper and lower smoke vents of the pothole, and instructed Xiao An: "Xiao An, when you see that the fire has burned to the hole below, plug the upper and lower holes with soil, remember?"

   Xiao An nodded and said, "I remember."

  Li Yu then walked back with confidence. As soon as he arrived at the gate of the courtyard, he saw Jixiang and the troublesome sitting at the entrance of the main room, and there were a pile of gifts under the eaves.

   Jixiang will kneel when he sees Li Yu coming forward, "Miss Li, thank you for your life-saving grace."

  Li Yu hurriedly stopped him from kneeling down, and smiled politely: "It's easy, don't be more polite, and I've already taken the thank you!"

Zhou Jia bowed and saluted, "Miss Li, the gift of saving your life cannot be confused with the thing you took. Our masters and servants only escaped by your righteous help," Zhou Jia said and bowed to Li Yu to the end. "Miss Li, our master and servant are sincerely here to thank you for your life-saving grace."

  Li Yu saw that Zhou Jiachang couldn't bear it, smiled and said: "Mr. Zhou, I have received your thanks. Besides, the matter has passed, and I will forget you if you don't come."

   Zhou Jia got up only then, smiled at Li Yu and said, "Okay, we're all over, please accept Miss Li as a gift."

  Li Yu looked at the pile of gift boxes piled there, and nodded with a smile, "Okay! I'll accept the gift, and this matter is over, okay?"

Seeing that Li Yu had accepted the gift, Zhou Jia also put down a concern, and smiled at Li Yu: "Okay, just listen to Miss Li, this matter is over," Zhou Jia changed her tone, "Miss Li, Your younger brother is very gifted in studying, do you want to continue to train him to gain fame?"

  Li Yu thought for a moment, "It is important to get the title and honor the ancestors, but it also depends on what Ah Qing thinks. If he wants to go further, I agree."

   Zhou Jia nodded and said, "Okay, I know what to do. Miss Li, we will leave."

   "Okay, Mr. Zhou, please walk slowly." Li Yu sent Zhou Jia and Jixiang to the door and turned back to the house.

   Qian looked at Li Yu and said with a smile: "Xiaoyu, why does Mr. Zhou look prettier than the girl this week? Look at him standing there in a gentle manner, looking like a painting."

   Li Yu nodded with a smile, "Yeah! He's quite handsome, but it's just too troublesome."

   Aunt Qian thought that Li Yu thought it was troublesome for Mr. Zhou to have too much courtesy, and said with a smile: "Oh! They are scholars like that, with great courtesy."

  Li Yu walked into the main room holding the gift box, "Yeah! There are quite a lot of gifts."

   (end of this chapter)