Farmer's eldest sister becomes rich

Chapter 297 Paying Summer Tax

An Yue hurried out and asked, "Uncle Jing, you are gathering the villagers to the west end of the village. What's the urgent matter?"

Li Jing held the gong and said with a gloomy face: "You will know when Yueyue goes there."

After that, Li Jing continued to beat the gong and walked towards the east end of the village, shouting: "All villagers..."

An Yue stood there, scratching her head and yawning, muttering to herself, "What on earth is going on? She looks quite anxious."

By the way, the village suffered a locust plague yesterday. I guess the village chief called the villagers together to discuss how to deal with it.

An Yue stretched and said, "Never mind, let's go take a look first!"

She looked at Ba Shi hiding in the corner and planned to lock it back in the yard. She also went to ask her sister-in-law Meng Xiu'er whether she was going to the west end of the village.

An Yue squatted down and called out, "Ba Shi, come here quickly, I'll bring you duck eggs at home~!"

An Yue successfully tricked the follower Ba Shi over. She picked him up and walked into the yard.

An Yue walked into the room and asked Meng Xiuer who was lying there: "Sister-in-law, the village chief is calling the villagers to discuss something. Do you want to go and listen?"

Meng Xiuer sat up and said to An Yue with a tired face: "Yueyue, go ahead! I don't know why, but I feel very sleepy today. I want to lie down for a while."

"That's fine, sister-in-law, have a good rest at home. When I come back, I will tell you what we discussed."

Meng Xiuer replied with a hum, "Okay, Yueyue, go ahead! Be careful on the road."

An Yue started to go out with the backpack on her back. Ba Shi was about to follow her. An Yue raised her foot and kicked Ba Shi lightly, then quickly closed the gate.

An Yue carried a backpack and came to the main road, walking towards the west end of the village.

On the way, she met many villagers who were gathering towards the west end of the village.

When the villagers saw An Yue, they all greeted her with a smile.

Soon, everyone arrived at the negotiation place at the west end of the village.

Seeing that the village chief and Qin were already standing in the crowd, An Yue hurriedly stepped forward and shouted, "Uncle, Uncle and Aunt."

Qin looked at An Yue walking towards her. She stepped forward with a kind smile and said, "Our little lucky star is here!"

An Yue was held by Qin's hand and walked to the village chief Li Huairen. An Yue asked, "Uncles and aunts, why did you gather everyone here today? What happened?"

Village chief Li Huairen said, "Yueyue, we gathered everyone here today to discuss matters such as summer taxes and collecting silkworm cocoons, nothing else."

An Yue nodded and said with relief: "That's good, that's good."

After a while, people gathered in the open space.

The village chief walked up the hill and shouted to the crowd, "Fellow villagers, please be quiet."

After a moment, the audience fell silent.

The village chief said loudly: "There are two main things that I have called everyone here to discuss. The first one is about collecting silkworm cocoons."

The village chief asked everyone present: "Have the silkworms in your homes started to make cocoons in recent days?"

The women in the audience nodded one after another. One of them smiled and said, "All my silkworms have been put on the shelves. They will be able to make cocoons in three to five days."

Another woman echoed, "Yes, my silkworms are the same..."

"My family is the same..."

The women all responded, and the village chief raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet.

"It seems that they are all doing well. Raising silkworms in Baili Village is a task assigned to our village by the government. After completing the task, the head tax for silkworm farmers can be exempted."

"Everyone must take good care of the cocoons. Soon, the government will send people to purchase the cocoons. I hope everyone can deliver the cocoons as promised."

When the people in the audience heard what the village chief said, their faces were filled with joy.

The village chief continued: "Next, the second thing I want to talk about is the summer tax."

When mentioning the second thing, a look of pain appeared on the face of the village chief Li Huairen.

He cleared his throat and continued, "Regarding the summer tax, the government has issued an official document. Due to the drought in various places, the government has considered the people's livelihood and will reduce the summer tax by half as appropriate."

As soon as the news came out, the audience was in an uproar and the crowd was boiling.

An old woman in the crowd slapped her thighs and cried, "Oh, my God! The wheat we managed to harvest ahead of time is only enough to keep our family from starving for the time being. If we have to pay taxes again, we won't have any food left!"

Another man stood up angrily and shouted, "We've had such a long drought, and now we've just been hit by a locust plague. Now there's not even a leaf of vegetable in the fields, and you're still asking us to pay taxes. You're really trying to drive us to death!"

The middle-aged woman at the side said with dull eyes: "After paying the grain tax, there will be no surplus food in the future, and the whole family will starve!"

An Yue was also very angry when she heard about Xia Tax.

Now that there is drought, the people are hoping that the government will open their granaries and release grain to provide relief to the victims.

Now, instead of taking any action, they are squeezing the people's life-saving food supplies.

The village chief sighed, struck the gong in his hand, and shouted to everyone: "Fellow villagers, as the head of the village, I am powerless to change these things. I also know that it is not easy for everyone, but we cannot disobey the orders of the government."

An old woman knelt on the ground and cried, "If this is the case, how can you let people live! They can't live anymore, they can't live anymore..."

The women off the field were sobbing and the men were all dejected, crying and shouting that they could not survive.

An Yue looked at the noise all around her and everyone's frustration, and she couldn't help but frown.

Seeing that An Yue looked unhappy, Qin hurried forward and patted her shoulder to comfort her.

The village chief signaled everyone to be quiet again and said, "Many people in other villages have died of thirst. Also, due to the locust plague, the fields have been eaten up completely, and many families are fleeing the famine."

"Looking back at ourselves, isn't our Baili Village much better than other villages?" The village chief comforted everyone.

After hearing what the village chief said, the sobbing gradually subsided.

"Compared to other villages, we at least have water to drink." Someone in the crowd shouted.

The villagers echoed: "Yes, fortunately we still have water."

The village chief went on to say, "This is an official order from the government. We can't change it, so let's all grit our teeth and hand it in as soon as possible!"

After saying that, the village chief turned and left with a depressed look on his face.

The villagers also dispersed with sighs and went back to their homes.

An Yue was also in a very heavy mood, and she followed Qin back to the village chief's house.

Qin said in annoyance, "Drought and locust plagues have come one after another. There is no harvest in the fields. After we pay the tax, I am afraid we can only eat tree bark and grass roots."

An Yue didn't answer because she didn't know what to do.

There is now a drought and a locust plague, and all the herbs have been eaten by the locusts.