Chapter 15: The Exorbitant Salt Tax

  Yang Zilu had no choice but to return home 'wet'. In fact, it was just wearing wet clothes back. When he arrived at the Zheng's house, he felt a bit awkward and borrowed a pair of pants from Zheng Datian. It seemed that because he knew Yang Zilu was attacked by mosquitoes, Zheng Dan found a brazier somewhere and burned some kind of grass that was said to be able to drive away mosquitoes. This warmed Yang Zilu's heart.

  But Yang Zilu was destined to sleep on the ground tonight, and the injury of the wild man Hei Xiong would not allow him to sleep on the ground. Moreover, which woman would sleep on the ground, Yang Zilu, who claimed to be a gentle and delicate person, naturally could not do so. In the end, Yang Zilu reluctantly chose to sleep on the ground. Fortunately, Zheng Dan liked cleanliness, and there were no mice or cockroaches in this room.

  Although Yang Zilu is not afraid of mice and cockroaches, when you are sleeping at night and suddenly find a mouse or cockroach crawling on your body, it's enough to make you feel sick for half a day.

  Yang Zilu originally wanted to sleep in, but as soon as the sun peeked out from behind the horizon, Zheng Dan pulled him up. It turned out that the village chief had come to their house and was looking for Yang Zilu to discuss something. Yang Zilu reluctantly got up with a sleepy expression, washed his face, and went out to see the village chief.

  In Yang Zilu's opinion, the village head should be an old man with a walking stick, at least fifty or sixty years old. But in fact, the village head is not young, but absolutely not old, looking only thirty-five or six.

  "Master Yang, greetings! I am Zong Bi, the village chief of Xian Sha Xi Cun. I've come to disturb your peaceful slumber, and I truly apologize for that!" Zong Bi said with a bow, his demeanor quite polite. He seemed to have had some education, as his speech carried a hint of literary flair.

  Yang Zilu nodded and politely said: "Village chief is being polite! I don't know what business the village chief has come to find me about?"

  Zong Bi heard this and said somewhat awkwardly: "It's like this, you also see that the crops in the sky are almost ripe!"

  "Oh! Yes! It's almost harvest time!" Yang Zilu responded casually, thinking to himself: What does he mean by this? Does he want me to go help with the harvest myself?

  Seeing Yang Zilu still looking dazed, Zong Bi had no choice but to speak directly. "It's like this, since the young master is planning to stay in our village of Sheng Luo, I don't know what work you plan to do, so I can report it to the authorities in Zhuji City. Besides, autumn is coming soon, and taxes need to be collected. The young master doesn't have any land, so he won't have to pay the harvest tax, but this head tax! Does the young master understand?"

  Although I haven't been in this era for a long time, I also know some customs of this era. Girls are married at 15 and boys wear hats at 20. However, in reality, men do not necessarily represent adulthood at the age of 20, especially during the Spring and Autumn period when there were many wars, and only adults could pay taxes. Therefore, except for the nobility, generally speaking, they did not wear hats at the age of 20, and 15 or 16 years old were considered as adult by the government.

  The State of Yue, having been defeated in previous years and lost all its land, King Fuchai of Wu set the age of majority at twelve for both men and women to recover military expenses. The State of Yue also set the age of thirteen as adulthood to collect taxes, slightly better than Wu. As a result, many people hid in the mountains and went into hiding.

  "How much?" Yang Zilu furrowed his brow and asked aloud.

  "Two hundred coins for a girl, five hundred and forty coins for a boy!" Zong Bi stretched out three fingers and said helplessly.

  "What!" Yang Zilu was no longer an ignorant person who didn't know the current prices. In autumn, one dou of millet was about three qian, or even less. And a grown man consumed about one and a half shi of millet per month. In other words, these 540,000 were equivalent to eighteen shi of millet. A male laborer actually had to hand over the equivalent of a year's worth of food for a grown man! What kind of tax collection is this?!

  "Originally, it was only 100 coins for women and 200 coins for men. But from three years ago, things changed and life became harder to live. The great king lost a battle and many soldiers' armor were damaged, all of which need to be purchased and repaired. Moreover, the annual tribute to Wu Guo is also indispensable! Fortunately, Minister Wen sympathizes with the common people, so the annual military service can be exempted from labor, and the labor service is reduced to one month." Zong Bi said with a bitter smile.

  Yang Zilu heard this and grumbled in dissatisfaction: "What does this Wen Daifu know about caring for the people! I think he's just afraid of provoking a rebellion, that's why he's doing this! Labor service is not just about repairing city walls and clearing silt from canals. Among them, repairing city walls is the most troublesome, but how dare you repair it? Aren't you afraid that Fu Chai will lead his troops to really destroy Yue State? As for military service, there's no need to mention it, without ten or eight years of recovery, where does Yue State have the ability to compete with Wu State and bear the burden of military service?"

  Zong Bi heard this and stared at Yang Zilu with wide eyes. Although Yang Zilu's words were not pleasant to hear, he had to admit that what he said made a lot of sense.

  "Cough! Cough!" Zong Bi awkwardly coughed twice, and then changed the subject, asking: "Young master, you still haven't found a job? Do you want me to introduce one to you?" He paused for a moment, "Actually, young master doesn't have to pay taxes, he can run into the mountains to live. Of course, I'm not threatening you, young master. You can come back after autumn harvest, when it's time to avoid paying taxes, and then open up a piece of land and register as a household. Next year you'll also have money to pay taxes!"

  Yang Zilu heard this and, even if he was dissatisfied with the land tax again, had to yield. The mountains didn't require paying taxes, but the problem was that life would be difficult to get by. Yang Zilu helplessly waved his hand and said: "I will pay the land tax when the time comes, but trouble the village chief to allocate a piece of land for me to build a house."

  "Is the young master prepared to open a school?" Zong Bi asked, in his opinion, these nobles, no matter how fallen they were, would not go to the fields to work as laborers, teaching was the best option.

  "I'm going to be a hunter!" Yang Zilu said with a pout.

  Zong Bian heard the words, his eyes wide with stupidity. Being a farmer is toiling in the soil, hard work and hardship, but also relatively safe, just like Zheng Da Tian, half-farming, half-logging, although it can be said that one may encounter wild beasts, life is still not bad, at least one can still support their son's education.

  But as a hunter, he was truly living on the edge, searching for food in the dense forest where wild beasts roamed. It was uncertain whether he would find any prey at all, and even if he did, it was hard to predict what kind of beast it would be. He might encounter fierce animals like bears or tigers. But thinking back to yesterday's events, Zong Bi felt reassured - his opponent wasn't even afraid of a bear, so a tiger wouldn't be a problem either.