When it was time to catch the market, Geng Qiu was ready early in the morning and went to Aqing's house, but saw him sorting out a load of grain.

"I'm going to sell grain. Will you be able to come back in one day? Geng Qiu asked.

"Come back overnight. My family has to sell some food, and I have to buy some things, and I have to go to my sister's house. Aqing said. He has an older sister and a younger sister who are married, the older sister is married in a nearby village, and the younger sister is married in the suburbs of town. He was going to spend the night at his sister's house.

"Ah Hao, it's okay for you to take Ah Niu at home alone, I'll come back tomorrow." Geng Qiu asked.

"Okay." Ah Hao replied indifferently.

"Let's go to Sister-in-law A Qing to feed at noon, and cook porridge for the two of you to eat at night." Geng Qiu instructed. I knew that I was going to go out for the night, so I should have fried some cakes for Ah Hao to eat.

Ah Hao can't do any housework, and his cooking skills are so bad that Geng Qiu can't bear it, so most of the time he can only send him to watch the child, but even when he looks at the child, he is also clumsy, so Geng Qiu is afraid that he won't be able to take care of the child. Besides, Ah Hao is also a person outside the main by nature, although Geng Qiu is not willing to be a househusband, he is unbearable.

First, he has to rely on Ah Hao to live, and secondly, Ah Hao's housework ability is completely a scum, not to mention that he can't wash the dishes, not to mention that he will break it, so he has to resign himself to doing these trivial housework. If you come and go, you will get used to it. Now I have to go out for the night, and I'm afraid that Ah Hao won't be able to take the child and be hungry.

"Alright, okay, you can go quickly." Ah Hao waved his hand and said dissatisfiedly. He's not a child, and I'm afraid he won't do this work.

"Aren't you going to take something and sell it?" Seeing Geng Qiu's empty hand, Ah Qing asked again.

"I don't have anything to sell." Geng Qiu said puzzled. In addition to buying and buying, his family lacks everything, and there is nothing extra to sell.

"You have so much firewood at home, and a few bundles can be exchanged for twenty or thirty dollars, so let's exchange some salt." Aqing said. It is not easy for people in the village to go to the market town, basically they will bring something to sell, and no one will go out empty-handed. Geng Qiu's house has a lot of firewood, and there are a lot of thick branches, so if you don't sell such good firewood, you can burn it at home, which is too wasteful.

"Firewood can also be sold." Geng Qiu laughed, no matter what, it's not good to go out empty-handed, since you can exchange money, let's pull a few bundles. Anyway, there are really a lot of firewood in his house, and the two of them can basically take some home every day, and now they are piled up in a big pile. The firewood needed for the whole winter is basically enough.

Ah Qing picked up more than 100 catties of grain, and also carried a small bucket, in which were placed a few pieces of pickled snake meat and fish meat, more than 20 catties. He also carried a bag with a few small clothes and diapers that his mother had prepared for her daughter. His sister is about to give birth. Seeing that he was taking so many things, Geng Qiu hurriedly helped to take the burden and the keg. If it weren't for the fact that there were more than 400 catties of firewood on the mule, he still wanted Ah Qing to put the grain on the mule.

Although he has two mules in his family, they have never taken two mules out together, after all, the goal of carrying two mules is too big, and the people here are too poor, and having two mules at home is simply a huge wealth, which is very eye-catching and prone to accidents. Besides, Ah Qing would not be willing to borrow his mule. However, along the way, he also exchanged hands with Ah Qing a few times, helping Ah Qing carry the burden and let Ah Qing rest. Ah Qing was not polite, he was still embarrassed to take advantage of this cheapness.

The two went directly to the town, Aqing is familiar here, first took him to sell the firewood, and sure enough, he got forty-five dollars, and he could buy more than two catties of coarse salt. Because his firewood is really good, it is dry and thicker branches, so the price is also good, others are ten big money and one hundred catties, and his more is five big money. After Ah Qing sold the grain, he went shopping with Geng Qiu.

Geng Qiu picked two low-grade cotton wool, the big one was used as a quilt, and the smaller one was used as a mattress, the mattress I bought last time was now cold, and it was no longer warm enough to spread on the bed, and it was even worse in winter, so I had to buy a bed. He picked five pounds of medium lint, and bought a horse of medium cotton cloth and a horse of coarse cloth, which were intended for winter clothing.

Ah Qing also bought a few catties of medium lint and two pieces of cloth. Because there are a lot of things to buy, and Ah Qing knows the shopkeeper again, Geng Qiu only spent two and a half silver, and he also got a few small flower rags from the shopkeeper, and it is not bad to take them back to make small things for children.

Then the two went to the grocery store, and Geng Qiu bought a few packs of snacks, a pound of sugar, and eight pounds of salt. In the end, the two saw the pork that had not been sold out in the market, and Ah Qing bought another two catties of pork.

Geng Qiu didn't dare to buy pork, their family's savings were only seven taels of silver now, so they had to save some money. Don't think about pork, I don't even dare to buy oil, but fortunately, Ah Hao can get some wild things to go home to supplement his life and add some oil and water to the two of them. Otherwise, the two of them would not be able to survive just boiling salt and salt every day. In fact, even the rough coarse batter and coarse dough cakes, they don't like to eat them in their hearts, but they really can't help it. Fine noodles and white rice, where can they afford to enjoy it. At this stage, it would be good not to be well fed and clothed. Others, for the time being, are not able to pursue.

The two led the mule to Ah Qing's sister's house, and when they arrived at her house in the evening, they happened to see his brother-in-law returning with a bundle of firewood. Ah Qing hurriedly shouted, "Brother-in-law." ”

"Big brother is here." The young man turned around and greeted him with a smile.

"Did my sister give birth?" A-Qing asked.

"Not yet, but my mother said that it's only been a few days, and the family is ready."

"This is from our village, you can call Brother Qiu, and I will come out with him." Ah Qing introduced Geng Qiu.

"Brother Qiu." The young man was very enthusiastic and beckoned Geng Qiu to go home together.

Ah Qing's sister came out with a big belly and her mother-in-law, Ah Qing handed over the bucket and pork to her mother-in-law, and handed over the burden to her sister, Geng Qiu was embarrassed to eat white food, he prepared sugar and two packs of snacks early. When the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law heard that Geng Qiu was a new neighbor in Aqing's village, they were embarrassed to ask for his things, and a bag of sugar was a very expensive gift.

Ah Qing asked them to accept it and said, "Tonight, we have to spend the night at your house." ”

The brother-in-law helped unload the mule's loads, and the mother-in-law made dinner. Dinner was good, with meat dishes, and an egg soup, plus a few side dishes. After eating a sumptuous dinner, the brother-in-law arranged for them to live in the back wing, and the brother-in-law's family was obviously not very good, and it was estimated that it was a little worse than the village chief's house. The family is very kind, the population is not large, and the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is very good. The brother-in-law's family is the younger couple and their parents and a younger brother. There are also sisters who are married.

Early the next morning, Geng Qiu and Aqing got up, and her mother-in-law also made breakfast, which was thin batter and side dishes, which was ordinary breakfast, but when they left, her mother-in-law wrapped two coarse noodle cakes for each of them to take on the road to eat. This kind of hospitality, in their family, is also considered high-end.

On the way home, Ah Qing said: "We have to buy more than half of the grain we harvest every year, and we have to pay taxes." If you can have a surplus of 300 catties of grain, it will be considered a good harvest. In the event of a bad year, selling all of them is not enough to pay taxes. And in addition to this tax, there is also a poll tax. ”

"Do we have to pay taxes then?" Geng Qiu hurriedly asked. It's a topic of concern. If the tax is heavy, it will make it worse.

"Yes, your family has little money, your family is a little special, you and Ah Hao only pay one and a half copies. When Ah Niu turns fourteen, he will have to pay a whole share. Look at our family, there are many people who eat and make a lot of friends. Also, your family doesn't have to pay land tax, we have to pay it. So everyone forced you to take you into the mountains to hunt, but there was no way, and it would be good to be tired all year round, and it would be good to be half-full. Now I can earn more, which one is not blushing. The purpose of Ah Qing calling him out was to talk to him and let him understand that the people in the village were actually not bad, they were all forced by life. Everyone is a person who doesn't see each other when they look up and look down, and it doesn't hurt to help each other on weekdays and be kind.

In addition to the sisters who were married, Ah Qing also has a fifteen-year-old brother and an eleven-year-old sister at home. My younger brother has been studying, borrowing to study in my brother-in-law's relative's private school, and my sister has also begun to slowly get along, all of which need silver. And he has three children. So the burden on his family is also heavy. Ah Qing himself has also studied, but he has only studied for two years, and this younger brother has studied more, because he has studied well and is preparing to take the Xiucai exam. In this way, Aqing's family is also a good family in the village.

"It's okay, do women have to pay taxes?" Geng Qiu changed the topic, he knew that the people in the village were really bad, but sometimes, some things were also very annoying.

"No, I don't. Ah Hao is different, so he pays half of it. Men are also required to reach the age of majority to pay the poll tax. In addition, there is a land tax. In our village, there is little land, and the land tax is relatively small. Because most of the fields are cultivated by themselves, and on the barren slopes, in the ravines and ravines, the government cannot find out. Your family doesn't have land, and the land that is being opened now will not pay land tax for five years, and it will be the same for another five years, because this land is too conspicuous, unlike the wasteland that everyone opens, a small piece in the east and a small piece in the west, and it is difficult to check. The government will definitely find out. Aqing explained.

"Oh. How much is the poll tax paid by an adult man? Geng Qiu asked again.

"A person pays a poll tax of 130 yuan a year, and he doesn't have to pay it until he is 55 years old. The land tax is 500 yuan for an acre of fertile land, and it is almost 200 to 300 yuan a year. For example, the grain I sold today is enough for half of our family's taxes. You'll have to sell it again to make up the numbers. However, in that case, the food at home will not be enough to eat, and there will be a shortfall of at least one hundred and fifty catties. We ate more vegetables, and in the winter, almost every family would eat radishes and cabbage as rice, just to save a little ration. "Ah Qing sued him.

In fact, this year's harvest is really good, otherwise there will be only one or two hundred catties of food shortage, sometimes, the grain is only enough to eat half, at that time many families will live half hungry and half full throughout the year, and if it is a little worse, they will starve to death. In fact, just by planting this little field, the people in the village have long been unable to live, every household will also collect firewood to sell, now it is the best season to collect firewood, some people will get some snacks to sell, some families will also raise pigs and chickens to sell, and women's families will also do some embroidery work to supplement their lives. It's really not good, and there are people who sell coolies to do odd jobs, and if they can't do it, they will sell people. In short, the common people have a hard time.

As soon as he mentioned taxes, Geng Qiu panicked, his family was already poor, where could he have the extra money to pay, but he didn't expect that for the time being, his family only needed to pay less than 200 big money, and his heart was also put down. 200 big money, you can make it up anything. If you are not lucky, you can also come and sell firewood a few more times.

If he let Ah Qing know about this kind of thought, I'm afraid that he will have to mention him again. You know, 200 is a lot of money for a poor family. At least you can buy dozens of catties of thick noodles, save it, and eat it, which is enough for a big family like them to chew for two months. It's just that the coarse noodles and coarse grains bought by Geng Qiu's family are not the worst of this kind, they are slightly better, 200 big money, which is enough to buy about 20 catties. In fact, it is also half a month's ration for him and Ah Hao.