Traveling through the mountains and farming

Lin Wan was busy in the mountains all day.

When she was returning home in the evening, she met Li Chonghai who came to deliver a wooden barrel, and heard him talk about the petition of the students in the county.

It is reported that today hundreds of students knelt down in front of the county government office, holding petitions in their hands and pleading their case.

The scene was extremely tense and chaotic. The students were very excited and expressed their demands in tears.

However, the county magistrate was furious and immediately sent soldiers to suppress the movement and detained many students who participated in the petition.

The inspection at the gate of the county town is now very strict, especially for students. Once they are found to have participated in the petition activities, they will be immediately imprisoned.

After Li Chonghai finished speaking, he shook his head helplessly, "Alas, in fact, these students petitioned for the common people. Now they are being driven away and detained, which is really uncomfortable."

Lin Wan sighed and said, "Don't think too much. In this chaotic world, we are just ordinary people and have no power to influence the development of the situation. We can only live a good life now."

She is well aware of the difficulties and powerlessness of ordinary people in troubled times.

Although she said this to comfort him, could he really live a good life?

Lin Wan couldn't help but wonder in her heart how long the fight between the King of Chu and the new emperor would last, how long their lives would be affected.

It was like the increase in autumn taxes. If she guessed correctly, it was probably to raise military pay or something like that.

War has always been the most costly and costly.

Hearing Lin Wan talking about living a good life, Li Chonghai replied with even more worry:

"But the days ahead are hard to bear! After the autumn tax is paid, the remaining grain will not last for a few months, and will not even last until the next grain harvest."

His words interrupted Lin Wan's thoughts, and Lin Wan comforted him:

"Don't be too pessimistic. At least you are one of those who can pay the autumn tax, so you don't have to face the battlefield directly, and you still have some food left. This way you have a chance to wait until the war is over and live a peaceful life."

Seeing Li Chonghai so worried, Lin Wan comforted him at the right time.

After hearing this, Li Chonghai realized that Lin Wan's life was even harder than his. She had no land, and he didn't know how she would solve the problem of autumn taxes.

He couldn't help but look guilty, so he asked Lin Wan how to solve the autumn tax problem.

After Lin Wan replied that she would solve it, Li Chonghai felt relieved and went home with a worried look on his face.

Lin Wan sat in the pavilion, thinking about the students' petition.

Because she thought, when two armies confront each other, besides the military contest, isn't there also an intelligence exchange?

I don’t know whether the new emperor’s policies, which have been gaining popularity recently, are being promoted deliberately by someone.

Is it to make the King of Chu lose the support of the people and speed up the pace of unification?

No matter what, she felt that this student petition would inevitably lead to stricter control over the Chu King's fiefdom.

Alas ~ This lifestyle is becoming more and more difficult!

~

As Lin Wan expected, on the second day, everyone in the village knew about the favorable policies of the new emperor's court.

They were all discussing privately, hoping that the King of Chu would be defeated soon and the dynasty would be unified so that they could be exempted from taxes for three years.

However, the measures she had expected from the King of Chu to suppress public opinion in the countryside did not come as quickly as expected, but the control over the county town became stricter.

I also heard the news that another Li Chonghao brought back from the county town.

Early this morning, Li Chonghao entered the county town and prepared to go to Xiaoshan Academy.

When he approached the academy, he was stopped by his roommate Zhou Lingtong.

I learned from Zhou Lingtong that all academies in the county have suspended classes. They will not be notified of the resumption of classes until the specific circumstances of the petition are clarified.

Then he learned this important news from Zhou Lingtong:

Some people could not afford the autumn tax and did not want to be conscripted to pay the tax, so they secretly crossed the Xiaojiang River and left the Chu King's fiefdom to go to Jiangbei County in the new emperor's territory.

At that time, Zhou Lingtong patted his chest and said that he was an extremely loyal person.

He only revealed this important information to Li Chonghao, and said that few people knew about this information at present, and he had spent a lot of money to obtain it.

What they didn't know was that this important news had secretly spread in their Quanshui Village in the afternoon.

Especially those families who cannot pay the autumn tax after selling their grain.

They have been discussing secretly, considering whether they can also follow those people's example and cross the Xiaojiang River to Jiangbei County.

~

At noon, Li Changren discussed with Zhang's parents about escaping to Jiangbei County together.

After he went out, he was immediately pulled to the corner by Zhang's neighbor Liu Datie.

Liu Datie looked nervous and mysterious and asked secretly: "Are you planning to escape to Jiangbei County?"

Li Changren was shocked, but he tried his best to hide it. He shook his head and said he didn't know, and pretended to ask Liu Datie about the whole story.

Liu Datie lowered his voice and said, "The news came from your house."

When Li Changren heard this, his face turned very ugly.

I was secretly annoyed that the news spread so quickly.

While he was thinking about how to deal with the situation in his mind, he was also perfunctorily responding to Liu Datie.

After getting rid of Liu Datie's questioning, he hurried back home.

After entering the house, I saw Zhang and Li Chongbai packing their things, so I hurriedly asked:

"Bai Er, did you tell others about our plan to secretly go to Jiangbei County?"

Li Chongbai immediately understood what his father meant and quickly explained:

"No, Dad. I also heard that someone in the village was spreading this story. I found out that my uncle was happy and drank some wine last night, and then he accidentally told others about it, and then it spread. But at present, only the few households that sold grain know about it."

Li Changren said angrily: "After drinking a few cups of horse urine, Zhang Erniu can't control his mouth?"

Li Chongbai then suggested: "So I think in order to prevent any trouble, we should start packing now and set off tomorrow after dark."

"Boss, go to my parents' house now and tell them to move up the plan." Zhang put down the clothes in her hands and said hurriedly.

Li Changren also felt that this was safe, so he walked out.

Zhang and Li Chongbai also quickened their pace of packing, carefully packing some necessary clothes and dry food.

The most important thing was more than five stones of grain, including one stone borrowed from Uncle Li, which they planned to take away.

~

Lin Wan had just finished her lunch break when she was invited by Li Chonghao to attend a family meeting of the Li family's eldest branch.

Originally, Uncle Li's family planned to discuss the matter internally.

However, given Lin Wan's high sensitivity to politics, she does things in an organized and strategic manner.

Li Chonghao suggested to Uncle Li that Lin Wan be involved.

And no matter what decision they make, they will definitely bring people from the Li family with them. Lin Wan and the others are already members of the Li family.

As for why Li Changren and other branches were not invited, Uncle Li wanted to wait until everything was discussed before revealing it to avoid any complications caused by too many people talking.