The actual complexity of the situation in Bao'an County is much more complicated than what outside rumors say.

One-third of the tax revenue of Guangzhou Prefecture comes from Baoan County.

The reason why Baoan County is so chaotic is also related to this.

In fact, almost everyone with some influence in Guangdong has their own agent in Bao'an County.

The four major families rumored by the outside world are far from being as powerful as the rumors.

Baoan County has three pillar industries. The first one is the salt farm, but the salt farm is its own system. The county government has nothing to do except pick up some soup and water.

Next is Wanxiang. The main production areas of Wanxiang are in Wancheng and Hong Kong, and these two places are almost outside the control of Baoan County Government.

The third pillar is shipping tax. Baoan has a large number of ports and many merchant ships pass by, which brings a huge amount of shipping tax revenue.

Over the years, Li Jingshan has been carefully balancing the forces of all parties and controlling the tax revenue of these three major industries as firmly as Mount Tai.

This is the secret why he has been able to establish himself as a government official in Baoan County for thirty years. In fact, the incidents that occurred in the previous magistrates had little to do with him.

Everything happened to them for their own reasons. They just offended people who shouldn't be offended.

And their backstage is not strong enough. If there is no backstage in Baoan, wouldn’t it be a joke?

To be honest, Li Jingshan actually hopes that Bao'an County will have a strong magistrate to rectify it.

In recent years, those forces have become more and more outrageous, making the situation in the county worse and worse.

Although everyone is still in harmony on the surface, secretly they are fighting fiercely.

The rise of many evil forces in Baoan County in recent years is related to this.

After Hou Yao took office, Li Jingshan actually had some hopes. After all, he had the aura of Jinke Jieyuan.

It is also rumored that he is favored by Lord Lin Lihui, the ‘Military God’ of Great Xia. Such a person cannot be mediocre.

As the actual controller of the yamen forces, he was actually ready to transfer part of his power to Xinzhi County.

The county magistrates have changed too quickly in recent years, which has put Bao'an County in the spotlight.

If Baoan County's tax revenue had never been in short supply and was increasing year by year, he would have come to an end as chief bookkeeper long ago.

There are rumors in the outside world that he is the person in charge of Baoan County, but his family knows about his family affairs, and he has no control over it.

If he can't even control his own life, what else can he control?

After more than ten days in office, Hou Yao had no intention of intervening in any affairs of the yamen.

How it was before, it is still how it is now, as if he is a transparent person.

No matter who came to him to report something, they all responded with the same sentence:

How were things like this handled in the past? Then handle it the way it was before.

Hou Yao's rogue behavior completely deceived Li Jingshan.

I originally planned to slowly release some of the stress so that I could relax a little bit.

But I didn’t expect that Hou Yao wouldn’t accept the move at all.

Li Jingshan sat in the public room, stroking his forehead, thinking about what Hou Yao wanted to do.

Suddenly he saw Hou Yao pushing the door open and walking in. This was the first time Hou Yao took the initiative to come to him after taking office.

Li Jingshan hurriedly stood up to greet him. At the same time, he was also curious about what would happen if Hou Yao came to see him:

"Sir, why are you here? If you have something to do, just ask someone to inform me. Why can I bother you to make this trip yourself?"

Hou Yao waved his hand to indicate that he didn't need to be polite:

"It's okay, it's okay, I have nothing to do anyway, so I came over. There is such a thing.

Someone came to me and said that he wanted to set up a kiln factory in Bao'an County and asked me what procedures I should go through.

I haven’t just arrived, and I don’t know much about it, so I came here to ask you and learn a bit.”

Li Jingshan's heart skipped a beat. He didn't know whether Hou Yao's words "I'm free" meant something, or whether he meant it unintentionally.

However, Hou Yao did not call himself ‘my official’ just now, but used ‘I’, which is intriguing.

Calling yourself an official representative is a matter of official business, but calling yourself myself means more. What does it mean?

"Sir, if it's a private kiln, there won't be any troublesome procedures. Once the kiln is built, just send someone to set the tax.

If you want to enter an official kiln, it will be more troublesome. You must first evaluate the grade of the kiln porcelain. This must be sent to the Miscellaneous Manufacturing Bureau in Fucheng for appraisal.

Only if the appraisal result is above Grade A can you be eligible to apply to become an official kiln. Once the application is submitted for approval, the yamen will send someone to the kiln factory to determine the tax."

Hou Yao nodded in understanding, and then asked:

"Then I understand. By the way, the man also asked some of his homeless men if his kiln factory was built.

Can you help these guys apply for household registration in our county?"

A trace of surprise flashed across Li Jingshan's face, but he recovered in an instant and said:

"Sir, applying for household registration is easy, but it is very troublesome to not be able to pay taxes after applying for household registration.

It will also have a great impact on the evaluation of our yamen. The refugees' family property is not rich and there is no deduction, so they should act with caution."

When Hou Yao heard that it was easy to apply for household registration, his heart suddenly dropped:

"Okay, as long as I can apply for household registration, that's fine. I won't bother you anymore. You can go about your business first."

After saying that, he turned to leave.

Li Jingshan quickly stepped forward and said:

"Sir, I have something important to report to you, then..."

Hou Yao interrupted:

"Master Li, no matter what happens, I believe you are capable of handling it properly. There is no need to make a special trip to report it to me. Okay, I have other important matters, so I'll take my leave."

After saying that, he walked away quickly without looking back, as if there was some savage beast behind him.

Li Jingshan looked at Hou Yao's leaving figure, recalling the scenes of the conversation just now in his mind, and felt extremely anxious.

What on earth is this Hou Yao going to do?

If he hadn't just asked about the household registration for the refugees, he might have regarded him as a timid little white flower.

There are three major taxes in Daxia: land tax first; head tax second; and finally commercial taxes and miscellaneous taxes of various names.

The reason why counties do not register household registration for homeless people is because they are afraid that the capitation tax will not come up.

The head tax has always been an important indicator for each county's assessment, but it is also the most difficult tax to collect.

Conflicts over the poll tax are common every year, and even deaths occur from time to time.

Anyone who is registered must pay a poll tax, which is also the main reason why Daxia has a large number of refugees today.

When refugees evade taxes, they are evading the poll tax.

The most difficult question when becoming a parent official anywhere is always how to raise the poll tax.

It cannot be said that there are no counties that can actually collect the poll tax, but they are definitely very few.

In fact, a large part of the head tax every year is filled by money collected by the local government through other channels.

Among them, the head tax that fills the most is the head tax of the people who work in the yamen, not only them, but also their families.

If the government does not pay for the head tax on these people, almost none of them will be left.

This is also the main reason why the wages of government servants are extremely low, but they can still support the family.

After registering the household registration for the refugees, a head tax must be collected from them every year. If they cannot pay it, the government must pay for it.

This was a huge stake, and Li Jingshan never believed that Hou Yao would not be able to figure out the stakes.

But since you knew it and knowingly committed the crime, where did you get the confidence to be so bold?

Li Jingshan shook his head slightly and couldn't understand. He really couldn't understand that this new magistrate actually made him feel overwhelmed.

…

Hou Yao returned to the official residence excitedly, holding Yu Xiuer's hand and spinning around happily:

"Madam, it's done. The man named Li said that as long as you can pay the poll tax, it will be easy to apply for household registration.

Let's go and find Lao Xiong. They will ask him to come to the Yamen tomorrow to report. They will recruit some people locally first, and then slowly bring our people over.

As long as we have household registration, we can develop our own power openly."

Yu Xiuer nodded, with a complicated expression on her face:

"Well, sir, let's go find Master Xiong first."

Hou Yao changed into his regular clothes and took Yu Xiuer and Zhou Tiesheng out of the east gate of Nantou City.

There is a large sand river east of Nantou City.

Eight days ago, Xiong Yushi took a few experienced men ashore and landed outside Nantou City.

After contacting Zhou Tiesheng, everyone has been looking around for a suitable location to build a kiln these days.
To be continued...