Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Cotton_l
Translator: 549690339
The seeds that were purchased from the salesman had already sprouted and grown.
A whole batch of Chinese chives and a dozen large white cabbages that could be wrapped into hearts.
Heart-wrapped cabbages are a northern vegetable, they could be stored for long and are considered a delicacy in small mountain villages. No household in this area ever planted them before.
A few months ago, when these vegetables first sprouted, Yingbao transplanted them to a small patch of field in her own yard.
The Chinese chives, having matured, were harvested twice, used for stir-frying with eggs, and they were very delicious.
Today, the large cabbages have grown more than two feet high. Initially, each plant spread out over a large area. Later, Yingbao wrapped each of them with straw rope to facilitate them forming hearts.
During the recent snowy days, all the large cabbages were chopped down and piled up indoors by Yingbao.
Two other packets of foreign seeds had also sprouted.
There were a dozen cotton trees and a few unidentified vines.
The first time Yingbao saw cotton in her previous life was in the garden of the governor’s mansion, where it was planted as ornamental trees.
The cotton trees have beautiful flowers and they are pink and bright. As a foreign variety, they were planted in a large area in the mansion garden.
Unfortunately, these trees only have a lifespan of one year. After the flowers wilted and bore fruit, the branches and leaves withered.
Back then, when Yingbao was relatively free in the mansion, she took an interest in the cotton from the cotton trees, and frequently picked it.
In the end, she picked a small basketful. Atter pulling out the cotton seeds, she used this basket of cotton to make herself a padded jacket.
It was only later that she discovered that many aristocratic farms were also planting this kind of cotton tree, and the harvested cotton was very valuable. It could be used for spinning and weaving.
Now, her dozen or so cotton trees have bloomed and fruited. The fruits burst open, revealing large clumps of white cotton.
Yingbao picked all the cotton and piled it in a basket, filling a small basket.
The withered cotton stalks were uprooted by her for firewood.
The cotton seeds were peeled out and planted again. All were planted in the dark soil, and they would probably sprout soon.
By next spring, there should be a large amount of cotton seeds in her home.
Nowadays, the cultivation of cotton in the Great Qian Dynasty is not widespread. Even a decade from now, it will still be limited to a few aristocratic family estates.
So at this time, even a few aristocratic families may not have started planting it. Therefore, she must seize the moment and be the first in her family to plant cotton.
You must know that most of the linen on the market today is either hemp fabric or kudzu fabric. A small portion is silk and damask that can only be used by the noble and aristocratic, as well as thick velvet fabric woven from various fur fibers such as sheep wool, rabbit hair and so on.
Even though the Jiang family now has quite a bit of silver, the quilts and mattresses are still only filled with some reeds or fluffy straw and hemp, which can barely keep out the cold when laid on top of the body.
As for the cotton clothes, the rich fill them with animal hair and duck feathers or directly use animal fur for the coats.
Most of the poor still fill the clothes with prickly reeds and hemp.
Now that she has had the good fortune to receive the foreign cotton seeds, not planting them would not do justice to the grace of nature bestowed on her.
“Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!”
“Attention to all households! The Imperial Court has decreed that each household with a better piece of land must pay two liters of rice! Houses with less fertile land must pay a liter. This must be paid in full within seven days, violators will be treated as criminals!”
The village guard, wearing a bamboo hat, repeatedly announced as he hit his gong. He passed each villager’s doorstep before moving on to the next village.
After the village guard left, the villagers came out of their houses, voicing their complaints.
“As expected, they are collecting grains again, how are we supposed to live?”
“God, our family only has two or three hundred jin of grains left. If these are all handed over, our family won’t survive.”
“I am going to ask the Lizheng, how are we supposed to live?” Several villagers even started crying with their faces covered. “Come on, let’s go to Chen Sanyou and see. Only a few days now, and they’re gathering grain again.”
Thus, dozens of villagers reached Chen Sanyou’s home, complaining with all their tongues wagging.
“Uncle Chen, where do we have any grain in our house? After paying taxes last time, we sold more than half of our grains. Now, we only have a little over two measures of rice left, and seven to eight mouths in our family rely on this remaining grain for winter survival. Can you not speak to Lizheng, and ask if we can make up the shortfall next year?”
“Yes, Sanyou, please just talk to him.”
“We really can’t even make it through the day now.”
Chen Sanyou’s head was swelling because of the noise. He impatiently said: “Enough, enough. Listen to me. This is an order from the Imperial Court. What can I, as a lowly village leader, say about it?”
“But you are also working for the Imperial Court, Uncle Chen, you can’t ignore us.”
“Yes, Sanyou, please go and ask Lizheng. If we turn in all the grain, our families will starve to death…”
“Village leader, you cannot neglect whether we live or die.”
“Wah wah wah wah…Uncle Chen, please help us…”
“Uncle Chen, only you can talk to Lizheng, can you go and negotiate with him…”
Everyone was complaining in confusion, making Chen Sanyou feel flustered. With a stern face, he said: “Since you are not happy with me as the village leader, my term ends next year anyway, elect whomever you want.”
He’d had enough of this torment. With this happening several times annually, Chen Sanyou was worn out and stressed.
He was reprimanded by Lizheng if he couldn’t collect enough grain tax, cursed by the villagers if he pressed too hard. Alas, he was half in the grave already, why would he bear such agony?
The Jiang brothers also heard the cries for grain from the locals, calculating the amount they needed to turn in. They filled up the required quantity with a heavy heart and sent it to town on a cart.
Jiang Sanlang had a total of sixty acres of land, twenty of high-quality, and forty of lower quality, which included the Sangyu fields in the north and the dryland in South Mountain.
Regardless of whether these fields grew grain or not, if your property ledger had recorded this much land, you had to pay taxes according to the acreage. This time, Jiang Sanlang had to give up eighty measures of grain, which equated to nearly two hundred pounds.
Two large bags of rice were suddenly cleared from his home storage, causing him agony. And yet, he couldn’t resist paying it.
In these days, the local officials, responsible for gathering grain, beat gongs and shouted every day. After five or six days of loud calls, there were still many villagers who could not deliver the grain.
The next morning, Sun Licheng led about a dozen local officials to begin collecting from house to house.
During the freezing winter, the villagers whose grain was taken away wailed on the snow-covered ground.
Some people were beating their chests and stamping their feet in grief. The children were crying loudly, creating a scene of utter misery.
Yingbao, holding Youyou, watched this unfold, feeling heavy in her heart.
The remaining food of these villagers was taken away. Who knows how they would survive the coming days, or how a whole family could withstand the entire cold winter.
One of the households was particularly tragic, with several children, the oldest being only around twelve or thirteen, and the youngest only three or four.
In the last lifetime, the man of this house was forced to go out and cut wood for sale in the snowy weather. As a result, he fell from a slope while carrying the firewood down the mountain, was pierced in the thigh by the bundle of wood, and froze to death on the mountain before being found a few days later.
Latterly, the woman of this house also hanged herself, leaving four helpless children to wander in the village, begging for food from place to place, and in the end, only the two eldest children survived.
Seeing a tragedy unfold again, Yingbao felt a stifling pain in her heart.
She returned home dejectedly, locked Youyou in the deer pen, and returned to her room to go to the cave to plant more grain.
She originally did not want to plant any, because it was too tiring, but today’s events startled her, making her realize the importance of rice.
No matter when, there should never be a shortage of grain.
Starting now, she has to store a large heap of rice and flour in the underground cave to relieve her anxiety.
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