The rice did not grow well. Yang Dachuan gathered his strength, carried water to irrigate the fields diligently every day, and took good care of them, but it did not work. The rice ears were not strong enough to grow well, and they were all shriveled. After harvesting the rice from three acres of land, Yang Dachuan estimated that there were less than 600 kilograms.

Other families in the village planted rice in their paddy fields, and their harvests were even less. The villagers carried as much water as Yang Dachuan, but the crops in the fields received less water. The rice harvested from a family of seven or eight mu of land was about the same as Yang Dachuan's. Looking at the pile of rice straw harvested, everyone could only squat on the ground and pull their hair.

Chapter 33: Harvesting Camellia Seeds

No matter how little the harvest is, people still need to eat. If we only rely on the rice produced in the paddy fields at home, it is not enough to sustain the family for a year. Everyone can only hope for the sweet potatoes and corn grown in the fields.

Yang Dachuan first cut the sweet potato vines. Now that there are many livestock at home, the sweet potato vines are very good for feeding pigs and sheep. If you can't eat them right away, you can cut them up and dry them. You never know when you can use them. Yang Dachuan now thinks everything is useful. He wants to take any stone on the roadside home.

The sweet potatoes in the fields were not taken care of very carefully, and they did not grow very well. Most of them were the size of firewood sticks, and the smaller ones were only as thick as a thumb. The harvest from one acre of land was only 700 to 800 kilograms, half less than usual. The corn harvested from the fields also decreased, with only 300 to 400 kilograms per acre.

However, the harvest of corn and sweet potatoes has temporarily given the villagers a sigh of relief. In Pingshan Village, every household grows a few acres of corn and sweet potatoes. If they work hard, the harvest from these acres of land is enough for the family to eat for a year, so they will not starve to death again.

People are always easily satisfied. After the blow of the rice crop being almost wiped out, the farmers still showed the joy of a good harvest when they saw the corn and sweet potatoes in the fields were far inferior to the past. Next year, I will plant more corn. Sweet potatoes are not tasty, and eating too much is annoying. I will plant corn and no longer have to worry about not having enough food at home.

Yang Dachuan felt a headache when he saw the grain piled up in his house. He had grown grain for two or three years, but he had not sold any of it except for his own consumption. In addition, he had bought various rice, flour, grains, snacks and seasonings in the past six months, weighing thousands of kilograms, which had filled up several rooms upstairs in his house.

This is too conspicuous. If anyone comes to the house in the future, they will be able to see it. It is impossible to hide it upstairs, so I can only dig a hole to hide it. The three rooms in the old house have been empty. Except for the original storage room that was converted into a bathroom, Yang Dachuan has never thought of what to do with the rest. There are few people in the family, and they can't live in so many rooms.

Wanting to store food but not too far from home, Yang Dachuan started digging from the room where he used to sleep. Every day after coming back from the fields, he would dig secretly at night and transport the excavated soil to the back mountain at night. There were some blue bricks left from building the house, and the family also had lime and other things, so the dug holes were lined with blue bricks and covered with lime to prevent moisture and reinforce.

In this way, little by little, over several months, Yang Dachuan moved all the items he had bought and stored upstairs to the cellar he dug himself.

. … …

This year's farmland tax is 20% tax and 2% tax, which has doubled! The grain from the fields has been harvested, and it is time to collect taxes. When the news of this year's tax was spread to Pingshan Village, it caused an uproar.

Since the establishment of the Da'an Dynasty, the government has not relied on agricultural taxes for expenditures. The share of agricultural taxes has not changed for hundreds of years. In the years when a new emperor ascends the throne, no taxes are even required. This year, the harvest is not good, and the farmers originally hoped that the court would sympathize with them and reduce or exempt the grain tax, but now it has decreased instead of increased!

Yang Dachuan could think of a few reasons. This year, the grain harvest in various parts of the Da'an Dynasty was poor, and overseas trade was suspended. The court had a shortfall in commercial taxes, so it was natural to get some back from agricultural taxes to supplement the deficit. I just don't know if the agricultural taxes have to be adjusted every year, and are getting higher every year.

The farmers complained, but they still had to pay the taxes. After this year, everyone could foresee that life would be difficult in the future, and those who could pay with silver basically used silver to pay, and only those who really had no money paid grain.

However, the grain price is high now, and it would take a lot of money to pay the tax with silver. It is difficult for ordinary people to make up their minds to pay the tax with money. Some people are lucky enough to think that the harvest may be better next year! They have to take advantage of the high grain price in the city and sell their own grain to make some money.

There were quite a few people who had this idea, and several households in Pingshan Village couldn't help but sell some of them.

Yang Dachuan ignored all these little thoughts of the villagers. He seldom went out now, and stayed at home to take care of his wife. The farthest place he went was to chop firewood in the back mountain. If he shouted in the house, he would be heard. If there was anything in the house, he would rush back immediately.

Yuge'er is now nearly 8 months pregnant with twins, and her belly is already very big. Every time Yang Dachuan sees the babies moving in Yuge'er's belly, he is not very moved but very scared, fearing that they will jump out of Yuge'er's belly in the next second.

Doctor Zhou is indeed the most famous obstetrician and gynecologist in Anping City. After taking the medicine he prescribed, Yu Ge'er no longer feels tired while carrying twins. Now he can walk around the yard after meals every day. He is too big and Grandma Shen can no longer support him, so Yang Dachuan supports him and walks around the yard every day.

It was November, and the weather was hotter than usual in summer. Yu Ge'er was lying on a rocking chair in the house to enjoy the cool air. Yang Dachuan specially went to the city to find a wood-made rocking chair. Although Yu Ge'er was in good health, he sometimes had difficulty breathing because of his small belly. He couldn't stand up straight after lying for a long time, and his waist couldn't stand it after standing for a long time. This rocking chair was just right for half-lying, leaning slightly, and his stomach was comfortable, and he didn't feel tired at all.

There is nothing to do in the fields now, and Yu Ge'er has not been out for a long time due to his health problems. Whenever Yao Ge'er is free, he comes to sit and talk to him, and discuss what's happening in the village recently.

Brother Yao was coaxing the two little ones to sleep at noon today. Seeing that the weather was a little cloudy today and the sun was not that strong, he came over wearing a straw hat.

"Ouch, I'm dying of sunburn!"

Yu Ge'er looked at him sweating and quickly handed him some water. "It's so hot today, why did you come here?"

Yao Ge'er fanned himself with his straw hat, "I haven't seen you for a long time, and you don't come to the village often, and your home is far away, so it's really not easy to see you!"

"This new house you built is really nice. It's hot and sunny outside, but it's cool after a while when I came in." Yao Ge'er stopped fanning himself with his straw hat and looked around. "Sure enough, this house that cost a lot of money to build is different. This is probably how the masters in the city live!"

Yu Ge'er looked at his sour look and said with a joking smile, "You asked your Xu Lin to build you a room, but he couldn't build a whole room, not even one and a half rooms. You are just hoarding money and waiting for your offspring to come!"

Yao Ge'er also laughed. He was just a man of few words. In a place as big as Pingshan Village, everyone knew what kind of family was rich. Although the harvest was not good in the past two years, the villagers made a lot of money by picking oil tea seeds. Speaking of oil tea seeds, Yao Ge'er's heart moved.

"Brother Yu, what's going on with the tea seed harvest this year? Is there any news from Dachuan? It's almost December." The villagers have already gone up the mountain to collect tea seeds.