Chapter 117 Beginning
Regarding Yan Jing's accusation, Jun Qiulan could only remain silent.
Cowardly.
Be afraid before the battle.
There are too many uncertainties on his side, and he seems unable to give his future partner a stable and secure life.
Whether he confessed or not, he could hardly imagine the possible consequences.
If you are not honest, it means you are not honest enough in this relationship.
To be honest, he wasn't sure whether Yan Jing could accept it.
Fall in love with someone from another world, kiss, and create their own future.
It was an unknown challenge for both him and Yan Jing.
He wanted to calm down first, or rather, he needed to think things through.
Neither he nor Yan Jing are children, so they shouldn't be impulsive.
I don’t know if he is impulsive or not, but Yan Jing is really quite impulsive.
I never liked anyone before, not even had any feelings for him. Now that I have confirmed my feelings, I realize how torturous love can be.
He didn't think of himself as a pervert before, but now he has some perverted thoughts from time to time.
He wanted to lock up Jun Qiulan and torture him to find out why he was so close to him and so distant from him.
If he doesn't say anything, I'll kiss him until he has to open his mouth to breathe.
Yan Jing rubbed his temples. "I'll send you the rescheduled scenes later, but you have to be prepared. The crew can't always stick to schedule. If one scene is delayed, the rest will be delayed as well."
"I understand," Jun Qiulan said. "Thank you very much, Director Yan."
Yan Jing chuckled: "I'm used to people calling me Director Yan. I always feel uncomfortable when you call me that. Let's change the name."
Jun Qiulan thought for a moment and asked, "Mr. Yan?"
The only answer he got was Yan Jing's speechless and cold eyes.
It seems to be saying: That’s it?
Jun Qiulan was choked. After a moment, he asked tentatively, "Brother Yan?"
Yan Jing raised his eyebrows slightly, but still said nothing.
Jun Qiulan suddenly realized, "Brother Weixi?"
Yan Jing felt relieved, "Go ahead, Ji Bai."
Jun Qiulan felt amused. Was this guy trying to tease him in different ways?
But he could find no evidence.
Just as he was about to turn around, Yan Weixi called him again.
"Are you learning English recently?"
Jun Qiulan nodded, "At least it means I can learn more knowledge, so I won't be blind when I go abroad in the future."
After a pause, he quickly added, "I haven't missed studying the script, nor have I missed working on my acting skills."
Yan Jing couldn't help laughing: "Okay, go learn from yours."
He originally wanted to ask Jun Qiulan to come to him when he was free, as he knew several languages and could provide some guidance.
But when he thought about Jun Qiulan avoiding being alone with him, he thought about it and decided to forget it.
Jun Qiulan received the revised shooting schedule in the evening.
I have to say, it made him feel relieved.
When he has no scenes to act, he can tell Yan Jing and go about his own business without delaying the filming.
In other words, he had performed well before.
If he fails to meet Yan Jing's requirements in the future, he will not receive the treatment he has now.
He had heard Liu Yue and Sister Du Ruo gossiping before, and Sister Du Ruo said that this was the preference Yan Jing gave him.
Preference?
Jun Qiulan seemed really unable to refute it.
He was indeed treated differently.
Jun Qiulan sighed secretly in his heart. If possible, he would certainly want to be braver.
But the current shackles forced him to consider more.
Rebellion was originally forced by the situation, but every time he entered the city this year, he saw the different faces of the people, and he felt that he should do such a thing.
So as not to let down the ability to travel through time and space that the mysterious power gave him.
After all, the mysterious power probably wants him to do this, and since he has this ability, the first people to be saved are his family.
After everything was arranged, Jun Qiulan did not come to the crew the next day. In the morning, she sent a message to Yan Jing to tell him about it.
Yan Jing only sent him an emoticon in reply.
Just as he was about to go home, Liu Yue called again and said that he had found a house for him.
The two villas are completed and ready for moving in. The developer has provided basic decoration, so you only need to buy the furniture yourself and you can move in.
Jun Qiulan pondered for a moment and asked, "Are there any extra houses? Preferably one-story ones."
Liu Yue didn't ask anything. "It just so happens that no one is buying the floor I like. It has two elevators and four units. Do you want to buy the other two units together?"
She quoted a price.
This made Jun Qiulan a little hesitant.
There has been no new announcement recently, except that he is an image ambassador for a brand, an image ambassador, not a spokesperson. The money he is paid is not much, and he has only paid a deposit so far. The brand is still formulating his shooting plan, and he has to wait until the shooting is over before he can get the remaining money.
The rest of my income comes from a fixed amount of tens of thousands of yuan each month from folding fans and cooperative folding fan design drawings. This depends on the tourist season, but generally speaking, it is not that much.
At least when faced with buying four houses, it is indeed a bit stressful.
What was left was his previous salary and the deposit that Yan Jing gave him.
This year's expenses are not small, buying a car, buying home appliances for the other side, and paying the studio employees' wages.
Buying two houses is okay, but buying four is indeed a bit tight.
"Let me think about it?"
The villa has four bedrooms, two living rooms and two bathrooms, which is more than enough for a family.
He was mainly thinking that his second uncle and his family would come later, so the whole family would need a house.
My parents, grandparents, and younger sister also need to buy a set.
As for himself, in order to avoid being noticed by more people, he had to have a separate set of his own.
There is one unit left for emergency use. There are exactly four units on one floor, and they may not feel at ease if the remaining unit is sold to someone else.
Jun Qiulan didn't think about it for long before sending a message to Yan Jing, asking if Yan Jing could advance the remaining salary.
Yan Jing didn't say anything and the money arrived in his account.
Just a few words added: Don’t spend money recklessly.
The Yan family is rich, and the Yan family is even more famous for being born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but his grandfather educated him very well. Normally, he can buy things he needs and it doesn't matter how much money he spends, but he cannot get involved in pornography, gambling, or drugs at all.
Yan Jing knew that Jun Qiulan was sensible and that the sudden need for money must be due to something, but he still couldn't help but remind her.
Don't get involved with those things, and don't get scammed.
Jun Qiulan understood what he meant and explained, "I'm planning to buy a house. I can't just keep renting."
Yan Jing curled his lips when he saw the message.
It’s time to buy a house.
Once the money is in place, everything will be easy.
Jun Qiulan directly asked Liu Yue to help him with the house purchase, including the subsequent purchase of furniture and appliances.
It’s not that he wants to be a hands-off boss, but he really has to show up in ancient times.
My grandfather and his family had been here for a while, and finally my eldest uncle decided to stay in the city, and my second uncle also stayed in the city temporarily to see the situation and business opportunities.
As for my grandparents, they planned to go back to the village and live with Jun Qiulan and her family for a while.
I haven't seen my daughter and son-in-law for a long time.
I also want to go to the village to see how my daughter and her family have been living over the past year.
When Jun Qiulan walked out of the room that day, he happened to meet the government officials who came to collect this year's grain tax.
According to the current situation, we have to pay the grain tax.
Taxation is the main source of support for the army.
Only a portion of the business that Duan Wen and his team do will be allocated to the military, and the rest will be used to improve internal affairs and people's livelihood.
In addition, they also have to help several surrounding state capitals.
We have already agreed to form an alliance. The surrounding states are poor, too poor. It is impossible for them not to pay some money now.
It will be fine once the surrounding areas gradually develop.
When it comes to paying taxes, the smiles on people's faces disappear.
We have already experienced drought and poor harvest this year, and now we have to pay grain tax. Who can be happy?
Fortunately, this year's drought was not complete, and with the use of organic fertilizer provided by the government, the overall output did not decrease too much, especially since they still had sweet potatoes.
I don’t have to worry about going hungry this year, but I still don’t have much money left in my pocket.
Jun Qiulan's family did not have to pay grain tax last year, only head tax. This year, their family has land, but they still do not have to pay taxes.
One piece is wasteland that was reclaimed this year, and the other piece is sandy land near the river bank. According to the rules set by the previous emperor, newly reclaimed wasteland does not need to pay taxes in the first three years.
Everyone gathered in the threshing ground, called out the names of each household, and asked them to pay the grain tax.
This matter has always been accomplished by the village head in collaboration with the government.
When Jun Qiulan arrived at the threshing ground, the head of the government office was standing on a stone in the threshing ground.
"Everyone, please pay attention. We need to change this year's grain tax."
The villagers' hearts were in their throats.
"Don't be nervous, this is a good thing. We'll only collect 10% of the grain tax this year, which is half the amount of previous years."
As soon as the news came out, the villagers were in an uproar.
Charge half less?
What's going on?
They had never heard of such news before.
Even the oldest farmers, who have lived for most of their lives, have never heard of reducing or exempting agricultural taxes.
This matter was decided by Jun Qiulan. Although they experienced a drought this year, they were lucky that the water supply was not cut off. Otherwise, it is uncertain whether the people would be alive today.
However, they roughly estimated that if the villagers followed the previous tax ratio, they would have to eat sweet potatoes and harvested grain for two meals a day and save on food to survive until the beginning of next spring.
But what about the time after spring begins, waiting for the harvest?
Wild vegetables, buy food to eat.
They all knew that after today's tax collection, many villagers would take their new grain to the city to exchange for old grain and coarse grain. This would effectively increase the grain reserves at home and prevent their families from going hungry.
Of course, it is impossible to eat a full meal every time.
After discussion, the tax was reduced by half, which will also ease everyone's burden.
Jun Qiulan had seen the taxation in another world. The grain tax had been abolished long ago, and the country even had to spend money to subsidize farmers every year.
The price of food there is cheap. If there were no government subsidies, not many people would go to farm. Going out to work would earn more than farming at home.
But should we just let the fields go to waste?
Only by providing financial subsidies will more people be willing to stay in their hometown.
They cannot do this now, but at least they want to make people less hungry and strive to make the exemption of agricultural taxes one of their goals.
If one or two years doesn’t work, then five or ten years will do.
One day, they will be able to feed everyone.
Someone took the lead and shouted, "Long live the emperor."
The official was stunned for a moment, then laughed. "Don't shout 'Long Live the Emperor!' This policy isn't an imperial decree. It's just us. The emperor is far away. Let me tell you a few more things. I don't know if you've heard that at the beginning of the year, the emperor even collected a poll tax from us. It was all concealed by our superiors."
If this news had been released at the beginning, who knows how many people would have died.
It was already a drought year, and if such a decree was issued, many elderly people and newborn babies would probably disappear overnight.
Some sacrificed themselves voluntarily to leave a chance for their families to survive, while others were forced to do so or were simply unaware of the situation.
Although they kept this news a secret, every village always had a few relatives from other places. Except for a few state capitals near the border, other places collected this head tax.
The people complained bitterly.
Many people have heard of this news.
Someone sighed: "Our prefect is a good official."
Jun Qiulan was also thinking that if he had not appeared, Duan Wen would definitely be a rare good official in this world.
Many people were thinking that it was only at the end of last year when the new prefect took office that he brought so many changes to them.
Apart from anything else, every household has a warm kang, and last winter, no one in their village froze to death.
Be more diligent and go to the mountains to pick up some firewood and store it. Then you won’t shiver in the cold indoors in winter.
Even if the family was extremely poor, they could still survive the winter by just sharing a large kang.
And sweet potatoes.
At the beginning, the government asked them to give up the most fertile land in the village to grow sweet potatoes, but they were not happy about it. Although the government said that the yield of sweet potatoes was several times that of conventional grains, no one had seen it before and was unsure.
In addition to their personal experiences, there are also some subtle changes.
All in all, although we experienced drought this year, strangely enough, everyone's life seems to be getting better and better. It was just that the period of water shortage was a little more difficult to endure.
Someone was curious and mustered up the courage to ask, "So, was it also our prefect who decided to reduce the grain tax this time?"
Person in charge: "You can say that, but it wasn't the prefect who actually proposed reducing taxes, it was the comrades above him."
"Comrade?"
Some people became curious again, and occasionally they would hear such names when they went out on the street.
Now everyone has basically learned some basic words and vocabulary, and the meaning of the two words "comrade" does not need much explanation.
The person in charge continued, "He is a great young man. He will lead us into a new world. From now on, no one will go hungry again. Everyone will have warm clothes and can make several new sets of clothes every year. No matter whether they are men or women, old or young, they will have the opportunity to learn to read and write. There will be enough food in the granary to feed rats, and the silver in their pockets will be enough to break their wallets."
What kind of world is this?
Just hearing these few words is enough to make one's blood boil.
Li Xiucai from the village and the two educated youths who were arranged to come here all knew what was going on and looked at Jun Qiulan at the same time.
In fact, when they first heard the news, they were also confused.
Liu Xiucai was a scholar, and scholars inevitably have loyalty to the emperor and patriotism engraved in their bones. When he studied for the imperial examinations, in addition to wanting to bring honor to his family, he also wanted to serve the court.
Suddenly, he became a traitor?
But if you think about it carefully, if he really has the ability to enter the court, what can he do?
Especially when he met his former idol, Mr. Su.
A man of such talent as Mr. Su had done so many good things for the country and the people, but in the end he was exiled to a border town and wasted his time.
When he thought of Jun Qiulan again, he realized that the changes around them did not happen after Magistrate Duan took office. In fact, there were already signs of this since the family was exiled.
For example, last year’s epidemic.
The situation of the other two educated youth was much better.
The fact that they were able to stand out from so many scholars proves that they had a good foundation of knowledge. Some scholars even lamented that if they were not merchants, they would probably be able to fight for the imperial examination.
Yes, just because they were from a merchant family, they had no chance to take the imperial examinations. Even when they went to other places to study, the girls from decent families would look down on them when they knew they were from a merchant family.
What's even worse is that you pretend to make friends with them, but actually treat them as money bags.
They even gave it a good name, saying that when they passed the imperial examination and became officials in the future, they could also protect some of their family businesses.
But now it's different.
When Magistrate Duan convened a meeting with them, he said, "What we are pursuing now is a world where everyone is equal."
Just the four words "equality for all" are enough to make them sacrifice their lives.
My parents were all businessmen. Although they had some money to provide the family with food and clothing, the contempt and oppression they suffered were real.
The village head seemed to understand everything completely, and his eyes when he looked at Jun Qiulan were somewhat complicated.
He knew that Jun Qiulan was no ordinary person and would definitely take action. He didn't expect that he would directly rebel against the imperial court.
He sighed in his heart, rebellion will result in death.
But the future envisioned by the head of this government is so tempting.
His son also worked as a minor official in the government, so he received more information and more ideological education.
Sometimes, he even felt that he could not keep up with his son's thoughts. Now he thinks that the root of the problem lies here.
He sighed again. In fact, if he thought about it carefully, if a war really had to happen, it would be General Huo who would lead the army to the front. General Huo was a genius in fighting, and he might be able to defeat the imperial court.
Besides, for ordinary people like them, the most important thing is who can lead them to live a good life.
Jun Qiulan has been here for more than a year, silent, but what he has done is enough, and too much.
Looking back at the current emperor, even if he lives in a small place like a border town, he has heard a lot of news. The older he gets, the less reliable he becomes.
In just the past one or two years, so many things have been done that have harmed the interests of the people.
Is such a person really worthy of sitting in that position?
Let’s talk about Jun Qiulan.
This person is kind and gentle. If he became emperor, his life would be much better than it is now.
Jun Qiulan stood outside the crowd and didn't say anything.
This is also part of their plan.
We must take this opportunity to let the people know about such a future and plant the seeds of hope in their hearts.
At the same time, it is also to pick out the current government and criticize it so that everyone can have a comparison in their minds.
In this era, transportation was slow and information was transmitted slowly, so it was difficult for ordinary people to know anything about the outside world.
All the persons in charge have been trained uniformly by Kong Sheng.
In addition to the words about looking into the future, he also said some other things, but they were all practical.
This is the hope that the people will see in the near future.
You can paint a big picture, but you have to let people have a taste of it first.
The halving of grain tax this time is one of them.
Next, recruiting people to build roads is another task.
It was not about collecting labor service without paying, but about hiring people to work for 30 copper coins a day, which included three meals a day and accommodation.
Make money.
After the autumn harvest every year, it is the slack season. During the slack season, which family doesn’t have a few men going out to find work?
It’s not certain that you can find it.
The government is recruiting people now. So many people have heard it. The salary and benefits have been made clear. You can't just deny it, right?
With the reduction of agricultural taxes and some previous policies, they still trust the current government.
Someone immediately raised their hand to sign up.
The person in charge smiled and said, "Don't worry, everyone. The selection will be handled by the village head and the educated youth. They'll need to assess everyone's health and the extent of their family's financial difficulties. There's no rush. Malizheng just needs to submit the list within seven days. We have written documents outlining the specific requirements."
Ma Zhong quickly bowed and said, "I will definitely live up to your trust."
"Hey, don't call me sir. I'm just a minor official. We all serve the people and work to make everyone's life better. From now on, just call each other comrades."
"Okay, okay, comrade, I will definitely complete the task."
The person in charge nodded and said, "There is one more thing, and that is the issue of marriage. I know this may be difficult for everyone to accept, but please rest assured. It is absolutely for everyone's good, and for the sake of your descendants and the future."
This sentence is hard for everyone to understand.
Jun Qiulan knew that the age for marriage for men and women would be raised.
This matter was handed over to Tian Rui for supervision.
During this period, he rode his newly bought donkey and visited many villages with several comrades assigned to him by Duan Wen.
A surprising conclusion was reached.
Every year, countless women die from difficult childbirths, and this happens in almost every village.
The root cause was that these girls were too young, the oldest was only fifteen years old, and the youngest was only thirteen.
According to Jun Qiulan, girls of this age are not yet fully developed physically. Having their period only means that their reproductive system is beginning to mature, and it does not mean that they will be able to give birth immediately.
In addition, there is another question raised by Jun Qiulan.
Marriage between close relatives.
This is what happens in every village, and in every village, there are always one or two fools. This is the best proof.
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The author has something to say: Thank you all for your support, I love you all. [heart][heart][heart]
I found that it is better to update on time. Hehehe, I am not under that much pressure.
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