On August 20th, the big gong in the village was struck, and the sound echoed throughout the village, so people from every household came out one after another.
It turned out that the grain chief came with his people to collect grain.
Some villagers had heard the news in the town a few days ago, so they prepared food early. And some people thought that it would be some time before the daily grain chief would come to collect grain, so they were not prepared. At this time, they rushed to prepare the grain to be handed over in a panic.
What is being collected now is "autumn grain", which is mainly rice. The collection usually starts in the second month after the autumn harvest.
For those lands that can harvest two crops a year, they need to pay taxes twice. However, the entire Nanyang Prefecture only grows one crop, so you only need to pay the autumn grain. .
Nanyang Prefecture belongs to the Jiangnan area, and the tax rate is relatively high, and the situation is not necessarily fixed every year. This year, the tax rate notified by the county government is one out of ten taxes.
(Note: The source of tax information is "Da Ming Huidian".)
Last year, the harvest was good and only 12 taxes were paid. Unexpectedly, this year it is 10 taxes.
Although everyone complained, no one dared not refuse to pay, and everyone brought food from home.
The villagers came to the grain drying field one after another, and according to the practice of previous years, they lined up in several long queues in an orderly manner.
Under the big tree in the grain drying field, there is a large table and several stools arranged by the village chief.
The grain chief sat under the shade of the tree with his documents, and there were more than a dozen strong and powerful men standing beside him. Parked behind them were several oxcarts, ready to be used to transport grain.
The grain collection has not yet begun. While waiting in line, the villagers were whispering to each other and discussing the tax rate.
"Oh, this year's harvest is not very good. We have to pay so much food. How will we live in the future."
"Who says it's not this year? Why has it been improved again? But what can be done? This is a rule."
All kinds of complaints and discussions came one after another.
At this time, a young man next to the grain manager shouted at the top of his lungs: "Everyone line up for me, come one after another, don't wait any longer!"
This voice scared the crowd into silence instantly.
Chen Dachuan, who was first in line, immediately put the grain in the designated position in a panic and looked at the grain manager nervously.
The grain manager didn’t even look at these villagers, he just kept his head down and drank tea.
Two uniformed government officials held a large steel scale and began to weigh the bags. Next to them, a young government official held a piece of paper and counted carefully. .
Chen Dachuan's family has a small population and not much land. He only needs to pay 130 kilograms of rice.
Soon, the yamen servant completed the weighing and nodded.
Chen Dachuan breathed a long sigh of relief. It seemed that his father was indeed right. The scale used when harvesting grain would weigh less than an ordinary scale, so he deliberately put ten more kilograms of rice in it.
At this time, another uniformed government servant strode forward, holding an iron prod in his hand, which shone brightly in the dazzling sunlight.
The officer walked to the grain bag expressionlessly, walked around the bag first, and kept scanning the bag with his sharp eyes.
Then, he stretched out a hand and patted the bag hard, frowning slightly as he listened to the dull sound.
Then, he slammed the iron prod into the bag. The sharp iron prod instantly penetrated the bag and penetrated deeply into the rice.
He quickly pulled out the iron poke and brought out some rice grains. He carefully looked at the rice grains in his hands and gently fiddled with them to check whether the rice grains were full and whether there were impurities. .
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None of the surrounding villagers expected that this year would be so rigorous. None of them dared to express their anger and stared closely at the actions of the yamen servant.
The yamen servant picked up a grain of rice, put it into his mouth, and chewed it slowly. He was feeling the hardness and dryness of the rice.
After a while, he nodded.
Chen Dachuan was relieved at this moment. His family had selected better quality grains, but they were worried that they would fail the inspection.
The yamen man walked to the next bag and repeated the previous series of actions. In this way, he continued to repeat until all the grain in the bags had been checked.
After the grain was qualified, the clerk sitting next to the grain chief calmly picked up his pen and started recording.
Many of the villagers at the back began to get nervous, and some at the end were already quietly calling their families to carry the grain away and go back to exchange for food.
Of course, there are also those who are still lucky. They think that just because they are the first one, the government officials will check every bag so carefully.
Then, the government officer waved his hand, and Chen Dachuan quickly bowed repeatedly, then stepped back, and the next villager came forward carrying food.
I have inspected five or six companies, and they are all so rigorous. So after seeing this situation, many villagers quietly returned home to replace food.
As time goes by, inspections continue.
Several of them were given double penalties because their grains failed to meet standards.
The villagers who were not punished were filled with sighs and sighs in their hearts. They all said they were lucky and secretly rejoiced.
From the Chen family's side, Chen Dasong and Chen Dashan came together to carry food.
The yamen officer just took a look at it and already knew that the quantity was wrong without even using a scale to weigh it.
One of the yamen officials counted the grain bags, and the other yamen servant opened the booklet, and then the two of them checked.
"Chen Renjia, the quantity of food is wrong."
As soon as these words came out, everyone present, including the grain chief, all looked at Chen Dasong and Chen Dashan and two others.
Chen Dashan suddenly felt like a light on his back, and his face turned blue and white, feeling very embarrassed. He pursed his lips, wanting to explain something, but he didn't know where to start.
Chen Dasong walked forward with a playful smile.
"Sir, the quantity is absolutely correct. It is not less at all. It is really not less. You will know after you have weighed it."
"Chen Ren, owns twenty paddy fields. For five acres, we should hand over 352 kilograms of grain, but we can’t even reach 300 kilograms here, right?" The yamen officer looked at Chen Dasong with a look of displeasure.
The bags used to hold grain are roughly the same, and their basic weights are also almost the same. However, the number of bags brought by Chen Dasong and the two of them seems to be only about 250 kilograms.
"Sir, that's right. Our family originally had twenty-five acres of land. Didn't our family just split up? Eight acres of land were allocated to my third brother's family." Chen Dasong whispered said.
After hearing this, the yamen officer nodded without saying a word, and then began to weigh.
As for Chen Dashan, who was standing aside, his palms were already covered in sweat. He was frightened. He had no idea that my mother would be so bold as to come up with such an idea.
This is deceiving the government! It would be okay if this was exposed.