Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 730: One More Commercial Tax

Hua Lei also stated in advance that if anyone is willing to work at the government office during the New Year to maintain order in the competition, the government office will give them an additional hard work fee of one and a half times their usual salary.

Soon, almost everyone in the government office signed up for duty. It was great to receive one and a half times the hard work pay during the New Year.

After the notice was posted, Hualei asked Qingqi to take out 240 kilograms of corn seeds from his warehouse and send them to the gift room, asking them to pack them in bags in preparation for the competition.

It was originally just a folk mud cannon throwing competition, but because of Hua Lei's participation, it attracted the participation of local wealthy businessmen in the city, and became unprecedentedly lively and grand.

Wan Tongpan led his men to set up several competition venues in suitable places around the government office. The prizes for each competition venue were different.

However, the competition venue where Hualei used corn seeds as prizes was set up directly in the open space in front of the government office.

So, on the day of the New Year's Eve, at the middle of the morning, the competition started in full swing. Because it was originally a folk activity, Hualei did not participate much except for taking out corn seeds.

After all, he is an official now, and if he shows up rashly, many people will feel uncomfortable.

So, on this day, Hua Lei just wore casual clothes, took her two children, and mingled with Rong Jin in the crowd to visit various competition venues.

Because they had to eat the New Year's Eve dinner, the competition on New Year's Eve ended at the end of the afternoon. After the top three winners of each venue received their prizes and went home, many onlookers gathered at the registration office.

Originally, these people were skeptical about the prizes, but after seeing a few winners actually getting prizes such as corn seeds, flour and even silver ingots, their doubts disappeared in an instant.

I immediately signed up for the competitions in the next few days. Therefore, the competition that was originally scheduled to end at the end of 3 p.m. was delayed for another hour.

Holding the child's hand, Hua Lei walked slowly on the street. People were coming and going around her. Many of them still had mud stains on their bodies, but they had happy smiles on their faces.

Looking at these people, Hualei was also sincerely happy. The family returned to the house, took a short rest, and then sat around the table to eat the reunion dinner.

After dinner, Hua Lei distributed red envelopes to the children. She also distributed them to everyone in the house, and then the family sat together to keep watch.

Hua Lei sat in front of the window, looking at the night sky outside, her mind flying. Outside, the sounds of mud cannons, some far away, some near, some soft, some loud, came in intermittently.

Along with it, there are also children's laughter and screams. Many people are setting off clay cannons in their homes after eating the New Year's Eve dinner. Among them, many people are practicing for tomorrow's clay cannon throwing competition.

There are no colorful neon lights or colorful fireworks here, and many people are still not well fed. However, just three pounds of seeds and five pounds of brown rice make them full of hope and run for it happily.

Their wish is really ordinary, just to have enough to eat. They hope that next year, there will be a better harvest and more productive food to meet their ordinary wish.

It was not until after midnight that Hua Lei and Rong Jin sent the sleeping child back to the room, and both of them went to bed to rest.

It was just that the sound of mud cannons from time to time disturbed people's sleep, but also made people full of hope. In the next few days, every competition venue was bustling with competitions.

Many small vendors carrying loads on their shoulders were also wandering around the venues, earning a lot of money. Many shops that had been closed were temporarily opened.

Sisters Qingqiu and Qingxia also opened a shop on the second day of the Chinese New Year. Although many things in the shop are not cheap, the business is surprisingly good due to the large flow of people.

The soap business was especially good, with sales of toothbrushes, toothpaste, mosquito coils and mosquito coils also improving. In just half a month, sales had reached the normal three-month level.

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Hualei and Rongjin took Jinnian and Jinshi out to watch the game. The two children had been staying at home for a few days and it was really hard for them not to go out for some fresh air.

Moreover, according to the report from Wan Tongpan and his subordinate officials, many people from the state capital came in droves to participate in the mud cannon throwing activity. This was something Hua Lei had not expected.

I had originally thought that the number of participants would decrease as the competition progressed, but this did not happen. Instead, the number increased.

So, Hualei took prompt action and took out 100 kilograms of corn as the prize for the competition, and then divided the competition into morning and afternoon sessions.

In this way, more people will get the corn seeds, and she also hopes that the corn seeds can be promoted to ordinary people in the state capital as soon as possible for planting.

Therefore, more people participated in the competition, and the task of maintaining order became more and more difficult in the past few days. In order to prevent stampedes, Hualei temporarily found Bao Qianhu and asked him to bring people to help maintain order.

Yesterday, Captain Bao and several hundred Anbang soldiers had already entered the city, so Hua Lei needed to go and check the order on the scene.

Having the guards hold the child, Hua Lei and Rong Jin put on casual clothes and walked around several competition venues. They found that the situation was not too bad.

The competition venue was indeed packed with people, but because there were enough people to maintain order, order was maintained and no vicious incidents occurred.

The streets of the city were bustling as never before, and many restaurants and inns were packed with guests.

Many wealthy merchants from the prefectures under Xichang Prefecture also brought their families to join in the fun. Many people also started temporary small businesses.

Hualei looked very satisfied. It seemed that after the mud cannon throwing competition was over, the government office would receive a considerable amount of commercial tax.

During the Great Sheng Dynasty, the tax rate for merchants was very high. They would first pay a fixed commercial tax in advance, and then pay another 20% of the commercial tax based on actual sales.

The more money a merchant makes, the more business taxes the government receives. This mud cannon-throwing competition actually attracted merchants and people from the state capital below, which was a complete surprise.

Before she knew it, Hualei had returned to the open space in front of the government office, where a mud cannon-throwing competition with corn seeds as prizes was being held.

Hua Lei and Rong Jin stood among the onlookers and looked towards the center of the field. There were several long lines of people waiting for the competition, winding around half of the field.

However, in the team waiting for the competition, Hua Lei unexpectedly saw several people wearing the uniforms of the Western Xinjiang military camp.