Chapter 552： borrow food

   This inferior county was completely lively, and even the villagers who lived almost half-isolated came to Chen Ming to find out what he heard from the town or the county.

Chen Ming didn't dare to talk about these gossips anymore, so he led people to chat under the big banyan tree at the foot of the mountain, but Chen Ming's family didn't have much restraint in front of Mu Yangling. Fourth grandmother, you don't know, we were all afraid of death some time ago. After paying such a rent, the villagers would not starve to death. The county magistrate did not leave for two days, and the magistrate came out to post a notice saying The previous announcement with the county magistrate's official seal was done by thieves, and it doesn't count. The rent tax is still collected according to what the magistrate said before, and there is also a stipulated time limit. It is said that if it is not paid within three days, the yamen will be sent to the door to collect it. The county chief is still the master of our county, how can he be so disrespectful..."

"What happened later?" Li Jinghua asked curiously.

Mu Yangling got up hurriedly, "Sister-in-law is here."

Li Jinghua smiled and said, "Seeing how lively you guys are talking, come over and listen." After that, she looked at Chen Ming's family.

Chen Ming's family tensed up and said respectfully: "As a result, the county chief also had an accident that night, and another announcement was posted outside saying that the rent and tax do not need to be paid. Now that the imperial court is in chaos, it is impossible to send a new county magistrate. Therefore, as soon as several masters in the county discussed, they elected a respected master to be the magistrate of Zhandai. No, the official announcement was issued only yesterday, saying that the previous announcement that tax exemption was done by thieves, let us not Listen, but this year, the county's rent tax is indeed relatively heavy, and they say that the rent tax is temporarily not paid, and they will notify them after they discuss a charter. Now we are all waiting, and I don't know if the rent tax can be reduced in the end."

Li Jinghua turned her head to look at Mu Yangling and asked with a smile, "What does A Ling think?"

"It should be possible," Mu Yangling said: "The thief who blatantly posted the tax exemption announcement shows that he killed the magistrate and the county chief because of their heavy taxation. If anyone comes forward at this time, I'm afraid that person will not Let it go, so even if the tax cannot be waived, it should be fine if it is less.”

Otherwise, no one has clean hands, who knows if the murderer will attack them?

At this time, the people in the county who can talk about it are indeed discussing the rent and tax. There are two boxes in front of them. This is what the murderer placed at the scene of the two crimes. The evidence of the crime also let them know the reason for the murderer.

Now everyone has been looking for various security bureaus to find out which righteous thief would do this, but there is no news at all.

Everyone was even more alarmed about this, and because of this, everyone was a little uncertain about the rent and tax.

The imperial court has been in chaos, and it is not known when it will be officially settled. They are in a remote area, I am afraid that no one will come to occupy it, so they can only manage it by themselves.

But the county also has a lot of expenses, not to mention the salaries of the officials below, the repairs of bridges and roads, and the relief in case of natural disasters and man-made disasters, which can only be paid from the rent and tax in the future, because they are businessmen in this small county. There are very few people, and the tax is almost zero, so we can only hope for the rental tax, so it is impossible to avoid this in any case.

cannot be avoided, so it can only be reduced. The key is how much to reduce?

Everyone quarreled.

After initial concerns, the villagers saw that the county did not give an answer, so they secretly took out some of the food that was used to pay taxes. They couldn’t have starved to death without paying taxes, right?

Who knew that this discussion in the county seat passed the autumn and went straight to the beginning of winter, and the topic had changed a lot, and the gentlemen in the county had not been able to come up with a charter.

The villagers are not in a hurry. Sometimes when they see Chen Ming coming back from the town, they will ask, "Is there an announcement in the town? When will the tax be paid?"

In the past, Chen Ming shook his head, and then everyone laughed happily. Who knew that this time Chen Ming nodded solemnly and said, "The announcement has been made, and someone should have come down in the past two days to notify that it is before the winter solstice. It's over, but the rent is only half of what it was originally set."

The villager who asked the question was taken aback for a moment, wishing he could slap himself and tell you to talk too much.

Chen Ming sighed, turned around and dragged the donkey cart back, telling the host the not-so-good news.

In order to cover up, Mu Yangling did buy hundreds of acres of fertile land in the neighboring villages. These are all subject to tax, but the land reclaimed in this village can be exempted from tax for three years.

She asked Chen Ming to inform Zhuangzi's steward to prepare the tax payment.

Nothing is more expensive than food these days.

The rental tax has been cut by half, and the villagers don’t have to sell their children and daughters. They can still have some food left over. They can eat it with chaff until the end of the spring. However, there are still five months before the spring and the summer harvest. What should we do then?

So after paying the tax, the village chief and Li Zheng, even though they were still wary of the Zhu family, still approached the door and made a cheeky offer to borrow food, just hoping that the interest would be lower.

Both of them were a little worried in their hearts, for fear that they would step into the road of no return, but in order not to starve to death, this is what they must do.

Mu Yangling, who originally wanted no interest, closed his mouth temporarily and thought about it: "It is not difficult for the villagers in this village to borrow food, but I am not sure about the interest. Chen Ming said that the villagers do not have enough to eat every year. There are ten months of the year when the grain is mixed with bran, and if you borrowed the grain this year, you may not be able to pay it back next year."

The village chief obviously knew this, and blushed: "The villagers will be more diligent next year, and they will always be able to pay back. The big deal, we will sell iron..."

"That makes me look like a villain."

Li was thinking for a moment and asked, "What does the fourth grandma mean..."

"As you all know, I have an emperor of 100 acres in the village. It has just opened for a year, and there are still two years of rent-free. The land is too thin, and it has always been farmed by hired day laborers. If you can't go out, you have to borrow food. , the interest is the land that is rented to me. I will ask Chen Ming to tell you how much food you borrow. The time limit is two years. You have to plant what I want you to plant. After the year, the interest on borrowing grain will be waived, and as for the rent, I will only charge 50%, what do you think?"

Li Zheng and the village chief looked at each other and asked hesitantly, "How much time will it take to serve? You always have to give me an accurate word."

They were afraid that Mu Yangling would ask them to plant something that would take a lot of time. Two years later, they said they hadn't done it well, so they doubled the interest rate or something.

Mu Yangling smiled and said: "It's not something that takes time. It takes less time than wheat. If you don't eat it or are not used to eating it, then sell it to me, and the price will not be less than yours."

Li was thinking about it and asked: "Then, can you make a statement or something?" He blushed and said, "It's not that you can't trust Fourth Grandma, but there is a proof or something."

Mu Yangling nodded, "Let's not say it, I also want to establish evidence, and in the future, as long as our affairs are official, we must establish evidence."

Mu Yangling said this, Li Zheng and the village chief were both embarrassed and a little suspicious. I wish the family was so good at talking?