Chapter 555: Give Him a Taste of His Own
What Sang Yu didn't expect was that the person Gu Yanchen married was actually the granddaughter of Master Shen...
According to the news he had heard in the northwest, Master Shen's granddaughter was illiterate and very willful.
But from what he saw and heard with his own eyes, the woman in front of him did not seem as despicable as the rumors said.
Gu Yanchen was somewhat displeased with the inquiry in his eyes, so he pulled Ran Qingxuan to his side to block his sight.
Zhu Baoju had no choice but to take out the money. She counted the silver bills and silver ingots in her bag and found that she was still short of more than four hundred taels of silver.
"Sir, I still need 416 taels... Can you let it go?"
Zhu Baoju's words seemed like a joke. It was unheard of that compensation could be bargained for.
"You said it yourself, you should pay as much as you should?"
The onlookers were enjoying the fun and chattered away, making fun of what she had just said.
Zhu Baoju's face turned blue and red, and she had already been cursing in her heart.
"Then what can I do? We have already paid all the compensation, but we are still short of more than 400 taels of silver. Where can we, an orphan and a widow, get the money?"
Zhu Baoju was so angry that she threw the bag to the ground, sat on the ground and started to perform.
"Why is my life so miserable... Not only is my son dead, but even the head of the family is going to die, and now they don't even leave us a penny. It's totally unfair..."
Ran Qingxuan watched her crying and slightly opened his eyes to check the expressions of the people around him.
"I've already paid more than 10,000 taels, if there's really nothing left, just forget it..."
"Go and earn four hundred taels and see if it's that easy."
The people who said forget it felt a little guilty and said awkwardly: "It's just talk, anyway, we have already received more than 10,000 taels..."
The people next to him rolled their eyes at the person who was speaking, and Zhu Baoju acted even more enthusiastically when she saw this.
Ran Qingxuan felt it was a waste of effort when he saw that she couldn't squeeze out even two tears.
His eyes rolled back and he gave her a big one.
"Ahem... Actually, you don't have to pay the remaining four hundred taels..."
"Wow... huh?"
Zhu Baoju, who was trying hard to squeeze out tears, stopped crying instantly, and even a hint of joy flashed across her face.
"Are you serious? You really don't have to pay for it?"
"Sister Ran, isn't this too cheap for their family?"
Xiao Wenmei said cautiously on the side that although she had no decision-making power in this matter, what the Qian family did almost killed her brother.
They even burned the wood without leaving them any chance to survive. It was so easy to do so. It was simply unacceptable.
Ran Qingxuan knew that Xiao Wenmei was usually timid, but the fact that she had the courage to say this in front of so many people showed that she was really angry.
Zhu Baoju rolled her eyes at Xiao Wenmei and said sarcastically, "What does it have to do with you? They said you don't have to pay..."
"This family is really rich. They said they would not compensate for more than 400 taels of silver..."
"I can tell from the first glance that you came later. Didn't you hear that the young lady is the granddaughter of the Grand Tutor? She already has 1,000 taels of gold. What's the point of 400 taels?"
"Hey, I just came here. What exciting things did I miss?"
"That's a lot!"
Those who had watched the whole process were telling the newcomers what had happened before. Ran Qingxuan just found their words ridiculous.
Just say it's more than four hundred taels, but do you think she's some charity giving out welfare?
Just as Zhu Baoju was feeling complacent, Ran Qingxuan said leisurely, "What are you thinking about? Four hundred taels is enough for an ordinary family of three to live on for a lifetime. Do you think my money came from the wind?"
Zhu Baoju's face changed, and hesitantly said: "You said you don't have to pay, and you said these words, what do you mean?"
"What's the meaning?"
Ran Qingxuan sneered: "If you don't have money to pay, why don't you mortgage the house you live in and the land you own?"
Thinking back to the time when the Qian family had stolen many people’s houses by raising interest rates, she now wanted the Qian family to taste the consequences of their own actions.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Baoju and his two sons instantly exploded, and the shouting and cursing was simply unbearable to hear.
Tang En wanted to end this farce as soon as possible, so he asked the officials to find the houses and fertile land registered under the Qian family's household registration.
Zhu Baoju was still crying and wailing, but Tang En gave her the result directly.
"There are a total of 19 houses registered in Yongfeng Village under Qian Guoli's name, of varying sizes, with a total value of 220 taels of silver."
"There are also 67 acres of land, totaling 154 taels of silver..."
"No... No, sir, you have miscalculated. Our fields are all good lands. How could they be worth only one hundred and fifty-four taels?"
Zhu Baoju thought she had misheard, but Tang En looked at the records in the booklet and knew what was going on better than anyone else.
"It's clearly written in black and white that the price of each acre of land he reclaimed was only two taels of silver. Qian Guoli personally submitted this to the government. How could it be wrong?"
"No... not..."
Zhu Baoju knew something, but she couldn't speak out.
"Don't tell me that you lied about the price per acre in order to avoid paying land tax, right?"
Sang Yu's smile was as warm as a spring breeze, but what she said was very sharp.
Zhu Baoju's face turned red and she didn't dare to say another word.
Because there was a law in the Northern Qi Dynasty that as long as the value of a piece of land did not exceed two taels of silver, no additional land tax would need to be paid.
As a result, many people openly sold two taels of land, but the actual price they sold privately was two or three times higher. Once it was discovered and verified to be true, both the buyer and the seller of the land would have to go to jail.
Zhu Baoju seemed to have lost all her strength and nodded resignedly.
"Yes...I remembered it wrongly."
Tang En continued, "The total is three hundred and seventy-four taels. In the end, your family still owes them forty..."
"Forty-two taels, sir..."
Tang En glared at the officer who was reminding him and said unhappily, "I know, why do I need you to remind me..."
The officer smiled awkwardly and stepped back.
"You still owe 42 taels. Then take off their clothes and jewelry and use that as payment for the remaining money!"
"You...you've gone too far...with your clothes taken off, how are we going to survive in this cold winter?"
"That's right. We have lost our house. Where are we going to live? Are we going to freeze to death on the streets?"
Ran Qingxuan said with a cold look on his face: "Now you know that you can't live without a house, and you can't live without money?"
"When you designed the houses for those people in your village, why didn't you think about whether they could survive?"
"When your son Qian Ming raped women and married men, did he ever think about whether they would survive after he stripped them of their clothes?"
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