The villain and traitor is my brother

Chapter 44 Buying Land
The crying has become more and more intense recently. Most of the villagers are worried about taxes. With their two children absent, Zheng Qiuyun sometimes feels creepy when he goes to sleep with the crying.

Some families in Zhutian Village work in workshops, so they can save some money from their wages.Some families have two people working together, patching things together, and can barely cope.But those families that can only spare one person to go to work have a difficult time.

At the very back of Zhutian Village, there is a family named Feng. There is an old woman who is bedridden, a couple, and a child who is several months old.They originally had five acres of land, but the government did not distribute relief grain the year before last, so they sold it.

The women take care of the children and the elderly at home, and the men work in the workshops. They can always make money for the family and the children in the winter. However, after the New Year, there are still people paying taxes, and they are worried about the taxes.

"There is really no other way, so I will do corvee labor." The man said distressedly.

The woman wept silently, "You alone have been supporting the whole family. If you continue to do corvee labor to deduct taxes, it will cut off our livelihood."

Seeing how distressed they were, the old woman said with tears in her eyes: "From today on, don't send me food. The food you save should be used to pay taxes."

The child didn't know what was happening, so he started crying in his mother's arms, making a loud noise and making those who heard it anxious.

The man's eyes were also red and he was helpless.He cried and hammered his chest, "It's because I'm useless, it's because I have no ability!"

The woman hugged his arm and tried her best to stop him from doing this, "Feng Da, I don't blame you. If you hadn't made money from working, we wouldn't be able to survive in the winter."

There was deathly silence in her eyes, "Otherwise, just give me up to the flower house in the county."

Feng Da stood up suddenly, "No!"

In the same situation, there are many homes in Zhutian Village. Zheng Qiuyun is often woken up by crying just as he falls asleep.She tossed and turned, staring at the roof in a daze.

Every year at this time, villagers from each village go to the magistrate to cry out for their poverty. This is their long-established tradition, hoping that the magistrate can turn a blind eye.

Although it has always been useless for the amount of tax revenue, it would be good even if the county magistrate is accommodating and allows them to pay it two days later.

Li Zheng of Zhutian Village had just taken office and didn't know much about this tradition. When he arrived at the magistrate's residence, the magistrate's face was already as black as carbon.

The magistrate sat upright, holding the tea bowl with his hand, staring at him, waiting for Li Zheng to cry out, and smash the tea bowl directly on his head.

He asked knowingly: "What are you doing here!"

Li Zheng bowed to the magistrate respectfully, "May I ask, Lord Magistrate, when will the population tax and agricultural tax be collected?"

The magistrate said coldly: "Within half a month."

Li Zheng bowed respectfully again, turned around and left.The magistrate was very surprised that he didn't say anything.

"wait?"

Li Zheng turned around and said, "Do you have any other instructions, sir?"

The magistrate asked: "Can you hand it over within half a month?"

What could Li Zheng say? Dare he say he couldn't? He was a new official and he didn't dare to disobey his superiors when he took office.

Therefore, he gritted his teeth and said: "Yes."

The magistrate was in a good mood and waved his hand to let him go.

The fact is that Li Zheng of Zhutian Village didn't know that it was okay to cry for poverty. When he heard from the magistrate that he had to collect everything within half a month, he didn't dare to delay and hurried back to the village to find a way.

After one night, he was so anxious that his mouth blistered, and he kept complaining to his wife.

"The capitation tax is 600 wen per person, which is more than last year. The agricultural tax is three measures of millet per mu of land. If you can't get it out, you have to do corvee work. I don't dare to tell the villagers about it."

His wife was helpless, "If you don't tell the villagers now, they will know sooner or later. It's better to let them figure out a solution early."

Li was wandering around the yard anxiously, and asked his wife with luck, "Do you think the people who work in Zheng Qiuyun's workshop can save enough money to pay taxes?" As soon as Zheng Qiuyun walked to the door, he heard Li's voice. Just as she was saying this, she smiled and replied, "It's definitely enough for them, but not necessarily for their family members."

Li was very upright, "Why don't Zheng Qiuyun give me more money?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he realized that it was Zheng Qiuyun's voice.He hurriedly explained, "No, I didn't mean that."

Zheng Qiuyun didn't care at all, "Li Zheng, I'm here to buy land from you. There is still a hundred acres of wasteland in the back mountain, I want to buy it."

"I want to ask you how to pay the land tax in this wasteland."

Li Zheng was very surprised: "Huh? You want to buy wasteland? You have to think carefully. Opening up wasteland requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and the land tax can kill people."

Zheng Qiuyun was puzzled: "Do we have to pay taxes now?"

"That's not true. The wasteland can be opened up for you first, and you can grow crops for one year and collect taxes next year."

That's okay, Zheng Qiuyun is also quite excited.

"I just heard that Li is worried about taxes. If I can get everyone in the village to pay taxes, the price of wasteland may be reduced?"

Li Zheng was surprised and said: "Let the people pay taxes? Have you thought about it? The magistrate said that the taxes will be paid within half a month."

"I will ask the villagers to pay the taxes within ten days."

"Let me think about it."

He said this on the surface, but he was actually very happy in his heart.He didn't dare to be greedy. He had no money and was restricted in every way. Now Zheng Qiuyun was rushing to give money, so he sold and coaxed him to add another hundred acres of land.

Li Zheng was afraid that Zheng Qiuyun would regret it, so he wrote the document that day.

With this document, Zheng Qiuyun can boldly hire people to open up wasteland.Because the two hundred acres nearby were hers, Craftsman Li didn't need to sneak over and dig graves at night and be on tenterhooks all day long.

After Zheng Qiuyun returned, he posted a notice at the door of the workshop and asked Sun Shaoyan to explain the meaning of the notice to unknown villagers.

"Sir, you just said that Qiuyun bought the wasteland for us to plant. Is it true or false?"

Sun Shaoyan explained to him again, "This wasteland belongs to Qiuyun. You need to clear it yourself. Qiuyun will give you seeds and teach you how to plant. After the harvest, you need to sell the crops to her."

"That doesn't mean that if we put in some effort, we can make money."

"That's a good thing!"

But a man then asked, "There will be a land tax soon, do we have to pay it ourselves?"

Sun Shaoyan was not impatient and said, "Qiuyun pays the land tax in the wasteland. Zheng Qiuyun can also lend you money to pay taxes, but when you have a harvest in the land, this part of the money will have to be withheld."

The crowd immediately exploded. Who doesn't want to plant more land? But there is no money to buy wasteland and the land tax is heavy. The people dare not open up wasteland. Now that someone is paying them land tax, they can't even think about it.

Taxes kill people every year, but now listen, you can still borrow money to pay taxes.

This is the Bodhisattva appearing!

However, some people still don't believe that there is a trap falling in vain in the sky, and question: "Why does Qiu Yun do this good deed? What's the benefit to her?"

Sun Shaoyan was not annoyed, "I just said that you have to plant the seeds provided by Qiuyun to open up wasteland, and the fruits you plant must be sold to her, not to others."

　Thank you to "Book Friends 160727101307307" and "Little Tu O" for their recommendation votes~ "Book Friends 35196" & "Book Friends 28666878" and ""The Giraffe Who Grows Not High"" voted for Xiaoxiang~
　　


(End of this chapter)