Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Collect and hand in
It was only a short day and night since I got back, and there was no food at home. Feng Yiping didn't bother tidying up for the time being, and was about to go to a few uncles' houses to eat and socialise when Feng Weidong and Feng Hongbing entered.
Feng Weidong looked around inside and out, 'Not bad, just two places are leaking badly, especially this one in the main room, it must be repaired. My house wasn't inspected last year either, and I never thought that this year would be so unusual, with so much rain. There are now three or four leaks. The forecast says that the rain will stop the day after tomorrow, so I'll try to get some tiles from somewhere nearby tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, the two families will inspect the house together, but I can't do it alone. Dongming and the others are all at home, so you should go and talk to them this afternoon and ask them to come and help the day after tomorrow.'
We had lunch at Feng Hongbing's house and dinner at my uncle's house. Since I hadn't been back for such a long time, my uncle's family treated me like a guest. Salted fish, preserved meat, fresh tofu, egg drop soup and a few fresh seasonal vegetables made for a very hearty meal.
During the meal, Feng Yiping told him about the situation, and his uncle agreed immediately. The day after tomorrow, he and Dongming would go together to help out. 'It's been raining so much this year, and if you can't come back, I was going to go to Weidong's to get the key and go to your place to take a look.'
After the meal, his cousin Dongming laughed at him, "You don't look it, but you look so thin, and you can eat even more than a strong labourer like me!'
His aunt said to him on the side, "Not to mention others, when you and Yiping were this big, you could eat just as much!'
After dinner, when they left his uncle's house, Dongming used a flashlight to guide him home, carrying a large bag of peanuts in his hand, which his aunt had fried especially for him that night.
Because nothing had been tidied up at home, Feng Yiping and Feng Hongbing huddled together at night. Fortunately, it was a large bed, and the two of them slept at the two ends, so it was quite spacious.
The next morning, Feng Yiping was rummaging through his clothes in the bedroom when he heard someone come in. He went out to see who it was and realised it was the village secretary, accompanied by the accountant and the women's director. These village cadres rarely visited casually, but they had probably heard from the classmates who had returned together the day before, and they had hurried over after breakfast, probably fearing that they would miss the opportunity.
Without waiting for Feng Yiping to greet them, they found stools and sat down themselves. The secretary of the village committee said in a casual manner, 'You don't even offer me any tea, let alone cigarettes?'
Feng Yiping was just thinking about going to Feng Hongbing's house to get a pot of tea, but after hearing what he said, he simply didn't bother. 'I only got back yesterday, and I stayed at other people's houses, so I didn't even light a fire. Not to mention tea, I didn't even have hot water, so I had to be rude.'
The village secretary was suddenly taken aback. He was from another family in the village, not surnamed Feng, and they had met often before. In primary school, Feng Yiping had to pass in front of his house every time he went to school. He had the impression that he was a timid child who didn't know how to speak well. Why was he speaking so harshly now?
But since Feng Yiping said so, even if he had a problem, it would be bad to argue. The women's director was quick to see the situation and went next door to Feng Weidong's house to get a pot of tea and a few cups.
When she heard that the secretary of the village committee and the others had come, Feng Weidong followed and sat on one side to keep them company.
The secretary and the others didn't come for anything else, they came to collect the payment. The village accountant took his abacus and scratched on the table for a while, then handed Feng Yiping a slip of paper, 'Your family's share of this year's public grain allowance and the three taxes and five levies, plus other miscellaneous fees, comes to a total of 383.6.'
Feng Yiping took the slip of paper. To be honest, this was his first encounter with this kind of thing, and he was very interested in the entries on it, so he read them down one by one.
Feng Weidong offered a smoke and said, 'My uncle and aunt aren't home, so it's useless for you to come now. Yiping is still a child, and he can't make decisions about such things.'
The village secretary, puffing away, caught the cigarette Feng Weidong offered in his ear and said, 'Don't you know that your brother has written and earned nearly ten thousand yuan in less than a year's time? He can't make decisions about a few hundred yuan, can he?'
Of course Feng Weidong knew about Feng Yiping's business. No matter what his attitude was in private, at this time he definitely had to support him. 'That's not the way to put it. Yiping's ability to make money writing is his talent. If there were more students like him in the village, it would be a credit to us all, wouldn't it? Of course the adults have to make the decisions when it comes to handing over these things. My uncles will be back when they collect the grain, and there will definitely not be a single penny missing then. Even when times were hard a few years ago, they didn't owe the village any money. Now that times are better, they won't owe any more, so don't worry.'
The village chief didn't know what was going on today. It seemed that he had been drinking at someone's house early in the morning. He knew that Feng Zhenchang and the others would be back when the autumn harvest was in, so he could have just said, 'I know we won't be able to pay, but if we can pay now, why wait until the second half of the year?'
Although Feng Weidong is a temporary worker, he works at the county winery. He thinks to himself that he has seen the world, has an income, and is considered a person of some importance in the village. He also speaks for face, and has helped to say good things like this. However, the branch secretary still wants to collect the money today, which annoys him a little. 'We are all neighbours, and we all know about some things. There are many people who delay paying the money until the end of the year. If you take advantage of the adults' absence and come to the children, then you can do whatever you want!'
This remark was a bit harsh, and not many people liked these village cadres. All year round, they did nothing but collect money.
There are two main types of money collection: one is to collect dues, and the other is to collect fines for family planning violations. When collecting money, they work very hard. In the first half of last year, because of the fines for family planning violations, they almost bulldozed a family's house. It was Feng Zhenchang and the others who stopped them.
The past two years have been good for collecting taxes, but in previous years it was also very intense. If you didn't have money, they would take grain from you. If you didn't have enough grain, they would take your pigs.
Before last year, if Feng Weidong encountered such a thing, he would just help out a little. This year is different. Feng Zhenchang and the others can now make money, and Feng Yiping will have a bright future, Feng Zhenchang thinks. Although Feng Yiping still has a few years before he can take the university entrance exam, and it is not certain that he will pass, what he is doing now is more honorable than passing the exam.
In the countryside, where the general level of education is not high, people revere those with education. Feng Yiping is such an extraordinary person that he is considered rare not only in the village and township, but also in the county.
So at this time, in the face of such a thing, Feng Weidong of course had to defend Feng Yiping.
The village secretary had been in his position for more than ten years, and this was the first time he had encountered such a situation. Knowing that Feng Yiping was at home alone, he had thought that the matter would be easy to handle. Feng Weidong would at most help to say a few words, but he had not expected that Feng Yiping did not seem to be someone to be trifled with. Not only that, Feng Weidong was also standing firm on the opposite side.
Of course, he was aware of the situation in the village. Although they were poor, they were still very united with each other. What he had done today could not really withstand scrutiny if it was told. Knowing all this, those with quick tempers, such as Dongming, might just point at him and scold him to his face. Thinking about this, he sobered up a lot, but he couldn't find a way out, and for the time being, he had nothing to say.
The village accountant was surnamed Feng, and according to the generation, he had to be called Feng Yiping's younger brother-in-law. At this time, he came out to smooth things over, 'I came here today mainly to give you a heads-up, and I didn't say that I had to collect the money today. You have the note in your hand, so just let the adults know, and it's good to have a plan in mind.'
Feng Yiping really didn't care about the argument. He was completely captivated by the content of the slip. Nowadays, all payments are made by the accountant writing out a slip. A few years later, in order to supervise the collection of fees, there seems to be another little book called the 'Farmers' Burdens Supervision Table', which lists all the fees that need to be paid.
The first item on this list is the public grain allowance. His family has to pay more than 400 catties of public grain. The village no longer collects grain, but directly converts it into money. According to this year's unified purchase price, more than 20 cents a catty, which is nearly 120 yuan.
Next are the village's three reserves, including the provident fund, public welfare fund and management fees, as well as the township's five co-ordinations, including education surcharges, family planning, preferential treatment, militia training, road repairs and other public welfare undertakings.
Next, there are the ten labour contributions that every household has to make every year, which are also converted into money. In addition, there is a fee of 1.5 yuan per person, as well as slaughtering fees, etc. On average, each person pays more than 60 yuan. Feng Yiping's family of four adds up to more than 260 yuan, which is definitely not a small sum at the current income level.
This is a proper noun, and it should be levied to solve the housing problem for urban workers, so why do farmers have to pay it?
There is also the public welfare fund. As far as he can remember, the village has never distributed any welfare.
There is also the education surcharge and road repairs. The township hasn't repaired any roads for many years, and there have been no new schools either. What have they done with all the money? There is also militia training. When have they had militia training in all these years?
And there is the slaughtering fee. Every time a pig is slaughtered, don't they have to pay 5 yuan? Why is this fee collected again?
After reading it, he asked these questions right in front of everyone. He was just a child, so he spoke plainly, and it was not easy for adults to argue with him, right?
After listening to him, the secretary still didn't say anything, and the accountant said vaguely that he didn't understand. The women's director said, 'Little brother, keep the note. We'll leave first today, we still have to go to other households!'
After the village cadres left, Feng Weidong asked him to go to his house for lunch. Feng Yiping carefully folded the note, put it in his household register and put it away carefully.
He decided that this note must be kept well, it would be a cultural relic in the future.
Compared with people living in towns, the majority of rural people now really feel like stepchildren. The biggest thing the state has done for us is to give each household a piece of land. No, not a piece of land, just the right to farm a piece of land for a certain number of years.
Contract farmers of course have to pay taxes to the state, and the various taxes set by the state should definitely be relatively low, but in a place as isolated and impoverished as Feng Yiping's, the taxes are passed down from level to level, and the amount the farmers pay each year is at least 30% of their total income.
Add in the costs of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, hiring people to help with the rice planting and harvesting, and various other expenses, and the farmer's own labour costs are not included. After working hard for more than 300 days a year, the farmer is definitely losing money.
At the end of the year, the farmer will only have a few hundred catties of grain left, barely enough to feed himself.
But what can he do? What other options does the farmer have? What else can he do if he doesn't farm? He doesn't want to think about the future, because there are very few opportunities for him to find work.
It seems that at the beginning of the next century, finally a grassroots cadre, the secretary of a township, a big shot for farmers, bluntly said, 'Farmers are really suffering, and the countryside is really poor.'
After that, the state began research, but it would be more than ten years before the agricultural tax was completely abolished.