By the end of the week they had managed to fill their yard with corn, now they were shucking, scraping off the kernels, then tomorrow they would start grinding it into powder. Most families would wait a week or so before they started grinding but Aston would dry them overnight pretending the fire in the shed had worked wonders. Not too much, but enough to start selling a little early for when they went into town in a few days.
Today they would let Samantha just shuck the corn, she wasn't keen on going into town. They managed to fill the cart with ground corn. They had started spending the mornings collecting corn, and evenings every other day to shuck and scrape the kernels.
As Ashton led the donkey cart with a lantern, he just enjoyed the walk, it would take about two hours to get to the market, and in the winter they would let people ride the donkey cart for a few coppers or food. The fifth day of the month was the most popular for the villagers to visit the market since most stalls were set up for the first half of the month. There were four other groups also traveling with them in a loose sense. Due to Thomas being one of the larger and stronger villagers many would leave around the same time of day, and then usually be able to get a ride back. Two groups had brought children, one just a year younger than Ash, the other a much younger boy.
"Ash, how did you ground so much corn already?" Lisa asked. She had been hoping to catch his eye but he was always so distant. Ash rarely played with the other children, and many were envious of how well their family had been doing the last several years.
"Just lucky." Ash was clearly disinterested in her. Lisa was nice enough, but she tended to be a bit of a gossip and her mother often borrowed food but rarely returned any. He deliberately kept looking forward and continued to talk with his father, "Pops we should check the square out again, that big announcement should have been posted." He added when Thomas raised an eyebrow.
Thomas internally sighed, Ash probably wanted to see if any traveling dancers had come by. Thomas nodded in accent; the other groups were trailing behind since they were all sharing the Baker's cart. Even with all their wares the cart was only half full, but since their donkey was almost 20 years older it was still struggling to keep up.
"Pops we should hurry," Ash hinted as he walked back to the other cart, with a nod he hefted two large bags into his back basket. "Auntie, I'll help with these two so we can speed up a little, market will open soon." Ash added politely, then started to trot off. With the lessened burden the other groups moved much faster as they took turns helping push the cart. Ash kept a polite distance from the other villagers, since many had been throwing stones while their family struggled over the years. Ash wasn't keen on them now asking for handouts.
They were able to reach the town just as the sun was rising, Ash returned the two half full bags then stood in line with his father for the inspection. The nominal fee was two coppers a person since they were going to sell wares. They didn't wait for the others as they made their way to one of the larger restaurants they usually sold too. Three years ago, they had started relations and were paid more than fair ever since. "Master Connor! We're here! Come look how well we've done!" Ash called jovially, if they could sell everything here then he could spend the day wandering around the market.
The older manager had been bringing goods in to start the day, "Ah, Ashton, you've grown again, haven't seen you since the end of winter. Come inside while they take a look, we have some juice and bread ready." He added with a smile. While they didn't bring anything special, this small family always brought some of the best quality.
Conner led them in and signaled a worker to bring out something small to eat. Conner preferred speaking with Ashton since Thomas was extremely cautious and rarely made any concrete decisions while Ashton would set regular deliveries.
Ashton and Conner chatted about prices and delivery schedules for the next two months, they eventually agreed to every other week deliveries and would be 325 coppers instead of the market 310 coppers per sack. Each sack had almost 25 kilos, six sacks meant 150 kilos would be roughly 19 silver and 50 coppers. Quite the sum for a poor family, Ashton happily accepted the money as he finished off the last bite of bread and jam.
"I'll see you two off and see you in two weeks! Remember us if you have anything good in the future." Conner reminded as Ashton securely tucked the money bag in his shirt. The boy was quick with calculations, too bad he'd never been to school.
Ashton waited until they were a couple of blocks from the restaurant before handing 10 silvers to his father, "I'll keep the rest, I know ma wanted some stuff, so I'll meet you for lunch at old man Gale's stall." Ashton quickly promised then snuck off before his father could say anything. Conner had mentioned a traveling bard who had set up near the square the last few days.
The bard was mid performance when he arrived, he was a young man, maybe mid to late twenties, brown hair and eyes. He had a softer look about him as he strummed a small harp as he sang about a boy fighting off monsters. Ashton quickly added two coppers to the bowl as he settled in to listen with rapt attention. While the performance was hardly comparable to the palace plays it was pleasant nonetheless.
The bard played another three songs before he announced he was taking a break and would be back in the evening. Ashton sighed as he started making his way to Gale's food stall, the meat was grilled simply with potatoes and sometimes onions. Thomas was already waiting with food and chatting with Gale, technically Gale his father's cousin, but being 15 years older they hardly met up.
"Hey pops, find everything?" Ashton asked as he sat down, he'd bought two mugs of chilled cow milk on his way over since he didn't enjoy the water downed ale commoners usually had.
"Yeah, did you see the announcement?" Thomas asked taking the milk and gulping it down, Gale glanced at Ashton, then nodded to the surrounding people. Not many could reed so even though they'd seen it they had to be verbally informed of what it said.
Ashton rolled his eyes, "Yeah, new threshers for corn and wheat are going to be produced and distributed by the crown. We should probably get ready for raids starting soon." Ashton warned in a lower voice. While the threshers would be great for the people, for the emperor to skip over the nobility to make and distribute would no doubt cause tensions. The proclamation stated each town would have no less than three threshers for the common folk to use free of charge for the first 2 years, then it would cost a few coppers a day to borrow.
Gale sat up, "Raids?" Ashton had always been uncannily smart, which wasn't always a good thing since the boy held grudges like no other.
Ashton nodded seriously, "Since the crown is sending guards into individual territories I expect several lords will be displeased. If commoners are robbed before being able to use the threshes no one will chance it. It will be a blow to the crown, the nobles will be able to use is at a pretext to get the blueprints and make their own threshes and increase tax again." Ashton explained chopping a potato chunk into more manageable bite sizes.
Gale glanced at the equally somber Thomas, "So we should just thresh at home again this year?" he asked, his son had just had his firstborn this year, so the thresher had seemed to be a good idea.
Ashton nodded, then shook his head. "Bring a single sack to thresh as a test, we won't want to stand out. The people won't be seriously hurt if we just give up the supplies, it will just be a threat and power play. No doubt in a year or so the territories will have their own and it will be safe." Ashton added to ease the tension. Suddenly a man on the other side of Gale walked over with a bright smile.