The driver muttered to himself as he walked away, leaving Carpenter Sang standing there in a daze. He had lived in the village and had long been accustomed to the narrow-mindedness of the villagers. He had also seen many of the narrow-mindedness of the poor. In the face of the ferocious tax collectors and officials, the farmers could only plead miserably. In order to fill their stomachs, everyone tried their best to work.
In the past, the rent was often 50%, and when they paid the rent, they had to pay for the losses. In order to make money, the lackeys who collected the rent would come up with tricks like 'dry valley', 'wet valley', 'big fight', 'small fight' and so on. In short, only the poor could think of it, but there was nothing they couldn't do. If the harvest was bad in a bad year, the landlord would even bring people to block the door, afraid that the tenant farmers would run away and force them to death.
When the harvest was bad, it was considered good for the farmers to sell their children, and it was also common for them to hang themselves. The rich bullied the poor, and the poor had to fight with each other. Everyone was like a skinny wolf dog, looking for a chance to survive with bloodshot eyes. There were too many tragedies in the village, and they couldn't even count them.
But now, there were people who couldn't wait to pay taxes, and they couldn't feel at ease if they didn't. Sang Carpenter shook his head. He couldn't understand it, but he felt that it was only natural. "The world is different from before."
It was getting dark. Sang Carpenter strolled around the village entrance and then went back. His children had separated from the family, and only his wife was taking care of him. He lived in the construction site's dormitory. As soon as he entered the room, he saw that dinner was ready. There were two or three side dishes on the table, and there was a sour smell.
"What is this?" Sang Carpenter stared at a dish he had never seen before and asked.
Sang Carpenter's wife steamed a steamed bun and brought it to the table. She said, "I learned this from the chef in the cafeteria. He said it was some vinegar shredded potato. Oh, vinegar is very expensive now, and I can't bear to put too much. Try it, it's very refreshing. "
"Ah …, this is the potato." Sang Carpenter, on the other hand, had heard of this new thing. "When we were in Fushun, I heard that some experimental fields were planted with this thing. I heard that if one mu of land was taken care of well, it could produce over a thousand catties. He also said that this thing can be eaten as a staple food. If you eat too much, you won't have acid reflux in your stomach. It's even better than sweet potatoes. "
After many times of potato cultivation expansion, Li Shuwei's potato cultivation with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture officially ushered in a large-scale harvest. In the first half of the year, the entire Liaonan Four Prefectures had planted 500,000 mu of land, most of which were planted in Lushun and Jinzhou. Because they could plant two seasons there.
However, potatoes had higher requirements for soil fertility. In the current situation where there was only farm manure, a piece of land could not be planted continuously. Corn and other crops needed to be interplanted to increase yields and restore soil fertility. But even so, even with the degeneration of seed potatoes, one mu of land could easily grow three to four hundred kilograms of potatoes.
The output stunned all the farmers in southern Liaoning.
As a crop native to South America, it was potatoes that fed the stomachs of white Europeans. Before potatoes were planted on a large scale, famines often occurred in Europe, and the lives of the lower-class farmers were extremely miserable. It was the appearance of potatoes on the white people's dining tables that allowed their population to increase rapidly and promoted the progress of their civilization.
The people of China relied on intensive farming and planting rice and wheat to survive. However, it was still necessary to supplement potatoes as a staple food. It had a high starch content and great nutritional value. In the current chaotic era, it would be a powerful food supplement — Europeans were used to eating mashed potatoes, while the Han ate it as a dish. However, eating it as a dish wasn't the best solution.
At present, in addition to keeping seeds, the 'Revolutionary Army' had begun to work hard to turn potatoes into flour like wheat. After it was made into flour, it had a wide range of applications. It was also easier to transport and store it, and more people could be fed. A small number of fresh potatoes were sold as a fresh dish to let the common people understand the benefits of potatoes.
Those who wanted fried potato chips couldn't count on it, there wasn't that much oil.
The vinegar shredded potato was indeed not bad, and Sang Carpenter was very happy to eat his dinner. He asked about the price of potatoes and found that they were more expensive than ordinary vegetables. "I heard people read in the newspaper that potatoes can be eaten as rice." Compared to rice and flour, potatoes were much cheaper.
Sang Carpenter's wife cleaned up the dishes and said, "This thing seems to be powdered and can be made into noodles. I heard from the cook in the cafeteria that the people of the Imperial Guard nearby have begun to eat the steamed buns made of potato flour, and they all said it was delicious. The Grand Marshal is really capable, to be able to grow so much in one mu of land, our common people will never lack food again. "
Food, food!
For many people, having enough food was the greatest happiness. The increase in food production was too shocking. Sang Carpenter casually talked about what he had chatted with people on the road today, saying that the Grand Marshal didn't collect food taxes for two years was actually true. The people in the farm suddenly had a lot of food on hand, and they were happy, but also a little afraid, as if they were dreaming.
"Some people still want to pay food to the Grand Marshal."
"Some people are also asking about how to buy land."
"It's a pity that the Grand Marshal said that the land of the Revolutionary Army will only be distributed and not sold."
"Many people can't get over this matter, and they want their own land when they have food."
After eating, it was dark. Sang Carpenter's wife lit an oil lamp in front of the brick bed, and she chatted with Sang Carpenter while fixing the soles of shoes. Just when they felt sleepy and were about to sleep, they suddenly heard a dog barking outside the house. After a while, they heard someone shouting outside, "Sang Carpenter, are you at home? I'm Old Li, I want to discuss something with you. "
Sang Carpenter felt strange, so he put on his clothes and went to open the door. A skinny old man came in from outside the door, and he was not young. He led him into the main room and sat down, then asked, "Old Li, why did you come here in the middle of the night?"
Old Li was from the nearby farm, and he had a large family of more than ten people, seven or eight laborers, and many children and grandchildren. He was in his sixties, and it was rare for him to live to such an old age. The people in the surrounding villages had to respectfully call him "Old Master."
After Old Li sat down, he asked, "Sang Carpenter, I heard that you know the Grand Marshal?"
Sang Carpenter was shocked when he heard this. In the past, he would proudly boast that he knew Zhou Qingfeng in Fushun, but now he didn't dare to. If he said this again, people would either laugh at him for bragging, or think that he didn't know what was good for him. The villagers liked to gossip behind people's backs. Who was the Grand Marshal? Did you deserve to know him?
Sang Carpenter waved his hand again and again, and didn't dare to say that he knew Zhou Qingfeng. But Old Li seemed to believe that he had a deep background. "Your children, Sang Carpenter, are all promising, and your eldest son is a high-ranking officer in the Imperial Guard. He came to see you not long ago, and the guards he brought with him were very strong. The villagers all saw it. Your daughter, Xiu 'er, graduated from a high school, and I heard that she became a concubine of the head of the department … "
"Secretary, secretary, she's the secretary of Minister Yin of the Ministry of Education. She's a job, not a concubine. My daughter has been inconspicuous since she was a child. How did the minister take a fancy to her? As her father, I also find it strange.
But since he thinks highly of my family, there's nothing we can do about it. "Sang Carpenter was now very low-key. It was good for his children to be promising, but he didn't dare to talk nonsense outside, lest a tall tree attracts the wind.
It wouldn't be good to find a maid for a transmigrator, so the administrative department said that it was to train a secretary for the leader. Sang Xiu 'er had barely obtained a high school diploma. She was beautiful and young, so she was chosen. But in the eyes of outsiders, she would be a concubine of the leader.
Sang Carpenter emphasized "secretary," but he was still very happy. After all, this was a high-ranking official at the level of a minister. Even if she became a concubine, it wouldn't be a disgrace to the family. But Old Li didn't know what "secretary" was. He only felt that Sang Carpenter was capable and must be well-informed, so he continued to ask, "I just want to ask, does the Grand Marshal really not want us to pay this year's grain tax?"
"That's for sure." Sang Carpenter said resolutely, "Last year, hundreds of thousands of people fled to Liaonan. The Grand Marshal said that he would let everyone reclaim the wasteland without paying tax for two years. This year is the first year, and we don't have to pay tax next year. At most, we'll pay for the cattle, grain, seeds, and farming tools that we owed before. And we'll only pay half, and the other half will be paid next year without interest. "
"Then the extra grain will be given to us?" Old Li asked, "This has never happened before."
"Didn't those agricultural technicians say that if you think there's a lot of grain, you can sell it to the Grand Marshal? The people sent by the Grand Marshal to collect the grain are at each hydraulic processing point. You can send the grain to be threshed and shelled, and then you can sell the grain. The price is public. The purchase price of 100 kilograms of shelled wheat is 1.20 yuan. That's a fair price. "
Agricultural production in Liaodong collapsed in the late Ming Dynasty, and a large amount of land was abandoned. The grain outside the pass had to rely on the inside, so the price was extremely high. It was often three or four taels of silver per stone, and even seven or eight taels of silver when it was expensive. But now the Revolutionary Army had developed Liaonan, and this year's grain harvest was abundant, so the price of grain immediately plummeted. The purchase price of 1.20 yuan was not high, but it was not low either.
Especially now, due to the popularization of a large number of manpower, animal power, and agricultural machinery, the labor intensity of farming was greatly reduced, and the area that could be cultivated per capita had increased several times. On average, a labor force could easily take care of 20 or even 30 acres of land. According to the current yield per acre, this was almost an income of 20 yuan. Excluding the loan, there was at least 10 yuan left.
That was silver, after all!
For ordinary farmers, they often had no money at home. It was good enough to have a few copper coins to buy some oil and salt. Everything else depended on themselves. For example, cloth had to be spun and woven by themselves. If the family was poor, the women would go out without clothes. There was a sentence in Du Fu's "Shihao Li", "As long as the sun's mother is not gone, there will be no clothes to wear." This was not a joke.
Right now, they were setting up a collective farm, gathering the strength of hundreds of farmers to carry out production. In this year, even a family of three would have an average income of at least a dozen yuan. For people who were used to being poor, this money was really hot, and they didn't know how to spend it.
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