Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 589: The Imperial Court Issues a Notice

Because it is the New Year, many villagers in the countryside will bring their children to the market. In Mobei, there is a small market every five days and a big market every ten days.

Whenever there is a market, there are more people in the town, especially the big market held every ten days, when there are even more people.

They would bring some eggs, or some fresh mushrooms and vegetables from home, sell some, and then exchange them for rice, flour, oil, salt and other things needed at home, and buy some back.

Therefore, in order to sell the candied haws, which is not a necessity in life, more easily, Hualei also adopted the method of barter.

You can exchange three eggs for two candied haws, or you can exchange two bunches of fresh mushrooms for candied haws. Of course, other vegetables are also fine, even firewood on the roadside will do.

Look, the two baskets under the scarecrow are filled with most of the eggs and fresh mushrooms and vegetables.

There was also a small pile of firewood and other odds and ends beside it. Eggs were actually a rare commodity here, because there were no specialized breeding farms near the Mobei town.

Yes, they were a few chickens collected from the people at the market, so Hualei did not sell the eggs he got in exchange.

Instead, he gave some to Zhenzhu next door, and also gave some to Mrs. Chen Shao, who rented the house behind him.

Since Mrs. Chen came over once, she and Hualei have become friends. Usually, the two families occasionally send each other some food and daily necessities.

For the remaining eggs, Hualei prepared to make fermented glutinous rice eggs. It is said that it is especially good for pregnant women. Add longan pulp to the soft-boiled eggs and two spoons of fermented glutinous rice. The taste is really amazing. Hualei found that she had been craving for it unconsciously.

Of course, when Hua Lei makes fermented glutinous rice wine and eggs herself, she will definitely make a portion for Rong Jin, although Rong Jin always feels that he does not need nourishment.

However, Hua Lei never left out his share, so Rong Jin himself felt that his waist seemed to have gained weight recently.

Yes, I haven't been exercising recently. In the past, when I was in the capital, I would take Rong Jue and Xiaoyuan to the suburbs to ride horses on my days off.

But after arriving in Mobei, I was busy and sometimes had to go to the county government to work overtime on weekends, so I had no time to go out.

On the other hand, sometimes, when accompanying Hua Lei out, they usually took a carriage. Therefore, Rong Jin, who came from a military family, now had fewer opportunities to vent his energy.

After noticing that his waist was getting thicker, Rong Jin had to get up half an hour earlier every day and start boxing exercises in the yard.

Alas, I have so much energy, but nowhere to release it. I looked next door and saw Jiang Yunqi was also getting up early to do some boxing exercises. Well, we are both happy people in the same world. Rong Jin seemed to feel more balanced.

With half a month left before the Chinese New Year, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works all stopped working. The officials of the Ministry of Works also returned to the small town of Mobei from the construction site of the prefecture at the foot of Changling Mountain.

The next day, Minister Zhang and Minister Li posted two notices on the bulletin board outside the county government office. One notice was to tell all the people that the court would still be looking for people to do the work next year as usual.

The things to do and the treatment remain the same. Those who are reclaiming wasteland this year can report directly to the Ministry of Households next year, and those who are building the provincial capital this year can report directly to the Ministry of Works next year.

On the other hand, there is news that encourages people to move to the new state capital. If the people are willing to move their families to the new state capital, each family can get a free homestead according to the number of people in the family.

In addition, they would receive land from the court, with each adult receiving one mu and two fen of land, and the elderly and children receiving half of that.

The land that was distributed was exempt from tax for the first two years. In the third year, half the tax would be paid. As soon as the notice was issued, the people rushed to tell each other and inquire about it.

Especially those hunters who originally had no land, or farmers who had very little land, and those who were not well fed or clothed, inquired very carefully.

If the imperial court really distributes land for free, and the people do not have to pay taxes, then having enough food will not be a problem. These people are very excited.

The more exciting thing is yet to come. In the next few days, the monthly salary will be settled for all the staff. After working for several months, I can finally get the monthly salary and go home for the New Year.

So the Ministry of Revenue has been very busy these days. Fortunately, Minister Zhang and Hua Lei had made preparations in advance.

The people who were responsible for opening up the wasteland had prepared a detailed monthly silver list in advance based on the actual situation of each team and each person.

Each person gets 800 wen, and as long as they work from the beginning to the end of the month, the monthly salary is very easy to calculate. It is easy to make mistakes if you don't work for a full month, so you need to check carefully one by one.

From which day did this person start to open up the wasteland, which person took a few days off in the middle, and which person did not finish the work by the end of the month, all of them need to find their team leader to check their working hours.

After checking all the working hours, and then adding and subtracting, it was calculated that Chen Gou Wa could get 667 copper coins and Li Gou Wa could get 373 copper coins.

Counting the coins directly was too troublesome and prone to mistakes. If there were too many people involved, it would be a huge project. So Minister Zhang found a dozen scales in advance.

The staff of the Ministry of Revenue were divided into more than a dozen groups, with four or five people in each group working together and paying wages by weighing them with a scale.

Hualei was not skilled in using a scale, so what she did in the group was to get people to sign and put their fingerprints on the documents. It looked very easy. However, the problem was that many people were illiterate and could not find their names on the list.

So, when Hualei asks people to press their fingerprints, she also helps them find a name. It's OK if the name is not the same as the other person's.

In case there are duplicates, it is necessary to verify the identity information of both people to avoid sending more to one person and less to the other.

If you give too much, the other party will leave with a smile, and if you give too little, the other party will not do it. Therefore, in the prosperous dynasty without electronic payment, Hualei was fortunate to see the people collecting monthly silver in large numbers.

Of course, I also learned the high-intensity way of doing things without a minute's rest. At the end of the day, Hualei was exhausted, her voice was hoarse, and she couldn't even straighten her hands.

The most important thing was that Hua Lei felt that she was almost suffocating, surrounded by three layers of pioneers who had not taken a bath or washed their hair for months.

I'm so tired, I really want to ask for leave, but Hualei doesn't dare to ask for leave. It takes a thousand days to raise an army, but it only takes a moment to use it. You need to shine and make a difference, and you ask for leave? So, the next day, when the time came, Hualei still forced herself to get out of bed.

Rong Jin felt so distressed that he pushed Hua Lei down on the bed, put on his clothes, and said he would take over for Hua Lei. He could finish his own work when he came back in the evening.