After the inspection, County Magistrate Wu returned to the county government office.
His carriage was loaded not only with two gourds, one large and one small, but also with a basket of grapes and a basket of yellow duck pears.
Mr. Liao, who was squeezed out of the carriage, could only huddle on the donkey cart with two clerks, chewing a pear in one hand while thinking about something.
His hometown is a small village in Zhouhe County, about the same size as Chuanhe Town here, but the people there live a very difficult life. Not only are they pressed for money to make a living, but they also have to suffer from the oppression of local gentry and petty officials.
Originally his family lived a relatively good life, but ever since his clan members offended the relatives of the village chief, his family fell into misery.
The village head would find all sorts of reasons to impose taxes on the Liao family. If the family bought a new sickle or raised a chicken, the village head and township officials would come to collect taxes. Even if the child wore a flower on his head during the New Year or other festivals, he would be reported for tax.
In the end, his parents had no choice but to sell their land and move to Qinchuan County with him, barely making ends meet on his meager income.
Although his parents and he lived in poverty in Qinchuan County, they didn't have to worry about anything. But his older brothers were still struggling to survive in that small village.
It would be great if their family could live in Chuanhe Town, where the people are simple and honest, and the village chiefs are upright and honest. Plus, with me looking after them, they won't have to worry about making ends meet.
Well, when I return to the county government, I will talk to the governor and see if he can allow his Liao family members to come and settle down.
If possible, he would let his people take root in Chuanhe Town, even if he had to let them open up wasteland in the mountains, which was better than struggling to survive in Zhouhe County.
Dongchen Village.
As soon as the official from the Ming government left, someone came to Dongcun and asked to buy cotton and cotton seeds.
These people were dressed richly and were obviously managers of wealthy families.
The people of Dongcun had been told by the head of the village and the village chief not to sell cotton and cotton seeds to outsiders, so they ignored these outsiders who looked like managers.
But these people did not give up and raised the price of cotton seeds to one tael of silver per pound.
This caused an uproar among the villagers.
Someone was caught off guard and secretly sold fifty catties of cotton seeds for fifty taels of silver.
After this opportunity was opened, the manager came to him again and again, asking him to sell more cotton seeds.
So the man sold another 100 kilograms of cotton seeds to the manager.
Truth cannot be hidden, and the matter was finally discovered and reported to the village chief Chen Sanyou.
Chen Sanyou was furious and immediately found his eldest brother Chen Fu and asked him to give an explanation to the whole village.
That’s right, the one selling cotton seeds is the second son of Patriarch Chen.
Patriarch Chen was also very angry and immediately called his second son Chen Jiazhen to ask him why he sold cotton seeds privately.
"It's just a hundred kilograms of cotton seeds, what's the big deal?" Chen Jiazhen said nonchalantly, "You can sell them too, one tael of silver per kilogram, which is more profitable than selling golden ears. Who isn't a fool? How can we see the money and not make it?"
Chen Fu was so angry that he picked up a stick and chased him to beat him.
Chen Sanyou was also furious, pointing at his nephew and shouting, "Do you know that this is what the county magistrate asked for? You just need that little bit of money?"
Chen Jiazhen hid her head from her father's bamboo stick, but she didn't forget to retort: "Can the county magistrate give us one tael of silver per catty? I'm not mentally ill, why don't I make money and sell it to the government at a low price?"
Chen Sanyou was speechless for a moment, but he agreed with the county magistrate's words.
Once the cotton seeds are collected by wealthy families, it will be difficult for other people in the village to grow cotton.
Chen Sanyou didn't bother talking to his second nephew, and directly said to his eldest brother Chen Fu: "How many cotton seeds do you have at home? Take them all out. The cotton seeds were originally given by Jiang Sanlang, so I will return them all to the Jiang family. Your family should not grow cotton in the future, so as to avoid such things from happening again and bringing shame to our whole village."
When the yamen runners came to collect the cotton seeds, not a pound of them was left. How could he save face
"Why?" Before Chen Fu could say anything, his second daughter-in-law Han Miaoniang jumped up and said, "Those are all ours, why should we give them to the Jiang family?"
Chen Fu slammed the table angrily and said, "Shut up!"
He pointed to the cotton piled up in the room and said, "These are all my cotton. It's not your turn to decide!"
The family planted a total of six acres of cotton, and harvested more than 2,000 kilograms of cotton seeds, and it is estimated that 1,000 kilograms of cotton seeds could be shelled.
He plans to plant another 30 acres next year. Assuming 10 kilograms of seeds per acre, he will need more than 300 kilograms of cotton seeds.
The rest was originally sold to the county government at the request of the Ming government, but this incident happened.
My old face has been completely disgraced by this unfilial son.
After all, my family is considered a first-class family, much better than those third-, fourth-, and fifth-class village families. But what my second son did was even worse than that of the fifth-class families. It was too embarrassing. How could I face others in the future
Seeing that their father was really angry, Chen Jiazhen and his wife did not dare to say anything and just squatted on the ground without saying a word.
Chen Fu said to his brother Chen Sanyou, "Send someone to take away all the cotton seeds, and leave only 300 kilograms for me. If you leave all of them at home, I'm afraid something might happen."
Chen Sanyou was waiting for his elder brother to say this, and immediately called a few people to transport all his cotton seeds to Jiang Sanlang's house for weighing.
In the following days, Chen Sanyou worked non-stop to collect cotton seeds and transported them to Jiang Sanlang's house for temporary storage.
For those villagers who have not planted cotton, if they plan to plant it next year, Chen Sanyou asked them to come and register to reserve cotton seeds.
After the registration is completed, the remaining cotton seeds will be handed over to the people from the county government, who will be asked to transport them away quickly. The county magistrate will be responsible for deciding to whom to distribute them.
As soon as the autumn harvest was over, Sun Lizheng came again to collect taxes.
However, the people of Dongcun did not need to be urged and just paid their taxes with silver and money, not a penny less.
Sun Lizheng said cheerfully, "It's better to come to your Dongchen Village to collect taxes, which is much easier. I don't have to urge you to come a second time every time."
Li Dayong, Li Eryong and others also laughed: "It's all thanks to our Third Brother Jiang. If we didn't grow golden ears, how would we get the money to pay the tax?"
"That is."
Sun Lizheng asked with his hands behind his back: "I see many people in your village are building houses on the south slope. I will come and take a look next year."
Households have to wait three years for their grades to be assessed, and next year will be exactly the three-year period. It is estimated that many households in Dongchen Village will have to have their grades re-evaluated.
"Don't worry, uncle head of the village, we just built a mushroom shed on the south slope, not a house for people to live in." One person argued.
Once they are rated as middle-class or upper-class households, the annual taxes will increase significantly, and the villagers are unwilling to be upgraded to this level.
Moreover, when there was a famine and the imperial court provided disaster relief, the upper and middle class households could not get any food, only the lower class households could receive relief food.
Sun Lizheng rolled his eyes at him and said, "The mushroom shed is also your family's property, and it should also be included in the tax items."
In fact, the head of the village was quite envious of the golden ear mushrooms from Dongchen Village, but the people in this village were very united and refused to sell the mushroom seedlings to others.
But the cotton in their village is also good. They secretly got some cotton seeds from the yamen runners, so they can plant some next year.
When Sun Lizheng arrived at Jiang Sanlang's house, he saw his little daughter lying on the table under a fruit tree teaching two girls to read.
Yingbao looked up and saw the village chief coming, and quickly stood up: "Grandpa Village Chief, are you here to look for my father?"
Sun Lizheng waved his hand and asked with a smile: "Yingbao, where is the big gourd in your house?"
He came here today to get a signature gourd for his second son's shop.