"Junjun, find a chance to take a picture of us? Once you're done, we'll give you a reward when we get back."

"Got it. You lead them to run in a row. Hey, that's it. It's so beautiful."

"Ka, ka, ka" the treasure-hunting mouse Junjun hid in the tree of the peach forest and took a lot of photos.

Song Jinxiu led everyone to walk along the ridge of the rapeseed field, bathing in the spring breeze, smelling the fragrance of the flowers, feeling very comfortable.

Suddenly, a man rushed out from the side, knelt down in front of her, and cried out in pain: "Princess, I am innocent, I hope you can help us!"

Tian Yuanyuan was frightened and staggered. Song Jinxiu quickly reached out to support her.

Song Jinfang and Wei Qidong rushed to Song Jinxiu at the same time, pretending to protect her.

Song Jinxiu separated the two people, looked at the little girl with a face full of mud on the ground and asked, "Who are you?"

The little girl kowtowed and said, "I am Li Cuiya, a humble person. I beg the princess to save my brother."

"What happened to your brother?"

"He was locked up by the customs officers, who said that if he didn't pay taxes, he would be executed in the autumn."

“Tax resistance?”

"No, we are not resisting taxes."

It turned out that the girl was from Xingyang, and lived by the Xing River. Their family originally had 10 mu of paddy fields, but more than a decade ago, the Yingjiang River broke its dike and buried 8 mu of the fields in quicksand.

After the water receded, more than six feet of yellow sand and gravel were left, which could not be reclaimed at all. Therefore, the family actually had only six mu of paddy fields left, but the annual tax and labor dispatch were still calculated based on ten mu.

Although their family asked people to write letters to the county government to explain the reason many times, they were rejected every time.

Because the fields in the grain tax register had long been included in the imperial fish scale register, the Ministry of Revenue collected grain and apportioned taxes every year based on the on-site records.

What if your family loses ten acres and his family loses one acre, and neither of them pays taxes? It's impossible for the county magistrate to pay the taxes for them out of his own pocket, right?

If you report it to the higher authorities, not only will you have to deal with a lot of trouble, you may also lose your job.

Even if he could keep his official position, he would not be able to pass the annual official assessment without a source of tax revenue.

So from the county magistrate to the prefect, everyone turned a blind eye and ignored it.

This has made life difficult for the common people.

In theory, this is just a matter of destroying a few acres of land. It seems very simple, but it is extremely difficult for ordinary people to solve it.

The Li family avenged this great injustice, but had nowhere to turn to for help. Every year they had to pay the emperor grain not less than a pound or an ounce.

Life was already difficult for a small family, and this incident made things even worse.

If one had six mu of land, he would pay ten mu of tax grain. In a good year, he could still keep some grain to support himself. In years of disaster, all the rice harvested might not be enough to pay in. The family's life was completely uncertain.

In order to prevent the people in its jurisdiction from starving to death, the government came up with a solution: the tax silver must not be reduced, but the account can be increased.

After accumulating money for more than ten years, their family worked hard day and night, but ended up in debt to the government, equivalent to more than twenty taels of tax silver.

It had been going on like this year after year, and it hadn't really killed them.

But at the end of last year, a new county magistrate came and took charge of the new position. We ask the people to pay all the taxes they have paid before.

Twenty taels of silver was not enough even if they sold their home. On the tenth day of the lunar year, the only man in the family, the girl's brother, was thrown into jail.

There are only mother, sister-in-law, little girl and a niece left at home.

The four women had no one to turn to for help, so they knelt down at the gate of the county government office along with the others and begged for more time.

The reason why I followed everyone else was because there were more than one family in the same situation as theirs.

Finally, an old yamen runner couldn't stand it anymore and secretly gave them an idea, asking them to go to the capital to file a complaint with the emperor.

Therefore, these families got together to discuss and decided to send one person from each family to go to the capital together.

It was said that those who filed a complaint to the emperor would be beaten with a stick first, so the men sent by each household were all men, except for the little girl's family, who were in trouble.

The old mother had a weak leg and could not keep up with the team. The team that filed a complaint did not want her. The little niece was young and could not leave her sister-in-law, so fourteen-year-old Li Cuiya followed.

However, now that the county magistrate knew the news, how could he allow them to leave the county? Want to visit and file a complaint? There is no door. Officers were sent to arrest him.

All the men were captured, except for the little girl who hid in the bushes and was ignored, so they let her go.

The little girl didn't know the way to the capital, so she didn't dare to ask. It took her two months to get there, which was supposed to be a half-month journey.

When she arrived in the capital, she was completely in the dark. She only knew to file a complaint with the emperor, but the emperor was in the palace and she couldn't even get close to it.

She wanted to go to the gate of the Jingzhao Yin Yamen to appeal for justice, but she was driven away before she could open her mouth.

She was penniless and had been begging all the way. She didn't expect that when she arrived in the capital and wanted to ask for a meal, she was almost dragged and sold to a brothel.

She escaped from those people, ran all the way, and unexpectedly came to this Fuhua Temple.

The temple provided free vegetarian food, so she didn't have to go hungry. The young monk allowed her to sleep in the woodshed, but only on the condition that she helped him clear the weeds from the peach forest.

So Li Cuiya lived in Fuhua Temple.

But she was obsessed with filing a complaint with the emperor, and every time she saw an official's wife, she would stop them and cry out for justice.

The official's wife sighed and said, "I am not Princess Kangle. I can't help you even if you cry out for injustice. You should find someone else."

Although the official's wife walked away in anger, Li Cuiya kowtowed to her from behind with great gratitude.

Going to Beijing alone, sleeping in the open air all the way, experiencing the fickleness of human nature, and escaping death, the little girl has been able to listen to words and distinguish right from wrong.

Because although the lady did not help her, she showed her a way.

That is, if you want to file a complaint with the emperor, you have to find Princess Kang Le.

Princess Kangle was a good official. She had heard about it as soon as she arrived in the capital.

So, when she heard Wei Qidong mention Princess Kangle, she chased after him almost as a conditioned reflex.

Song Jinxiu frowned after listening to the little girl's crying.

She has to go to the Ministry of Revenue to ask about taxation in various places.

"Stand up now. Let me investigate. If what you said is true, I will make the decision for you."

Li Cuiya was taken home by Song Jinxiu.

Chen Yaer, who was hiding in the dark watching the fun, sneered at everyone.

What a country boy, he would take in any cat or dog. Without the slightest reserve and caution of a lady from an aristocratic family, how could such a person be a princess?

Is the emperor bewildered by her beauty?

Cui Zixuan narrowed her eyes: "If that's the case, then can I easily arrange someone to go to that bitch?"

Well, are you pretending to cry out for injustice and complain? Or sell yourself to bury your father?

Ministry of Households,

Song Jinxiu opened the Xingyang fish scale book and seemed to see a miniature version of Xingyang County.

The account book is like a miniature map.

Houses, mountains, forests, ponds, rivers, and fields are drawn in order and connected on a piece of paper with the corresponding names marked on them. They are arranged one frame after another like fish scales, no wonder it is called the Fish Scale Book.

Song Jinxiu saw it clearly at a glance.