binnovel Chapter 107 Sneak Attack
Chapter 107 Sneak Attack
The affairs of the Wang family were soon forgotten, and with the arrival of the harvest season, the Song family began to get busy.
It was Song Xiaojiu’s first time experiencing the busy farming season. He found everything the adults did new and interesting and followed them like a little tail. Song Dazhuang almost stepped on him several times and finally had no choice but to hand the kid over to Song Chunlin.
"Brother Lin, keep an eye on these two little ones. How can such a small one be so active?"
Song Chunlin said "Oh", then took the hands of the two children and forced them into the study to learn to read and write.
In order to prevent them from running around, Song Chunlin specially took out a set of early education toys and put them in a corner. Song Chunlin didn't remember when he put them there. Maybe he put them there accidentally.
The child's attention was quickly attracted by the colorful toys, and the two of them started to play together with their heads touching. Song Dazhuang took a quick look and felt safe, so he quickly took his family to the fields and asked Song Chunlin to deliver lunch. Song Amuo had prepared it early in the morning and put it in Song Chunlin's space, so he could take it out and eat it when the time came.
Song Chunsheng is also at home today. He is sixteen years old now and can barely be considered a strong laborer. He eats a lot and is very strong. The family has had good food in the past two years, and his younger brother gives him nutrition from time to time. He has grown to be as tall as Song Dazhuang. Song Chunlin pinched Song Chunsheng's arm, which was hard and full of muscles. It seems that he has the potential to become the second Song Dazhuang.
The sixteen-year-old boy was handsome, hardworking, and had even been to school. Many people secretly coveted the eldest son of the Song family and wanted to marry their daughters and sons to him. However, the two mothers, Song Qinshi and Song Dazhuang, were not in a hurry at all. Every time someone came to inquire about them, they would say that the child was still young and the family was not well off, and they would have to wait another two years.
Those people could naturally hear the Song family's evasion, so fewer people came to pry the matter out. However, there were still some people who persisted and spoke highly of the other party, and almost persuaded Song Qin. Fortunately, Song Qin was still rational and changed the subject in a few words.
This year, the sweet potatoes and potatoes planted by the Song family were still harvested by people sent by the government. With the experience of the previous year and the fact that there was more rain this year than last year, the sweet potato yield per mu reached 1,600 kilograms at the time of the final harvest. When Song Dazhuang heard this number, he couldn't stop smiling, and Grandpa Song, who was standing by, also felt proud of it.
The previous yield of 1,000 kilograms per mu was already amazing, and the current yield of 1,600 kilograms per mu makes others envious.
"Old Song, this crop from your family is truly a gold nugget." The speaker was an old man with a hunched back. He has been farming for his entire life, but even in the best years, the yield per mu was only 500 kilograms, and 600 kilograms was unthinkable.
Grandpa Song was grinning from ear to ear. He was so happy that he didn't know what to say. He just kept responding to everyone's congratulations.
"Old Song, are you going to give all your sweet potatoes to the government this year? Can't you give some to us?" The old man asked what everyone was thinking. Sweet potatoes have a high yield and taste good. According to the first few families who planted sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes can not only be roasted but also boiled. They can be cut into pieces and cooked with rice to make porridge or rice. Only the government can grow such a good thing now, and they are really envious when they see it.
A soldier in official uniform nearby heard their conversation, thought for a moment and came over. When everyone saw the soldier, they immediately fell silent. People of that era had a natural awe of people in official uniforms. They were afraid that what they had just said would cause dissatisfaction among this official, so they all shrank back and lowered their heads.
The soldier didn't care and walked up to Grandpa Song and saluted him.
"Mr. Song, His Majesty said that this year, these confiscated sweet potatoes will be distributed all over the country by special personnel. This year, Lord Gu also secured some shares for Changping Town. If you have a familiar friend, you can go to the Ministry of Agriculture and wait. It is estimated that there will be new regulations in the near future. As for how many sweet potatoes each household can get, that is the matter of the Ministry of Agriculture."
The soldier spoke in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, just enough for everyone around to hear. As soon as he left, the crowd suddenly became excited.
The old man just now asked in disbelief: "Is this true? Is it really going to be our turn in Changping?"
A young farmer who seemed to be his junior also pulled his arm excitedly and said, "Uncle, look at that official. He doesn't even have to work. He must be a leader. I think what he said is probably right."
"If that's the case, can we go to the Ministry of Agriculture and wait there in the next few days?"
Grandpa Song hurriedly stopped everyone: "You don't have to go every day. It will take some time to formulate the regulations. I estimate that it will be approved in two or three days. Don't go with a group of people. Just send two young people to guard."
When everyone heard this, they thought it made sense. The official only said that there would be rules, but did not specify when. It was obviously unrealistic to go and wait every day. The Song family still had people sent by the government to help harvest the land, but they did not have the same treatment on their own land. During the busy farming season, there was work everywhere. Now they were just taking a break from their busy schedule to come and take a look. When they returned to their own land later, they would not be so free.
So in the end everyone decided to send a few young men to take turns to guard the Ministry of Agriculture, and immediately run back to inform them if there was any sign of trouble.
Perhaps because the yield of 1,600 kilograms per mu was too shocking, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs worked very quickly this time. Within two days of the batch of sweet potatoes being brought back, the regulations formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs were issued.
The young men who were sent out were all literate. They memorized the most critical conditions before rushing back.
"Those who own more than three mu of permanent land will not be allowed to receive it. Those who own three mu of permanent land can receive 300 kilograms of sweet potatoes, which must be returned double when the harvest comes. The land used to grow sweet potatoes is exempt from land tax. Sweet potatoes are only used for planting and cannot be sold or transferred privately. Violators will be executed immediately."
The rules set by the Ministry of Agriculture were relatively fair. Changping was still under the jurisdiction of the capital. Most of the local farmers were from well-off families. A few poor families had also purchased land under the previous emperor's decree on permanent land settlement in previous years, and most of them bought the land at the lowest price of three acres. It could be said that this group of families were the poorest families in Changping.
Let the poorest people grow sweet potatoes. Song Dazhuang and people from the Ministry of Agriculture have calculated that if 300 kilograms of sweet potatoes are sown manually, even a novice can fill an acre of land. If an experienced person is employed, an acre of land only needs about 240 kilograms at most. If the harvest is good, an acre of land can produce about 1,200 kilograms. Even if the return is doubled, there will still be 600 kilograms left. In previous years, people could not necessarily harvest so much from an acre of wheat.
What's more, sweet potato leaves can be eaten by humans and pigs, and can also be used to feed chickens. This business is a good deal no matter how you look at it.
Of course, these are only limited to a few villages around Yongle Village. The other villages that have not seen the Song family digging sweet potatoes with their own eyes still remain skeptical about this new thing.
The people in Yongle Village were all overjoyed. Those who only had three acres of land were so happy that they carried baskets to the Ministry of Agriculture to get sweet potatoes that day.
Those who have more than three acres of land at home should not be discouraged, because who doesn’t have a few poor relatives?
Song Dazhuang planted five acres of sweet potatoes, and then transplanted another five acres of wasteland. The yield of wasteland was low, about 1,000 kilograms per acre. Excluding the ones kept for their own families, the soldiers took away a total of 11,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes. It sounds like a lot, but there were so many people who came to claim them, and there was not much to begin with, and they were all taken away in just three days.
The families who received the sweet potatoes were as happy as if it were New Year's Day, and they couldn't wait to beat drums and gongs to announce to the world that they had won a nugget of gold.
The restriction of three acres of land caused those wealthy families to once again miss the opportunity to hold sweet potatoes in their hands.
One of them almost smashed everything in the house, but no matter how angry he was, he could do nothing about the stubborn Ministry of Agriculture.
The Da Si Nong himself was an old-fashioned and pedantic farmer who had only studied how to farm all his life. Some people wanted to establish a relationship with him through the younger generations in his family, but the Da Si Nong only strictly disciplined the younger generations in his family and refused to give in on the sweet potato issue.
"Your Majesty personally inquired about this matter. I have helped them today. If I am imprisoned in the future, will they save me from the water? If not, why should I risk the wrath of the world for them?"
Just one question drove away those who wanted to take the back door.
However, how could the self-righteous noble families be content with this? They saw that those peasants had received sweet potatoes one by one, and their records were all registered with the government. They also contacted them privately, wanting those people to sell the sweet potatoes to them, but the people who received the sweet potatoes knew the situation clearly, so naturally they would not sell it to them.
With both the front and back roads blocked, the aristocratic families had no choice but to finally set their sights on the Song family.
Song Chunlin had already forgotten about those aristocratic families. He was sorting out supplies in the space at night. Then his mental power detected that someone was attacking the Song family.
He quickly retreated from the space. He released his mental power to scan the surroundings and found that there was not just one person on the other side, but dozens of them.
If there were only a few people, Song Chunlin would still be confident that he could kill the person without anyone noticing, but the other side had so many people, he had no way of letting everyone escape without exposing his supernatural powers. While he was thinking, the other party was already right in front of him, so he hurriedly put on his clothes and planned to wake them up first.
Song Dazhuang was sleeping soundly with his wife in his arms when he was suddenly woken up by someone. He felt a little angry. Just when he wanted to beat up the person who disturbed his sleep, he found out that it was Song Chunlin who woke him up.
Song Chunlin told the couple with a serious face: "Someone is coming towards our house. I estimate there are dozens of them. We can't defeat so many people. Dad, please wake everyone up quickly."
When Song Dazhuang heard what Song Chunlin said, he realized the seriousness of the matter. He immediately grabbed his coat and put it on. The family of three then went their separate ways.
Song Chunlin went to wake up Song Chunsheng, Song Dazhuang was responsible for waking up the two old people, and Song Qinshi went to Song Xiaojiu and Song Xiaobao's room first. The two children were sleeping with red faces. Song Qinshi only shook Song Xiaojiu awake, picked up Song Xiaobao with one hand, and pulled Song Xiaojiu out of the room.
The whole family gathered in the main room. Song Chunlin had already sensed that the other party was about to arrive at their door, so he hurriedly reported the situation to everyone.
"Are they here for the nearest sweet potatoes?"
"I guess it's because they are jealous of the thousands of kilograms of food produced per mu. So many people came this time, probably because they want to kill me."
Hearing Grandpa Song's words, everyone felt a chill on their necks at the same time, except Song Chunlin, who looked indifferent. With his current strength, he could indeed kill all these people, but his supernatural powers would surely be completely exposed. The ancients were superstitious, and not everyone believed like the Song family that they were not monsters. By then, the whole family might be implicated.
In a flash, Grandpa Song also thought of this. He held Song Chunlin's shoulder and told him, "Chunlin, don't do it yet. We have dug a cellar, haven't we? With Chunlin's strength, can he prevent them from finding the entrance to the cellar?"
Song Chunlin naturally knew the simplest trick and nodded immediately.
After getting a positive answer, Grandpa Song had an idea in his mind. He directed everyone to hide in the cellar immediately, and then asked Song Chunlin to put away some important things in the house. The family went straight into the cellar, with Song Chunlin walking last. The most important things in the house were the land deeds and household registrations, as well as the imperial edict. After Song Chunlin put all these things into the space, the people outside had already arrived at the gate. Song Chunlin quickly hid in the cellar and put a layer of camouflage on it.
The person who came in first found the yard quiet and didn't think much about it. But when he reached the Song family's warehouse and saw only a small basket of sweet potatoes on the ground, he was dumbfounded.
One of them whispered to his companion, "Didn't they say this family just harvested nearly 2,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes? Where are the sweet potatoes?"
Yeah, what about sweet potatoes?
Of course the sweet potatoes were collected by Song Chunlin. It was obvious that he knew they were coming for the sweet potatoes, so Song Chunlin would certainly not let them succeed. He just collected all the sweet potatoes that were harvested this year into the space.
When the people outside saw that there was nothing in the warehouse, they were so angry that they cursed. Then their companions discovered that all the Song family members in the house were gone.
"Gone? How could they be gone? They have elderly and children, how could they fly in the middle of the night?"
The person who responded also looked as if he had seen a ghost: "How should I know? Looking at their quilts, there is still some warmth left. I guess they didn't run far."
As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the people around changed. With so many people surrounding the Song family, if a member of the Song family ran away, how could they not notice it?
But the Song family's home is so small, and this group of people held torches and checked every room, even the toilet and the kitchen, but they didn't find a single hair of the Song family. The residual warmth of the quilt told them that this family was at least sleeping soundly in bed before they came.