MTL - After Dressing Up As a Stepmother, I Transformed the Whole Family Into Working In the Fields

Li Zheng suddenly fell silent.

 The heads of other villages suddenly felt their hearts sinking.

 “Li Zheng, did you tell me what Village Chief Qin asked?”

 “Is it possible that taxes have increased this year?”

Qin Yao also frowned.

Li Zheng motioned for everyone to sit down first, leaving his son to greet everyone for tea, then turned and went into the back room to get a volume of documents.

 Not all village chiefs have the ability to read documents, so Li Zheng did not give the documents to the village chiefs for circulation.

 He unfolded the document and read out the contents.

Qin Yao couldn't understand the official descriptions in the document, but he could clearly understand the sentence "one-twelfth of the grain tax is collected".

After reading all the contents, Li Zheng respectfully rolled up the documents and put them in a bamboo tube and put them away. Then he sighed and said in a deep voice:

“It has increased a bit, but not too much. In addition, the harvest in each village this year is pretty good, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

That’s what I said, but except for Qin Yao’s Liujia Village, other villages didn’t have such a good harvest.

Although the county magistrate brought everyone to Liujiacun to learn farming during spring plowing, the actual practice was completely different.

There are many stubborn people, and the more remote and remote they are, the more stubborn they are.

The village chief and the young people who went to study were all discouraged, but in fact only a small half of them worked intensively with Liujiacun.

 Before you see the benefits, human nature dictates that you will naturally be wary and suspicious of new things.

Those who went to Liujia Village had seen it with their own eyes, so they believed it.

 But other villagers who did not go with him did not believe it. After all, this kind of thing was unprecedented and there was no reference. It was natural for them to be fearful and conservative.

 This means that the increased taxes this year will be an obvious loss to most villagers.

　　The heads of each village turned dark when they thought about having to mobilize the villagers to pay grain taxes when they returned to the village.

Who doesn’t have a few particularly unreasonable pricks?

The grain tax can't survive without even one or two taels. The village chiefs changed their previous joy in talking about the harvest and turned into bitter and resentful faces. They began to export like crazy. Tongli was complaining about the difficulty of taxation work.

Li Zheng felt that his ears were about to explode and his throat was about to become mute. When he turned his head, he found Qin Yao holding a tea cup and calmly drinking tea while looking at the blue sky and white clouds outside the house. Such a stable emotion made Li Zheng "bang". !" He slapped the table and shouted at several village chiefs:

 “Shut up, everyone!”

"What's the use of telling me this? This is a government decree. If you can, go to the county magistrate to argue!"

The tea cup in Qin Yao's hand shook slightly, but she managed to steady her hand and prevent the tea from spilling.

Qin Yao innocently turned to look at the dumbfounded village chiefs. Qin Yao wanted to comfort her, but then she thought that if she spoke now, she might be seen as showing off, so she had better keep her mouth shut.

Qin Yao put down her tea cup and asked Li Zheng to lend her the tax collection documents and make a copy of them.

Wang Xiaoyu, the head of Xiahe Village, chased her out and asked her, "Mrs. Qin, aren't you anxious? Do you know how much food is missing from the increase from one-fifteenth to one-twelfth?"

Qin Yao answered the first question first, "It's useless to be anxious. You have no joke. Government orders cannot be changed. You and I can only accept the reality."

“While we have time to quarrel, it’s better to think of ways to appease the villagers, after all.”

Qin Yao turned around and glanced at Li Zheng's house. "Li Zheng's situation will be yours and mine's. I don't want to be drowned by spittle."

Wang Xiaoyu frowned, feeling even more worried.

Qin Yao then answered the second question, "Uncle Xiaoyu, my arithmetic is okay and I know the difference between twelve and fifteen."

"I don't know what's going on in other villages, but most of the people in our Xiahe Village work in my stationery factory. This year's harvest is pretty good. I think the villagers' resistance won't be too high. You just need to comfort them." Wang Xiaoyu looked at her in disbelief, "How can you say something that has nothing to do with you? Food is everyone's life, but you said it so lightly!"

“What else can we do?” Qin Yao asked in a calm tone without changing her expression.

Wang Xiaoyu suddenly became speechless. Yes, what else can we do?

 “Dad!” Wang Yu shouted as he led the ox cart by the roadside.

Wang Xiaoyu looked at Qin Yao angrily: "My son has come to pick me up. Can we go back together?"

Qin Yao waved her hand to refuse and whistled, only to hear the clatter of horse hooves coming from the river bank. After a while, a tall brown horse ran in front of Qin Yao and nuzzled her obediently. .

"Uncle Xiaoyu, we are the village chief. The village chief's task is to complete the tax collection and ensure the safety of the whole village. Personally, it is better to accept it."

 After saying that, Qin Yao got on the horse and took one step ahead of the horse.

Wang Xiaoyu was shocked, as if he was awakened by Qin Yao's words, and his mind suddenly came to his senses.

Grain tax is of great importance. If it cannot be paid on time, the government will pursue it and the whole village will be destroyed!

At this moment, the priorities are revealed. If you don’t want to die, you have to be ruthless.

Qin Yao rode her horse, but did not go straight to Liujia Village. Instead, she turned at the fork of Guan Road and entered Dingjiazhuang.

 She was going to see the harvest of her tenants this year and explain the tax situation this year.

 Liu Ji is now a scholar, and his family's taxes are exempted, so the rents of the tenants have to be adjusted.

 At the beginning, Liu Ji and the tenants agreed that they would each bear the taxes.

 But since the family no longer needs to pay grain taxes, the tenants do not need to bear the taxes.

Qin Yao planned to make a compromise and reduce the original taxes paid by the tenants to a 50-50 ratio.

This year’s tax is 1/12, and she only needs half of it, leaving the rest to the tenants.

 Other landowners did the same, and some even asked for not half but more than half.

  But for the tenants, as long as they had a small amount of money to earn, they were more than willing to rent fields for cultivating talents and raising people.

By the time Qin Yao returned to Liujia Village from Dingjiazhuang, the sunset had already filled the entire sky.

Everyone in the village is paying attention to Qin Yao's movements. On the way home, villagers carrying millet asked how much the grain tax would be this year.

Qin Yao didn't say anything, only said: "I will copy the documents tonight and post them on the notice board at the entrance of the village tomorrow. Everyone will know then."

 The villagers smiled and did not continue to ask any more questions.

 The harvest this year is good, and each family has income from working in the stationery factory and income from growing melons. Seeing that life is getting better, it is hard not to be happy.

But the happier the villagers are at the moment, the guiltier Qin Yao feels.

It's one thing to pretend to be cool with the village chief of Xiahe Village, but it's another thing to actually play the villain yourself.

Before the tax documents were posted tonight, she had to quickly think of a way to divert her hatred.

Qin Yao entered the house thoughtfully. Before she could think of anything, Yin Le, who was leading the four Dalang brothers and sisters to collect grains in the backyard, ran over and handed Qin Yao two letters.

“Master, this is the letter that Manager Song just brought to you.”

 After delivering the letter, he returned to the backyard and continued to harvest grains.

Qin Yao raised her eyebrows, this apprentice has the potential to be a bully~