Chapter 234: Things Have Changed (I)
The door of Master Gao's house was tightly shut. Except for Master Gao's house, every household in this generation kept their doors open, and the poorer the families, the busier they were.
Dong Yang's family is a typical example of a poor family. The fence in the yard is so sparse that a pig can come in and out at will. Since he doesn't have a pig, he doesn't have to worry about this problem. The low adobe wall is mottled and worn, and the thatch on the roof is very thin. There are less than half tiles.
Under such circumstances, Dong Yang not only suggested that his family build a new tiled house, but also began to prepare for it, which surprised the villagers.
Before building a new house, you need to prepare a lot. There is no shortage of small wood in the village. The key is the beam. The so-called main beam refers to the beam that supports the weight of the roof. Poor families often do not have enough firewood, let alone buy a beam.
In addition, you also need to provide food and drink for the people who help build the house. Building a house is hard work, and you have to provide everyone with enough food and drink.
Many people are paying attention to the poor Dong family building their house, and many of them want to see the joke.
But the autumn harvest is coming, and everyone has to be busy with their own things. The so-called sickle harvest means sharpening the sickle first . There is also preparation for drying the wheat and husking it. There are many things to prepare before that. This is especially true for the poor, who have to borrow many things.
Dong Yang's family joined the supply and marketing cooperative. In the past few months , when the Dong family was not busy, they went to work in the workshop under the supply and marketing cooperative. At this time, he had a lot of sickles, ropes, frames, shovels, etc. It turned out that they were not worse than the middle peasants.
As the days passed, the tips of the green wheat ears finally turned yellow, bringing the whole village's anticipation to a peak.
Every family, really every family, was looking forward to a good harvest. Today the weather was kind, no bugs came to cause trouble, and there was no heavy rain. Although the weather was dry, the Han government's magical machine pumped water from the low places into the irrigation canal.
The crops were well watered and growing well. Every household devoted great enthusiasm to taking care of the crops. The Han government also promised to collect only 30% of the tax, and the tax could be paid in cash through cooperation with cooperatives.
As for the landless peasants who rented land, they only had to pay 30% rent to the landlords, and they did not have to consider other taxes. Everyone was looking forward to having a good year this year.
Every household began to build huts next to the fields, ready to harvest the wheat as soon as it was ripe. Many people looked at the wheat ears anxiously, wishing that these plump wheat grains would turn golden immediately.
During this anxious wait, the wheat ears continued to sway in the wind according to their own growth rules. Finally, the wheat fields at a relatively high position all turned golden yellow.
This was originally the most barren place, but now it became the first place to enter the joyful harvest. Every family started to work, and every household started to harvest. The peaceful wheat field immediately became a boiling ocean.
The door of Master Gao's house was finally opened. In the past, his family would be the first to start harvesting. Before each harvest, Master Gao's family would hold a ceremony to worship the dead. Master Gao could clearly remember the envious eyes of the people and their prayers for Master Gao to show them some mercy after the autumn harvest so that they could repay old debts with new ones.
Everything from last year was still fresh in my mind, but this year was completely different. No one paid any attention to Mr. Gao, and even worse, it was as if the Gao family had suddenly contracted some serious disease, and everyone deliberately avoided Mr. Gao.
The farmhands of Grandpa Gao's family silently lowered their heads to harvest. Looking at the crops, Grandpa Gao felt heartbroken. Originally, the Gao family occupied the best land, and they could avoid drought by just pumping water to irrigate the land.
But this year, the poor ghosts' land was irrigated with canals, and the land was soaked. The land of Mr. Gao's family was still the same as last year, so the crops on the poor ghosts' land grew better than those on Mr. Gao's land. Just looking at the appearance of the crops, Mr. Gao's good land turned into rotten land.
Although he had never heard of the saying "no comparison, no harm", Mr. Gao remembered that if you compare yourself with others, you will die, and if you compare goods, you will throw them away. He felt even more upset.
But the hard part was yet to come. After everyone finished harvesting, the strange machines used to draw water were reassembled into another style.
The wheat that has been dried in the sun originally had to be lifted by human hands, because the wheat grains are relatively solid, and when the wind blows, the debris outside the wheat grains will be blown farther. With the help of this natural means, the wheat grains can be sorted out.
However, those strange things could create air by themselves, blowing away those light and yellow fragments, and the wheat grains could be separated directly without the need for strong labor.
This made the poor man very happy. In the past, doing this required not only strong labor but also experience as a farmer. Now, the strong laborers only had to transport the wheat, leaving the elderly , women and children to watch over it while the strong laborers went to do other things.
After the work was finished, the strong laborers didn't even need to transport the food. The women, who didn't have their feet bound, pulled the work group's two-wheeled carts and took the food back home.
Mr. Gao thought the work group would charge a lot, but he didn't expect that he only needed to work in the workshop of the cooperative for a few days to make up for the money for threshing. The poor people all joined happily.
On the contrary, Mr. Gao's family is still using the most common method to thresh the flour. The poor people have already started to go to the mills pulled by strange machines to grind flour and eat the new flour, but Mr. Gao's family has not yet finished threshing.
The thing Mr. Gao feared the most had happened. Originally, Mr. Gao thought that the Han government had to rely on a large number of tax collectors to collect taxes, and whenever the tax collectors came, they would beat and scold them.
Even if the poor people harvested the food, they still had to work hard for a long time. They also had to borrow the mill of Master Gao to grind flour before they could eat the food.
During this period of time , Mr. Gao had plenty of time to use various means to instigate conflicts between these poor people and the government.
Since the government is so good to the poor, when the poor start to fight against the government, the government will be very upset! A tree lives by its skin, and a person lives by his face. No one can stand the government being so good to the poor being slapped in the face by the poor.
But I didn't expect that the working group of the Han regime would come up with so many strange monsters, so that the poor ghosts only had to follow the government and they could eat flour many days earlier than usual. Not to mention that the poor ghosts were much more relaxed than in previous years, saving a lot of effort.
Not only did Master Gao not have the opportunity to incite the poor, but even the farmhands in Master Gao's house were moved. According to the subordinates, the farmhands began to consider whether they should stop working as farmhands next year and go back to farming.
At this time, the government's tax collection team entered the village. The poor people were very enthusiastic about paying taxes.
Even without asking, Mr. Gao could think of it. The poor people asked if they would be able to live the same next year as they did this year. Of course, the government would guarantee that next year would be the same as this year.
The poor ghosts also paid their taxes. After the poor ghosts paid their taxes, the tax collectors from the government came to Mr. Gao's house and knocked on the door.
