The happy little days of the Ye family

Father Ye and Ye Donglin used to work in the shop every day, and the Chinese New Year was a rare time to rest.

The father and son have agreed that Ye's Grocery Store and Ye's Braised Meat Shop will wait until the Lantern Festival is over before opening their doors for business.

The father and son took advantage of this time to take a good rest.

New year, new atmosphere! The first happy event for the Ye family this year is that the family's donkey is pregnant.

The Ye family now has three donkeys, two of which are female and one is male.

One of the female donkeys gave birth to a male donkey at the beginning of the year before last.

Because the Ye family already has three donkeys, which are enough for pulling donkey carts or plowing the land.

After the little donkey was half grown, Ye's father sold it to Ye's mother's family.

Ye's mother's family has also opened up dozens of acres of paddy fields and a hill. The family only has one donkey, which is not enough for plowing.

Moreover, the family’s donkey cart was usually driven to the pier to set up a stall by the second cousin. The second uncle and Grandma Ye would make cakes and sell them at the market every big market, and they were short of donkey carts, so they bought the Ye family’s small donkey.

Father Ye originally bought the donkey for 12 taels of silver, and the calf was sold for [-] taels of silver.

After getting the money from selling the donkey, Mrs. Ye happily said that it was a good business to raise donkeys to give birth to calves for sale.

The one who got pregnant this time was another female donkey in the family.

After the donkey became pregnant, Mrs. Ye was very happy and specifically told Ye Xilin to take good care of it. The little donkey was worth two silver coins.

The little donkey is worth much more than the little piggy.

Father Ye and the Tang family originally planned to inquire about the house and shop after the Lantern Festival.

On the eighth day of the lunar month, the village chief summoned all the adult men in the village for a meeting.

Before the village chief came, the ancestral hall was noisy. Everyone was asking each other about what big things happened recently.

It's a pity that no one knows about it. Even Father Ye, who is known as a know-it-all, didn't find out.

The village chief didn't want to shout at the top of his lungs every time he held a meeting, so he came up with a good idea a few years ago.

The village chief signaled everyone to quiet down, "The ugly talk comes first. Anyone who talks or interrupts and says a word will be fined 10 cents."

The originally bustling ancestral hall suddenly became silent.

The village chief nodded with satisfaction and continued: "I called everyone here today mainly because I have something important to inform."

"The county has just issued a notice that this year's ceremony will be advanced to the [-]th day of the first lunar month."

Everyone was stunned when they heard that they were going to do corvée work on the [-]th day of the first lunar month. What would they do if they went to do corvée work in spring plowing?

The village chief then had even more depressing news.

"This time the corvee is to cultivate the official way. All adult males between the ages of 15 and 50 must participate in the corvee, and the duration of the corvee is estimated to be three or four months."

As soon as the village chief finished speaking, there was a sudden mourning in the ancestral hall. No matter whether there was a fine or not, many people started to curse.

Spring plowing is the most important time. All the adult men in the family have to do corvée work, and it will last for three or four months. Aren't the fields in spring all going to be abandoned?

The village chief saw everyone's faces filled with anger, as if they were going to fight with the government at any time, so he quickly said:

"The construction of the official road this time is the same as the previous river cleaning. You will be paid for it, and the wages are not low."

"It was spring plowing at this time, and the government sympathized with everyone for wasting their family's fields. Anyone who went to build official roads would be paid 20 cents a day, and they would be guaranteed to have enough to eat for three meals."

The villagers, who had been crying just now, heard that the corvee was 20 cents a day and included three meals a day. Many people with abundant labor in their families praised the new county magistrate for his conscience.

However, people with a lot of fields don't care about the 20 cents a day's wages. Spring food is much more valuable than wages.

For families like the Tang family and the Ye family, which have a lot of land, this is undoubtedly bad news.

When the village chief saw several well-off families, his expressions were not very good, so he could only bite the bullet and continue:

"The government has issued a notice that you can use money to be exempted from corvee. Fifteen taels of silver can be exempted from one quota of corvee."

Someone immediately yelled angrily: "15 taels of silver exempts a person from the corvee quota, why doesn't he just go and grab the silver?"

Father Ye was also very angry: "In previous years, only 2 taels of silver could exempt one from the corvee quota."

"Even in the year when the river was cleaned, there was only 10 taels of silver per quota. Why do you suddenly need 15 taels of silver this time?"

Another person scolded: "No wonder this year's corvee can each get 20 coins per day. The money for cultivating officialdom comes from us."

Tangshan said dissatisfied: "In previous years, it was clear that 2 taels of silver were exempted from one quota of corvee, and not all adult men had to serve in corvee. Only one person from each household had to serve in corvee."

Father Ye also felt that the new county magistrate was unkind. It would cost a lot of money to cultivate officialdom, but he couldn't cheat them like this.

All adult men are required to participate in corvee labor. The Ye family includes Ye Donglin and Ye's father, while the Tang family's father and son are all within the scope of corvee labor.

Fifteen taels of silver can only exempt one person from the corvee. That is to say, if the Ye family and the Tang family want to be exempted from the corvee, each family must pay 15 taels of silver.

These 30 taels of silver are not a small amount. Besides, there is nothing wrong with using this money. This corvee is obviously unreasonable.

Both Ye's father and Tangshan knew that this corvee was unreasonable, but they were not allowed to take out the money.

This time the corvee was not the usual one or two months, but three or four months.

The corvee workers did not have good food or sleep, and were treated like livestock. Most of the people who returned from the corvee service were skin and bones, and many of them were exhausted.

Some people can't stand it for a month or two, and three or four months of hard labor can cost lives.

Ye's father felt sorry for his son, so he naturally didn't want Ye Donglin to do corvee service. As for himself, he didn't want to go either.

Mr. Ye and Mrs. Ye are old, Ye Qingqing and Ye Xilin are young, and Ye Donglin has just gotten married. There are elders and younger ones, and Father Ye doesn't dare to take risks on himself.

Tangshan and Ye's father thought the same. His leg was seriously injured while walking as a dart, and he couldn't endure the corvee at all.

Although Tang Xiaojing was in good health, he only had one son in Tangshan, and Tangshan absolutely did not want him to do corvee service.

Regardless of whether they want to give the 30 taels of silver, both families must pay it.

Tangshan and Father Ye originally wanted to use the money they saved to buy property, but now seeing how unreliable the new county magistrate was, they gave up the idea of ​​buying a shop or a house.

The county today is not the county it used to be, so it would be safer to keep a little more money with you.

Moreover, it will be my turn to serve in the military next year, and I don’t know how much money it will cost to be exempted from the quota.

Although Father Ye and Tang Shan had made a decision in their hearts, everyone in the ancestral hall was still having a heated discussion.

Some people want to earn 20 cents a day, but more often than not, they don’t want to suffer but can’t afford the money to be exempted from corvee labor.

Curses were everywhere in the ancestral hall, and the village chief screamed at the top of his throat to no avail.

Tonight in Peach Blossom Village is destined to be a sleepless night.