The head of the village suddenly fell silent.

The hearts of the other village heads sank.

"Li Zheng, can you please tell me what Village Chief Qin asked?"

“Could it be that the taxes have increased this year?”

Qin Yao also frowned.

The head of the village motioned for everyone to sit down first, left his son to serve tea to everyone, then turned into the inner room and took out a roll of documents.

Not all village heads have the ability to review documents, so the head of the village did not give the documents to the village heads for circulation.

He unfolded the document and read its contents.

Qin Yao only half understood the official descriptions in the document, but she heard clearly the sentence "grain tax is levied at one twelfth".

After reading all the contents, the village head respectfully rolled up the document and put it into the bamboo tube. Then he sighed and said in a deep voice:

"It has increased a little, but not too much. Plus, the harvests in the villages are pretty good this year, so there shouldn't be any problems."

That being said, except for Qin Yao's Liujia Village, other villages did not have such a good harvest.

Although the county magistrate brought everyone to Liujia Village to learn how to farm during the spring ploughing season, actually putting it into practice was a completely different matter.

There are many stubborn people, and the more remote the area they come from, the more stubborn they are.

The village chief and the young people who went there to learn tried their best to persuade them, but in reality, only a small number of them followed Liujia Village and worked hard to cultivate the land.

It is human nature to be wary and skeptical of new things before seeing the benefits.

People who went to Liujia Village saw it with their own eyes, so they believed it.

But the other villagers who didn't go with them didn't quite believe it. After all, this kind of thing had never happened before and there was no reference, so it was natural for them to feel panic and conservative.

This means that the increase in taxes this year is an obvious loss for most villagers.

Thinking about having to mobilize villagers to pay grain taxes when they return to the village, the village heads all looked unhappy.

Who doesn’t have a few unreasonable troublemakers in their family?

The grain tax could not be short by even a tael. The village heads changed their previous joyful talk about the harvest and turned into people with deep resentment and began to export grain taxes madly. Their fellow villagers were complaining about the difficulty of tax collection work.

The head of the village felt like his ears were about to explode and his throat was about to become hoarse. He turned around and saw Qin Yao holding a teacup, calmly drinking tea while looking at the blue sky and white clouds outside the house. Such a stable mood stimulated the head of the village to slam the table and yell at several village heads:

"Shut up, everyone!"

"What's the point of telling me this? This is a decree from the imperial court. If you have the guts, go and argue with the county magistrate!"

The teacup in Qin Yao's hand shook slightly, but luckily she managed to keep her hand steady and prevent the tea from spilling.

Qin Yao turned her head innocently to look at the stunned village heads. She wanted to comfort them, but then she thought that if she opened her mouth now, she might be considered showing off, so she decided to keep quiet.

Qin Yao put down her teacup, asked the village head to lend her the tax document so that she could copy a copy, and then left quickly.

Wang Xiaoyu, the head of Xiahe Village, chased after her and asked her suspiciously, "Madam Qin, aren't you anxious? Do you know how much grain is missing from the increase from one-fifteen to one-twelfth?"

Qin Yao answered the first question first, "There's no point in being anxious. The king's words are not a joke, and the government's orders cannot be changed. You and I can only accept the reality."

"Instead of arguing, why not think of ways to appease the villagers? After all..."

Qin Yao turned around and glanced at the headman's house. "The headman's situation will be the same as yours and mine. I don't want to be drowned by spit."

Wang Xiaoyu frowned and became even more worried.

Qin Yao then answered the second question, "Uncle Xiaoyu, I am good at arithmetic and know the difference between twelve and fifteen."

"I don't know about the situation in other villages, but most of the people in Xiahe Village work in my stationery factory. The harvest this year is not bad. I don't think the villagers' resistance will be too high. You just need to appease them."

Wang Xiaoyu looked at her in disbelief. "How can you say something that has nothing to do with you? Food is the life of everyone, and you say it so lightly!"

"Then what else can we do?" Qin Yao asked back calmly without changing her expression.

Wang Xiaoyu was suddenly speechless. Yes, what else can he do?

"Dad!" Wang Yu shouted while pulling the ox cart on the side of the road.

Wang Xiaoyu looked at Qin Yao with some annoyance: "My son is here to pick me up, shall we go back together?"

Qin Yao waved her hand to refuse and blew a whistle. Then she heard the sound of horse hooves coming from the river bank. After a while, a tall brown horse ran to Qin Yao and rubbed her with its head obediently.

"Uncle Xiaoyu, we are the village chief. Our mission is to collect taxes and ensure the safety of all villagers. It is better to control your emotions."

After saying that, Qin Yao jumped on the horse and rode ahead.

Wang Xiaoyu's whole body trembled, as if he was awakened by Qin Yao's words, and his mind suddenly became clear.

Grain tax is a matter of great importance. If it cannot be paid on time and the government investigates, the whole village will be ruined!

At this moment, the priorities became clear. If you don't want to die, you have to be ruthless.

Qin Yao rode the horse, but did not go straight to Liujia Village. Instead, he turned at the fork in Guandao and entered Dingjiazhuang.

She wanted to go and see how her tenants had harvested this year, and also to explain the tax situation this year.

Liu Ji is now a scholar, and all taxes for his family are exempted, so the rent for the tenants has to be adjusted.

At the beginning, Liu Ji and the tenants agreed that each would bear the taxes.

But since the family no longer needs to pay grain tax, they no longer need to bear the taxes of the tenants.

Qin Yao planned to compromise and split the taxes that the tenants originally had to pay in a 50-50 split.

This year's tax is one-twelfth, and she only wants half of it, leaving the rest to the tenants.

Other landlords did the same thing, and some even asked for more than half.

But for the tenants, as long as they could earn a little bit, they would be more willing to rent the land from scholars and candidates.

When Qin Yao returned to Liujia Village from Dingjiazhuang, the sunset had already filled the entire sky.

Everyone in the village was keeping an eye on Qin Yao's movements. On the way home, villagers carrying grain asked about her grain tax this year.

Qin Yao didn't say anything, only said: "I will copy the document tonight and post it on the notice board at the entrance of the village tomorrow. Then everyone will know it."

The villagers smiled and didn't ask any more questions.

The harvest was good this year, and each family had wages from working in the stationery factory and income from growing bitter melons. Seeing that life was getting better, it was hard not to be happy.

However, the happier the villagers were at this moment, the more uneasy Qin Yao felt.

It is one thing to pretend to be awesome like the village chief of Xiahe Village, but it is another thing entirely to actually be the villain.

Before the tax documents are posted tonight, she has to think of a way to divert the hatred.

Qin Yao walked into the house thinking, but before she could come up with anything, Yin Le, who was leading the four brothers and sisters of Dalang to harvest grain in the backyard, ran over and handed Qin Yao two letters.

"Master, this is the letter that Manager Song just brought you."

After sending the letter, he hurried back to the backyard to continue harvesting the grain.

Qin Yao raised her eyebrows. This disciple has the potential to be a beast of burden.