Mortal Immortal Gourd

On the snake bed, more than a dozen geese, with more than 20 goslings, were nibbling on the leaves on the ground, eating happily.

These more than a dozen geese were twice as big as normal geese and were particularly good at eating.

Perhaps they had been eating grass with spiritual energy for a long time, and they had become picky. They were unwilling to eat ordinary food without spiritual energy.

Er Gouzi himself was not so particular about food. If it were not for cultivation, he would eat anything as long as he could fill his stomach.

He spoiled them because they could guard the house, their meat could be eaten, and their feathers could be made into clothes and quilts.

Er Gouzi fed the geese some grass and poured some water into the trough.

Then he watered all the crops planted on the land.

Although he had not reclaimed much land in the past six months, he still reclaimed some open space and planted some ginseng after cultivation.

Now there are ten mu of ginseng, three mu of polygonatum, two mu of cistanche, and one mu of chicken legs planted on the snakehead.

A total of 16 mu of arable land has been reclaimed.

The first batch of ginseng, polygonatum and cistanche has been more than 10 years old.

The older these herbs are, the more expensive they are, so Er Gouzi has never been willing to dig them.

When preparing the enhanced version of Dali, only materials with a medicinal age of five years are used at most.

As for the one mu of chicken legs, it was found that this wild vegetable has a high yield after being cultivated.

Both the leaves and rhizomes can be eaten, especially the rhizome at the bottom, which can grow thicker than your arm and one or two taels long.

Whether eaten raw or cooked, it tastes great. This acre of chicken legs is mostly used to feed geese, except for a few used to make daali.

In addition to these 16 acres of land, some persimmon trees and jujube trees were planted in the first month of the year in some places on the land that are not suitable for cultivation.

After cultivation, they are now lush and have begun to bear fruit for the first time.

After Er Gouzi finished watering, he looked up at the sky and saw that the sun had already emerged halfway from the eastern horizon.

It's time to work.

It's time for tenants to pay rent and landlords to pay taxes.

However, in the year, Er Gouzi has changed from a tenant to a landlord.

She's 50 acres of land were rented to Agui's family for cultivation.

50 mu of land can yield about 200 shi of grain in a good year. According to the five-year land rent, 100 shi of grain can be collected in rent every year.

However, the 50 mu of land still needs to pay 60 shi of tax to the government. Since the government registered it as wasteland, only 20 shi is required.

In total, 80 shi of grain tax is required.

If you can pass the military exam in the future, you can be exempted from the tax on 100 mu of good land, and the uncultivated wasteland does not need to pay taxes.

This is the grace of the court to those who have achieved fame and honor, to encourage everyone to serve the court.

"Boss, everything is ready!"

Er Gouzi came to Agui's house. His family of five or six strong men had already beaten 100 shi of grain and tied it to the wheelbarrow.

In addition, a dozen strong tenants were invited to help push the cart.

Er Gouzi followed Huang Laocai's example and used Agui's house to treat everyone to a full meal. There were even some pork slices in the dishes.

After the tenants had eaten and drunk their fill, they were full of energy and pushed the wheelbarrows at full speed.

Agui used to be an old tenant of Huang Laocai's family. He was very familiar with this kind of affairs and took care of everything along the way, so Er Gouzi didn't have to worry about anything.

"Boss, the territory of King Zhao is ahead. We have to prepare some money in advance."

Agui looked at Er Gouzi with a young face, and felt a little bit of the impermanence of the world.

Last year, both Wang and Er Gouzi were tenants of Huang Laocai's family. They walked hand in hand along the way, and they even joked with Er Gouzi.

Now, Er Gouzi has become Wang's boss.

When Ergezi heard that the front was King Zhao's territory, he immediately became alert, hid the sword in his clothes, and lowered his head to blend into the group of tenants.

Now King Zhao has learned his lesson. Whenever he sees you, he hides in his clothes and refuses to show up.

"Boss, just prepare the money. King Zhao never hurts you after receiving the money. He is more trustworthy than the government."

Agui thought Ergouzi was scared and hurried to comfort him.

"You know, you are afraid that you will hide and not come out."

Agui didn't quite understand what Ergouzi meant and thought he was asking for money.

The group walked forward not far, and a gong sounded in front of them. King Zhao really appeared as promised.

"This road is opened by you, this tree is planted by you..."

Before the pig kidney face finished reading the lines, Ergouzi was seen carrying a door-plate sword and looking at you with a smile.

"King Zhao, let's have a fight!"

"Ouch! My stomach hurts, I feel like I'm going to have diarrhea after eating something bad..."

King Zhao actually held his stomach and went back to the woods, and the group of thieves disappeared in an instant.

"Don't run, I promise, I'll be gentler this time!"

King Zhao went back to the woods and saw Er Gouzi still carrying the door-plate sword, standing on the official road waiting.

But I have made up my mind that no matter how Er Gouzi talks, I will not go out to be abused again.

This guy is like a wild bull, full of brute force, and every time the swords collide, it makes my feet numb.

After a few rounds, I was exhausted, my waist was sore, my legs were weak, my urine was bloody, and I had to be supported by my younger brother to walk.

If I fight with you, I won't be able to rob again for the whole day.

With so many brothers and so many mouths waiting for rice, life is already too much to bear, so how can you spare time to wrestle with a wild bull?

King Zhao hid in the woods and watched Er Gouzi leave with him.

In order to prevent being killed, he hid for another half an hour before starting business again.

This time, he stopped a larger unicycle team. After reading the lines, King Zhao was determined to double the performance lost in the previous half an hour.

"Do you want to stop the scholar's team too?"

A tenant came out of the team, relying on the power of the scholar, and was somewhat proud.

"Ah... Bah!"

A thief spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm with disdain.

"What's a scholar?"

"Our King Zhao was also a military scholar in the past. He just didn't want to be bullied by those officials, so he brought..."

"Ahem!"

King Zhao coughed a few times to stop the bandit from continuing.

"Anyway, everyone who passes this road has to pay."

Looking at a group of bandits with guns in hand, blocking the road and refusing to let them go, Zhang Liang could only walk out with a dark face and pay a piece of silver.

Although a military scholar can be exempted from taxes on 100 mu of land, he owns far more than 100 mu of land.

If it's just one person, even if he can't beat him, he can just rush over, but now there are so many grains and tenants, so he can only pay the toll honestly.

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King Zhao took the silver and weighed it, then shook his head.

"You have so many wheelbarrows, but you are giving away this little silver to beggars?"

"Don't go too far!"

Zhang Youliang pressed the handle with his hand, feeling angry. He was a martial arts scholar after all, but these bandits didn't give him any face at all.

"I'm telling you, our King Zhao is in a bad mood today, so it's best for him to pay the money and leave."

Finally, under pressure from the situation, Zhang Youliang could only take out another piece of silver from his arms and hand it over.

After paying the silver, Zhang Youliang swore in his heart that he would destroy these bandits sooner or later, they were too arrogant...

On the other side, Er Gouzi naturally didn't know that because of him, Zhang Youliang had to pay two bribes.

He had taken his tenants to camp in an empty place in the county town.

Nothing happened overnight, and he was lucky the next day and lined up to pay grain that day.

This time, he had experience and filled every bucket in the county government office with grain, with a big peak on top.

Even though he was so proactive, he was still whipped by the yamen runner.

The yamen runner swung the whip and whipped all the people he brought with him.

Then he kicked the bucket with his foot to spill the grain, then filled it up again and kicked it again, and kicked it like this for several times.

Until all the 100 stones of grain he brought were poured in, and there was no grain left, the yamen runner ended with a curse.

He should have paid 80 dan of tax, but he actually paid 100 dan of good grain, but was still scolded by the yamen runners as a troublemaker.

I don't know what the good people in the eyes of the officials should be like?

After paying the tax, he had to ask the county clerk to sign a tax payment document.

In broad daylight, the clerk squinted and dozed behind the desk. Er Gouzi had no choice but to give a small piece of silver to successfully get the document with the official seal.

Along with the tax payment document, there was also a notice of conscription.

The scale of Er Gouzi's business required one person to perform corvée this winter.

The purpose of this corvée was to bring some dry food to the southwest border to build city wall fortifications for a period of one year.

Just after paying the tax, he had to perform corvée again.

The government has to levy corvée every year, ranging from building river embankments and fighting civilians in war to building houses and digging pits for officials.

Most corvée laborers have no food to eat, and need to bring food from their own homes.

It doesn't matter if they affect farming and bring their own dry food.

Many hard laborers never return, and die outside, and even their bodies cannot be found.

Anchang County is not far from the southwest border. It is said that outside the border is a country of monsters and ghosts, which is the most dangerous.

In previous years, only about one out of ten people who were conscripted to the southwest border could come back alive.

Those who came back by chance only had half their lives left.

Er Gouzi didn't want to do such hard labor, so he could only pay someone to do corvée for him.

In previous years, many wealthy people did this. As long as you can hire someone, the government has no objection.

However, the price of this kind of hard labor, which is almost certain to lead to death, is very high, almost the price of a life.

It seems that the population price will soar again this winter.

After successfully paying the taxes, Er Gouzi invited the tenants to a restaurant for a big meal.

The 30 people had two dishes, one with pickled vegetables and the other with fat pork fried with dried radish.

There was plenty of rice, but people could eat as much as they wanted. Some people ate seven bowls of rice in one meal.

After the tenants had eaten enough, they all licked their bellies and said that the boss was benevolent and righteous. At the same time, they cursed Zhang Youliang for not being a thing, for cutting iron on the tip of a needle, and for defrauding the tenants.

After eating, Ergouzi found Agui and showed him the official documents regarding the corvee collection.

"Agui, can you help me find someone to do corvee service for me?"

"Working hard in the southwest, I almost never come back. I wonder what price my employer will offer?"

"As long as the price offered by the owner is high enough, there will be people competing to lose your head."

When Agui heard this, he didn't feel any difficulty and only asked about the price.

Ergouzi thought for a while. He had no experience and was not sure how much money he should pay, so he asked.

"How much does a human life cost now?"

"It depends on the age. Young and strong men are the most expensive, about 20 shi of good rice. Those aged 50 and older only need 2 shi of rice."

"The price of a woman depends on her age and beauty. The most expensive one is no more than 20 shi, and the cheaper one can buy a few buckets of grain."

“If there is a disaster year, the price will be much cheaper.”

Many tenant farmers have the experience of selling their children and daughters, so Agui knows the market well.

"For the 20 stones, you can hire a corvee for me."

Regarding a human life, Ergouzi, in a rare act of generosity, offered the highest price of 20 dan.

"The boss is really willing to offer a high price of 20 dan?"

Agui confirmed again, generally for this kind of corvee, there are a lot of people grabbing 10 shi of grain.

"That's right, 늀20 koku!"

Ergouzi has always been very calculating, but this time he didn't seem too smart.

"Master, there's no need to find anyone else, let 놖 go?"

Agui looked at Ergouzi expectantly, waiting for his boss's reply.

"Agui, this is hard labor and you may die. There is no need for you to take this risk, right?"

"Besides, the harvest this year is good. After paying the rent, you should still have 100 shi of grain left, right?"

Er Gouzi looked at Agui. The two of them were familiar with each other, and felt that there was no need for him to work so hard.

"Alas! This is because the weather has been smooth this year and the harvest is good."

"We also need to pay a household tax of 8 shi, a head tax of 12 shi, a tax of 10 shi for collecting firewood in the mountains, and a sunshine tax..."

"To sow seeds next spring, 50 acres of 눓 to 꿁 will cost five or six stones."

"After calculating this, our family of more than ten people can still have 50 shi of rations left. The half-grown children in the family are particularly good at eating."

"놖I am over 40 years old this year. I can sell my life for 10 dan at most, and I don't have many years to live. Now there is a good opportunity to sell it for 20 dan. Those who don't take it are fools."

"With these 20 shi of grain, 놖늀 can save an acre of thin farmland."

"If I can come back alive, these 20 shi will be earned in vain, hehehehe..."

When Agui said this, he couldn't help but laugh, feeling that he had taken a big advantage.

Ergouzi thought about it, if he had been given such an opportunity two years ago, he would have chosen to risk his life without hesitation.

"good!"

"Try to come back alive as much as possible."