The Mid-Autumn Festival, that is, half of the autumn has passed, and a few days later is the autumn equinox, when the crops that grow in the ground must be recovered before the cold dew, and the wheat planted before the frost falls on the ground must sprout, so that they can survive the cold winter in peace. Therefore, the fields are even busier, and Lan Yi's family is not only busy in the fields, but it is time to transplant peonies.

Xia Shun began to transport peony seedlings from the flower farmers and gardens he ordered, and a truckload of peonies was brought back, and Lan Yi, the family of Second Uncle Wang, and his six sons led hired short-term workers to plant peonies on the slopes under the guidance of Zhao Florist. This batch of peonies was selected by Zhao Huajiang, not only the seedlings are strong and transplanted with the root soil, although it is time-consuming and laborious, it can improve the survival rate of peonies.

More than 20,000 peonies, ranging from two years to five years, this is all the number that can be found this year, nearly 5,000 plants on the slopes of Lan Yi and Uncle Wang, more than 12,000 plants are planted on the slopes of Xia Wan, it looks like rows of peonies stretch with the slope bending, it is very spectacular.

"Sister-in-law, if we sprinkle the silver on the hillside like this, can we really earn it back next year?" Liu looked at the peonies on the hillside, happy and unable to hide his worry.

Xia Wan's hillside planted more than twice as many peonies, one is because she has many slopes, and the other is the problem of silver. Although it didn't cost a few pennies on average for each peony, it couldn't stand the huge number, and the freight and cost of more than 5,000 peonies was nearly fifty taels, which was already the bottom line that Uncle Wang and Lan Yi could afford.

"The third family, if you can't speak, you won't say a word! Motherfuck, don't listen to her. Li scolded his little daughter-in-law, Lan Yi had lent them forty taels of silver as capital, so it was hard to give her a guarantee now!

"Second aunt, it's okay. I'm going to see two children, they're going to be thirsty too. Lan Yi saw Liu's unconvinced look, she didn't bother to speak, turned around and left to let Li educate her daughter-in-law.

"Second brother, Uncle Zhao should also be thirsty, you can send him this water." Lan Yi handed the water bowl to Wang Linxi and asked him to send it to Zhao Huajiang.

Zhao Shangjing is in his fifties, thin and dark, taciturn, a few days ago at his request, Xia Shun bought a vacant land next to the hillside and built two thatched huts for him, Zhao Shangjing lived on the hillside next to the garden, it is said that the gardeners live near the flowers like this.

"Thank you, sister-in-law." Wang Linxi knew that she wanted to have more contact with Zhao Huasheng so that she could make a good impression on him and learn the techniques of growing peonies from him.

Wang Linyuan looked at this large piece of peony and said his plan: "Sister-in-law, I have an idea. You see that we have such a large piece of peonies, it is better to circle it into a garden, if there are flowers, we can also have more income. ”

"Third brother, you have a good idea. It's just that the money in our hands is tight now, and we have to pay attention to the oil mill first, and this garden also has to do a lot of road pavilion decoration, and if we want to get it, we will have to discuss it slowly after the thaw next year. Lan Yi knew that this was a method, but he didn't have much money in his hand, so it was better to save some.

Wang Linyuan's face flushed: "Sister-in-law, it's the younger brother who doesn't think about it." Although he had been an apprentice in the city for two years, he had only been running around for the innkeeper, and he had some knowledge, but it was inevitably a little superficial.

Lan Yi enlightened him and said: "Third brother, let's plant this peony, how many flowers can bloom next year, you still have to ask Uncle Zhao, if the flowers are not in full bloom next year, and we are an hour away from the city here, what is the difference between our garden and the garden in the city, why do those people come to us to see the flowers?" It's good that you have ideas, but do each step carefully to figure out the key to it. ”

Wang Linyuan listened to his sister-in-law's words and began to ponder, Lan Yi stopped bothering him, and began to watch Zhao Huajiang instruct Wang Linxi which peony branches were sick and withered and how to cut them.

"You have to prepare straw for the peony to survive the winter, and tie it up before the peony picks leaves." Lan Yi pondered Zhao Huajiang's instructions, and this year it seems that she will buy all the straw that made her fortune on Tuesday and use it.

She took her two children to the south of the village to check the radish and cabbage on her hillside, hundreds of cabbage wrapped in hard hearts, and the radish also grew into one, in this autumn wind shrunk and the grass turned yellow, the green of the radish and cabbage is particularly eye-catching. By the way, she bundled the pumpkin seedlings in the field and brought them back to feed the pigs, and now the two pigs in the family are half old, and they have to eat a lot every day. Lan Yi still threw the manure and grass stalks that were cleaned every day in the yard, sheepfold and donkey shed, and let the pigs trample on the manure.

The second uncle's rice millet was transported to the drying field, Lan Yi helped to dry the rice, and it was a laborious task to take off the rice from the rice. Millet is also more troublesome to thresh, because millet grains are tiny, and can only be rubbed by hand on the grooved wood, so these jobs require a long period of effort, tiredness, harvest, this is the autumn of the farmer's house. Not all the grain harvested from the field received it in its own grain cupboard, and the first thing was to pay a tax, and if it was someone else's land, a part of the rent had to be paid to the master's family.

The way of paying taxes in Da Zhou is quite special, and Lan Yi has never heard of this method of paying taxes in modern times. First of all, according to the condition of the land, the field is divided into a variety of categories, such as paddy field, dry field, terraced field, etc., and the various categories are roughly divided into upper, middle and lower three classes according to the different soil quality and yield; Second, according to the different grain outputs in different localities, the amount of local taxes that need to be paid in each year is roughly 30% of the amount of land land. This amount is set by the relevant authorities of each state and then verified by the higher authorities and then implemented locally. In the end, the payment of rent and tax can be directly used with the grain in the field or the payment of silver money converted according to the price of grain, and the imperial court does not make uniform requirements, as for the village level, the collection of rent tax is carried out by Lizheng. Therefore, after the grain harvest of each family in the past few days, Zhao Lizheng urged each family to pay their own taxes to his house, and then he arranged vehicles to transport them to the granary of the county government.

While harvesting rice millet, the slope should also be watered to prepare for ploughing, this year there is a dump in the village, and the slope that needs to be watered is waiting to be used with a dump. There are only two more rollovers in the village, and a total of four rollovers is enough. In addition to reporting the overturned car to the county, Zhao Lizheng also asked the carpenter to make a lot of overturned cars and sell them to the surrounding villages, and the silver money earned was half of Lan Yi's, making up for her recent shortfall.

Because they planned to plant two acres of land with winter wheat, Lan Yi and Second Uncle Wang lined up together and waited for the overturn. She took the cabbage, radish and pumpkin seedlings from the sloping fields back home, the pumpkin seedlings were directly used to feed the livestock, and the cabbage and radishes needed to be stored properly, Lan Yi did not put these in the cellar, the cellar is not a panacea, and the stored food should be stored separately according to the needs and characteristics of the food itself. Most of the cabbage in the village is stacked in a dry place where it can get sun, covered with straw to prevent frostbite, and Lan Yi plans to use the storage method in her hometown.

She dug a vegetable pit on the north side of the pigsty near the west courtyard wall, which was five meters long, one and a half meters wide, and one and a half meters deep. Then, select a big cabbage, put the roots next to each other in the pit, cut off the leaves of the radish at the other end of the pit, and finally cover a layer about a palm thick with the leaves that are brought back from the woods, and then press a layer of soil on the top to ensure that the cabbage and radish are fresh and will not be frostbitten.

After the pit was filled, there were still about a hundred cabbages and a basket of radishes left in the house, and Lan Yi stored them under the front window of the house according to the habits of the villagers, which made the autumn smell of the house stronger.

At the end of August, the sky is high and the sun is crystall, the autumn wind is severe, and the village and the woods are rich in color, red and yellow like oil paintings with thick ink. Lan Yi remembered one of Bai Pu's masterpieces - Tianjingsha Qiusi:

The lonely village is in the sunset, the light smoke is old and the jackdaws are in the shadow. Green mountains and green waters, white grass, red leaves and yellow flowers.

It is this desolate and magnificent beauty of late autumn, when people are in the landscape, they regard it as normal, only Lan Yi, an outsider, will raise his head every day between ploughing, and suddenly be shocked by the heavy color of nature.

The long hours of work made the people in the village start to get tired, where is there such leisure as Lan Yi. Fortunately, now that the autumn harvest is over, all that remains is to plough the land and plant winter wheat.

After drying the field for five days, Second Uncle Wang borrowed cattle to plough the family's land, and Lan Yi's two acres of sloping land were also ploughed along with the second uncle's field.

"Second uncle, is this sprinkled with quicklime?" Lan Yi saw that the second uncle first picked a few baskets of quicklime from home and sprinkled them in the field.

"Yes, sprinkle some lime to get rid of the worms, so that the worms don't bite the wheat roots. Zhao florist also added lime to the soil after pruning the peony, which is easy to use. Second Uncle Wang has always been very patient with Lan Yi's questions, and the fatigue of many days made his cheeks look thin and the wrinkles on his face deepened.

Lan Yi nodded: "That's a good idea." Second uncle, you rest for a while, and I'll sprinkle the rest of the lime. ”

Without waiting for Second Uncle Wang to refuse, Lan Yi skillfully picked up the shovel and began to follow his example to sprinkle the lime evenly. Wang Linxi helped Zhao Huajiang to tease peonies on the hillside, Liu and Chen rubbed millet at home, Li took care of a few children, Wang Linyuan and his second uncle were responsible for plowing the land, and when they were so busy, they didn't forget to help Lan Yi plough the land and sow seeds.

It has to be said that it is a good way to use lime to get rid of insects, and the more she has come into contact with the people here, the more she thinks they are smart, hardworking, and good at farming. It's just that the Great Zhou Dynasty is like the previous dynasties, the distinction between Shinong and industry is clear, and the household registration is clear, and under the rule of each industry, the people in the village are good at land cultivation, but the economic consciousness is weaker, and they only know how to dig food from the soil, at most, they raise chickens and ducks, sell tofu and other small crafts to make money, or go to the city to do short-term work when the farm is not working, and they have not crossed the category of merchants. This is a division of labor caused by the system, and Lan Yi does not want to judge the ancients at will with his knowledge and vision after a thousand years.

"Dad, my sister-in-law's work is getting more and more decent, and the daughter-in-law who has been doing farm work in the village for several years is not as good as her." Lin Yuan spread the manure and said with a smile, how did he know that Lan Yi had also worked in the fields since he was a child.

Second Uncle Wang put a plow stick on the cow, adjusted the length of the rope, and raised his eyes to see Lan Yi working, and it was rare to show a smile: "Your sister-in-law has a good heart and an eye and learns quickly, not one or two can be compared." ”

"Yes, Dad, let's start plowing the fields, this cow has enough rest." Wang Linyuan knew that his father's sister-in-law was stronger than his two daughters-in-law, and his sister-in-law's excellence was discovered by his own people, and many people in the village also saw it. Thinking that since his sister-in-law came back, Zhao Zhongxuan's kid has been going to his house a lot, and he can't get rid of it, Wang Linyuan and him have grown up together, and he can't dispel this kid by hinting a few times!

"Lime, lime,... Stone sulfur mixture! Lan Yi patted her head, why didn't she think of it! PS: When it's warm and cold, it's the hardest time to breathe. The spring is cold, all book friends pay attention to keeping warm, -- the little blue with the small snot code word, the little blue with the small snot for the New Year, the little blue who doesn't want the temperature for the ** festival, the little blue who only received three roses, stupid, stupid.

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