Raising the Demon

Chapter 13
While Zi Baifeng was busy sorting out various materials, Yan Lao Wu was squatting under the big pagoda tree at the head of the village, smoking dry tobacco.He remembered that when he was a child, people in the village did not do farming, and even hunting was only incidental to hunting for jade.But when the jade and animals on the mountain became less and less, more and more people had to start to cultivate the mountain fields, and learned from the people down the mountain, farming to make a living.

Yan Lao Wu remembered that his grandfather was always smoking a dry pipe, squatting on the mountain in the north of the village, watching the young people set off early and return at night.

But now, Yan Laowu was squatting in the direction of the south of the village leading to Mengcheng, watching the villagers cultivate the thin fields on the hillside or at the foot of the hill.

A figure, undulating in the barren field, is like a tree that has been torn by a strong wind, falling down, standing up, and falling down again.

On the path among the messy and barren mountains and fields, a short middle-aged man in soap clothes with a short knife on his waist strode over, leading a horse with burnt iron on his body. Wearing the official seal, the whole body is black and shiny, very handsome, the middle-aged man leads the horse and walks in front, his body is not as high as the horse's legs.

The horse was breathing white gas from its nostrils and was covered in sweat, as if it had run a long way.

Yan Lao Wu knocked on the dry pipe, stood up, and went forward, surprised: "Why are you here, Lao Si?"

This person is also surnamed Yan, born in Yan Village, he is considered to be of the same clan as Yan Lao Wu, in terms of seniority, he is one generation lower than Yan Lao Wu, and he is the fourth, so he is called the fourth child.He is not tall, but has a long heart. When he was young, he got a job in Mengcheng, a servant of the Household Tax Division.

Households have great power, and the tax department under their jurisdiction is in charge of summer tax and autumn grain.Although the fourth child is just an ordinary servant, he has the responsibility of supervising and supervising taxes, and he does have some power. No matter where he goes on weekdays, there are people who are tight-knit and serve him with good wine and good food.

But in fact, no one likes to see tax collectors. When Yan Laowu saw him, his heart skipped a beat, but he couldn't express it.

The fourth waved his hand, and was not in a hurry to answer Yan Lao Wu's question. He walked up to Yan Lao Wu's side, shook his head, and said, "Fifth Uncle, going down to Yan Village is a big deal!"

"What's wrong?" Yan Lao Wu was taken aback, this Lao Si was too alarmist.

"What's the matter? Read it for yourself..." The fourth child took out a document in his hand, and the fifth Yan blushed, and said: "Your fourth brother, you are joking about your fifth uncle. If I know the words in it, then Am I still Yan Laowu?"

The fourth child shook his head, and told about the government's decision to collect taxes and order them to come down to supervise.

"Three years short of taxes?" Yan Lao Wu immediately turned pale.

No one knows Xiayan Village's family background better than Yan Lao Wu.

Xiayan Village has been mining jade for generations, and most of them have no land property, so the poll tax is adopted, and the tax is levied upon adulthood. The tax amount is fixed, but different materials can be used to offset it.In the past years, it was fine, and most of them were neat and uniform money, but in the later years, when the birth was not good, you would have everything.

It is a hard job to come to the countryside to collect taxes.In these villages, there is often no scholar who can write and calculate, and among the tax collectors, there are very few tax collectors who are good at calculating.

And in the end, the Fujun asked someone to calculate the final tax collected, and the total was not bad, so it passed. If you really want to sort out a clue, the effort it takes is really not worthwhile.

In such an environment, if a village pays less taxes, the village can only recognize it and cannot reason with the government. Since ancient times, the people have not fought with the officials. This is the wisdom of the small people to survive.

"Uncle Wu, do you think this tax can be collected or not?" the fourth child asked.

"It's difficult..." You don't need to think about Yan Laowu to know that this tax is impossible to collect. When the tax amount was set for Xiayan Village back then, it was the average of the whole village, and then the tax was one for thirty, which was relatively low. Because there is a jade tax every 30 years, it is an additional tax that is only levied on villages that produce jade, and most other villages are taxed at fifteen.

In recent years, the income of the people in the village has dropped sharply, almost only one-fifth of the income of the year. If it is based on the standard of [-] one tax, it can barely make up, but now paying taxes for three years at a time, that is a family Most of the year's harvest.

It's a strange thing to be able to collect it.

"I also find it difficult..." The fourth child nodded, seeing Yan Lao Wu's sad face, he laughed and said, "Fifth Uncle, why do you have to be so sad? I know that your family is rich, and the tax for three years is nothing more than that." Just wait. Don’t say you can’t hand it over.”

Yan Lao Wu shook his head and said, "We can pay the taxes for the first half of the year, but the vast majority of people in this village can't pay the taxes..."

Yan Laowu was worried, if he could not collect taxes and be punished by the government, what should he do?Yan Lao Wu understands the saying that the law does not blame the public, but he still remembers a sentence called killing chickens to warn monkeys.

"Fifth Uncle, you are really confused." The fourth child shook the paperwork in his hand and said, "Before I came, I heard from an adult in the mansion that Xiayan Village has an additional village official, is it the one who spoke? Ugly Zibaifeng?"

Yan Laowu suddenly realized that the duty of collecting taxes was not his Yan Laowu's, but that village official's. He suddenly clapped his hands and said with a smile: "It's that Zi Baifeng."

"Such headaches will naturally be left to him. Uncle Wu, your luck is really like this!" The fourth child put up a thumbs up, made a gesture, and asked, "Where is this Mr. Muramasa now?" ? I will send this document to him."

"He's in the private school in the village, you go on your own, I'll go home and prepare food and drinks for you." Yan Lao Wu said.

He watched the fourth child lead the horse into the village, the smile on the corner of his mouth slowly disappeared, he shook his head slightly, his eyes were complicated and unspeakable.

……

……

Under the private school of Xiayan Village, under the big locust tree.

"I will hand over the documents to Mr. Muramasa, and I will leave now." The fourth child took the letter with Zi Baifeng's seal on it, which meant that the documents had been handed over to Zi Baifeng, and carefully put it in his arms. , turned around and led the horse.

Zi Baifeng stood at the door of the private school, watched him walk past the corner, and there was only one thought in his mind: "Damn, Zi Baifeng, you are in trouble!"

Just the second day after taking office, the big issue of tax collection is on the table, which is really a lot of training.

No matter in his previous life or in this life, Zi Baifeng had never been involved in the work of collecting taxes. He thought hard and didn't know where to start and where to end. There are people from the tax department to hand over.

What if you don't pay?What happens if you don't pay?You should write it down for me!
Zi Baifeng couldn't help shouting at the document.

At this moment, Zi Baifeng suddenly envied Yan Lao Wu a little bit, he really hoped that he could only know one word "secret" and nothing else, so he would be fearless if he didn't know.

Sitting there searching his stomach for a while, Zi Baifeng was also at a loss and had no idea, could it be that he wanted to collect taxes from house to house?
After a long time, Zi Baifeng finally made up his mind - to discuss with Yan Laowu.

It is not far from the private school to Yanlao Wujia, just a few steps away.

Yan Er was fetching water and brushing horses in the yard, when he saw Zi Baifeng coming, he raised his voice and greeted, "Xiucai Lang is here!" As he spoke, he smiled unnaturally.

Zi Baifeng didn't care. Although he combined the experience of two lives, he was still just a teenager after all, and he didn't know much about the world. When Yan Er was blinded by sweat, he cupped his hands and said, "Second Uncle, the old man is at home. ?"

"It's inside. I'm drunk and just fell asleep." Yan Er said hastily.

"Oh..." After all, Zi Baifeng has the consciousness of a modern person. He heard a faint snoring sound coming from inside, and felt that it was not very polite to disturb a drunk person, so he said disappointedly: "Then I will come back later."

"Okay, Xiucai Lang, you go slowly..." Yan Er watched Zi Baifeng leave, looked around for a long time, then closed the door and walked into the room.

"Let's go?" Yan Lao Wu just lifted the quilt and sat up. He was indeed drinking, but he had a lot of alcohol, and the real drunk was Lao Si, who was snoring next door.

"Let's go, say to come back later." Yan Er replied sullenly, seeing that his father didn't say anything else, he turned around and went out again.

Yan Laowu sat on the head of the bed, feeling a little uncomfortable.

When it was dark, Zi Baifeng came again, and Yan Er said, "He's still inside, go and see if he's awake."

Yan Lao Wu, who was drinking tea to hangover, was startled when he heard this, and quickly lay down on the bed with all his clothes on, and covered him with a quilt. Zi Baifeng came in and called the old man twice, and he hummed twice, intending to deal with it.

Zi Baifeng pushed him a few more times, but he just pretended to be asleep. Zi Baifeng stood beside him for a while, seeing that he was indeed awake, so he had no choice but to leave.

But as soon as he turned his head, he saw the half-drinked tea on the table, and then looked at the water stains on the corner of Yan Lao Wu's mouth that hadn't dried off, and suddenly understood what was going on.

Yan Laowu lay on the bed and didn't dare to move until Yan Er came in and said, "Leaving again."

Yan Lao Wuyi sat up, but lay down again, feeling weak all over.

"This old man, I'm so pissed off!" Zi Baifeng almost exploded with rage when he came out of Yanlaowu's house.This guy obviously doesn't want to deal with this trouble.

However, I have the memory of two lifetimes, can I still be stumped by this matter?
That's good, if you pretend you don't know, then start collecting from your home!

Zi Baifeng turned around and walked towards Yan Laowu's house again, but after walking a few steps, he turned back again.

There are two sons, Baifeng, one is cold and straightforward, the other is hot-blooded and flirtatious. The two personalities merged together, and they responded to the phrase "Think twice before acting", as if there were really two people thinking.

In common sense, as the village official, he should have this responsibility. The clan elder is just a clan elder, and he really has no obligation to help him.The tax collection is only for a while, and Zi Baifeng feels that he can always think of a way, but if he really has a direct confrontation with Yan Laowu, there will be more troubles in the future.

(End of this chapter)