Chapter 521 Heaven (asking for monthly pass at the end of the month)

Chapter 522 Paradise (please vote for me at the end of the month)

At night, the city of Paris is illuminated by gas lights as bright as day, and there is an endless stream of pedestrians on the street, which is even busier than during the day - many workers don't get off work until 8 p.m. Only then could they finally take a breath, go out to buy some daily necessities, and walk around to relax their tired bodies after a busy day.

The dilapidated shack area outside Antoine Town was still dark, with only the occasional scream or curse indicating that there were still people living here.

However, this is already a relatively decent area in the suburbs of Paris. After all, it is not far from the town of Antoine, which is full of workshops. It is not difficult for people living here to find some jobs in the town. Although the income is not high, it is barely enough. I can fill my stomach.

At this time, in a hut made of broken wooden boards, a woman in her forties, with her head wrapped in a gray-white cloth handkerchief and a long gray linen dress that had been patched countless times, was seen. I was scrubbing my clothes vigorously under the dim starlight coming from the window. Her hands were rough and swollen, and there was a layer of dead skin on her lips. She looked like the kind of low-class woman who worked all day long but only had enough food and clothing.

"Domi, go hang it up to dry. Remember not to get too close to Frank's clothes, or his wife will take them away again."

She picked up a black dress-style jacket from the basin and handed it to a teenage boy beside her. Then she put her red and swollen fingers into her mouth, letting the temperature of her mouth slightly soothe the severe pain there.

She looked at the figure on the bed next to her, hesitated for a moment, pulled out her finger and said, "Paul, have you heard? The government said that you can go to the tax bureau to appeal for unreasonable taxes..."

The man on the bed wanted to turn over and face her, but he was too tired to move a finger. He only responded vaguely: "Well, I heard Mr. Pierre mention it during the day."

The woman got up and walked towards the bed with some excitement. Suddenly she felt something soft stepped on her feet. The dark room immediately screamed "squeak", and a mouse swooped out of the window.

The woman was so frightened that she staggered, knocking over the wooden bucket and basin for washing, and the cold water immediately poured into her shoes.

"Oh, God..."

She fumbled with her hands to lift the bucket up, and found that there was not much water left in it. She immediately murmured in a crying tone: "It's over, it's all over. Now I'm afraid I won't be able to finish washing these clothes tonight... …”

If she failed to deliver the laundry on time, she would be deducted 5 sous. This meant that two children would have no breakfast tomorrow morning, or that she and all the children would have only half the usual bread.

The man on the bed heard the noise, struggled to get up, raised his hand to touch the dining table, and after confirming the location, he hurriedly walked over to support his wife, stroked her back and comforted her: "It's okay, honey, we'll go to Tiny immediately. There should be enough time to draw water from the river."

He touched the barrel, lifted it up with all his strength, turned to the boy outside the house and shouted loudly: "Domi, take care of your brothers, your mother and I will be back soon!"

"knew."

After a while, four little boys ranging from 4 to 10 years old leaned on the creaking door frame and watched their parents disappear into the night.

Mrs. Leonor held the big wooden basin and followed her husband, timidly whispering: "I'm really sorry, Paul... This won't affect your work tomorrow, will it?"

The man shook his head silently. Without these three hours of sleep, it would be difficult for him to regain his strength tomorrow, but in order not to worry his wife, he didn't want to say anything.

The worst thing is to take the initiative to "go into the pit" tomorrow, so that you can transport soil less often. Although it was not the day for him to "go to the pit" yet, it was better to suffer from nausea and vomiting for a few days than to have his wages deducted.

The two of them walked like this in the night for a while. Mrs. Leonor remembered the previous topic again and said to the figure beside her: "Paul, maybe we can try to go to the tax bureau. Those receipts and penalty documents from that year I'll keep them all, if I can..."

Leonor sighed and said tiredly: "It's useless. Those are all methods used by bureaucrats to show their political achievements. Mr. Poca paid the king a tax package, how could the master of the tax bureau offend him?"

After another silence, the woman looked up at the starry sky and said slowly: "The child's father, do you still remember our old Sophie?"

Sophie is the old horse in his family. Of course, that was 5 years ago.

"That year, it kept farting, refused to eat, and was so weak that it could hardly stand up. You said you could just sell it to the butcher, but I refused to let you sell it. Later, I held it and fed it for half a month. Oats, I didn’t expect it to recover! The next year, with its help, we harvested 270 bushels of wheat! Do you remember that we danced around the drying field, and I was still pregnant with John... "

Leonor muttered: "Why are you bringing this up?"

"That was the happiest time in my life!" The woman excitedly raised the wooden basin high, just like she had raised her eldest son Domi to dance on the village field, but there were tears in her eyes, "We Just go and try. Boca shouldn't have taken our land, and poor old Sophie. If we can get this back, we can go back to the village...

"Even if the gentlemen from the tax bureau really don't care, we won't be worse off than we are now, don't you think?"

Leonor sighed softly: "But that will delay at least a whole day. When I passed by Coles Street, I saw that the tax office was already surrounded. Maybe one day of queuing is not enough.

"You know, if I miss a day's work, we'll have no bread. And maybe a day's penalty, and we'll..."

"It doesn't matter! I can pick up 10 more clothes from tomorrow. It only takes half a month to save enough bread for a day. Please, just go and try it!"

Leonor stopped, turned around, took his wife's hand, gently stroked the redness and swelling, and carefully avoided two ulcers.

"Look at your hands. You need rest, not more clothes."

She took over the job of making rattan baskets during the day, and often pricked her fingers on the bamboo strips. After dark, she had to work as a laundry worker, soaking the injured hand in ice water, causing the wound to swell and ulcerate repeatedly.

Leonor knew that she had lost feeling in the little finger and ring finger of her left hand, and Father Hugo of the diocese said it was best to amputate them, otherwise the entire arm would eventually be broken.

But they simply don't have the money to do the surgery.

Not to mention the surgery fee, even if a doctor offered to amputate her leg for free, she would not dare to accept it. Because they can't do anything for at least a month after the operation, and with only Leonor's meager salary, their child will probably starve to death.

"No! I'd rather let them all rot!"

Madame Leonore suddenly withdrew her hand and shouted: "One day, two days at most, maybe we can get our land back!

“You don’t have to push that damn earth truck anymore, and you stay away from those poisonous things!

"I heard from Mrs. Frank that if you come into contact with that thing too much, you might go blind. A distant relative of hers was like that."

"Please, at most we can eat Mr. Maxence's bread for a while. But if we can do it, we will return to heaven again!"

Maxence is the most unscrupulous baker in Antoine Town. His bread is at least half filled with sawdust, sometimes even mixed with dirt. But there is also one advantage, that is, the price of every 4 pounds of bread is 1 sou cheaper than elsewhere.

Heaven?

Leonor was stunned for a moment.

He used to be a farmer and didn't know any crafts. After the land was transferred to Polka, he could only come to Paris and do some of the cheapest jobs that no one wanted to do.

Now, for example, he works for a dye factory. Specifically, a kind of soil containing some "alkaline substance" was transported back to the factory by cart from a place seven or eight miles away, and then poured into the large pool and mixed with the highly toxic liquid.

It is said that the soil can reduce the toxicity in the water. Everything else about this job is pretty good, except that every ten days I have to go down to the bottom of the pond and use a shovel to stir up the poured soil. At that time, you will be very close to the toxic liquid, and you will definitely feel dizzy after a day's work, and your eyes and lungs will hurt like fire...

In comparison, I used to go to my own land every morning to dig up the soil, water it, and return at dusk. Although I was so tired that my whole body ached, and there was not much food left after paying the tax every year, the whole family always had a stutter. My wife My hands and eyes are still intact, it's really like heaven.

He found that he had almost forgotten his life at that time.

I am almost collapsed under the pressure of more than 14 hours of heavy work every day, and my only energy is on that small piece of bread. How can I think about anything else?

His wife was still telling the story: "Domi is 10 years old and can't read yet." Father Hugo said that Mark can already attend church literacy classes, but now they have to clean chimneys every day.

“If they are illiterate, they will never be able to find higher-paying jobs in the future...

"By the way, I heard from Mr. Faustin from the laundry that the order for the tax bureau to review the tax accounts this time was issued by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Maybe those bureaucrats don't dare..."

Leonor's cloudy eyes suddenly flashed with light.

He clearly remembered that when he first moved to Paris, gangs were rampant and there were more thieves than mosquitoes in summer. He had to go home with about ten coworkers every day.

Later, it was the Crown Prince who launched a massive police reform. He watched with his own eyes as the majestic police officers shouted "In the name of the Crown Prince" and drove groups of gang members into dead ends with guns, and then tied them all up. Walk.

Since then, their living environment has become much safer. The current situation of going out to collect water after 10 o'clock in the evening would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

There is also the magic medicine that can cure almost all diseases - the crown prince's blessing. You can actually buy it for just a few sous. Other medicines prescribed by doctors in the town cost more than 1 franc. Many of his and his neighbor's children saved their lives because of this medicine, especially if they had a fever, they could be cured quickly after taking a few pills.

Leonor then recalled the spectacular scene of His Royal Highness the Dauphin marching through Paris with his triumphant army at the beginning of the year. At that time, His Highness was like a god of war with golden light all over his body.

Perhaps those bureaucrats should not dare to ignore the instructions of the God of War.

Thinking of this, he instantly made up his mind and nodded to his wife: "My dear, let's try it."

…

Paris.

Coles Street.

Leonor sat on the ground tiredly, his stomach growling constantly. Queuing does not require physical exertion, so he only brought half a pound of bread as his daily ration.

Just then, a shout came from the front: "Next one."

"It's your turn," someone reminded Leonor.

He suddenly became excited, stood up, and walked towards the row of tables in front of the General Taxation Bureau.

A young record-keeper looked up at him and asked, "What is your name, and what do you want to complain about?"

"I...I am Paul Geshien Leonor. I...I think Mr. Poca, the tax collector, said that I owed taxes five years ago..."

Leonor swallowed nervously and plucked up the courage to say: "They fined me money. I want to ask if this is unreasonable..."

The recorder of the tax bureau took a few documents from his hand and nodded politely: "Can you tell me the specific situation?"

Leonor recalled what Mr. Pierre, the factory steward, had helped him sort out, and took a deep breath and said: "The spring that year was a bit cold. You know, that would slow down the growth of wheat.

"Sure enough, the wheat had just begun to ear in May. As a result, Mr. Poca suddenly sent someone to inform the village that this year's taxes had to be paid in advance, to mid-June.

"In previous years, the harvest would have started in mid-June. But that year the wheat didn't mature until July.

"The tax collector came to my house three times to collect taxes and even beat me. But the wheat hadn't been harvested yet, so I had nothing to give him. So, he said I seriously owed taxes and imposed a fine of twice the tax..."

Leonor's voice was choked, his lips trembled, and he tried his best to speak: "At that time, in order to increase the spring planting, I borrowed 30 livres from Mr. Pocahontas at a high interest rate.

"I did the math. Even if I sell all the harvest in the field, I won't be able to pay the tax after paying him back..."

He sighed heavily again: "The tax collector tied me to a tree at the entrance of the village for two days and two nights. My wife was pregnant at the time, but she was so frightened that she had a miscarriage...

"Oh God! I really had no choice but to mortgage all the land and livestock to Mr. Poca. In the end, I still owed him 15 livres, which was not fully paid off until the year before last."

Leonor looked at the recorder with red eyes: "Sir, you know that in the past, taxes were paid at the end of July. If there was no sudden early taxation that year, I would not be fined and I would be able to pay. That money. I asked Mr. Pierre from the factory and he said that Mr. Poca cannot change the tax collection period at will..."

The young note-taker frowned and wrote down everything he said. He asked some questions carefully and finally handed him a notice: "You can go back first. As soon as we find out the results, we will send someone to contact you immediately." of."

"Oh, oh. Thank you, sir!" Leonor nodded repeatedly and walked toward Antoine Town against the setting sun. Behind him, there were hundreds of people in similar situations, still queuing up in an extremely long line.

Three days later, a tax official came to Leonor's house with two assistants.

…

Second floor of the Tuileries Palace.

Goldmead looked like he was asking for credit and said to Joseph: "Your Highness, in addition to preparing the caravan to stop trading, they will also try to interrupt the normal flow of goods in and out of Marseille Port.

"I inquired about Pelleier privately, and it seems that they are going to spend a sum of money to instruct all the port stewards and workers to go on strike and go home."

Joseph's face immediately turned cold.

These guys really don't know how to live or die.