North and South groceries

In a small village not far from Changle County, a couple was milking goats this evening.

In their area, they used to have the habit of using sheep's milk cheese to supplement their living expenses. This year, a new county magistrate came to Changle County, and the custom of drinking milk tea has risen. Yes, the price is better than selling cheese.

In the house, the eldest daughter of the family has already started to light the fire to make dinner, and the youngest girl is only three or four years old this year. She follows her sister all day long, babbling and talking, but she is not annoying and very well-behaved.

There are two other sons in the middle, who went out to cut grass at noon, and have not come back by now, nor have the other boys in the village, so the parents are not in a hurry.

The husband and wife were silently working in the yard, bringing the ewes over one by one and milking them...

When today's work was almost finished, the husband finally said: "I will go to the city to repair the city wall in a few days, I will go, you stay at home."

When the wife heard about it, she said without looking back, "What are you doing, you can't even climb out of the ditch."

"..." So the husband stopped talking.

The man in this family has some congenital deficiencies, he has been crippled since he was a child, and Ye Niang used to worry that he would not be able to marry a wife in the future, and he would not be able to leave a child.

Unexpectedly, when he was in his teens, a relative came to a family in the village. It was a herdsman outside the pass. There was a girl in the herdsman's family, who was about the same age as the lame man.

This little cripple and a little shepherd girl got together somehow, and later they became a couple, and gave birth to a daughter and two sons, both of whom were in good health.

A few years ago, the old man in the family passed away, and the brothers separated. The cripple also went to Changle County to seek a jobless household, but he went several times to no avail.

The first few times I was not even allowed to enter the gate of the palace, so I was hastily dismissed by the guards. Later, I was lucky enough to meet the county magistrate, but the county magistrate said: "I heard that your wife has some strength. You won’t lose to ordinary men, and you’re only lame, you’re bedridden, why don’t you have to pay taxes, if everyone is like this, where does the tax come from?”

After that time, the cripple also gave up his heart, only his wife had to work hard, other people's house was done by men, and her house was done by her.

Qiuli was harvesting grain at home, and the cripple was pushing a cart full of grain towards the house, but he fell into a ditch halfway, and couldn't climb up for a long time.What his daughter-in-law said just now is this crop.

On weekdays, his wife only asked him to do some light work, and when his wife went to the fields by herself, she asked him to herd sheep.

Once, a sheep in the flock ran wild for some reason, and he stumbled and chased it all the way. When he returned home that day, it was already dark, but luckily the flock was all there.That night, his wife slaughtered the goat that was running around, and told the children in the family to have a hearty meal of mutton.

The harvest in the field this year is also not very good. The goats raised by the family are not willing to slaughter because they have not yet grown fluff in winter, so when the people in the county came down to collect taxes earlier, his family did not Can pay.

"Why don't you pick a few goats and sell them first? I heard that the county is making bacon again recently." The lame man was reluctant to ask his wife to repair the city wall. The work was too heavy for many men.

"If you want to smoke, it's smoked pork. Who is willing to kill sheep at this time of year. You just see this pass in front of you, why don't you think about how you will live next year, and the old lady has reached the age when she should find a husband's family..." To say in Right now, killing sheep at this time, his daughter-in-law will not do anything, she would rather go to build the city wall, and just gritted her teeth and survived this test.

"I heard that the county wants young men from various families. I'm afraid you won't succeed if you go." The cripple still wanted to go by himself, and he might as well die there.

"Why not?" As soon as he said this, his daughter-in-law became a little angry: "He is the county magistrate, so he has to be reasonable. Who can ask a cripple to repair the city wall? If the coffin board really dares to say that, you see I'm done with him!"

"Don't be angry, I'm just talking casually." The lame man hurriedly comforted him.

While talking, there was a group of children talking, laughing and shouting from the entrance of the village. It should be that the children in the village who went out to cut grass came back.

Hearing the movement, the husband and wife rushed out to greet them, found their two children, and took over the two bundles of sheep grass on their backs that were almost as big as their heads. Their children were young and weak It's not as good as the older children in the village. Those older children can still talk and laugh at the moment, and the two boys are just panting with blushing faces.

"Come inside and rest quickly, your sister has already prepared meals."

The weather is getting colder and colder, and winter is about to start. They have such a large group of goats in their family, and they will only pick out some of them for slaughter and sell them after the cashmere grows in winter. In addition, there are some ewes and lambs temporarily. It is not intended to be sold.

This whole winter is so long, there must be more fodder. Most of the villagers in their village have sheep, and almost every household has been hoarding fodder recently.

"It's enough to have these. If there is good weather in winter, you can also drive the sheep to graze outside. You don't need so much hay." so hard.

"Let's pack more cashmere. The price of cashmere was not high last winter, but it will be much higher when the spring is approaching," his eldest son said.

"After winter, a batch will be slaughtered, and the mutton will be sold to the county magistrate to make bacon, and the cashmere will be kept. When the price improves, we will sell it again." Although the lame man can't do heavy work, he has a very clear mind.

"Listen to you Aye." His wife also said.

The family sits together to eat, the staple food is a basket of miscellaneous noodles pancakes, a large plate of winter melon, and a large plate of cowpea, and a few pieces of bacon in the cowpea. Although it is simple, it can still be full. No need to lie to your stomach with those soupy things.

Since the income of cashmere was added to the family a few years ago, life has been much better.

A few years ago, the eldest brother of the crippled daughter-in-law died of illness, and her sister-in-law remarried to her younger uncle. He also took over several children of the eldest brother, but the youngest daughter, who was only three or four months old at the time, was not wanted by him.

The sister-in-law begged the crippled daughter-in-law, saying that she married in the pass, and her life would be more stable than theirs on the prairie. She begged her to accept this girl, and she would eat with her casually on weekdays. Finding a home, good or bad, is a way to survive. If you really throw it away like this, on the grassland, you will end up feeding the wolves.

The crippled daughter-in-law was soft-hearted, so she agreed. At that time, the girl who came to their house with the baby girl was her mother who was over 60 years old.

Her mother suffered a lot when she was young, but now that she is old, she can no longer withstand the wind and frost on the grassland and Gobi, nor can she withstand the life of constant migration.

A few years have passed in the blink of an eye, the girl who could only cry at the beginning has now grown to three or four years old, babbling behind her sister all day long, not knowing the sorrow, let alone the fact that she was almost trapped in the prairie Feed the wolves.

The lame daughter-in-law's old mother is still alive. Every day after getting up, she sweeps the yard, and then twists the twine. When the weather is good, she moves a wooden stool and sits under the wall to work. The old man speaks little and has a strong body.

Early the next morning, the lame man went out to graze the sheep, and his wife and several villagers brought a load of goat milk to the city to sell, while the two boys went out to harvest fodder.

There is only an eldest daughter in her teens, a younger daughter in her teens, and an old lady who doesn't like to talk.

"Auntie, where's you Aye?" It was almost noon, and the villager came to the front of his house.

"Aye has gone to herd the sheep." The little girl answered first.

"Auntie, your family has become a non-class household. When you, Aye, come back, remember to tell him that tomorrow morning, the non-class households drawn by our new villages will go to the city together with Lizheng, and will transfer the money we paid earlier. Take back the food and money that went up, you must remember, don’t forget." Villager said standing outside the courtyard.

"Hey." The eldest daughter of the cripple's family responded, but her face was a little dazed, as if she hadn't understood it yet.

"I'll come back later." Muramasa shook his head.

"Auntie, please invite the villager to come in and sit down." The old lady who rarely talked on weekdays and didn't like to meet outsiders came out of the house at this time.

"Don't sit down, don't sit down anymore, there is still work at home." Muramasa was about to leave.

"Then, can we still pay the tax owed by our family?" The eldest daughter of the lame family asked quickly at this time.

"What's the point of paying? The ones you paid before will be refunded, and you don't have to pay the ones you owe. You don't know if you are not a taxpayer? You don't have to pay rent and tax, and you don't have to do corvee. Your family was also taxed by the land tax. It's all done, hey, I'd better wait for your mother to come back, and then I'll tell them..."

The lame daughter-in-law came back from the city after selling the goat milk and weighed a catty of salt. Recently, the family hadn't bought any salt for a long time, and her eldest daughter didn't speak, but made the food weaker and weaker.

The little girl was very happy to see her aunt came back from buying salt, and told him what Muramasa had just told him. When the lame daughter-in-law heard this, she left her burden and went to find her man.

On this day, the cripple's family drove the flock back to the sheepfold early, and the couple hurried to the villager's house. Like theirs, they were newly classified as non-registered households, and there were two other families. It's all over there too.

Hearing that Muramasa explained this matter to them personally, these people were so happy that they didn't know what to do. They thought that the past two years had been much better, and there was nothing better. When hit by such good luck!

In the early morning of the second day, they went to Changle County together with two other families in the village, Villager Zheng, and those in several other villages who were newly classified as non-class households, led by Lizheng.

In the afternoon, they came back with a lot of food and money. The officials in the county also lent them the official ox and ox cart, asking them to bring the food back first, and then return it a day later.

On this day, the lame man and his wife bought two catties of white noodles and a piece of fresh meat in the city, and when they came back, they cooked a large pot of delicious white noodles, which made the girls and boys in the family feel round.

Later on, I made some milk tea with tea leaves, and the whole family ate a small bowl. Tea is something that everyone says is very good these days. Thinking that since it was a good thing, he would bring some back to eat with his family, since good tea leaves were too expensive for him to eat, so he only brought back some tea leaves today.

At night, the crippled daughter-in-law sat with her mother, twisting twine.

The lame daughter-in-law said to her mother: "Mother, the daughters of my brother's family are also getting old, if not, let them marry to Changle County."

Although life on the prairie is free, it is also dangerous. When it comes to life and death, the elderly and women are always the first to be abandoned.

Although the life in the pass is hard, it is better than being stable. This time it was classified as an unregistered household, and their family's life is now easier. If the nieces marry in, she can also help.

"I've heard people say that the county magistrate of Luo sent someone to survey the waterway. If there are no accidents, the river should be repaired in the past two years. If this river can be repaired, the lives of the people in Changle will be much better... "

"I will tell your elder brothers when they come to sell sheep."

The herdsmen outside the pass, Luo Yong is actually playing with them.

In the past two days, Luo Yong has also figured out that the reason why the previous county magistrates and others were so strict on the assessment of unregistered households is that the root of the problem lies in the false reporting of the number of households by the previous officials.

Those falsely reported households do not actually exist, but since so many households have been reported, so many taxes must be paid every year.

Because the rent and land tax have fixed numbers, the only thing that can make them make a fuss is the household tax, the porter's money for the land tax, and these unregistered households.

Luo Yong heard from the current county magistrate and others that the phenomenon of falsely reporting the number of households is very common, that is to say, people in many places all over the country are paying taxes for those registered households that do not actually exist.

After learning about this situation, Luo Yong was deeply saddened, and felt that their former governor of Shizhou was really a good official, because in their Lishi area, such things were hardly seen.

When Luo Yong just woke up, because he had too deep a memory of the prosperous world of the 21st century, and looked at everything in front of him, he felt very barren, but he never thought that that barrenness was actually hard-earned.

Right now, Luo Yong can't control other places for a while, but in Changle County under his jurisdiction, Luo Yong can't let this situation develop.

He can't disclose this matter, because it will make him a public enemy of most of the officialdom.

Regarding the number of registered households that were falsely reported, there are only two things that Luo Yong can do now. One is to fill the tax loopholes with his own money, and the other is to increase the number of registered households as soon as possible to turn the virtual households into real households.

It can be said that Changle County has developed well in the past six months, and the population of the county has also increased, but most of them are merchants and hawkers from Dunhuang, Jinchang and other places.

These people's household registrations are in places like Dunhuang or Jinchang, and Luo Yong can't compete with those places, so for now, he can only focus on the herdsmen and barbarians outside the pass.

Those Hu people who can cross the desert and come to Changle County are mostly explorers and gold diggers. They usually don’t honestly register for you in one place, let alone a place like Changle County, not Chang’an Luoyang.

In the end, only those herdsmen were left, but those herdsmen were used to being free on the prairie, they were simply a group of wild horses...