Even though she was thinking these things in her heart, her expression showed a face of tears of joy and she said: "Fourth Uncle, you treat me so well." "Our Lici is still very well-behaved. As long as you work hard, Fourth Uncle will have other rewards for you," Wang Shouzhe said with a smile, gently rubbing her head, "Like those tasty little dried fish." Hmph! Even if I, Wang Lici, am just a girl, a girl still has dignity. Don’t think that some little dried fish can buy me off... But when the words reached her mouth, they turned into bright eyes and watering lips as she said, "Fourth Uncle, Fourth Uncle, how much is the reward?" "The sea treasures snacks brought back this trip are for you to handle," Wang Shouzhe said generously. "Wuwuwu~ Fourth Uncle, you are so good to me." Wang Lici was so excited that tears started flowing, looking tearfully at Wang Shouzhe, feeling she shouldn’t have muttered slander against Fourth Uncle in her heart, nor should she have hit him so hard that his face was covered in flowers. Where could she find such a good Fourth Uncle? "Hmm, Fourth Uncle believes you can handle it well, you must distribute them fairly to everyone," Wang Shouzhe added, "These snacks, everyone in our family under twenty gets a share. You’ve learned Nine Chapters of Mathematics and bookkeeping, right? Remember who received them, everyone has to sign their name on the account book." She even has to deliver these precious snacks to each household with her own hands, how cruel, how ruthless! Fourth Uncle, you’ve gone too far, I’m going to fight with you... Unfortunately, after Wang Shouzhe gave his instructions, he had already disappeared in front of her. Leaving the girl holding a few books, lost in the wind. Wang Shouzhe returned to his own courtyard, without handling any affairs, and took a short rest. This time, going back and forth to Hundred Islands Guard, both his body and spirit were somewhat fatigued. Fortunately, the danger has passed. As long as Ancestor Longyan’s health improves, Ping’an Wang Family will truly have a foundation to stand on. A night passed without words. The next day, Wang Shouzhe met with his elder aunt Gongsun Hui for reporting and inventory. In short, the large family cannot have chaotic accounts, or else various undesirable problems will arise. All these surprising matters and harvests, Gongsun Hui was shocked while doing accounts. Why does Shouzhe always bring unexpected surprises with him every time he returns? "Aunt, I should be unchallenged in the first sequence," Wang Shouzhe said with a smile, "In terms of resources, I’m prepared to be a bit extravagant. Monthly spiritual food supply should be double what it was before, Minor Primordial Cultivation Pill increased from 1 to 3 per month, and each month I also need 1 Peiyuan Pill, as well as temporarily using a piece of Spirit Stone." This way, in terms of resource consumption, Wang Shouzhe has reached an extremely extravagant level. Just spiritual rice every month is fifteen catties, spiritual fish and spiritual flesh each fifteen catties. Plus elixirs and other consumables, not counting the Spirit Stones, the cultivation resources for a year will be as high as eight to nine hundred Qian Gold. Normally, after advancing to the seventh layer of the Qi Refining Realm, the annual cultivation resource budget is at most a little over two hundred Qian Gold, now it’s directly more than four times upwards! Four to five times the resources won’t make Wang Shouzhe’s cultivation speed reach four to five times. There is a principle of diminishing marginal returns here, at most it can be faster than before by more than a double, adding Spirit Stones can make it a little faster, definitely not reaching three times faster than before. In ordinary Black Tortoise families, even when nurturing the legitimate son of the first sequence aiming for the Spirit Platform Realm, it would never be so extravagant. Such a request even made Gongsun Hui widen her eyes in surprise: "In theory, with your merits, applying for so many cultivation resources is reasonable. I’m just afraid those clan elders who are used to frugality might have some opinions. But it’s not a big deal, with Ancestor Longyan backing you, no one will gossip." The family is everyone’s family, not just his, Wang Shouzhe, alone. Other family elders naturally have the right to express their opinions. However, Wang Shouzhe does not care. With his abilities, this family will gradually enter a transformation phase. Besides, if we start implementing a contribution system, in terms of contributions, Ancestor Longyan is first, and he is second. Even, he believes that his future contributions will exceed that of Ancestor Longyan. Taking so many resources is not because he is selfish, but rather he truly doesn’t want to wait until middle age before having a chance to impact Spirit Platform. The most crucial is, this mystical world is too dangerous, with his current cultivation running around recklessly, sooner or later, there will be issues. Therefore, it’s still safer to hide within the family, speeding up the cultivation progress to Spirit Platform Realm to have some self-preservation ability. Once this matter was settled, Wang Shouzhe asked again: "Aunt, how is the insect disaster situation?" He was gone from Changning Guard for ten days, so is behind in intelligence. The situation at Hundred Islands Guard is different; the cultivated land there is very little, possibly due to geographical isolation, they have not suffered from the disaster. However, the imminent grain shortage is inevitable. Even Hundred Islands Guard will be impacted by the shortage. "The situation is very bad." Gongsun Hui said with a serious expression, "Aside from a limited number of families, most families have suffered some level of reduced grain production. But the most severely affected are the free cultivators within the family territories of each town and clan. They have very poor disaster resistance, generally reducing production by around seventy percent." Wang Shouzhe furrowed his brows slightly: "A seventy percent reduction is indeed a heavy loss, but with stored grains plus new grains, it should not be difficult for free cultivators to last until the next rice season matures, right? Not likely to be worse off than tenant farmers?" "You might not be aware of this," Gongsun Hui explained, "Let me first talk about tenant farmers, tenant farmer families range from one to six or seven people. We will calculate by taking a common tenant farmer with a household of three, two labor forces, they ought to be able to cultivate twenty acres of land, with the normal year’s rice and wheat total value around 600 Large Coppers. With insecticide powder requiring about 40 Large Coppers, oxen, farm tools, and grain seeds depreciation about 20 Large Coppers, the noble family’s own good fields adopting the four-tax system per acre, including tax from the town, guard, county, and nation each 1 tax, twenty acres of good fields need 80 Large Coppers in taxes. Thus, approximately 460 Large Coppers remain, shared with the landlord under a three-to-seven split, meaning this tenant farmer household can obtain a benefit of 138 Large Coppers." "A household of three tenant farmers yearly sums up to slightly more than one Qian Gold, after deducting daily expenses, there isn’t much left," Wang Shouzhe touched his nose, slightly surprised internally. Previously also calculated field income, but didn’t carefully calculate tenant farmers’ earnings." "Tenant farmers’ risk resistance is stronger primarily because they have the backing of Black Tortoise clans above them," Gongsun Hui replied, "To stabilize tenant farmers’ operations, the landlords guarantee a minimum return, even if the yield is zero, there will still be a benefit of 60 Large Coppers, ensuring they continue farming with peace of mind." Of course, these benefits refer not purely to Qian Gold but rather to distributed materials and Qian Gold combined, generating a resultant account paper value. "In addition, tenants often raise a small number of chickens, ducks, geese, etc., and plant some fruits and vegetables around their houses, all supplied to our family throughout the year, yielding a net benefit of twenty to thirty Large Coppers," Gongsun Hui patiently explained, "During farming downtime, we organize tenant farmers for pioneering, river dredging, constructing houses, reinforcing river banks, etc., these also result in twenty Large Coppers. Hence, a regular tenant farmer household of three members can earn one hundred eighty to ninety Large Coppers yearly, even during disaster years, they can surpass a hundred Large Coppers." Wang Shouzhe nodded in acknowledgment; it seems tenant farmers’ lives remain quite stable, thanks to having the landlord’s protection, even tightening their belts during disaster years allows them to get by. Encountering a prosperous year, living frugally, could even save a sum of Large Coppers. "But free cultivators are different," Gongsun Hui stated, "Taking free cultivators with twenty acres, like the aforementioned tenant farmer households, if this season reduced production by seventy percent, this season will only generate a benefit of 90 Large Coppers, deducting 10 Large Coppers for oxen rental and seeds, investing 20 Large Coppers in insecticide powder, the tax follows a five-tax system, noble family, town, guard, county, nation each 1 tax, presently collecting summer tax, twenty acres require paying a tax of 50 Large Coppers. How much will they have left?" Previously mentioned, local Black Tortoise clans hold the duty of securing civilians and territories; when encountering bandits, fierce beasts, and adverse incidents, the clans must eliminate and handle, while also assisting the local Guardian’s Mansion in tax collection. Therefore, the good fields within the territorial range have noble clans extracting 1 tax. However, the Wang family’s territorial scope is small, aside from privately owned farms comprising about six hundred tenant farmers households, the territorial range consists of slightly over one thousand households, with managed civilian good fields totaling less than twenty thousand acres, the annually collected taxes combine to a hundred or so Qian Gold, with significant consumption, barely enough for survival. "Thus, those free cultivators are virtually equivalent to having no yield this season?" Wang Shouzhe slightly furrowed his brows and asked, "Is it still necessary to collect taxes under such circumstances?" "Tax is the nation’s foundation; town, guard, county, nation all rely on taxation for sustenance. Field tax is the largest tax category; without this part, various levels of institutions would struggle to sustain," Gongsun Hui explained, "Perhaps the national tax for Longzhou County will be waived this summer, but ultimately, a portion of households not well-managed will face considerable difficulties, and during such times, some Black Tortoise clans often commence strategies for land annexation." "Like Zhao Family and Liu Family, their disaster and losses this time are severe, their eyes seem red. Various signs indicate they intend to annex some land in chaos," Gongsun Hui sneered, "A wolf remains a wolf, even clad in a noble family’s skin, cannot escape its greedy nature."