I, Jiajing, successfully cultivated immortality

Chapter 367

One night passed in the blink of an eye, and when it was just dawn, Hai Rui changed into casual clothes without disturbing anyone, and sneaked out of the inn together with Xiao Er through the side door of the inn.

After several inquiries, Hai Rui finally got the exact location of Shiqiao Village, and immediately rushed towards Shiqiao Village without stopping.

The whole village of Shiqiao Village only has a population of Bailai. It is a small village worthy of the name. Because entering and leaving the village needs to cross the stone bridge over the river, it is named Shiqiao Village.

At the entrance of the village, there is a big banyan tree full of greenery and many branches and leaves. According to the elderly people in the village, this big banyan tree must have a history of hundreds of years, because as long as I can remember, this big banyan tree has been grow up there.

For a long time, the villagers here have rarely communicated with the outside world except for daily farming and buying daily necessities in nearby towns, such as salt and iron. Village, but a group of unexpected guests came.

A group of officials in soap-colored clothes entered the village and ordered Li Zheng of Shiqiao Village to gather all the villagers under the big banyan tree.

Seeing that the villagers of Shiqiao Village had almost assembled, the official in charge of collecting grain this time looked around, coughed twice, and said in a deep voice.

"Folks, the purpose of calling everyone here this time is to collect food!"

As soon as the official finished speaking, it aroused the dissatisfaction of many villagers at the scene, and the crowd soon began to discuss.

"Why do you have to collect food again? Didn't you just collect it five days ago?"

"If this goes on like this, the family will run out of food, and this time I won't pay anything!"

"Yes, I won't hand in anything this time!"

Seeing the villagers getting more and more excited, Lizheng of Shiqiao Village knew that if this group of officials were angered, the villagers of Shiqiao Village would suffer!
Thinking of this, Li Zheng hurriedly stood up and smoothed things over.

"Calm down, everyone, and listen to what the adults have to say!"

Under Li Zheng's reassurance, the mood of the villagers gradually calmed down. Seeing this, the official responsible for collecting grain nodded slightly to Li Zheng of Shiqiao Village, and then continued.

"Folks, this is a change made by the government in consideration of your actual situation."

"Usually, when you pay grain, do you need to take the grain to the grain merchant and exchange it for silver, and then pay it to the government, but now it's not necessary, the government will directly send us to collect the grain from you."

"In this way, both of us will save trouble, and you won't have to be exploited by those grain merchants again, what do you think?"

When the official said this, he paused for a moment, then continued.

"The official promises that this is the last grain collection this year, and there will be no more in the future!"

What this official said was naturally a lie. He only needed to complete his task of harvesting grain. As for how others promised later, it was none of his business.

After the official in charge of food collection made such a promise, many villagers in Shiqiao Village were a little moved and couldn't help but start whispering.

"Pay it, this is the last time, after paying the food, we can live a stable life."

"Yeah, hand over the food earlier, and these officials won't bother us anymore."

Later, another villager mustered up his courage, stood up and asked the officials.

"So how much food do we need to pay?"

Hearing this, the official raised the corner of his mouth slightly, and after thinking for a moment, he gave a response.

"Originally, according to the instructions from above, each household in your Shiqiao Village needs to pay two hundred catties of grain."

"But for the sake of your good attitude, you only need to pay 180 catties of grain, and I will let other villages make up for the rest."

When the official responsible for maintaining order heard this, he couldn't help but be impressed by the official's means, because at the beginning, the target given by the superior was 150 catties of grain.

In the end, although most of the extra thirty catties of grain went into the official's pocket, he was able to benefit from it.

Thinking of this, the officials present couldn't help but start to look forward to it.

If it is said that the villagers of Shiqiao Village were skeptical of what the official said, then when the official said that the villagers of Shiqiao Village could pay [-] catties less grain, their hearts were full of doubts. Doubts were quickly dispelled.

Although the 180 catties of grain that need to be paid later is an extremely heavy burden for many villagers present, but at any rate, it can also save [-] catties of grain, right?

In this way, many villagers of Shiqiao Village who were present at the scene returned home one after another, squeezing out 180 catties of grain from the few remaining rations!
They kept praying in their hearts that this was really the last time.

The official in charge of grain collection saw that the villagers were carrying out the sacks full of grain from their homes, and the smile on his face was even wider. He quickly ordered his subordinates to prepare the official scales for weighing the sacks, and Official dendrobium used to store food.

Soon, many villagers present lined up, waiting for the officials to weigh their grain one by one.

Soon, an old man handed over a sack full of grain to the officials with great expectations.

And the official hung the sack on the official scale very neatly, and after the result was displayed on it, he casually spoke to the subordinate staff who was in charge of recording.

"160 two catties!"

And when the old man learned this number from the officer's mouth, he felt a sudden feeling in his whole body. Then, he stepped forward and grabbed the officer's arm, begging.

"Master, I obviously have 180 catties of grain. Before delivering it, I used the scale at home to weigh it once. Are you reading it wrong?"

The official sent a disdainful glance at the old man, and pointed to the big "official" character engraved on it with his finger.

"Old man, can you see clearly, what is engraved on this scale?"

"It's an official character, the official character is as big as the sky!"

"You old bastard is so bold, you dare to question the official scale of the government, saying, what is your intention?"

As the official said, his tone became more and more hostile.

Seeing this situation, Li Zheng hurriedly stepped forward, said a few good words, and smoothed things over.

Because of this, the official just let out a cold snort, then walked aside without saying a word.

Next, the sacks containing grain need to be poured into the official dendrobium after being weighed. While checking the quality of the grain, it is also to prevent mistakes and further confirm the amount of grain.

Seeing this, the official in charge of collecting grain put his hands behind his back, looking quite relaxed, and then explained for many villagers present.

"If the amount of grain is correct, then the grain poured into the official dendrobium will just submerge to the mouth of the dendrobium!"

As soon as the words fell, the rope tied to the sack full of grain was roughly untied by an official, and then casually discarded aside, the white rice flowed out along the sack and flowed into the official dendrobium.

After being in the sack, no more grains of rice could be poured out, so the officer threw the sack aside and began to check the height of the rice piled in the official dendrobium.

Seeing that the rice was still some distance away from the mouth of the official dendrobium, the official stepped forward immediately and kicked it up hard.

In an instant, the rice in the Guanhu was farther away from the mouth of the Hukou.

An official came forward, glanced roughly at the scale where the rice in the official's dendrobium had reached, and said to the subordinate staff beside him.

"Count it, 150 three catties!"

Hearing this, the subordinate staff immediately picked up a brush and wrote down the figure of 150 three catties in the booklet.

Seeing this situation, the officials in charge of collecting grain turned their eyes to the old man, and suddenly raised their tone.

"You still owe the government 27 catties of grain, so hurry up and find a way to raise it!"

The old man was already surprisingly angry, his chest was heaving violently, his eyes were fixed on the official, as if he was about to burst into anger!

Not only that, the villagers of Shiqiao Village at the scene were also quite angry about this, and there were even some young people who were full of vigor and blood, and their blood was already surging. If no one stopped them, they might have rushed up.

The official was a little frightened by the old man's stare, but he quickly suppressed the thoughts in his heart, sneered, and ordered so to the officer next to him.

"This old bastard really doesn't know how to live or die, and dares to obstruct the government's grain collection!"

"Come here, hit me hard!"

As soon as the words fell, the official who had been waiting for a long time rushed up like a wolf and surrounded the old man.

Fists and feet fell like raindrops, and the old man was immediately knocked down to the ground. He could only keep humming on the ground, unable to get up anymore, his face and body were covered with bruises.

Seeing this, the official had a look of pleasure on his face, ignored the angry eyes of the villagers of Shiqiao Village, and warned in a deep voice.

"See, this is the fate of going against the government!"

"Come on, hang this damn old thing on this big banyan tree for me. I want to make an example to others!"

"stop!"

In the distance, a deep voice came, and Hai Rui appeared in front of the crowd, dressed in coarse linen.

(End of this chapter)