Even if you plant wheat and some vegetables and grains, you have to plant seven or eight acres of land.

Lu Xu was confused, and suddenly heard Li Zheng ask in a loud voice, "Are all the people here?" Let's see who hasn't come, and hurry up and shout. ”

Lu Xu calmed down, the crowd made a commotion for a while, and Lizheng sounded the gong, "Be quiet, be quiet, don't wait." ”

Everyone waited with anticipation for him to announce the amount of the field endowment.

Lu Xu looked at Li Zheng through the crowd, and he didn't see a trace of joy on Li Zheng's face.

He chuckled in his heart, he and Yan Junqi glanced at each other, and only said in Lizheng: "This year, our Guanyang is a good year, and the field tax set by the imperial court is more than last year, fifty-five out of twenty." ”

After Li Zheng finished speaking, the crowd fell silent, and then the pot exploded.

"Five out of twenty?!"

"Can we still live?"

Li Zheng strained his face and struck the gong again, his lips trembled, and he said in a deep voice, "The grain collector of the imperial court has arrived in Yinma Town, with ten cargo ships, and the government has sent hundreds of elite soldiers to guard the grain and grass!" ”

The crowd was silent again.

The faces of the villagers changed and changed, hundreds of elite soldiers, are they here to protect the grain and grass?

Li Zheng handed the gong to his son, and his voice was a little vicissitudes, "Our village has to hand over all the food within two days, let's go home and prepare to go." ”

If a large basin of cold water is poured on the head, the joy of the summer harvest is washed away.

Lu Xu turned his head and saw Yuan Manniang, the third aunt, and the fourth aunt standing outside the crowd, their faces also full of sadness.

Yan Junqi's face sank violently.

Lu Xu asked him in a low voice, "Do you have enough food stored at home?" ”

Yan Junqi shook his head.

When the wheat was just harvested, he had already asked the people in the village to buy the grain for which the field tax was payable, but at that time he bought it according to the field tax last year, and he only bought a total of 300 catties of rations for the family, which cost almost all the money in the family.

Five acres of land, according to this year's average yield of one mu and three hundred catties of fertile land, twenty five, his family has to pay three hundred and seventy-five catties of grain, now the grain is expensive, one catty of new wheat costs forty wen, where can he go up and get seventy-five catties?

Lu Xu asked, "How much worse?" ”

Yan Junqi: "There are still seventy-five pounds left." ”

How much money does the Yan family have, except for Yan Junqi's mother and son, Lu Xu knows best, Lu Xu: "Let's take it from my house first." ”

Yan Junqi was gloomy, and he trembled unconsciously: "Brother Xu, I may not be able to do it yet." ”

Their mother and son can't earn ten taels of silver if they don't eat or drink for a year, not to mention the cost of eating, drinking, pen and ink, if the field is higher next year, don't say anything about reading and scientific examinations, they will not even be able to live!

Lu Xu pressed Yan Junqi's shoulder: "If you don't pay it, you owe it, it doesn't matter, the days will always pass." ”

He shook Yan Junqi, "Don't think nonsense, something must have happened this year, if Tian Fu is so high every year......" He lowered his voice so that only Yan Junqi could hear it, "That's forcing people to rebel!" ”

Yan Junqi's heart palpitated suddenly.

"You use your smart little brain to think about it, it won't be like this all the time, don't panic." Lu Xu grabbed Yan Junqi's shoulder hard, in fact, he was also confused, he couldn't understand, was the court crazy?

Last year, when the twentieth was three, there were several places in Guanyang that almost made a fuss, and this year it rose so much in one breath, aren't you afraid of stirring up a civil uprising?

Lu Xu panicked in his heart, and pretended to be calm and comforted Yan Junqi, "Are you in a hurry to raise military rations again, or is there a famine?" Why don't I go to the county to find someone to inquire? ”

Yan Junqi's shoulder was caught by him, but he gradually calmed down, he calmed down, and said: "This year's spring flood, Guanyang was not affected, but the next door Hui County and Tonghe County were affected, our Longxing County is an important grain production area of the imperial court, and if you can't receive grain from Hui County and Tonghe, you may only have to add grain taxes to the surrounding counties." ”

"Yes, yes, yes!" Lu Xu also slowly calmed down, his father and Yan Junqi's father were in an accident digging a ditch in Tonghe County.

They didn't know that Yan Junqi had guessed the situation.

The grain and grass for the war in the north have been empty, just waiting for Longxing County to collect summer grain, has been urged several times, the household department and the military department jointly sent Qin to supervise the grain, the county guard has repeatedly written Longxing disaster, the bottom line of the imperial court can only accept the Longxing field tax is the same as last year, but Huixian, Tonghe and the adjacent three counties have been affected, especially Huixian, Tonghe has caused a famine, if the grain is collected from the disaster county, I am afraid that there will be a civil uprising, the state and county have to add field tax from several counties with a bumper harvest, according to the summer harvest situation, some collect two tenths, some collect twenty five, Guanyang set twenty-five, the county order to the state capital several times, but all of them were evacuated to Guanyang people suffered for a year, starved to death Huixian, Tonghe, Longxing will be in chaos, and so Huixian, Tonghe people rebelled, Guanyang can still be left alone to rush back.

All that can be done is to encourage the people under his rule to reclaim more famine, and keep writing to the imperial court to borrow grain from the south.

Don't talk about Lu Xu, even Li Zheng doesn't know the details.

Lu Xu helped Yan Junqi gather the wheat, and after a while, Lu Xu heard the crying and scolding of the third grandmother's family next door, and after a while, Lu Chuan of the Lizheng family came with a strained face and a scale.

They looked at each other, and their eyes were full of helplessness.

Lu Xu loaded one hundred and fifty catties of wheat onto the cart, and together with Lu Chuan, he helped Yan Junqi load the wheat onto the cart he pushed and gathered at the entrance of the village.

No one dares to scold the court in the daytime, they can only scold God, or vent their anger on their children, and the parents who bought candy a moment ago have become fierce and vicious in an instant, and the children who can't understand the concept of the 5/20 field tax only know that they have shipped a lot of grain out, and they only know that they can buy meat and sugar when they sell their grain.

No one in the entire Lujia Village was happy.

Even children know that they don't dare to laugh when they look at the faces of adults.

Lu Xu was silent and joined the third and fourth uncles at the entrance of the village, and when the others arrived, Yu Li was leading them to the town to hand over the grain.

Lu Xu felt that in just half a day, his grandfather seemed to be a few years older.

Not only Lujia Village, but also Wangjia Village between Lujia Village and Yinma Town, Shuangshui Village is also handing over grain to the town, the queue is very long, the elderly are full of sadness, and the young ones are angry one by one.

Especially the people of Shuangshui Village, they are next to the town of drinking horses, and there has been a general in the village who drinks horses at the edge of the town, advocating martial virtues, and they all seem to be going to fight with the tax collectors.

Lu Xu was full of nonsense, in this atmosphere, give a few knives, scold a few swearing, and a few more trouble-stirring Bacheng Someone wants to rebel.

When I arrived in the town, the usually lively Drinking Horse Town was quieter than usual, and everywhere was lifeless. Most of the towns are also farmers, and if there is no land, they have to be like Yan Junqi's family, and they will be converted into heads and pay grain.

When they arrived at the wharf, hundreds of officers with swords on their waists stood in several groups on both sides of the road, and the angry villagers resigned themselves to their anger and waited for Li Zheng to reconcile accounts with the tax collector and pay the grain. Watching bags of new grain loaded onto the boat, some people cried, and some people looked numbly at the endless long river.

Lu Xu lined up, and when he heard someone arguing in front of him, he looked ahead, and there was a conflict between Shuangshui Village, which was in front of them, and Soap, who collected taxes.

"How can it be ten pounds? I weighed it at home, a full seven hundred and fifty pounds! I also loaded five pounds more! ”

Soap Li: "Then you can't weigh it." ”

The young man was furious: "I think your scales are inaccurate!" ”

Soap: "What did you say?!" Licentious! ”

Lu Xu frowned.

No matter how much grain is paid every year, these small officials who collect taxes will say a few catties less, you weigh one hundred catties, he has to say that you are ninety-eight or ninety-nine, in the past, you had to go to the county to pay grain, and you have to go home to get a trip of one or two catties of vacancy, one back and forth, the boat fare is not cheap, everyone is troublesome, simply acquiesced to install more.

It's just that I didn't expect that this time I was missing ten pounds as soon as I opened my mouth.

The young man in Shuangshui Village wanted to make trouble, but Li Zheng saw that the nearby military service was coming this way, so he hurriedly held him down and asked others to take him away before he smiled at the soap who collected taxes, and said that he should go home and get it.

As a result, I don't know if the soap was angry and deliberately retaliated, or if he just took advantage of the high price of food to want black grain, and every family in the back had to replenish food.

The less should be made up for two or three catties, and the more should be made up for ten catties and eight catties.

I don't know whose hands this greedy food will end up in, he was about to talk to Yan Junqi, seeing Yan Junqi clenching his fists and his face tightened, glaring angrily at the soap in front of him, Lu Xu remembered the vulgar metaphor: If the eyes can kill, that person has been Ling Ling by Yan Junqi.

He had never seen Yan Junqi so angry.

Before the bad-tempered soap Li noticed, Lu Xu hurriedly blocked Yan Junqi.

Lu Xu stared at Yan Junqi worriedly, Yan Junqi was blocked from view, closed his eyes, and then opened the person was already calm, but Lu Xu saw the depression and disappointment in his eyes.

Lu Xu felt an indescribable feeling.

No matter when, he just wants to make money to support his family and protect the health of his family, as long as others don't touch his bottom line, he doesn't care if he takes advantage of him, people's hearts are greedy, not to mention the little soap who manages the taxes of their two villages, is the little manager of his father's company, and treats his relatives as a small security guard, and also wants two cigarettes from his relatives' house, Lu Xu is used to it, he has long been accustomed to his father's eight-sided exquisiteness when he sees people and talks about people, and he is also used to taking things and gifts for granted.

These are the rules of the game that his parents taught him.

If you want to make a profit, you have to make a profit.

But Yan Junqi is different, he received another set of education, he began to study at the age of three, and his dream is to enter the official in the scientific examination, to be a good official who can protect the people and protect the people.

Lu Xu thought that maybe seeing the officials exploiting the people like this would make Yan Junqi angry even more than the bully robbing the road and robbing the money.

He didn't know whether it was good or not, and he didn't know whether it was smart or stupid, Lu Xu was stumped.

He lined up silently, and listened to the third uncle and the fourth uncle whispering insults to soap Li and didn't say a word.

When it was their turn, Lu Xu said, "Jun Qi, you wait for me here, I'll hand it over for you." ”

He was afraid that Yan Junqi would quarrel with people.

Yan Junqi shook his head, "I'm going to look at them." ”

Look at how they robbed other people's blood, sweat, and life-saving food.

Chapter 30: Price confusion

After paying the grain tax, Lujia Village did not recover for three days.

The whole village was silent, there was no laughter, the children had no more candy to eat, the merchants no longer came, and even the steamed bun shop of the third grandmother was temporarily closed.

Before digesting the impact of the aggravated land tax, no one in the village would buy steamed buns, so families put away the freshly ground white noodles and ate miscellaneous grains.

The third grandmother rushed to sell in the market, and the business was not as good as the first.

Lu Xu couldn't help but worry about his fritter business, and he didn't know what the situation in the county was.

The third aunt also asked.

How much food was confiscated by his family, but there was a lot of food in the third uncle's family, and Lu Xu went to buy noodles from the county every day, not to mention that it was heavy and far away, and it was expensive.

In previous years, in addition to leaving more than 100 catties of wheat to eat, the rest were sold, but now it is different, Lu Xu has to use 50 catties of noodles a day, and his family's more than 20 acres of wheat are grinded out, which is enough for a few months. Selling is not selling, selling to Lu Xu is not a problem.

He discussed it with the fourth daughter-in-law, and kept it for Lu Xu.

The third aunt and Lu Xu discussed whether to get a grinding disc back and grind the flour by themselves.

The third aunt said: "I wonder if the flour sold in the grain shop is not all wheat milled? If not, let's grind it a few more times, grind it finer, our wheat seeds are all picked out by me, the wheat grows big and full, and the fried fritters with flour are designated well! ”

Lu Xu also thinks that the wheat of the third aunt's family is good, their family is meticulous in farming, the same field, the wheat of the third aunt's family is fuller and heavier than others', other people's family can harvest 300 catties per acre, and his family can harvest 303 per acre.

They were discussing when Lu Wenbang knocked open his door, rushed in and shouted sweaty: "Mother! The merchant in the village collected grain for 6,000 yuan with one stone! ”

The third aunt fell out of the battle in her hands, "How much?!" ”

You must know that except for the last time Lu Xu happened to meet the merchant who offered a high price to buy military rations, the highest price of grain last year was only one stone and four thousand yuan!

Lu Wen: "Six thousand! In the barn, many people are rushing to sell! ”

The third aunt and Lu Xu hurriedly ran to the barn with Lu Wen.

The grain collectors rushed into the village with baskets of money, like a thunderclap that stunned the villagers who were numb and hopeless.

The child ran to the field to call the adult, and the woman at home ran to the threshing floor without taking care of the housework.