In the blink of an eye, October came and the tax collectors arrived on time. This year's field harvests in the entire region had been greatly reduced, and there were already signs of drought. They had reported the situation, but there was no response at all.

If there is no response, it means that this year's taxes will remain unchanged and will be collected according to the changes. Therefore, in Xiangzhang Village, except for Mr. Xiang, who has a scholar in his family who can be tax-free, everyone else in Xiangzhang Village needs to pay taxes.

The villagers knelt on the ground and begged the tax collector. The yields of wheat and rice were really not enough. Could they use coarse grains? Even more grains would be good.

Of course the tax collector disagreed. He remembered that Xiangzhang Village could still sell fruits and chestnuts last year, and the village chief stood up. The output of chestnuts and fruits was not as good as last year, and there were fewer people buying from the county.

The tax collector was silent for a long time, and the residents living in the county town had a hard time. The prices of everything had increased, and the extra money in their hands was spent on price increases. Of course, they did not have enough money to buy fruits.

Fortunately, chestnuts can also be eaten as food, even though they are fruits. The taste is not as sweet as last year, and they cannot be stored for a long time. If they cannot be sold, they can only be eaten by themselves. If they cannot be eaten, they can only be thrown away.

Xiang Hantu's eyes rolled around, and he finally came up with a plan to frame Mr. Xiang. He touched one of his eyes wrapped in cotton cloth, came to the tax collector, bent down and said:

"Sir, I have a way. My nephew is a scholar, and his family does not need to pay taxes. So if we sell fruit and chestnuts to his family, we will not have money to pay taxes."

The tax collector was stunned. His nephew was a scholar, so he should help his nephew and his family. How could he cheat his own nephew like this?

Sure enough, the village chief became angry and cursed loudly: "Xianghan, which of your nephews is a scholar? In Xiangzhang Village, the only grandson of Uncle Lin's family is a scholar, but his family has long severed ties with you."

The tax collector understood that he really had a personal vendetta. He took a look at Xiang Han Tu and felt that this man must be mentally ill. Someone in his family had been admitted as a scholar. He didn't know how to curry favor but instead became enemies.

He didn't say anything and just asked the people of Xianghan to pay the tax. If they couldn't pay, don't blame him for being rude. You should know that scholars are much more valuable than him.

Xianghantu did not expect that the tax collector not only did not make the villagers embarrass his elder brother, but also asked him to pay taxes. Fortunately, he sold the land and was able to collect enough tax money.

However, Xianghantu's words also attracted some people in the village. Chestnuts can be kept as food, but if the fruit is not stored properly, it will rot if it cannot be sold.

Goudanniang went home directly and carried two baskets of fruits to Mr. Xiang's house. Seeing this, the villagers followed his example and went home to pick fruits.

The village chief was furious and yelled, "Do you people still have any conscience? Who gave you these fruit trees and chestnut trees? It's shameless to take the fruit trees given by others and then sell the fruits to others."

The villagers' faces turned red and they felt really guilty, but if they didn't have enough money to pay the land tax for the grain in the fields, they wouldn't have the money to pay the capitation tax and the corvee tax.

Fu Bao was sitting in her room practicing. Trees and grass roots had already informed her of these things. So Fu Bao stopped working and told Mr. Xiang the news.

Mr. Xiang smiled and asked Fu Bao, what do you think? Fu Bao did not hesitate to let Mr. Xiang accept these fruits. She had the spiritual space to ensure that the fruits would not spoil.

The most important thing is that they only paid money, but Fu Bao can gain a lot of merit points. You can't ask for such a good thing, and you can't refuse it.

Mr. Xiang smiled. Everything in his family was based on Fu Bao, but he couldn't buy the fruits of these villagers so easily, otherwise his family would be regarded as a soft persimmon and allowed to be manipulated.

There was a knock on the courtyard door, and Fugui's Wife opened the door. When Goudanniang saw that it was Fugui's Wife, she couldn't help but flinch, mainly because Fugui's Wife became famous in one battle, and her son was a scholar.

"Sister-in-law Fugui, please buy my fruit, otherwise my man will be taken away. Without a man, how can I survive as an orphan and a widower..." Goudanniang knelt down towards Sister-in-law Fugui.

"I'm from the Fugui family. My son is still young. If his father is taken away, we won't be able to survive..." The second daughter-in-law of the house also knelt down towards Fugui's sister-in-law.

Aunt Zhou knelt down, Old Wang’s wife knelt down, Old Man Li’s mother-in-law also knelt down...

Witnessing the people kneeling down towards her one after another, Fugui's sister-in-law couldn't help but become angry. She stretched out her finger and sneered at these women:

"You took my fruit trees for nothing last year, drank my water for nothing this year, and now you want to sell the fruits to my family. Do you think my family is easy to bully?"

At first, these women thought that their misfortune was justified. They were all from the village. If your family had the conditions to help, what could you do? However, after listening to the rich sister-in-law and thinking about the issue of drinking water in the future, they became entangled.

The village chief rushed over and was about to curse, but was stopped by Mr. Xiang. He glanced at the people kneeling on the ground and saw that they were all against his own family. How could he still have the nerve to ask for help? It was really unbelievable.

"Village Chief, I won't accept the fruit from these people. I really have no intention of helping them, and starting from tomorrow, their families will no longer come to my house to carry water."

"What, you damn old man, you don't even carry water for us, you want us to die of thirst, your conscience has been eaten by a dog." Goudanniang was the first one to jump up and cursed loudly.

Mr. Xiang didn't speak, but looked at Daddy Goudan. Daddy Goudan kept struggling in his heart. If he did this, he would be sorry for Mr. Xiang, but if he didn't, his family's money would become less and less.

When he felt a gaze staring at him and looked up to see the coldness in Mr. Xiang's eyes, he regretted it too late. He got angry and slapped his mother-in-law on the face.

Mr. Xiang also ran over and kicked his wife on the waist. He cursed but kept glancing towards Mr. Xiang.

Mr. Xiang snorted coldly. He had seen this kind of drama too many times. He let his own woman take the lead and everyone was happy when he won. But he beat and scolded his own woman when he lost. It was really useless.

"Dear neighbors, my family in Xianghanlin doesn't have much money, so I can't buy you so many fruits. Please discuss it and help the most needy families first. Those who still have money to pay taxes should not join in the fun."

At first, everyone thought that Mr. Xiang would not help, and those villagers who were in particular difficulties were already desperate, but they did not expect that Mr. Xiang would be so righteous.

We all discussed it together. In fact, there was no need to discuss it. Everyone knew which family in the village was the poorest and which family had a better life.

So Mr. Xiang used fifty taels of silver to buy fruits and chestnuts from most families in the village, and finally helped them solve their current difficulties.

Fu Bao closed his eyes and received a large amount of merit points. A smile appeared on his face. The tree vine flew up and branches grew on its body. As long as the spiritual power is enough, Fu Bao will have countless branches of the tree vine.
Chapter completed!