Chapter 41 Official Status (I)
A table was set up at the entrance of Zhujia Village. The tax collector sat behind the table, and the villagers came over with smiles. When the tax collector saw Huo Chong among the crowd, he frowned.
Huo Chong also knew that he had really come face to face with the tax collector this time, and he was very reluctant. But things had come to this point, so he could only walk over and salute the tax collector, "Sir, I have to pay taxes to some people here."
The tax collector had already opened the name list. When he heard what Huo Chong said, his eyebrows stood up, and he slammed the name list shut. He glared at Huo Chong and shouted, "What are you going to do?"
Huo Chong smiled and said, "The villagers put some money in my place, and they all asked me for it in order to pay taxes. I thought it would be better to pay the taxes to the government all at once instead of giving it to them. Then I won't have to be bothered by them anymore. If they hadn't pressed me hard, I wouldn't want to hang around in front of the government like this."
The tax collector glanced at Huo Chong with sharp eyes several times, and suddenly sneered: "Haha! I've heard that you guys only take money from others, but never pay it back! Fine, fine, I won't care, I just wait for you to pay me back!"
After that, the tax collector opened the account book again and started to call out the names according to the name list. Huo Chong also took out a piece of paper with many names written on it. The tax collector read out a name, and if there was a record on the paper, Huo Chong would mark it with a charcoal pencil. When the tax collector read out the tax that the person had to pay, Huo Chong would also quickly record it.
The tax collector finished reading, but he didn't say anything, just stared at Huo Chong. This look made Huo Chong feel like a thorn in his back. But at this time, there was nothing to worry about.
Huo Chong hurried to the table in the distance and asked the villagers who had donated money to come over to make calculations based on the recorded data.
Liujia Village, Zhujia Village, and Lijia Village. There are more than 400 people in these three villages. Uncle Liu is quite capable in Tianli Sect. More than 60% of the people have donated money to him. The standard for donating money is 100 coins. Most ordinary villagers donated 100 coins, and a few donated 200 coins.
According to the information Huo Chong had found out, Shandong was the trial operation area for the "Ding Tax on Land". The so-called Ding Tax was a head tax. In the past, every male had to pay silver. After the tax system of "Ding Tax on Land" was implemented, the Ding Tax as a head tax was cancelled. All the Ding Tax money was distributed into the land tax.
The farmers who owned land sighed when they saw the increase in land tax this year. But sighing was useless. The tax collectors were accompanied by runners. They were holding fire and water sticks and carrying iron chains around their waists. They dared not not pay.
These landowners came to Huo Chong and, based on the contents of Huo Chong's account book, deducted the money they had invested in Liu Shu from the tax they had to pay, and gave the remaining money to Huo Chong. After Huo Chong collected all the money, he calculated the total amount of silver these people had to pay, and took the list and the silver to the tax collector.
The tax collector looked at Huo Chong's trouble with disdain. When Huo Chong came to him, he sneered and said, "Have you figured it out?"
"Only when the official said I have figured it out, then I have figured it out." Huo Chong said with a smile.
After hearing this, the tax collector began to check the accounts with Huo Chong. As he counted one by one, the arrogance on his face gradually disappeared. When he finally calculated a total with the abacus, the tax collector's face looked unhappy again when he compared it with Huo Chong's number.
"Give me that paper," the tax collector ordered sullenly.
Huo Chong handed over his accounting paper with both hands. The tax collector took it and looked at it for a while, then said with a stern face: "The handwriting is like dog crawling!"
Huo Chong was angry at being told this, but he forced a wry smile on his face. He must not cause any more trouble, that was for sure. He had to endure the rage no matter how big it got. And the tax collector was right about Huo Chong's handwriting. Compared to the brush writing on the list, Huo Chong's charcoal writing looked like dog crawling.
Probably because Huo Chong used a lot of Arabic numerals, the tax collector looked at the paper with doubt for a while before slapping it on the table and saying, "Give me the money."
Huo Chong quickly handed over the silver he had prepared. After checking its quality and weighing its weight, the tax collectors began to collect taxes from the villagers who were not within the scope of Huo Chong's payment.
Huo Chong heaved a sigh of relief. He took back the bill. When he got to a place where the tax collectors couldn't see him, the landless people were already waiting there.
After the implementation of the policy of equalizing the land tax, landless tenants did not have to pay the tax on land and the tax on the land. The Qing Dynasty also did not levy corvée labor, which was equivalent to no taxation at all.
After collecting so many copper coins from the landowners, Huo Chong had enough money to pay back all the landless farmers' planting money. Just seeing so many copper coins, the landless farmers smiled.
When strings of copper coins were handed to them, the smiles of these people became even brighter. However, this brightness did not last long. The rich people in Zhujia Village had already blocked them and began to ask these landless tenants to pay back their money quickly. The smiles disappeared, and sadness and helplessness returned to these people's faces again.
Huo Chong had seen this kind of scene once when he was in Lijia Village. When he first saw it, Huo Chong was so happy. Especially when the guy who shouted "I want to beat Huo Chong" was blocked by the rich people in Lijia Village, he actually pushed the debt collectors away and ran away. Huo Chong was so happy that he almost laughed out loud.
But the resentment dissipated, and Huo Chong felt that this money for planting was probably the only living money that the villagers could get. After using this money to pay this year's taxes and repay some debts, it was unknown what they would do next.
At this time, all the money for planting blessings in Zhujia Village had been paid back, and Huo Chong hurried to pack up. It was not yet dark, and Huo Chong thought that if the tax collector walked quickly, he could still make it to Liujia Village.
By paying back the money that ordinary villagers in Liujia Village had borrowed to plant the trees, Huo Chong had escaped from the debt trap by more than half. Of course, there was still a gap in the money. After Huo Chong paid back the money that Uncle Liu borrowed by mortgaging the land, he wanted to pay off the first round of money first. This way, he wouldn't have to face the debt collection from the rich families at the end of the year. Unexpectedly, he was squeezed out this time, and could only pay off all the money owed to Lijia Village and Zhujia Village first.
As a result, Huo Chong only had enough money to pay back the ordinary villagers in Liujia Village. The rich families still had to pay first.
Just when I was thinking about how to deal with a debt collector like Liu Laowu, I heard someone in front of me crying, "It's just seventy cents, wait for me for a few months!"
Facing the debtor's plea, the rich man's subordinates who were collecting the debt scolded: "What are you waiting for? Look, Huo Chong, this liar, knows how to pay back the money. Are you worse than him?"
This caused a burst of laughter from the people around. Huo Chong raised his head and saw that the man who scolded him looked familiar. Perhaps he was one of Mr. Zhu's men. Judging from his physique, he must have been beaten by Huo Chong in the previous wine tasting conflict.
The laughter of the onlookers made Huo Chong feel evil and angry . If possible, Huo Chong wanted to beat this guy up again. But Huo Chong picked up the things he had packed and left with his third apprentice brother.
Behind him, he continued to curse: "Before, Huo Chong, that liar, cheated you out of your money. You asked him for interest! If you can get the interest, you can pay it back!"
Hearing this vicious instigation, Tie Niu turned around angrily and cursed: "What are you talking about!"
Huo Chong grabbed Tie Niu and dragged him away. Tie Niu still refused to leave and even tried to break free. Huo Chong was so angry that he shouted, "Tie Niu! They just want to make us angry. We are not angry. We have already paid back the money. Do you still want to stay here and wait for someone to treat you to a meal?"
After hearing what Huo Chong said, the crowd burst into laughter again. Tie Niu was not as strong as Huo Chong, so he was dragged and staggered out of Niujia Village with Huo Chong. Huo Chong let go of his hand only after they were out of the village. Tie Niu pointed in the direction of Niujia Village, jumped up and down and cursed, "What the hell! XXOO...XOXO..."
Huo Chong felt angry and amused at the impotent rage. However, after Tie Niu's scolding, Huo Chong felt much better. Huo Chong recalled the extremely bad investors he encountered when the platform was first built. At that time, Huo Chong also had to make and receive calls. For this reason, the platform also built a completely soundproof and sound-absorbing "scolding room" to allow employees who were bullied by customers to go in and curse and vent their anger. Huo Chong himself actually felt better listening to Tie Niu's scolding. Thinking back to the embarrassment of the poor people being chased for debts by the rich, Huo Chong no longer had any sympathy in his heart.
This group of people have set their sights on planting money for good fortune, which means they really have no spare money. How could so many descriptions of the cruelty of Qing Dynasty landlords be false? Although Huo Chong has never seen it with his own eyes, Huo Chong hopes that this is all true. At the latest by next year, these guys will know that their fate is to have a harder and harder life!
Huo Chong was furious in his heart! He felt that thinking about the miserable future of these people did have a very uplifting effect. Tie Niu was tired of scolding at this time, so Huo Chong called Tie Niu to go home quickly.
Sure enough, as the sun was setting, the tax collector arrived at Liujia Village with the sound of gongs.
The tax collector seemed exhausted after running through three villages in one day. He arrived at Lijia Village with his men last night and started collecting taxes at dawn today. Perhaps with Huo Chong's cooperation, the tax collection process went smoothly. In addition, the three villages were not far apart, so the tax collector was able to run so far like a speedster.
When they arrived at Liujia Village, they saw Huo Chong again. The tax collector had no emotional reaction at all, and just called out the name and tax amount verbatim.
Huo Chong worked quickly and finally paid off all the money for the poor people's blessings before evening.
After finishing all this, Huo Chong hurried home and closed the door tightly. At this time, the tax collectors had a lot of money on them, and Huo Chong didn't dare to provoke them again. If they asked to stay at Huo Chong's house, and suddenly said that the money was lost the next day, no matter what the county government ruled, Huo Chong's fate of losing several layers of skin was inevitable.
Those tax collectors can live wherever they want, as long as they don't live in Huo Chong's house.
That night, Huo Chong went to bed early, but couldn't sleep.
The events of the day kept replaying in his mind, and Huo Chong was thinking about what to do next.
Xu Youlin might cooperate for a while, but Huo Chong didn't want to rely on this guy for his fate. Not to mention Xu Youlin's narrow eyes and hooked nose, he didn't look like a good person.
Even if Xu Youlin is not a bad person, he is a businessman. As a distributor, he will always have to compete fiercely with producers like Huo Chong. Believing in them is not much different from committing suicide.
