Grandma Li held Jiayin in her arms and watched the commotion from the side, her back ramrod straight.
Having many sons and a thriving family is the greatest source of confidence for the Li family.
With the roster and charcoal pencil given to him by the village chief, Li Lao Er had already calculated the grain tax that each household had to pay before the yamen runners arrived.
Qingshui Village has a small population, so the government only sent two yamen runners.
From a great distance, everyone saw a donkey cart swaying and wobbling towards the village entrance.
As the donkey cart approached, the two bailiffs on the shaft jumped down; one was tall and thin, the other short and stout, and they looked rather comical.
"Wow! Your village is doing really well this year, we didn't have to go door to door to urge them."
The tall, thin yamen runner had a sharp and sarcastic expression and spoke in a sarcastic tone.
The short, stout constable didn't say anything. He walked with a sullen face to the nearest bag of grain and kicked it.
"This year's harvest is good, so you'd better pay the taxes and grain in full. Don't try to cheat the court and take advantage of us just because you were a soldier."
"Sir, you're joking. Our village has always paid the most taxes every year. We were willing to shed blood for the imperial court back then, so how could we be short a few pounds of grain now?"
The village chief was angry when he heard them speak unpleasantly, and his response was equally curt.
The other villagers also looked grim when they saw the yamen runners.
These corrupt yamen runners are the worst kind of scoundrels.
Not only is he incompetent, but he also uses his position as a county magistrate to oppress the people.
Moreover, the yamen runners are permanent, but the county officials come and go.
Whether the county magistrate is honest or corrupt, these yamen runners are unaffected and continue to bully the people as before.
With no way to seek justice, ordinary people can only swallow their anger.
The two constables naturally noticed the villagers' gazes, but they were not afraid; their eyes remained disdainful.
They're just a bunch of useless people abandoned by the court. What trouble can they cause? They're lucky to even be alive.
The tall, thin yamen runner chuckled and took out a booklet containing the land and population figures of Qingshui Village.
"A new family moved into your village recently. They didn't have a harvest this autumn, so they will have to start paying grain tax again next year."
The tall, thin yamen runner turned two pages and said to the village chief.
The village chief nodded and looked at the Li family.
Li Lao Er stepped forward at the opportune moment, carrying a basket of apples and pears, and greeted him with a smile.
"Sir, you are referring to our family. Thank you for your understanding. Please accept these fruits; they will quench your thirst on the journey."
These apples and pears were all "picked up" by Li Laosi from the mountain.
Not to mention these yamen runners, even the county magistrate of Junyang County might not be able to eat fruit of such high quality.
The yamen runner recognized the item as a valuable treasure, and his eyes lit up. He even started to smile at Li Lao Er.
"You're a sensible kid."
He picked up the basket, tossed it around, and became even more satisfied.
"It's all the best we can do. The official has come all this way, it must be very tiring for him."
We have nothing good in this poor, remote place, except for these fruits, which are of decent quality. We are fortunate that the official doesn't find them undesirable.”
Li Lao Er wore a smile on his face, and his words were flattering but not annoying, which made the two yamen runners even happier.
The short, stout constable walked over, peered at the basket of fruit, and his Adam's apple bobbed slightly.
Seeing this, Li Lao Er quickly took out two bright yellow pears, wiped them clean on his clothes, and then stuffed them into the hands of the two yamen runners.
"Gentlemen, it's still early. Why not have a little longer? Have some pears and rest for a while."
The two constables naturally didn't refuse and started eating heartily; they both enjoyed the sweet pears.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Lao Er chatted casually for a while, and soon they were laughing and talking.
"Sir, you may not know this, but my family also fled here during the famine. We've seen too many starving people die along the way. Here, we still have a harvest, but back home, there wasn't even a single wild vegetable or weed. It's truly difficult for ordinary people to survive..."
Upon hearing this, the tall, thin constable asked, "Where are you from?"
"Beyond the Great Wall," Li Lao Er quickly replied, "we fled famine for a month, and luckily we met a benefactor who gave our family a ride on a boat, which brought us here."
The tall, thin constable nodded and sighed.
“My uncle’s family is also in the border region. When I heard the news a few days ago, they said that everyone had died. You guys are lucky.”
"My lord, please accept my condolences. Of the villagers in our area, only one in ten survived."
Li Lao Er sighed, taking the opportunity to curry favor.
"If you ever want to eat any food from beyond the Great Wall, sir, please come and sit at my house."
"It was just a casual remark." The tall, thin constable finished the pear in a few bites, then stood up and patted his colleague on the shoulder. "Go and do the calculations, and get back to report as soon as possible."
The short, stout yamen runner had already finished eating. Hearing what he said, he got up and took a measuring cup to weigh the grain.
According to the custom of previous years, after filling the bucket to the brim, they would kick it to scatter the grain on the ground, and then collect the grain back up; that was their profit.
But just as the short, stout bailiff was about to lift his foot, he was stopped by the tall, thin bailiff.
Let's skip it this year.
The short, stout constable frowned; this "kicking the bucket" was an annual ritual.
The county magistrate was shrewd; they didn't get much benefit on a regular basis, but they fattened their pockets by playing the game of kicking buckets in the autumn.
The tall, thin yamen runner didn't explain much and began to calculate the grain handed over by each household according to the numbers in the register.
The villagers weren't stupid; they all realized that the tall, thin yamen runner had been "bribed" by Li Lao Er, so they quickly and efficiently weighed the items, packed them into bags, and loaded them onto the donkey cart.
After the two constables left, everyone happily carried the remaining grain they had saved and thanked Li Lao Er.
"We really owe it all to Yusheng, otherwise we would have had our grain deducted even more this year!"
"Yes! Yusheng is really amazing, he saved us a lot of food!"
"The Li family are all good people; they've helped us so much these past few days!"
Hearing the villagers' praise, the Li family was overjoyed, and the fatigue from a busy morning instantly disappeared.
In the afternoon, the villagers delivered another batch of things to the Li family.
Those families with plenty of land would receive ten or twenty catties of sorghum, while those struggling financially would receive dried vegetables and mushrooms—in short, they did their best to help.
The Li family accepted the gifts generously, which made the villagers feel that the Li family was truly trustworthy.
The day after the grain tax was paid, the temperature plummeted, and a cool autumn rain poured down.
The villagers could stay home and take shelter from the rain without worry, but the Liu family was completely dumbfounded.
Previously, his family had to pay grain taxes, and only after Guo urged him day and night did Liu Tiezhu reluctantly go to the fields to harvest some grain.
The original plan was to collect the remaining grain slowly after the grain tax was paid.
Unexpectedly, this autumn rain disrupted all plans.
"What sins have I committed to deserve this? You bunch of good-for-nothings! You didn't even bother to harvest the crops, and the rain ruined them all..."
Thinking of the unharvested grain in the fields, Guo sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), slapping her thigh and wailing.
All the grain they harvested went to taxes, and they had no grain stored at home. How were they going to survive the winter?
"Mother, who are you talking to? Tiezhu already has a backache; it's good enough that he managed to collect the taxed grain. On the contrary, my second brother has been gallivanting around in the county town and hasn't done anything!"
Upon hearing Guo's words, Su Niang immediately became displeased.
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