Rebirth Farmhouse

Chapter 74

Someone in the venue agreed and said yes, and the housekeeper Zhou said again: "The county government even entrusted our uncle to help collect the rent. In fact, we are not willing to take on this job. We are tired and at a disadvantage. It is really thankless, so please bear with us. If you have food, you will pay in full. If you have difficulties at home, just ask our uncle. The uncle said that the difficulties of the neighbors are the difficulties of his old people, and he will not ignore everyone. There is no food at home, and there is no need to worry about borrowing usury green wheat money, so that we will not go to that point of desperation. So, don't be in arrears, and pay what you can, Uncle Zhou said, His old man's rent can be postponed, as long as the imperial court has to pay it in full, so as not to hurt the folks in the village, it will be bad."

Although it is not as fixed as in the past, ten households have a Baojia, and a hundred households have a mile, but a family in a village is still basically connected, and the failure of one household to pay the rent will implicate the entire family.

One is that the family needs to repay it for him, and the other is that if he fails to pay the rent, it will be filed in Lizheng County Government and other places, and the family and even the entire family will be recorded as law-abiding persons, and deductions will be made if there are good things in the future If they even defaulted on serious and bad debts, it would affect major events such as the studies and scientific examinations of the children of the clan. Therefore, unless they were really poor enough to sell their children and daughters, they would basically not default on rent from the government to avoid bringing a bad reputation to the whole family.

Xiuyao heard that housekeeper Zhou said it very well. Uncle Zhou looks very kind, and he doesn't look like Huang Shiren in the impression that the landlord is just exploiting people and forcing the tenants into desperation. They are still good to the tenants, although the rent is stipulated. From time to time, the amount will be reduced a little to encourage tenants.

However, with so many natural and man-made disasters, there are still families who cannot pay the land rent. Although the owner will not be forced to use their daughter to pay off the debt, generally speaking, they will not rent the land to them again.

After all, their big family can't let the whole family pay rent for others like the government.

Everyone in the venue said that Uncle Zhou had a kind heart, that a good man will be rewarded, and then they started busy paying the rent.Xiuyao leaned forward to take a look, and sure enough, several burly men brought by Steward Zhou stood around the dendrobium, not allowing everyone to approach.

The dendrobium looked like a wine barrel, and it was carried by two big men, who filled it with grain. When it was full, they took a wooden board and scraped the mouth, and the surface was scraped off to make a dendrobium.

Someone nearby sang: "Zhou Li, Yihu!" A counting man next to Steward Zhou tapped the paper with a pen, and then the two big men carried the grain away. Grain was poured into sacks, and then went back to measuring the wheat.

Xiuyao looked carefully, there were many iron plates on the outside of the wooden barrel, probably to strengthen the dendrobium.Because of her small size, she watched it back and forth several times, and people only thought she was curious as a child, and didn't take it seriously.

In order to see more clearly, Xiuyao simply went to the front and squatted at the bottom of the dendrobium to look at the part below while they were loading food.

A big man shouted: "Who's kid, don't play here, you will be in trouble if you hit it."

Xiuyao raised her head and said with a smile: "Our family doesn't have this, I think it's really fun, put me in it." Then she stretched out her hand to touch the hu. He can only do tricks, and Uncle Zhou has always advertised that he is down-to-earth and that he is a friendly family with his neighbors, so he must definitely use the government-calibrated Dendrobium, and cannot make it himself.

What's more, when the county government collects rent every year, it also sends people to the countryside to calibrate the accuracy of the container. After the calibration in public, it is obvious to everyone that the dendrobium is used to collect grain. There should be no mistakes.Taking a step back, even if they don't come, these old farmers who are farming, although illiterate, are very clear about the grain produced in their fields. If the capacity of the dendrobium is not accurate, they will definitely be discovered by them.

Therefore, Xiuyao concluded that if she wanted to make a fake, she could only fake it on a dendrobium with a normal capacity, and she would never take the risk of committing a crime by privately manufacturing a dendrobium with a large capacity.After all, it is easy to bribe one person under the watchful eyes of the public, but it is not easy to bribe so many people.

Although a big man was ordered by Steward Zhou not to allow anyone to approach him, he didn't expect what a little girl could do. Although she had a thin frame, her eyes were black and beautiful, so she couldn't help feeling good, and smiled at her, " You have to collect rent, you can’t play.”

Xiuyao smiled and said, "Then I'll wait for you to measure the wheat, let me play with it, I think it's much bigger than that one. I can stand in this one."

The big man chuckled, and continued to pretend to be wheat. Butler Zhou saw her and stepped forward to drive her away, "What are you doing, little girl, go play while you're at it, don't delay our work."

Xiuyao pouted and said to him: "Just now you were talking with a smile, why are you so fierce now, you are not lying, my mother said lying is not a good person."

Steward Zhou was taken aback, and hurriedly smiled and said, "Little girl, don't make trouble, I'm not lying, you go and play."

Xiuyao hummed, and stood aside, waiting silently. When they finished measuring the whole family, when Butler Zhou was singing the count, Xiuyao saw that the Dendrobium was empty, so she rushed over and poked inside. I reached the bottom with my hand, memorized the position, measured the diameter at several important places inside with a piece of wheat straw, and pinched the marks with my fingernails.

The big man picked her up, frowned, "Little girl, don't make trouble." The other person smiled and said, "Who is more naughty than a kid?"

The man said: "It belongs to Qin Dafu's family."

"Ah, isn't that the one that fell into the river?"

They laughed when they said this, Xiuyao pretended to be embarrassed, covered her face and stomped her feet and said: "You are all bad people, bullying children." She ran away grabbing the straw.

She saw that Steward Zhou and the others had a pen and paper ruler on the cart where they loaded the grain, so she went up to measure the lengths she had marked separately while no one was paying attention, and then squatted behind the haystack to calculate the volume.

Then she went back to the rent-collecting site, saw a square bucket over there, ran over to draw the length and height with wheat straw, and then secretly measured the size, and then calculated the approximate volume.

One dendrobium is equal to five dou, which is very accurate, but now the volume of the dendrobium she calculated is more than half a dou larger than five dou, if this is true, then one dendrobium will be able to steal several catties of wheat this week.

But how did he do it?At that time, people from the county came to check and found that there was no problem with the Dendrobium, and everyone was staring at it.But this real size is in front of her, and she can't believe it.

She took a look, and she had already started measuring with buckets and liters, and Hukong was there.Xiuyao looked around, and everyone's attention was on the matter of paying the rent, and there happened to be a small episode. The housekeeper Zhou thought that the family was not dry, and the family said that they were doing something and were arguing.

In this way, no one cares about that Hu.

Xiuyao slid over, pushed the hock to one side quietly, and then took a bucket to the side to fill it with grain and poured it in. She couldn't lift it herself, so she asked a few children playing next to her to help her.

The children thought it was fun, so they came to help, and the five buckets of grain were filled, and the top of the dendrobium was still empty.

Xiuyao gritted her teeth with hatred, she should have exposed Zhou Papi on the spot, and asked him to pour food into it with a bucket instead of using a dustpan, but she still felt that she had to worry about the reputation of the Zhou family, after all, the Zhou family was the largest in Taoyuan. If they offend Uncle Zhou's family, then their Qin family will suffer a lot in the future, and they may not be able to get along anymore, after all, they still have grudges against Zhou's family.

Xiuyao said to the children: "Let's push it down, it's fun."

A few children joined forces, and with a sound of "ah", it was pushed down by Hu, and the grain was poured back into the grain pile.

When the rent collectors saw it, they rushed over and scolded, and took Hu back, but they didn't think about what this little girl was going to do.

Xiuyao stood up and clapped her hands. At this time, she saw her grandfather coming over, so she went up to meet her with a basket on her shoulders. Old Qin's bosses saw her and asked, "Girl, why don't you go home after cutting the grass."

Xiuyao tugged at the lapel of Old Qin's head, "Grandpa, come here, let me tell you something."'

Old Qin looked at her mysteriously, and said, "Let's talk at home, Grandpa still has something to do."

Xiuyao glanced at Steward Zhou, and said to her grandfather, "Grandpa, that's what I'm talking about."

Old Qintou glanced curiously, does this little girl know too?He asked Qin Ergui and Qin Sanshun to watch, while he followed Xiuyao. Xiuyao and he went to the carrying place, put down the basket, and told about how he and the children had measured the Dendrobium with a bucket.

I heard her say that there are noses and eyes, and there is indeed something wrong with such an amount of this thing. If it is according to Xiuyao's words, then what he suspected before will be confirmed.The grain output estimated by myself was correct, but something went wrong when the grain was handed over.

Rather than believing in Xiuyao, he actually believed in his own estimate more. What Xiuyao said only confirmed his inner thoughts, so he believed even more in his previous judgment, and couldn't help shivering, those few strands were not neat The lush beard raised tremblingly, "Girl, you, what you said is true?"

Xiuyao nodded, "Grandpa, I have measured it."

Old Qintou pondered for a moment, should he go up and catch him now, or settle it with Butler Zhou in private?The main thing to worry about is whether Uncle Zhou explained this matter or his butler Zhou made it his own.

Seeing Grandpa hesitate, Xiuyao said, "Grandpa, I have an idea, why don't you give it a try."

Old Qin looked at her, and Xiuyao said in a low voice: "Grandpa, why don't we go to Uncle Zhou and tell him straight to the point that we suspect that Butler Zhou is playing tricks on the dendrobium and ask him to check it out. If it is really him who instigated it , it can be regarded as saying hello to him and asking him to find a way to solve it, and we don't doubt him. If he didn't instruct Steward Zhou, then he can investigate openly, let alone be afraid. Grandpa, what do you think?"

Old Qintou murmured, "We have to think of a good way." The best way is to have the best of both worlds, not to offend others, but also to get back the grain of his family.He thought for a while and said, "Let's try to bluff Steward Zhou. If he is willing to admit it, let him spit out the food he swallowed."

Xiuyao worried: "Grandpa, Steward Zhou is so cunning, can he admit it? What if he says that Uncle Zhou instructed him? You still have to go to Uncle Zhou."

Old Qintou smiled and said: "Don't be afraid of him, bluff him first and see what he says, if it doesn't work, let's go to Uncle Zhou."

But Xiuyao was still worried, "Grandpa, he will be on guard just in case." Asking now, wouldn't it be a warning to Steward Zhou? "Grandpa, if you want to find him, you have to force him to test the dendrobium on the spot, or it won't work."

Old Qintou insisted on his own ideas, turned around and walked towards Butler Zhou.

Over there, Steward Zhou had already finished weighing these companies and was about to transfer to another place. Old Qintou hurried to catch up with him, and said with a smile, "Butler Zhou, take an excuse to talk."

Butler Zhou glanced at him, seeing that he was an old Qin head, a well-known poor man in Taoyuan, he couldn't help being too lazy to talk to him, and he didn't dare to be too obvious to avoid being scolded by the uncle, so he cupped his hands and said: "Father Qin, we are busy here, Let's talk back."

Old Qintou said in a low voice: "If I say it, I'm afraid you won't be busy."

Steward Zhou was taken aback, and immediately stared at Old Qin's head warily, and said in a low voice, "What do you mean?"

Looking at his expression, Old Qin felt that he was inseparable. He turned around and left with his hands behind his back. Butler Zhou hurriedly chased after him, "Father Qin, I have something to say."

Seeing that there was a distance from the crowd, Old Qintou snorted, took a look at Steward Zhou, and said, "Butler Zhou, we people don't speak dark words. There is something wrong with your Hu, we need to check it."

Steward Zhou was dumbfounded when he heard it at first, and immediately said: "If you want to test it, you can test it. Someone from the county has already come to test it, and we use this Dendrobium every year, and everyone knows it. What do you test it for? You are going to slap the Zhou family in the face."

Old Qintou sneered, "Although it's this Hu, I'm afraid that your steward Zhou has done something wrong. I don't know if Uncle Zhou ordered you. We inspected Hu first, and then we carried it to find Uncle Zhou to reason."

Butler Zhou was a little anxious when he heard that the matter was not instigated by the uncle, and the uncle hated this kind of mischievous trick the most. If he knew, his job would not be guaranteed. Besides, if he inspected the dendrobium on the spot, it would be all exposed. He immediately He bowed and said, "Father Qin, please speak up if you have something to say." But in his mind, he was thinking about how to deal with it.

When he said this, Old Qin was even more convinced that there was something wrong with Huzi, and urged him to reason it out.

Steward Zhou immediately took out a handful of money from his sleeve and handed it to Old Qin, and said with a smile: "Father Qin, I can't run away anyway, let me finish my work first, and I'll go home to find you later. Don't worry, I will give you a satisfactory answer."

At this time, the person carrying the dendrobium over there called him, "Housekeeper, we're going to the front, it's getting late, and we'll have dinner after collecting this."

When Old Qin was hesitating, the money had already been stuffed into his hand. At this time, a person also came to him, butler Zhou said with a smile: "Father Qin, I'm looking for you for a drink when I have time, I'm going to go first."

After walking two steps, let that person go first, he said to Old Qin, "Father Qin, you should not force yourself to stand out. Let's talk about this matter later. Besides, your family still has so many lands planted by the Zhou family. Well, today is not what it used to be, Father Qin has to weigh it carefully before he speaks," said and walked away, as if he was determined to be old Qin and dared not say anything.

Old Qintou also muttered, listening to what Zhou Jian said so confidently, it seemed that Uncle Zhou ordered it. If it was ordered by Uncle Zhou, it would be difficult to handle.

Old Qintou never thought of trying to force his way out to uphold justice for the villagers. He just felt that his family's life was miserable, and if people withheld food, it would be a dead end. Now that he heard Zhou Jian's words, he Just a little hesitant.

At this time, Qin Ergui and Sanshun ran over, "Father, how are you doing?"

Old Qin's face was sullen, and he said in a low voice: "There is something wrong with the dendrobium, let's go home."

When Qin Ergui heard this, he said: "Father, since you have a problem, hurry up and catch him, let everyone catch him together, let's send him to find Uncle Zhou, and see what they say, it's too much to bully people so blatantly." !"

Old Qin glared at him, "What are you yelling about? Hurry up and shut up."

Qin Sanshun also said: "That's right, second brother, we are still planting the Zhou family's land. If you make such a noise, even if everyone goes to the Zhou family to settle accounts, what will we do in the future?" The Qin family can't beat the Zhou family now, if It is not impossible for the Zhou family to play tricks and drive the Qin family out. After leaving Taoyuan Village, where will they go?
Qin Ergui was still unconvinced and wanted to reason, but Old Qin shouted: "You idiot, stop for me, if anyone dares to speak out without my words, see if I don't break his leg."

Qin Ergui had no choice but to keep silent, while Xiuyao listened to her, feeling uncomfortable. Could it be that he was being tricked like this?
When she returned home, she asked Old Qin, "Grandpa, I don't think that Uncle Zhou is like this." Although she had never dealt with Uncle Zhou, he was very kind to him in the cotton field that day. , and every year there will be excuses of one kind or another to give everyone a little bit of rent reduction.It rained this year, a wheat field was drenched, and the wheat in a pile of yards was drenched. In fact, they were all rented and planted official land, not the Zhou family at all, but the Zhou family also reduced the land rent by [-]% .

Old Qin said: "Who can say for sure, people's hearts are like a belly, these days, there are a lot of people who are rich and heartless."

Xiuyao said: "Grandpa, what shall we do then? Maybe Steward Zhou really did it himself. He corrupted the food, and no one else knows."

Old Qintou hummed, "Let's find your third grandpa and count together."

Xiuyao hurriedly said: "Grandpa, don't ask anyone to discuss it first. If someone comes out to say something or rushes to the door to make a scene on impulse, that would be bad. Why don't you and my father directly Go talk to Uncle Zhou. If Uncle Zhou is not such a person, he will definitely uphold justice. "

(End of this chapter)