Dressed as a young lady, she became rich by relying on Pinxixi

"I'll pay for it." This was a minor issue for Xu Siyu, so she didn't want to keep Xu Huaishan in a difficult position. "But big brother, you need to get the villagers or your uncle to witness it, and temporarily use my second brother's homestead as collateral."

"Row."

"Brother, do you want food or money?"

"Let's talk about food. Little sister, the harvest is not good this year. One acre of land may not even produce one stone of rice. Big brother can't get that much, so he came to you because he had no choice." There are only four people in the family, and the food rations are limited. If they mix more wild vegetables, they can still survive.

"It's okay, big brother. When you have time, ask your uncle if he needs anything, and we can put together the amount. When I have borrowed it, you can come back and ask for it."

After the last corvee, Li Liuer went to play with Xu Siyu and mentioned that her great-uncle family had wanted to borrow rice, but her great-uncle was holding back because all the male members of the family were working on repairing the dam.

However, their family had brought some silver and money with them, and asked the jailers for relatively light work in advance. The round trip only consumed some physical energy, and they did not suffer any serious hardship.

This time, Xu Huaishan wanted to borrow grain to pay taxes, and Xu Siyu asked him to take the initiative to ask if it was okay. After all, when the Tao family made trouble, several cousins came to support the Xu family.

"Eh." Xu Huaishan felt depressed because he couldn't even support himself as a farmer.

Looking at his daughter who had grown fat under Xu Siyu's care, he suddenly asked Xu Siyu: "Little sister, can you ask Master Lin if his family needs labor? Once the autumn harvest is paid, it's slack time for farming, and everyone in the family can go out to work."

Xu Huaize's family lived well, largely because they had income every month throughout the year. Unlike him, who only farmed and had to go hungry during the dry season.

However, after they distributed the money this year, the money they earned was either used to pay taxes directly or to buy grain to pay taxes, which seems to be difficult.

From the division of the family to the present, Xu Huaishan has concluded from the actions of the Xu Wangshi housekeeper that the family cannot be idle, the land must be cultivated, and work must be done, so that some money can be saved.

Xu Siyu told him not to worry, to harvest the autumn crops first, and then he could collect the wool for her when he had time.

"Are you still collecting these duck feathers?" Xu Huaishan's whole family already had down quilts. He thought it was enough and had no other thoughts.

"Well, it's the old rules. One copper coin per pound of raw wool; two copper coins per pound of washed, dried, and sun-dried wool. Nianyue is here with me, and she's not idle either. She's sewing vests and quilts. If we can sell them at the market, it'll be income."

Only then did Xu Huaishan realize that his younger sister was going to do the down business and was also supporting his family.

He agreed with a smile, planning to collect fur from house to house after he was done.

Xu Siyu sent Xu Huaishan to the town entrance. The streets suddenly became chaotic and the people on the street looked panicked and talked a lot.

"A thief broke into Mr. Wang's house last night and stole a thousand kilograms of rice!"

"This... is too bold. They stole so much food. This must be a gang. Have you reported it to the police?"

"We reported it to the police last night, but they didn't catch anyone. Everyone, lock your doors tightly at night to avoid being targeted by bad guys."

"..."

Xu Siyu took a special look at the grain and oil shop and saw that the price of rice on the price tag had become 140 wen per dou.

When Xu Huaishan heard the price, he was stunned: "Why is it so expensive?"

No wonder the third brother asked him to sell him all the grain he could, except for the tax grain. He gave him the old price of seventy wen per dou.

Hearing this, Xu Siyu could only sigh.

Even with such a strong gate, the official's house couldn't withstand the robbers. This chaos was probably just the beginning, and the scarce food would become even more precious.

"Little sister, let Chengcai come to guard the door for you at night." Xu Huaishan was worried.

"Brother, we don't need it for now. We are a small family with only enough food to eat. Thieves shouldn't be interested in us. But we have to be careful of people cutting our fields."

Xu Huaishan felt that Xu Siyu was right. When he returned, he would ask the third brother and two nephews to keep watch together, otherwise he would not be given the food and would have to find someone to buy it for him himself.

……

Sure enough, just as Xu Siyu thought, Yunyang Town started the incident, and the wealthy families in the counties and towns under Heqing Prefecture suffered from incidents of stealing and losing grain, and large tracts of rice fields being harvested.

The provincial capital and county towns can still send more people to guard the place, but towns and villages are almost entirely dependent on each household.

The wealthy family hired guards for protection, but the poor family began to suffer.

Xu Siyu's house was robbed, but she happened to be prepared and temporarily inserted broken pottery pieces on the wall, which scratched the person who was climbing over the wall.

That night, Xu Siyu was awakened by a scream of pain. She immediately shouted that there was a thief, put on her coat, and rushed to the wall with insecticide and a high-voltage arc rod, spraying and hitting the person who fell into the wall.

The concentration of the pesticide quickly made the bad guy dizzy and nauseous, and he fell to the ground.

When the thieves saw that they could no longer steal from this house, they resorted to using "poison" and several of them ran away in a panic. However, the townspeople who came to help caught the thief who was stunned by the insecticide and hung him at the entrance of the town for a whole day until his skin was almost sunburned and he was taken away by the runners from the county government.

After this incident, perhaps because the townspeople were known for their brutality, Yunyang Town became peaceful.

……

Those who have grain will keep it, while farmers who have run out of grain every year can only look forward to the autumn harvest.

It hasn't rained this autumn, but the river in the village has seen a lot of rain.

The rice grew in the fields without water, and despite everyone's efforts to water the crops, the yield was inevitably reduced.

Is this autumn harvest still considered an autumn harvest?

Many people looked at the fields with their heads in their hands, speechless. They couldn't even pay the taxes, so how could they live like this?

But as long as people are alive, they have to live their lives, so Xu Huaishan began to harvest grain.

Xu Huaize asked his family to harvest and thresh the food they wanted.

In this way, Xu Huaishan's family spent five days finishing the housework and then started collecting duck feathers.

Even if they don't collect duck feathers, Xu Huaishan and his family can go up the mountain to collect firewood or dig kudzu roots and wild vegetables. In short, they have to prepare for their winter.

Xu Huaize didn't want his elder brother to be so difficult to talk to, but he had no other choice. The price of grain in the town had really risen to two hundred coins per dou. If he didn't work, he really couldn't afford to buy enough food. He had no choice but to take three days off, and the four of them worked hard to harvest three acres of land.

He saw his elder brother, his wife, and Cheng Qi doing this work very quickly, but why were his family members so slow? He had also been working in the fields when he was a child, but now, after only one day, his skin was already worn away.

For the first time, Xu Huaize felt that he seemed to have taken advantage of the Xu family in the past.

In the past, after the autumn harvest, each family would make glutinous rice cakes or open jars of wine to celebrate the harvest.

This year, every family worked silently and started to live frugally from the second day after the autumn harvest.

When the yamen runners arrived to collect grain, Xu Huaishan handed over the grain to the Xu family smoothly. Seeing that his third uncle's family and seventh uncle's family had also handed over the grain, he breathed a sigh of relief and walked back.

If there are not enough children in other families and they cry, make a fuss, or are about to be caught and put in jail, that is the village chief's business and has nothing to do with the Xu family.

Before Xu Huaishan got home, he saw his eldest daughter-in-law, who had not yet married, and the hunter Luo waiting at the door.

Given the situation and the time, there was no doubt that they were here to borrow food.

After all, after the expropriation of Xinshan Village, the next ones to be expropriated are Qingshan Village and Kaoshan Village.

……