It was about eight o'clock in the morning... a county town appeared in front of Zhu Yuanzhang. Looking at the Dangtu County Town in front of him, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "Mom, is Dangtu County Town in front of him...?"

"Yes...!" Aunt Wang sighed and said, "When you pass the city gate, you will start collecting donations. Our 100 kilograms of bean sprouts can be sold for about 300 cents, but this donation will cost us at least 250 cents."

"How come you want so much?" Zhu Yuanzhang also showed a horrified expression.

"They dare...you know that Your Majesty has a decree...the tax rate is thirty and one tax, which is absolutely impossible to break." Zhu Erhu followed from behind and frowned.

"We have issued an imperial edict, but we have obtained an imperial edict in the eyes of some people, but nothing is wrong. These people believe that they helped us fight this Ming Dynasty. If it weren't for them, we would be a poor monk." Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Okay, okay... go to the city first." Aunt Wang patted Zhu Yuanzhang on the shoulder.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and nodded: "Listen to me, let's go to the city first."

In this way, the group of four began to enter the city, but when they entered the city, Zhu Yuanzhang was really eye-opening.

"Stop it...who are you?" As soon as he arrived at the city gate, Zhu Yuanzhang and his four were stopped. A middle-aged man dressed in an accountant came over.

"We are going to the city to sell bean sprouts." Zhu Yuanzhang showed the smile of a civilian and looked at the man in front of him with compliment.

"Oh... I'm a businessman, so I have to go to the city to donate, donate clothes, donate bean sprouts, donate board carts, donate old people... each one is ten cents, plus thirty taxes, ten ten... you have to give a total of one hundred and fifty cents." The accountant looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and others with a contempt expression.

"Thirty taxes?" Zhu Erhu cursed loudly: "Do you still have the law of the king? Today, His Majesty stipulates thirty taxes, but you dare to collect thirty taxes?"

"Hey...come!"

Zhu Erhu's words directly made the accountant show an unhappy expression. With a shout, the yamen runners behind the accountant came over, with a total of six people, looking at Zhu Yuanzhang and his group of four with a fierce look.

"What do you want to do?" When did Zhu Erhu get angry like this and was going to start working hard. However, Zhu Yuanzhang started to smooth things over at this time and said, "Dear men... we paid 150 cents, we just had questions, so we asked, and we didn't want to break the rules."

After saying that, Zhu Yuanzhang took out the money directly, gave it 160 cents and then said, "There is still ten cents to give the brothers a glass of water."

When he saw the money, the accountant showed a satisfied smile: "You are still cognitive." He directly collected the money. The accountant waved his hand and asked the six yamen runners to leave. He followed Zhu Yuanzhang and the other four said: "You guys, don't blame us. We don't want to collect these thirty taxes, but our county magistrate wants to collect them.

We also know about thirty taxes, but who made our county magistrate understand the sky...Duke Deng knows... Hehe, it's our county magistrate's father. Not to mention thirty taxes, it's thirty taxes, thirty taxes twenty. As long as our county magistrate wants it, you will give it to it."

"But if His Majesty knew about this?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked carefully at the accountant.

"Hehe...you still don't understand. So what if you know? Will Your Majesty make things difficult for Duke Deng's son for the sake of the people?" The accountant laughed twice, then waved his hand: "Get in... go in."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and showed a hint of ugly expression. Fortunately, at this time, Aunt Wang behind him said, "Let's go, boss... we still have to rush to sell bean sprouts. If these bean sprouts are not sold early, it will be difficult to sell."

"I know, mom." After hearing Aunt Wang's voice, Zhu Yuanzhang calmed down. Then he laughed and followed the cart and slowly entered the city. However, it was fine if he didn't enter the city. As soon as he entered the city, Zhu Yuanzhang was a little surprised that the county was very depressed, and there were almost no vendors on the road, and many shops were closed.

"Mom...why are the shops here closed?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

Before Mrs. Wang finished speaking, Zhu Erbao on the side pushed the driveway: "It was not like this before. Last time I pushed Xiaolang to come here, it was so lively and there were people everywhere on the streets. Oh... Brother, there is a teahouse in front of me. Someone is talking about books, and they are talking about Yang's generals, which sounds so nice.

Why are there no one now, mom, the one who sells candied haws?"

With a sigh, Aunt Wang shook her head slightly: "With this county magistrate's collection of donations, who can afford to open a shop? There are more than ten donations waiting for you as soon as you open the door. If it were you, would you sell things again?

Not only that, there are thirty taxes and ten, boss...!"

"My son is...!" Zhu Yuanzhang came to Aunt Wang's side, and Aunt Wang sighed: "Can you sell things?"

"Of course not." Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head: "So we set thirty taxes. Not only that, we are not allowed to appear any other taxes, just to enable the people to sell things well, haha..." Zhu Yuanzhang sneered: "But the tax knows, no matter what we think, there are countermeasures below. If we say taxes are not good, the other party will collect donations. OK... It's really great. We know that those people will take advantage of our loopholes as long as they have a little chance."

Zhu Yuanzhang was really angry at this time.

However, a scene that made Zhu Yuanzhang even more angry appeared. Just when Zhu Yuanzhang and his fours arrived at the vegetable market, Zhu Yuanzhang actually saw a group of children in this market where they were kneeling with straw signs.

Zhu Yuanzhang was suddenly stunned... because in ancient times, the meaning of putting a straw label on the grass was to sell one's body.

During the Jin Dynasty, most of the transactions were in the market in ancient times, and the locations of the market were usually near the post station, and the transaction requirements were quick, so when buyers and sellers sold things, they would pull up grass and put them next to the goods, so that they could tell at a glance that these things were goods to be sold. In addition, in ancient times, there were not many people educated, the illiteracy rate was high, there were not many people who knew how to write, and even fewer people could understand words, so the grass placed next to the goods became a recognized "mark".

Therefore, at that time, poor families had no choice but to sell their children for food and clothing, and would put grass marks on them, so that they could know that they could be sold, and their lives were as cheap as grass, as if a piece of grass could represent the life of poor people.

"Mom... Are these children selling themselves with straw labels?" Zhu Yuanzhang was panicked.

"Hey... I'm selling myself... Not a lot before, but since the third son of Duke Deng started collecting donations, this situation has become more and more common. People's lives are already difficult. Dangtu has a lot of immigrants, and there are only so many lands. Basically, there are no land in the immigrants. Many landlords own a large amount of land, so the immigrants can only serve as tenants for the landlords.

Originally, we could have survived on a meager income, but now, taxes have been added, so more and more people cannot survive. Even if they can’t survive, they can only sell their children and daughters.”

"Mom...it's our fault. We have harmed the people of Dangtu." Zhu Yuanzhang blamed himself, and this self-blame also strengthened Zhu Yuanzhang's murderous intention. All the so-called murderous intention can be done.
Chapter completed!