Food bloggers made fortunes in ancient times

Pushing a cart loaded with wheat, Song Yan arrived at the door of his home and slumped down on the ground, gasping for breath, as tired as a dead dog.

Speak of dog and the dog will appear.

When Gousheng heard the footsteps of his coming back, he ran out of the yard happily, jumped up and threw himself on Song Yan's thighs.

Song Yan took off her straw hat, fanned the wind, and gently patted Gou Sheng's butt, complaining half-jokingly: "Come down quickly, it's too hot to bear."

Aunt Niu’s wheat has almost been harvested, and a tall stack of straw has been piled outside the yard.

These wheat straws can be used for cooking on weekdays and for feeding the family’s cattle and sheep in winter.

After catching his breath, Song Yan pushed the cart into the yard of the Niu family opposite.

Uncle Niu and Aunt Niu saw this and hurried out to help. Together they carried the wheat down and spread it out in the yard to dry.

Song Yan returned with the empty flatbed cart and continued to transport the remaining wheat.

After several trips back and forth, all the wheat was finally harvested.

Aunt Niu looked at Song Yan's busy figure and said, "I have already prepared the meal. You don't have to cook for yourself when you go back. Let's eat together at home."

Song Yan really didn't have the energy to cook anymore at this time. He waved his hand casually and responded, "I'll go back and take a shower and come back in a while."

When I entered my yard, I saw Erlin wiping the sweat off his face with a wet handkerchief.

"Erlin, don't you want to go wash up?" Song Yan found a set of clean clothes and took them to the kitchen.

Erlin said, "I'll wash it later."

Song Yan walked into the kitchen and looked at the water tank. There was only half a tank of water left in it. She immediately understood what was going on.

Erlin, that boy, really cares for his brother. Song Yan raised a smile.

The cool river water poured over my body, and all the fatigue was immediately washed away.

Walking out of the house, Song Yan took a deep breath. The night breeze brought the fragrance of the fields, which made people feel happy.

He called Gousheng and walked towards Niu's house with brisk steps.

The setting sun slowly sets, and the sky is dyed with layers of orange-red sunset glow, as brilliant as fire.

The villagers' figures were elongated in the afterglow of the setting sun. They carried heavy bags of wheat on their shoulders and set out on their journey home. A day's work finally came to a successful conclusion.

Smoke from the Niu family's kitchen rose, and the aroma of food wafted through the air. Uncle Niu and Aunt Niu were busy in the yard, bringing out food.

Seeing Song Yan coming, they warmly invited him into the house.

Inside the house, a large round table was already filled with sumptuous dishes: attractively colored braised eggplant, refreshing salad, fragrant scrambled eggs with leeks, and a spicy and appetizing dish of cold-mixed sour bamboo shoots.

Although they are mainly vegetarian dishes, each dish is very greasy, and you can see that there is a lot of oil in it. It is obvious that Aunt Niu is very attentive.

Uncle Niu also took out his homemade rice wine and poured a bowl for everyone, except the children of course.

Aunt Niu smiled and said, "Our cooking skills are not as good as Xiao Song's, so please make do with what you have and don't be disgusted."

Song Yan pretended to be ashamed and said, "Aunt, what you said really makes me feel ashamed. You are willing to treat us with good wine and delicious food, how dare I show the slightest disdain."

His words made everyone laugh.

The three families sat around the table, eating and talking and laughing.

"Young man, you should eat more too." Noticing that Dongsheng didn't eat much food, Aunt Niu enthusiastically picked up a few eggs for him.

Dongsheng smiled shyly, held the chopsticks with his left hand, lowered his head and ate silently.

Aunt Niu and the others did not show any surprise about the fact that Dongsheng only had one hand, which made Dongsheng's parents feel relieved.

After dinner, Dongsheng and his family prepared to leave, and Song Yan sent them to the village entrance.

Dongsheng said, "Brother Song, just send it here, we will come back in a few days."

Thinking about having to harvest rice soon, the smile on Song Yan's face gradually disappeared.

He said weakly, "Be careful on the road."

After returning home, Erya went to the river to wash clothes.

Song Yan went to fetch two buckets of water and came back, and asked Erlin and Erya to take a bath.

Everyone was exhausted that day, and as soon as it got dark, they lay down early, fell into a deep sleep, and snored softly.

The next day, Song Yan was also busy as the wheat had to be harvested and dried for several days.

Under the scorching sun, Song Yan held a pitchfork and carefully turned over the spread wheat straw to ensure that every straw could be evenly exposed to the sun, even the straw at the bottom.

When the wheat was almost dried, Song Yan borrowed a few flails from the Niu family and called Erlin and Erya to help.

The flail is a tool consisting of a long wooden handle and a row of bamboo strips. It is the first time for Song Yan to use it.

When Song Yan first started using the flail, his movements seemed a little clumsy.

Aniu watched silently for a while, then taught how to use the flail: hit it once, pause when swinging it up, and then hit it down again.

"Just shoot once and then stop." Aniu explained concisely.

"Oh, so that's how it is." Song Yan suddenly realized. He gripped the flail tightly, clapping it to the rhythm, then stopping. Gradually, his movements became skillful, and he even developed a sense of rhythm.

After beating it almost done, Aniu picked up a branch of wheat straw with a wooden fork, shook it a few times to let the wheat grains hidden in the straw fall out, and then put the straw aside.

When the last layer of straw is cleared away, what remains is a mixture of wheat, husks and some short grass.

Aniu picked up a wooden shovel, scooped up a pile of wheat grains and scattered them into the air. The full wheat grains fell down one after another, while the bran and some unfull wheat grains were blown aside by the wind.

At the end of the day, all the wheat was put into sacks.

While loading the wheat, Song Yan muttered to himself that he wanted to borrow a scale to weigh it.

When Ah Niu heard this, he picked up three large sacks and estimated, "Six hundred kilograms."

The harvest from two acres of land is exactly 600 kilograms of wheat.

According to the conversion rate of one dan equals one hundred and twenty jin, six hundred jin is exactly five dan.

Although it was one stone less than expected, Song Yan still sighed: "It's barely enough for our family to eat and drink for a year."

At this time, Aniu suddenly interrupted: "You still have to pay taxes."

"What!" Song Yan almost vomited blood, "I still have to pay taxes?!"

The original owner, Song Dashu, never cared about worldly affairs at home, and all the chores like paying taxes were taken care of by Song's father.

Therefore, there was no memory about taxes in the original owner's memory, so Song Yan naturally had no idea that he had to pay taxes.

Song Yan quickly asked Aniu humbly: "How should I pay this tax?"

Ah Niu explained: "There is a land tax, which is 10% of the harvest as tax."

Hearing this, Song Yan breathed a sigh of relief. Only paying 10% of the grain was not a lot, at least it was within an acceptable range.

But Ah Niu hadn’t finished speaking yet: “There are also oral taxes, calculation taxes, and various other taxes…”

"Wait a minute." Song Yan interrupted him hastily, "What are oral and calculated fu?"

Erlin next to him took over and explained: "The oral tax and the calculated tax are both poll taxes."

"The mouth tax is a tax levied on children aged seven to fifteen. Each person has to pay twenty coins per year."

"Suanfu is a tax levied on adults aged 15 to 55, and each person is required to pay 120 coins per year."

"In addition, there are various miscellaneous taxes, which have already been collected once at the beginning of the year."

After hearing this, Song Yan felt a little overwhelmed. He thought that he only had to pay 10% of the grain and be done with it, but he didn't expect that there were so many types of taxes.