Chu Qiguang looked at the blank look on the cat's face, put it back on the ground, looked at his sister and said sincerely: "Sister, if you let my brother know that you wipe your butt with a cat, I will wipe my butt with you in the future.
"
The younger sister looked at Chu Qiguang in shock.
Chu Qiguang asked: "Can you also lick yourself?"
"Mom!" A look of horror instantly appeared on the younger sister's face. The six-year-old girl screamed nonsense, but Chu Qiguang grabbed her and covered her mouth.
Chu Qiguang educated you: "I'm teasing you! Girls, please don't do anything outrageous in the future."
After teaching his sister a lesson, Chu Qiguang felt the psychological impulse in his body and kept thinking of ways to relieve it.
He recalled his various experiences on Earth in the past and understood that once this problem occurs, it is very difficult to tolerate it. He must take the right medicine to relieve the psychological pressure.
The sister on the side looked at Chu Qiguang's increasingly pale face and the cold sweat on his forehead, and secretly said in her heart: 'It must be a big lump...'
At this moment, a faint quarrel came from the room, and Chu Qiguang asked curiously: "Who is coming to the house?"
My sister shook her head: "It was Aunt Chen next door who brought someone to find my mother."
"Aunt Chen next door?" Chu Qiguang's eyes narrowed slightly, and based on what he had seen in the village in the past two days, he already had some guesses in his mind.
He ran outside the door of the earthen house and pricked up his ears to listen to the conversations of several people inside.
…
In the small earthen house, apart from a small low table, there was only an earthen bed.
But in this almost impoverished home, six people are crowded at the moment.
In addition to Ergou's mother, there is also the neighbor's Aunt Chen, the head of the area, the housekeeper and two servants of the Wang family.
At this moment, Ergou's mother was talking sadly to a middle-aged man who looked like a steward.
The middle-aged man wore a blue narrow-sleeved plate collar and a headscarf. He touched his goatee with his right hand and moved his eyes from time to time, revealing the slightest shrewdness.
Ergou's mother whispered: "Steward Wang, the average price of dry land in Qingyang County is 10 taels of silver per acre. Even in a disaster year, it can be sold for 5 taels per acre. Now you ask for 4 taels of silver per acre."
I have to buy my family’s land, I really don’t have a way to survive..."
The man known as Butler Wang touched his goatee and said slowly: "Madam Zhou, this is not my bullying of you. This year's harvest is not good, it will be difficult for everyone."
Ergou's mother said in a low voice: "But..."
Butler Wang's eyes widened and he said impatiently: "There is a drought in the fields and everyone cannot pay the court's grain tax. My master is kindhearted and wants to buy your land so that everyone in the village can pay the grain tax."
If you pay taxes and rent the land to you cheaply next year, you still don’t know what to do?”
Next to the other side, another man wearing a short shirt and rough skin was the head of the department responsible for collecting grain taxes.
Today's Han Dynasty is divided into one hundred families per li, and ten families with more fields and more fields take turns to be the head of the li, one cycle a year, and are responsible for collecting taxes and corvees.
I saw the 'local chief' said angrily: "You two bitches, if you can't pay the grain tax, you will force the county government officials to collect the tax, but we won't be as easy to talk to as our own people."
Butler Wang added: "If your family doesn't want to sell their land, then borrow some usury money and pay the grain tax first..."
When Ergou heard about the usury, Ergou's mother shook her head quickly. This usury was a loan shark issued by the Wang family. The interest was compounded and Ergou couldn't even repay it even after selling it. Several families in the village were forced to lose their families after borrowing the money.
Ergou’s mother would never dare to borrow it.
After being persuaded for a while, Ergou's mother, who had already lost her mind and had no owner, nodded subconsciously, and signed and pledged her name to agree to sell her family's land.
"etc!"
At this moment, the pale Chu Qiguang opened the door and walked in, glaring at several people: "This field cannot be sold."
Aunt Chen frowned and said, "Gouzi, you have nothing to do here. You go out to play with your sister first."
Chu Qiguang looked at Ergou's mother and said, "Mom, if this field is sold, our family will be slaves of the Wang family for generations."
Seeing that she was being ignored, Aunt Chen said angrily: "How many people want to invest in the Wang family but can't. You work hard in the Wang family and you don't have to pay taxes or apply for corvee. This is a really good life."
Ergou's mother hurriedly accompanied her and said carefully: "My son just said casually, I will sell the land right now, I will sell it now."
Chu Qiguang knew that the Wang family wanted to take advantage of this year's drought to annex the fields. He stopped his mother and asked, "How much land tax will we pay this year?"
Mother said: "Two stones of wheat are equivalent to two taels of silver."
Chu Qiguang frowned. The grain harvesting basins in the county were full and not tipped, which was one bucket. Ten buckets was one stone. One bucket was counted as one bucket.
As for the 2 liang of silver, Qingyang County implemented the silver levy a few years ago, that is, instead of collecting food and other physical objects, the equivalent amount of silver is collected as tax.
Ten coins is equivalent to one tael of silver, which is a total of 2.2 taels of silver.
Hearing what his mother said about two stones of wheat, he frowned: "Didn't I only ask for five bushels last year?"
The chief on the side said impatiently: "This year the county's new boss takes office and wants to recover the tax arrears from previous years. Our entire Qingyang County is in a state of chaos, but your family is not the only one who has to make up for the past.
The hole."
Chu Qi Guangwen slowly said: "Our family digs food in the soil all year round, prepares the land, sows, fertilizes, waters, and threshes grain... In addition to farming, we also have to deal with corvee labor, so we never have a day off. Throughout the year, there is no leisure time.
Just harvest five or six dan of wheat.
Every year, in addition to paying the land tax and the Ding tax, there is also money distributed by the county government, including money for materials, money for trucks, money for treasury... everything has to be paid. After paying, there is also money to worship the gods in the Taoist temple.
Pay homage to money and every routine.
In addition, we had to go to grain merchants to exchange money and pay taxes, and we had to be exploited a lot. The grain we handed over had to be dried and shelled, but the grain we bought from them was mixed with water and replaced by buckets.
For the same bucket of wheat, the difference in silver is more than 10%.
After working hard for a year, we only have at most four liang of food left. We share it with our family of three and eat it every day, which is more than four liang per person per day. We also need to use it to exchange for some oil, salt, and add some clothes... In this way, one person per day has more than four liang.
How much is left? Do you think it’s enough to eat? If we hadn’t caught some fish and shrimps in the river, dug some bamboo shoots in the back mountains, and had mountains and water to eat, we would have starved to death.”
The head of the village said angrily: "Collecting grain and paying taxes has been a matter of course since ancient times. Do you still need to explain it to me?"
Chu Qiguang was not frightened, and the symptoms on his body disappeared quickly as he spoke.
Feeling this situation, he became more and more enthusiastic: "The adults above have to pay the tax arrears, but my family has paid the full grain tax on these five acres of land every year, which is only a little more. Who owes it?"
The land donated by the big families in the village to the Taoist temple? Or is it the farmland hidden under those desperate families? It was obviously the hole you dug, but now you are looking for my family to fill it?"