Chapter 550 Could it be worse?
At night, the bright moon shone through the window, and Cui Sanlun tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Hezhong Prefecture was in such a state of chaos, with officials, soldiers, bandits, powerful and wealthy people, and many other forces entangled together like a mess of code.
Cui Sanlun frowned tightly.
He knew what Li Mingde and others meant. They wanted him to tell Gu Nanxi to go south as soon as possible.
Cui Sanlun sat up, walked to the window, looked at the bright moon in the sky, and thought hard.
Is it that Hezhong County has always been like this, or did Li Mingde and others deliberately allow the situation to degenerate to this point?
People's hearts are fickle, especially after entering officialdom. It is not surprising that a person will make any choice in the face of fame, wealth and power.
Going south?
Not going south?
Cui Sanlun only felt that he was in a fog and could not tell the direction. Behind the fog, there might be countless man-eating monsters.
Following a loud crowing of a rooster, Cui Sanlun walked into the yard and happened to meet Song Da's family.
Song Dachao bowed to Cui Sanlun: "Our family discussed it last night and originally planned to stay in Hezhong Prefecture to recuperate."
Song Da forced a bitter smile and said, "Looking at the current situation, Hezhong Prefecture is not suitable for us. So we plan to follow you all the way north to Yunzhou to take a look."
"Yunzhou has just experienced war, and I'm afraid it's no longer as prosperous as it used to be."
Madam Song's eyes sparkled: "But the general is there. It's always different where the general is."
The only way to get from Hezhong to Shuozhou is by land.
Li Mingde arranged a caravan for Cui Sanlun from the Baida Express, which had more than fifty guards.
If the Song family wanted to go along, all they had to do was add a carriage. It was very simple.
Cui Sanlun didn't want to stay in Hezhong Prefecture any longer.
On the third day, a group of people prepared to set off.
This time we still have to go through the west gate of Hezhong Prefecture. With so many guards here, no one will dare to provoke us.
While people were waiting in line, a commotion broke out not far from the city gate.
An old woman with a lame leg grabbed a woman's collar and yelled, "You little slut, you stole from me! Tell me, where did you hide my money?!"
The old woman hammered and hit her wife, her dim eyes full of ferocity.
The woman tightly protected the baby in her arms and cried while being beaten.
"You bastard! You deserve to go to hell after you die!"
Cui Sanlun: "Isn't that the old woman selling fish in the village?"
Cui Sanlun had been feeling very heavy these days. When he saw this, he stepped forward and said, "We are neighbors going on a blind date. How much money are you short of? I'll give it to you."
The old woman didn't even look at Cui Sanlun. She was like a madman, constantly tearing at the young lady: "Widow Deng, tell me where my money went! If you don't tell me, I will throw your child!"
After saying this, the old woman tried to snatch the baby from Widow Deng's arms.
Widow Deng suddenly raised her head, pushed the old woman away, and said angrily: "It's gone! The tax collector took all the money! Fuck his ancestors for eighteen generations, why are they collecting widow tax and head tax? My son is less than one year old and he still has to pay head tax!"
Widow Deng sat down on the ground and cried heartbreakingly: "My family even sold the land, why do we still have to pay land tax?!"
Widow Deng looked at the old woman fiercely: "You old woman, you are so lucky. You lost both your son and daughter, and yet there are still people willing to help you!"
The old woman seemed to be greatly stimulated. She covered her head with her hands and squatted down: "You are talking nonsense! My son has gone to the army and often writes to my daughter! My daughter married in the county and lives a good life!"
Widow Deng sneered, "Stop deceiving yourself! Your son joined the army in exchange for 500 copper coins, but in fact he was dragged by the governor to work in a quarry and died in the mine!"
"Your daughter said she was married to the county, but in fact she was sold to a brothel by her husband's family and was tortured to death! Only the little girl in the brothel was kind-hearted. She hired a scholar on the street to write a letter home and send it to you every month!"
The old woman kept shaking her head: "You are talking nonsense, you are talking nonsense!"
Widow Deng has been hungry for three days and can't produce any milk. She also owes the Wu family 700 yuan for water. She has no way to make a living!
Widow Deng cried and laughed, and could only stab the weaker person with her sharp dagger: "If not, why don't you accept the money from the adults?!"
The old woman felt like she was struck by lightning. She could no longer deceive herself. She covered her chest, sat down on the ground and slapped her thighs.
"My son! I didn't spend a cent of the five hundred coins! My poor little mother, I carried three loads of dowry to send you off, but I only got a piece of red silk!"
Five hundred coins wrapped in this piece of red silk is the only belief that keeps the old woman alive.
The two women cried heartbreakingly.
The people around were too lazy to even look at it, and they didn't even stop for a moment.
Cui Sanlun clenched his fists tightly and squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "Li Mingde, the Great Zhou encourages remarriage, when will the widow tax be collected?! Why should the head tax be borne by a one-year-old child? What about the water fee?!"
Li Mingde's eyes were dark, without a trace of concealment: "At the beginning, the government wanted to build an observatory and asked the states to fund it. Hezhong Prefecture had not recovered yet, so how could it come up with the money? So they increased the taxes."
Cui Sanlun: "Didn't the government suspend the construction?"
Li Mingde: "It is easy to raise taxes, but difficult to lower them."
"What about the water bill?"
Li Mingde had a strange smile on his face. "It is said that the whole world belongs to the king. In order to solve the problem of insufficient finances in Hezhong Prefecture, the governor sold the fields and mountains. Every river in Hezhong Prefecture has its owner."
"Nonsense! This is simply rebellion against Tian Gang! Why don't you report this to the court?!"
Li Mingde sighed: "Ancestor Yi, who among these people doesn't have one or two officials from Beijing standing behind them? Guess who is behind the family with the most hilltops?"
"Master Tong?"
Li Mingde burst out laughing, his eyes were extremely complicated: "No, it's Elder Li."
The old woman and Widow Deng were still crying loudly, their cries were piercing.
Cui Sanlun stood there in silence for a long time, then took out two taels of silver from his purse and stuffed them into the old woman and widow Deng's pockets: "Don't cry, each of you has one tael, and you are not allowed to fight over it."
After Cui Sanlun threw the silver, he climbed into the car.
Li Mingde sighed secretly, gave the two strong men a few words, and then got into the carriage.
"What did you tell them?"
Li Mingde: "Tell them to protect Widow Deng and the old woman and spend all the money."
"It's only one or two ounces of silver. Is it that important?"
"Even a steamed bun can easily lead to fatal disaster." Li Mingde knelt down and kowtowed.
"Yizu, you can save one person, but you can't save a whole county. I beg you to have mercy on the people in Hezhong and relieve their suffering!"
Cui Sanlun didn't want Gu Nanxi to rashly go south at this time. Going south at this time would be too much of a test for Gu Nanxi.
"Have you ever thought that this might cause great suffering to people?"
"What could be worse than this?"
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