Chapter 133

133. Chapter 133: Autumn Harvest and Taxation

Due to the drought over the years, the people in the village didn't think that it would rain in their area, and a disaster like hail, which hadn't been seen once in decades, shouldn't happen again. Therefore, half of the villagers held an opposing attitude towards harvesting the rice in advance.

"Those ignorant villagers are simply impossible to reason with!" Jiang Wei finished the water in the cup in one breath, her face still carrying some anger. "The Li Zheng simply let the villagers who were willing to harvest the rice in advance go home to prepare and start harvesting tomorrow. As for those who were unwilling, he didn't care and let them be."

Jiang Xiaoxiao listened and shook her head helplessly.

This was also something that couldn't be helped.

It had just rained heavily yesterday, and it was still a bit cold at night, but today, as soon as the sun rose, it became as hot as before. The villagers must have thought that it wouldn't rain again later. As for the hailstorm, they wouldn't believe it even more.

However, presumably, the disaster range of this hailstorm shouldn't be limited to Yuhe Village. If those villages also held such thoughts, it would be bad...

After the Li Zheng's hard persuasion, more than half of the households in Yuhe Village were finally willing to harvest the rice in advance.

For the past few days, more than half of the people in Yuhe Village had been busy day and night. Except for the infants still in swaddling clothes, even the seventy-year-old elderly people had all set out, and it took them five or six days to bring the rice in the fields back.

Qiulian Niang's family was also among those who supported harvesting the rice in advance. Zhao Youcai and Liu Dagang both went home to harvest the rice, and even Old Man Zhao, who was responsible for driving the ox cart to deliver goods for her family, went home to harvest the rice.

In this era, land is the foundation of farmers. Even the poorest families have a few mu of land. Speaking of which, in the whole village, there were only two families who didn't have land now.

The Jiang family, and Zhao Dasao, who had just divorced and separated.

Some of the etiquette and laws in this era were not like the world she was in. Generally speaking, after a woman divorced her husband, she should return to her maiden home, but there was no such rigid requirement in this era. Married women could choose to come out and establish their own households and live alone.

In the courtyard, Jiang Xiaoxiao leaned under the shade of the tree, looking through books related to soap making. After a long while, she got up to move around. As soon as she turned her head, she could see Zhao Dasao watching the kiln outside the courtyard, adding fuel to it from time to time.

Her mother had instructed that the temperature of the kiln should be kept at a standard, otherwise the limestone inside wouldn't be fully burned. Zhao Dasao didn't dare to relax at all and kept an eye on the kiln at all times.

For the past few days, Old Man Zhao had asked for leave to go home to harvest the rice, so the goods in town were delivered by her mother.

Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but think that after selling soap and earning money, should their family also buy a few mu of fertile land to plant some rice, wheat, etc.? They couldn't eat the grain from her mother's space every day. Although there wouldn't be a day when they would sit and eat until the sky was empty, as a farmer, it was necessary to have a few mu of fertile land at home.

She couldn't stay at home, so she simply went for a stroll in the village.

Walking on the dirt road in the village, she could see that a few families still hadn't finished harvesting the rice, but most had finished and were drying it in their courtyards.

The men were threshing the rice ears, beating the rice grains down, and the women were using straw forks to pick the threshed rice stalks to the side to dry. After they were dry, they would bundle them up and pile them into haystacks.

These dry rice stalks were very useful in winter; they could be used to start fires, spread on beds, and stuffed into quilt covers to keep out the cold.

Cotton already existed in this era, but after all, it wasn't grain that could be eaten, so few people planted it, and the yield was low. The price of cotton wool wasn't cheap, and the villagers generally couldn't afford it. Winter clothing and bedding were usually filled with rice straw or reed catkins.

The autumn harvest was the busiest time for peasant families. Jiang Xiaoxiao walked around, and no one noticed her; everyone was busy working with their heads down.

Jiang Xiaoxiao walked and walked, and suddenly walked to the Li Zheng's house.

The gate of the Li Zheng's courtyard was wide open, and the whole family was drying rice.

"Big Brother Dagang!" Jiang Xiaoxiao called out and walked in.

Liu Dagang was bundling rice stalks with dry rice straw. Hearing the sound, he looked at her and grinned: "Why did Xiaoxiao come?"

Jiang Xiaoxiao scanned the courtyard. The Li Zheng's wife was using a straw fork to rake the rice stalks, and next to her, a burly woman was threshing rice grains, exhausted and sweating profusely.

Jiang Xiaoxiao had an impression of this person; she was Liu Dagang's sister-in-law. Liu Dagang had an older brother, but he didn't come home all year round and worked as an accountant in town.

There was also a seventy-year-old old lady, who should be the Li Zheng's own mother, who was carefully picking up the rice grains scattered on the ground.

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked around the courtyard and saw the Li Zheng sitting alone on the steps, looking at a booklet in his hand with a sad face.

She couldn't help but walk over and look closely. The booklet was filled with every household in Yuhe Village, and the number of mu of land each household had was marked in detail behind it.

"Uncle Liu, what is this?" Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but ask.

"Sigh, Xiaoxiao, you're here. This is the tax roster of our village." The Li Zheng held the booklet and sighed deeply, "The land tax and head tax for this year have come down. Every household in the villages of our Yong'an County must pay 15% of their grain..."

"15%?!" Jiang Xiaoxiao gasped, "That much?!"

The Li Zheng sighed and said, "This year is still considered small. A few years ago, wars were frequent in the border areas, and the taxes collected were even more. One year, they had to pay 30% of their grain. Besides this, every household in every village had to provide at least one male over sixteen years old to perform corvée labor."

Jiang Xiaoxiao knew about this. Her biological father in this body was pushed out by the Li family to perform corvée labor five years ago.

But now the war in the border area was not as frequent as in previous years, yet they still had to pay such high taxes!

This year, because of the drought and hail, the harvest in the fields was not very good. In previous years, one mu of land could harvest 150 jin of grain, but this year, it would be considered top-notch if one mu could harvest 100 jin of grain. If 100 jin of grain had to pay 15%, then only 80-something jin would be left.

No wonder every family in this village had at least 20 or 30 mu of land, but the grain they got after working hard all year was not much.

Just for a normal family of eight, the land they had didn't exceed 30 mu, and some families had even less, only 10-something mu. The grain harvested in the autumn, after paying taxes, was barely enough to eat.

A 15% tax was simply shocking to Jiang Xiaoxiao, but for the Li Zheng, it was indeed considered small. What he was worried about now was this newly issued head tax.

In previous years, the head tax for adults from 15 to 56 years old was 800 wen, and for children from 7 to 14 years old, it was 200 wen.

But this year, the starting tax age for children had actually been raised to six years old!