Star Tycoon

Chapter 105 Copper Tax
Li Chuhong has a public support rating of 40, and could flee at any time!

Upon receiving this notification, Tian Ersan looked at Li Chuhong, whose expression was grim and who seemed ready to leave at any moment, and his mind raced!

"Eat! Let's eat first! Are you hungry?"

Tian Ersan said gently and kindly, "Everything can pass. Let's eat first, it's good to have a full stomach."

Upon hearing this, Li Chuhong touched her stomach with both hands and nodded shyly.

"Then hurry up and get me something to eat, or... or I'll leave."

"Okay!" Tian Ersan quickly patted his chest with a silly grin. "Leave it to me! I'll go right now!"

When Tian Ersan came in, he brought a large bag that could hold clothes. He then laid the clean cloth bag on the ground.

"sit!"

Li Chuhong stopped walking, sat down, and glared at Tian Ersan, "What are you standing there for? Get to work!"

"Good! Good!" Tian Ersan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly went to get some food.

Late at night, Tian Ersan was working hard in the field, weeding wheat. He quickly harvested several dozen kilograms of wheat and took it back to Li Chuhong's place.

"Here you go! Food!" Tian Ersan handed all the wheat in his arms to Li Chuhong with both hands.

Li Chuhong accepted everything without any hesitation, simply opening her arms wide.

After letting go of the large pile of wheat, the grains naturally fell to the ground.

Li Chuhong sat on the cloth bag, easily and comfortably sorting wheat. Just like the honest girl on TV, she reached out and grabbed a handful of wheat grains to eat, working and eating at the same time.

Tian Ersan ate a handful himself and felt that his strength had returned a little.

When they were outside, Li Cuihua was possessive of her food and wouldn't let them eat. Tian Ersan didn't want to argue with that village girl, so he didn't touch the food.

Wheat is everywhere here now, so there's no problem eating it all.

Tian Ersan ate some more and found that this stuff was even more energizing than coffee!

"Maybe we can sell it as a health supplement in the future."

"But the entrance and exit tickets are too expensive now, let's talk about it later. Besides, we don't lack money, there's no need to make this kind of money."

After eating, she went out to continue working. After coming back three times in a row, Li Chuhong's popularity finally rose to sixty.

Seeing that public morale had improved, Tian Ersan finally felt at ease.

Tian Ersan squatted to one side, talking and resting with Chu Hong, who was sitting on the ground humming a song while working.

"Hong Gu, where are you from?"

Li Chuhong glanced at Tian Ersan, then quickly continued picking up the wheat grains.

"Since you're already here, why ask where I'm from? How would I know where I'm from? There aren't even any empty rooms here. Where am I supposed to sleep? I'm not sleeping outside; I'm afraid someone will kidnap me."

Tian Ersan quickly said, "The homeowner went out with me. Hong Gu, why don't you come out with me too?"

Hong Gu looked up at Tian Ersan, her eyes full of curiosity.

"We'll go wherever you say we want, but it won't do if you don't feed us. I need at least five pounds of grain a day to be full! I can live temporarily without a house, but I must have one! If you don't have a house, I'll lose the people's support every day I think about it!"

Tian Ersan knew he couldn't save money on the house!

Without a house, you can't get by; even if you go out, you'll just run away.

"Alright! I'll build you one!"

Upon hearing this, Li Chuhong happily said, "Great! That's exactly what I want from you."

Tian Ersan was very upset. After deciding to build the house, he suddenly felt that it was pointless to curry favor with Li Chuhong. In any case, it was just a house and a person, so there was no need to curry favor with her.

"What kind of attitude is that?" After realizing he couldn't get something for free and feeling that all his hard work had been for nothing, Tian Ersan's expression changed immediately. He said with dissatisfaction, "No matter how good my attitude is, if I don't build you a house, then it's all for nothing."

Li Chuhong explained, "You built the house, but it wasn't for me. It's your own house. It's not me who's coming out. I still have to wait until someone dies before I can move in."

Tian Ersan discovered that the villagers could die. "How did they all die?"

Li Chuhong did not lose public support because of the questions; she answered them while working.

“Once you join the army, you don’t live in civilian houses anymore, you live in the barracks. If bandits or wild animals come and people die, or people get sick and die, the house will be empty. When I came here, I saw that the house was empty and thought it was gone. I didn’t expect that the people were still here. There was no way to live there.”

Tian Ersan understood the rules here.

A fully occupied house will not attract homeless people; a house must be vacant to attract homeless people.

At the same time, military camps can also accommodate farmers who are eligible to serve in the army, but agricultural workers will pay taxes while military workers will not.

What's needed now is copper coins, and the more agricultural workers the better.

"Okay! Then I'll create another villager to pay taxes, and today we'll harvest all the grain for the next three months so everyone can have enough to eat!"

"Great! Hurry up and get the academy up and running, I'll help you with the work!" Tian Ersan was in a much better mood. He quickly took a thousand copper coins to build a farmhouse, while he went to continue working in the wheat field.

The original plan was to use 1,200 copper coins, 1,000 to build farmhouses, and 200 for each trip.

However, the three villagers were very helpful and gave an extra 35 copper coins. With the extra change, and considering tomorrow's allowance, we should be able to raise enough for the return journey.

Li Cuihua paid her taxes normally, and she paid them from inside her house.

The houses were as vital to the villagers' lives, and thankfully, they weren't hit by the meteor shower.

When Tian Ersan returned, a male villager in his late twenties came out.

The man looked somewhat thin, and was just an ordinary country boy.

"My lord!" The man looked at Tian Ersan with some fear.

Tian Ersan quickly said, "Your name will be Wang Hejin!"

Wang Hejin grinned happily, "Thank you for bestowing this name upon me, my lord!"

Looking at this young man, Tian Ersan saw that he was neither as frivolous as Wang Ernong nor as strong and reliable as Wang Bomin.

"What are you capable of?"

Wang Hejin quickly replied, "I'm not very capable. I can eat ten catties of grain a day and pay two copper coins. I can join the army and do some work!"

Tian Ersan discovered that this was an ordinary farmer.

Today, five farmers
Wang Bomin: Consumes 10 jin of grain per day, produces 2 copper coins per day, qualifies for military service.

Wang Ernong: Consumes 10 jin of grain/day, produces 1 copper/day, qualifies for military service.

Wang Hejin: Consumes 10 jin of grain/day, produces 2 copper/day, can serve as a soldier.

Rich Man: Consumes 8 catties of grain/day, produces 4 copper coins/day, cannot serve as a soldier, cannot work.

Li Cuihua: Consumes 5 jin of grain/day, produces 1 copper/day, cannot serve in the army.
Li Chuhong: Consumes 5 jin of grain/day, produces 2 copper coins/day, cannot serve as a soldier.
Total consumption: 48 catties/day

Total output: 12 copper/day

It would take about a hundred days to raise enough money for the round-trip travel expenses to build the house again.

4800 jin of grain consumed in 100 days

Tian Ersan could only work alone. Fortunately, he had eaten and drunk his fill before coming in, so he started working hard, running back and forth.

Tian Ersan planned to store 1,500 jin of grain in Wang Hejin's house first, with the extra as a precaution.

Wang Hejin stood at the door, watching his lord carry handfuls of grain into his room, and couldn't stop smiling.

"Thank you, my lord! My people's morale has been boosted!"

"My lord is wonderful! The hearts of my people are filled with even greater joy!"

"I'm going to eat now; my popularity has soared again!"

After running countless times, Tian Ersan couldn't take it anymore.

Exhausted and covered in sweat, Tian Ersan leaned against the door frame and sat down, enjoying the cold wind by the doorway.

"Let me take a break." Tian Ersan sighed deeply, took out his phone and checked the time; it was almost ten o'clock.

I've been working for two hours.

Wang Hejin came out of the house and stood in front of Tian Ersan.

Tian Ersan sensed the shadow, looked up at the earnest-looking young man from the countryside.

"What's wrong?"

"My lord, the people's hearts are with us! Let me tell you something."

Tian Ersan asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Wang Hejin took out sixty copper coins from his pocket.

"My lord, you could actually collect taxes a month in advance, but that would lower public morale."

Tian Ersan looked at the money in Wang Hejin's hand with a look of astonishment.

Wang Hejin handed the money to Tian Ersan, saying, "My lord, if you accept this money, my people's morale will drop to ninety percent! Please think it over!"

On one hand, you want to give money away, but on the other hand, you don't want others to accept it. How can you be so contradictory?

Tian Ersan frowned, then looked thoughtfully at the honest boy.

"Can't we only conscript for a maximum of one month? Can't we conscript for more?"

(End of this chapter)