The night passed in the blink of an eye, and when the sky was just dawning, Hai Rui changed into civilian clothes without alarming anyone, and sneaked out of the post station with Xiao Er from the side door of the post station.

After several inquiries, Hai Rui finally learned the specific location of Shiqiao Village, and immediately rushed to Shiqiao Village without stopping.

Shiqiao Village is a veritable small village because of the need to pass through the stone bridge over the river to enter and exit the village, so it is named Shiqiao Village.

There is a big banyan tree full of greenery and many branches and leaves at the entrance of the village, according to the old people in the village, this big banyan tree must have a history of hundreds of years, because since I can remember, this big banyan tree has grown there.

For a long time, the villagers here have rarely communicated with the outside world except for daily farming and going to the nearby town to buy daily necessities, such as salt and iron, so life is relatively peaceful, but today Shiqiao Village has a group of uninvited guests.

I saw a group of officials dressed in soap-colored clothes, and after entering the village, they ordered Li Zheng of Shiqiao Village to gather all the villagers of the village under the big banyan tree.

Seeing that the villagers of Shiqiao Village had almost gathered, the official in charge of collecting grain this time looked around, coughed lightly, and said in a deep voice.

"Folks, this time I called everyone over for the purpose of collecting grain!"

As soon as the official's words were finished, many villagers at the scene were dissatisfied, and the crowd soon began to discuss.

"Why do you want to levy grain again, didn't you just levy it five days ago?"

"If it goes on like this, the family will run out of cooking, and this time I won't pay anything!"

"Yes, I won't pay anything this time!"

Seeing that the villagers' emotions were getting more and more excited, Li Zheng of Shiqiao Village knew that if he angered this group of officials, the villagers of Shiqiao Village would suffer!

Thinking of this, Li Zheng hurriedly stood up and started a round.

"Let's calm down first, and listen to what the adults have to say!"

Under Li Zheng's appeasement, the villagers' mood gradually calmed down, and the official in charge of collecting grain saw this, bowed slightly to Li Zheng in Shiqiao Village, and then continued.

"Folks, this is a change made by the government in consideration of your actual situation."

"In the past, when you paid the grain, did you need to take the grain to the grain merchant and exchange it for silver, and then pay it to the government, but now you don't need it, the government will directly send us to collect the grain from your hands."

"In this way, both of us will save trouble, and you don't have to be exploited by that group of grain merchants again, what do you think?"

The officer paused for a moment as he said this, and then continued.

"This official promises that this is the last time to collect grain this year, and there will be no more in the future!"

What this official said was naturally false, and he only needed to complete his task of collecting grain, and it was none of his business as to how the later people promised.

After the official in charge of collecting grain made such a promise, many villagers in Shiqiao Village were a little moved and couldn't help but start whispering.

"Surrender, this is the last time, after handing over the food, we will be able to live a stable life."

"Yes, if we handed over the food earlier, these officials won't bother us anymore."

Then, another villager summoned up his courage and stood up and asked the officials.

"So how much food do we need to pay?"

When the official heard this, the corners of his mouth rose slightly, and after a moment of thought, he responded.

"Originally, according to the meaning of the above, every household in your Shiqiao Village needs to pay two hundred catties of grain."

"But for the sake of your attitude, you only need to pay 180 catties of grain, and I will let other villages make up for the rest for you."

When the official in charge of maintaining order heard this, he couldn't help but be impressed by the official's methods, because at the beginning of the fight, the target given by the top was 150 catties of grain.

And in the end, although most of the extra 30 catties of grain went into the official's pocket, he was able to share some benefits from it.

Thinking of this, the officials present couldn't help but start looking forward to it.

If the villagers of Shiqiao Village were originally skeptical of what the official said, then when the official said that the villagers of Shiqiao Village could pay 20 catties less grain, the doubts in his heart were quickly dispelled.

Although the 180 catties of grain that need to be paid later, it is also an extremely heavy burden for many villagers present, but at any rate, you can also pay 20 catties less grain, right?

In this way, many villagers of Shiqiao Village who were present returned to their homes one after another, and squeezed out 180 catties of grain from the few remaining rations!

They kept praying in their hearts, and it really was the last time.

The official in charge of collecting grain, seeing that the villagers had carried the sacks full of grain out of their homes, had even more smiles on his face, and hurriedly instructed his subordinates to prepare official scales to weigh the pounds of sacks, as well as official scales to use to hold grain.

Soon, many villagers present lined up, waiting for the officials to weigh their food one by one.

Soon, I saw an old man, full of anticipation, handing over the sack full of grain to the official.

And the official almost neatly hung the sack on the official scale, and only after the results were displayed on it did he casually open his mouth to the official who was in charge of recording on the side.

"One hundred and sixty-two pounds!"

And when the old man learned this number from the mouth of the official, the whole person had a sudden feeling, and then, I saw him step forward and grab the official's arm, and kept begging.

"Poor master, I obviously have one hundred and eighty catties of grain, before sending it, I also deliberately used the scale at home, and I weighed it once, are you mistaken?"

The official glanced at the old man with disdain, and pointed to a large "official" engraved on it.

"Old thing, do you see clearly, what words are engraved on this scale?"

"It's an official word, and the official word is as big as the sky!"

"You old thing is so bold that you dare to question the official scales of the government and say, what are your intentions?"

The official spoke, his tone becoming more and more unkind.

Seeing this situation, Li Zheng on the side hurriedly stepped forward, said a few good words, and started a round.

Because of this, the official just snorted coldly, then stepped aside and said no more.

Next, the sack containing the grain, after weighing, also need to be poured into the official Hu, while checking the grain condition, but also to prevent errors, for the amount of grain, further confirm.

Seeing this, the official in charge of collecting grain looked quite relaxed with his hands behind his back, and then explained to the many villagers present.

"If the amount of grain is correct, then the grain poured into the official Hu will be exactly submerged to the location of the Hu mouth!"

As the words fell, I saw that the rope tied to the sack full of grain was rudely untied by an official and then casually discarded aside, and the white rice flowed out of the sack and flowed into the official.

When he got to the sack, he couldn't pour out a grain of rice, so the official threw the sack aside and began to check the height of the rice in the official.

Seeing that the rice was still some distance away from Guan Hu's mouth, the official immediately stepped forward and kicked it hard.

Suddenly, the rice in the official Hu was farther away from the Hukou.

I saw an official come forward, and after a general glance at the scale of the rice in the official Hu, he opened his mouth to the officials on the side.

"Count, one hundred and fifty-three pounds!"

When the official heard this, he immediately picked up a brush and wrote down the number of one hundred and fifty-three catties in the book.

Seeing this, the official in charge of collecting the grain turned his gaze to the old man and suddenly raised his tone.

"You still owe the government twenty-seven catties of grain, why don't you hurry up and find a way to raise it!"

The old man was already surprisingly angry, and he saw his chest rise and fall violently, and a pair of eyes stared at the official, as if he was about to erupt anger from it!

Not only that, but the villagers of Shiqiao Village at the scene were also quite angry about this, and even some young people with strong blood were already surging with blood, if no one stopped them, they might have rushed forward.

The official was a little stunned by the old man's gaze, but he quickly suppressed the thoughts in his heart, sneered, and commanded the official on the side.

"This old thing, I really don't know whether to live or die, and I dare to obstruct the government's grain collection!"

"Come on, hit me hard!"

As soon as the words fell, the official who had been waiting for a long time rushed forward like a wolf and surrounded the old man.

The fists and feet fell like raindrops, and the old man was immediately knocked to the ground, and he could only hum on the ground, unable to get up again, and his face and body were bruised everywhere.

Seeing this, a hint of happiness appeared on the official's face, ignoring the angry gaze of the villagers of Shiqiao Village, and warned in a deep voice.

"Do you see it, this is the end of going against the government!"

"Come on, hang this damn old thing on this big banyan tree for me, and this official should set an example!"

"Stop!"

In the distance, a deep voice came, and Hai Rui appeared in front of everyone in coarse linen clothes.

(End of chapter)