Locked: God is the matchmaker, neither you nor I can escape

After harvesting and drying the rice, the villagers ushered in the annual tax payment period.

Farmers in Zhao State had to pay 20% tax for one acre of land, and the tax payment was divided into two types: paying taxes in grain or paying taxes in silver. Farmers who grew rice or wheat as their staple food could pay taxes with grain. Farmers who had no paddy fields or only dry land also needed to pay taxes according to the size of their fields. Dry land that was less than one acre was also calculated as one acre.

In the south, the price of rice is ten cents per catty. One acre of rice can produce about 3 to 4 catties of rice, which is rounded off to 4 catties.

One hundred kilograms of rice can be ground into about 70 kilograms of rice, regardless of whether it is fine grains or coarse grains. Therefore, one acre of land can produce about 280 kilograms of rice.

A 56% tax is required for each acre, which means 560 kilograms of rice per acre. In terms of silver, the tax for one acre of land is coins.

In the north, the price of wheat is eight cents per catty. One acre of wheat can produce more than 2 catties of rice, which is rounded off to 2 catties.

One hundred kilograms of wheat can produce about 80 kilograms of wheat. One mu of land can produce about 32 kilograms of wheat. If a 256% tax is required per mu, kilograms of wheat needs to be handed in, which is equivalent to coins.

Farmers like Shenye who don't have land can buy grain and hand it over or directly hand over money, but the price of this rice is calculated based on refined rice, so paying directly would obviously be a loss.

Usually at this time, he would use the same amount of silver to buy grain from Aunt Qi's house and then hand it over. His family only had two acres of dry land, so he needed to hand over 112 kilograms of rice.

Common people living in towns or county towns who did not own land had to pay a head tax of 100 wen per adult and 50 wen per child under years old.

The taxes that merchants need to pay are more complicated. Not only do they have to pay a 20% tax on their total profit income, but they also have to pay various fixed taxes. For example, cloth businesses have to pay cloth taxes, tavern businesses have to pay liquor taxes, grocery stores selling salt have to pay salt taxes, stores that buy grain have to pay grain taxes, and so on.

Only officials or people with honors did not have to pay taxes. Moreover, the land under their names was exempt from taxes. This was one of the reasons why so many people were scrambling to take part in the imperial examinations.

"Huh? Don't we only need to pay 112 kilograms of rice? Why 168 kilograms? That's % more?" It was Yan Yiyi's first time to pay taxes. She was helping to prepare rice at Aunt Qi's house and preparing to jump to the village entrance to pay taxes.

Xin Ye smiled helplessly: "Of course someone wants to fish in troubled waters."

Yan Yiyi glared and said, "The county magistrate cannot be such a person!"

"It's not him." Xin Ye denied decisively.

"Who is that?"

Xin Ye shook his head. It was just an extra 10% in taxes. He had not bothered to care about it before, and he did not intend to get involved in it now.

Now he is just an ordinary citizen, how can he fight against the officials?

"Then... do you think the magistrate knows about this?"

Xin Ye nodded and sighed helplessly: "The county magistrate is just from a humble family, how can he fight against the people above him? Just one more layer of taxation will not make the people unable to survive, he can only turn a blind eye."

After thinking about it, Yan Yiyi understood his difficulty. Even if the magistrate wanted to plead for the people, he could only submit a memorial to his higher-ups. He had no idea whether there were other powerful people behind the person who reached out here.

After submitting this memorial, not only will they fail to plead for the people, but their families will also be implicated. They are afraid that their entire family will be killed, and then a county magistrate will be sent down from above to govern the people in this area.

By then, the people will probably be exploited even more severely.

Unless an upright imperial envoy passed by here, he would not disclose the matter. If the matter was exposed, at most he would be guilty of negligence and lose his official hat, but his family would not be implicated, let alone his own life and the lives of his family.

It didn't seem worth making a fuss over a hundred coins, so Yan Yiyi gave up the idea and just helped weigh the grain.

When the grain was moved to pay the tax, the yamen runners who came to collect the tax were surprised to find that they were familiar faces. They had just met them a few days ago.

The two yamen runners were also quite surprised to see Yan Yiyi and Xin Ye. One of them said with a smile, "Young man Li, Madam Li, so you are from Dashan Village!"

"Yes, I didn't expect that it was Brother Wang and Brother Wu who came to our village. You two have worked so hard for the whole morning. I'm sure you must be thirsty. I'll go get you some water."

"Hey, hey, hey, Madam Li, don't bother. We brought water bags, so we're not thirsty."

The villagers who were watching were quite surprised to see this. They didn't expect that they actually knew the officials from the county government, and they seemed quite familiar with them.

Who is this Li Quezi's wife? Just because the magistrate helped her, she shouldn't be so familiar with the officials, right?

There must be something fishy going on.

Tsk, this woman is indeed not to be messed with. Not only is she strong, but she also has the support of the government. Isn’t the wife that Li Guizi married too good?

At noon, Xin Ye and Yan Yiyi prepared lunch and came to invite them to eat. The two men couldn't refuse, so they had a full meal. In the afternoon, they happily let the villagers push the food and follow them back to the county government office.

There are no ox carts in Dashan Village, but several major families, the village chief's family, and several other well-off families have wooden wheelbarrows. Every year, they need to borrow their carts to transport grain to the county.

The work of delivering grain was carried out in an orderly manner. There was no trouble in Dashan Village. Unlike the women in other villages, they would come out and sit on the ground and cry poor at this time every year.

But even if you die in front of them, you still have to pay the grain you are owed. Otherwise, you will be thrown into jail and await punishment.

A few days later, the acre of peppers planted by Yan Yiyi had a bumper harvest. Aunt Zhang and Aunt Qi came to help. Uncle Zhang and Uncle Gu also wanted to come and help, but were politely declined by Father Li.

In fact, even if Aunt Zhang and Aunt Qi didn't come, the three of them could finish picking all the peppers in the morning. They only picked the red ones and left the green peppers alone for the time being.

Under Yan Yiyi's instruction, all the peppers that were picked were made into chopped peppers and pickled peppers. The pickled peppers were made into a small jar containing 2 kilograms, and the remaining chopped peppers were made into two small jars.

They seldom eat chili peppers, and even less often touch them. The first time they touched chili peppers, their hands felt spicy, and when they chopped chili peppers, they cried and had snot.

"Oh my~ This chili is too choking." Aunt Qi couldn't help but wanted to wipe her tears but was stopped in time by Yan Yiyi.

"Don't wipe it, Aunt Qi, your hands are hot. If you wipe your eyes, they will be stinging. Let me help you wipe them." As she said that, she hurriedly took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears, and then went to wipe Aunt Zhang Wu's tears.

"Wife~ and me~" At this time, Xin Ye was already in tears, his eyes were red, and he looked as if he had been ravaged by someone, so pitiful.

Yan Yiyi changed a handkerchief and quickly wiped him. As expected, a handsome man looks good even in a mess.