It was still noisy inside, with occasional shouting and cursing carried by the wind. Han Bo asked impatiently, "What's going on in there? With such a big commotion, are you still going to do business?!"
This is already in Baoding. According to the information given by Young Master Lin before, this teahouse should be opened by a military household. Seeing such a serious commotion, Han Bo always felt that something was going on, so he deliberately spoke to test it.
The fat woman had already started to clean up the table quickly. Seeing how generous they were, she didn't even have time to go in and get a rag, fearing that they would run away. She quickly wiped the table with her sleeves, and even wiped the stools clean. She blew on them twice and asked them to sit down. Only then did she have time to reply to them. She glanced inside with disgust and laughed sarcastically, "It's all those black-hearted people who are fighting over a share of the money, as if they were afraid that they wouldn't be able to take the silver into their coffins!"
After she finished her ridicule, she attentively coaxed Han Bo and the others to sit down: "Please sit down first, sit down first! They won't quarrel for long, they will be fine after a while. This is the only teahouse nearby. If you want to find a place to stay, there is no other place except here, unless you go to the next city. Take a look, what do you want to eat?"
Han Bo looked at Xue Song, pretended to be hungry, touched his stomach and asked Shen Chen what he meant: "Master, she makes sense. We just came out of the city. If we can't eat here, we will be hungry for a long time. Do you think we should just make do with it here?"
Shen Chen nodded and frowned: "This is too noisy, the boss lady asked them to lower their voices."
The fat woman sighed and agreed. Seeing that they took out another two taels of silver and asked for a few pots of tea, she was so surprised that her eyes almost popped out of her head. She quickly squeezed through the crowd and went in. After a while, she came out with a pot of tea and poured it for them: "You guys have this hot tea first. I'm still steaming buns inside. I'll bring it to you right away."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud noise from inside.
A girl about ten years old ran towards the proprietress in a hurry and said to her in a crying voice: "Mom! Dad was beaten. Uncle San beat him! Aunt San pulled his hair..."
The fat woman cursed with gritted teeth. She wanted to rush in but had to consider the group of generous guests outside. She was in a dilemma and didn't know what to do.
The girl reached out to pull her clothes and said, "Mom, please go in quickly. Dad can't handle it alone!"
The fat woman gritted her teeth. Seeing Han Bo and the others looking at her curiously, she smiled dryly and said, "I'm sorry, this is really..."
At this moment, there was another pig-slaughtering scream from inside. She really couldn't bear it anymore, so she grabbed a stool and rushed in.
The little girl, however, bit her fingers and looked at the snacks that Han Bo brought out with bright eyes, refusing to move.
Han Bo was always good at entertaining children. Seeing her like this, he waved the snacks in front of her and asked her, "Do you want to eat?"
There were people coming and going on this road. There was no such thing as being meticulous when raising children. It was a blessing as long as the children were well fed. The girl had never seen such beautiful and exquisite snacks before, and she nodded with shining eyes.
Wei An moved the savings box towards her and said with a smile, "Then take it."
Seeing that they were all gentle and didn't seem to be teasing her, the girl hesitated for a moment before reaching out to grab the food and soon began to wolf it down.
Wei An and Shen Chen looked at each other, then poured another cup of tea in front of her and asked her to eat slowly.
When she had almost finished eating, Wei An casually glanced into the teahouse and asked her, "By the way, what happened here? Why did your parents fight with others? Are they not doing business anymore?"
The girl took a bite of the red bean cake and a look of grievance appeared on her face: "Uncle San and the others didn't give us money."
Her eyes were red with grievance. She looked at the red bean cake and found it hard to swallow it. "My father used to be a soldier. He had military pay and rations every year. He even broke one leg... but I don't know why it's gone. We have to farm and pay rent. My father couldn't afford it, so he gave up the land and opened a teahouse with mother..."
Han Bo hummed and asked her, "Then why did you quarrel?"
"It's because for some reason, we have to pay the army salary." The little girl was happy and looked at them with smiling eyes: "My father has twenty taels of silver to receive!"
Back pay for military service
The policy of the Great Zhou was to let these military households fight when there was a war, and to let them farm when there was no war. No matter how you calculated it, these military households would receive more than this little silver.
And the little girl said that her father had a broken leg.
For those with broken legs, the imperial court will provide a lot of pension, and also has the privilege of tax exemption. Why are they saying that they won’t give them land to farm now
Wei An thought for a moment and asked the little girl, "If that's the case, then why did your third uncle quarrel with your father? What's the relationship between your third uncle and your father?"
The little girl scratched her head and said, "I don't know either. I only know that my third uncle is not a military household like us. He is a scholar. My third uncle said that if it weren't for him, my father wouldn't even get the twenty taels of silver. He asked my father to give him ten taels, but my father refused... and then we had a quarrel."
The little girl felt wronged: "My third uncle works for the Qianhu Office and has money. But my nephew is sick and relies on this money to stay alive and treat his illness. My mother and father are unwilling to give it to him... My third uncle and aunt said that they would go to the Qianhu Office and tell the Qianhu Lord to sue us for not giving us money."
What does Qianhu do
Han Bo touched his chin and winked at Xuesong.
Xuesong went to see Shen Chen first.
Shen Chen gently let the little girl take whatever she wanted from the box. When he saw that she wanted to give it to her nephew, he smiled and nodded in agreement. At the same time, he said to Xue Song, "Go and bring the person out so I can see him."
He paused and said, "I would like to see that the people in the Qianhu Suo are so powerful that they can set their own standards for distributing silver and decide who to give silver to and who not to give silver to."
Because such a terrible thing happened, the cabinet and Emperor Longqing quickly made a decision to let the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue make up for the deficit and compensate these military households.
Shen Chen didn't know the exact standard of compensation, but he knew it could not be twenty taels for four years.
These parasites have already enriched themselves, and now they even want to give them more money. This is really outrageous.
Chu Jingxing, who colluded with these people and provided a breeding ground for them, is even more despicable.
This person, who doesn't care about the life and death of others as long as he can get well, and who thinks that everyone should give way to him, is selfish. What qualifications does he have to stand on the throne of the prince