The Blessed Beauty Returns with a Dimension-Chapter 951 - 927: Taxation

"Brother Li, if it’s convenient, I’d like to return to the village with you."

Jiang Xiaoxiao pondered for a long time. Now with an uncertain future, she couldn’t just wander off blindly.

A lone woman on the road—this is the bygone times, not the modern era; no trains, no planes, no ships.

Traveling alone, with rampant bandits, haven’t you heard, it’s a chaotic world.

A woman traveling alone, though she’s not afraid, there’s bound to be trouble.

Moreover, the situation is unclear, and she has no idea where Number Ten is hiding now.

She can’t just wander the world looking for him.

Better to settle down first and let Number Nine gradually trace Number Ten’s whereabouts. Then she can slowly track him down.

With the experiences of the last two worlds, it was crucial not to startle the snake here.

Number Ten is really quick on his feet.

While they’re chasing Number Ten, he’s also avoiding them. Once he detects traces of their existence in this world, he’ll likely escape immediately.

Jiang Xiaoxiao decided to follow Li Tieniu and the others back to the village.

Li Tieniu was somewhat pleased; on one hand, the person in front of him was a lifesaver.

When they return to their village, there will be a chance to repay the kindness.

On the other hand, the girl in front of him clearly had some skills.

Whether she was the daughter of an official family or the descendant of some military general, her skills were definitely far superior to theirs.

So Li Tieniu and the others tidied up, buried their comrade’s bodies.

Took their belongings and hit the road. Jiang Xiaoxiao accompanied them on the journey back to the village.

In this era, if you don’t have an ox cart or carriage, you have to rely on your legs.

And these salt traders relied on their feet to conduct business, so naturally, Jiang Xiaoxiao had to walk back with them.

This made it tough for Jiang Xiaoxiao, even though she wasn’t afraid of hardship. The problem was, the roads of this era were not like the asphalt roads of the future, where you could walk as you pleased.

Not only was the terrain uneven, but there were also many ditches and channels.

Jiang Xiaoxiao worked hard to adapt and keep up with these men’s pace. Although she always appeared calm while walking, only she knew how tired she really was.

Of course, she never realized that her actions along the way left Li Tieniu and the men astounded.

They were salt traders.

To them, these roads were like walking on flat ground, but they didn’t expect this official young lady to walk these paths just as adeptly.

Furthermore, because the lady was so fast, it forced these men to exert all their strength.

They just lamented not having wings of their own. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Jiang Xiaoxiao followed Li Tieniu back to the Li Family Village.

Li Tieniu found a room in the village for Jiang Xiaoxiao.

Many houses were abandoned; in these chaotic times, the village was not peaceful, often plagued by various troubles, sometimes bandits, sometimes military disasters, and occasionally, barbarians would raid.

So there were many vacant houses in the village. Jiang Xiaoxiao picked a clean and tidy one, tidied it up, and stayed there by herself.

The village elder heard that Jiang Xiaoxiao had helped Li Tieniu and the others, and warmly welcomed her to stay in the village, anyway, there were plenty of houses.

The place where Li Tieniu and his family stayed was very close to where Jiang Xiaoxiao lived, almost like neighbors, allowing Li Tieniu and his family to somewhat look after Jiang Xiaoxiao.

Actually, Jiang Xiaoxiao didn’t need anyone to take care of her.

Li Tieniu’s sister, Li Tiehua, always followed Jiang Xiaoxiao around. Li Tiehua didn’t say anything, it’s just that their family was really too poor.

Even if they mumbled about others, they probably couldn’t prepare dowries, and with the chaotic times, Li Tieniu and his brother often had to go out to sell salt.

Without the sister to support the household, relying on the blind old mother and sister-in-law couldn’t hold it down.

As it turned out, now the brother was gone too.

The family cried for a long time before mustering the spirit to continue living.

Jiang Xiaoxiao had been staying in the village for about half a month, and it was almost time for the autumn harvest.

Even though she didn’t own land in the village, seeing the hard-working and kind villagers, she felt that life here was quite peaceful. Of course, if it weren’t for her mission to find Number Ten, living in this quiet and secluded village for a while wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Unfortunately, this was not what she wanted, but that day, Li Tieniu hurriedly came to find Jiang Xiaoxiao.

"Miss Jiang, I’ll take you to live in Yanmen Pass, your silver is enough to rent a small courtyard there. Miss Jiang, I’m not trying to drive you away, but we’re about to be taxed here, and I heard they’re adding a poll tax this year, a tael of silver per person.

I’m afraid we will drag you down, Miss Jiang."

Li Tieniu was an honest man, and Jiang Xiaoxiao believed he wouldn’t lie to brush her off.

The box left by Miss Jiang Xuemei still had 200 taels of silver in it.

To a wealthy family, this silver meant nothing, not even a fraction, but to these rural commoners, it was a huge sum.

Jiang Xiaoxiao was quite willing to help Li Tieniu.

Over the past half month, Li Tieniu and Li Tiehua had developed quite a fondness for Jiang Xiaoxiao.

The siblings were both sincere and honest.

"Brother Li, if you need silver for taxes, I have dozens of taels on hand that can help you pay it first."

Li Tieniu sighed and shook his head, "Miss Jiang, we appreciate your good intentions, but unfortunately, it’s not just one household in our village facing this. Originally, we wanted to earn the tax money through the salt trade with dozens of strong fellows.

Who knew something big would happen on the road, and all that silver went down the drain. Those silvers were gathered by the whole village. Now that the silver’s gone, no family can pay the taxes."

Miss Jiang, I understand your kindness, but please move to Yanmen Pass first. Things might become chaotic here; if taxes aren’t paid, the soldiers will come to arrest people, inevitably causing injuries and fatalities.

Moreover, we are about to harvest in autumn; if the barbarians get wind of this, they might also come to plunder. Our village is on the outskirts, close to the Northern Border, often becoming a target for those barbarians; here is truly not safe."

Jiang Xiaoxiao had a bit of admiration for Li Tieniu in front of her. He was a decent person, and he didn’t just think about himself because she could offer silver as help.

"Brother Li, if smuggling salt can help you earn silver, why not quickly raise some capital and smuggle salt once more? Perhaps every tax can be paid back. If you’re really short on capital, I can put up my silver as capital for everyone."

Jiang Xiaoxiao wasn’t one to lack money, those 200 taels of silver were nothing to her; she had grain, she had goods, she had weapons, she had skills.

She could live prosperously here even during these ancient times. She genuinely wanted to help Li Tieniu and the others.