005. Excesses and miscellaneous taxes
"The trend of ambition is far-reaching, and the poor mountains are far away from the sea, and there is no limit."
"That is to say, people must aspire, they must be ambitious, and they must be attained without infinite distances."
In the evening, in front of the desk in the north house, Ren Pingsheng was answering questions to twelve-year-old Xiaowan.
Xiaowan is young, but she has a lot of experience, and she is more mature than ordinary children of this age.
She cherishes her current life very much, Ren Pingsheng asked her to read more and study more, so she was serious about literacy and studied hard.
"Young Master, what is your ambition?"
Xiao Wan asked curiously.
Ren Pingsheng shook his head.
The peaceful life was broken by the golden right hand obtained by chance, and the earth could not leave the radius of the residence for a kilometer, and in this strange world, Ren Pingsheng only knew a fur at present, and he didn't even have a precise goal, where could he set any ambitions.
"What about you? Xiaowan, do you have any ambitions? ”
Ren Pingsheng threw the question back.
"What is the ambition of the young master, my ambition is to follow the direction of the young master."
Xiao Wan said very seriously.
The corners of Ren Pingsheng's mouth curled, and he reached out and touched Xiaowan's little head.
"Young master, it's cold now, I'll warm your bed."
Xiao Wan looked at Ren Pingsheng expectantly and said.
"No, you don't."
Ren Pingsheng shook his head.
Xiao Wan didn't understand: "But I heard that other people's maids have to warm the young master's bed." ”
"I have an electric mattress."
Ren Pingsheng shook his head.
"Oh."
Xiao Wan went back to her room to sleep a little sullenly.
Hate electric mattresses!
Ren Pingsheng also fell asleep in the warm electric mattress.
The next day, the weather was a little gloomy, and when Ren Pingsheng got up, it was almost nine o'clock, and Xiao Wan pinched the point where he got up and had already prepared a meal for him.
Eggs, flower rolls, spicy soup, and soy milk were also grinded.
"Drink more milk, drink the longer man."
Ren Pingsheng pushed a carton of milk to Xiao Wan.
The girl developed early, Xiaowan, who is already twelve years old, is less than one meter four in height, and if she doesn't run around, I'm afraid it will be less than one meter five in the future.
"Hmm."
Xiaowan is obedient.
After eating, Xiaowan cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks.
Young Master Ren took his bow and arrows on his back and went out of the door, heading towards the martial arts arena in the village.
The martial arts arena is located on the east side of the crossroads of the village, and it is said to be a martial arts arena, but it is actually a relatively flat open space.
When Ren Pingsheng arrived, there were more than a dozen young people there who were "squeezing" and competing with Shi Suo.
Winter is approaching, and it is considered a time when the farming is slack, and in two days there will be less prey in the mountains, and the people in the village will be even more idle at that time.
"Village Chief."
Ren Pingsheng saw that the lame village chief was teaching two teenage boys to stand on the pile, so he said hello to him.
"Mr. Xiao Ren, are you here to practice archery?"
When the village chief saw that it was Ren Pingsheng, he also greeted him with a smile.
The word "sir" was exchanged for Ren Ping's two months of life with his supernatural and rejuvenating medical skills.
"Hmm."
Ren Pingsheng nodded with a smile, put on a cowhide finger guard, stood firmly sideways, bent his bow and arrows, aimed at the grass handle ten meters away, and released his two fingers.
"Whew!"
The arrow had already hit the straw handle's chest.
deviated a little, Ren Pingsheng originally shot at the head of the grass handle.
Ren Pingsheng shot five times in a row, and when he held on to the sixth arrow, his arm trembled and missed the target, and he shot into a section of the earthen wall behind, and there was no arrow feather.
"Good bow!"
The village chief came over and looked at the bow in Ren Pingsheng's hand with hot eyes.
"The village chief trys?"
Ren Pingsheng handed the bow in his hand to the village chief.
"Good!"
The village chief took the slide bow with great interest, rubbed the bow slightly, and then pulled out an arrow at his feet.
Almost uselessly aimed, the arrow shot out with a "boom", hitting the head of the humanoid straw.
"This bow is easy to use, and the strength is also heavy, much better than the bow when I joined the army!"
The village chief liked it very much.
This 75-pound slide bow is not only heavy, but also has a wooden handshake, and the black slide bow is also pressed with silver moire, which is very beautiful.
"If you like it, I'll give you a hand when I have a chance in the future."
Ren Pingsheng said with a smile.
"Haha, I'd better forget it, an old man, such a good bow is more difficult to make than a firecracker, and it will be wasted in my hands."
The village chief only shot a few arrows and returned the bow to Ren Pingsheng.
At this time, there was a light rain in the sky, and the light rain was mixed with snow.
Everyone ran to the door hole under the adobe city wall not far away to take shelter from the rain.
"As soon as the weather is cold, more refugees outside will die, and the living corpses are afraid that they will become disasters again."
The village chief looked up at the rain and snow falling from the sky, and his face was sad.
"Harsh government is fiercer than a tiger."
Ren Pingsheng thought of the refugees he had met on the road before, and he couldn't help but sigh.
"Yes, this exorbitant tax makes people unable to live.
Especially in the past few years, in addition to the regular tax of land tax, there are also poll tax, corpse salary, town demon salary, donation, training salary, our county order has also come up with car donations, cattle donations, and charitable donations.
There is hard labor in peacetime, and it is too difficult to catch strong men in wartime.
While farming, we in Liujia Village also have to go hunting in the mountains often in order to barely survive. ”
After all, the village chief has been a soldier, he has been a soldier, he has seen the world, and he has the ability, under his leadership, Liujia Village is a good village in the entire Qingcheng Town, but most of the villagers are still hungry and poorly clothed.
There are even more poor households, who have no clothes to wear, so they can only wear clothes when they have something to do, and those who have nothing to do lie at home to maintain their physical strength and save food.
In such an environment, Ren Pingsheng did not dare to eat and drink openly, and every time he ate, he had to close the door, and the villagers were jealous.
"This court still collects demon salaries, is there really a demon in this world?"
Ren Pingsheng asked.
"I've never seen anything about chasing the wind and shadows, I'm afraid it's just an excuse for the imperial court."
The village chief shook his head a little apprehensively.
"By the way, didn't you say you wanted to go to the town to have a look, tomorrow happens to be the Qingcheng Grand Gathering, and now it's cold, and the village plans to sell some skins."
The village chief said again.
Qingcheng Town used to be a major commercial town connecting the north and south because of the Qingshui River, cars, boats and horses, and peddlers, although now with the sharp reduction of commercial activities, there has long been no bustle in the past, but the horses are thin and long, and it is still the leading big town in Qingshui County.
Ren Pingsheng had long wanted to go to the town to investigate, and immediately agreed.
After agreeing on the time and bidding farewell to the village chief and the militia team, Ren Pingsheng braved the light rain and returned to his small courtyard.
The herbs drying in the yard have been put away by Xiao Wan.
The two were under the eaves of dripping rain, and Xiao Wan was reading a book while peeking at Ren Pingsheng holding two dumbbells for strength training; Ren Pingsheng was doing strength training, reading a small bowl and reading a book, occasionally glancing at each other, and then looking at each other and smiling.
The light rain continued to fall until the evening, and the temperature also seemed to drop, and I was afraid that it would freeze in a few days.
Ren Pingsheng also put an outdoor power supply and electric mattress in Xiaowan's house.
An outdoor power station can store 1.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity when fully charged, and it is also equipped with a folding solar panel, so there is no problem in supplying power to the electric mattress in winter.
Before, just buying two outdoor portable power supplies cost Ren Pingsheng more than 10,000 yuan.
At night, the north wind outside the window was blowing in the small courtyard, and Xiaowan was lying in the warm quilt, and the corners of her mouth couldn't stop smiling.
Electric mattresses are so nice!
After a night of silence, Ren Pingsheng got up unusually early in the morning the next day, put on a mountaineering bag, and under Xiaowan's eyes, he joined up with several militiamen in the village.