No matter how difficult the Shu Shuang family is, under the black and white lease, he should fulfill the agreement to pay the rent.
Because the Zhong family did not live in Beiweili, and because the Shu family gave him a few shi of rice every year, he hoped that he would turn a blind eye to this, so he did not appear when the Meng family came to collect the rent in the past.
Now that Zhong Qiyuan comes to the door, the Shu family doesn't take care of it. Even if Li Zheng is interested in favoring the Shu family, he can't be too obvious. He can only persuade Zhong Qiyuan: "Let the Shu family pay back the arrears of rent and tax and report it to the Shu family. There is no need for an official, is it, Little Daoist."
"Soybeans don't count, and food is eighty stone in two years."
"Didn't you say halved?!"
"Don't you need to pay liquidated damages for your breach of contract?"
Shu Shuang's face flushed: "This is too much, we don't have so much food, can we discount it?"
"Okay, rice bucket two hundred money, one stone is two thousand money, eighty stone is 160,000."
"The price of rice last year was only 100 yuan!"
"In these years, the price of food is soaring. You have two years of rent and tax arrears. Shouldn't you make up the difference in the price of food for the past two years?"
"You're talking like a lion!" The Shu family looked ugly.
But other tenants who have been oppressed by the big landlords for a long time don't seem to think that this is too much. The Shu family is not as miserable as them!
When the main family encounters a disaster year, not only will they not reduce their rent and taxes, but they will find various excuses to squeeze them.
"No? It's alright. Anyway, you breached the contract first. I decided to take back the 80 acres of land and not rent it to you."
This is more serious than a fine. If the land is lost, the Shu family will either rent the land of another family, and then be exploited by the master family; or if the land is lost and no dependence, they can only be a floating household; the worse consequence is that they will starve to death. !
A family of more than a dozen people looked pale, or hugged and cried bitterly, or begged bitterly. However, Zhong Qiyuan had a heartless heart and said that he would take the fields back, and Li Zheng couldn't help trembling when he saw it.
This is just a movie of a thirteen-year-old girl, who can drive a family of more than a dozen people to death without changing her face.
He persuaded: "Little Daoist, if you take back this land, you will also rent it to people. Instead of looking for other tenants, you might as well use them. They still know the bottom line..."
Zhong Qiyuan tilted his head to look at him: "It is precisely because I know the bottom line and know their virtues that I don't want to rent them to them. Besides, in this world, there are not too many people who are like duckweeds wandering around. Is it difficult to find someone to farm?"
Today, there are eunuch dictatorships and disputes between party and friends in the imperial court. Outside the vassal towns, there are separatist regimes and mutual expeditions. The people are extortionate and miscellaneous taxes and corvee labor. They are under the jurisdiction of Xuanwu Jiedushi, and there are not many extortionate and miscellaneous taxes, but it is not easy to eat enough in the disaster year.
The Zhong family's fields only receive less than 20% of the rent tax, whichever tenant seems to be a good thing for the sky to fall!
Someone immediately stood up: "I want to rent, I can give 30% of the rent!"
The Shu family didn't expect that someone would be so cruel to kill their family, and immediately stared at that person hatefully. But what they didn't expect was that more people scrambled to stand up and want to get a piece of the pie.
Zhong Qiyuan raised the corners of his lips: "Lizheng, look."
Li Zheng: "… "
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and knew that the Zhong family's rent and taxes were very low, not to mention these tenants, even he wanted to rent the Zhong's land, and then raise the rent and sublease it to others.
He invited Zhong Qiyuan to the side and persuaded: "Little Daoist, there are many tenants here who belong to the main family. Your tax is so low, in case the appetite of these tenants grows up and goes back to make trouble, Their masters will never let you go, and please don't charge such a low tax."
The Zhong family set the rent and tax so much lower than their peers, which indeed easily constituted "unfair competition" in later generations, and was attacked by other landlords.
But is Zhong Qiyuan someone who can easily change his mind because of what others say
She is not, her purpose is to go back to these fields and plan how to plant them, so she doesn't care so much.
"Don't let me go? Let them try." Zhong Qiyuan calmly said, "All in all, 160,000 yuan, or 80 stone grains, half of the money and half of the grain is fine. I'll give you ten days, if you can't get it all together, I'll bring the officials to the door next time."
After putting those words aside, Zhong Qiyuan went to find Zhong Chuyuan.
The little radish head just finished eating the chicken wings, and he kept sucking the remaining bones, trying to suck up the little bit of meat in the bones.
Zhong Qiyuan patted the little radish's head lightly: "Yuanyuan, go."
"Okay." The little radish head took out a cold roasted wing from the oil-wrapped paper and handed it to her, "Sister, this is from Sister Yun, but it's delicious."
Zhong Qiyuan looked around, Yun Congwan had already left and disappeared. She took the roasted wing and took a big bite under the coveted eyes of the radish head: "It tastes good."
"Sister, you can eat longer if you eat a small mouthful!" Little Radish Head stared at the roasted wings while teaching her the great classic of eating.
"Your stomach is so big, you eat big or small, and you will eat the same amount of food in the end. The better the food, the more coveted it is. If you eat slowly and for a long time, someone will grab you at any time. . Only what you eat is yours, understand?"
The little radish head seems to understand but not understand.
Zhong Qiyuan didn't explain it either, and he drove home after eating the grilled wings.
When he got home, Zhong Chuyuan gave the remaining roasted wing to Meng Shi, who took a small bite and said that he was not hungry, and let the two daughters share it.
Zhong Qiyuan chopped firewood without raising his head: "I've eaten it."
Although the little radish head was very greedy, he still answered sensible: "Yuanyuan has eaten it too, mother eats it."
Meng Shi was ironing the post in her heart, and said, "Mother doesn't like to eat, so it's not good to waste it."
Zhong Qiyuan said: "Mother's illness should eat more meat, otherwise no amount of medicine will have little effect."
Meng Shi was a little stunned: "Is there such a statement?"
"Yes, in addition to meat, you should also eat fish, eggs, milk, etc."
Meng Shi suddenly felt embarrassed: "How can you eat these things often, you can't eat up your family?!"
"Let's not talk about it, there is meat right now, isn't it? Besides, your illness is always worrying about your life. If there is any good or bad..."
Meng Shi thought of her cruel husband-in-law. If she died suddenly, it would be her two daughters who would suffer. In order to survive, she ate it without hesitation. Of course, in the end, she still left a chicken wing tip for Zhong Chuyuan to eat slowly.
Seeing her little daughter's greedy cat appearance, and thinking of the comparison between the Zhong family and the Yun family's situation, Meng's heart suddenly felt extremely sad.
Zhong Zao was the secretary in charge, and Shi Hong gave him a very generous salary, plus he was exempted from the family's harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, not to mention eating meat, and occasionally a little meat. But he spent all his money on his concubines and concubines in his back house, and he never took a penny home to her.
As for the Yun family, Yun Congwan's father was Shi Hong's subordinate, and his salary was far less than that of Zhong Zao, but how could the Yun family not be better than the Zhong family in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation? This is just because Father Yun's backyard is simple, with only one son and one daughter under his knees, and his salary is all taken care of by his wife, and he has never touched his wife's dowry...
"Mother, don't think too much about your illness," Zhong Qiyuan reminded.
Meng Shi regained his senses and asked, "How can I know what my mother is thinking?"
"It's written on the face."
Meng Shi covered her face, thinking that she would have to hide it in the future, so as not to worry about her two daughters.
She remembered the business and asked again, "What is the result of you going to collect rent?"
Zhong Chuyuan took the initiative to repeat to her the cruel words that Zhong Qiyuan finally said. She looked at Zhong Qiyuan as if to prove it, the latter nodded and acquiesced.
Meng: "In case..."
"Salute first and then soldiers, if you don't listen to reason, you can only speak with your fists."
Meng Shi couldn't think of a better solution than this, and he could only see how the situation would develop in the future.
—
Only six days after the ten-day appointment, someone in Beiwei came quietly to tell Zhong Qiyuan: "The Shu family has run away!"
Meng Shi didn't expect that the Shu family's choice was to run away. She asked, "Wan'er, what are you going to do?"
Zhong Qiyuan's expression was as usual, as if he had anticipated: "they have swallowed too much food in the past two years, how can it be handed over? Even if we scraped together 160,000 yuan, we don't rent the land to them, they are used to it. How can you live a life of paying 50% of the rent when you don’t pay rent? You have to be a floating household, why don’t we flee with all our belongings before we can react?”
"That-"
Zhong Qiyuan asked, "How long have they been running?"
"The day after the little Daoist left, the old man Shu sold the food to Lizheng, saying that he would exchange the money and return it to you. Then the mother-in-law of the Shu family took the child away in the name of visiting relatives that day. People suspected that until two days later, the son of the Shu family also said that he was going to find a way to collect enough rent and tax, and left Beiweili one after another. Yesterday, the old man Shu went to work in the fields, but he didn't come back this morning. Everyone pried him open. When I looked at the door, it was empty."
Zhong Qiyuan touched his chin: "This trick to survive by cutting off the tail is good, and it's courageous enough."
Seeing that she was still in the mood to evaluate the Shu family's wit, the man was a little dumbfounded: "Little Daoist, aren't you in a hurry?"
"What's the use of rushing?" Zhong Qiyuan said, "In this chaotic world, there are only two ways for them to go. They can either join the ranks of the refugees and go south; or they can escape into the forest where the officers and soldiers cannot find them. Maybe, They'll also go separately. Either way, it's not easy to find them all at once."
"Why are you heading south?" Meng Shi asked.
"There is a disaster in the north, but the south is more stable. If they don't want to die, they will naturally go to the south." Zhong Qiyuan told Meng Shi, "Mother, when you go to report to the officials, let them search in this direction!"
The whistleblower thought that Zhong Qiyuan would just let it go, but she didn't expect that she would not only be the real reporter, but also give directions to the pursuit.
What the Shu family did was betting entirely on whether Zhong Qiyuan would be held accountable, and whether the government would catch them.
When Mrs. Meng went to report to the official and came back, she asked Zhong Qiyuan worriedly: "They escaped, what about the tax?"
Zhong Qiyuan said, "I didn't expect to live on their rent."
"That-"
Zhong Qiyuan held out a small box, and Mr. Meng opened it and saw that there were several silver medals and silver ingots inside. The large one was fifty taels, and the small one was seventy taels, adding up to more than three hundred taels.
There is no need for Meng Shi to ask the origin of the silver ingots, because the name of the Taoist temple where Zhong Qi wished to become a monk was written on it, indicating that these silver ingots came from Taoist temples.
"I've saved it over the years." Zhong Qiyuan knew what Meng Shi wanted to ask, so he explained it first.
The money was indeed saved by Zhong Qi's wish. There are more than ten hectares of farmland under the name of the Taoist temple. There is no tax payment, and there is also income from rent and tax, as well as income from ordinary practices and other income.
Zhong Qi wished to become a monk and became a temple householder, so she naturally had a share of the Taoist temple's income. She usually spends food and clothing in Taoist temples, and is addicted to alchemy, so she usually doesn't spend much, so she saves the money.
"No wonder so many people become monks to avoid paying taxes!" Meng Shi sighed, thinking of her daughter, she added, "Mother is not talking about you."
Zhong Qiyuan said it didn't matter, she said, "Besides, I also took some jobs."
"What live?"
"What else can a Taoist do?"
The Meng language is blocked.
Zhong Chuyuan took the initiative to say, "Sister, Yuanyuan also wants to help her!"
"Okay, but don't cry. When the time comes, I'll make some money and share it with you."
The sisters just said that, Meng Shi also wanted to help, but was ruthlessly rejected.
She probably also knew that her health was not good. In order not to let the burden of raising the family fall on the shoulders of her two daughters, she strengthened physical training on weekdays. Within a month, her complexion was visibly better.