When I got home, it was already dark.
The three brothers' clothes were frozen and they were shivering with cold.
Jiang Dalang was still sneezing and rubbing his nose.
Seeing this, Zhou quickly pulled her husband behind the stove and asked him to take off his clothes and warm himself by the fire.
Old man Jiang and his wife were also busy. They first asked their grandson to get clothes, and then told their granddaughter to boil hot water, and wash the faces and hands of the eldest, second and third sons, and change their clothes.
"Ouch, how come you are all wet? Oh, your hair is frozen."
Old Mrs. Jiang was so anxious that she quickly went to look for some dried cornus officinalis and boiled some water to help the children get rid of the cold.
Jiang Sanlang warmed himself by the fire and soon recovered. He and his thirteen-year-old nephew put the fish into the large water tank at home for temporary preservation. He ate two bowls of hot noodles before going home.
At this moment, Chunniang and her children were dozing on the kang. When she saw her husband lifting the curtain and coming in, she quickly got up.
"Why are you so late? Have you eaten? I'll go heat up the food." Chunniang stepped quietly onto the kang to prepare food for her husband.
"Don't worry, I've already eaten at my eldest brother's house."
Jiang Sanlang sat on the kang, took off his shoes, and crawled into the warm bed, sighing, "It's so warm."
Chunniang took the cloth and went back to the kang. While wiping her husband's hair, she whispered, "Why is your hair wet? Did you fall into the river?"
"No." Jiang Sanlang laughed softly, "We had a great harvest today. We caught several big fish, each of them is four feet long."
Chunniang was surprised: "Four feet? How heavy would that be? The fish we usually see by the river are only three or four pounds at most, and no longer than two or three feet. How come we always see big fish this year?"
Jiang Sanlang put his hands behind his head and said leisurely, "The river here is deep and there are no serious fishermen, so we don't have the chance to see them normally."
He turned to look at his wife and said, "I'm going to the market in town tomorrow morning. You can see if there's anything else you need at home and I'll buy it all. New Year's Day is coming soon and we need to prepare some New Year's goods. Yingbao is getting older, so we need to buy some clothes for her as well."
"Okay, let me think about what to buy..."
The next day, before dawn, Jiang Sanlang got up early and went to the kitchen to get a shoulder pole and bucket to fetch water.
After filling the water jar, he hurried out of the house to meet his eldest brother.
When Zhou saw her third uncle coming, she quickly invited him to have breakfast and said, "Your eldest brother seems to be ill and may not be able to go to the market today."
"Are you sick?" Jiang Sanlang was surprised and asked, "Do you want to see a doctor?"
"I'll ask Dacheng to go and invite him later." Zhou said with a sad face, "Your eldest brother had a fever last night, I'm a little worried..."
Jiang Sanlang: "Why don't I go to town and ask for a doctor? The ones in the village are not that good after all."
There was a man in their village who knew a little about medicine, but he could only treat common minor illnesses. He couldn't treat more serious illnesses. It was not only a problem of his medical skills, but also because he didn't have any good medicinal herbs.
"Then I'll trouble you, Sanlang." Zhou felt a little relieved.
After dinner, Jiang Sanlang saw that his second brother had not come for a long time, so he asked his nephew Jiang Quan to go to his house to check on him.
As a result, Jiang Quan ran back and told him that his second uncle was also sick and had a fever.
Jiang Sanlang had no choice but to borrow a donkey cart from Chen Cunzheng's house. He and his second nephew Jiang Quan went to the town to sell fish and seek medical treatment.
There are a lot of people in the town today because it is the end of the year and every family goes to the market to buy New Year's goods.
Jiang Sanlang weighed a big fish in advance and it weighed about 70 kilograms.
If the price is ten cents per pound, the whole fish can be sold for more than seven hundred cents.
but... ...
Jiang Sanlang told his nephew that live fish were sold by the piece, at nine hundred coins each; dead fish were sold by the pound, at ten coins per pound.
This price can be said to be quite expensive, but Jiang Sanlang is confident that his fish can be sold.
Sure enough, a lot of people came to watch. Many asked questions but bought few, and everyone thought it was too expensive.
Then a rich man came and bought two big live fish at once. The others also hurriedly paid.
Because there were only eight big fish in total, and only five of them were alive, two of them were bought at once, leaving only three.
The second nephew Jiang Quan was grinning from ear to ear. While weighing fish for others, he said to Jiang Sanlang, "Uncle San, our fish are really easy to sell."
Jiang Sanlang smiled but his eyes swept towards the crowd.
He saw the township magistrate again. There was another person next to him, who seemed to be a tax collector as well.
Jiang Sanlang sighed inwardly and quickly picked up two medium-sized live fish and put them in the donkey cart.
The court had many types of taxes, including land tax, household tax, green crop tax, market tax, fishery tax, horse and carriage tax, etc. Jiang Sanlang alone was subject to three of them.
Municipal taxes must be paid, but fishing taxes and horse and carriage taxes are harder to say.
Since this donkey cart was not his, Chen Cunzheng might have already handed it over.
But if these tax collectors are unreasonable, you will have to pay again after you use the money, and they will not accept any rebuttal.
As for the fishing tax, even though he caught the fish and sold them at the market, if people were really serious about it, he would have to pay it.
"You're from Chen Village, here to sell fish again?"
The forty-something township official came over expressionlessly and pointed at the remaining fish on the ground, "You've already opened the market, it's time to pay the tax."
Jiang Sanlang quickly responded with a smile, took out ten coins and gave them to the township official, and took out a fish hidden in the donkey cart and handed it to him: "It's almost the festival, and we don't have anything good at home, so I specially left this for you to taste."
The township official took it without hesitation and pointed to the person beside him, "This is my colleague. He is in charge of the fishery tax."
Jiang Sanlang was quick-witted and quickly took out another fish and handed it to the person next to him: "It's just a small gift. I just came here to sell some fish to supplement my family income at the end of the year."
Yu Zhi took it with a smile, "Okay, I understand, but I won't do it again next time."
After seeing off the two great gods, Jiang Sanlang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, there are only two big live fish left to be sold, but most of the dead fish have been sold.
Jiang Sanlang asked his nephew to watch the stall while he went to the only pharmacy in town to seek medical treatment.
But when we arrived at the drugstore, we saw it was full of people, all of whom came to see a doctor.
The only doctor in the shop was so busy that he refused to see any patients.
Jiang Sanlang begged for a long time, but the old man still refused and asked the medicine boy to ask him to leave.
There was no other way, so Jiang Sanlang had to ask him to prescribe two doses of typhoid fever and fever-reducing medicine and carry them back.
When I got back to the donkey cart, I saw the man with the fox-skin hat bargaining with Jiang Quan with his bulging belly.
"I am a regular customer of yours. Why can't you give me a hundred cents less for two fishes?"
Jiang Quan said aggrievedly: "No one bargains like you do. You're asking for a hundred coins. How can I sell it to you?"
The man in the fox fur hat raised his eyebrows, saw Jiang Sanlang, pointed at him and asked, "What did you say?"
Jiang Sanlang laughed and said, "One hundred coins less is still too much. This fish does not belong to my family. You saw it last time. We are a partnership of three."
Seeing the fox fur hat frowning, Jiang Sanlang said quickly, "How about this, I have a fresh fish here, weighing four pounds, I'll give it to you, what do you think?"
The man in the fox fur hat looked relieved and nodded reluctantly, "Okay."
After paying the money, the man with the fox fur hat asked the porter to come and carry the fish.
He picked up the four-pound fish and said to Jiang Sanlang, "I came here specially from the county town to see if there are any white sturgeons from that day. Our master likes to eat fresh fish sashimi. If you catch another one, send it to the county town and I'll pay for it."
Jiang Sanlang smiled and bowed to him: "That's great, I will definitely send him to the county town when I catch him. May I ask where your family is..."
The man in the fox-skin hat gave an address and left with the porter.