A headless post with a few chicken feathers on the envelope was quietly circulated among the prefectures, counties and villages in the Pearl River Delta region, and the village that received the post did not say much, but copied a copy of the headless post, grabbed a chicken to pluck a few hairs from its tail, and sent a child to a neighboring village.

The content of this chicken feather post is to call on people from all over the country to go to the county seat and state town to hand in farm tools, announcing that they will no longer grow crops again. It can be regarded as a form of peasant rest (strike).

"In this tax reform, in addition to the national tax on imperial grain according to the number of acres, it is also necessary to pay the money of wealthy households, education surcharge, wine tax, lamb tax (this probably refers to the new tax value-added tax in this tax reform), commercial tax, income tax, business tax, slaughter tax, there are no less than dozens of kinds."

"Farmers work hard to farm; Harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the people are not able to make a living; All localities are united, unanimously willing; Abolish excesses and miscellaneous taxes, and return me to peace in the world! ”

"Down with corrupt officials!"

"Exemption from harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes!"

On the morning of the ninth day of November, the matter of handing over the peasants first broke out in Dongguan, the hometown of Inspector Yuan, and tens of thousands of peasants carrying forks, brooms, pickaxes, milling and other farm tools, under the leadership of leaders from all walks of life, beat gongs and drums and held banners, flocked to Dongguan County, and people continued to join along the way. These peasant households, who were mobilized by the organization of well-wishers according to the number of households, happily walked on the roads of all sizes, and the already congested roads became more and more congested.

By noon, nearly 30,000 people surrounded Dongguan County.

Today coincides with the day of the market, and the area around the county is very lively. The peasant households who traded from the four townships to the county market were mixed with the peasants who came to hand over the farmers, which added more and more to their popularity.

For a while, it was impossible to tell which one was here to trade and which one was here to hand over to farmers!

The colorful flags representing the various ethnic groups of each village are swept up in the air by the wind like dead branches and leaves, and it is also magnificent. The leaders of all walks of life were very proud for a while, and in order to facilitate the command and response, after a little discussion, they set up the "Survival Hall", the command and coordination organization of Jiaonong, in the City God Temple outside the city.

Farmers with straw wrapped around their left arms surrounded the four gates of the county, and some even tried to rush into them. And the magistrate of the county happened to go out to the provincial capital yesterday to ask for instructions on an unimportant business.

However, the captain of the city team is a guy who has experienced battles and seen big scenes. When he learned that a large number of people were coming to the county seat, he decisively ordered the officials to close the four gates of the county seat. At the same time, all the sentries of the escort team were ordered to gather at the top of the city in case of accidents!

After all, a civil unrest had just been quelled. Who knows what these tens of thousands of people outside the city are here for?

"The team is out! It's time to hand in the tools! ”

"The team is out! It's time to hand in the tools! ”

"Lose that mother! Lao Tzu will not grow food in the future! Don't pay any more imperial food! ”

With a burst of shouting and noisy scolding, countless brooms made of wooden branches and bamboo branches were thrown towards the city, while those high-end farm tools such as pickaxes and shovels were still firmly held in their hands. Joke. Cutting a branch from a wooden branch is enough. Brooms are simpler. Just chop some bamboo branches, this is a good wrought iron made of farm tools, and the gold is very expensive! Where is it willing to throw it into the city?

A group of people carried a piece of wood. He began to rush towards the city gates, using wood as a battering ram to push and ram the gates. The first soldier guarding the city gate saw that the situation was critical, and raised the mourning gun in his hand to look at the crack in the door, and the bright three-foot gun continued to pierce out of the crack in the door, which immediately dispersed the crowd.

The soldiers in the cave of the city gate took advantage of the situation to push a carriage next to them over the city gate, and then brought the bags full of rice from the grain farmers who had just entered the city, and built the city gate one by one, and then wiped the cold sweat on their foreheads.

If these tens of thousands of people rush into the county seat, God knows what will happen?!

"My lord, what should we do?"

The magistrate of Dongguan hurriedly went to the provincial capital of Guangzhou last night, saying that he had a business to ask for instructions. At this time, there were only two officials in the county, Dianshi and County Cheng, and the rest were the leaders of the third squad and the head of the Minzhuang team, and everyone turned their attention to Hong Yilin, the captain of the task force.

"Take the county's customs seal!" Hong Yilin was also the one who did not give in, and immediately ordered someone to take the big seal for inspection and tie it around his waist.

"The people in the city were ordered that the Ding Zhuang of each household, regardless of whether they were good or low, should go to the street according to the standard of two Ding and one to be led by the chief of the armor. The rest of the people are not allowed to walk in the market at will, and those who violate the order will be locked and beaten! ”

"Obey!" A squad leader led more than a dozen servants and temporary workers to the streets and alleys of the city to find the chief of security, and sounded the gong to announce.

"Check the four gates, seal the gates tightly, and do not enter or leave at will! The officers and men of the county's strong people and city garrisons should obey the command of the guard posts of the work team and go to the city in sections, but do not show their figures. ”

"My lord, should we transfer the defensive equipment to the city?"

Dian Shi looked at the menacing Jiaonong team outside the city wall with some nervousness, and his face changed slightly.

Hong Yilin squinted his eyes and looked at the team outside the city, picked up a wooden branch thrown into the city and looked at it, the dilapidated wooden branch fell on the green bricks at the city head and was broken to pieces.

"Siege? They haven't thought of a step yet! Tell the brothers that they are all on the city wall, they should eat, they should drink tea and tea, and they should recuperate! Just remember one thing for me, hide and don't let the people in the city see them! ”

Jokes, those shovels and hoes are reluctant to throw them into the city, but they just wantonly discard some dilapidated tools made of bamboo and wood that were supposed to be thrown away or burned, such a group of people you let them fight for their lives to attack the city, no less than a fool's dream. Look at their messy appearance, noisy and noisy, they are completely a group of rabble, these people are used between villages, between different clans, fighting for water, fighting for mountains and forests, fighting in groups, it is okay, it is really necessary to fight with real knives and guns. Hong Yilin is very confident that this sentry under his command can completely defend the county seat and defeat them.

There was not a sound at the top of the city, as if there was no one under it.

The tens of thousands of people under the city are not highly trained troops who can do what they order. Seeing that there was no movement in the city for half a day, not even a single bird, and that they had come out of their homes early in the morning, and had not taken a few sips of water, the people's mouths were thirsty and smoking, and their stomachs were full of grunts. You have to find a place to find a shop near the gate outside the city to find some food. Take a few sips of tea.

However, the few teahouses that had a thriving business in the past have long been intimidated by the tens of thousands of people who are in this chaos, lest someone take the opportunity to make trouble and close their doors one after another. Keep the portal shut from the inside. Die with tables, chairs, and benches.

Look at the closed shops everywhere. Touching the Tongbao on his waist, a few peasants who went into the city to hand over the peasants and carried them to buy things walked aimlessly in the street market. The bluestone-paved streets are full of these people.

People crowded around several wells, scrambling for the fresh water that had just been drawn from the wells. There was a stomp of the popularity that couldn't squeeze in for a long time, "Lose that mother!" Lao Tzu came for dozens of miles, just to starve? Can't even drink a sip of water? Never mind! Go home! Anyway, when you pay taxes, you won't be open to me! ”

It was at this moment that the looseness of the peasants exposed their inferior roots, let alone this rabble with no organization or command system at all. Many people who followed the people who came to make trouble with the peasants saw that there was no benefit, so some people deserted, and for a while, they did not know whether they came to the county seat to catch up with the market and shop, or to make trouble with the peasants, and walked on the road one after another.

The crowd came and went as quickly as the tide of the sea receded. The streets were littered with thin straw ropes made of straw, tattered bamboo baskets, half-broken poles, and worn straw sandals.

"One blow, then decline, three and exhaustion."

Hong Yilin, who was guarding behind the battlements at the head of the city, watched with some schadenfreude as these people walked back and forth in groups of three or five, only a group of leaders were flustered in and out of the Chenghuang Temple like ants drenched in hot soup, trying to pull the peasants back and forth.

Most of the people who remained around the temple were small landlords in various towns and villages, people who were not famous in the ranks, and more tenants who rented other people's land, or would-be yeoman farmers whose land was donated to others. interests, even if they are hungry and thirsty, they dare not slack off.

"Quick! Arrange for someone to get something to eat and drink! ”

Several leaders of the Survival Hall kept shouting, and arranged for people to go to the nearby Chengguan Town to buy some glutinous rice chicken, barbecued pork buns and other snacks, and make some hot tea to quench everyone's hunger and thirst.

Fortunately, Chengguan Town is in front of you, and soon something will be delivered, seeing that there is food and water, the thousands of people who are still left in the county town suddenly rushed up, and the food and hot tea on more than a dozen board cars were suddenly splashed and spilled everywhere, and from time to time there was a fierce shouting and scolding from the crowd of people, that was someone snatching food from others, or hot water spilled on someone else's head and body, and the hot person screamed.

I chewed the glutinous rice chicken in my mouth, and I didn't chew it and swallow it, but I heard a drum music in the direction of the city, which immediately attracted people's curiosity, and people rushed to the direction of the city gate.

At the head of the city, Hong Yilin changed into an official uniform and ironed a smooth seven-grade robe, which looked full of style. Behind him and on his side, the county's history, the county leader, the head of the third class, the head of the Minzhuang team, the garrison officers of the city garrison camp, and the guards of the work team surrounded him like stars holding the moon.

"Uncles, big guys, have you ever known each other?"

Hong Yilin ordered someone to move a high stool, which was the kind where the pawnshop sat down, Shi Shiran sat at the head of the city, putting the teacup in his hand on the battlement, as if the thousands of people under the city did not come to besiege the city to make trouble, but came to him to gossip and chat.

"I know you! You are Captain Hong who came to our village and said that the official family should let the dolls have books to read! ”

"This hoe in my hand is what you bought after you left! Good! Cheap! ”

"Lao Hong, the village plans to build roads, gather all the strong men in winter, repair a few canals, and you have to send someone over to see the terrain!"

"Brother Hong, my family's grain this autumn is dozens of catties more than a few catties according to the words of the gentlemen you sent. The old lady said that she would set up an immortal tablet for you! ”

There was a roar of shouts. set off waves of sounds, these words undoubtedly made the faces of the leaders of the Survival Hall a little pale.

"This one hits the streets! Who wants you to be so unofficial! Get so close to these mud-legged people! ”

When Hong Yilin arrived in Dongguan, almost every township was gone, what Chang'an, Zhangmutou, and Houjie (hehe!) Do you feel familiar? I have gone more than once, and the villages below these towns also have their own contacts, and in some villages, there are also his sworn brothers, who know his mother and godson.

"Lao Hong is our own people. Whoever wants to be against him. Our village was the first not to say yes! ”

Someone shouted in the crowd violently, which immediately caused a burst of resonance, which can be regarded as a recognition of the work of Hong Yilin and his subordinates for more than half a year from a certain Cheng dù.

Hong Yilin waved his hand, and he said hello to a group of familiar or semi-familiar people in the same city.

"Come here today. Are you coming to me for tea? Or any of you who have made good soup at home. Are you going to ask me to make up for it? ”

Hong Yilin's words. was obviously pretending to be confused, and several officials such as the county Cheng and the Dianshi next to him were so angry that they couldn't help laughing, and the people surrounded the county seat. Countless brooms and wooden branches were thrown into the city, but you are saying that people are coming to you for tea? Soup? Why don't you say they invited you for a drink?

Hong Yilin consciously confused the purpose of this group of people, and ordered more than a dozen buckets to be hung from the city, which were boiling hot tea, "I invite my brothers and uncles to drink tea first, if there is anything, let's drink tea and talk about it in detail." ”

Watching a group of yeoman farmers who were supposed to be the main force of the troublemaker and the quasi-yeoman farmer who donated their land scoop up the hot tea in the wooden barrel with a bamboo tube and began to drink tea, a group of guys who rushed to the front desk of the troublemaker suddenly felt a little bad.

"The surname is Hong! We know you're a good person! has also done some good things for our fellow villagers in Dongguan, but now Ning Yuanbo wants to loot our group of Cantonese Yankees for his own selfishness, this, it is said that you invite us to drink tea, even if you pour tea for us at the banquet to admit your mistakes, we will never agree! ”

"That's it! We have no land, no more food and clothing! Did you really go to the mines tens of thousands of miles away to live with Niu Tou Ma Mian? ”

It's for you to say this! Hong Yilin scolded in his heart.

He stood on the chair and bowed his hand to the city, "Fathers, brothers and uncles, what kind of person am I, Ah Hong, you all know if you think about it, am I a person who speaks falsely?" Am I a big talker? ”

Speaking big, Cantonese means bragging, running a train with a mouth, etc.

Everyone in the city was silent for a while, and then shook their heads. In their hearts, this Ah Hong's words are much more reliable than the county master's example.

"Trust me Ah Hong, then ask me what you have heard one by one, I can explain it clearly, just explain it clearly here, if it is not clear, I will write to the peak, please give you an explanation, what do you think?"

Hong Yilin's words are peaceful and simple, reasonable, and in the past half a year, he has led people to lay a foundation of credit in various townships and villages.

"So, who will talk about it first?"

Don't look at the excitement before, but when it comes to the need for someone to come out, they don't have the courage, and they all hope that others will rush to the head first and solve their own questions. Finally, someone broke the brief silence.

"Brother Hong!"

A stocky teenager jumped out of the crowd.

"My wife has been much better according to the medicine given by the husband you brought. Ah Niangte wants me to see you and kowtow to you. But, Brother Hong, is our imperial grain going to be doubled? Do you have to pay a heavy tax on selling grain? In that case, there really will be no way for the farmer to live! ”

"Tiger Boy! You're a rammer! At first glance, you didn't listen to the night school gentleman's good explanation of the regulations! ”

Hong Yilin reprimanded the young man named Tiger Boy in the tone of a big brother reprimanding the playful little brother, "The five acres and seven points of paddy fields that your family planted in a year, all kinds of money and grain are counted together, do you have to pay at least three or five percent of the harvest?" ”

The number casually said, the county man who was in charge of the daily affairs of the county was greatly embarrassed, and he had only been here for more than half a year, so he knew the number of acres of land, money and grain of any family, and he had to accept this ability and effort.

He didn't know that this tiger boy happened to be the neighbor of the landlord when Hong Yilin went to the countryside, young people like to dance knives and guns, seeing that Hong Yilin is also an old fritter who has fought on the battlefield, he often comes to ask him for advice or two, and he can be regarded as an acquaintance.

"In addition to your parents, there are six brothers and sisters, and apart from one of your sisters and one sister, you are all married. According to the Da Ming law, it is necessary to pay five poll taxes, right? ”

The people in the city stopped talking, and they all pricked up their ears and listened carefully.

Hong Yilin was full of spirits and was ready to dissect the tiger boy family as a specimen, and compare it with the taxes that his family should pay.

The poll tax is one of the oldest in China's taxation, since the implementation of a whip law, "Ding Shi has three classes and nine rules, there is a whip, there are Ding with the A faction, there are Ding from the Ding faction, within a province, the rules are different." ...... "Such a chaotic tax system is naturally going to be included in the category of elimination and banning." (To be continued......)