Chapter 346： tax again

So a group of refugees followed Jiang Sanlang to chop bamboo.

Many of the wild bamboo forests here have been bought by Jiang Sanlang and other villagers, so refugees who want to get a long bamboo pole must obtain the consent of the villagers.

After cutting down the bamboo poles, it will be much easier to pick honey locusts.

Now Yingbao often sees a group of adults and children in ragged clothes holding bamboo poles to pick honey locusts.

In November, the snow finally fell.

Zhou Wuchang took advantage of the snow not blocking the road and rushed to the county town with his eldest apprentice. His second apprentice Zhang Min and Ying Bao were still left behind.

Zhang Min didn't feel uncomfortable this time, but was very happy. Every day he hung out with Wei Zhan, Hu Zi, Jiang Wu and Xiaoyao. When he had time, he went to the wild to hunt pheasants and hares, and had a great time.

The pheasants and rabbits on the southern **** were so unlucky that they were almost extinct.

Li Xu finally came back at the end of the month. He was not listed on the list, but he was not discouraged at all. Instead, he happily returned to Dongchen Village and continued to teach the children.

His mother was not disappointed either. She was already content to live peacefully here with her son for the rest of her life. However, her son was getting older every year, and it would be a bit shameful for her not to marry a wife.

But in this small mountain village, there were very few girls who were worthy of her son. While An was anxious, she set her sights on the Jiang family.

The Jiang family has a good tutoring and their children are all outstanding. Unfortunately, the Jiang family does not have any unmarried girls of similar age to her son.

Mr. Wu sometimes went to the school after Li Xu came back, and occasionally gave Li Xu a few words of advice. But most of the time, he sat under the wall with the elders in the village, chatting while basking in the sun.

Every time Jiang Jie came back from Xiu Mu at the end of the month, Mr. Wu would ask about his schoolwork, correct his homework, and explain to him the classics he didn't understand.

The days passed like this, and soon we entered the twelfth lunar month.

 Ying Bao has been very busy recently. Apart from occasionally reading prescriptions, he just walks around with rhubarb.

The market is a place she often goes to, and she has to go there even on snowy days.

 Chen Zhao’s candy business is good. Even if there is no market, he can still earn one to two hundred cash every day.

 Ying Bao often sees Chen Wan coming to help her sister.

Nowadays, Mrs. Chen Feng no longer criticizes her granddaughter, but sometimes she asks Chen Zhao to spend money to buy salt and sesame oil.

Chen Zhao was naturally not willing to spend his own money, but he couldn't resist Chen Feng because he and his eldest sister and younger brother also had to eat.

“Yingbao, come and try the candy cake.” Chen Zhao waved to Yingbao. "It's caused by red bean paste today."

Ying Bao was not polite, took a candy cake and started eating it.

It is very comfortable to eat some sweets in the ice and snow.

Chen Zhao's stall is a small thatched shed with straw curtains surrounding it on three sides to keep out the cold wind.

 Yingbao was eating candy cakes while looking at the stalls outside.

This market was well planned by my father. There are rows of thatched huts built on both sides of the road. These stalls also have places to take shelter in rainy and snowy days. There are also several thatched huts not far away, which are owned by my uncle's eldest cousin and his wife. There is an oil shop, Erni's mother-in-law Leng's tailor shop, a bamboo shop, and a shop selling water jars and pottery.

Erni helped build Leng's two thatched houses with money. Her second uncle didn't stop her, but he never looked over there and Huzi was not allowed to have contact with her.

“Ying Bao, do you want some tea?” Chen Wan suddenly said.

Ying Bao glanced at her and nodded.

Chen Wan is thirteen years old this year and will be fourteen after the Chinese New Year. She is already very beautiful.

But when she came to the market to help, she would always wrap her face with a blue cloth scarf, leaving only her eyes exposed.

Chen Wan used the stove to cook a pot of bamboo leaf tea with jujubes in it. Two soft boiled red dates were added to each bowl of tea.

Yingbao drank the tea in one gulp, put ten copper coins on the small table, and returned to the village with rhubarb.

In this life, it seems that many things have changed, including some people.

Walking into the village, I saw my father and a group of people carrying stones to build a sentry tower.

The sentry tower was built very high, more than two feet, just above the height of the honey locust tree.

The interior of the stone tower is also very spacious, with a spiral staircase leading up to the highest point, which can accommodate several people fighting at the same time. If you stock up enough bows, arrows and stones, as well as some food and water, a few people can protect one side.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Two villagers came to Dongchen Village on the south **** with a gong and shouted: "The imperial court has issued an order! Every household must pay an additional 10% of grain per acre! Those who do not have land must pay an additional 20% of the head tax. Pay in full within three days! Violators will be punished according to law!”

Jiang Sanlang and others stopped what they were doing and looked at each other worriedly.

“Why does the imperial court need to requisition food again?”

“Didn’t you just pay taxes and grain last time?”

“Are you still going to let people live?”

Jiang Sanlang also looked solemn.

This year's taxes were heavier than in previous years. For this reason, he even made a special trip to the next town to ask if it was the same. It turned out that it was the same in that town, and the villagers complained.

This world is extremely unfriendly to farmers. All taxes are imposed layer by layer, which can peel off the skin of the people.

Fortunately, their village is relatively wealthy, otherwise many people would have to flee.

 Complaints are complaints, and the grain that should be paid must still be paid.

Luckily, the people of Dongchen Village have the habit of hoarding grain, otherwise they would really not be able to pay taxes.

Because the entire Qinchuan County is in severe food shortage, even Jiang Quan came back to report that the price of food at the grain store had increased. To this end, the county government even opened a charity warehouse and cooked porridge in a pot at the entrance of the vegetable market to distribute to the refugees stranded in the county.

 Yingbao only thinks that the county magistrate is mentally ill.

For such a long time, the flood victims have not been resettled and they are still allowed to wander in the county.

Or is it that the county magistrate used this to open the charity warehouse and wanted to secretly sell the grain in the charity warehouse in the name of disaster relief?

But these are not her own business, and she has no ability to interfere with the county magistrate's decision.

Now we can only take one step at a time. If there are more refugees causing trouble, Dongchen Village can resist it.

The first month of the lunar month has arrived soon.

The Jiang family is very lively.

Not only did Wei Zhan not go home for the New Year, Mr. Wu also didn't leave. Even Zhou Wuchang came to Jiang's house with his eldest disciple, and also brought a large box of books as a gift to Jiang Jie.

Fortunately, Jiang Sanlang's family has many houses, otherwise it would really not be enough to live in.

After the New Year, Zhou Wuchang left again with his eldest disciple.

Ying Bao and Zhang Min have long been accustomed to it, and they almost forgot that they were his disciples.

In early spring, before the ice and snow have completely melted, the refugees living on the southern **** are looking for wild vegetables to eat.

There are so many wild vegetables outside Dongchen Village. The shepherd's purses are all growing in patches. They are not only big in size, but also tender and tender. It is impossible to dig them all.

They dig up the shepherd's purse, wash it, chop it into pieces, and mix it with rice to cook it so that the whole family can have a full belly.

The refugees' rice was exchanged with saponin rice from the Jiang family and other villagers. They saved their money and had enough to eat until the summer harvest.

During this period, as long as they find a job in Dongchen Village, they will have no worries about living.

Although this life is miserable, it is a hundred times better than their previous days.

The days when they were in their hometown were called despair.

The harvested grain was successively taken away by the county government. In order to survive, they had no choice but to sell their fields and embark on the road to escape famine with the grain they bought.

Finally they discovered this village, which was so wealthy that people were envious.

So their leader Lin Wulang decided to stay and not leave.

Facts have proved that Lin Wulang was right, and they were finally able to settle here.