May, the first day of the lunar month, the first day of the new month.

Something happened in Zhuozhou City today.

Yesterday, the county magistrate posted a notice to inform the people, and the officials beat gongs and kicked down the doors of every house to tell them that they would pay grain tomorrow.

Early this morning, the people went to the county government office. In front of the high castle-like wall of the county government office, where the list was posted, there was a notice with the county magistrate's seal on it.

Even though the people already knew that they had to pay for the food, they still harbored the slightest hope of not paying for it. They gathered under the notice, crowded around and looked around.

Among the crowd, there was a man who looked like a peddler with a sash draped over his shoulders. He looked at the words on the notice and stammered.

"In order to...ask for the Yellow Turban, each...family must collect grain, and each household must pay three measures of grain. Anyone who disobeys the order will be punished."

The order is not long and the words are concise and concise.

When the people heard that one person had to pay three measures of food for their head, they complained endlessly.

At this time, at the county government office, the city gate opened with a creak, a gong sounded, and the county magistrate in official clothes came out, first giving a hypocritical salute to the many people.

Then he explained it rationally and moved it emotionally, saying how he could live in peace of mind if the yellow scarf was not wiped out.

The people knelt down and knelt down with skillful hula, praying to heaven and earth, and begged the county magistrate to be considerate of the difficulties of their fathers and elders, and to accept less than two bushels.

The county magistrate had a smile on his face and could pretend to be so at first, but the people's noisy begging for mercy showed no sign of stopping.

When the county magistrate saw this situation, he had been immune to it for a long time. He was so annoyed that he snorted coldly and flicked his sleeves. "The big households in the city also pay grain. How can you and other unruly people not pay? If you dare to lose a pound of grain, you will not be spared."

Just wait!" After saying that, only the grain collector was left, and the county magistrate walked away.

There were more than a dozen grain collection officials. Some were carrying cases, some were holding large scales and frames, and others were holding a pile of sacks and were ready to collect grain.

The county magistrate is gone, and the people who were kneeling and crying and shouting at the last moment have all gotten up now. They are so skillful at kneeling, and they are so skillful at getting up and slapping their knees.

When I glanced at the sobbing people, no one had tears on their faces.

I heard from the county magistrate just now that big households also pay grain, and the people were whispering to each other and talking at random.

"To hand over food, how many people can we pay (duo, four tones, pronounced the same as chop, in the Central Plains dialect, duo means how much.)? The bulk of it will not fall on us!"

The people were indignant.

While he was talking, there was a crack of a whip.

"Give it!"

There was a sharp shout from behind.

The people looked back and saw that it was the steward of the Zhao Er family, a large family in the city, who was a grain merchant, leading an ox and pulling a cart full of grain.

There were many cars following behind, pulling a lot of grain.

At this time, the grain officer had just placed the entrance to the city gate, and hurriedly nodded and ran over to greet the housekeeper of the second Zhao family.

The second housekeeper Zhao is a middle-aged man with a sinewy face. He has his hands behind his back and a whip behind his back. He has a bulging belly, head held high, and looks at people with his nostrils. He glances around with very disdain in his eyes, "I am Zhao."

The family pays thousands of stones of food to help defeat the thieves!"

the butler shouted loudly.

Thousand stones!

When the people heard this, they exploded the pot and quickly looked back to see the grain being pulled by the bullock carts.

One car, two grains, three cars...

There are more than twenty grain carts, and the carts are full of grain.

The common people had never seen such a large amount of grain coming from a large household, and they all looked surprised and deeply suspicious.

Is there some fraud involved? Are there stones in these grain bags?

More than one common person thinks so.

The housekeeper of the grain merchant Zhao Er's family was shocked when he saw these mud-legged people and snorted, "Unload the truck!"

Then let the servants unload the truck.

The servants listened to the order and began to unload the grain from the grain truck.

Bag after bag of grain was carried to the city gate and piled on the spot. The grain officer called to his subordinates, "Make it count!"

Under the watchful eyes of the people, the grain delivered by the Zhao family was poured into the grain fence one bag after another. What everyone saw was yellow wheat and millet.

The handymen carried wooden poles and weighed large baskets of grain.

The bags and bags of grain in the front are all real grain, and the ones in the back are still grain.

It was already mid-morning when the thousand-stone grain delivered by the Zhao family had been weighed.

The people saw that the Zhao family had actually handed over thousands of stones of grain, and the grains were piled up in bags as high as the city wall.

Most of the people's doubts have gone away.

I have never seen such a big family bleeding like this. This time it was really the county magistrate who took the lead and sent a large army to fight against the Yellow Turbans.

After the Zhao family, the Li family, a private salt dealer, also paid 700 shi of grain, and the fur merchant Shi family paid 300 shi of grain. The remaining large families with many fields all contributed their own capital to bring in a large amount of grain.

The common people gradually left. When they returned home, they hurriedly poured the grain out of the jars to see if they had enough. If not, they borrowed some grain. It was already May and new grain was coming soon, so just gritted your teeth.

There were still cautious people who kept watch until noon and then into the afternoon. In the end, when they saw all the big households who came to hand over grains with their grains, even the most resourceful people did not doubt that he was there.

If you are in a panic about handing over food, finish it as soon as possible and live in peace as soon as possible.

The people all over the city were busy.

Poor people had not much food in their homes. After the county magistrate gave the order, the queue to pick up or carry the food stretched for a whole street and could not be completed.

Everything went as planned by the county magistrate.

Within the county government office and the official warehouse, grain was put into storage. In the granary that was almost empty, bags of grain were brought in and quickly piled up. Judging from the posture, it could be more than half a warehouse.

The county magistrate felt very happy when he thought about how much grain he would have as his own.

As a powerful person in Zhuozhou, Zhang Fei's family naturally also paid food.

Zhang Fei's manor is outside the city. In the afternoon, Zhang Fei led a team of grain trucks and brought 500 shi of grain into the city.

Entering the city with the grain truck were five hundred local warriors who had experienced two wars.

When the people saw it and the old guards on the city saw it, they just thought it was a food escort.

The old soldier in the city greeted Liu Bei, and when he saw a young boy sitting on a tall grain cart at the head, picking his feet and looking up, the old soldier took another look at the baby.

No one noticed. After Xiangyong entered the city, he went directly to Zhang Fei's house without making a sound.

Zhang Fei's house is a large area, and hundreds of people went in and hid in some places.

The food delivery is in full swing.

The administrative efficiency in ancient times was indeed low.

There are only a dozen grain officers, and they are busy from morning to afternoon, and the queue to hand over grain is still long.

Li Mengxi quietly walked over and mingled with the crowd for a long time, carefully observing the details of the food delivery. He saw that the grain official wrote the amount of food delivered by the people one by one on separate scattered bamboo pieces.

After writing one, throw it into the basket.

The basket is one-third full of bamboo slices.

This is called thin grain.

Li Mengxi thought for a while, touched his chin, tilted his head and thought, the food was so thin that he had to find a way to get it.

Seeing that I can't finish harvesting the grain today, I was so excited yesterday.

Li Mengxi quietly went to the side where the notice was posted.

The notice was a large piece of rough paper, yellowed and gray, with simple official script written on it. The character Li Mengxi was somewhat familiar to me.
Chapter completed!