readsfreenovel Chapter 327: Grain Tax Paying after the Busy Farming Season
Chapter 327: Grain Tax Paying after the Busy Farming Season
“Although fertilizer powder and chemical fertilizers can increase production, the earthworms in the land will be poisoned and the land will become hardened, and the fruits and vegetables grown will not taste as good as those grown with manure.
You won't understand if I tell you too much, this thing has both advantages and disadvantages." Hou Xiaoge felt that it was useless to tell everyone about environmental protection, so he simply waved his hand and stopped talking.
"Wow! This fertilizer powder is actually poisonous. It can even kill earthworms. Earthworms are very tough. They won't die even if they are cut in half, unless they are cut vertically.
If earthworms can be poisoned, then we humans will not be cured if we eat it. It costs a lot of money to see a doctor, so I'd better use manure! It's passed down from our ancestors, so it shouldn't be any worse." Uncle Hou Yangmin shook his head like a rattle.
After chatting, everyone helped to plant all the rapeseed. It was late at night and everyone was tired after a day's work, so they said goodbye and went back.
After everyone went back, Hou Xiaoge pulled some wheat straw and scattered it on the seedling bed, and finally sprinkled water evenly on the wheat straw.
The weather has been getting hotter recently, and there is no plastic film for covering the ground these days, so sprinkling wheat straw on the ground will create a natural moisturizing layer.
This can effectively reduce water evaporation and is beneficial to the growth of flue-cured tobacco seedlings.
After finishing all this, the family can finally sleep peacefully after a busy day.
The busy farming season means fighting for food right under God's nose. In the next few days, Hou Xiaoge did not go out to work, but patiently helped at home.
After the wheat grains are stored in the warehouse, farmers still cannot sit idle and have to sow seeds quickly.
Other families just spread manure, plowed the land and sowed seeds, but Hou Xiaoge's family did the opposite.
Instead of plowing the land first, he chose to water it first. After watering the land, he quickly pulled the mule out to plow the land without waiting for the land to dry.
The villagers were naturally curious about the Hou family's actions. After all, everyone was farming together, and if you were suddenly different from others, you would naturally attract attention.
It’s just that Hou Xiaoge didn’t let anyone know what was going on. The only thing he meant was that he was planning to grow vegetables.
After all, it was Hou Xiaoge’s first time to grow flue-cured tobacco. Although he had successfully simulated it in space, the actual climate was different, so it was better to experiment at home.
If the villagers follow suit and don’t grow seedlings, a lot of farming time will be wasted.
In this way, four days of busy farming season had passed for other families, and Hou Xiaoge's families had just finished building the ridges of their fields.
"Yangmin, didn't you agree to grow tobacco? Why are you growing vegetables now? Something must have gone wrong." After hearing about growing vegetables, the clan elder Seventh Master came to the field to inquire about Yangmin.
"No, I just said nonsense because I don't like people asking me." Hou Yangmin explained with a smile.
"Then why do you do things differently from us? We all plow the land and plant tobacco directly, and then water the land after the tobacco seedlings grow.
You guys water the land first, then plow it, I don't understand why!" Master Qi squatted in front of the fields with a pipe in his mouth, looking confused.
"Uncle Qi, I don't know either, I just listen to Heiwa.
Heiwa said that tobacco is grown in ridges in other countries, and that tobacco grown this way grows better, so we decided to give it a try. "Hou Yangmin was busy making ridges with his son, and stopped to explain to his grandfather.
"Heiwa said that? He is smart, but when it comes to farming, we old farmers have to do better.
You guys are making ridges now, and you have to work hard. The land needs some time to dry, otherwise it will be bad to delay sowing." The old man also knew that making ridges can make the soil soft, and they used to plant radishes on the ridges.
"It's not too late. You'll know if you come to Heiwa's house in the evening." Hou Yangmin kept it a secret with a smile.
"Wow! You're still keeping it a secret. Fine, I'll go take a look tonight." The old man said and left without disturbing the work.
In the evening, the ridges were finally completed and several families returned home exhausted.
Now every night after dinner, my uncle and his family will come to Hou Xiaoge's house to see how the seedlings they are cultivating are growing.
Now, including the wheat harvest, half a month has passed since the end of the busy farming season in the village. The tobacco seedlings that the Hou family had planted in advance have already grown out and have two or three leaves.
"Hehe! Our tobacco seedlings have grown so big. The ones in the village have just been planted. It will probably take more than ten days for them to grow this big." Er Huan said proudly while touching the tender tobacco seedlings in his hand.
"It's too late for us to start growing the seedlings. If we had started them in early April, we could have transplanted them now. The seedlings are already one foot tall." Hou Xiaoge said, smacking his lips.
"Remember this year, we should grow the seedlings in the house in April next year, and then we can transplant them after the busy farming season." The uncle and others nodded in agreement.
"By the way, uncle, how are the vegetable seeds that I asked you to grow at home doing?" Hou Xiaoge asked.
"The vegetables grow fast. The seedlings are almost one finger tall." Several people replied.
“Then the day after tomorrow, I can bury the manure at home directly on the ridges of the fields, and transplant the vegetables directly after a week.
This thing grows fast, and can be sold half a month after transplanting. When the time comes, you can directly transplant tobacco seedlings after selling them, and you can earn extra money. "Hou Xiaoge said with a smile.
It was Hou Xiaoge who thought of asking his family to plant a crop of vegetables in the field on the third day after he started raising tobacco seedlings.
It takes at least fifty days from planting to transplanting flue-cured tobacco, but it is okay to plant a crop of fast-growing vegetables during this period.
So they did it right away. Hou Xiaoge asked several people to quickly prepare wooden trays to grow the seedlings.
As for why they don’t grow seedlings in their own yard, it is naturally because they are reserved for flue-cured tobacco.
The flue-cured tobacco planted half a month ago is now densely packed and needs to be seedled, otherwise they will compete for nutrients and will not grow well.
But the selected flue-cured tobacco seedlings cannot be thrown away. This is all calculated. If they are thrown away, the tobacco seedlings grown on these two acres of land will naturally not be enough to cover the more than 20 acres of land.
"Uncle, we can start to see the seedlings today. Just pick them out with bamboo sticks and transplant them in the evening." While chatting, everyone started to see the seedlings.
As everyone was farmers, they were naturally familiar with the process. They carefully pulled out or picked out the seedlings one by one, but they all kept a little soil on them so that they could survive.
"Oh! What are you doing so late at night?" Master Qi pushed the door open and walked in. He saw everyone crawling around in the yard with a look of curiosity on his face.
"Seventh Uncle, didn't you ask this question at noon? This is the answer." Uncle Hou Yangmin stood up and pointed at Yanmiao and said with a smile.
"Oh my God! You planted the tobacco seedlings in advance. Are you preparing to transplant them?" The old man looked at the tobacco seedlings in the bamboo basket with shock.
"Uncle Qi, we can't transplant them into the field yet. The seedlings are still too small and need to grow longer.
Today we are going to plant the seedlings in our yard." My aunt said.
"Your method is good, a good method! You should have told us earlier so that everyone in the village could plant it together." After chatting with everyone, the old man was so surprised that he pulled his beard.
Everyone smiled. They hadn't even mentioned planting more vegetables and corn! Otherwise, the old man would have died of shock.
"Uncle Qi, this is the first time we have tried this method of planting. This year, a few of us will experiment with it. If it works, the whole village will plant it together next year.
If it fails, several of us have stalls and the worst that can happen is we can grow vegetables. The loss isn’t too big and we can bear it.
You also know that most of the villagers rely on farming, and I can’t bring everyone to experiment together, the risk is too great. "Uncle Hou Yangmin explained to the old man with a smile.
"Yangmin, you are the right person to be the clan leader. The villagers are not suitable for too much trouble. If you succeed, it's fine. If you fail, you will become a sinner." The old man pondered for a moment and nodded in approval.
"Seventh Master, my uncle is right. You should not tell anyone about this when you go back. Once we have successfully transplanted the plants, it will be the best example for everyone to see." Hou Xiaoge also added.
"it is good!"
The old man didn't say anything after he returned. After all, the experiment was quite expensive, so it was better not to let the villagers disturb him.
On the fifth day after the busy farming season ended, the town chief called Hou Yangmin over, naturally for tax collection.
"Boom boom boom!"
The big drum at the entrance of the ancestral hall square in the center of the village was struck, which was the drum sound to gather the villagers.
"The township notified us yesterday that grain tax will be collected tomorrow. Every household should prepare and hand it over to the village today." Hou Yangmin announced the news of the taxation.
The common people had long been accustomed to the imperial grain and national taxes for thousands of years, and the villagers did not say anything, but nodded in agreement.
However, the grain tax is paid by the clan leader of their own village, so there will be less deductions, and they are already very happy.
.........
As soon as the first crop of grain was planted in Nanjiagou Village in Yunnan Province last year, the local village chief brought people to collect exorbitant taxes and even recruit soldiers.
At that time, Nanjiagou Village and several villages where the families of the Tianmen Group lived directly displayed thousands of guns, and also pulled out cannons and heavy machine guns, which scared the village head so much that he almost wet his pants.
There is no way. The national government has always collected taxes indiscriminately. Although Nanjiagou is an outsider, it has the Tianmen Group as its backer and certainly does not want to be a soft persimmon and pay heavy taxes.
After discussion among the village elders, they decided to pay only the grain tax for the current season and nothing else.
If they want to be tough, they have to ask the Nanjiagou Village and several nearby villages where the Tianmen Group’s families have thousands of guns whether they agree or not. If that doesn’t work, there is still the Yanhuang Alliance.
The township knew that Nanjiagou Village was not easy to mess with, so they stopped levying excessive taxes and only collected the grain tax of the season.
As for why Nanjiagou Village has to pay taxes even though they have guns, it is naturally the bottom line of the national government.
Imperial grain and national taxes are the bottom line of a state agency. If Nanjiagou Village does not pay, Lijiagou and Wangjiagou will follow suit, and there will be chaos.
Therefore, the national government had to stick to the bottom line of grain tax. If it did not pay the grain tax, Nangou Village would really not be able to stay in Yunnan Province.
Hou Xiaoge didn't say anything. It was only natural to pay grain tax. Even in his influence in Myanmar, the refugees would have to pay next year if they didn't pay this year.
This year's grain tax was asked to be 60%, but Nanjiagou only insisted on giving 30%, no more.
The township government had no choice but to give up its plan of collecting taxes indiscriminately.
This year was a good harvest. Hou Xiaoge's family produced a total of 2450 kilograms of wheat from their six acres of land, and delivered 735 kilograms.
The cheap old lady looked at the remaining 1,000 kilograms of wheat, tears in her eyes as she lamented that she had never seen so much wheat in her own warehouse since she was a child.
Hou Xiaoge did not interrupt. He knew that if the wheat was kept in an ordinary worker's home, this would definitely be a very good year.
The average per capita income is almost one kilogram. If we have another season of corn or flue-cured tobacco, we can eat and drink as much as we want in a year. However, many local taxes have been collected by New Century, so the freedom of eating and drinking can only be a dream.