Peasant woman

Chapter 55

They were all from nearby villages, and when they saw Father Xu and Xu Cao there, they hurriedly stepped forward to greet them with a smile, explaining why they came.Several families came to buy potatoes.

Father Xu was overjoyed when he heard about the villagers' intentions, and hurriedly said: "Okay, there are still some potatoes left at home, and I won't talk about the price. I think everyone knows it, but there are not many potatoes left at home. Each person can get about a hundred catties."

The villagers were naturally overjoyed, they were all from the next-door village, they were the first to sell Xu Cao's potatoes to them.

"Then thank you, Mr. Xu. There are almost nine of us. You see, you can leave all the potatoes you have left to us."

Hearing the sound, the old lady in the house hurriedly jumped off the kang, ran outside swiftly, stared at Father Xu, "If you dare to sell the potatoes to others today, I won't interrupt you!" Legs! I have never seen such an unfilial daughter and son-in-law, I really regret it, why would a good girl marry you..." The old lady rolled on the ground as she spoke, and began to howl while sitting on the ground Shouting, patting his thigh.

Father Xu showed embarrassment.

Mrs. Li also came out of the house, and when she saw the old lady on the ground, her face flushed with anger, "Don't make trouble here anymore, go back quickly, I won't give you these potatoes today."

Several villagers knew the old lady, and the old lady was not very far away, she was from a nearby village.

Originally, each village was not big, and what happened in the nearby villages would soon spread to other villages.They were very clear about the old lady's matter, and they couldn't see it clearly, so they all persuaded: "Old lady of the Li family, you are going too far. You sold your daughter back then, but now they see that your daughter has something to take advantage of and come here again." It’s not okay to take advantage of it. But if you really want it, ten of us will share it equally, one hundred catties per person, and of course you have to give money.”

Several villagers agreed. Although each person would share ten catties less, it was not an option to keep the old lady entangled like this.

The old lady still sat down on the ground and refused to get up, "No, I want all the potatoes, and you still want to share? There is no way, they are my daughter and son-in-law, so naturally they want to listen to me!"

When the villagers heard this, they were also annoyed, and scolded: "You old lady is too much."

Mrs. Li continued to sit down and piss on the ground, while Mrs. Li and Mrs. Xu stood helplessly, looking at each other.

Xu Cao couldn't stand it anymore, and said to the villagers: "Come with me."

Several villagers looked at each other and followed Xu Cao.

Xu Cao ignored the old lady Li on the ground and asked the villagers to go to the cellar to move out the remaining one thousand catties of potatoes. When the old lady saw that she wanted to grab it, Xu Cao ordered two villagers to stop the old lady. Several of them divided the potatoes, and the villagers consciously gave money.

The villagers all brought their carts, loaded all the divided potatoes into the ox cart, and then drove the ox cart away.

Seeing the baskets of potatoes being divided, the old lady howled angrily, pointed at Xu Cao's nose and cursed, "You little whore, who told you to touch my mother's potatoes? You little bitch!" Whore, do you know who this old lady is? You treat your elders like this, believe it or not, this old lady beats you to death! I don’t care, I don’t care, you little whore, pay me for my potatoes!”

Xu Cao was in a hurry and said angrily, "Shut up!" Her voice was so loud that it startled the old lady sitting on the ground.

Xu Cao touched the silver in her hand, glanced at the old lady, walked up to Mrs. Li and Father Xu, said something quietly, and then went to lock the cellar door with the silver.The chain keys were all in his arms.

Then he said to Mrs. Li and Mr. Xu: "Father, mother, I'll go back first."

When she walked to the old lady's side, she said coldly: "You should go back quickly, you won't get any benefits here, if you are messing around, I will report to the police."

"How dare you!" The old lady got up from the ground and glared at Xu Cao.

Xu Cao sneered, "Look how dare I, I don't know you, yet you come to my house to play tricks, if you don't leave, I will really call someone."

The old lady was still pointing at Xu Cao and yelling, refusing to go back.Xu Cao ignored her, greeted Mrs. Li and went back.

At night, Mrs. Li came to look for Xu Cao, and said happily: "Big girl, she is gone, she howled at our house for a long time, your father and I ignored her, and finally wanted to go to the cellar by myself Move the potatoes, luckily you locked the cellar door."

Xu Cao breathed a sigh of relief, and returned the money and the key to the cellar that she received for Li in the morning, "Mother, you can take care of the money and the key, and if she comes again, don't be soft-hearted, just stop her outside the courtyard." That's it."

Li Shi sighed, "I know."

Fortunately, the old lady didn't come to the door anymore, and Mrs. Li and Mr. Xu were relieved.

In the past few days, Xu Cao, Fugui and Xiaoguang Xiaoxia have been busy in the ten acres of land, busy digging the soil and fertilizing, so that they can continue planting potatoes in a month.

After working for half a month, the potatoes of other people in the village are all mature, and they are all busy harvesting.At this time, Xu Cao’s family’s ten acres of land had already been plowed, and Fu Gui continued to be busy hunting, while Xu Cao and the others went to the mountains to cut pig grass. The family raised three pigs and they had nothing to eat in autumn. At this time, the pigweed was hit.

Soon it was August, during which Xu Cao's [-] acres of land was fertilized again, and then he began to be busy planting potatoes.

Time flies by, and with the help of Xiaoguang and Xiaoxia at home, Xu Cao is not very tired in tending the [-] acres of land. Soon in November, every household is busy harvesting potatoes.Xu Cao estimated that it would take at least two or three years if the potatoes were to be widely spread.It's okay to grow potatoes all this time.And after paying the grain tax, the remaining potatoes are enough to feed and clothe the villagers, and some can be sold.

After harvesting the potatoes and paying some food taxes, the villagers sold all the remaining potatoes.After all, the coarse grains they eat are only four to five yuan a catty, so they would rather sell the potatoes at a high price and buy some coarse grains to eat.

However, everyone here is happily busy selling potatoes to buy miscellaneous grains, but the county magistrate in the town has already written a booklet and sent it to the superiors quickly.

When the people above saw that such a high-yield grain could be grown in such a remote place, they naturally attached great importance to it.

In the past few years, there have been constant wars on the frontier, and the soldiers needed too much rations, so the food tax was heavy, and the people in many places have complained again and again.Now that such a high-yield grain can be grown, it can not only solve the food ration problem of the frontier soldiers, but also satisfy the poor people.

No one wants to keep this kind of thing a secret, and report it layer by layer. After the book is in the hands of the current sage, the sage, Longyan Dayue, attaches great importance to this matter, and dispatches his officials to inquire about the specific situation of the high-yield grain. Jinghao is promoted throughout the country, and by the way, it will be rewarded to the first farmer who grows this grain.

It was already the end of the year when the book arrived in the capital, and Xu Cao didn't know anything about what was going to happen, but just stayed at home with charcoal fire, teaching Miao Miao how to read.

Fugui walked in from the outside covered in heavy snow, and saw Xu Cao was sitting on the top of the kang teaching Miao Miao how to read, and Xiaoxia was sitting next to her, also staring at the characters on it attentively, learning seriously.

Feeling a cold wind blowing in, Xu Cao looked up and saw Fugui, hurriedly got off the kang, went to the back room to get a cloth towel, wiped the snow off Fugui's head, and patted the snow off his body, then said: " Have you bought them all back? The Chinese New Year will be in a few days, and we should have about the same amount of purchases for the New Year.”

"Daughter-in-law, don't worry, I bought them back." Fugui grinned.

The Chinese New Year will be in a few days, and Xu Cao's family has spent the New Year happily, and after the Chinese New Year, they start to get busy.

After the new year, Xu Cao was going to take the ten acres of surplus potatoes from his family to a town farther away to sell, but was stopped by the county magistrate in the town, saying that he wanted to buy potatoes.The price is calculated according to ten cents per catty.

Not only Xu Cao's family bought it, but there were also leftover potatoes in the nearby villages, and the county magistrate wanted to buy them, all at a price of ten cents a catty.

Although it is two cents less than before, everyone has a lot of potatoes left over, and the people in the nearby villages are not bad for potatoes, so it is naturally possible to sell them to the official.

Xu Cao is not interested in knowing why the official lord bought so many potatoes, as long as the officials don't embarrass the common people like them and squeeze them deliberately.

Three months later, the letter from the capital first arrived in the hands of the county magistrate. When the county magistrate learned that a minister wanted to meet Xu Cao, he hurriedly sent someone to invite Xu Cao.

Xu Cao was busy with farm work in the field at this time, until Mrs. Li came to look for her in the field sweating profusely.

When Mrs. Li saw Xu Cao, she was still trembling, she pulled Xu Cao who was in a daze and said, "Big girl, what has happened to you lately?"

"Mom, what's wrong with you? Why are you sweating profusely?" Xu Cao was surprised.

Li Shi was so anxious that she was about to cry, "Big girl, tell me quickly, have you caused trouble recently?"

"Mother, what trouble can we country people cause? I usually stay at home or in the fields. I haven't even been to the town. Naturally, nothing has happened."

"Then...then why are there so many officials coming to your house?" Mrs. Li trembled thinking about the scene where the officials came to the door just now.To say that they, the common people, are most afraid of the errands and the officials. "Big girl, you...you should go out and hide for a few days first."

In the cognition of the country people, as long as the official messenger comes to the door, nothing good will happen.

(End of this chapter)