Whose farming family has the male protagonist giving three piglets as a gift at the beginning?

The work ended early today. When we arrived at the city gate, Old Uncle Li was already waiting there. Su Ziling was quite surprised to see him.

She thought they came out early and it was still a long time before the agreed time. Old Man Li probably hadn't come back yet, but she didn't expect him to arrive earlier.

"Old man Li, why are you so early?"

Old Man Li patted the two sacks on the car and narrowed his eyes with laughter, "There are quite a lot of ice powder here, but no one wants it. I picked it up in one or two hours. How about you?" It feels pretty fast too.”

"Well, it's not bad, it's almost like selling tofu." Su Ziling said.

"Sit tight!"

The ox cart drove slowly and leisurely towards home. After picking two sacks of ice powder, Old Man Li was obviously very happy. He kept a smile on his face and hummed a tune.

"Qing girl, are you coming tomorrow?"

The soft wind hit her face, bringing a slight chill, and a smile appeared on Su Ziling's face, "Tomorrow the oxcart from the restaurant will come over to pull mushroom sauce. I'll go with them, so I won't bother you, Old Man Li. , the day after tomorrow, I’ll trouble you again the day after tomorrow.”

"Hey! What's the trouble? I'm still thinking, our village will pay taxes tomorrow. If you still want to go to the county, then I'll make one more trip. If you don't, then I'll just make another trip." Old Man Li did not look back and waved his hand casually.

"Have you paid taxes?"

Old Man Li nodded, his tone full of helplessness, "Yes, there are two taxes a year, one summer tax and one autumn grain tax. The summer tax should not exceed August of that year, and the autumn grain should not exceed February of the next year." ( According to the Tang and Song Dynasties)

Su Ziling: "Then what are we doing this time, Qiuliang?"

"Yes, starting in August, those crops that were harvested early have begun to be delivered one after another. Tomorrow happens to be our village, and I guess your village will be here soon."

Land tax is paid on a village-by-village basis, so it is less likely to cause chaos.

Along the way, Old Man Li also told her about other taxes, such as land tax, head tax, regular tax, Xu soldiers and so on.

They did not have major wars in the Zhou Dynasty, but small wars continued, so they had to pay two taxes, a land tax (summer tax, autumn grain tax) and a head tax.

"Poll tax?" Su Ziling frowned, "Pay so much?"

Old Man Li smiled and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. In fact, our Zhou Dynasty is pretty good. We only pay two taxes. In other small countries, the poorer they are, the more taxes they have. We only pay two, which is considered good."

Su Ziling didn't say anything along the way. Only then did she understand why the old Su family was getting poorer and poorer. At that time, not only were they burdened with huge debts, but they also had to pay for Su A's medicine and taxes.

This can crush anyone, let alone repay the debt. It is not easy to survive.

Excluding the land tax, the head tax alone is estimated to stump a large number of people. People of different age groups have different prices. Children aged three to fourteen need to pay 1 money (one hundred Wen) per year, and those aged fifteen to five Sixteen-year-olds need to pay 5 cents (five hundred wen) per year.

People after the age of fifty-six don't need to pay. There are ten people in the old Su family, but Su A'nai is the only one who doesn't need to pay. She happens to be fifty-six years old this year.

Su Zimu and Axiu only had 200 coins each, and the remaining seven people had 500 coins each. They had to pay 30,000 coins a year for the head tax. No wonder Mr. Su and the others often went to work as coolies, but they still didn't have enough to eat or wear. Warm, unable to repay debts.

This year, this is still 500 taels less than Su A'nai's. If it were in previous years, the head tax would have been more than 40 taels.

Those with a small population are fine, but those with a large population will be overwhelmed by the poll tax alone.

Su Ziling sighed, war...

Whether it is modern or ancient, it is a word that makes people change their color.

When we got home, Mr. Su and the others were still cutting rice in the fields.

Seeing them coming back so early, Su A'nai was quite surprised, "Ah, it's quite early today. How are you? Are the ice powder seeds you brought sold out?"

"Sold out, grandma, haven't my brother and the others come back yet?"

"No, it seems to be a bit late today. I guess the customers are concentrated in the afternoon again."

Selling in a mountain col, the customers are not fixed. Today, there may be a lot of people passing by in the morning, so work will end early. If there are many people passing by at noon, then work will end in the afternoon. If there are many people passing by in the afternoon, then work will end late.

Before it was time to cook, Su Ziling fried part of the fungus paste first and then cooked it when the time was almost up. Then she fried some more in the evening and it was almost done.

After frying the fungus sauce for a while, and putting the seasonings on, Su Ziling asked Grandma to help look after the fire, while Su Ziling took Li Zelan to the field with a bucket.

Their family has fifteen acres of land, but the fields are relatively small, only five or six acres. When she arrived at the field, Mr. Su and the others were cutting and mowing, and the five of them mowed just over an acre in one day.

"Grandpa, do you want some water?"

Su Ziling stood at the edge of the field. Before going out, she drank two bamboo tubes of cold boiled water.

"Why are you here?" Mr. Su straightened up and walked out slowly. He looked behind Su Ziling and asked, "Where is your elder brother?"

"He's not back yet!" Su Ziling handed him the water, "Grandpa, will the millet production increase this year?"

Mr. Su took a sip of water and sighed, "It can't be increased. It's about the same as last year. One acre is estimated to be only 1,780 kilograms."

Su Ziling nodded, then after paying the tax, there won't be much left. No wonder the rations are not enough every year. There are so many people in this family, so little food is not enough to squeeze between teeth.

"Second brother, call the third child and the others and take a breather." Mr. Su yelled at Su's father who was still cutting rice in the field.

"You guys are pretty fast today, how is the situation?"

"It's similar to selling tofu. Don't worry. The few ice powder seeds at home are probably only enough to sell for a month."

Su Ziling took off her shoes and started to go to the fields. Mother Su saw it and frowned, "Girl, what are you doing down here? Come up quickly."

"Auntie, I'm picking up snails. There are so many snails, and we'll get more rice next year. If we eat a little, there will be less next year."

"Will too many snails really affect the harvest?" Mr. Su asked doubtfully.

"Yes, if there are too many snails, they will start to eat the rice leaves. If there are too few rice leaves, it will affect the harvest." Su Ziling is really not talking nonsense. If there are few snails, the impact will not be big, but if there are a lot, it will still cause a reduction in production.

As soon as she heard about the reduction in rice production, Su's mother couldn't stop breathing and picked them up. Looking at so many snails in the field, she frowned, "There are so many, I can't even finish them all!"

It was really a lot. In just a few moments, the mother and daughter had already picked up half a bucket, but they didn't even pick up an acre of land.

Su Ziling straightened up and looked at the surrounding fields. Some had been cut and some had not yet been confiscated, but these fields all had one thing in common, that is, there were a lot of snails.

She pursed her lips and came up with a plan, "Mom, what do you think if I make it and sell it to a restaurant? This snail is very suitable as a side dish with wine."

After Su Ziling finished speaking, Su's mother's eyes lit up, "I think it's okay!" Su Ziling made it last time and they ate it once. I have to say that it tasted really good, but the meat was a bit missing, but it was really suitable as a side dish with wine. .

"Let's pick up more, go back and spit out the sand in the evening, make some tomorrow morning and give it to Shopkeeper Wang to try, see if he wants it. If not, we'll make it ourselves and sell it. It'll be some income."

Su Ziling picked up the big ones while picking them up. She didn't even look at the small ones.

"If the restaurant really wants it, then these in the field can be sold for a lot of money." Mother Su doesn't mind it chewing the crops anymore. She thinks that if she picks up all these, she can sell them for a lot of money!