Chapter 417: golden right foot
Chapter 417 Golden right foot
When she got near the gate of Dexi City, Chu Nanzhi lifted the curtain, and was suddenly attracted by an interesting scene.
In front of a high-walled courtyard, a group of men, women and children in rags were pouring grain around a pointed cone-shaped wooden container.
Seeing the grains in the container protruding from the top of the tower, a burly man kicked the container violently. The container did not fall down, but the grains that came out of the top of the tower slipped to the ground, and then the strong man threw his hand With a wave, he only ordered people to lift the grain in the container to weigh it.
A thin old man bent down to take away the grains scattered around the container, but the servants in the house immediately stopped him.
Chu Nanzhi stopped the carriage, and saw the thin old man knelt down on the ground, begging bitterly: "My lord, these are the grains from our fields, please don't waste them, it's a famine year, please Let the old man pick it up, Mr. Lang."
The strong man directly kicked the old man to the ground: "Fuck you, you rascals, how dare you take inferior grains as good ones, my master doesn't blame you, you still want to pick them up. "
Chu Nanzhi felt depressed, so she left Chu Ting and led Sang Qi straight out of the carriage.
Seeing this, Lin Jinxiao dismounted and walked over, and asked blankly, "What are you going to do?"
Chu Nanzhi didn't answer, walked to the gate of the compound with strides, knelt down and took a handful of grains in her hand, rubbed the rice, it was white and tender, full of grains, smelling fragrant.
He glared at the big man who kicked people, and asked sharply: "They are all high-quality grains. Which of your eyes can tell that they are inferior grains?"
"Where did the tricky woman come from?"
The big man had just uttered cursing words, but when he saw the sergeant and Lin Jinxiao approaching him, he immediately changed his face and said with a smile, "So it's His Royal Highness King Ping Ning. I don't know what's the matter with His Highness's presence?"
Lin Jinxiao glanced coldly at the group of cowering servants, leaned down to help the old man up, and asked softly, "Old man, what happened?"
The old man glanced at the strong man and his servants, gave a wry smile cautiously, knelt down respectfully and went to pay homage and said: "The grass people kowtow to King Pingning."
"There is no need to be too polite."
Lin Jinxiao helped him up again, looked at the grains spilled on the ground, but heard the person who came back from the weighing report loudly: "The rent that old man Wang sent is only 390 catties of grains, which is a full sixty catties short. "
When the old man heard this, his old face sank in fright, and he frowned tightly: "The old man obviously weighed the weight before going out, and there is no way he will lose a catty and a half taels. How can he be short of a catty?"
Chu Nanzhi sneered, and said to Sang Qi: "Pack up these grains on the ground and weigh them."
The strong man was about to stop him, but Lin Jinxiao directly pressed the hilt of the sword in his hand.
Seeing that Sang Qi found the grain in the sack, the strong man explained with a troubled face: "Your Highness, these grains cannot be counted as rent. This year, the land rent has already been reduced, and the tenants are shoddy, so the owner can't afford it." If you suffer losses, it’s hard to explain the small ones.”
Lin Jinxiao turned a deaf ear to the strong man's words, staring at the old man and asked, "Has your land rent dropped this year?"
The old man nodded submissively, pretending to say something in his heart but dared not say it clearly.
Chu Nanzhi saw the timidity in his heart, and said bluntly: "Old man, King Pingning is in charge of this state, if you have any grievances and dare not speak out in front of His Highness, then you will only suffer from being dumb."
The old man looked at the strong man hesitantly, and then turned his dry eyes back to Chu Nanzhi.
Lin Jinxiao said gently, "This is my wife, and what she says is what I say."
"I have seen."
The old man and the surrounding tenants were about to bow down to pay homage, Chu Nanzhi immediately stopped everyone: "You don't need to be too polite, you can speak up boldly if you have something to say, and my Highness will definitely make decisions for you."
The old man still didn’t dare to speak. A young and strong man next to him gritted his teeth, knelt down resolutely, and mustered up his courage to answer truthfully:
"Returning to the princess, and reporting to Your Highness, we are all undoubtedly happy with the land equalization policy issued by the county this year, but this year is not good. Although the owner has lowered the rent for everyone, after careful calculation, we paid The rent is not less than in previous years, and it is still collected according to the standard in good years."
After hearing what the young and strong man said, the old man dared to answer: "The county collects taxes, and the owner collects land rent. It is understandable that there is no increase in good years and no decrease in disaster years. Then it has increased year by year, from the original 15 tax to 16 tax, this year it is said to be 30 tax, but we have paid the imperial court's personal tax and the owner's rent, and there is no food left in the family."
After hearing this, Chu Nanzhi felt something was wrong. One of the 15th tax was 55% of the food, and the 16th tax was 64th. That means that even if it was a good year last year, the common people had to spend 60% of their food. Leave it to the gentry.
Although this year is a famine year, the method of rent collection has changed to 30% of the tax, that is, 37% of the grain. Half, such a large drop, how come there is no more food.
Chu Nanzhi looked up at Sang Qi who was walking over.
Sang Qi carried a small bag of grains to Chu Nanzhi and said, "Master, there are fifteen catties of grains in here."
"Good guy."
Chu Nanzhi smiled and looked at the strong man who kicked Dendrobium: "Lang Jun really gave birth to a golden right foot, you kicked off fifteen catties of grain for the old man with one kick, just now you said that it was still sixty catties short, presumably It was all folded on top of the several dendrobium grains that were weighed before."
In this era, one dendrobium weighs two dendrobiums, and one dendrobium is one hundred catties. According to this measurement principle, at least four to five dendrobiums have been weighed, and each dendrobium has been folded to about ten catties.
But the strong man defended with reason and evidence: "The young one is also following orders. The owner said that this year is a famine year. This method is used to distinguish the quality of the grain. The more grains kicked down, the worse the grain is. But the owner was sympathetic to the tenants, so he reluctantly accepted the grain."
"It's full of nonsense, the dried grains piled up on the tip of this dendrobium will not fall down no matter how you kick it, you are kicking a stone."
Chu Nanzhi said angrily: "Your boss is really good at calculating, if my guess is right, you have to let the old man go back to make up for the missing grains, and then you have to add another ten catties. To extract a fortune from the tenants when collecting rent.”
After a pause, she continued: "I said that you don't want to collect money from the tenants, as long as you only want grain, this is really killing two birds with one stone. When there is a shortage of grain, you can raise the price of grain, so that you can earn money from the lowered rent." Come back, you insist that such good grains are shoddy, and it is clear that you are dissatisfied with the policy issued by the county."
Lin Jinxiao became solemn, and slowly pulled out the cold sword in his hand. The strong man fell to his knees in fright: "Your Highness, this is none of my business, we are just following orders."
"Tell your boss to come out."
Lin Jinxiao yelled, and someone staggered away in response.
Not long after, I saw a middle-aged man with a round waist and a broad body swaggering out. Seeing the scene in front of the courtyard gate, and then seeing the sharp sword shining coldly in Lin Jinxiao's hand, he was so frightened that he quickly crawled over. Called: "I don't know that His Highness is here. The grass people are far away and welcome, and hope to forgive their sins."
Facing the hot face on him, Lin Jinxiao just remained silent, his eyes were as silent and terrifying as ashes, and his cold and solemn expression was not angry but majestic.
(end of this chapter)