Autumn, the harvest season, should be full of joy and happiness.
But in Yizhou, neither the Han farmers farming the land nor the nomadic Uighurs feel heavy in their hearts.
Because after the governor of Illinois, Chen Huiyao, was deprived of his right to tax, taxes in Illinois became increasingly heavy.
This is not to say that Chen Huiyao is a kind person, but at least the Chen family is a native of Illinois, and Chen Huiyao also understands the principle of long-lasting water, and they still control the taxation rate well.
However, since the opening of the trade route and the Pugu clan of Gaochang targeting Yizhou, everything has changed.
These clan members are not natives of Illinois. Those who can come to Illinois to collect taxes, without exception, have spent a lot of money to buy tax-included quotas.
They must first complete the tax quota, and the rest is theirs.
Moreover, the purpose of coming to Yizhou is to compete with local snakes like the Chen family, so the high-ranking officials of the Khanate who have the power must take care of them.
What's more, in order to persuade the people of Illinois to pay taxes, they had to raise some tax collectors and thugs.
At this time, those who can afford to pay a large amount of taxes, whether they are small local tribesmen or businessmen, all have their own force. If you don't raise more thugs, you can't expect to collect taxes.
In this way, if the tax is not collected, the expenses will be lost. In addition, every tax official has a term of office. It is unknown whether you can be the one to do it next time.
Therefore, all tax officials who take office have a variety of names and names.
Especially in the autumn harvest season, when everyone has three melons and two dates, it is often a good time for tax collectors to go crazy and plunder.
No, a small tribesman named Long Beard drove his hundreds of sheep towards Yizhou City.
Nowadays, the autumn harvest is often a good time to sell sheep. The tax collector in Yizhou City saw these "fat sheep" from afar.
However, they are not fools. He still knows who can be ruthlessly raided and who needs to be more restrained.
For example, for a person with a small head like this, the price should be more reasonable.
First, there is no need to arouse everyone's anger. Second, these leaders have knives on their bodies. If they are angered and stabbed, wouldn't it be very unfair?
Therefore, the tax official was originally only prepared to collect taxes based on the price of a sheep at 20 cents.
In fact, there are quite a few.
The price of sheep at this time, based on forty kilograms, one sheep costs about four guan in Tokyo, which is four thousand Wen.
But in Tokyo, there aren’t many sheep farmers.
When it reaches Guanzhong, it will only be worth about 2,000 yuan.
When you arrive in Liangzhou, the price will drop significantly, because Hexi, Longyou, Lingwu, Ningbian, and Xia Sui in Liang are the main sheep-producing areas, so you only need more than 400 Wen.
In Gaochang, it is even cheaper, because Gaochang is far away from Hexi and is blocked by the Mohe Yan Moraine. Its own population is not large, and sheep can only digest it internally.
A sheep is only worth two hundred and twenty cents, so charging twenty cents is equivalent to one-tenth of the tax.
In fact, this is not high in the eyes of later generations, but it is different at this time.
Because sheep may not be sold, it is inconvenient to keep them fresh, and it is impossible to kill them to stock up on meat. If the sheep are allowed to travel a long distance, they will usually lose fat. What these tax collectors collect is not the tax money from selling sheep, they collect city taxes.
Gate tax.
It doesn’t matter if you sell it or not, as long as you go out and try to come in again, I’m sorry, you have to pay the tax again, sometimes you go back and forth once or twice, and you still sell a shitty sheep.
There is no cash for growing a beard. In fact, at this time, especially in Gaochang, it is normal for ordinary people to have no money. They usually use fine white cotton cloth and other high-value cloth to supplement their money.
So Chang Beard planned to sell more than a dozen sheep outside the city gate to collect enough tax money before entering the city.
However, he was very 'lucky'. Chen Tingxiao and several brothers from the clan, wearing chain armor and holding sharp knives, waited for several days, and finally found such a suitable tool man. How could he be allowed to pay taxes.
So, right under the nose of the tax collector, Chen Tingxiao instructed a few of his disciples to gather around them, and they agreed on the price after three times, five by five, and two. They bought all the 130 bearded sheep at once.
However, the sound may be a little louder. Even the soldiers on the top of the city could clearly hear the sound of their price negotiation, let alone the tax collector at the city gate.
The tax collectors who acted as thugs gathered around with great dissatisfaction. It doesn't matter if you take out one or two in the city, but if you sell them all, how can they collect taxes?
The long-bearded man was so happy that he could not find anything. He saved 2,600 yuan in taxes at one time. The important thing was that the transaction went so smoothly and he no longer had to wait in Yizhou City for several days.
However, he was immediately grabbed by the arm by the leading tax collector.
Chang Beard's expression changed, but he quickly estimated the strength comparison between the two sides. He only had three people, and there were six people on the other side, which was only the price of ten sheep. Although he was heartbroken, Chang Beard was still ready to give in.
But at this moment, Chen Tingxiao's younger brother Chen Tingjie, who was pretending to be a sheep buyer, spoke with some confusion.
"Why did your tax increase again? People from Liugushui Baique Department came to sell sheep a few days ago, but you only charged five cents per sheep?"
Long Beard's expression changed again. He lived in Liugushui, and the White Bird Tribe was not far from them. The strength of both sides was similar, and they both belonged to this medium-sized tribe with a few hundred people.
Then why do people in Liugushui pay only five cents for a sheep, but he has to pay twenty cents? You look down on people, right?
Thinking of this, Long Beard looked at the leading tax collector and reached out to grab the white cotton cloth he had just used as tax.
These are two pieces of fine white cotton, enough to make clothes for my wife and daughter. Their clothes have long been worn out and they have been reluctant to change them.
The long-bearded man in front of him reached out to grab him. The thugs around the leading tax collector swarmed up and pushed the long-bearded man away in two strokes.
The leader of the tax collectors pointed his halberd at Chen Tingjie. Chen Tingjie mostly lived in the Hami Basin and rarely came to Yizhou City, so the tax collectors were not familiar with him.
"Where did the wild dog come from? When did a sheep in Yizhou City charge a tax of only five cents? If you talk nonsense again, I will kill you!"
Chen Tingjie was afraid that he would not take action, so he pretended to be stunned, raised his neck, blushed, and yelled loudly.
"It's only five cents. I saw that what you collected was five cents for a sheep. If you kill me, it's still five cents."
Several of the bearded thugs pushed away. Seeing Chen Tingjie being so ignorant, they rushed up to grab him.
Chen Tingjie shrank back from the crowd, but he didn't show mercy at all, shouting loudly that he was paying a tax of five cents for a sheep.
There were many people outside the city waiting to enter the city to sell sheep. When everyone heard that the tax was only five cents, they started to make a noise.
Many of them actually knew that Chen Tingjie might have made a mistake, but how could they say so?
If the tax can be reduced to five cents, everyone will benefit!
Pushing and shoving, everyone had a lot of anger built up in their hearts for these tax collectors.
At this moment, seeing someone making a fuss, everyone vented their usual dissatisfaction.
There were only six tax collectors who came from the city gate cave, and they suddenly fell into a sea of at least hundreds of people, and they were almost drowned in an instant.
At this time, some people in front who had already paid their taxes turned around and started making noises when they heard the noise.
When Long Beard saw that the crowd was gradually becoming chaotic, he took advantage of his long hands and long legs to step over, grabbed the white cotton cloth taken away by the tax collector, and snatched it back.
The tax collector was extremely angry, but before he could take action, a man dressed similarly to him suddenly appeared next to him. He drew out his short knife and slashed the long beard on the back, shouting loudly as he slashed.
"You dare to snatch the judge's white cotton cloth! Give me a knife!"
There was a pop, blood flashed on the back of his long beard, he screamed, and instinctively ran forward.
But the people around them exploded with a bang. No one could have imagined that these tax collectors would dare to directly use the knife.
For a moment, some honest people wanted to run away quickly, while others who had been accumulating resentment on weekdays wanted to come forward.
The chief tax collector also felt that something was a little bit wrong, because they would definitely not use knives directly on weekdays, but usually use sticks.
And if you really need to use a knife, it will be a stabbing, not such a meaningless slashing.
The biggest problem is that he doesn’t know this person!
He was about to let his men hold it, but unexpectedly, the bearded guy who had just chopped it suddenly accelerated and approached him.
Before the chief tax collector could react, the short knife pierced his waist. This time he did not chop, but stabbed very skillfully.
The chief tax collector screamed, the smell of blood began to fill the air, and everyone's tense nerves were immediately aroused to the maximum.
A few concerned people saw this operation, but almost all of them pretended not to have seen it.
There were twenty or thirty tax collectors and thugs in the city gate cave. When they heard the screams of the chief tax collector, they all ran over with swords and guns.
Chen Tingjie in the crowd suddenly shouted, "The tax collector is coming to kill people! The tax collector is coming to kill people!"
At this time, a group of fully armed soldiers suddenly appeared on the city top. The general at the head held a horizontal knife and pointed it at the people below. The sharp blade was dancing with dazzling sunlight.
"You unscrupulous people, how dare you resist the tax, I will kill you all!"
The magical side appeared. The tax collectors of Illinois did not say anything about killing people, but the defenders of Illinois, who had been deprived of the right to collect taxes by the tax collectors, yelled and wanted to kill his fellow villagers.
However, the people below who were crying and shouting didn't have time to distinguish them before they turned around and ran away.
Although Long Beard also suffered a stab wound, it was just a cut on the surface of his skin. The blood looked scary, but in fact he was not seriously injured.
He also wanted to run back quickly, but the twenty-odd pieces of silk cloth he got from selling the sheep were all held on his shoulders.
"If you have a beard, run! Run! Otherwise these tax collectors will definitely invite soldiers to kill your whole family."
I don't know where a shout came from, but it reached the ears of Long Beard so clearly that Long Beard was stunned for a moment.
Run? Where is he running? It seems that at this moment, Chang Beard has seen the tragic situation of all his people being killed and his wife and daughter being kidnapped.
"Fuck you! I sell a sheep and you charge taxes. I buy a horse and you charge taxes. Now when I go to the city to meet someone, you still charge taxes. I will fight with you!"
Just when Long Beard was at a loss, a young man in the crowd suddenly broke out.
He took out the short knife from his waist and rushed towards the tax collector, quickly stabbing one of them to the ground.
"Why don't you kill them quickly? If you kill them, who will know who you are?"
There was another shout, this was addressed to Long Beard, the man from Tang Dynasty who bought his sheep.
In an instant, Long Beard felt that his whole body was transparent. Without thinking, he pulled out the short knife from his waist, showed the silk cloth to a clan member, turned around and killed him.
This long beard was originally the leader of the tribe, and many people around him knew him.
Looking at the long beards, it seemed that these tax collectors were not very strong in combat. In addition, there were people in the crowd constantly shouting to kill the tax collectors. Hundreds of people were originally planning to run away, but they immediately had a different idea.
In the past three or four years, they have been oppressed by tax collectors. Small-headed tribesmen like Longbeard were only charged a moderately high tax, while other ordinary people were almost taxed.
Now when they see someone taking the lead, many people turn around and kill him.
There were only about twenty tax collectors at the east gate of Yizhou. Although they were equipped with guns and clubs, they were no match for the hundreds of angry people.
Not to mention that the Chen brothers in the crowd also hid sharp swords, and several strong tax collector thugs were killed by them.
But the generals who had just been shouting to kill them all on the top of the city saw the people rioting and dispersed unexpectedly, which was beyond everyone's expectation. This aroused the excitement of the people even more.
Soon all the tax collectors in the east gate were chopped into pieces. While Long Beard and others were laughing heartily, another voice sounded.
"To cut the weeds, we need to root them out. We've done all the killing. Why not kill all the tax collectors in the city and then ask Governor Chen to come out and take charge of the overall situation!"