Xiaoyaoshanjun

Chapter 51 Farmhouse

It wasn't so hot in the evening, and it was slightly cooler on the mountain.

"Village Chief, let's eat!"

Two rural children came down from the foot of the mountain, one was a little girl of six or seven years old, and the other was a girl in her teens.

These two people are children from the village. They don’t have real names, just common names like Da Ni’er and Xiao Ni’er.

Tianjia Village was originally the territory of the Fuyuan Escort Agency.

Over the past few decades, Fuyuan Escort Agency has expanded its territory through various means.

The most profitable thing in this era is land. Land can make money continuously and can also hire all kinds of farmers to work for you.

Qi Tianfu has enjoyed good weather and no major disasters over the years, and people have lived a comfortable life.

But things like gambling, fighting, lawsuits, debts, and family divisions are inevitable, just like a peeling wall, a layer of skin will fall off even if no one touches it.

It is impossible to live in peace and tranquility, as there are always all kinds of strong and bad people coming.

There are always fights and deaths in the countryside, women, water sources, and livestock getting lost, and children stealing things.

Another reason is that the county government did not care about trivial matters in the countryside and only collected taxes, so Tianjia Village gradually turned to the Fuyuan Escort Agency.

Some people went to Fuyuan Escort Agency to learn skills, but they had to pay money, and gradually the land was gone.

There are some safe places, most of which are near the outskirts of the city, where at least the various forces are restraining each other.

Tianjia Village is a deserted place. The government does not pay attention to such places. Even the Fuyuan Escort Agency does not care much about them. Instead, the people of Tianjia Village turned to the Fuyuan Escort Agency in order to seek support and avoid being robbed by wild beasts and bandits.

Fuyuan Escort Agency can be regarded as a local giant enterprise. For some people who want to have a bright future, joining the escort agency is probably the only way out.

No one wants to farm for a lifetime.

Now, the hundreds of acres of land in this area have belonged to the Hu family and the Tian family. Hu Yuwei doesn't know anything about farming, so he naturally lets Tian Buli handle the farm affairs.

Tian Buli waited for more than ten minutes, and two children, one big and one small, quickly climbed up the hillside and came over.

The mountain road here is not easy to walk on. Although it is at the foot of the hillside, there is no stream within 500 meters.

Tian Buli's area is a wasteland, and most of the villagers live near the river.

Two girls came over carrying two baskets, which were meals provided by the villagers.

"Just leave them here. These are the rabbits I raised. Go back and tell the villagers not to hurt these five rabbits in the future, or I will fine them."

Tian Buli told the two girls something important. Although he felt it was unnecessary, the safety of the five rabbits around him still needed to be ensured.

When Da Ni'er and Xiao Ni'er heard about the fine, they quickly nodded in agreement.

Seeing that the two children were shy, Tian Buli did not say much, "Go back. Send some radishes tomorrow, and ask each family to give me a hundred kilograms of mixed noodles. I will cook at home from now on, and you can send some vegetables occasionally."

Danier nodded and said carefully, "Brother Village Chief, my father asked me to ask you, will the rent increase next year?"

Tian Buli had never farmed before, but he usually chatted with people in the market and learned a lot of things while selling tofu.

The imperial court stipulated only two taxes: one was a land tax of 30% for every 20, and the other was corvée labor that required each household to send one person to serve in the army for 20 days each year, and two households to send one person to serve in the army.

Land tax can be paid in the form of grain or in cash. Usually, local governments force people to pay and often pay more.

Corvée labor can also be offset by paying money.

You have to pay money to rent land, instead of paying grain.

Because there have been good harvests in the past decade or so, every household has surplus food. However, farmers who have no land and have to farm for others are also facing the trouble of annual rent increases.

Even so, these people do not have their own land, but they can still have enough food and drink by farming for others, and they can also save some spare money every year.

It seems contradictory, but it is not.

Without land, there is no need to pay taxes or bear the cost of land maintenance. You can get a harvest just by working for others, which is actually more profitable than farming your own land.

If you don't have land or houses, you don't need to serve in the military. You can avoid this trouble by relying on local powerful people.

Others don't pay taxes because they have the ability not to pay taxes, but most ordinary people don't have this ability.

Hu Yuwei's title of scholar can exempt him from taxes on one hundred acres of land, but basically as long as he doesn't go too far, the county government is too lazy to send people to collect taxes.

Tian Buli didn't care about the money and said directly: "No increase, neither mine nor Mr. Hu's, but you have to help me build a road down the mountain so that I can go to the city more conveniently."

"Each household can plant two mu of vegetable fields for me to eat and raise rabbits. The rent will not be increased after planting vegetables. In the future, there will be no rent increase unless there is any problem."

Big Ni'er and Little Ni'er went back happily.

Tian Buli was carrying two baskets and walking towards home. The five rabbits followed behind him, walking and stopping from time to time, waiting obediently for Tian Buli to go ahead first.

After entering the yard, Tian Buli let the five rabbits in, closed the gate, and then went into the house to eat with the five rabbits.

The dinner was quite sumptuous, with burnt-cooked earthenware steamed buns, steamed vegetables and eggs, three stewed chickens, and a plate of pickled vegetables.

The village is short of money, but not of food. Whether adults or children, as long as they eat sparingly and don't eat too good food, they can basically get enough to eat.

Tian Buli was already considered a small landlord.

In ancient times, there were indeed landlords who could not afford to eat meat, but they were small landlords with only thirty or forty acres of land, and most of them lived in times of chaos when heavy taxes were prevalent.

There are no heavy taxes in Yanque City, so there are definitely not many people who can ask the villagers for money, but it is definitely not difficult to get food. During the meal, Tian Buli sat on a stool and put the vegetables and meat in two baskets on the table.

Five rabbits sat in a row like puppies, looking up at this side across the table.

Tian Buli smiled and said, "Turn into a human and sit down to eat."

"Thank you, Master!"

The five rabbit monsters quickly prostrated themselves on the ground and transformed into five demon women.

Lady Rabbit walked happily to Tian Buli's side, and Black Rabbit and Gray Rabbit happily brought stools.

Soon the five rabbit monsters sat down.

Tian Buli kept one chicken for himself, grabbed another chicken and put it on the table, and poured a dozen steamed buns from another basket onto the table.

I didn’t have time to buy bowls, chopsticks, and rice dishes, so I just had to make do with what I had on the first day.

"Eat it!"

Tian Buli took the lead in eating.

The rabbit lady also caught a chicken and started eating it, and the other one was shared by the four rabbits.

The black rabbit took the chicken head and half of the body, the grey rabbit took half of the body, and the yellow rabbit took two chicken legs. The little white rabbit could only hold the steamed bun in one hand and pick up the fallen meat and chicken skin on the table with the other hand, and ate the meat and steamed bun happily and attentively.

Warriors all have big appetites and usually eat more, but the five rabbit monsters eat more than Tian Buli.

The food in both baskets was soon eaten up, and the four little rabbits were holding the remaining bones and sucking them in their mouths.

The rabbit girl licked her hand and cleaned the oil residue on her mouth.

Rabbits don't eat meat, but rabbit monsters do.

After eating and drinking, Tian Buli said with a smile: "Mother Bunny will sleep with me tonight, and the four of you can lie down in the corner of the bed!"

The rabbit monsters who were living a good life happily agreed.

At night, Tian Buli hugged the rabbit lady to sleep, and the four rabbit monsters turned into energy-saving rabbits. They lined up and jumped into the corner of the bed and the wall, huddled together, and helped Tian Buli warm his feet.

Living alone on the mountain, Tian Buli was not afraid that someone around might hear anything he did, and he soon vented his animal desires with Rabbit Lady.

The wooden bed shook as if it were in a storm.

The four rabbits also looked on curiously.

***
As soon as the sun rose, Tian Buli got up.

The five rabbits got up even earlier and went to work in the fields early.

Tian Buli went out and stood in the yard. He saw Rabbit Lady sweeping the yard in old clothes, and looked around.

"Where's the bunny?"

"I'm here." The black rabbit came over from behind the haystack in the corner, holding an egg in both hands and crawled over carefully.

Tian Buli asked curiously, "How can you not turn into a human by picking up eggs?"

The rabbit lady held the broom and said, "They run around all day, and I'm afraid they'll get their clothes dirty. The remaining three little rabbits are digging holes in the backyard. I taught them how to dig holes this morning."

Tian Buli looked at the quiet mountain village outside and said, "I'm going to the city today and I'm going to order five identical clothes for you in the city. I'm going to write the word Tian on the clothes, so that when others see your clothes, they'll know you're mine."

Stop by to see the damselflies, buy some daily necessities, and bring back a few books to read.

But there was no rush for these. Tian Buli quickly said, "You don't have to work all day here. After you have eaten, you can calm down and practice. Don't let trivial matters delay your practice."

The rabbits' practice is breathing. As long as they are well fed and not threatened by external enemies, they will naturally have more time for practice.

But after eating and drinking, as soon as Tian Buli left, Rabbit Girl lay on the bed with her eyes closed and fell asleep.

It's hot outside, so you might as well lie down and sleep.

The four little rabbits soon went to explore the mountain. There were no monsters or ferocious beasts here. The little rabbits chased and played around near their home, completely forgetting about their training.

Even among monsters, not every one of them likes to practice cultivation.

The black rabbit, the gray rabbit, and the yellow rabbit run very fast, and are stronger than the little white rabbit when fighting.

Soon the little white rabbit was covered in dirt from the fighting game. Not only did its white fur fall off, but its face was also covered in grass and dirt.

The four rabbits played the bouncing game together again, jumping up and bumping into each other.

The little white rabbit jumped two meters high and was quickly kicked away by the black rabbit. It stood aside and watched the black rabbit, the gray rabbit and the yellow rabbit jumping and exercising.

By the way, rank.

The status of the bunnies is not determined by the time of their birth, but by the skills they display during their usual games.

After the three rabbits finished fighting, the little white rabbit quickly crawled over to join the team, and the four rabbits lined up to go to the field to eat vegetables.

When I was hungry, I would just eat some grass on the ground nearby. When I was thirsty, I would nibble on some fresh green vegetables and fruits. When I was tired of playing, I would run home to sleep.

When there is no tiger in the mountain, the rabbit becomes king. Four little rabbits jump around to see who can jump higher.

(End of this chapter)