Then the head constable shouted, "By imperial decree, every household must hand over 50 catties of grain now."

Everyone was in a dilemma upon hearing this, since food was extremely expensive at the moment, and they had not stockpiled any grain before. If they had to take out dozens of kilograms of grain, wouldn't they be out of food?

"Why would they need food at this time?" an older woman nearby asked anxiously.

Another old woman was also so anxious that she kept slapping her thigh, saying, "We need an explanation! We can't just hand over grain for no reason!"

I've never heard of having to hand over grain at this time of year.

A literate man nearby approached the village chief and said, "Village chief, we can't just hand this over for no reason. Could it be that someone is extorting us?"

Upon hearing this, the village chief looked at the person who had leaned close to his ear to speak.

The surrounding crowd started arguing.

"Don't make a fuss! We're just following orders."

The head constable sternly stopped the commotion and said, "Brother Su, we know your family's status, but we are just following orders. Please don't make things difficult for us."

The head constable naturally knew that Taoliu Village was different from other villages, so he couldn't use force and could only try to persuade them with kind words.

After bowing respectfully, Su Laoda asked, "Brothers, could you please tell me why we suddenly need so much grain?"

The head constable breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the Su family was easy to talk to. Not only did the Su family have a high status, but he also heard that they had a close relationship with the county magistrate.

"This is a direct notice issued by the prefectural government. Not only do you have to hand over grain, but all the grain in the official granaries must also be handed over."

The grain transport team from the prefectural city is waiting for us at the county government office to deliver the grain. Once the grain is collected, it will be sent out of the city tonight.

The old village chief frowned upon hearing this, sensing that something was amiss. "There must be a reason for this."

The constable ignored the old village chief's words and instead turned to the two Su brothers, saying, "Brother Su, I really didn't know about this. Your family is acquainted with the county magistrate, so you could go and inquire about it."

The county's household registration books are now in the hands of those grain inspection teams. In addition, they have obtained a letter from the prefect, which allows them to execute anyone who is missing grain without prior notification.

Although the reason wasn't explained, everyone could tell that the matter was serious and strange.

The constable leading the group addressed the still-noisy crowd, saying, "Fellow villagers, we know this grain is hard to take, but if we don't collect the grain today, whose family will be left out?"

Those people from the grain inspection team will come down and attack us. Please, fellow villagers, don't make things difficult for us."

As he spoke, he cupped his hands in a respectful gesture to the crowd.

If they were from other villages, they would directly threaten these people with big knives, instead of trying to persuade them with kind words.

Those nearby knew from these words that they had no choice but to pay today, whether they wanted to or not.

"Hand it over! Hand it over! You can't fight city hall. They're not planning to let us live."

When the villagers of Taoliu Village heard that someone was going to be killed, they dared not refuse to hand over the money.

Led by the village chief, each household went back and delivered their grain to the village entrance.

Two handcarts were already waiting at the village entrance.

Every household handed over the exact weight of grain. The old village chief pointed to the pile of grain in front of him and said to the constables, "Sir, you see, the quantity is all here. Please check." "Yes, we'll return to the yamen to report and take our leave."

After the group finished counting the grain, they had it loaded onto a cart before pulling it away.

The villagers remained gathered together, and another round of complaints ensued.

"What exactly happened? Why are we being asked to hand over grain now?"

"I don't know, it looks pretty big. How are we going to get through this?"

"Yes, grain is now so expensive outside that it costs tens of coins per kilogram. I've heard that in many places, even if you have money, you can't buy grain."

Taoliu Village was considered relatively good; in other villages, many people genuinely couldn't pay their grain taxes, and those who couldn't had their able-bodied members arrested.

Fifty kilograms of grain may not seem like much at first glance, but mixed with wild vegetables and other grains, it's enough to feed a family for a long time.

Especially in this famine year, this is an absolute staggering amount for those impoverished families.

The old village chief said to Su Laoda and Su Laoer, "Old Su, you two have some connections with that county magistrate. See if you can help us find out what's going on, so that we can all have some idea of ​​the situation."

Su Lao Er said to Su Lao Lao, "Big Brother, shall we go and ask what's going on?"

"Alright, let's go to the county today."

In fact, they also wanted to know why the court would do this, and whether something had happened.

So, with everyone watching, Su Lao Da and Su Lao Er rode in an oxcart and hurriedly headed towards the county.

When they arrived in the county town, they found that things were clearly different from usual.

There was a military unit of over a thousand soldiers clad in leather armor stationed in the county town.

"Sir, where did these soldiers come from?" Su asked the guard at the gate.

"I don't know."

The yamen runner also knew nothing when asked.

There were many carts carrying grain in the city, and it seemed they were collecting grain from house to house.

The largest grain store, in particular, was already closed.

"This is so strange."

Su Lao Er's expression was solemn; instinctively, he had a feeling that a storm was brewing.

"Something big must have happened."

Inside the county government office.

"Sir, what exactly happened? Why are you collecting so much grain?"

At this moment, the magistrate's face was also solemn. Before he even spoke, everyone could guess that what he was about to say was definitely not good news.

The magistrate sighed, "Alas, the Prince of Xiaoyao rebelled half a month ago, cutting off the official road for transporting grain from the south, which prevented the military supplies from reaching the northern frontier."

"However, the more than 200,000 troops in the northern frontier were tied down by the barbarians, who needed a constant supply of food and fodder for their people and horses."

Now, with military provisions unable to be transported, the imperial court had no choice but to issue a strict order to the nine prefectures in the north to gather enough grain to serve as military provisions.

Our Liuzhou was naturally among them, so we sent a grain inspection team down to collect the grain.

The magistrate explained, but his tone was full of helplessness.

Su Lao Er sensed the hidden danger in this: "Does this mean that as long as the rebellion cannot be quelled, we will have to keep supplying food indefinitely?"

"No, that won't happen. We're just temporarily relieving the urgent needs of the north because we're close by."

"Once the imperial court quells the rebellion, or opens up another transportation route, that will suffice."

"I see. So, who are the troops stationed in the city?"

"The garrison in the city is here to transport grain," the county magistrate explained before Su Lao Er could finish speaking.

At this moment, Su Laoda also realized that the grain stores they had seen when they came over were all closed, so he asked, "When we came over just now, we saw that the grain stores were all closed. We wonder if their grain has also been requisitioned."