The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 494 - 483: Bumper Harvest, Cheap Grains

Chapter 494: Chapter 483: Bumper Harvest, Cheap Grains

Quite a few villagers shared the same thoughts as Old Zhou’s family.

From last May until now, practically everyone’s nerves had been on edge and their bellies tightened.

Not only the children, but even the adults themselves couldn’t help but crave something tasty after the continuous summer and fall harvests.

Buying pastries was out of the question, but they could still make some delicious food at home.

So, when Zhou Dalang and Zhou Sanlang were about to finish grinding their goods at the mill, people gradually started showing up from the village.

Seeing that Old Zhou’s family had already ground so much, the visitors couldn’t help but exclaim, "Your family got here really early."

The two brothers just gave a simple smile in response. What did they consider early? They had already ground the soy milk for making tofu and taken it back home. By now, Junior Ms. Qian had probably already made the tofu.

Junior Ms. Qian had indeed made the tofu; at this moment, she was pressing it with a wooden board specially made for the purpose, while Ms. Feng poured sweet syrup over the freshly made silken tofu as a breakfast for the family.

Manbao ate an entire bowl and, feeling completely satisfied, put down her bowl and waited for the pancakes to be ready.

The pancakes today were made by Third Sister-in-law. After receiving hers, Manbao tore half and handed it to Datou, who broke off a small piece and passed it to Daya.

Daya ate it all at once.

She didn’t mind at all that it was made by Third Aunt-in-law.

Not only Ms. Feng and Ms. He, but also Ms. Fang, who had married into the family just over a year ago, were used to the reactions of the children at home.

When there was no shortage of food and drink at home, the children could be quite picky, but as soon as their grandfather imposed even a slight restriction on food, letting everyone eat only porridge, it didn’t matter who cooked— they would all eagerly devour it with relish.

After filling up, Manbao went to put the beaded flowers that were gifted to her the day before into her hair, with Daya and the others following suit.

They also had their own copper mirrors now, no longer needing to borrow their mother’s. They could stare into them for as long as they wanted.

By the time Old Zhou noticed the beaded flowers in the girls’ hair, everyone had already gathered together to eat glutinous rice balls.

After making the tofu, Junior Ms. Qian personally joined her elder daughter-in-law and sisters-in-law to roll the glutinous rice balls, and they also made rice cakes. The children of the Zhou family were so thrilled they were nearly beside themselves with joy.

After eating a small bowl of rice balls, they ran out to boast to their friends. After a while, attracted by the aroma, they dashed back home to eat rice cakes.

The village kids followed them inside, joined in feasting on several pieces of rice cake, and then whooshed out again.

Of course, Datou and the others followed these kids to their homes to ask for food too...

This Mid-Autumn Festival, Qili Village was lost in the loveliness of food.

Manbao specifically packed her favorite rice cakes into two portions to share with two friends, only to discover they had both gone to Yizhou.

Manbao felt a pang of regret, then decided she’d help them finish the two portions of rice cakes.

The stuffed Manbao, patting her round belly, thought to herself: It’s truly a bountiful harvest, to think that father would be willing to make so much rice cake.

The full Manbao didn’t realize that not everyone was happy about the harvest.

At that moment, County Magistrate Yang was in quite a bad mood. After the autumn harvest concluded and the grain prices in the city dropped, he was happy; but with nothing else to do these past couple of days, and considering that after the Mid-Autumn Festival everyone would have to start paying their taxes, something occurred to him, and he took his attendants and went down to the countryside again.

His first visits, of course, were to the wealthy villages with numerous fertile fields. Only then did he discover that although the grain prices in the county town had indeed fallen, with the rice now reduced to seventeen wen per dou, the grain merchants in the countryside were still offering only eight wen per dou, and in a couple of villages, the price had even been pushed down to seven wen per dou.

The villagers complained even as they had no choice but to sell the surplus grain from their homes.

Because they needed money at home, and for many, selling grain was their only source of income.

Before the holiday was over, County Magistrate Yang had already given himself indigestion from the frustration.

Then, in a fit of anger, he ordered the registrar, accompanied by the constables, to march into those villages, offering ten wen per dou for grain, and even increased the price of wheat from twelve wen per dou to fifteen wen per dou.

The grain merchants waiting in the various villages to buy grain: ...

In the countryside, generally only two types of news spread quickly: one regarding changes in tax collection and the other concerning grain prices.

Although the affluent villages were quite far from Dali Village and Qili Village, the news traveled with the speed of a hurricane.

County Magistrate Yang had just begun to collect grain in the villages, but in a short while, the news had reached the county, the local market, and from there, spread to the marketplaces and villages of various townships.

By the afternoon, someone who had gone to the market to buy meat came back saying, "I heard that the county’s grandee is buying grain at ten wen per dou."

"Eh, isn’t that two wen more than what’s being offered in Dali Village?"

Qili Village is somewhat isolated, with only about sixty or so households, not even filling a li, so the grain merchants don’t bother coming here to buy grain.

Mainly because Old Master Bai’s grain is never sold to them; his grain is always bought by a fixed merchant, and he also has his own grain shop, rarely cooperating with local grain merchants from Luojiang County.

So if the villagers of Qili Village want to sell grain, they need to transport it to Dali Village.

Basically, the surrounding small villages all tend to gather and sell their grain there.

The current price there is eight wen per dou, and some have even asked a grain shop in the county city, which is also offering eight wen per dou.

So, the villagers had been thinking, since it’s eight wen either way, why bother with the time and effort to transport it all the way to the county city when they could just sell it at the local market.

Quite a few families in Qili Village had planned to deliver their grain after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and some had even made arrangements with Old Zhou.

Old Zhou, feeling that his family wasn’t in much need of money and having just gone through a bout of natural disasters, placed great importance on grain. He decided not to sell this year and keep it for his family instead.

If it wasn’t eaten up, having leftover grain next year would be fine too.

In Old Zhou’s opinion, the taste of year-old grain was even better than that of new grain.

"I heard Jiangding Village is doing the same. The constables have already gone to notify them. Why don’t we take a look at Jiangding Village too? If it’s true, we can sell our grain there," someone suggested.

"The County Governmental Office is buying, but would they actually pay us?"

"Don’t worry. I’ve heard the county’s grandee has had carts of copper coins delivered to the villages," said a villager, eyes shining, "There have long been rumors in the town that our new county’s grandee is unlike County Magistrate Fu. They say his family is very wealthy and doesn’t lack money!"

The reason for this reputation was that ever since Yang Heshu took residence in the County Governmental Office, he had been quite generous with money.

This generosity wasn’t about spending money like water, but rather that he dined out frequently.

Whether dining alone or with others, he always picked up the tab; when shopping, he paid himself; and even when he casually hailed a donkey cart on the road and rode for a stretch, he’d pull out copper coins to pay for the fare.

All these actions, in the eyes of the unsophisticated countryside folk, meant that the new county’s grandee was not short of money!

The villagers, their eyes lighting up upon hearing this, declared, "Then let’s take a trip to Jiangding Village tomorrow to see. If the county’s grandee is really buying grain there, we’ll sell ours to him, too."