C8 (2/2)

As he was not an adult yet, Second Elder Brother Zhu had always been carefree with respect to etiquette. He had long loose hair and worked in the wheat fields with Li Shoudao and Li Shouyi, the two older 'scholar failed in the imperial examinations'.

The old man under the tree at the side of the field, who was playing with Little Sun, thought of his delicate eldest grandson, then looked at the hardworking Second Elder Brother Zhu. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart that Second Elder Brother Zhu had given birth to the wrong child. He had passed Second Elder Brother Zhu's exam, and he recited the 4th book and 5th scripture like the back of his hand. Unfortunately, he was of the ancestral family.

Lee Yuvniang held a jug of slightly sour milk and added a bowl of it to her father and uncle before she went to give it to Second Elder Brother Zhu. He cut too slowly, but he was also serious and didn't leave behind any ears of wheat.

Slurry water is the water in the pickled vegetables, cooked after the summer drinking can dispel the heat of the stomach.

Wiping his sweat, Second Elder Brother Zhu sighed as he drank the sour paste: ”Face to face with the earth, year after year, year after year. The peasants are really suffering. Sis Yuvniang, you see that Erlang's hands are already full of blisters. ”

”Second brother is a man with a conscience, and so is Zhu husband.” The matter of self-reliance had already spread far and wide. Lee Yuvniang admired the courage of Zhu Family and his son.

Even though he was in arrears, he was still a hard rations that could be harvested during the drought. Even if he was a gambler, he wouldn't starve to death because of his status as a concubine. The local officials had basically reached the end of the line when the patriarchs in the territory starved to death.

”If you don't know the hardships of the peasants, you can... Sigh, I won't say anymore. ”

The Ming tax rate was truly ludicrous, with the whole country running on top of the peasants. If an Elementary Scholar came from the same farm's rich village, the tax would be exempted. The rich peasants who are exempt from taxes can amass wealth to support more scholars and maintain tax exemption for generations to come. Thus the rich get richer, and the poor remain the same.

It would be fine if the world was at peace, but with the arrival of the Little Ice Age, natural disasters were everywhere. The poor people who could not survive any longer could only gather together and rebel. Wherever they went, they destroyed the production system. Such a vicious cycle would cause even greater damage.

It was laughable that the imperial government had sent all sorts of food to the poor. 1 mu of land can produce 1 stone of food is already a rare scene, and now 1 mu of land to hand over 3 buckets of food. The peasants who could not survive had only two choices. They either fought back or sold their fields to the local gentry, willing to be their tenants.

With the gentry's tax-exempt privileges, the tenants would not have to pay the state food and salaries, but would only have to pay a hundred rent a year. As time went on, the local gentry became rich, but the taxes collected by the state became smaller. Not enough to pay for more food, and the farmers were forced to their deaths.

As for the business tax, it was 3 to 1. What's more, there was good governance later on, which exempted him from paying the transaction quota of less than 3 taels. The whole business tax was meaningless. After all, the emperor wanted to raise taxes for the official families, so the civil officials often moved out their ancestors' teachings, forcing the emperor to have no choice but to stare.

Second Elder Brother Zhu looked up at the busy farmers on the mountain fields and clenched his fists. Since he couldn't become a member of the Scholar Group, then he would just kill these guys.

He secretly made a vow that, without mentioning anything else in his life, he would definitely exempt the farmers from paying taxes.

Seeing him focus, Lee Yuvniang fanned Second Elder Brother Zhu with her fan: ”Second Brother, what are you thinking about?”

”Sis Yuvniang, Erlang is thinking how great it would be if all the peasants in the world didn't have to pay taxes. ”In that case, they won't have to suffer so much.”

As if he was just a child dreaming, Lee Yuvniang asked with a smile, ”Then has second brother ever thought about it? If farmers don't pay taxes, what about the imperial government?”

”Exempt from large families. A large local family has over ten thousand acres of land, which is enough for the imperial government to use.”

”How can this be?” The imperial government specialized in collecting taxes on the food of the big families, and the big families would fall as well. Without a rich family, whose family is the imperial government taking in? ”

”Sis Yuvniang is wrong, the water flows to the bottom and the people walk to the top. As long as the imperial government did not force the wealthy to a dead end, everyone would work hard to manage their businesses and become wealthy. ”

With that, Second Elder Brother Zhu picked up his sickle and cut the wheat.

Lee Yuvniang tilted her head and thought for a moment. She felt that what he said was reasonable, and contrary to what she had heard, she was at a loss of words. She didn't know how to refute what he had said.

Just then, two angry horses clad in fresh clothes came over. Flag Hee Chong jumped down from his horse and shouted to someone in the field: ”Second Elder Brother Zhu! Overjoyed, the imperial edict of His Majesty had arrived! State Dedicating Lieutenant has sent two of us to welcome Second Elder Brother Zhu back home to receive his royal decree.

Holding the scythe in his hand, Second Elder Brother Zhu stood up, looked up at the azure sky and let out a long breath. Finally, he came.

The village splashed water all over the place, and even the bumpy roads were refilled with dirt. The order was issued by a middle-aged eunuch with a coarse appearance but refined temperament. His name was Liu Shimin.

Zhu Yisu was bathing and changing his clothes. Since he couldn't wait for his son, he could only accept the decree first. He didn't want this Eunuch Liu to wait for too long and have a bad idea. Since the eunuch was physically handicapped, his temper was naturally not very good.

At the last moment, Hee Chong returned with a sweaty and disheveled Second Elder Brother Zhu. However, the process had already started. Second Elder Brother Zhu didn't have time to wash up and change his clothes, so he could only kneel on the ground along with Zhu Yisu with his face covered in dust.

The father and son pair stood out together, making Liu Shimin secretly unhappy. He had also heard that the descendants of the High Clans were extremely mischievous. He never thought that the son of Zhu Yisu would be so unbearable to look at and lacked any of the clan's manners.