Women Wearing Men: The Growth Path of the Bastards of the Aristocratic Family

Speaking of grain taxes, Yan Zhengqian also had a headache: "I asked Lord Pu, the Chief Envoy, and he said that he had written a note to ask for instructions from His Majesty, asking the court to take into account the severe drought in Sichuan this year and grant certain grain tax exemptions. However, currently His Majesty has not replied yet."

"The imperial court has not said anything, and Mr. Pu is not sure whether to reduce or reduce the grain tax. He only said that we should try our best to collect taxes and pay as much as we can. When the time comes, he will give His Majesty a discount based on the tax and grain status. . Otherwise, it will not be easy to ask for tax reductions repeatedly before the summer tax collection season."

Chen Xunzhou was speechless for a while and said angrily: "Try your best to collect taxes? If you don't say the specific figures and give such an ambiguous statement, how can we say we are trying our best? I'm afraid that we have tried our best, but Mr. Pu is not satisfied when we submit it, and he will still blame us. If we don’t pay enough, isn’t this a different way of forcing us to collect taxes?”

"Cough cough cough!" Yan Zhengqian suddenly coughed violently and winked at Chen Xunzhou desperately.

Chen Xunzhou turned around and realized that Gu Yunji's eyes were slightly narrowed and he was staring at him without blinking. He exuded a dangerous aura and had an "I want to see what arrogant words you can say" expression on his face.

Of course, tax collection is not verbal. Violence, robbery of people's food, and even beating and killing of people are all common tax collection methods used by local officials and low-level officials.Although it is common, it is illegal after all. If it is stabbed to the top, the local governor will be reprimanded at the least, or dismissed from office and moved away.

Chen Xunzhou had also heard about the unhappiness between Gu Yunji and Yan Zhengqian. He once said that he was really afraid that Gu Yunji would sue them to the capital if he was unhappy. After all, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment was his cousin, and the court was not interested in anyone. It goes without saying.

Yan Zhengqian reminded him to be careful when speaking in front of Gu Yunji, and not to let him get a handle on him.Chen Xunzhou then quickly changed his words and pretended to say: "... Of course, our Xuzhou government is full of good officials who are diligent and caring for the people, so naturally they will not do such violent tax collection."

When Gu Yunji saw this, he sneered inwardly, said nothing, and silently looked away.

Gu Yunji's family background is something that the capital city dare not mention, but whenever he gets to the local state capital, he can walk sideways in the local officialdom if he wants to, but he was unwilling to do that in the past.

But now it seems that Yan Zhengqian and Chen Xunzhou are not fuel-efficient lamps. Using their family background to give them some appropriate oppression can at least make them restrain themselves and not dare to blatantly bully the people.

Seeing that the scene was a bit embarrassing, Yan Zhengqian coughed twice and brought the topic back: "It's only May now, and there is at least more than a month before the rice harvest. We must pay the grain tax in full by the time, and also to prevent the second crop." Since this drought has occurred, I would like you two to be more careful next time."

Gu Yunji and Chen Xunzhou bowed their hands to Yan Zhengqian and said politely: "This is natural. Please don't worry, Mr. Yan."

As they were both adults and working as officials in the same place, there was no need for Gu Yunji to break up with the prefect Yan Zhengqian just because of an unpleasant quarrel.In the officialdom, there were no enemies, only common interests. He had to learn the ability to talk nonsense to others sooner or later.

As he said that, Yan Zhengqian looked at Chen Xunzhou again, with a sincere look on his face: "Master Chen, your Chen family is a big family in the local area and occupies a lot of land. I still need to trouble Master Chen to pay more attention to the food tax."

The corners of Chen Xunzhou's mouth dropped, and he could barely maintain the smile on his face. He had scolded Yan Zhengqian eight hundred times in his heart, and said insincerely: "...This is what I should do, and I understand it. Lord Yan, please rest assured. "

Most of the land occupied by the Chen family is in the name of Chen Xunzhou, and Chen Xunzhou is a supervisor in name after all. He has a good reputation and does not need to pay taxes.

The reason why Yan Zhengqian said this specifically was to imply that he was being watched by Gu Yunji. If they couldn't forcefully collect taxes, Chen Xunzhou would have to charge more rent to his tenants to make up for the insufficient taxes.Incidentally, Chen Xunzhou and Yan Zhengqian had been officials together in the Xuzhou Prefecture for seven or eight years. They had more or less leverage over each other, and they were already a community of interests. Yan Zhengqian asked him to collect more rent to make up for the taxes and rations, but he really didn't want to. Good rejection.

So Chen Xunzhou cursed in his heart, but at the same time he had to put on a smile and respond politely.

-

In the blink of an eye, June is here, the rice waves are golden, and it is the harvest season.Unfortunately, there was a severe drought in the spring and summer this year, which reduced food production. When farmers were busy in the fields, they always had some sadness on their faces - they were worried about their family's livelihood.

On the outskirts of Xuzhou Prefecture, Old Man Geng and his family were counting the grain they had just harvested.

Old man Geng was illiterate and not very good at arithmetic. He clumsily clapped his fingers and muttered something: "... there are six acres of farmland in total, one acre by the river, and three hundred kilograms of grain. There are three acres at the foot of the mountain at the west end of the village, and there are three acres on the mountainside. Two acres... add up to less than [-] kilograms of rice."

Hearing this, his wife, Mrs. Geng, looked bitter: "It's only nine hundred kilograms. In previous years, even in ordinary years, we could produce at least thirteen or four hundred kilograms of rice. This year, we suffered such a severe drought, and the production was reduced by almost five hundred kilograms." "

Old Man Geng sighed and said: "Fortunately, our family has mu of silt fields on the bank of the river, which has not been affected much. That one mu of land alone produced three hundred kilograms of grain, otherwise it would be even more difficult this year."

"Grain production has been reduced, and [-]% of the rent will not be reduced. If we calculate based on the production in previous years, we will have to pay four to five hundred kilograms of rent this year, and the grain we will have is less than five hundred kilograms. We, a big family, are like this How can we survive until next autumn harvest if we just order some food? How can we live like this?"

His son Geng Mancang pretended to be relaxed and comforted: "Mom, dad, don't be sad, don't we still have potatoes at home? The potatoes will be mature in less than half a month. We planted sixty kilograms of seeds. If it is as productive as Gu Tongpan said, we will be able to harvest almost [-] kilograms by then."

"There are four hundred kilograms of potatoes, and one hundred kilograms are reserved for next season's seeds. There are three hundred kilograms left, plus five hundred kilograms of rice, a total of eight hundred kilograms of food. There are five people in our family. Before the potatoes mature next season, There is definitely enough food to eat, so don’t worry.”

When his son said this, Old Man Geng's brows instantly relaxed and he felt relieved: "Mancang is right, I almost forgot about the potatoes. In previous years, our family only had eight or nine hundred kilograms of food throughout the year, but now we are far away from the next season's potato harvest. It’s only half a year, but we still have eight hundred kilograms of food. Speaking of which, our family’s situation this year is actually better than in previous years.”

Mrs. Geng's brows were filled with joy: "Thanks to this potato, otherwise our family would really starve to death this year. I heard people say that eating too much potato will burn your heart, so we can mix it with rice to make porridge. It's great to avoid heartburn and allow everyone to eat more."

The daughter-in-law answered with a smile: "Our chili peppers are almost ready to be picked. In two days I will ask Aunt Wang next door how to make the chili peppers delicious. Let's also learn from the city people to make some chili sauce. Just in time to eat potato rice porridge."

As soon as potatoes were mentioned, the originally gloomy atmosphere in the family suddenly became lighter. The family talked and laughed, thinking about the days of feasting and good harvests in the future.

At this time, an untimely and ferocious voice sounded outside the door, and the wooden door that leaked air and light was shaken loudly: "Old man Geng, open the door! It's time to pay the rent!"