Ruins of the past

Chu Qiguang looked at the blank look on the cat's face, put it back on the ground, looked at his sister and said sincerely: "Sister, if you let my brother know that you wipe your butt with a cat, I will wipe my butt with you in the future. "

The younger sister looked at Chu Qiguang in shock.

Chu Qiguang asked: "Can you lick yourself?"

"Mom!" A look of horror instantly appeared on the younger sister's face. The little girl screamed nonsense, but Chu Qiguang grabbed her and covered her mouth.

Chu Qiguang educated you, "I'm teasing you! Girls, please stop doing stupid things in the future."

After teaching his sister a lesson, Chu Qiguang felt the psychological impulse in his body and kept thinking of ways to relieve it.

He recalled his various experiences on Earth in the past and understood that once this problem occurs, it is very difficult to tolerate it. He must take the right medicine to relieve the psychological pressure.

The sister on the side looked at Chu Qiguang's increasingly pale face and the cold sweat on his forehead, and secretly said in her heart: 'It must be a big lump...'

At this moment, a faint quarrel came from the room, and Chu Qiguang asked curiously: "Who is coming to the house?"

My sister shook her head: "It was Aunt Chen next door who brought someone to find my mother."

"Aunt Chen next door?" Chu Qiguang's eyes narrowed slightly, and based on what he had seen in the village in the past two days, he already had some guesses in his mind.

He ran outside the door of the earthen house and listened to the conversations of several people inside.

…

In the small earthen house, apart from a small low table, there was only an earthen bed.

But in this almost impoverished home, six people were crowded at the moment.

In addition to Ergou's mother, there is also the next door neighbor's Aunt Chen, the head of the area, as well as the Wang family's housekeeper and two servants.

At this moment, Ergou's mother was talking sadly to a middle-aged man who looked like a steward.

The middle-aged man wore a blue narrow-sleeved plate collar and a headscarf. He touched his goatee with his right hand and moved his eyes from time to time, revealing the slightest shrewdness.

Ergou's mother whispered: "Steward Wang, the average price of dry land in Qingyang County is 10 taels of silver per acre. Even in a disaster year, it can be sold for 5 taels per acre. Now you ask for 4 taels of silver per acre." I have to buy my family’s land, I really don’t have a way to survive..."

The man known as Steward Wang touched his goatee and said slowly, "Madam Zhou, this is not because I'm bullying you. This year's harvest is not good, and it's not easy for everyone."

Ergou's mother said in a low voice: "But..."

Butler Wang's eyes widened and he said impatiently: "There is a drought in the fields and everyone cannot pay the court's grain tax. My master is kindhearted and wants to buy your fields so that everyone in the village can pay the grain tax." If you pay taxes and rent the land to you cheaply next year, don’t you know what to do?”

Another man on the side, wearing a short shirt and rough skin, is the head of the department responsible for collecting grain taxes.

Today's Han Dynasty is divided into one hundred families, and ten families with more fields and more fields take turns to be the head of the village, one cycle a year, and are responsible for collecting taxes and corvees.

I saw the 'local chief' said angrily: "Fuck you, if you can't pay the food tax, you will force the county government officials to collect the tax, but we won't be as easy to talk to as our own people."

Butler Wang added: "If your family doesn't want to sell their land, then borrow some usury money and pay the grain tax first..."

Ergou's mother shook her head when she heard about the usury. The usury was a loan shark issued by the Wang family. The interest was compounded and Ergou couldn't even repay it after selling it. Several families in the village were forced to lose their families after borrowing the money. Ergou’s mother would never dare to borrow it.

After being persuaded for a long time, Ergou's mother, who had already lost her mind and had no owner, nodded subconsciously, and signed and pledged her name to agree to sell her family's land.

"etc!"

At this moment, the pale Chu Qiguang opened the door and walked in. He glanced at a few people and said, "Mom, do you want to sell your land?"

Aunt Chen frowned and said, "Gouzi, you have nothing to do here. You go out to play with your sister first."

"How many people want to invest in the Wang family but can't. If you work hard in the Wang family, you don't have to pay taxes or be subject to corvee. This is a really good life."

Chu Qiguang knew that the Wang family wanted to take advantage of this year's drought to annex the fields. He stopped his mother and asked, "How much land tax will we pay this year?"

Mother said: "Two stones of wheat are equivalent to two taels of silver."

Chu Qiguang frowned. The grain harvesting basins in the county were filled to the brim if they were full. That was one dou. Ten dou was one stone. One dou was counted as one dou.

As for the 2 taels of silver, Qingyang County implemented the levy of silver a few years ago, that is, instead of collecting food and other physical objects, the equivalent amount of silver is collected as a tax.

Ten coins is equivalent to one tael of silver, which is a total of 2.2 taels of silver.

Hearing what his mother said about two stones of wheat, he frowned: "Didn't I only ask for five bushels last year?"

The chief on the side said impatiently: "This year the county's new boss takes office and wants to recover the tax arrears from previous years. Our entire Qingyang County is in a state of chaos, but it's not just your family who has to make up for the past. The hole."

Chu Qiguang said slowly: "Our family digs in the soil all year round, preparing the land, sowing seeds, fertilizing, watering, and threshing grains... In addition to farming, we also have to deal with corvee labor, so we never have a day off. Over the course of a year, That's just five or six dan of wheat.

In addition to the land tax and Ding tax paid every year, there is also the county government's additional payment, material money, vehicle payment, treasury money... everything needs to be collected. After paying, there is also the money for worshiping gods in the Taoist temple and various routine filial piety.

In addition, they had to go to grain merchants in exchange for money and pay taxes, and they also had to be exploited. The grain we handed over had to be dried and shelled, but the grain they bought was mixed with water, and the grain was changed from bucket to bucket. The same bucket of wheat came and went, but the difference in money was more than 10%.

After working hard for a year, I only had at most four taels of food left over, which was divided among our family of three and spread out every day, which is more than four taels per person per day. We also need to use it to exchange for some oil, salt, and add some clothes...

How much can one person have left in a day like this? Do you think it’s enough? If we hadn't caught some fish and shrimps in the river, dug some bamboo shoots in the back mountains, and had mountains and rivers to eat, we would have starved to death long ago. "

Aunt Chen on the side turned her head when she heard this, with a hint of unbearable color in her eyes.

But the head of the village said angrily: "Collecting grain and paying taxes has been a matter of course since ancient times. Do you still need to explain it to me?"

Chu Qiguang was not frightened, and the symptoms on his body disappeared quickly as he spoke.

Feeling this situation, he didn't care much and decided to relieve the symptoms first.

So he continued: "The adults above have to pay the tax arrears, but my family has paid the full grain tax on these five acres of land every year, only a little more. Who owes it?

Everyone present knew that the Wang family, the largest landowner in the village, owed the most land taxes in Wangjiazhuang. They donated farmland to Taoism, hid farmland under a few homeless households... and tried every means to evade taxes.

But both the village chief and the ordinary villagers had no choice but to turn their attention to the poorer and weaker villagers.