Chapter 106: Not Something a Human Can Do

As for whether the magistrate has calmed down, Su Qing'an doesn't know. But Lü Bocheng passed the prefectural exam in April and became a student. If he passes the academy exam in June, he will be a scholar.

Lü Shengcai even came to report the good news to her.

It seems that Lü Bozu's in-laws did contribute.

But Su Qing'an thinks the magistrate is still angry. Because she didn't pay much business tax before, it's a small business, how much profit can the vegetables and meat on the surface make? So the monthly business tax is not much.

But when Master Ma's incident happened, her business tax increased several times, and she had to pay several taels of silver a month.

Su Qing'an thought it was against her, but she didn't expect that when she asked the surrounding shops, she found out that everyone's business tax had doubled. Lü Shengcai's grocery store also paid a lot more. A group of merchants in the town complained bitterly.

Everyone's profit has decreased.

But what can you do? First, you have to pay it. Ordinary citizens dare not fight with the government. Whatever they say is what they have to pay.

Second, shops cannot close down because of the high commercial taxes. Although they pay more, they just make less profit. Can they just close down and go home to starve?

Some shops that like to play tricks will hide away on the days when commercial taxes are collected, such as Qian Yueru, the father of Lu Yuzhu's friend.

Shopkeeper Qian runs a cloth shop. He has several daughters. He misses his son so much that his eyes turn green. He is afraid that he will have no one to rely on in the future. He is usually very stingy. When the commercial taxes doubled, he immediately cried. It was no different from cutting his flesh.

Commercial taxes are collected by the county's money and grain master himself. The days are generally fixed. Shopkeeper Qian played tricks and closed the shop on those days.

When people left, he came out. Seeing the surrounding merchants complaining, he was very happy and laughed at the stupidity of others. Unexpectedly, he was caught off guard. A few days later, the county sent people to his shop to block him and fined him a lot of money.

The shopkeeper Qian almost fainted from the pain.

Some people played tricks in the shop and said they were not the ones in charge. The county people directly blocked his house to collect the money.

This operation made all the merchants in the town scared. They didn't dare to go against the people in the government office. Now they were fined to the point of being forced to pay for late payment and resistance to payment. Who would dare to go against the wind and commit crimes?

Su Qing'an felt a little uneasy.

Did the magistrate lose the silver in his private treasury and want to get it back from the merchants?

Sure enough, just after the commercial tax was collected, people from the county came to collect the Ding tax from her.

Su Qing'an was confused.

Her family had a newborn, but the little baby had just finished the confinement period and was still a long way from becoming an adult. Why was the Ding tax collected? Didn't the dynasty stipulate that people could only start paying Ding tax at the age of sixteen?

And did the Ding tax increase so much?

Then after paying the Ding tax, she had to pay an exemption tax. It was said that her family had no male members to perform labor service, and she had to pay an exemption tax.

This was not over yet. She was charged a household tax because she had a separate household. Then she was charged a deed tax for the sale of a house. Didn’t her father-in-law pay this deed tax in the county when he transferred the property? Collected again?

And soon, the land tax under her name was levied again, which was more than any previous year.

In addition to her, Aunt Zhou’s family also paid the Ding tax. Her son was only eight years old and had not yet turned sixteen and was not yet a Ding, so he also paid the Ding tax. Then Su Qingliu also paid the household tax, and Su’s father also paid Xiao Qingyang’s Ding tax.

This payment of Ding taxes led to a lot of young men who were not yet Ding looking for work in Fengting Town. Su Qingmei was surrounded by a group of boys all day long, asking if she wanted to do odd jobs.

That's not all. Su Dahu and Su's father said that a tax checkpoint was set up at the city gate, and all goods entering and leaving the town had to pay import duties.

Isn't this a tax imposed on foreign goods at the border?

Tariffs were collected from domestic merchants? Import duties? Does the higher-ups know about this?

I heard that the police at the tax checkpoint said that if you want to go through the city gate, you have to pass through the customs, and you have to pay taxes after passing through the customs. Originally, the business tax paid by merchants was an estimated number. Now, once the tax checkpoint is set up, the police will collect taxes based on the amount of goods entering and leaving the city gate.

Even the farmers who carry their loads into the town to set up stalls will be taxed for the few vegetables and eggplants.

As a result, no one dared to carry their loads into the town.

Originally, the county looked down on the small money of the farmers, so Huabao and others went to ask the farmers for it. Now the county directly collects it. As a result, Huabao and others lost their jobs.

That's not all. The county also collected a total tax from the merchants. It said that for every transaction of one or two taels, another 30 coins would be collected. It’s not enough to collect the total tax, but also the monthly tax.

The monthly tax is the amount of silver that the court requires each county and prefecture to pay every year in order to raise military expenses. In previous years, each county and prefecture paid it from taxes, but this time, it was specially collected from merchants and farmers.

For a while, everyone in the town wailed. Many merchants closed their doors.

After the tax checkpoint was set up at the city gate, farmers no longer came to the town with their loads, but the number of people who came to Su Qingmei’s store to buy vegetables increased sharply.

Farmers no longer picked vegetables to sell in the town. Although Su Dahu and his father collected a lot of vegetables, once the city gate tax checkpoint was set up, they would be charged the so-called entry fee every time they brought vegetables in.

As a result, although Su Qingmei’s store had a surge in customers every month, her profit was reduced.

Su Ergu and another vegetable store were struggling and were about to go out of business. The two stores raised the price of vegetables at the same time. You fleece me in the county, and I fleece my customers.

This caused a large number of customers to flock to her store. Su Qingmei had no choice but to adjust her prices under the pressure of the other two stores. After all, her costs had increased.

For a while, everyone in the town tightened their belts.

The usual lively scenes of restaurants and pubs outside had not appeared for a long time.

A few days later, Liu Juye came to her and specifically told her not to resist taxes.

He said that many merchants and farmers who resisted taxes were arrested and put in the county jail. What happened in the end? They still couldn't resist. In the end, the shop was gone, the land was sold, and in the end, a lot of money had to be spent to redeem the people.

Su Qingmei was a small citizen, so how could she dare to challenge the people in the government office. But it didn't stop her from complaining: "Doesn't the prefect know that the county magistrate is arbitrarily setting up names to collect taxes?"

Liu Juye curled his lips: "How could he not know? Someone had already reported it to the higher authorities, but the county magistrate had already handed over most of the tax silver collected to the government. Does the government still think it's too much money? It's just turning a blind eye."

Su Qingmei sighed: "If they continue to collect taxes like this, the people will not be able to make a living."

"That's right. But since ancient times, there have been few fair and honest officials who care about the lives of the people."

Su Qingmei agreed deeply.

Then Liu Juye said, "By the way, I heard that you two were separated?"

Su Qing'an nodded, "After the incident with Master Ma, my family was afraid that the higher-ups would suppress Lv Bozu's future."

She smiled again, "It's good to be separated, so it's quiet."

Liu Juye looked at her deeply, "I don't know how Bocheng is now. If he knew that he was still fighting outside and his family separated his wife and children, he would be sad."

Seeing Su Qing'an's relieved look, he sighed, "Just come to me if you have any problems in the future. My father is still useful in the county now. He may not be able to help with big things, but he can still protect you with small things."