Being an emperor is not something he can do, so he can only rely on his connections.

As soon as we entered Jia Village, the villagers fled in all directions, and the whole village fell into a dead silence in an instant.

After a while, several old men in long gowns and crutches came up to the carriage angrily.

"Didn't we just tell you yesterday that we have no food? No food. What else do you want from us?" The old man in the lead started cursing at Zhang Jingwei in the carriage, his saliva almost flying into his face.

"Look at how much flesh I have left on my body, and cut it off."

"Isn't it enough that we've already paid three times? You're arresting people just because we don't have food. Do you have any sense of justice?"

"My poor sons, you bastards will get your comeuppance."

……

A group of old men were crying and making a fuss, and Zhang Jingwei was confused at the time.

Several soldiers stepped forward to stop them, but the old men became even more violent and rolled on the ground.

Zhang Liu felt that the voice was particularly familiar, so he stuck his head out and asked, "Is that Brother Jia Renyi?"

The old man in the lead stood up when he saw Zhang Liu and looked at him calmly.

"Sixth Master, it's Sixth Master!"

Zhang Liu got out of the car and helped Jia Renyi who was sitting on the ground.

Jia Renyi wiped his tears and said, "I didn't expect it was really you. Ever since the boss left, I thought I would never see you again."

"I have been serving the young master since the old man left..." Before Zhang Liu finished speaking, the old man started crying again.

"Young Master! Um... After the Young Master committed suicide by taking poison, I felt like I couldn't live any longer. I didn't know how to explain it to the Master after I passed away..."

Zhang Jingwei sat in the carriage speechless. Why do I feel that everyone related to him is so crybaby?

"No, no, no, Brother Jia, the young master is in the car. God bless, the young master is not dead!"

Zhang Jingwei couldn't help but complain: No, there is no internet in this village, so such big news can't be spread?

The flag officer driving the horses jokingly said, "Old man, have you never seen the young master of the Zhang family?"

Jia Renyi took Zhang Jingwei's hand, squinting his eyes with a sincere look on his face, "Could this be the young master? I am blind, please forgive me, young master!"

Zhang Jingwei broke free suddenly and said with a smile, "It's okay, it's okay!"

After explaining the purpose of the visit, Jia Renyi began to greet him.

"Come out, the young master is here, come out."

"Don't hide them, take them out and treat the young master."

……

According to Zhang Liu's description, Jia Renyi is the village chief of Jia Village.

There was no village here before. It was when refugees from the disaster in Henan Province fled here one year that Mr. Zhang built a village here to allow the refugees to be self-sufficient.

Afterwards, he invested money to reclaim land one after another. After a few years, this was originally a private farm, but due to the rapid population growth and the expansion of the area, it was designated as a rural village by Gaoyang County. Since there were many people with the surname Jia, it was simply called Jia Village.

Jia Renyi brought Zhang Jingwei to the ancestral hall. Under the plaque of "Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents and Teachers", the tablet at the top was actually that of Mr. Zhang.

It says on it: "The deity of the immortal sage Mr. Zhang, whose taboo name is Lian."

Below Zhang Lian’s tablet is Zhang Jingwei’s.

Zhang Jingwei picked up three incense sticks, raised them above his head, bowed deeply three times, and then inserted the incense into the incense burner.

Although he didn't know this Zhang Lian (Zhang Jingwei's father in this life was not called Zhang Lian), he still had to respect him as the father of the original owner.

Seeing Zhang Jingwei looking at the tablet in deep thought for a long time, Zhang Liu patted Jia Renyi on the shoulder and reminded him in a low voice.

"Brother Renyi, please quickly remove the young master's tablet. It's so unlucky!"

Zhang Jingwei turned around and waved his hand, saying, "No need. Let him... spend more time with Father."

After saying that, he leaned the tablet upwards.

When I walked out of the ancestral hall, I found several village women killing chickens and cooking.

Several village women were the daughters-in-law and sons-in-law of Jia Renyi's family.

Zhang Jingwei knew that this was an invitation to entertain them and wanted to refuse, but when he saw the tired soldiers, he ran to find his teacher.

At this time, Liu Yanzhi put on his official uniform and went to ask someone questions, but no one paid any attention to him.

When Zhang Jingwei found him, he asked, "Teacher, did you take any money with you when you went out today?"

Liu Yanzhi was also not vague and took out a silver note of one hundred taels from his sleeve.

Before he could ask, Zhang Jingwei snatched it away.

"That's enough, that's enough. Thank you very much, teacher. I'll borrow it and return it to you later."

Liu Yanzhi regretted it. If he had known that the kid would steal, he would have taken the twenty taels from his left pocket.

After stuffing the banknote into Jia Renyi's hand, he raised his voice and said, "This is the meal money paid by the Yunzhou Tongzhi. We, the Yunzhou soldiers, are resting here. We apologize for disturbing you."

The surrounding villagers all saluted and kowtowed to Liu Yanzhi, muttering something.

"Good officer!"

"This is the first time I've seen an official pay for a meal."

"State officials are really different."

"As long as they are not here to collect taxes, they are all good officials."

……

Looking at the banknotes in his hand, Jia Renyi's eyes widened. He wanted to return it, but his body stuffed it into his sleeve involuntarily.

In fact, Zhang Jingwei shouted like this in order to make the villagers feel grateful to the government.

The second reason was that he was afraid that Jia Renyi would embezzle money.

The third is to ease the prejudice among officers and soldiers against civil officials.

Sure enough, more and more people joined in cooking, and even Jia Renyi gritted his teeth and killed the pig.

After a while, the originally silent village started hosting a buffet.

Jia Renyi brought out the last dish and sat down.

"Young Master, please come in. Sir, please come in. General, please come in."

After greeting everyone one by one, he started to eat with relish.

While eating, Liu Yanzhi asked, "Why would Muramasa do this? Even if we were really the grain collection team, Muramasa should have responded positively."

Jia Renyi suddenly had a sad face and said, "Your Excellency, our village has always paid two taxes a year, and we have paid both the summer and autumn taxes."

"The manor originally belonged to the landlord. After the landlord died, the county magistrate took it for himself. In addition to paying the land tax, he also had to pay land rent, head tax, levy tax, and river customs tax. If he couldn't pay, he would be arrested!"

"There is still no news of the people who were arrested."

Liu Yanzhi frowned and asked, "Illegal collection of miscellaneous taxes? How much do I have to pay?"

"The rent is ten percent, and the other miscellaneous taxes add up to almost two strings of cash!"

Liu Yanzhi slammed his hand on the table and angrily said, "This county magistrate is indeed not a simple person. Why don't you report it to the authorities?"

Jia Renyi asked in return, "Isn't the county magistrate also an official?"

Liu Yanzhi was speechless.

Although Zhang Jingwei didn't understand these tax systems, he knew from the teacher's angry expression that it was definitely not a good thing.

Just then, the sound of gongs came into Zhang Jingwei's ears.

Along with the sound of the gong, there was a series of extremely discordant sounds.

"Taxes are paid, but where are the people? Where have they gone?"

"Those who haven't paid enough, make up for it quickly!"

"Why are there so many horses here?"

A dozen yamen runners pulled two horse-drawn carriages and walked into the center of the village.

The leading clerk came over with a swagger, "Oh, I'm here today. We're having a banquet. Which girl is getting married?"

When he got closer and saw Liu Yanzhi wearing official uniform, his head suddenly shrank.

The clerk greeted Liu Yanzhi with a smile: "If this gentleman is visiting relatives, why didn't he inform the county government first?"

Liu Yanzhi was so angry that he threw the unfinished food in his bowl onto the clerk's face.

"You don't even recognize me, so open your dog eyes and see clearly what this blue patchwork on my clothes is!"

The clerk peeled off the vegetable leaves on his face and took a closer look.

He fell to his knees with a thud.

"Fifth...Fifth rank, sir, I was blind and did not pay my respects to you. Please forgive me."