Immortal Martial Saint, starting with unlimited stat points

When it was Zhou Chen's turn, he stepped forward.

During the Daqian Dynasty, in order to prevent local officials from artificially creating losses through means such as "pouring water into the firewood and kicking the bushel," tax reforms were carried out in recent years, led by the Crown Prince.

The previous practice of only collecting fine rice was changed to allowing payment in silver.

This policy was met with widespread praise from the lower classes.

But soon, complaints arose among the people.

Without the corrupt practices of "fire loss and kicking the bushel," various counties and prefectures in the Great Qian Dynasty devised various pretexts to increase taxes significantly.

In the past, there were some concerns because taxes could only be levied on rice and grain.

Nowadays, whatever a household owns is subject to taxation, and some pawnshops even have locations set up by tax officials at their tax collection points.

If they couldn't pay their taxes and didn't want to perform corvée labor to repair the canal, they had no choice but to obediently sell their property.

But by then, the price will have to be reduced by more than half.

"Zhou Chen?"

The tax official, dressed in a green robe with a quail patch, looked serious as he looked up from the register and glanced at Zhou Chen.

Before Zhou Chen could respond, he read aloud to himself, "Zhou Chen, Zhou Dongrong, the hunter, two taels each, for a total of four taels of silver."

Zhou Dongrong is the original owner's father who had been missing for many days.

"Lord Li, Brother Chen's father has been missing for several days. A few days ago, my father applied to the county to cancel his household registration."

"I see this list is from last year; Zhou Dongrong shouldn't be on this list," Qin Huo, who was maintaining order, explained to the tax official.

Closing an account means registering death; once a person dies, they naturally no longer need to pay taxes.

The tax official, addressed as Lord Li, glanced at Qin Huo sideways. "Are you saying I took the wrong roster and failed in my job?"

"I dare not." Qin Huo trembled upon hearing this, then knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly.

The tax official chuckled as he saw Qin Huo quickly kneel down and kowtow.

He then turned his gaze away from Zhou Chen and smiled, "Hurry up, if you can't pay up, then get out of here and wait to work on the canal."

Zhou Chen reached into his pocket and found four taels of silver, which he handed to the clerk holding the scales.

"Sir, exactly four ounces."

Upon hearing his subordinate's reply, the tax official put a checkmark on the list and then blacked out Zhou Dongrong's name.

Zhou Chen frowned slightly and slowly withdrew from the group.

Just now, Qin Huo addressed that person as Lord Li, so perhaps this person comes from the Li family, one of the three major surnames in Xingde that Uncle Sun mentioned.

He couldn't help but think of Chen Zhige, who had organized a caravan some time ago, and who was a member of a branch of the Chen family.

It seems that most of the important positions in Xingde County are occupied by the descendants of the three major surnames.

As Zhou Chen walked back, many people behind him looked miserable, clutching loose silver coins and various odds and ends in their hands. They probably wanted to exchange them for silver at the pawnshop to pay their annual taxes.

For a fleeting moment, Zhou Chen even had the impulse to take out the remaining six taels and one mace of silver from his pocket and help them out.

Yes, a total of six taels of silver is at most equivalent to the annual tax for a family of three.

With only four or five hundred people in a hundred households in Cangsong Village, there's no way he could possibly help them all.

Zhou Chen turned his head away and walked towards his home.

Now that this year's taxes have been paid, the biggest threat is Li Xiong, who came to our door a few days ago.

Although he didn't know why the other party hadn't made any moves all these days, the pressure from the Bone Forging level expert made him feel as if a huge boulder was pressing on his heart.

After passing most of the procession, the crack of whips echoed behind me.

"My lord, please give me one more day, and I will definitely gather the money."

"I don't care if you can raise the money by tomorrow. Anyone who can't pay the tax today, go and repair the canal."

Zhou Chen initially thought it was another unfortunate person, but the crying and pleading behind him sounded familiar, so he couldn't help but turn around.

Uncle Sun and Aunt Sun were seen kneeling on the ground, kowtowing to the Li family tax official. Uncle Sun's clothes were soaked with bright red blood.

Beside them, Sun Xiaohua and Sun Xiaohu stared blankly at the whip in the tax official's hand, terrified.

"Uncle Sun, shouldn't he have already collected all the annual taxes by now?"

As far as he knew, Uncle Sun's hunting haul these days, though not as bountiful as his, was still quite good.

Adding to the money Uncle Sun and he earned from hunting bears a few days ago, it should be more than enough to pay the annual tax for their family of four.

Annual tax has doubled!

Zhou Chen suddenly realized something.

When his father was alive, there was no need to worry about the annual tax. Therefore, this was Zhou Chen's first time participating in the annual tax. In addition, he had plenty of money in his pocket, so he was not sensitive to the fact that the annual tax had doubled.

But Uncle Sun, and most people in Cangsong Village, would split a single copper coin in half as much as possible on a normal day.

That year, taxes suddenly doubled, which naturally caused some cash flow problems.

Seeing this, Zhou Chen took a step forward.

With his current level of physical cultivation, the surrounding villagers only felt a slight breeze passing by before they saw someone appear at the front of the line.

The tax official, with a ruthless expression, looked at Uncle Sun and his wife, who were kneeling on the ground and delaying the time, and then lashed out with his whip at Xiao Hua and Xiao Hu, who were terrified and lost their senses.

"Snapped!"

Zhou Chen crouched down, protecting the two of them, and took the blow himself.

"Boy, minding your own business?" The tax official was displeased to see that Zhou Chen's body and face remained unchanged after being whipped.

"I wouldn't dare," Zhou Chen said with a smile as he stood up, as if the whip hadn't struck him.

He patted Uncle Sun on the shoulder and said, "Uncle, you borrowed a lot of money from me a while ago. Now that you haven't paid the annual tax, why don't you come and ask me to pay you back?"

Aunt Sun's eyes were red from crying. When she heard Zhou Chen speak, she stared blankly at Uncle Sun, not knowing when he had lent money to the Zhou family boy.

Uncle Sun looked up, saw Zhou Chen's expression, and immediately realized what was going on.

"Yes, yes, look at my memory, I almost forgot that I lent you five qian of silver a few days ago."

Zhou Chen looked at the yellow jujube bow that Uncle Sun had taken down and sighed.

Clearly, if he didn't help, the Huang Zhe Bow would be sold at a low price.

A powerful bow that sells for one tael of silver at the Dali Forging Workshop would probably only be worth one qian of silver here.

As a hunter, Uncle Sun had no bow, so he had nowhere to use his skills and was bound to have a hard time.

Zhou Chen felt around in his pocket, took out five qian of silver, and handed it to Uncle Sun.

Uncle Sun's calloused hands trembled as he accepted the money. He then took out his own money bag, emptied out all the loose silver inside, and hurriedly handed it to the impatient tax official.

The official in charge of the scales took the loose silver, put it on the scale, and was about to nod when he saw a large hand reach out.

The tax official surnamed Li grasped the weight, pushed it inward, and before the two sides were balanced, he held it firmly.

"We're still short five coins."

"Please don't be offended, sir. My uncle was confused and missed a few grains." Zhou Chen still had a smile on his face.

He took one tael of silver and stuffed it into the tax official's hand, without putting it on the scale.

The tax official tucked his hand into his sleeve, weighed it in his hand, and nodded in satisfaction.

Although he was from a collateral branch of the Li family, he had spent a lot of money to buy this tax official position, so naturally he wanted to find a way to earn it back.

"Okay, this won't happen again."

"Thank you, sir." Seeing the tax official's expression change from gloomy to cheerful, Zhou Chen quickly pulled up Uncle Sun and Aunt Sun, and slowly left with Xiao Hua and Xiao Hu, who were still in a daze.