The women from the two villages banded together spontaneously and rushed out like shrews to drive away anyone from the Yamen whenever they entered the village.
Ye Si and the bailiffs, being from the Yamen themselves, certainly couldnāt go around fighting with the women. If word of this got out, it would make them, the men, look unreasonable.
Especially since these women were so terrifying. Before the Yamen staff could even get close, without their hands having reached out, they would start screaming about being taken advantage of.
It started with the men of the village taking the lead, but now it had completely changed to the women stepping forward.
It was like this when Ye Si came, and it was the same when Ye Ziāan himself came. What was even more laughable were the girls from the village who were deliberately charging towards Ye Ziāan and Ye Si, the Principal Clerk.
If they hadnāt dodged quickly, they might have been forced into playing out a scene where they had to take responsibility.
In light of this, it became inconvenient for them to show up in person. The village men were shying away, and asking them to confront the women was like Cultivated Talent facing soldiers ā there was just no way.
"Is their goal really just to avoid paying taxes?" Yang Chuxia asked after hearing this.
"I think it must be." He couldnāt think of any other reason why they would do this.
"How was the harvest for these two villages this year?"
Ye Er replied, "My lady, Mianyang mostly grows late-season rice. We start transplanting after the rainy season, stretching into late July. Unaffected by the rains and with plentiful sunshine, without locusts or insect disasters, the harvest was naturally good. And itās even better than the early-season rice grown in other places."
"Thatās strange. If the harvest had been poor, I could somewhat understand their reluctance to pay taxes. But the tax is something that hasnāt changed for many years, and their harvest wasnāt bad. If they didnāt want to pay taxes, why didnāt they make a fuss last year, the year before, or earlier? Why make trouble just now?"
This was what Yang Chuxia couldnāt understand, and Ye Ziāan couldnāt understand either.
"However, this incident happened when dealing with someone like Ye Si and your son. If we had a different County Magistrate, he wouldnāt care if the other party was a woman or not. He would just arrest them all the same, as many as there were. Once the women are all locked up, those men hiding behind them would have to come forward."
Ye Er chuckled, "My lady, you donāt know how fearless these people are about being arrested. Especially those village girls who are terrifyingly bold, charging at men on purpose. If thereās a collision, the Cultivated Talent and Ye Si would have to take responsibility. If they didnāt, and the girls made a scene as if it were a matter of life and death, the matter would spiral out of control. Thatās why Ye Si and your son have to stay away from these people, and that is exactly why Ye Si had me sneak back to ask for your help."
"Ye Si asked you to come? Not the Cultivated Talent?" Yang Chuxia was surprised; she had thought it was Ye Ziāan who had sent for her.
"Hehe, please donāt be angry, my lady; Ye Si did this without the Cultivated Talentās knowledge."
Yang Chuxia originally wanted to say something more, but thinking it over, she felt it pointless to say anything further now that she was here.
"How much farther is it to those two villages?"
"Still about two hours away, I guess."
"Thatās quite far." She thought for a moment, then asked, "Are there any other villages near those two?"
"There are." Not knowing what she was getting at, Ye Er nevertheless replied, "Shoutao Village is nearby."
Upon hearing this, Yang Chuxia nodded her head.
"Where is the Cultivated Talent now?"
Ye Er shrank back and said, "The Cultivated Talent is with Ye Si. Iāll have to ask for your help later, my lady, to speak to the Cultivated Talent for me. Otherwise, if he finds out I sneaked back to find you, he will have my hide."