I

"All quit the company?"

"They're all gone, we're the only ones left."

"Alright, the rest are true friends."

"..."

The news that Zhao Han was cancelled, out of a total of thirty-four members of the Datong Club, only a few were left within two days: Zhu Zhiyu, Fei Ruyi, Fei Ruhe, Fei Yuanjian, Liu Ziren and Xu Ying.

There is no other reason, just ashamed to be with the slaves.

Of course, each of them spoke in a more tactful way, and they didn't fall out with Zhao Han face to face, but just found various excuses to prove that they didn't have time.

Fei Ruyi, that gay guy, hasn’t been to the academy for a long time. He said he was going home to study "Mengxi Bi Tan" slowly. When he was reading "Zhu Zi Yu Lei", he was shocked by the saying that the moon does not shine. develop interest.

Fei Ruhe had also been missing for half a month, and was arguing for his family to invite a riding and archery teacher.

Wrapping the stainless steel gun head in cloth, Zhao Han used the spear as a crutch, and went to bid farewell to the mountain chief Fei Yuanlu on the snow.

The gun is made of mulberry wood. The mulberry tree grows slowly and tends to crooked. Farmers are reluctant to cut it down. A gun shaft made of mulberry wood is very valuable.

It’s fine to use white wax poles, but it’s okay to use in folk competitions. Fighting on the battlefield is pure nonsense——“Huizhou beef tendon wood is the first, followed by sword spine wood. The red edge is strong, straight, and fragile. The white wax is soft, and the stick is also .”

The real top battlefield spears are all made of composite materials: tough wood as the core, wrapped in leather, and then wrapped with copper wire and rope.

"Crack, crack..."

With one foot deep and the other shallow, Zhao Han staggered forward in the snow, and it was really difficult to use his strength without a stick.

This year, the snow fell so heavily that Pang Chunlai's thatched roof was crushed by the snow. Master Pang can only live in a private school, if he insists on living alone, he will be frozen to death at night.

In just a few days, many people in Qianshan County froze to death.

"Boom boom boom!"

Zhao Han brushed off the snowflakes on his body, leaned his spear against the wall, and knocked on the door.

"Come in." A voice came from inside the house.

Zhao Han pushed the door open and walked in: "Boy pay respects to the head of the mountain."

Fei Yuanlu asked with a smile, "Why don't you call yourself a late born?"

"Tong Sheng has been removed from the name, the boy is not worthy of this title," Zhao Han said, cupping his hands, "The boy is here to bid farewell to the head of the mountain."

"well!"

Fei Yuanlu sighed, and said, "I didn't drive you down the mountain. If you like reading, you can still listen in the academy."

Zhao Han said: "The boy is the second innkeeper of the Dingsheng Building. He had a lot of sabotage in the past, and he has to work harder in the future."

"Forget it," Fei Yuanlu said, "it's a good job to be a shopkeeper of a restaurant, but don't lose your poems and books."

"Boy, I would like to follow the instructions," Zhao Han bowed, "Farewell."

Fei Yuanlu's mood faded, he waved his hand and said, "Let's go."

Except for money and manuscripts, Zhao Han didn't bring anything with him, and no one was disturbed, so he went down the mountain alone with a spear.

The wind and snow were blowing against his face, and he stepped on the air and fell from time to time, but Zhao Han was in a happy mood, like a bird in a cage flying out of trouble.

In another four months, he would be fifteen years old, or sixteen in ancient times.

The second shopkeeper of the Dingsheng Building was Zhao Han's escape route for himself. You can make money while working part-time, and at the same time make friends with all kinds of teachers and scholars, and wait for the time to wait and see the changes in the world.

In the cold winter, Hekou Town is still prosperous, as long as Xinjiang and Qianshan River are not frozen.

"Brother, you are here!" Fei Ze (Jian Dan) warmly greeted, this guy is now the accountant of the restaurant.

Zhao Han leaned the spear against the counter and asked, "How is the business these days?"

Fei Ze sighed, "Business is good, but the gate tax has risen again."

Zhao Han said with a smile: "The court is short of money, so why doesn't the tax go up?"

"It's too much," Fei Ze said in a low voice. "A few days ago, the eunuch came to the county to collect taxes, and the county magistrate couldn't do anything about it."

"Today's sage, there is quite a legacy of Wanli Lord." Zhao Han teased.

During the Zhengde period, there were door stall tax, market tax, commodity (product) tax and other types on the market. Due to the establishment of imperial stores everywhere, the eunuchs apportioned randomly, resulting in various types of taxes.

In the early years of Jiajing, the reform was vigorously carried out, and all taxes were unified, and the "gate tax" was collected uniformly.

This kind of gate apportionment tax is based on the county, and stipulates the amount of tax payable by each county. According to the amount of tax receivable, the county magistrate asks the county and town to apportion it, collects it once every quarter, and then transports it to the taxation (division) bureau at the end of the year, and the taxation department submits it to the central government layer by layer.

During the Wanli period, it was directly bombed, and the emperor sent mine supervisors and tax envoys to exploit desperately.

The most terrifying thing at that time was the mining tax. When the eunuch saw which one was particularly rich, he said that this person had a mine at home, and if he didn't pay the tax quickly, he would arrest him directly. At that time, countless people went bankrupt.

Emperor Chongzhen was now in a hurry, and sent eunuchs everywhere to collect taxes.

The gate stall tax in Hekou Town had been raised at the beginning of the year, and it was said to increase again at the end of the year, and the eunuchs went directly to the county government to force them.

The eunuchs must be full, the county magistrates can eat their bones, and the officials can drink soup. It is the shops and vendors who suffer—the central court actually has a limited increase in revenue, and those business taxes have been embezzled layer by layer.

Fei Ze pointed to the street and said, "We're okay, it's just that the restaurant makes less money, and the vendors outside are really miserable."

Zhao Han walked to the entrance of the restaurant, looked left and right, and came back and said, "No wonder there are fewer vendors. How much tax has increased?"

"I don't know how the increase, anyway, small stalls and shops can't continue," Fei Ze said in a low voice, "These small vendors have been forced to join the Iron Foot Society. They were too noisy to go out."

"Haha, you have to do things when you receive money." Zhao Han laughed.

The Iron Feet has completely transformed from a coolie union into an organization of gangsters. Those small vendors on the street, to put it bluntly, are joining the Iron Foot Association, but in fact they are paying protection fees for gangsters.

The protection fee is usually well received, so shouldn't I express it now?

Zhao Han asked, "Where is the shopkeeper?"

Fei Ze replied: "I went to the town for a meeting to discuss how to deal with the tax collectors."

In the evening, the shopkeeper Fei Xi came back and immediately ordered: "Prepare the sticks, shop assistants, let's go to the streets together tomorrow!"

"Uncle Xi, what can we do?" Zhao Han asked.

Fei Xi pulled Zhao Han into a corner and whispered, "The lords above have already connected in various villages and towns, and tomorrow we will go to the streets to fight against the tax and send all the tax collectors back to the county!"

interesting.

In the morning of the second day, the whole town took action, whether it was a vendor or a man, everyone prepared a stick.

The iron feet will act as the main force of the tax resistance, and immediately block the pier after the tax collectors disembark.

The tax collectors didn't notice any abnormalities, and continued to walk forward until they finally stopped in front of the booth.

The small vendor held a stick and said nothing.

The other vendors stopped doing business and all took out their sticks.

"You... what are you guys going to do?"

The tax collector finally felt something was wrong, and was so frightened that he turned around and wanted to run away, but was blocked by the iron feet behind him.

"beat!"

The crowd rushed up to fight in groups, and the tax collectors cried for their father and mother, and gradually the screams became weaker.

Two were killed on the spot, and the rest were all injured.

Zhao Han witnessed the whole process, and he didn't know how to define this action.

The gentry joined forces, the merchants commanded, and the trade unions, street vendors, and guys all went into battle in person.

Violent resistance?

The question is, is the tax increase legal?

Even if the gate tax was raised twice in a row, the total tax of the entire Qianshan County was still less than four hundred taels of silver. The tax increase by Emperor Chongzhen was really not much.

But when it comes to the eunuchs, the actual tax collection can be more than 10,000 taels, and the county magistrates, civil officials, and soap officials also make money, and the county's gate tax is close to 20,000 taels.

The gentry from all over the county teamed up to violently resist the tax, which scared the county magistrate too much to go out.

But the eunuch was not afraid, and took his servants to the Fei family's ancestral house in Henglin.

The eunuch held a whip in his hand, pointed at Fei Yuanzhen and said, "Hekou Town is the most affluent in Qianshan County, and the annual gate tax is raised to 2,100 taels. You are the head of the Fei clan, and I will give you half a month's time." , if the collection is not complete, I will come directly to Fei's house to ask for money!"

"Cough cough cough cough!"

Fei Yuanzhen coughed repeatedly, and said weakly: "I want to teach you to know that the old man is weak and sick, and he is in Henglin, so he really can't control the river mouth. Please..."

"Bring it in!" The eunuch interrupted him.

The servants brought by the eunuch were gangsters recruited in this county. These gangsters showed off their power and carried in a thin-skinned coffin.

Fei Yuan was so frightened that his face turned pale.

"After half a month, if the taxes are not paid, you can lie in by yourself!" The eunuch left after leaving.

Fei Yuan was so angry that he stomped his feet: "It's unreasonable, it's unreasonable!"

The gentry discussed immediately, but they were still unable to think about it, so they had to go to the governor and the censor to file a complaint.

Those patrolling censors were originally promoted by Chongzhen, so how could they care about the business of tax eunuchs?

The governor of Jiangxi has been replaced by Xie Xuelong, who is quite capable. But now that the Donglin Party was on the decline, he didn't dare to offend the eunuchs anymore, and he was busy rebuilding the Tengwang Pavilion, and took the opportunity to get some money back.

After a brief contest, the eunuch won.

Each family pooled money to pay taxes, only two thousand and one hundred taels, and they could still take it out. What's more, small vendors also share their shares, and for the gentry, each household can't share much.

But what if we continue to increase taxes next year?

Eunuchs can't get enough to feed, and magistrates and officials are also staring at them!

This is just a door-to-door tax. They tea factories, paper factories... which ones are not increasing labor taxes?

Pass it on to the workers and peasants!

Workers' wages have fallen as a whole; tenant land rents have risen as a whole.

Even the monthly money of the house slaves has been reduced, and dissatisfaction is brewing at the bottom of society.

As the New Year approached, the eunuch set up four gates privately in Qianshan.

One was set up in Ehu Town, one in Shitang Town, one in Henglin Town, and one in Shanglu Town, blocking all the commercial waterways in Qianshan.

The eunuchs did not dare to collect taxes on paper (stationary goods), and set up a separate name to collect "cabin tax", and all passing ships had to pay.

Now, foreign businessmen are also miserable, so they can only bite the bullet and pay. At the same time, while raising the price of commodities, they squeezed the wages of boatmen.

The resentment among the boatmen and the boat club increased.

Zhao Han watched this with cold eyes, only hoping that the eunuch would light a few more fires.