Pingling County is a county town about the same size as Dongling County and quite prosperous.
When Song Qiu and his party arrived at the city gate, it was bright and clear, and the city gate had just opened. Many villagers carrying burdens, baskets and baskets were lining up to enter the city one by one.
Nowadays, people entering the city are required to collect city tax. For example, in Dongling County, a single person is charged one penny, a person pushing a cart is charged two cents, an ox cart and a mule cart are charged three cents, and a horse-drawn carriage is charged five cents.
The counties we visited earlier are all similar.
But this Pingling County is completely different.
Song Qiu was in the first carriage and could clearly hear the villagers at the front murmuring, saying that the magistrate of Pingling County wanted to strengthen the city wall, build roads, build dams, etc.
For such an item, the city entrance tax has been rising again and again, and there is no time to spare.
When it was their turn, one carriage and two mule carriages actually received twenty-two coins.
If they don't have a car, their line will have to pay twenty-four cents per person.
Although he lost two articles, Song Qiu was not comforted.
The city entry tax in Pingling County has actually increased a lot, what a huge profit.
Looking at the long queue, how many people enter the city every day, and how many coppers are collected.
I don’t know if I am using the tiger skin as a banner, or if it is really for the sake of improving people’s livelihood in the county.
Entering the city, there is a bustling morning market, steamed buns, wonton noodles, everything is steaming hot.
There are all kinds of stalls, and people are dazzled. They want to eat everything, but they don’t know what to eat.
It was a lively time at this time, and the crowds were so crowded that it was difficult for cars to pass through. So we had to leave the carriages and horses at the base of the city wall, and wait until breakfast was over and the flow of people was reduced before we could pass through.
The group of people walked on their legs, looked at a row of stalls, and finally found a small noodle stall at the corner that happened to have a few empty tables.
One bowl of saozi noodles per person. The tenderest vegetable seedlings in autumn are added to the noodles, plus chopped green onions. The emerald green color with white color makes people very appetizing.
Song Qiu and others all had one tael, but Aling, like Yang Dalian and others, had two taels.
After finishing a bowl of noodles and soup, my stomach felt warm and comfortable.
"Boss, check out." Song Qiu waved.
Upon hearing this, the noodle boss came over with a smile and said: "Thank you for your patronage, four bowls of one liang of soy seed noodles, eight bowls of two liang of soy seed noodles, a total of one hundred and twelve Wen."
Um?
Song Qiu suspected that he heard wrongly, "How much did you say?"
The noodle boss's smile did not change, "One or two noodles cost eight cents per bowl, and two or two noodles cost ten cents per bowl, so the total is one hundred and twelve cents."
Even if the entry tax here is higher than other places, even the food is more expensive than other places?
"How much does a bowl of plain noodles cost?" Song Qiu was curious.
When the boss saw the girl asking again and again, he also saw that this business must have just come from out of town, so he was not upset and explained: "Summy noodles cost five cents a bowl. Girl, if you don't believe me, go and ask, how much does this one cost?"
The things sold by the stalls are all expensive, and there is no way around it. In the past, when the stall fee was still ten cents, we didn’t sell it so expensively. Now the stall fee has increased to twenty cents. I can’t do business every day.
Well, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
"Don't talk about us. In the market, the stall fee for selling eggs has risen to eight cents! I didn't make any money from selling eggs, so they all paid for it. So, look at that now
There are no more eggs in the market."
This is true.
Song Qiu was silent for a while, but he didn't say anything more and took out the copper coins to pay the bill.
I turned the corner and came back, and went to a stall selling steamed buns to ask about the price. Good guy, the big meat buns sold for three cents each here for five cents, and even the steamed buns sold for two cents each.
Prices in Pingling County are really ridiculously expensive.
I don’t know if it’s just for a while or if it’s like this all year round. If it’s like this all year round, wouldn’t it be killing the people?
The magistrate of Pingling County, tsk tsk.
Song Qiu originally thought that there was a suitable location at the end of the night after resting yesterday, but now he shook his head and denied it.
She thought about the case of human traffickers who were behind and was brought into the city by the government. She was silent and did not rush out of the city. She asked Aling to go to the county government first to inquire about the situation.
They drove their cars and slowly squeezed through the crowd, heading to the south gate to wait for her.
It was a lively and crowded morning, and the road was not easy to navigate. I walked slowly and leisurely, and finally passed the morning market, and the road became easier.
By the time we arrived at the south city gate, it was already nearly half an hour later.
After waiting for a long time at the tea stall at the city gate, Aling caught up with him angrily.
"The fat-eared county magistrate is still sleeping in my concubine's bed! It was the county government's master who was questioning the case in the front hall. Hearing that the government officials said it was a few human traffickers who abducted women, he immediately had them thrown into jail.
After being locked up, I watched in the dark that the master seemed to know those little thieves."
"However, the couple who lost their daughter also rushed to the county government office and wanted to ask the county government office to help find someone. I saw that the master was very impatient and sent a government official to the county brothel to inquire about it in front of people.
Keren was sent away, and the yamen didn't go to the brothel either. He probably did it perfunctorily, and then the master went to the back. Those little thieves didn't take them to the cell, but were waiting at the back. When they saw the master, they took the lead.
The thief boss took a banknote from his body and gave it to the master, and then the master asked someone to let them go through the back door."
"I was so angry! I couldn't hold it back, so I followed them, took them to a deserted place, and beat them so hard that I lost both of their hands!"
If Sister Aqiu hadn't told her not to kill people randomly, she couldn't help but kill all these scum!
When Song Qiu heard this, he knew that the magistrate of Pingling County was not a good thing. He really worked for the welfare of the people. Who was still sleeping in the bed of his concubine so early in the morning?
He's also fat and has big ears, so he sounds like a common man's loser.
The master is not a good person either. This whole yamen is rotten. The bad guys can be let go if they want, and they can be bribed with money. What does this mean?
The yamen that accept money like this have handled many unjust, false and wrong cases, and many ordinary people have no way to seek help.
Not only Song Qiu, but Lihua on the side was also very angry.
"Then let's forget it? I only lost one pair of hands and it gave them an advantage!"
Ah Ling secretly tested Song Qiu, wiped his neck and said, "I'll go back and take them..."
That way, it seemed that as long as Song Qiu nodded, she would immediately practice Qing Gong and turn around.
Song Qiu shook his head, "No, ten people have been killed. Where can we hide the bodies?"
They still have to travel, they are business people, how can they still hide in Tibet?
But I can't do anything like chivalry and righteousness to eliminate harm for the people.
Aling muttered in a low voice, "I'll take action and kill him with one sword. I'll make sure that those who have nothing but wine and rice can't be found."
"Like the head catcher in Naye Town?"
Seeing that Aling actually nodded, Song Qiu also shook his head and started laughing.
"There are so many bad people in the world. We can kill every one we see, but we can't kill them. However, the county government in Pingling County is really rotten to the core. Now that we know it, we can't ignore it. The prince's seal is still with me.
Here, let me write a letter to talk about the affairs of Pingling County, stamp it with the Crown Prince's seal, and hire someone to send it to the government office."
"If the prefect reads the letter, it would be best if he could take control of Pingling County. If he ignores it, there is nothing he can do."
She couldn't go out of her way to invite the crown prince to solve the problem, right? She wasn't that generous.
In addition, the prince is not idle, he is involved in everything.
There are a lot of corrupt county officials in this world. They just happen to encounter this situation and try their best. The result is beyond their control.