Stepmother in charge: Making a fortune through farming and raising her children to fight back

Early the next morning.

The whole family slept until the sun was low in the trees before they lazily got up. The recent autumn harvest had everyone very tired, so it was hard to get a nap.

Qin Li went to the foot of the mountain to collect firewood as soon as he got up. He had been busy with work in the fields recently and all the firewood in the kitchen had been used up.

After talking with his mother yesterday, he felt that the breath he had been holding in his heart had been released a lot, and his steps became much lighter.

Qin Nan chopped up wild vegetables in the yard and fed them to the chickens and piglets. The piglets, who had been hungry all night, hurriedly got up from the ground and began to eat with big mouthfuls of grunts.

In the kitchen, Qin Wen was helping out while Yun Zhenzhen skillfully took out last night's leftovers and poured them into the pot, heated it up, and put a few potato pancakes on the side.

Feeling sorry for the children who had been busy recently and hadn’t had a good meal, Yun Zhenzhen specially steamed some white rice and served it with a pot of hodgepodge, which was simple and delicious.

The family had just finished their meal when Aunt Zhao's voice was heard outside.

"Sister Qin, are you home?"

Yun Zhenzhen opened the door and greeted her warmly, "Sister Zhao, everyone's home. What are you busy with so early in the morning?"

"Oh, I haven't finished packing at home yet." Aunt Zhao said with a smile, "Well, I just received a notice from the village chief that the land tax will be paid starting today. My family has been busy all morning to pack it up. Seeing that you haven't gotten up yet, I thought I would wait until you are asleep before doing it."

Yun Zhenzhen smiled and nodded: "Okay, then we will pretend for now."

In this era, taxes were paid by paying per household based on the area of ​​the land. The tax was counted every three years and could be paid in grain or cash.

This year, the tax rate in Qinjia Village has been reduced to 10.2%, and compared with previous years, every household can still save a lot of food.

But other villages were not so lucky. The food they grew with great effort throughout the year was not even enough to fill their own stomachs in the end.

Sure enough, no matter what era, the poorest people are always the farmers.

She suddenly missed Grandpa Yuan very much.

……

Yun Zhenzhen calculated that the wheat her family had received had not been threshed yet. When it was threshed, it would only weigh about 200 kilograms, and she would have to hand over 40 kilograms. She had to sigh again that taxes in ancient times were really high. In years of disaster, even after handing over the grain, there was not enough food for the family to eat.

Ugh!

Qin Li put the dozens of kilograms of grain he had threshed into his backpack. The remaining grain had not been threshed yet and was piled in the corner.

Afterwards, they packed their household registration documents, land deeds, etc. on their backs, and the family locked their doors and went out in a mighty procession.

Seeing that the neighboring families had a lot of grain to pay as tax, several families would pool together on an ox cart and go to the town.

Yun Zhenzhen and his group arrived at the gate of the Zhao family's old house. They were also loading grain onto the ox cart. This was the second ox in Qinjia Village.

Old Mrs. Qin had sharp eyes and saw them at a glance.

"Third daughter-in-law, you are also going to the county to pay taxes, right? Come here, come with us."

Qin Li looked at Yun Zhenzhen hesitantly.

"Okay, it just so happens that I've never taken the children to pay taxes alone, so I'll just borrow the ox cart my parents borrowed." Yun Zhenzhen responded generously.

Old Lady Qin strode over, unloaded the grain behind Qin Li, and put it on the cart. "What's the point of talking about freeloading? We're all family. It's a good opportunity for you to follow your father to the county to see how taxes are paid. You should understand these things when you grow up."

Several people followed Old Man Qin out of the village.

There were only two ox carts in the village. When they were filled with grain, there was no room for people to sit, so everyone just followed the ox carts and walked slowly.

Yun Zhenzhen walked in front and reached out to touch Uncle Niu's old cow.

"Uncle Niu, don't you have to pay taxes today? Why did you give us the ox cart?"

Because the Niu family had a cow, it was convenient for them to cultivate the land, and there were many young and middle-aged people in the family, so they cultivated many acres of land and paid more taxes.

Uncle Niu patted Niu on the butt and said with a smile, "There's no rush for this. Just hand it in within October. We can stagger the time and let everyone finish this first."

Yun Zhenzhen nodded and continued to chat: "Uncle, how much did you buy this cow for?"

After all, our family is doing business with the town, and we don't always get to see ox carts when we go back and forth. It's not very convenient. It's always better to buy an ox cart ourselves than to spend money to ride one.

"How much was it?" Uncle Liu smacked his lips and thought for a moment. "I remember I bought a calf back then, and it cost three taels of silver. A grown calf would probably sell for six or seven taels now."

That is affordable. After buying it, it will be convenient for the whole family to go to the city, and we can also visit the county and other counties.

Yun Zhenzhen subconsciously looked at the two older sons in the family, wanting to hear their opinions.

"I'm fine. I'll listen to my mother." Qin Lihan smiled and scratched his head.

Qin Wen and Qin Nan also nodded vigorously.

"I think so too." Yun Jing said with a smile, "My aunt just bought dozens of acres of land. Every year, spring planting and autumn harvest require a lot of labor. Having a cow will make the family much more relaxed."

"Okay, there's no work at home right now, so we can buy a cow before next year's spring planting." Yun Zhenzhen nodded.

"Row."

The four people behind him had no objection.

When the group slowly arrived at the gate of the county government office, there was already a long queue.

There was a small stall in front of the county government office. After each family paid the grain, they could take away a thin piece of paper with a red seal on it.

Yun Zhenzhen looked puzzled, and Yun Jing acted as an interpreter.

"That's the receipt from our county government for paying taxes. It's called a chuanpiao. Holding this receipt every year proves you've paid your taxes."

Old Man Qin asked them to line up here, and he walked up, found a yamen runner, invited him to a corner, nodded and bowed, stuffed a string of copper coins into the other party, and then came back here.

Seeing this, Yun Zhenzhen walked over to Old Lady Qin and asked, "Mom, did Dad just give him some money?"

The usually carefree old lady Qin didn't say anything at this moment. She signaled her to be quiet with her eyes and moved her mouth forward.

The tool used by the yamen runners to weigh things was a square wooden bucket, one bucket holding ten pounds.

The yamen runner who was in charge of scooping wheat scooped out a bucket full of wheat from someone else's sack, and threw it into the bag next to him, shouting loudly.

"One dou, ten jin!"

Yun Zhenzhen opened her mouth slightly, her eyes filled with astonishment, and instantly understood: "How can this bucket only be ten pounds?"

Soon it was their turn. Old Qin handed the household registration and land registration of several people to the yamen runner, and then heard the yamen runner shout loudly.

"Qin Fu from Qinjia Village must pay ten dou of grain."

"Yun Zhenzhen from Qinjia Village needs to pay four dou of grain."

The yamen runner who had just collected the copper plate walked forward and whispered a few words to the fat yamen runner holding the bucket.

The fat yamen runner glanced at a few people, nodded, and reached into the sack with the bucket to scoop out the wheat. When he was about to close his hand, he shook it slightly and shook the wheat that had stuck out back into the sack.

"One bucket!"

The people queuing behind him saw it clearly, but no one dared to say anything.

After the two families paid the taxes, only the bottoms of the rice bags they brought from home were left. Qin Li and Old Lady Yun put all the bags on the ox cart and pulled it aside, while Old Man Qin went to collect the tickets. This meant that the taxes for this year had been paid.