Chapter 1554: No Money

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Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

There were also trees behind the house. The branches were plentiful, allowing the shade to be wide and far. It was just right to cover the room with the brick bed. Even if he slept inside, it should not be too hot in the summer.

The courtyard had a small open space where people could dry things or leisurely walk around. The other places were filled with vegetables, which Zhang Dazhu and Zhang Shoushou planted.

Looking at the vegetables, they must have been grown from the seeds in her space.

There was only one neighboring house, and that was the courtyard where Zhang Dazhu and Zhang Shoushou lived — it was Zhang Dazhu’s house.

Zhang Shoushou’s father’s surname was also Zhang. Zhang Dazhu did not change Zhang Shoushou’s surname.

The layout of Zhang Dazhu’s house was similar. Now that the courtyard door was open, one could see that the courtyard was also filled with vegetables, leaving only a small space at the side.

There were even several wooden boxes in the corridor. There were vegetables planted in the wooden boxes, with green sprouts showing.

“It’s a little strange.” Jiang Yue whispered to Xue Yan. “Why are the vegetables planted there instead of behind the house? Whether it’s behind the house we’re going to live in or behind the house next door, that place is more suitable for planting vegetables. When we came here just now and passed by other houses, we didn’t see anyone planting vegetables behind their houses or outside their courtyards. They were all in the courtyards.”

Xue Yan nodded. “That is strange, we should ask around.”

“Yes.”

Seeing Jiang Yue nod her head, it just so happened that Tao Zhen had also arrived at this time and wanted to see if there was anything he could help with. Xue Yan took this opportunity and ask him about this matter.

Tao Zhen said, “If we plant it behind the house, even if we plant just a little, the government will charge us taxes like we do on the land. It’s different if we plant it in the yard. It’s equivalent to planting it at home. Therefore, we won’t get taxed. They did not have enough to expand the courtyard. Most houses had a deed. The deed stated the size of the house and the courtyard. You could only plant the crops within the size of the deed. If it exceeded the size, you would have to pay taxes. Therefore, no matter how big you expanded the courtyard privately and planted things in the courtyard, it would be useless. The government would not care about it and would still collect taxes from the unpaid land. This was to be extra strict with their taxes. It had only happened in the past two years. There was no such thing in the past. In the past, even if the taxes were quite high, everyone could more or less survive.

In the past two years, the tax was not collected according to the harvest per acre. Instead, it was stipulated how much tax must be paid per acre. Therefore, when the harvest was not good, they had to work extra hard. They planted a lot of things, but the total amount was not enough to pay the tax. “We are also afraid of floods and locust plagues. If the crops are not harvested, we still have to pay the tax. Aren’t they just forcing us farmers to die?”

Jiang Yue and Xue Yan both nodded in dismay. This taxing method was too heavy.

Tao Zhen was silent for a moment. He couldn’t help but say, “So, I hope that it’s just the government’s doing. I’m choosing to believe the Emperor didn’t mean it that way.”

Then, he couldn’t help but say, “Actually, I want to go to other places to look at what is happening, especially in the capital. I want to see if they collect taxes like this. It can’t be that the tax collection stays the same in every place, right? If it’s the same in Hillford, then I’ll give up on all of this. We’re already so poor. In the end, how can we have the money to go to the capital to take a look? Even if we can go, we won’t have the money to come back.”