Li obediently stretched out her arm for the doctor to feel her pulse. The doctor felt her beard and felt her pulse carefully, then quickly withdrew his hand and congratulated her with a smile, "Congratulations, old lady. The first wife is pregnant and has been pregnant for almost two months."
Zhu Lan paused, then smiled and said, "There's another addition to the family, this is a good thing, Liu Ya will give the doctor some money for the wedding."
Zhulan now keeps some of the small change in a box. In the past six months, she has trusted Liuya more. Now Liuya can touch silver and money, which was not allowed before.
The doctor received one or two taels of silver as a wedding gift and another or two taels of silver for the consultation. After telling the doctor what the pregnant woman needed to pay attention to, Steward Ding sent the doctor away.
Li waited until the doctor left before she came to her senses, "So I'm really pregnant."
Zhulan saw that Li was not in a very good state. Li was indeed under a lot of pressure. Although Li and Wuchun's wife, Wu, were both loud-mouthed peasant women, Wuchun was a general appointed by the emperor himself and the second-in-command of the garrison. Even if someone despised Wu, no one dared to say it to her face.
Li is different. The eldest brother has no official position and no merit. After all, Li's confidence comes from the eldest brother. Although Li is carefree, she will also be anxious. With Zhao and Dong coming, her anxiety will become even worse.
Zhulan tried to be as kind as possible to Li: "You are a twin now. Tell the kitchen what you want to eat. Tell mother what you want to buy and she will find it for you."
As she spoke, Zhulan motioned to Liuya to bring the money box over. Zhulan opened the money box and took out two five-liang gold ingots and handed them to Li.
"Take these ten taels of silver. There are many shops on the street now, including those run by foreign merchants. Go and buy whatever you like."
Zhulan felt that giving Li money would make him feel much better. She gave Li a lot of money in the past six months, but Li just refused to spend it.
Li held two ingots in her hand and said, "Mom, can I really spend them?"
"Of course!"
Li cried again with tears in her eyes, "Mom, you are so good to me."
Zhulan was silent. Li's mood was fluctuating greatly. Oh, Silly was so stressed that she cried like a baby. "Well, it's getting late. You should go back and rest!"
Zhou Laoda was in the joy of becoming a father again. He had another child. "Don't cry. Let's go back and rest."
Li dodged Boss Zhou's hand and said, "I'll hold the silver myself, take your hand away."
Boss Zhou, “… .”
He just wanted to support his wife.
Zhulan was happy. Since she was still thinking about the money at this time, it seemed that her anxiety was not that serious.
Half an hour later, Zhou Shuren came back. Zhulan asked, "What did you eat at the government office tonight?"
Zhou Shuren was washing his face. "Mr. Chen's preparations are certainly not bad. Their Jiangnan chef is really good at cooking."
Zhulan had also eaten the food at Lord Chen's house, which was indeed exquisite and delicious. Among the officials in Lizhou City, Lord Chen was the richest. Lord Chen was not just a nouveau riche, he was a real rich man. There were many rare books in his house, some of which were worth tens of thousands of taels. Not counting the books accumulated by generations, there were many estates in Jiangnan. Zhulan had always thought that there was only one tea garden, but unexpectedly, Lord Chen's family had two tea gardens.
If you count the shops and houses, Mr. Chen's family is really rich.
Having said that, Lord He's family also has money, but Lord He's wife has the money, so he relies on his father-in-law.
Zhu Lan said quietly, "The Emperor specifically hoped that they would donate money out of their own pockets, but you came to stabilize the situation and didn't succeed in their plan."
Zhou Shuren changed his clothes and said, "Why do I feel that the emperor would rather confiscate the property?"
Zhulan: "... .....You are right."
Zhou Shuren stretched his waist and said, "The autumn harvest has begun. I have arranged to collect taxes today, so I can have a day or two of leisure time."
"I thought you would write a petition to apply for tax exemption this year, but I didn't expect you to apply to pay 10% tax."
Zhou Shuren said, "It's not good to just exempt it. If you exempt it this year, you will want to continue exempting it next year. If you only charge 10% this year, you won't be reluctant to charge an extra half a percent next year. But if you exempt it directly and then charge 15%, there will be complaints."
Zhulan sighed that this was human nature, and changed the subject: "We dug a pond this year, and there is enough water for irrigation of the fields. It is also a year of good weather and good harvests. This year is a year of good harvest."
When the seeds were distributed, each household received one-third sweet potato seeds, one-third potatoes, and the remaining one-third was divided into half corn and half soybeans.
Even if I pay 10% in taxes this year, I won't have enough to eat, but at least I won't go hungry.
Zhou Shuren not only went outside the city, but also visited several nearby counties. This year was indeed a good harvest. He also went to see the fat pigs, because he could get coarse grains to feed the pigs from the government office. The pigs were growing well. Also, every seven days there were special yamen runners going door to door, and the people did not dare to embezzle the grain to feed the pigs.
He doesn't even have to look for merchants, merchants will come to him. Sausages are so popular that there is always a shortage of pork.
Zhulan and Zhou Shuren lay down. Before falling asleep, Zhulan remembered that she had forgotten to tell Zhou Shuren that he had another grandson or granddaughter. Forget it, let's talk about it tomorrow.
On the second day, Zhou Shuren heard the news and said he knew it, and then that was it. In Zhou Shuren's heart, he had one more grandson. To teach one more meant to prepare an extra betrothal gift. To have more granddaughters, well, he had to prepare an extra dowry!
Time passed quickly and the autumn harvest was over in a blink of an eye. Zhulan's family did not plant potatoes and sweet potatoes. Instead, they planted corn, wheat and rice. The land in Lizhou City was really not as fertile as that in the Northeast, and the grain yield was really low.
If Lizhou City does not develop other industries, even if there is no war, Lizhou City will be at the bottom of all Zhili prefectures.
Zhulan's family did not sell any of the grain. After drying it, it was all stored in the granary.
Zhou Shuren also collected taxes. One tenth of the grain was not much, but Zhou Shuren stipulated that one third of the grain should be sweet potatoes, one third potatoes, and the remaining one third corn or something else. It was not allowed to collect all sweet potatoes or potatoes.
The main reason is that sweet potatoes and potatoes cannot be stored in granaries because they will sprout before the end of the year.
Zhu Lan looked at Zhou Shuren with a frown on her face. "Hasn't the grain tax been collected? Why are you still worrying?"
Zhou Shuren said quietly, "Taxes are collected, but most of them are sweet potatoes and potatoes. I thought of sending someone to learn how to make vermicelli with money, and then come back to teach some merchants who want to do vermicelli business. Of course, it's free to learn, but the premise is to exchange grain for potatoes and sweet potatoes in the granary."
Zhulan likes to eat hot and sour noodles, and also likes to eat potato noodles. Why didn't she think of buying some noodles to eat? "You have thought about it, why are you still worried?"
Zhou Shuren smiled and said, "I'm worried about who to let pay for the study. It's not easy to choose this person."
Zhu Lan thought it was indeed a difficult choice, so she patted Zhou Shuren on the shoulder and said, "I can't help you with this, just think about it yourself!"