Lu Hua had just come out of the field, holding a farm tool in his hand.

He was wearing a coarse cloth short-skinned body, sweat stains all over his body, and worn shoes covered in dirt on his feet. He was covered in yellow and black. In his twenties, his face was full of wrinkles.

"If the harvest is only 60% of that of previous years, will the village not have enough food this year? Will anyone starve to death?"

Zhao Xirui hurriedly asked.

"Mrs. I'm worried too much. It's definitely enough. We are not like the thief who collects taxes to death. There are so many extras. Our taxes are not that high, and there are no extras. Even if the land harvest is less than 60% of last year, farmers can still eat enough."

Lu Hua smiled, then changed into a sad face and said, "It's just that this is not a solution. There are no men in the village, there are endless farm work, and the land cannot be plowed, so it will be abandoned and weeds will grow.

Once abandoned, the fertility of the land will decrease. If you want to restore it to the point where you can grow grain, you have to waste more effort. Therefore, this land must be cultivated, and whether it is planted or not, it will also turn over the land.

But turning the ground requires manpower and time. We can’t borrow people from other villages to help every year when we do farm work. Over time, people will have opinions. Moreover, the lack of manpower is not just for our village. I’m afraid that when the farm work becomes busy, we can’t even borrow people.”

As soon as he talked about this, Lu Hua looked sad and sighed.

Su Yonglin nodded from the side and said, "Yes, many people have already written to the General Affairs Bureau for this matter. Yanyun is very short of labor at present. Basically, four of them in ten villages are short of labor. They borrow labor from each other during the busy farming period. This will not work."

"Is there any way?"

Zhao Xirui immediately looked over and asked.

Su Yonglin nodded.

"Of course there is a solution. Ask in the army if anyone is willing to go back to be a farmer and whether anyone is willing to marry someone's widows to live. If so, count it. Then let the farmers' association organize it, have a marriage contract, and then the marriage will be settled. Then there will be labor force in the village."

"Can this still happen?"

Zhao Xirui was stunned.

"In extraordinary times, if you do extraordinary methods, if you don't do this, at least 30% of Yanyun's land will be abandoned, which is unbearable."

Su Yonglin sighed: "In order to conquer us, the Jin thieves forced all the male men from many places to fight us. They went south and died all the way. This village is not too miserable. The worst one is that the whole village has died, and there are not many old men left. The oldest boy is only seven years old. The whole village is orphans and widows, and they don't know how to live."

Zhao Xirui swallowed, feeling like she had pushed open the door to a cruel new world.

Lu Hua sighed repeatedly from the side.

"Indeed, compared with that Dongpan Village, our village is pretty good. At least twenty people have returned. Unlike Dongpan Village, where there are 130 people going out, not a few bodies are returned, and the whole village is full of widows and children without fathers.

I know the instructor there, named Yang Tianhe. Less than a month after going to Dongpan Village, I have married a widow in the village and said that I will stay there for the rest of my life. I am really pitiful."

"how so……"

Zhao Xirui felt unbelievable about this.

Su Yonglin walked to Zhao Xirui and hugged Zhao Xirui.

"This is the suffering of the people. Although there are only these four words, each word is soaked in blood."

Zhao Xirui shook all over and raised her head to look at Su Yonglin in surprise.

Su Yonglin's expression was still calm and there was no change at all.

Zhao Xirui knew how to write the four words "女子" among the people, but she didn't know what the real situation behind these four words, and she didn't know how to write it to really make the taste.

So she continued to follow Su Yonglin and Lu Hua to the village, saw the low and dilapidated houses, the worn-out villagers, the women, children carrying farm tools, and the people working hard in the fields.

What you can see is amazing poverty and destruction.

She didn't dare to go in those houses at all. She felt that her body was instinctively repelling the dark, wet and dark house. Not to mention walking in, she felt uncomfortable even if she looked at them.

Under the scorching sun, she didn't dare to think about how dirty she would look, how wet her hair would look, and how embarrassed she would be if she went down to the ground once.

Those women and girls were barefoot. Because it was hot, some women even rolled up their trousers and sleeves, exposing their bodies and skins that the ladies would never expose without any scruples, which was no different from men.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Xirui suddenly understood why Su Yonglin said that scholars do not treat these farmers as human beings.

She is pampered and elegant, and she is a pale face and thin skin, and she is hardworking. She is indeed not a person from the same world at first glance.

She has fair skin and beautiful appearance, delicate skin, and her eyes are moist and moist as if she can speak. Her every frown and smile has all kinds of charm.

Her skin was yellow and black, full of wrinkles, her big hands and feet, and her words and deeds were so rough that she could not look directly at her.

Are they the same kind of people?

Is the difference between people really that big?

Zhao Xirui was stunned on the spot.

"This is their living conditions. No, it is our living conditions after we come. Before we come here, there was no smile on their faces."

Su Yonglin pointed to the scene where a couple in the field were bending over to mow the grass while laughing: "They used to be unable to laugh. They were worried all day long, and they were covered with a thousand pounds of burden on their bodies and couldn't straighten their waists, which was different from now."

Zhao Xirui, who was shocked and thoughtful, noticed that in addition to the astonishing poverty, these farmers would smile from time to time.

Life is so difficult and hard, why do they still have a smile on their faces?

"Why can they laugh now?"

Zhao Xirui looked up at Su Yonglin.

"Because of hope, I wrote in the manuscript that they were not born poor, and even if they were not rich, they would not even be able to eat. It was because the top people collected too many taxes and were exploited completely, so they were so poor.

We are different. We collect very few taxes and will not force them to be levied. They can retain most of the food they produce, not only can they fill their stomachs, but also can have food to store.

If you have stored food, you can exchange it for money. If you get money, you can save it. If you have saved it, you can buy goods that you can't afford in the past and improve your life. If they work harder and produce more food, they can get more savings.

Farmers are hardworking and frugal, without excessive exploitation, and they can accumulate wealth bit by bit, change dilapidated houses into big houses, change tattered clothes into decent clothes, afford shoes, wear hoods, and afford more farm tools and oxen. They know, so they are laughing."

Su Yonglin looked at Zhao Xirui and held her hand: "The old court in the past did not give them hope, and exploited everything they had. They had no hope, only numbness, so they could not laugh no matter what.

What I have to do is to prevent them from being exploited. I cannot make the food they produce more, but I will not take away more. I can make them increase their savings, let them have surplus food and money in their hands, and give them hope.

So while they are tired, they will calculate how much grain they can earn this year, how much grain they can be left after paying taxes and leaving seeds, how much money they can exchange for, and how much savings they can save.

These savings can buy some meat that you can't eat in the past, pull a few pieces of cloth to give yourself a new dress, change your old farm tools to new ones, and buy a thicker bedding, and think about it, they can laugh out loud."

Zhao Xirui looked at Su Yonglin for a long time, then looked away from her gaze and looked at the farmers in this field who worked hard but still had a smile on their faces.

Su Yonglin stood beside her and spoke slowly.

"They actually don't need much, they just have enough food and clothing, leave some extra money, and can see meat and fish several times a year, and can change into new clothes, but the courts in the past could not even agree to them.

But it shouldn't be difficult now. I will help them realize these requirements, and from now on, life will only get better and better. One day, they will be like us, without any difference."

A hot summer wind blew, making Zhao Xirui feel that her heart seemed to be getting hot.
Chapter completed!