After becoming a top-notch peasant woman, she continues to be a top-notch

Zhen Yue also came along, she wanted to see how taxes were paid. The child was left with Qiao Chenshi, who did not come.

"Dashan, I heard that your house was robbed last night?" Seeing them coming, someone nearby immediately asked curiously.

Qiao Dashan: “Yeah.”

"How did you find out?"

Qiao Dashan: "It was discovered by the eldest brother and his family. They heard the noise and saw it."

"I heard it was Li San. I saw Li San today. He looked like he was beaten badly. How could you, Qiao Da and Zhen Shi, be so vicious?" This was Mrs. Zhang.

Zhen Yue rolled her eyes, "Not as vicious as you, you almost tortured my wife to death."

Mrs. Zhang: "Hey, how can you talk like that? Isn't Lin still alive and well? How could she be dead?"

Zhen Yue: "I will say the same thing as you say. Don't be so mean, or your food might be stolen at night."

Mrs. Zhang choked up. "That's unreasonable! I don't want to pay attention to you, humph!"

Zhen Yue also snorted and stood aside with her arms folded across her chest, looking like no one dared to mess with her.

After a while, the village chief Qiao Feng came with the tax-collecting officers and soldiers. There were three people in total, one of them was taking notes with a pen and paper. They brought a large horse-drawn cart to load grain.

One of them, who seemed to be the leader, looked at everyone and said, "Are you all here? Let's start. Those whose names I'll call out, please come forward."

"Liu Rongsheng"

"Here, here." A simple and honest man walked out, followed by his family, holding food in his hands.

"Two dan of grain, four coins of head tax."

The officers and soldiers on the side immediately weighed the food he brought, then opened it and checked to see if it was fake.

After the inspection, Liu Rongsheng handed over the money and pressed his fingerprint. That was all.

Then the names were called one by one, "Is Zhou Zhengyi here?"

"Here I come, here." A panting man came over carrying food. He was Mrs. Zhou's son. Mrs. Zhou and her second son also ran over behind.

Two soldiers walked over and took the food to weigh it. They saw something was wrong. "Not enough!"

Mrs. Zhou slapped her thigh and said, "How can it be not enough? I weighed it at home."

The officer's face darkened, "Are you saying we are cheating?"

Mrs. Zhou immediately waved her hands, "No, no."

The officer continued to open and check the grain, and found that it was actually old grain, and many of the grains inside were empty. "This grain is unqualified, go and get new ones immediately! Otherwise, it would be a contempt of the law!"

Mrs. Zhou: "How can it fail? It's all millet!"

Officers and soldiers: "I said they are unqualified, so they are unqualified! Arrest them!"

Mrs. Zhou: "Wait a minute, wait a minute, we will go get a new one right away, wait a minute, wait a minute, don't grab it."

Officers and soldiers: "If you do it again, you will be thrown into prison!"

"Yes, yes!" Mrs. Zhou trembled and ran back with her son Zhou Zhengyi.

The soldiers continued to call out other people, and soon it was Zhen Yue and the others' turn. "Zhou Dashan."

Zhou Dashan stepped forward immediately and said, "Yes."

"Three stone of grain, how many people are there in your family?"

"Eleven."

"You've got a new baby, right? Then you have to pay five and a half cents."

Zhou Dashan: "Okay, okay, here's the money." He thought five cents would be enough, but he didn't expect it to be five and a half cents. Fortunately, he took some more.

The soldiers weighed and checked the grains and found that they were full and looked very good, much better than what they had checked before. They looked at Zhou Dashan with satisfaction and said, "Not bad. Please give your fingerprints."

"Yes Yes."

After pressing the fingerprint, the food was carried onto the carriage.

At this time, Mrs. Zhou and her two sons came over again, panting, and all three of them were carrying food.

"Here it comes." Zhou Zhengyi put the food in front of the officers and soldiers again. This time they did not dare to cheat. After the officers and soldiers checked and found no problems, they asked him to put his fingerprints on it.

Mrs. Zhou was so tired that she collapsed on the ground, but she felt very unhappy. She had handed over so much good grain, and the rest was bad. Moreover, the harvest this year was poor, and she did not go out to earn much money. She didn't know what to do.

In addition to Mrs. Zhou's family, many other families also felt the same way. The taxes have been collected, but what about the rest of the day?

Then there were one or two families who tried to cheat, but they were all found out by the officers and soldiers. They also warned that if anyone else was found trying to fish in troubled waters, they would be investigated and put in jail.

After that, no one was hoping for luck anymore. Some people even hurried home to exchange the rice for good ones.

After a whole day of collecting, the officers and soldiers finally collected all the grain in Da Nan Village. The horse-drawn carriages had pulled the grain several times. When they left, they said to Qiao Feng, "Your village is good. At least the grain has been collected." The people in some villages either could not provide food or could not pay for it, or the grain was really not good at all.

There was no other choice but to capture the adult men in the family to do corvée labor to pay the tax. They were just following orders, even if the villagers would starve or even die because of this, what did it have to do with them?

Qiao Feng: "You have worked hard, please walk slowly."

Only after seeing the officers and soldiers off did Qiao Feng breathe a sigh of relief.

Zhen Yue and the others had already gone home, so I can have a good rest for a day or two.

"Harvest all the remaining vegetables in two days, store some of them, buy more salt to pickle them, and sell some of them. After that, we will concentrate on making charcoal." Zhen Yue arranged.

Qiao Chao: "Okay. If I have nothing else to do later, I can go hunting in the mountains."

Zhen Yue: "It may get a little colder in the near future, and it may be even colder in the mountains, so be careful."

Qiao Chao: "I'm going to dig traps, not go into the mountains."

"also."

After making the arrangements, the family rested for two days and then started working again. "We should build a cellar. Can Dad dig it?" Zhen Yue looked at the pile of vegetables in the yard.

Qiao Dashan hesitated for a moment and said, "I'll give it a try and start digging tomorrow. You guys decide where to put it."

Zhen Yue pointed to an empty space in the corner of the yard and said, "Let's go there. Let's sell the vegetables first." In addition to the cellar, she also considered the safety issue. If there were any bandits or if there was chaos by accident, she could hide in the cellar in times of danger.

The piece of land she pointed to was near the bathroom, and we could put some hay on it to cover it up.

This time, we took about 500 kilograms of vegetables to the county town, and kept the remaining 100 kilograms at home.

"By the way, it's time to slaughter the pig. Mother, are you sure about the good day?" Zhen Yue asked Qiao Chenshi.

Qiao Chenshi: "Look, five days from now will be a good day."

Qiao Dashan: "Then I will go find someone tomorrow."

Zhen Yue thought about it and realized that when the time came to slaughter the pig, there would surely be a lot of people coming to the house, so wouldn’t the cellar being dug be discovered?

"Then let's wait until we kill the pigs before digging the cellar. The cellar cannot be seen by others." Zhen Yue suggested.

Qian: "What happened if someone found out?"