In the evening of the same day, when the cool breeze of early autumn swayed the shadows of the trees in the afterglow of dusk, on the granite-paved streets in the city of Changsha, between the shadows of the oblique trees, horse-drawn carriages and ox carts loaded with rice and grain went to the yacang in the south of the city, and hundreds of large carts were connected from end to end, which was magnificent.

The people in Changsha City rushed to the streets to watch, and the story of the Changmao West King letting the rich merchants in the city fill the chess grid with rice grains also spread, and the curious people gathered in the open space in front of the yacang in the south of the city to watch how to fill in.

Ordinary people can only see so much grain when they pay rice and grain, and whenever they pay taxes and grain, there are yamen officials who hold an abacus and look at each other coldly, crackling and beating down the abacus, what three times five divided by two, bluffing ordinary people do not dare to come out, how much should be paid, you have no argument. The only thing that the people can remember is how much they paid this year, and there will be a comparison the next year.

And the tricks of the government to exploit the people are also diverse, what big buckets go in and out of small buckets, what drenching tips and kicks, every time they pay a lot. But these people, as Xiao Yungui said, as long as there is still a mouthful of food to eat, they will not rise up to rebel. Therefore, every year of disaster, the Qing court will open a porridge shop, which is actually a porridge for hanging life, so that you will not starve to death, so that you will not think of rising up to rebel. It's like pumping a tube of blood from you, feeding you a mouthful of soup, and hanging like this anyway.

The open space in front of the small yacang in the south of the city was crowded with water, and the long-haired miscellaneous soldiers were stationed around. These miscellaneous soldiers are only braided, tied red turbans, and those old long-haired soldiers who wear yellow uniforms are very different, listening to the shouting and shouting of the people know that they are Hunan natives, there is a bit of nostalgia in it, and the people are a little bolder. Squeezed forward, seeing the arrival of a cart of grain with the surnames of various big families, the people's necks stretched out.

Under the straw mat pergola in front of the yacang, several long-haired officials stood there and pointed, and after the heads of the big families followed the grain cart to arrive, they all went to the pergola to nod to the long-haired officials, and they all brought the bookkeeper, and some even brought three.

At this time, the crowd of onlookers suddenly got out of the way, it turned out to be Zhu Qian's Zhu Changlin arrived with a rice grain convoy, and the people in the crowd greeted Zhu Changlin one after another, Zhu Changlin smiled and returned the salute one by one, and it could be seen that Zhu Changlin had indeed done a lot of good deeds on weekdays, and was admired by the people.

After a while, Wei Helin of Deyu Firm, Tang Yinong, a wealthy businessman in the city, He Yuanlun of Baoqing Chamber of Commerce and others arrived, and the people were all smacking their tongues.

Under the pergola, the long-haired official saw that everyone was coming, walked forward, and made a big call in Guangxi Hakka, many people didn't understand, and some of the people who were back didn't hear it at all, but fortunately, there were people in the crowd who understood Hakka and turned their heads, and they all figured it out. The long-haired official claimed to be the long-haired official in charge of money and grain, what was Zeng Shuiyuan, he said that he used rice grains to fill the chessboard with the method of donation, and the wealthy merchants and magnates in Changsha voluntarily donated rice and grain according to this method, and said that the rules of filling the chess grid with rice grain, all the rice and grain filled in will be used as money and grain donated to Changmao.

When the people heard this rule, they laughed one after another, and they all said that the long-haired king was stupid, and put one grain in the first chess grid, two in the second, and four in the third, and only sixty-four chess squares, and it didn't take much rice to fill it.

A burst of laughter attracted the scolding of the long-haired bugle soldiers, and the people were a little quiet, only to see that the long-haired official ordered each big family to start counting their own bookkeepers, and more than 30 bookkeepers lined up in a row, each with a hemp bead abacus, and began to fight as if facing a great enemy. Each person counts the amount of rice they need for one grid and says it out loud. From the beginning of the two, four, eight, all the way down to the front is extremely easy, but after reaching the twenty, the counting of the bookkeeper slowed down, because it has already reached 100,000, and by the twenty-sixth has reached 10 million, everyone is sweating profusely, looking nervous. …,

Listening to the report, a large number of families also wiped the sweat on their foreheads, the muscles on their faces twitched constantly, and the sound of laughter among the people gradually disappeared, replaced by bursts of exclamations, they didn't expect that there were so many rice grains in more than 20 grids, converted into the number of liters, but I am afraid that there are not a few.

When it was counted to more than 30 grids, it was already a billion yuan, and it was extremely difficult for the accounting gentlemen to calculate, and the long-haired official Daxiao said: "Even if you move out of Changsha, you don't want to fill these sixty-four grids!" ”

A few die-hard big households still didn't believe it, and shouted that the bookkeeper was counting separately, and more than 30 bookkeepers were calculating separately, and a few more grids were calculated, which was already a huge number of hundreds of billions.

The long-haired official smiled and said loudly, "Do you still want to count?" Even if you have a million grains of rice in this bag, according to the current number, you will need 100,000 bags of rice, and then you will need 200,000 bags, and there are still more than 20 bars left. ”

The faces of the big families were like ashes, and many people were already scared and sat on the ground. The people even whispered, "200,000 bags of rice, how much rice grain does that have to be?" "My mother, there are so many, and I started to look at it."

In the crowd of ordinary people, a middle-aged man in his forties frowned deeply, this person was dressed like a teacher, dressed very ordinarily, but a pair of eyes were black and bright, the eyes were blazing, the eyebrows were thick and black, like a sword like a brush, the expression was strong, the seal hall was full, shiny, the bridge of the nose was firm, a pair of big and thick ears, the ears were round, and the eyebrows revealed a sense of arrogance.

Then the long-haired official daxiao ordered his soldiers to transport all the rice and grain into the yacang and seal it, and the rice and grain brought by the big families were definitely not 100,000 bags, and the long-haired official said aloud, let the people of Changsha City witness that the big families in Changsha owe huge debts, but if necessary, they will go to the big households to ask for it, so that the big families will go back to count the rice and grain first, and wait for the account.

All the big families left one after another with a bitter face, no one dared to count it anymore, and now every time they go, it is a huge debt of hundreds of thousands of bags of rice, who dares to count it?

When the teacher heard this, he frowned slightly and said to himself: "I can't imagine that a thief leader has such wisdom, so if you count it like this, don't say that the whole of Changsha, even the rice grain in the whole world is afraid that it will not be able to fill this small chessboard." In a blink of an eye, seeing Zhu Changlin and a few others saluting the long-haired official, they left as if nothing happened, the teacher sighed lightly, grabbed the bright head, smiled and said to himself: "It's weird, it seems that someone has to be introduced, and I have to meet this long-haired king tomorrow." ”

After greeting Zhu Changlin and others for a few words, Zeng Shuiyuan hurriedly ordered people to count some money and grain, and donated a total of 80,000 stone of rice and more than 50,000 stone of wheat and other miscellaneous grains. Zeng Shuiyuan was overjoyed and ordered people to go door to door to urge, and those who had no rice and grain were offset with silver money, and only one night they received 870,000 taels of silver and 1,100,000 copper coins. After counting the counts, Zeng Shuiyuan went to report to Xiao Yungui happily.

But said that Zhu Changlin said goodbye and turned to the street, a blue-topped warm sedan chair waiting there, then ready to take the sedan chair back home, he was relaxed in his heart, this time he learned to be obedient, the number of rice and grain brought is the number of donations he gave to the government in a few months, did not dare to give less, sure enough, Zeng Shuiyuan looked at the account book, satisfied with a few words of encouragement and let the four of them go home with peace of mind, no one will come to the door tonight.

After walking a few steps, he was suddenly slapped on the shoulder, and a voice said behind him with a smile: "Okay, you Zhu Yutian, you actually have a reverse relationship with long hair, and when the official army returns, you see that I won't report you!" ”

Zhu Changlin was startled, and when he looked back, it was Mr. Shicai, seeing that it was Mr. Shicai, he let go of most of his heart, and pulled Mr. Teacher and said happily: "Brother Ji, how did you get to Changsha?" ”

Brother Ji said with a smile: "Originally, I heard that Changmao was approaching the provincial capital, so I came to see how the official army fought Changmao, I didn't want Changsha to be occupied so easily, but now I can't walk in the city by mistake." ”

Zhu Changlin hurriedly said: "Brother Ji Gao wants to go out of the city?" This little brother can be arranged. ”

Brother Ji shook his hand with a smile and said: "I'm not busy now, I've looked at the market in Changsha these days, and it's more peaceful than when the officials and soldiers were there, and there is no danger, why am I in a hurry to go out of the city?" But Brother Yutian, you have to do me a favor. ”

Zhu Changlin arched his hand and said, "Brother Ji, please speak." ”

Brother Gao said in a low voice: "I want you to help me introduce me, I want to meet the long-haired West King." ”

Hearing this, Zhu Changlin was dumbfounded, and looked at him in a daze, speechless.