It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

On the 22nd day of the first month of the 12th year of Jianguang in the Northern Jin Dynasty, everything went well.

The Dongshan Village exploration team rested for a night in a cave newly named Tiankeng Mountain. Early in the morning, Jiang Yan set out with Jiang Shun and returned to Dongshan Village after an hour and a half of walking. Jiang He and Jiang Nian also went with them.

The others stayed in the cave to clean up. Although there were no large wild animals living there, there were still bats, insects, ants and the like. It would be safer to clean up before moving in.

Jiang Yan was going back to the village to draw up two routes to Tiankeng Mountain for everyone's reference, and then stay in the village to provide logistics support.

Jiang Shun and Jiang He came back to lead the team, bringing the villagers who were at risk of being drafted and the prepared supplies into the cave.

Jiang Nian's risk in the village is low, so he needs to come back and ask Aunt Yu for her opinion on whether he should stay in the mountains.

The people of Dongshan Village worked hard for a whole morning and half an afternoon, and finally managed to send people and supplies out of the village on time, expecting to arrive before dark.

The only people left in the village were the grandparents who were too weak to live in the mountains for a long time, the frail aunt who helped take care of the elderly and children, the children who were not recruited, Jiang Wang who was in charge of the overall situation of Dongshan Village, and Jiang Yan, the newly appointed assistant to the village elders.

During the month that Dongshan Village was on high alert, Jiang Yan spent half of the time at home sleeping and recuperating.

Then, I followed Jiang Da and Sun Yun to the outskirts of the county and neighboring villages several times to inquire about news and visit relatives.

In the remaining time after finishing her housework, she would take a small stool and sit at the entrance of the village with the villagers.

While trying hard to recall any modern knowledge that could improve productivity, he followed the old people around him to learn how to weave straw sandals with wheat straw to wear when the weather gets warmer.

When Jiang Yan's father and mother were still alive, his original life was relatively good, so he did not learn many skills that farm children had already mastered early on.

After my father was drafted into the army, my mother died of exhaustion due to worry and overwork from government exploitation, so I took over the household chores and took care of everything.

At the time, every household in the village was struggling to care for themselves due to the separation of their loved ones. My original self, who had just turned eight, scrimped and saved for the better part of six months caring for my bedridden mother, and even managed to handle her funeral.

Later, due to lack of energy and blood, she felt dizzy when she stood up and fell headfirst on the threshold. When she woke up, she became the current Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan was extremely weak from hitting the threshold. He would gasp for breath when he moved and feel dizzy when he stood up. He relied entirely on the care and food supplies from the villagers. He lay in bed for almost a year before he slowly recovered and was able to get out of bed and do some light and effortless housework.

In the following year and eight months, Jiang Yan mastered the basic survival skills of ancient mountain villages, such as lighting the kang, steaming everything in pottery pots, and magnifying food through private practice.

I also figured out a set of low-energy body care and low-energy labor methods on my own. In the past six months, I have finally achieved a balance between barely supporting myself and keeping my body stable.

Except for the fact that the body needs to rest for several days to recover after high energy consumption, people can live like ordinary people.

Time quickly came to late March. The people of Dongshan Village, who had been waiting for the officers and soldiers for two months but still had not arrived, had relaxed and were rotating between living in the village and the cave.

In previous years, Dongshan Village would choose to plant corn around this time.

The land in the Tiankeng Mountain Tiankeng is slightly warmer than outside the mountain because it is surrounded by mountain walls. The sowing work was completed a few days ago.

On March 20th, with the order from Grandma Juhua, the village's best weather expert, the village started the intensive spring plowing work.

According to the laws of the Northern Jin Dynasty, men could own 50 mu of arable land, and women could own 30 mu. Male Dings (aged 16 to 60) had to pay a land tax of 40 mu, male Cings (aged 13 to 15, 61 to 65) had to pay 25 mu, female Dings had to pay 20 mu, and female Cings had to pay 15 mu.

Regardless of the actual amount of land owned, a total annual quota of eight kilograms of grain was levied on each mu of land. Taking into account the miscellaneous levies, new taxes and losses that had to be paid with grain, the minimum levy on each mu of land was ten kilograms, and the maximum was fourteen or fifteen kilograms.

The average person in Dongshan Village has only two and a half acres of land, and the annual tax burden is heavy.

But after several conscriptions, most of the villagers were over 63 or under 14 years old, and the taxes they had to pay dropped sharply.

Uncle Jiang Xing even found a way to cheer himself up, "If God blesses us this year and the harvest is better, we can eat better than before."