Chapter 1532: Neutral and Fair

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“What do you mean by killing people every day?” Tao Jinyan continued, “I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, so I don’t dare to say that it’s true. I can only say that it’s true that the people are suffering from heavy taxes. When the government came to our village to collect taxes, they asked for more money than before. It’s the same for the other villages nearby. We don’t even have grain reserves anymore. Some of the grain was used as seeds to be sown in the fields this year. As far as the villages I know, all of us are relying on wild vegetables to satisfy our hunger for now.”

Jiang Yue and Xue Yan both felt that Village Chief Tao’s words were more neutral and fair.

Indeed, he had not seen it with his own eyes and had only heard about it. Naturally, he could not say that it was true.

At this moment, Tao Jinyan laughed again. “You guys should ask me in detail. I’ll answer whatever questions you have. I don’t know what you need to know.”

“Alright.” Jiang Yue nodded and then asked in detail, “Then may I ask what is the name of the town, county, and capital where the emperor lives? How far are they from here?”

“The town that our village belongs to is called Yaoshui Town, the county is called Dianhe County, and the capital where the emperor lives is called the Imperial Capital. Our village is quite far from the town. It takes about two hours to walk there. It’s further away from the county. It would take about six hours to walk. Needless to say, the Imperial Capital is very far from here. It’s impossible to walk there on foot. It’ll probably take several days to ride a fast horse without sleeping or resting.”

“What kind of person is the county magistrate?” Jiang Yue asked. “Since you’re the village head, you should have gone to the county office and met the county magistrate, right? The people of Dianhe County can’t just accept living like this. Other than not being able to defy the decree and collect heavy taxes, has he not thought of taking any other measures to let you live as well as possible?”

Tao Jinyan sighed. “There are some matters in the village that need to be handled by the county government. I have been to the county government before. However, in recent years, because I am old and my legs are inconvenient, my youngest son has gone there on my behalf. The county magistrate was changed three years ago, so I don’t know the current county magistrate.

“However, my youngest son has seen him before. Previously, when the court suddenly wanted to collect heavy taxes, the county magistrate asked all the village chiefs to go to the county office. Naturally, my youngest son went on my behalf. It was at that time that my youngest son met the county magistrate.

“Usually, if he went to the county government to do things, he only needed to find the chief registrar of the county government. There was no need to trouble the county magistrate. At that time, the county magistrate had gathered so many village chiefs to talk about the tax increase and to appease everyone. He said that he would think of a way to make everyone not suffer as much as possible. He even asked everyone to appease their respective villages.

“However, it had already been about two years, and he hadn’t come up with anything. Three months ago, the county magistrate gathered all the village chiefs and once again comforted everyone and their villagers. He said that the other counties were the same and that the whole of Da Chen was the same.

“They couldn’t think of a solution. He even said that the magistrate couldn’t do anything. He was a small official, and it was difficult for him to do anything other than voice his opinions.”

Jiang Yue and Xue Yan’s eyes met.

“Has the county magistrate ever visited the villages?” Jiang Yue asked.

Tao Jinyan shook his head. “No.”

Jiang Yue and Xue Yan more or less had an understanding of everything.

If he wanted the commoners to live a better life, even if there was no way, he would not have gone so far as to not personally observe the people’s feelings and visit the various villages to see how everyone was doing…

Therefore, the two times he had summoned the village chief to appease him were just for show.