In the tenth month of the golden autumn, the king of Tang Dynasty arrived in Xiuxian County, Bohai County. The team did not go to the county seat, but stayed in Yongxia Township, Xiuxian County.

Not far from the official road, several farmers stopped their farm work and looked here curiously. The children who were playing in the mud on the edge of the field hid behind the adults and looked timidly at the knife-wielding people following the team.

The guards waited until a child got off the cart, and their timid eyes were gradually replaced by envy.

Lu Bu asked his guards to find an open place to camp. He took his wife, children, Xu Chu and a civil servant, and the five of them left the official road and walked along the path beside the fields to chat with the farmers.

Seeing Lu Bu and others coming this way, the farmers quickly put down their farm tools and bowed in fear. Although they didn't know who was coming, they saw the four-horse chariot and a group of brightly armored people.

As a guard armed with a knife, he knew that the person coming was of high status.

"Xiao, Xiaomin has met, and I have met noble people..."

A dark-faced man lowered his head and spoke tremblingly. Lu Bu tried his best to soften his facial expression and raised his hands and said, "Fellow, you don't need to be polite. I'm passing by here and want to know something about you. Is there anything you can do now?"

Do you have time to sit down and chat?”

The man nodded hastily, "I'm free, I'm free!"

Lu Bu looked around and saw a few stones placed under a willow tree by a canal not far away. It must be a place where farmers usually work and rest. He took the lead to walk over and called on other farmers around him to come with them.

When he came under the tree, Xu Chu took out a cushion from the backpack he carried and spread it on one of the stones for Zhang Mo to sit on. Lu Bu randomly found a higher stone to sit on, and asked the farmer who came with him to sit down and talk.

, but no one dared to sit or stand tall, so they simply squatted aside.

Lu Gan looked at the children following the adults, took out a few pieces of candy from his small bag, and invited them to play in the open space on the other side.

Under the willow tree, Zhang Mo started by talking about this year's autumn harvest, asking how big the harvest was, whether there was enough food to eat, and whether the children were in school.

"The King of Tang was kind and gave us fields. As long as there is no famine, we can barely survive starvation after paying taxes!" The black-faced man said with some gratitude.

"Just barely starving to death?" Zhang Mo wondered. He had visited several villages in Wei County and Qinghe State before, and they all said they could save some surplus food.

The man said, "In this era of war and chaos, it is very rare for us to be able to settle down and not have to be displaced. We can live on more than ten acres of land. As for the noble man's suggestion of letting our children go to school, we dare not even think about it. Although in our hometown

After a school was built, those who could afford to go to school had to be the head of the family. There was a family in my village who saved money on food and clothing so that his son could go to school, but it is said that he didn't learn anything at all."

Zhang Mo asked again, "Then do you know what the current tax rate is?"

The man said, "The government said that the imperial court has waived the poll tax, and we no longer need to pay land rent to the landlords. We only pay one-fifth of the tax. Although this is a bit high, we only have to pay it once a year, and there are no other miscellaneous things."

The cost of living is actually a little lighter than before. We can barely eat enough, but we can't afford to go to school or get sick. If we get through a minor illness, we'll get over it, but if we get serious, we can only wait for death."

"Fifth of the tax is one!" Zhang Mo recited something lightly, motioned to the clerk to write it down, and called Xu Chu over, saying in a low voice, "Send someone to the county to call me the county magistrate!"

Zhang Mo asked the man again, "Is there a medical clinic named Ji'antang in this county?"

The man shook his head blankly, but an old man next to him said, "At the beginning of this year, a new medical clinic was opened. It is said to be opened by the government. It is free to diagnose the pulse. You only need to pay for the medicine. However, for those of us, we can only make ends meet.

For people, the cheaper one is a month or two of rations for a few doses of medicine, and the more expensive half-year or even one-year rations cannot be afforded even if they are sold, and the government does not allow the sale of land, so we can only resist."

Zhang Mo nodded understandingly. When she traveled with Zhang Ji, she knew that ordinary people couldn't afford medicine when they were sick. At that time, most of the medicinal materials that the master had were dug by himself on the road and he spent time preparing them, which only cost manpower.

, of course you still have to spend money to buy some rare medicinal materials. The master's approach is to go to the city to find a few wealthy families and kill them.

However, traditional Chinese medicine clinics cannot do this. We cannot say that if you are rich, they will sell them more expensively, and if you are poor, they will sell them cheaper. All medicinal materials are clearly marked with prices.

When he founded the Guoguo Medical Center, Zhang Mo's idea was that after the land was divided and taxes were reduced, the people's families would have enough food and they could still afford medicines like common colds and colds. However, the situation here was obviously not what he expected.

The difference is too big.

After Zhang Mo asked some more questions about food and accommodation, the group walked to the school in Yongxia Township.

On the way, Lu Gan and Zhang Mo reported some news they had learned from the children. For example, a child named Niu Dan lived next door to them. Because his family was a little richer, Niu Dan had the opportunity to be sent to school, but after three months of schooling,

Niu Dan could barely learn to write his own name, and his father was so angry that he broke several sticks.

"I just asked if Niu Dan's brain is not clear, otherwise a normal person would not be able to learn only two words in three months."

Lu Gan said as he walked, "The kid named Paparazzi said that Niu Dan is not stupid at all, and he doesn't know why Niu Dan doesn't study hard."

He looked at his mother and said, "Mom, I think this is too abnormal!"

Zhang Mo said, "It's incredible. We'll find out when we go to the school."

In order to make it easier for children in every village to go to school, the school in Yongxia Township was built in the middle of the entire township.

A group of people arrived at the gate of the school yard. The gatekeeper saw a few people with extraordinary status. He was about to go in and report to the principal, but was stopped by Xu Chu.

A few people quietly walked into the small courtyard and took a look. It was the same as the rural schools they had seen before. There were only four simple rooms, the two in the middle were used as classrooms, the one on the left was the principal and teacher's room, and the one on the right was the office.

There is a hut surrounded by straw mats in the back corner of the yard.

In the Tang Dynasty, larger townships usually have two teachers. For example, Yongxia Township, a small township of only five miles, only has one teacher, who teaches two classes at the same time. One class is for students who just enrolled this year, and the other is for students who enrolled last year.

of.

Zhang Mo quietly walked outside the classroom and looked in through the window. There were a total of twelve children in this class, ranging in age from six to ten years old. The teacher did not arrange seats according to age or height, but obviously according to clothing.

In the row, the four people sitting in the front are all neatly dressed, while those in the back are mostly patched and wearing straw sandals with runny noses. Also, the people in the front have a book, but the four people in the back share one.

The young teacher was teaching up there. He only paid attention to the first four people in the class and didn't even look at the students at the back.

When get out of class was over, the teacher didn't give any homework to the kids at the back, and treated them completely as if they were transparent.
Chapter completed!