Some of the seeds I bought from the seller had already sprouted and grown.
A piece of chives and a dozen cabbages that can be cored grew out.
Core-wrapped Chinese cabbage is a northern vegetable that is durable in storage. It is also a rare vegetable in small mountain villages. No one has grown it here.
When they first sprouted a few months ago, Yingbao transplanted these vegetables and planted them in the small vegetable patch in her yard.
The leeks are cut twice when they are grown and used to scramble eggs. The taste is very delicious.
Now the Chinese cabbage grows more than two feet high. Originally, each cabbage was spread out in a large area. Later, Chun Niang used straw ropes to wrap them one by one so that they could better contain the core.
It's snowing these days, so Chun Niang has cut all the cabbages and piled them in the house.
The other two packets of Fanbang seeds have also grown.
It turned out to be more than a dozen cotton trees and a few unknown small vines.
The first time Ying Bao saw cotton in her previous life was as an ornamental flower in the garden of the Dudu Mansion.
The flowers of the cotton tree are beautiful and pink in color. Because it is a Fanbang variety, a large area is planted in Fuzhong Garden.
It's a pity that these flowers and trees only have a growth period of one year. After the flowers fade and bear fruit, their branches and leaves will wither.
At that time, Ying Bao was relatively free in the mansion. Because she was interested in cotton wadding from cotton trees, she often went to pick it.
In the end, he picked a small basket, pulled out the cotton seeds inside, and used the basket to make himself a cotton-padded jacket.
Later I learned that this kind of cotton tree was also planted in many aristocratic farms, and the cotton wadding collected was very valuable and could be used for spinning and weaving.
Now her dozen or so cotton trees have blossomed and bear fruit, and the fruits have burst open, revealing large, snow-white cotton buds.
Yingbao picked all the cotton wool and piled it into a basket, filling a small basket.
She dug out the withered cotton stalks by their roots and piled them aside for use in burning the kang.
The cotton seeds were peeled out and planted again, all planted in the black soil. It is estimated that they will sprout soon.
By next spring, her family should have a large amount of cotton seeds.
Today, cotton cultivation in the Great Qian Dynasty has not yet become widespread. Even more than ten years later, it is still concentrated in the manors of a few noble families.
At this time, it is estimated that not even the nobles are planting cotton. So she must seize the opportunity and let her family grow cotton first.
You should know that most of the cloths on the market today are linen and grass cloth, a small part are silk and silk cloth that can only be used by noble families, and there are also thick velvet blankets woven from miscellaneous plush fibers such as wool and rabbit fur.
Even though the Jiang family now has a lot of money, the fur quilts and mattresses are only stuffed with some reeds or loosely beaten straw and flax, covering the body to barely keep out the cold.
As for cotton-padded clothes, rich people fill them with animal hair and duck feathers, or use animal fur directly to make a cloak.
Most poor people just fill their houses with thorny reeds, linen, straw, etc.
Now that she is lucky enough to have cotton seeds from Fanbang, she would be really sorry for God's favor for her if she doesn't plant them.
"Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!"
"Every household, listen! The imperial decree states that each household will receive a surcharge of two liters of rice for the upper-class fields and one liter for the lower-class fields. It must be paid in full within seven days. Violators will be punished as criminals!"
The village man wearing a bamboo hat beat the gong and shouted over and over again. He walked in front of all the villagers' houses before moving on to the next village.
After the villagers left, the villagers walked out of their homes one after another, full of complaints.
"As expected, we have to collect food again. Are you going to let people live?"
"Oh my God, our family only has two to three hundred kilograms of grain left. If we hand over all this, our family will not survive."
"I'm going to ask Muramasa how we can live like this."
Several villagers even covered their faces and cried bitterly.
"Let's go and ask Chen Sanyou. It's only been a few days and we're collecting food again."
So, dozens of villagers came to Chen Sanyou's house and complained.
"His third uncle, where can we still have grain? Last time we paid taxes, we sold most of the grain. Now we only have a little more than two dan left. Our family of seven or eight lives on this little grain to survive the winter."
, can you go and talk to Li Zheng, can we make up for it next year?"
"Yes, Sanyou, just go and talk about it."
"We really can't live our lives."
Chen Sanyou was so confused by the noise that he said impatiently: "Okay, okay, listen to me, this is a decree issued by the imperial court. What can I, a small village, say?"
"But you are also working for the imperial court, Sanshu Chen, you can't ignore us."
"Yes, Sanyou, go and ask Li Zheng. If we hand over all the food, the whole family will starve to death..."
"Muramasa, you can't ignore our life and death."
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...His third uncle, please help us talk..."
"Uncle Chen, you are the only one who can talk to Li Zheng. Can't you go and discuss it with him..."
Chen Sanyou, who was surrounded by everyone, was distraught. He said with a sullen face: "Since you are not satisfied with me as the village chief, and my term will expire next year, you can choose whoever you like."
He had had enough of this kind of torture. He came here several times every year, and Chen Sanyou was already exhausted mentally and physically.
He was scolded by Li Zheng for not being able to pay taxes and grain, and he was scolded by the villagers for pushing too hard. Hey, half of his body was buried in the ground, so why should he suffer this crime?
The Jiang brothers also heard the villagers' calls for food, so they calculated the amount they should pay, reluctantly measured out the full amount of food, and sent it to the town on a cart.
Jiang Sanlang has a total of 60 acres of fields, 20 acres of upper-class fields, and 40 acres of lower-class fields, including mulberry and elm fields in the north and dry land in the south mountains.
But regardless of whether these fields are used for growing grain or not, as long as you have so much land in your property register, you must pay taxes per acre.
For this supplementary levy, Jiang Sanlang had to hand over a total of eighty liters of grain, which is about two hundred kilograms.
Two big sacks of rice were suddenly gone from the storage at home. He was heartbroken to the point of bleeding, but he had to hand it over.
In the past few days, the villagers who collected food had been beating gongs and shouting every day. After shouting for five or six days, many villagers in the village still could not pay the food.
Early the next morning, Sun Lizheng and a dozen or so villagers began to collect money from house to house.
In the cold winter, the villagers who had their food taken away howled and cried bitterly on the snow.
Some people were beating their chests and stamping their feet in grief, and the children beside them were also crying loudly. It was so miserable.
Ying Bao held Youyou in hand and watched this scene, feeling heavy in her heart.
The remaining rations of these villagers were taken away, and they did not know how they would live in the future, or how their family would survive the entire cold winter.
One of the families was the most miserable. There were several children in the family, the oldest was no more than twelve or thirteen years old, and the youngest was only three or four years old.
In a previous life, a man from this family was forced to go out to cut firewood and sell it for money in a snowy day. As a result, when he was carrying firewood down the mountain, he accidentally fell down the slope and was stabbed in the thigh by the firewood. He was found frozen to death on the mountain a few days later.
Later, the woman from this family also hanged herself, leaving four helpless children wandering in the village. The family begged for a spoonful from the family and gave them a spoonful from the west. In the end, only the two older children survived.
Seeing the tragedy happen again, Ying Bao felt her heart congested and panicked.
Weilan returned home and locked Youyou in the deer shed. Yingbao went back to the house to sit on the kang and went into the cave to plant grain again.
Originally she didn't want to plant it because she was too tired, but today's scene made her heart palpitate and she realized the importance of rice.
Food is indispensable at any time.
From now on, she must keep a large amount of rice and noodles in the cave so that she can feel at ease.
…
#Thank you all for your votes, and thank you to all the book friends who have been silently supporting Jiu Shushu. With your company and support, Jiu’s little books can go a long way.#
It will be on the shelves next week. Those who subscribe, please note that you should not subscribe if you have read the chapters.
