Traveling through the mountains and farming

On the second day, Lin Wan had just finished breakfast and was sitting in the yard thinking about whether to pick fruit or look for white wax flowers.

At this time, there were knocks on the gate.

"Coming~" Li Chongle quickly got up and ran to open the door.

When they saw it was Li Chonghao, they happily circled around Li Chonghao, greeted him, and asked him how he got here.

Then he pulled him into the pavilion in the yard to sit.

After seeing Li Chonghao sitting down, the two siblings went into the house together to bring Li Chonghao water and basil sweet and sour cakes.

Before Lin Wan had time to greet him, Li Chonghao hurriedly whispered:

"Yesterday, I heard at the academy that many students from several academies in the county were preparing to participate in the petition."

"Ah?" Lin Wan looked surprised.

Are these students so fast?

Li Chonghao continued, "It seems that because of the autumn tax notice posted the day before yesterday, the heavy taxes caused public resentment, so some students took the lead in organizing a petition to go to the county government, saying that they wanted the King of Chu to be exempted from taxes like the new emperor's court and to align other policies that benefit the people."

Lin Wan couldn't help but frown. "Is that a large number of people? When exactly will they petition? How will they petition?" She asked questions quickly one after another.

Li Chonghao shook his head. "I don't know the exact number, but this matter is no longer a secret in our academy. They said it was today because most academies are closed today. They have already written a petition and are ready to kneel down in front of the county government and present the petition."

"I suggest you take a leave and don't go to the academy in the near future. I feel like this incident might cause some trouble. If the county government takes tough measures to suppress it, the academy will also be held accountable."

"I still have to go to the academy tomorrow. I'll go and find out what's going on."

"Okay, when you get to the county, pay attention to what's going on in the academy. If you find anything wrong, don't go in and go home directly."

"Yeah, I understand."

At this time, the two siblings brought water and perilla sweet and sour cakes and warmly treated Li Chonghao to them.

Li Chonghao took it with a smile, said thank you and took a bite of the basil sweet and sour cookie. He found that it was the snack that Lin Wan sent to the academy last time.

He chatted with the two siblings while eating, trying to make the atmosphere more relaxed.

After a moment, Li Chonghao remembered what Aunt Li told him before she left.

So he asked, "Grandma, you wanted to come here this morning, but when you saw me coming, you asked me to ask you how the autumn tax preparations were going."

"Oh, tell her not to worry, I can handle it." Lin Wan said in a relaxed tone.

Li Chonghao felt more and more that his cousin's wife was amazing.

Starting with only a broken thatched hut and five taels of silver, in just one month, with two children, he not only built a house, but also made it exquisite and unique.

Not only did she lead her family to sell ice jelly to make money, she also took out the recipe for dyeing cloth, and now she has even prepared the grain to be paid as the autumn tax.

What's more amazing is that she is extremely sensitive to changes in the situation.

After that, they chatted for a while, and Li Chonghao went home with the basil sweet and sour cookies given by Lin Wan and the others.

Lin Wanze took the two siblings and prepared to go into the mountains to get busy.

Before going out, Li Chongle also suggested keeping a small piece of the wax made yesterday for use at home, and taking the other two large pieces of wax in the wooden basin to store in the cave where grain was stored.

So they took their good things and went up the mountain.

~

At noon, in the main hall of the home of Li Changren, the second son of the Li family, the atmosphere was a bit depressing. Li Changren sat there sighing.

Thinking about how he ran to his uncle's house early this morning to ask if he had figured out a way to help him solve the autumn tax problem.

What he learned was that his uncle could only barely give him one stone of grain, and no matter how much he cried again, it was useless, so he could only go home dejected.

"Head of the family, can't uncle really lend us more? Our family only has this one stone of grain left. How can we lend it to my brothers?" Zhang, who was sitting next to them, asked again.

Li Changren frowned and said dully, "My uncle said he could only give us one stone of rice to help us pay the autumn tax, and there is no more."

Zhang stood up and paced back and forth in the room anxiously. "What should I do? This morning, I saw my sister-in-law and she said that she could give them two dan of grain. Now that I can't give them any grain, how can I explain to them?"

"That can't be helped. We can't give them our autumn tax grain."

At this time, the courtyard door was pushed open with a noise, and the two people quickly walked out of the main room.

They thought it was the two brothers coming to ask for food.

But what he saw was Li Chongbai, who should have gone home to rest yesterday evening.

He looked a little flustered and his clothes were covered in dust.

Zhang was the first to ask, "Bai'er, why didn't you come back yesterday? What were you doing? You looked so miserable."

After Li Chongbai entered the house, he sat down at the table and said anxiously, "Is there anything to eat at home? I've been hungry all morning."

When Zhang heard her son say he was hungry, she didn't bother to ask any more questions and went into the kitchen to get something to eat.

Zhang put the food on the table in the main hall, and Li Chongbai immediately started to eat it voraciously. Li Changren next to him began to ask him what happened.

While eating, Li Chongbai talked about the petitioning by students in the county town at the gate of the county government office in the morning. He also said that fortunately he was quick-witted and lied that he had diarrhea when he was about to reach the county government office, thus escaping the disaster.

"Fortunately, I reacted quickly and left the city quickly, otherwise I would be detained in the city now. The students from various academies who participated in the petition activities are being interrogated at the city gate."

Li Chongbai swallowed the food in his mouth and said proudly.

When Zhang heard this, her eyes widened immediately. She quickly walked to Li Chongbai, poked his head with her finger, and said anxiously:

"How dare you do something as dangerous as petitioning?"

Li Chongbai smiled and said, "Mom, I have made up my mind. I will follow you to see if I can get some useful information and make some money with it. So I will leave when we are almost at the gate of the county government office."

"Did you get any useful information?" Li Changren beside him asked immediately.

Li Chongbai looked around mysteriously, then lowered his voice and said softly:

"Yes, there are. I heard that someone is planning to sneak over to the neighboring Jiangbei County. This way, they will be in the territory of the new emperor's court and won't have to pay the heavy autumn tax."

Li Changren asked hurriedly: "Is this news reliable?"

Li Chongbai's eyes flickered, then he nodded and said:

"I got this news while I was in the petitioning team. The court is exempting taxes for three years and distributing land. This petition is to get the King of Chu to agree to follow the court's policy."

After hearing this, Li Changren frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "I think this is an opportunity. We won't have enough food to survive even if we pay the autumn tax here. We might as well give it a try."

He also thought that if he stayed, he would have no food to lend to Zhang's two brothers, which would be another trouble.

Zhang thought about it and agreed, "I think it's feasible too. Let's ask my two brothers from my mother's family to go with us, so that we can take care of them on the way."

Li Changren then said, "Then I'll talk to my uncle's family too, and we'll be together then."

Li Chongbai hurriedly stopped him, "Dad, more than half of my great-uncle's family consists of old people, children, women and children. Are you sure you want to take them with you?"

After hearing what Li Chongbai said, Li Changren felt that Li Chongbai's words made sense, and frowned to think about it.

After a moment, he said, "Bai'er is right. It is indeed inconvenient to take care of my great-uncle's family. Then let's do as you wish."

Afterwards, the three of them agreed to go to Zhang's parents' home soon to tell her two brothers the news, and then discuss together how to secretly go to Jiangbei County.