Farmer's eldest sister becomes rich

Chapter 376: Diverting trouble to the east

"I think at this time, the villagers at the east end of the village have stopped them on the main road."

An Yue sat on a low stool under the eaves, looking down in deep thought.

I happened to see a group of small ants on the ground working together to carry a dead fly.

When they were halfway through the move, they encountered another group of big black ants who wanted to steal their food.

After watching for a few moments, An Yue suddenly came up with an idea.

She said slowly: "In my opinion, there is still room for improvement."

When the village chief heard An Yue say this, he hurriedly walked up to An Yue and asked, "Oh? Then Yueyue, tell me about it."

"Yueyue thinks that we can divert the trouble to someone else."

The village chief and his family stood there, repeating with a puzzled look on their faces: "Diverting the trouble to others?"

An Yue explained to them: "This is the third time the government has come to our village to collect summer taxes, and we have just prepared the grain tax this time."

"We never expected the bandits to appear. The two of them coming together today is truly a godsend."

Qin asked in confusion, "What does Yueyue mean?"

An Yue asked, "These bandits are probably villagers fleeing famine, right?"

The village chief said: "Yes, 70% of the bandits in Dongwu Mountain are villagers from various villages. After various natural disasters, they were forced to go up the mountain and become bandits."

An Yue nodded and continued, "Well, then they came to our village just to rob our food."

The village chief nodded affirmatively.

"What Yueyue just said about 'diverting the trouble to the east' is to let the bandits see with their own eyes that we hand over the grain tax to the government."

"If you were the bandit, would you think it would be easier to just rob the officials of their grain taxes?"

The village chief held his chin with one hand and rolled his eyes as he thought.

"Well, what Yueyue said does make sense. But...how can Yueyue be sure that they dare to rob the grain tax from the officials?"

"Didn't Uncle just say that? Seventy percent of the bandits are villagers from various villages. With the arrival of various natural disasters, has the honest official in our county done anything?"

Several people shook their heads.

An Yue continued, "What those bandits hate most is that honest official who does not fulfill his duties."

Qin suddenly realized, "My goodness, after listening to Yueyue's analysis, if I were the bandit, I would definitely rob the grain tax from the official."

The village chief's eyes lit up and he said, "Although Yueyue's idea is a bit risky, it may really solve our urgent problem."

"But we still need to plan carefully how to do it."

An Yue looked determined and said, "Uncle, we must first arrange some personnel to quietly lead the bandits to a place where they can see the officials collecting grain taxes, but we must not let the officials find out."

Li Jing stood up and said, "Leave this matter to me. I'll find a few agile and clever young men."

An Yue continued, "Then, we have to make the villagers behave like normal and pay taxes, and make the elderly, weak, women and children in the village cry poor, preferably on their knees!"

Li Jing said disdainfully: "We have to pay the grain tax anyway, so even if we cry out to the officials, they will not do anything."

An Yue explained: "Yueyue planned this process for four purposes. The first purpose is to make the bandits and government officials believe that grain tax is our only ration."

"The second purpose is to win the sympathy of the bandits. Let them see with their own eyes how helpless and heartbroken we are after being plundered by the government. This will increase the bandits' hatred for the government."

"The third purpose is to tell the bandits through our actions that we are just like them, poor people without food, so as to dissuade them from robbing our village."

"The fourth purpose is that after the bandits see this scene, 90% of them will rob the grain tax."

Qin was a little worried: "What if the bandits don't care and rush into the village to steal food?"

An Yue comforted her, "Don't worry, Auntie. We will perform in the front and arrange for villagers to take turns to keep an eye on the village."

"If the bandits make any move, we can be prepared, right?"

The village chief nodded and said, "Okay, OK! Let's do as Yueyue said, and everyone should take action."

Li Jing quickly gathered a few reliable young men, carefully hid them on the main road of the village, and set up several surveillance points around the village.

......

Some villagers gathered at the west end of the village for a meeting, and the village chief briefly stated the main points of the meeting.

Then, the village chief hurried to the east end of the village.

The villagers at the east end of the village had been trying to delay time with the officials.

An officer pointed at the villagers and ordered, "We don't want to get involved with you. Go and call Village Chief Li!"

At this time, the village chief just arrived.

He stepped forward slowly, bowed and flattered, "Gentlemen, please calm down."

"Are you here to collect the silkworm cocoons?"

He looked like a head catcher and said, "Yes, but not entirely."

"That's disaster relief food for us?"

A thin official said unhappily, "If you don't pay the grain tax, how can you get the relief grain?"

The captain of the police standing behind him cleared his throat and glared at the thin man.

The thin man had no choice but to lower his head and take a few steps back.

"Village Chief Li, we have dealt with each other many times to collect grain taxes, and we can be considered as half-acquaintances. I hope that Village Chief Li will understand that we also have our responsibilities."

"Yes, yes, what the captain said is right. But we have paid the grain tax with the little surplus grain we have in our home. How are we going to live in the future?" The village chief said, with sorrow and worry revealed on his face.

"Don't worry, Village Chief Li. The county magistrate has already applied for disaster relief grain. It will be delivered to the county in a few days. We will escort it here in person."

The village chief put his hands behind his back and called out to the women behind him, indicating that it was their turn to perform.

A woman with her face covered in soot sat on the ground crying, looking up to the sky and sobbing, "Oh my God! This is killing me!"

The woman was crying heart-wrenchingly, and other old, weak, women and children also followed suit and cried loudly, and the scene was in chaos.

Seeing this, the head constable frowned and shouted, "Stop crying! Collecting grain tax is a rule of the imperial court, no one can disobey it!"

The villagers' cries became more miserable, and the whole scene was chaotic yet real.

At this moment, the young men who were assigned to keep watch quietly returned to the village.

Nodding slightly to the village chief, the bandits had arrived at the place where they could see the officials collecting grain taxes.

A group of officers looked at everyone sobbing and crying, all of them with frowns on their faces, obviously getting a little impatient.

......

When the bandits hiding in the distance saw this scene, they began to whisper to each other, with expressions of anger and sympathy on their faces.

A bandit said, "Brother, these villagers are just as pitiful as us. This damn government really doesn't allow them to survive!"