The night passed in the blink of an eye, and at dawn, Hai Rui changed into casual clothes without alerting anyone, and sneaked out of the inn with Xiao Er through the side door.
After several inquiries, Hai Rui finally learned the specific location of Shiqiao Village, and immediately rushed towards Shiqiao Village without stopping.
Shiqiao Village has a population of only about 100 people. It is a small village worthy of its name. Because you need to cross the stone bridge over the river to enter and leave the village, it is named Shiqiao Village.
There is a big banyan tree at the entrance of the village that is full of greenery and has many branches and leaves. According to the elderly people in the village, this big banyan tree must be hundreds of years old, because as long as I can remember, this big banyan tree has been there. It's grown there.
For a long time, the villagers here have rarely interacted with the outside world except for daily farming and going to nearby towns to buy daily necessities, such as salt and iron. Therefore, their lives have been relatively peaceful, and today Shiqiao village, but a group of uninvited guests came.
I saw a group of official officers wearing soap-colored clothes. After entering the village, they ordered Li Zheng of Shiqiao Village to gather all the villagers under the big banyan tree.
Seeing that the villagers of Shiqiao Village had almost gathered, the official responsible for collecting grain this time looked around, coughed twice, and said in a deep voice.
"Folks, we have called you here this time to collect food!"
As soon as the official finished speaking, many villagers at the scene were dissatisfied, and the crowd soon started talking.
"Why do we need to collect food again? Didn't we just collect food five days ago?"
"If this continues, the family will be starved of food. I won't pay anything this time!"
"Yes, I won't pay anything this time!"
Seeing the villagers' emotions getting more and more agitated, Li Zheng of Shiqiao Village knew that if he angered these officials, the villagers of Shiqiao Village would suffer!
Thinking of this, Li Zheng stood up quickly and tried to smooth things over.
"Everyone, calm down first and listen to what the adults have to say!"
Under Li Zheng's comfort, the mood of the villagers gradually calmed down. Upon seeing this, the official in charge of collecting grain nodded slightly to Li Zheng in Shiqiao Village, and then continued.
"Folks, this is a change made by the government considering your actual situation."
"Usually when you pay for grain, do you need to take the grain to a grain merchant and exchange it for money, and then pay it to the government? Now you don't need to. The government directly sends us to take the grain away from you."
"This way, it will save both of us trouble, and you won't have to be exploited by those grain merchants again. What do you think?"
When the official said this, he paused for a moment and then continued.
"I promise that this is the last food collection this year, and there will be no more grain collection in the future!"
What this official said was naturally a lie. He only needed to complete his task of collecting grains. As for what others promised later, it was none of his business.
After the official responsible for collecting grain made such a promise, many villagers in Shiqiao Village were a little moved and couldn't help but start whispering.
"Pay it, this is the last time. If we pay the food, we can live a stable life."
"Yes, if we hand over the food earlier, these officials won't bother us again."
Later, another villager plucked up the courage to stand up and asked the officials.
"So how much food do we need to pay?"
When the official heard this, the corner of his mouth slightly raised, and after thinking for a moment, he gave a response.
"Originally, according to the instructions from above, each household in Shiqiao Village needs to pay two hundred kilograms of grain."
"But because of your good attitude, you only need to pay one hundred and eighty kilograms of grain. I will ask other villages to make up for the rest."
When the official responsible for maintaining order heard this, he couldn't help but be impressed by this official's methods, because at the beginning, the quota given by the superiors was one hundred and fifty kilograms of grain.
In the end, although most of the extra thirty kilograms of grain went into the official's pocket, he was able to reap some benefits from it.
Thinking of this, the officials present could not help but start to look forward to it.
If the villagers of Shiqiao Village were originally skeptical about what the official said, then when the official said that the villagers of Shiqiao Village could pay twenty kilograms less grain, they were filled with doubts. The doubts were quickly dispelled.
Although the one hundred and eighty kilograms of grain that need to be paid later is also an extremely heavy burden for many villagers present, but at least, you can pay twenty kilograms less of grain, right?
In this way, many Shiqiao Village villagers present returned home one after another, and squeezed out 180 kilograms of food from the few remaining rations!
They kept praying in their hearts that this really was the last time.
The official responsible for collecting grains smiled even more when he saw the villagers carrying sacks full of grains out of their homes. He quickly ordered his subordinates to prepare official scales for weighing the sacks and Dendrobium used to hold grain.
Soon, many villagers present lined up, waiting for the officials to weigh their grains one by one.
Soon, an old man was seen handing a sack full of grain into the hands of the official with great anticipation.
The official hung the sack on the official scale very neatly. After the result was displayed on it, he casually said to the subordinate who was responsible for recording.
"One hundred and sixty-two pounds!"
And when the old man learned this number from the officer's mouth, he felt suddenly. Then he stepped forward and took the officer's arm, pleading.
"Master Cha, I obviously have one hundred and eighty kilograms of grain. Before delivering it, I weighed it using a scale at home. Did you make a mistake?"
The official glanced at the old man with disdain and pointed at the big word "official" engraved on it.
"Old man, did you see clearly what words are engraved on this scale?"
"It's an official word, and the official word is as big as heaven!"
"You old man is so bold. You dare to question the official scale of the government and say, what are your intentions?"
As the officer spoke, his tone became increasingly sinister.
Seeing this, Li Zheng on the side quickly stepped forward, said a few nice words, and smoothed things over.
Because of this, the official just snorted coldly and walked aside without saying a word.
Next, after weighing the sacks containing the grain, they need to be poured into Guanhu. While checking the quality of the grain, it is also to prevent errors and further confirm the amount of grain.
When the official responsible for collecting grain saw this, he put his hands behind his back and looked quite relaxed, and then explained to many villagers present.
"If the amount of grain is correct, then the grain poured into Guan Dendrobium will be submerged right up to the entrance of Dendrobium!"
As he finished speaking, he saw that the rope tied to the sack full of grain was roughly untied by an official, and then casually thrown aside. The white rice flowed out along the sack and into the official dendrobium.
When no more grains of rice could be poured out of the sack, the official threw the sack aside and began to check the height of the rice piled in the sack.
Seeing that the rice was still some distance away from the entrance of Guanhu, the official immediately stepped forward and kicked it hard.
In an instant, the rice in Guanhu was further away from the entrance of Dendrobium.
I saw an official come forward, and after taking a brief glance at the scale of the rice in the official's hand, he spoke to the subordinate official on the side.
"Count it, one hundred and fifty-three pounds!"
When the subordinate official heard this, he immediately picked up the brush and wrote down the figure of one hundred and fifty-three kilograms in the book.
Seeing this, the official responsible for collecting grain turned his attention to the old man and suddenly raised his tone.
"You still owe the government twenty-seven kilograms of grain, why don't you quickly find a way to raise it!"
The old man was already surprisingly angry. His chest was heaving violently, and his eyes were staring at the official, as if anger was about to burst out of him!
Not only that, the villagers of Shiqiao Village at the scene were also quite angry about this. There were even some young people who were full of blood. Their blood was already rising. If no one stopped them, they would have rushed forward.
The official was a little frightened by the old man's gaze, but he quickly suppressed his thoughts, sneered, and gave the order to the official on the side.
"This old guy really doesn't know how to live or die, and he actually dares to obstruct the government's food collection!"
"Come here, hit me hard!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the official who had been waiting for a long time rushed forward like a wolf and surrounded the old man.
The fists and kicks fell like raindrops, and the old man was immediately knocked to the ground. He could only groan on the ground and could no longer get up. There were bruises on his face and body.
Seeing this, a look of pleasure appeared on the official's face. He ignored the angry looks of the villagers in Shiqiao Village and warned in a deep voice.
"Did you see that, this is what you will get if you go against the government!"
"Come here, hang this damn old thing up on this big banyan tree. I want to serve as a warning to others!"
"stop!"
In the distance, a deep voice came, and Hai Rui appeared in front of everyone, dressed in coarse linen clothes.
(End of chapter)
