The clothes on the three brothers were frozen with ice, and they were shivering from the cold.
Jiang Dalang was still sneezing and rubbing his nose.
Seeing this, Mrs. Zhou quickly pulled her husband to the stove and asked him to take off his clothes and warm himself up.
Old man Jiang and his wife were also very busy. They first asked their grandson to get clothes, and then ordered their granddaughter to boil hot water, wash their faces and hands, and change their clothes for the eldest, second, and third children.
"Oh, my whole body is wet, and my hair is frozen."
Old Mrs. Jiang was so anxious that she hurriedly rummaged for dried dogwood and boiled water for the children to take away the cold.
Jiang Sanlang warmed himself up a bit, and soon recovered. Together with his thirteen-year-old nephew, he put the fish into a large water tank at home for temporary storage, and ate two bowls of hot noodles before returning home.
At this moment, Chun Niang and her children were lying on the kang and taking a nap. When she saw her husband raising the curtain and coming in, she quickly got up.
"Why are you so late? Have you eaten? I'm going to heat up the rice." Chun Niang stepped onto the kang with a light hand, preparing food for her husband.
"Don't be busy, I've already eaten at my eldest brother's house."
Jiang Sanlang sat on the edge of the Kang, took off his shoes, got into the warm bed, and sighed, "It's so warm."
Chun Niang took the cloth and returned to the kang. While wiping her husband's hair, she asked in a low voice: "Why is your hair wet and it fell into the river?"
"No." Jiang Sanlang said with a low smile: "We had a great harvest today. We caught several big fish, all of them four feet long."
Chun Niang was surprised: "Four feet? How much does that weigh? The fish we usually see by the river are only three or four pounds at most and only two or three feet long. Why do we always encounter big fish this year?"
Jiang Sanlang put his hands behind his head and said leisurely: "The river in our area is deep and there are no serious fishermen, so we don't have the chance to see it."
He turned to look at his wife: "I will go to the town to go to the market tomorrow morning. Take a look at what else is needed at home, and I will buy it all. New Year's Day is coming soon, and I have to prepare all the new year's goods at home. Yingbao is getting bigger now.
, I’ll also buy some clothes for my little girl.”
"Okay, let me think about what to buy..."
It was dark the next day, so Jiang Sanlang got up early and went to the kitchen to get a pole and bucket to carry water.
After filling the water tank, he hurried out of the house and went to meet his eldest brother at his house.
When Mrs. Zhou saw her third uncle coming, she quickly invited him to have breakfast and said, "Your eldest brother seems to be ill. He may not be able to go to Jishang today."
"Sick?" Jiang Sanlang was surprised and asked, "Do you want to see a doctor?"
"I'll ask Dacheng to invite you later." Mrs. Zhou said with a sad face: "Your elder brother still had a fever at night. I'm a little worried..."
Jiang Sanlang: "How about I go to the town to hire a doctor? The ones in the village are not that good after all."
There is someone in their village who knows a little bit about Qihuang, but he can only treat common minor illnesses, not serious ones. Not only is it a matter of medical skills, but also because he doesn't have any good medicinal materials at hand.
After dinner, Jiang Sanlang saw that his second brother hadn't come for a long time, so he asked his nephew Jiang Quan to visit his house.
As a result, Jiang Quan came back from a run and told him that his second uncle was also sick and had a fever.
Jiang Sanlang had no choice but to borrow a donkey cart from Chen Cunzheng's house. He and his second nephew Jiang Quan went to the town to sell fish and seek medical treatment.
There are a lot of people in the town today because it is the end of the year and everyone is going to the market to buy new year's goods.
Jiang Sanlang weighed a large fish in advance, weighing about seventy kilograms.
If the price is ten cents per catty, the whole fish can be sold for more than seven hundred cents.
but.
Jiang Sanlang told his second nephew that the live fish could be sold in strips for 900 coins each; the dead fish could be sold in pounds and weighed at ten coins per pound.
The price can be said to be quite expensive, but Jiang Sanlang is confident that his fish will be sold.
Sure enough, many people came to watch, many asked, few bought, and everyone thought it was expensive.
Then a rich man came and bought two big live fish at one time, and the others hurriedly paid for it.
Because there were only eight big fish in total, only five were alive. Two were bought at once, leaving only three.
The second nephew, Jiang Quan, smiled from ear to ear. While weighing the fish, he said to Jiang Sanlang: "Third uncle, our fish are really easy to sell."
Jiang Sanlang smiled, but his eyes glanced at the crowd.
He saw Xiang Zhi again, and there was another person beside Xiang Zhi, who seemed to be a tax collector as well.
Jiang Sanlang sighed inwardly and quickly picked up two medium-sized live fish and put them in the donkey cart.
There are many types of taxes in the imperial court, including local tax, household tax, young crop tax, city tax, fishery tax, carriage and horse tax, etc. Jiang Sanlang now accounts for three of them.
The city tax must be paid, but it is hard to say the fishery tax, carriage tax, and horse tax.
Because this donkey cart is not his own, maybe Chen Cunzheng has handed it over to him.
But if these tax collectors are unreasonable, you will have to pay it again after using it without accepting any rebuttal.
As for the fishing tax, even though he catches fish and sells them at the market, if he really cares about it, he still has to pay it.
"The people from Chencun are here to sell fish again?"
The forty-year-old Xiangzhi walked over expressionlessly and pointed to the remaining fish on the ground, "You have opened the market, it's time to pay taxes."
Jiang Sanlang hurriedly responded with a smile, took out ten coins and handed it to Xiangzhi. He also took out a fish hidden in the donkey cart and handed it over: "It's almost the festival, and we don't have anything good at home. I've specially left this for you to try."
Try something new.”
Xiangzhi was not polite, reached out to take it, and said to the side, "This is my colleague, he is responsible for the fish tax."
Jiang Sanlang was quick-sighted and quickly took out another fish and handed it to the person next to him: "A little kindness is not a sign of respect. I am also taking advantage of the end of the year to come over and sell some fish to supplement my family income."
Yuzhi took it with a smile, "Yes, I understand, but I won't do it again."
After seeing off the two great gods, Jiang Sanlang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, there are still two big live fish left to sell, but the dead fish are sold for about seven or eighty percent.
Jiang Sanlang asked his nephew to look after the stall, and he went to the only pharmacy in town to seek medical advice.
Unexpectedly, when I arrived at the drug store, I saw that it was full of people, all coming to see a doctor.
The only doctor in the shop was so busy that he refused to see anyone.
Jiang Sanlang begged for a long time, but the old man still refused and asked the medicine boy to ask him out.
There was no other way, so Jiang Sanlang had to ask him to prescribe two pairs of typhoid and antipyretic medicines and carry them back.
When I returned to the donkey cart, I saw the fox-skin hat that day was haggling with Jiang Quan with his belly bulging out.
"I'm a regular customer of yours. Why, two fishes won't cost you a hundred cents?"
Jiang Quan said aggrievedly: "No one can bargain like you. It's only a hundred coins. How can I sell it to you?"
Fox Fur Hat raised his eyebrows, and when he saw Jiang Sanlang, he pointed at him and said, "What did you say?"
Jiang Sanlang smiled and said: "A hundred yuan less is still too much. This fish does not belong to my family. You saw it last time. We are a partnership of three people."
Seeing the fox fur hat's face sinking, Jiang Sanlang quickly said: "Well, I have a fresh fish here, which weighs four kilograms. I'll give it to you as well. What do you think?"
The fox-skin hat's face softened slightly, and he reluctantly nodded, "Okay."
After paying the money, Fox Fur Hat asked the porter to come over and carry the fish.
He picked up the four-pound one and said to Jiang Sanlang: "I came here specially from the county. I wanted to see if there were any white sturgeons that day. Our master likes to eat fresh fish. If you catch it again,
Just send it to the county seat, and I will pay for the fees."
Jiang Sanlang smiled and handed over to him: "That's a good feeling. If we catch him in the future, we will definitely send him to the county seat. May I ask who your family is..."
The fox-skin hat gave an address and left with the porter.
