Traveling through the mountains and farming

When Lin Wan arrived at the gate of Grandpa Li's yard, she saw golden rice drying in the yard, and Grandpa Li was busy turning over the rice.

Lin Wan walked forward and greeted Uncle Li with a smile, "Granduncle, I'm busy!"

Then, he picked up another turning rake from the ground at the door and helped turn the rice.

Uncle Li slowly raised his head, and when he saw that it was Lin Wan, he grinned and said, "Haha, Lin Wan, don't bother with me, I'm almost done."

Seeing that Lin Wan had already started helping with the rice, he hurried to stop her.

Lin Wan pulled the rake towards Uncle Li and asked with a smile, "It's okay. I'm free now anyway. It looks like the harvest this year is good!"

At this time, Aunt Li in the room heard Lin Wan's voice and came over with two glasses of water.

She handed the cups in her hands to Lin Wan and Uncle Li respectively, and continued with a smile: "This year's harvest is indeed very gratifying."

Lin Wan took the cup of water and took a sip with one hand, while continuing to pull the rake and turn the soil regularly with the other hand.

She continued, "Have you ever calculated the yield per acre?"

"I just harvested all the rice today. I roughly calculated that the yield per mu is more than two shi."

Seeing that Lin Wan didn't respond, he continued, "This is already quite good. Many other places only produce a little over one stone per mu. Our county has fertile land and good weather."

After saying this, Uncle Li put down the cup in his hand, his face full of joy and pride.

At this time, Lin Wan was secretly calculating in her mind, which means that the yield per mu is about 240 kilograms, which is far from the modern yield of more than 1,000 kilograms per mu.

Then she asked, "Then your family's production should be 25 shi, I wonder how much will be left after paying the tax?"

She recalled that she had heard before that Uncle Li had twelve acres of paddy fields and six acres of dry land, and quickly calculated the total output.

"Your calculation is really accurate, it's almost this number. Alas, we can only be happy for these few days. After paying the autumn tax in a few days, I guess there won't be much left." Uncle Li sighed helplessly and shook his head.

Lin Wan then asked, "Are the tax rates for autumn and summer taxes the same?"

"That's hard to say. Taxes have been rising every year in recent years, and the autumn tax will probably rise again this time. If we pay taxes according to the summer tax standard, my family will have to pay 10 shi of rice, and there will be about 15 shi of rice left."

Uncle Li no longer had the joy of the good harvest he had just had, and now he spoke with a worried look on his face.

Lin Wan put down the rake, picked up a wooden stick and squatted on the ground to calculate. After a while, she raised her head and said seriously:

"Great uncle, I have calculated carefully. There are twelve people in your family. If we calculate based on 15 dan of grain, you will have enough food to last for six or seven months, assuming the autumn tax does not increase." After the rice is pounded into rice, only 10 and a half dan will be left.

Uncle Li couldn't help but sigh and said, "Yes, with such heavy taxes now, every time after the grain is harvested, the remaining grain after paying the taxes is barely enough to last until the next grain harvest, and it is impossible to make money by selling grain."

He sighed again and continued, "In recent years, I have had to calculate my daily rations day after day."

At this time, Lin Wan remembered that she had previously told everyone to buy food when they went to the city to sell ice jelly every day.

Then he asked, "A few days ago, Aunt Yu and the others said they would buy food after setting up their stall every day. Have they bought any?"

"I only bought it for two days. Then the price of grain went up again, so I stopped buying. Now the price of grain changes every day. Today, your second aunt came back and said that rice is 250 wen a dou, and rice is 351 dou." Uncle Li said with a frown.

Lin Wan replied with a worried look on her face: "We have to buy it even if the price goes up. This concerns the livelihood of our family!"

Uncle Li answered helplessly: "Well, firstly, it's too expensive. We can't use all the money in our family to buy food. Secondly, it's not easy to buy food. In the next few days, more and more people will line up. The food shops are not selling much food now. They probably want to save it and wait for the price to go up."

At this time, Li Changyi ran in in a hurry and shouted, "Dad, it's bad. The grain merchants have come to the village to collect grain. They are now banging gongs at the entrance of the village and shouting that they want to collect grain. The price of grain is 260 coins per dou."

"What? The autumn tax has not been paid yet, so why are grain merchants coming to collect grain?" Uncle Li frowned, full of confusion.

Li Changyi also looked confused. He scratched his head and said, "Maybe he wants to collect more grain, or to get it before other grain merchants do?"

Uncle Li seemed not optimistic about the grain merchants coming to collect the grain at this time, so he said indifferently:

"After paying taxes, every household in our city still doesn't have enough food to eat. I guess they won't get much food either."

Lin Wan next to him said thoughtfully, "That's not necessarily true. The grain price they offered is indeed very high in the eyes of the villagers, and not everyone knows that grain prices in the county have skyrocketed."

After hearing this, Uncle Li couldn't help but sighed. He then realized the seriousness of the situation and said anxiously:

"Alas, what should we do? If the villagers are tempted by the high prices and sell all their grain, they will have to pay the autumn tax in a few days, and then there will be no food left at home."

Lin Wan pondered for a moment and said hurriedly: "Granduncle, we have to find a way quickly. We can't let the villagers sell their grain blindly. We can tell everyone the true situation of grain prices in the county, let them know that the price of this grain merchant is not cost-effective, and they also have to consider their future living needs."

"Okay, I'll go talk to Wu Cunzheng and ask him to help stop the villagers from selling grain." Uncle Li said anxiously, then walked out in a hurry.

At this time, Lin Wan also remembered that Quanshui Village had a village chief, but since there were more than 20 households in their village, one-third of which were people who fled famine and settled here, the village's cohesion was not as strong as other villages where all the residents were native locals.

However, I haven't heard of any behavior of this Muramasa bullying the villagers. Overall, he should be a well-behaved Muramasa.

Lin Wan looked at Uncle Li's back, then turned to Li Changyi and said, "Second cousin, you are familiar with the villagers, so go and help persuade the villagers not to act impulsively."

After hearing Lin Wan's suggestion, Li Changyi also ran out in a hurry.

Lin Wan also followed and walked towards the village entrance. When she arrived at the entrance, she saw Uncle Li and Wu Cunzheng rushing to the entrance. Both of them had anxious looks on their faces, and Wu Cunzheng had lost one of his shoes.

Seeing this, Lin Wan suddenly felt that Wu Cunzheng was still responsible.

Uncle Li shouted at the top of his voice: "Fellow villagers, don't rush to sell grain! Listen to us!"

Wu Cunzheng also echoed: "Yes, everyone calm down first."

At this time, some villagers were asking grain merchants about the purchase price of grain, and some villagers had already carried the grain over. When they heard the voices of Uncle Li and Wu Cunzheng, they stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes to them.

Uncle Li took a breath and continued, "Think about it, everyone. The grain merchants are here to buy grain now. Although the price seems high, how much grain will be left in our homes after the autumn tax is paid? What will we eat then?"

Wu Cunzheng also said earnestly: "Yes, we can't be fooled by the little profit in front of us. And I heard from people who came back from the county that the grain prices in the county have risen sharply. If we sell it now, we will lose a lot."

Some villagers began to waver and murmured, "That seems to be the case."

However, some villagers were not happy with the price and said, "But this price is indeed much higher than usual."

At this time, the people from the Li, Luo, and Wang families who had experienced queuing up to buy grain in the county town and witnessed the continuous rise in grain prices had already rushed to the entrance of the village and began to persuade:

"Fellow villagers, we can't just focus on the present, we have to plan for the long term. If we sell all the food now, our future life will be difficult."

"Yes, the grain prices in the county are rising every day. If we sell the grain now, what will we do in the future?"

"We go to the county town every day to queue up to buy grain. Now the price changes every day. The queue is very long and we may not be able to buy it."

"Yeah, I queued for several days in a row and couldn't buy any food!"

……

They all pulled the villagers aside and tried to persuade them earnestly.