When the prince of no descendants found out that he had a baby, he went crazy

Chapter 203 Chapter 201 Have you paid your taxes today?
Gu Hua was not in a hurry to deal with this issue.

Then she arranged for Ye Ping to strictly check people entering and leaving the palace to prevent anyone from sneaking in.

Then he asked Du Tianlin to take people to the mountains the next day to find Dagui, the owner of the villa, and ask him to lead them to the back mountain and give them the food that he had hidden in the cave before leaving.

Everyone looked at Gu Hua in surprise. He didn't look like someone who was exiled here to suffer. Instead, he looked more like a hidden wealthy man who had moved here to live.

Not only did she spend money to build a comfortable villa here, but she also had enough scarce food outside to feed an army. If you compare people like this, it would be a lie to say that you are not jealous.
Gu Hua left that batch of food behind because she was worried that she would not come back in time. Those who stayed there were basically those who followed her, and she couldn't let them go hungry, so she left most of the food in the space in the cave in the back mountain before going to the capital.

Watching everyone taking orders and doing their own things, Gu Hua sat in the hall and thought that now, in addition to being filled with gold, silver, and jewelry, the place where the grain was originally stored was now empty.

Gu Hua returned to the backyard and saw three children learning kung fu from Shen Hongling. Their short legs were shaking like sieves after standing in horse stance for so long, which was very funny.

Shen Hongling noticed her coming and was about to stand up to greet her.

Gu Hua raised his hand slightly to stop him...

Then he turned and walked out of the palace.

Walking on the sparsely populated streets, I saw very few people entering the stores to buy things. The business of the entire Shuzhou city was in a depression.

"Oh, God, this doesn't want us to live."

As Gu Hua was walking, she heard a loud noise in front of her. When she got closer, she found that a merchant was lying on the ground with his head hit by someone from the yamen. His wife was kneeling on the ground, covering her husband's bleeding forehead and crying loudly.

Grief-stricken and angry, he rebuked: "You conscienceless people, open your eyes and see how many people there are on the street and how many things we can sell in a day.

You come to collect business taxes every now and then like this, are you trying to drive us to death?"

Gu Hua stood outside the small crowd of onlookers and learned that it was after the family of Prefect Wang Lian was burned to death by the son of his first wife that the Shuzhou government office fell into the hands of Wei Xingba.

He wanted to compete for supremacy with the heroes who emerged in this chaotic era, and get the gold, silver and other valuables that the former prince had hidden from Xiao Hai, but they could only be used for a short time.

If you want to recruit soldiers and do big things, that little money is not enough.

Money cannot fall from the sky, so Wei Xingba followed the advice of his subordinates and not only increased various taxes on the people of Shuzhou, but even the merchants could not escape the disaster.

This is why today's tax collection officials are so arrogant and domineering, forcibly collecting various commercial taxes on the streets and beating people.

Gu Hua watched as the tax-collecting officials ignored the woman's scolding and didn't care whether the merchants sold anything or not. He waved at the runners they brought with them, pushed away the woman who saw their intention and stood up to stop them, and snatched away all the valuables in the store to pay for the various new commercial taxes they had added.

The man with blood on his head hugged the tax collector’s legs and begged, “Please, sir, let us go.

If you take these things away, the shops will have nothing to sell and will not be able to pay the business taxes in the future."

"Get lost." The official with a moustache kicked the man away and walked away with him.

"The world is going downhill. The world is going downhill."

"Yes! It just rained a while ago, and I thought the disaster was finally over, but who could have thought that this man-made disaster would follow..."

Gu Hua quietly handed a silver ingot to the merchant couple who were supporting each other, "Heal your wounds, and your future life will be better."

Gu Hua strode away under the surprised looks of the couple.

On the way to Mu Fengmuxue to buy the small courtyard, Gu Hua ran into officials forcibly collecting taxes from an old lady selling eggs. "Have you paid the tax?"

The old lady replied timidly: "Sir, I only have ten eggs. How can I pay the tax?"

"You don't have to pay taxes for ten eggs?" The yamen runner said viciously, "Now you have to pay taxes for everything you sell. Even the woodcutters who come to the city to sell firewood have to pay taxes, not to mention you who sell eggs."

"Ah!" The old lady whispered in surprise: "Two bundles of firewood only cost one copper coin, how can I pay the tax?!"

"What's your business, you old woman?" The bailiff reached out and grabbed the eggs from the basket. "Here, take them, you old woman."

Seeing her eggs being snatched away, the old lady who wanted to take them back was pushed to the ground and kicked twice by the yamen runner with a fierce face.

When the old lady finally got up, she saw the yamen runners walking away without paying any attention to her shouting. She broke down and cried hoarsely. Two lines of tears fell into the dust.

"That's my grandson's life-saving money! The eggs are gone, why would an old woman sell them to buy medicine for him?"

Gu Hua narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze flashing with murderous intent.

She has already been a generous person today, and she doesn't mind doing it again.

When the old lady was tired of crying, she raised her leg and wanted to walk back home dejectedly.

I just felt something hit the bottom of my shoe. I looked down and saw the old lady's eyes widened instantly. She squatted down and picked it up without thinking it was dirty. She put it in her mouth and bit it, "Mom, it's really silver."

However, the old lady was obviously not a greedy person. She looked around, stood there for a long time with a conflicted look on her face, and obviously wanted to see if anyone had lost money and find it back.

Gu Hua threw a five-liang silver ingot at the old lady's feet, and followed the direction the yamen runners had just left...

In ancient times, corrupt officials used various excuses to collect taxes, but in essence they were all for the purpose of satisfying their own selfish desires and greed. They used various excuses to collect more taxes, which brought a heavy burden to the people.

It is rare to see Wei Xingba collecting taxes so blatantly like robbery.
He was really not afraid of completely offending the people of Shuzhou. He just wanted to squeeze all the money out of them so that he could recruit soldiers and go north to compete with various forces for the world.

In an alley, five or six yamen runners who had just arrogantly robbed an old lady of her eggs for tax were all lying on the ground, having stopped breathing.

……

When Mu Feng and Mu Xue opened the door and saw the people coming, they were very excited.

"Master, you are back."

"Yeah." Gu Hua nodded and walked into the three-story small courtyard.

Last year when I asked two people to buy this courtyard in Shuzhou City, it was winter and the small garden was not as colorful as it is now with butterflies flying and flowers blooming.

"Master, please come in."

Gu Hua waved her hand to refuse the two men's offer to take her into the main hall, and chose to sit down in the pavilion beside the only artificial lake in the courtyard. "What happened in the mountains after I left?"

Mu Feng stepped forward and replied: "After the master left, Wang Hanyou and others on the other side learned that you had left. Because they had no money and no food and were living a hard life, they wanted to come here to cause trouble and ask for things..."

(End of this chapter)