Shouts from outside the village were heard.

The village chief was shocked, and the teacup fell to the ground, bursting out a few tea leaves.

"Sorry, I'll go out and have a look."

With that, the village chief hurried towards the entrance of the village.

Xuanyuan and Ingwa followed behind the village chief, and along the way, they saw that all the villagers were converging towards the entrance of the village in panic.

Soon, the whole village gathered at the entrance of the village.

In front of the villagers can be seen a group of hundreds of cavalrymen, all wearing full-body armor and riding strong, muscular horses with heavy armor.

Behind the cavalry, there was a group of dozens of sword and shield infantry, many of whom were pulling empty wooden carts.

Soldiers line up at the front.

Standing stood a man without armor, wearing a dark tight-fitting regular suit, a pair of white high-legged socks, and a goose-down hat with a white feather stuck in it.

He was standing alone at the front of the line with his head held high.

He took out the roster from his bosom and glanced at the villagers who were talking in front of him.

Then he waved his hand forward:

"It's almost time for people to come."

"From now on, collect the essence of the year according to the roster!"

With that, the three soldiers stepped forward, took out a half-human-high translucent black stone from their arms, and shouted at the crowd:

"Come on, all of them are lined up in three rows, and they are registered in order!"

Hearing this, the villagers couldn't help but look at each other and looked at the village chief among the crowd.

See the village chief with a slight forehead.

The villagers then stepped forward and began to line up.

Xuanyuan, who was in the crowd, saw that the villagers walked up to the three big stones and put their hands on the big stones, and they could see strands of golden silk threads drilling into the stones from the villagers.

After losing the golden thread, a villager becomes an ordinary villager with normal facial features and body shape.

There was also a hint of golden thread wandering around in the stone.

The soldier then swept the villager around with a square black stone, shouting:

"Next!"

Three soldiers are collecting muscle essence from the villagers.

The other soldiers rushed to the village, breaking into the houses and rummaging through the boxes and cabinets to find something.

You can see it.

The soldiers took out an identical square black stone from their bosoms and walked around the courtyard.

As soon as he reached the place where the black stone would turn white, he immediately took out a shovel from his bosom and dug it down, and soon dug up all the things that the villagers had buried in the ground.

I saw that all the food and belongings I had worked so hard to hide were dug up.

The villagers howled for a while.

"My lord, how can we live next year if you collect taxes like this?"

"Please, let us live!"

………

Faced with the bitter pleading of the villagers.

The tax collector turned a deaf ear, and some of the soldiers had a look of discourse on their faces, but they still insisted on carrying out the order.

At this time, the village chief strode out of the crowd and waved his hand to the villagers:

"Everyone must actively cooperate with Mr. Tax Officer from the royal capital, this is our obligation as the king's people!"

I saw the village chief speak up.

The villagers stopped making noise.

Afterwards, the village chief was seen rubbing his hands.

Walked up to the tax collector and groveled to flattery:

"My lord, the contemptible man is the head of this village, and we just met once last year."

Say hello to the old village chief.

The man in the goose-down hat lifted his chin haughtily and stood there with his hands behind his back, as if he were closing his eyes and recuperating as if he had heard nothing.

The old village chief hurriedly took out a small gold bar the thickness of his thumb in his arms and stuffed it into the arms of the man in the goose down hat.

The man in the goose-down hat remained motionless as if he had fallen asleep standing up.

Looked at.

The old village chief stuffed two small gold bars into the arms of the goose-down hat man.

This time, the man in the goose down hat with his eyes closed slowly opened one eye, and the other eye was still closed.

Seeing this, the old village chief hurriedly stuffed three small gold bars into the arms of the goose-down hat man again.

The man in the goose down hat looked like he had just heard what the other person said.

Open your eyes and look at the old village chief:

"Oh, it's you?"

"What's the matter with me?"

The old village chief wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with a humble smile:

"My lord, can't we use muscle essence to offset half of the tax like last year?"

"If all the villagers starve to death, who will the kingdom go to next year to collect taxes?"

Hearing this, the man in the goose down hat sighed:

"In recent years, the king has appeared less and less, and the orders he has given have become more and more strange."

"It's not easy for us courtiers to deal with it!"

"This year's breath tax, let alone you, even I have been a royal tax official for so many years, which is unheard of."

"What does the king think, and how can we, the little officials in charge of collecting taxes, be qualified to know?"

"The king must have his own plans, and you will be in for a year."

"Isn't there a forest and animals that haven't been eaten?"

"You are all very good-handed, haven't you been allowed to go into the mountains to cut down trees and hunt at will?"

"In the gap between farming, I just went to the mountains to hunt and cut down trees."

"It's enough for you to eat, but if it's not enough, you can gnaw on some grass and leaves, and you won't starve to death anyway."

"But if the quantity I bring back can't satisfy the above, it's going to die."

"So, bear with it for another year, and wait until next year."

The old village chief couldn't help but sigh:

"That's what you told me last year!"

"As a result, instead of getting better, this year's life has intensified!"

"I really can't live this day!"

Hear this.

The face of the man in the goose down hat changed, and he suddenly became angry:

"Can't get by?"

"Then don't get by!"

"Why, is it possible that you still want to rebel?"

"Come on, show me if this old guy with bad intentions has any forbidden weapons hidden in him!"

After saying that, I saw two heavily armed cavalrymen walking down, forcibly pressing him to the big rock, and absorbing the muscle essence of the old village chief.

punched and kicked the old village chief.

Then he began to search his body, and found more than a dozen small gold nuggets from the old village chief.

The two horsemen turned and handed the pile of small nuggets to the goose-down-hat man.

When the man took the pile of small gold nuggets, he gave one of the two horsemen a piece.

Then, he slowly squatted in front of the old village chief lying on the ground and spat in his face:

"Old fellow, don't be embarrassed!"

"I'm willing to waste time to explain to you, I've already given you enough face."

When the villagers saw that the old village chief was humiliated, they immediately became angry and stopped queuing.

The group rushed towards the old village chief.

"Village Chief! Chief! ”

"These bastards are so deceitful! We fought with them! ”

See the situation change on the field.

The man in the goose-down hat yelled at the villagers:

"How?"

"One by one, is it true that you want to do the opposite?"

"All cavalry, listen to my orders and draw your guns! Get ready to charge! ”

When the cavalry heard this, they took out their spears on their horses, held the reins with one hand, and seemed to be ready to drive their horses and charge at the influx of villagers.

At this time, the old village chief who was lying on the ground and was beaten with a blue nose and swollen face.

He stood up tremblingly, foaming blood from his mouth, and still raised his hands and shouted at the crowd:

"Folks!"

"Calm down! Calm down! ”

"I'm fine, I'm fine!"

"Everyone, go and continue to line up, don't delay the work of the tax collectors!"

At the signal of the old village chief, the originally angry villagers really calmed down and began to line up obediently again.

Looking at the honest villagers who had restored order in front of them.

A deep look of disappointment flashed in the eyes of the man in the goose down hat, and he cursed in a low voice:

"A bunch of cowards!"

(End of chapter)