Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 666
February.

Spring returns to the earth, green and full of vitality.

The turn of the year lies in spring, and the good times of the year lie in spring plowing.

At this time, the wheat in Yongcheng was still turning green. Ah Fu and his wife were busy watering, topdressing fertilizer, and weeding every day. When going to the field, young women are also in the field all day long, and the elderly take their children to cook and feed the pigs at home, and the young ones also help.

"You are much thinner."

Chen Twelve, who was wearing a scarlet official robe with bears painted on his chest and back patches, looked at his family and was also very happy. "Is there water to irrigate?"

"There's been some drought this spring, and there's not enough water, and everyone is fighting for water."

"Doesn't it matter in the village?"

"Don't care, how can you not care about it, you have to use your dog's brains to care about it, but there is little water in the drought, and the wheat seedlings in the field are waiting for water to be watered. Everyone wants to water first, and they are afraid that there will be no water in the back. Fighting for water." Ah Fu now has ten acres of land, one for mulberry and one for cotton, and the remaining eight acres for grain.

It is divided into three batches of land rotation, and the staple food is wheat.

"The wheat in Huainan has begun to enter the jointing stage, and it is about to start earing. It doesn't rain a little, so I am so worried."

Spring rain is as expensive as oil, but I haven't seen any rain this spring.

Chen Twelve also sighed, "These years of turmoil have left the water conservancy in ruins, and it will not recover in a short time."

God is like this, everyone has no choice but to fetch water from a long distance with shoulders and hands. Only those big landlords have the ability to build wells, or use donkeys to draw water, or use large water carts.

When I got home, I took out the Tokyo goodies I brought back, and my family was very happy.

"Ah Gui, help me to inform the people in the village that I will come back from work early in the evening without cooking. Come to our house for a banquet. I will treat everyone to eight big bowls."

This time he accompanied Guo Xing Ye to Tokyo, he went there for the second time, but this time he stayed for a long time, for a full three months, Guo Xing Ye even specially contacted him to report to an officer in Fengtian Lecture Hall The training course is short-term, exactly three months.

After studying in the lecture hall for three months, not only did I get to know many military officers such as the garrison and the capital, but also many famous generals attended classes, and even the emperor came to give two classes in person.

At graduation, even the emperor came again.

Give each of them a telescope, a royal horse, a suit of armor, a pair of self-generating muskets, and a dagger.

The hilt is engraved with the three characters Zhu Wu gifted, and the sword blade is also engraved with the characters "Soldier Soul".

Zhu Yihai presented the soldier's soul short sword, also known as the officer's sword, which can be given to all officers after they graduate from the lecture hall. Although there are many training courses for officers, the sword engraved with the emperor's personal inscription is still very precious.

This means that they have become disciples of the emperor.

In the past, Chen Twelve was just a Mai Ke, a short-term laborer without his own land. Later, he joined the Red Spear Club, joined the regiment training, and after receiving training in the martial arts hall, he officially became an admiral in the imperial battalion. It also officially became the imperial camp and became the direct line of the emperor.

Eating eight bowls is a very grand banquet, especially in these years, who can still set up a banquet to eat eight bowls.

Zhu Twelve's mother is a shrewd woman who is used to careful planning, or it is the helplessness of the poor, but today she is extra happy and unexpectedly agrees to her son's expenses.

When Chen Twelve came back this time, not only did he himself confer the five-rank Chinese military garrison, but also the imperial court ordered him to give his parents a special decree.

Chen's mother was too pleasant to be granted the title.

Chen Twelve's father has passed away and was given to General Wu De.

Originally, although Zhu Twelve was promoted to the fifth rank, according to the usual practice, it took three years to pass the exam before being awarded, but now he is directly awarded to his wife and parents.

Chen's mother is now considered to have a patent. Although she is not enough to be called Mrs. Tai, she can also be called too pleasant.

Armored sunflowers lead the head, and the imperial order written on the golden scroll is written in willow-leaf seal script. The beginning of the imperial order weaving text is the order of the heavens. Chen's mother holds the imperial order in her hand and touches it with tears.

Chen's mother has suffered all her life. She has not had a good life for a few days before. She has given birth to more than a dozen children. She has suffered all the hardships in this life.

Now that her son is promising, not only has he won the fifth-rank official rank, the scarlet-robed whitebait, but even earned her a very pleasant life, how could she not like it.

"Please, please, everyone, we want to do it, it's a big one, not only do we have to gather eight bowls, but we also have to have hard dishes." Chen's mother said that she saved all the money that Chen Twelve gave her before, and did not deposit it in the bank. If you can't believe it, just believe that the gold and silver are in your hands.Now she said that Chen Twelve took it to buy vegetables and invite people, and it must be a big feast.

For a family, especially this kind of people who used to be at the bottom, they basically didn't have a bright future in the past.

They couldn't even afford the imperial examination, at least a small landlord could afford it.

But now that the Chen family has a fifth-rank official, the ancestral grave is full of smoke.

Even Chen Twelve's dead father was given a fifth-rank Wude general.

Small landlords and rich peasants, if there are talents in their families, are worthy of a treat, and if they win a prize, they will even beat gongs, drums and set off firecrackers, and even the local magistrates and gentry will send people to celebrate.

Now Twelve is the fifth-rank garrison directly, or the fifth-rank garrison of the imperial camp. Of course, this must be handled well, so that everyone in all directions and eight villages will know that the Chen family is promising.

"Mom, I have money in my hand."

Ah Fu is also happy for his 'uncle', "I still feed a few pigs at home, and two of them weigh almost [-] catties. I will go and kill the pigs with Ah Gui."

This pig is fed by his wife hard. Every day, he has to cook a big pot of pig food and pull pig grass. The sweet potatoes and radishes that the family planted last year made the pig fat.Originally, I planned to sell the money for the fattening point, and then repair the house. The plan was not to move the thatched house first, but to add a stone and adobe house.

But now he intends to treat the two pigs without hesitation.

Chen Twelve smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "Okay." As he spoke, he asked the soldiers to fetch the silver directly, "You take the ten silver dollars first, and make up if you don't have enough."

"Uncle Twelfth, why do you take money for my family's work?" Ah Fu blushed anxiously.

Twelve smiled and said, "It's not easy to raise a pig. This piggy is not cheap to catch. It takes more than a year to grow so big. It needs to eat a lot of grass and a lot of miscellaneous grains, let alone waste. With so much time and energy, the firewood for cooking pig food and carrying water every day are incredible."

The price of pork is not cheap. Although the price varies from place to place, pork is not bacon. It is slaughtered and sold locally. When this kind of rice is not enough to eat, there is still a good demand for pork, which is mainly supplied to towns.Even because there are still many people who do not have enough to eat, it is difficult to raise pigs, and the price is high when the supply is small.

A catty of pork in Yongcheng is generally around [-] yuan, which is roughly the salary of a strong laborer working in the city for a day, and ordinary people really can't afford it.

The main force of eating pork was cities and towns, especially those large industrial and commercial cities, and even the capital city of the economic and political center. In the late Ming Dynasty, every Spring Festival, the capital slaughtered 750 pigs, while the palace consumed [-] pigs a year, and sheep [-], less than pigs.

Now the Shaotian Dynasty encourages everyone to engage in family farming, which can not only increase family income, but also enrich the vegetable basket. Even because of the shortage of commodities, the imperial court even implements a unified purchase and sales policy for grain, and even pork is kept half and half.

It is stipulated that farmers' families need to sell half of the pigs to the government for purchase, and the other half can be freely disposed of.

The price is still in line with the market. The purpose of this is to ensure the supply of pork. After all, pork is also in short supply everywhere.

In addition, after the new tax law, pig raising is subject to tax, livestock transaction tax, and slaughter tax.

Livestock transaction tax is levied according to the price, 5.00%, and the buyer pays the tax, while the slaughter tax is paid by the slaughterer, levied 5.00% according to the price.

When Chen Twelve bought the piglets, he had already paid the livestock transaction tax once.

Now even if he kills the pig himself, he still has to pay the slaughter tax.

In fact, this is still relatively small. Although the imperial court did not have such a regular tax in the past, it was collected by the local government, and the tax rate was still high, and there were even surcharges. Now it is forbidden to add surcharges. The livestock transaction tax and slaughter tax are shared taxes. court four.

One pig can be raised for more than 100 catties a year. If you kill it yourself, you can sell more than [-] catties of meat. If you sell it, you can get about four and a half taels of silver. For two pigs, you have to pay four cents and five taels of slaughter tax.

It is stipulated that one must be sold to the official purchase, and a fine must be paid if the whole is sold. A Fu's family still has two smaller pigs, and they can be sold to the purchase station to make up for it later.

The piglets that Chen Twelve bought were about twenty catties a head, and the price was very expensive. The market price was about three catties of piglets for one catty of piglets. The piglets were cheaper than pork, but if they were exchanged, they would cost around twenty pounds for a catty of piglets. Wen, so it costs [-] or [-] yuan to buy a piglet, and there is another [-] or [-] yuan for the transaction tax.

The two pigs have been raised for more than a year and sold for nine yuan. The cost of the piglets has gone to [-], and the slaughter tax has to be paid another [-] cents and [-] yuan, so the three taels have gone.

There are six taels left, which looks like a lot, but in fact there are still many costs that have not been calculated. For example, Ah Fu fed the sweet potatoes and radishes grown in the rotation land last year to the pigs. This is his own land, otherwise he would not be able to feed a few pigs.If the miscellaneous grains are sold, they are actually valuable.

If there is no land at home, it will be difficult to raise pigs. It is not enough to just eat grass, especially in winter and spring when there is no grass to eat.Little piglets have to eat rice bran and jade noodles.

Chen Twelve was also from a poor family background, so he didn't know this.

The family is counting on raising pigs for some cash.

"Three hundred catties of meat for two pigs should be enough. Go and buy me some sheep, some chickens, ducks and geese, and then go to Daji Street to buy some sugar, tea, and soy and vinegar oil wine. Remember to buy some more Some cigarettes, buy better ones."

Agui smiled and said, "Uncle Twelve is really extravagant. Pork is now thirty yuan a catty, big carp is more than 20 yuan a catty, and mutton is seventy or eighty yuan a catty. Occasionally there is beef, which is also very expensive.

Sugar, tea, tobacco and alcohol are even more expensive, and they are all monopoly, so salt is cheaper.

The cheapest brown granulated sugar costs more than 50 yuan per catty, but the sauce and vinegar are cheap, costing four pennies a bowl. "

Chen Twelve smiled and called two soldiers, "Take them to buy. Uncle has money, so if you want to do it, make it more lively. There is still rice and noodles at home. If you don't have enough, you can buy some at the fair."

Ah Fu hurriedly said, "Our family farms, how can we buy rice in the grain shop, the rice in the shop has to be bought with food stamps, without food stamps, it is very expensive to buy commodity grains, and it is one or two stones to buy with tickets, without tickets. Just flipped through. I have left rations at home, so I don’t need to buy them.”

Chen Twelve was wealthy, and he was rewarded for his meritorious service in the war, with a salary subsidy.

"Uncle has money, go ahead and do it."

Mother Chen also asked Agui and his adoptive father, Chen Da, to come over, "Your brothers are promising, don't be reluctant to part with the money, you have to have a lively scene, hurry up and ask the folks, borrow tables and benches, and remember to prepare tea and cigarettes."

Everyone nodded excitedly, and went to work separately with red faces.

(End of this chapter)