Jiang Yan went out to the county office today to do some business. Unexpectedly, he saw a private salt dealer and was extremely angry.
He turned around and saw Fei Boren, the head of the express team, standing on the street corner not far away. He shouted: "Boss Fei! Come here and take down this private salt dealer!"
I didn't want to, but I saw Fei Boren lowering his head and leading the people through an alley as if he hadn't heard.
"Boss Fei..."
Jiang Yan was stunned and thought that Fei Boren had clearly seen him and walked away like this?
He became angry, pointed at the private salt dealer, and shouted: "Don't run away, wait here!"
With that said, he turned around and ran towards the county government office.
…
Tang Ergeng looked at Jiang Zhan's back and grinned.
He is not afraid. The reason why he came here to sell salt is that his family's inspection inspector Wu received news from the Qingfu County Lieutenant that he could sell salt in Qingfu.
Inspector Wu has already said that he should try to buy a few loads first, and if nothing happens, he should open another shop next to the official salt shop and sell salt blatantly.
"The last ten pounds! Who wants to buy it?"
"Brother, if you didn't bring any money today, will you come to sell it tomorrow?"
"Come on!" Tang Ergeng laughed loudly, raised his hand and pointed, saying: "Have you seen that shop? I will buy it in a few days and sell it there."
…
Yu Dechen saw this scene in his eyes, shook his head, and continued walking towards the county government office.
After walking for a while, he saw the middle-aged scholar rushing into the county government office angrily. Yu Dechen stopped and thought that it would be good for ordinary people to buy more cheap salt, so he stood there and waited, planning to kill all the government officials later.
Take a beating.
But after waiting for a long time, the man didn't come out again.
"It turns out that he has a strong mouth." Yu Dechen murmured.
He went around to the back of the county government office.
There were not many people in the alley, but I saw a girl wearing men's clothes walking out of the alley with two strong women.
Because this girl also wore a sword on her body, Yu Dechen couldn't help but take a closer look at her.
She is not pretty, with a square face and a flat nose. But her back is straight and she walks with a calm gait, giving her a faint air of brilliance.
After descending from Zhongnan Mountain, I saw a lot of shrunken people in the market, and their appearance made them stand out.
Yu Dechen remembered that Li Xia walked like this.
He took another closer look and saw that the girl's hair was tied back and swaying gently in the wind, looking quite cool.
The two passed by each other, and Yu Dechen circled around the county government office. He had almost completed his check-in, then walked back around and saw that the girl was talking to an old woman.
"You saved the old woman's house, so accept this basket of eggs. The old woman feels uneasy..."
"Okay then." The girl responded generously and said goodbye to the old woman. But she then said to the strong woman behind her: "I will send two kilograms of rice to her house in a minute."
"Sister, you might as well just give her the money."
"No, this is not how people behave..."
Yu Dechen walked past them again, thinking that these people's sophistication was really troublesome...
Han Qi'an took Yang Xiu, Zhang Daiyin, mother and son to Xuzhou, leaving only a few servants on Qingfu's side to look after Zhang Zhuo.
That afternoon, these servants stood in front of Li Xia with bruises and swollen faces...
"Beat by a Taoist priest?"
"Yes, the little people were chasing Zhang. A Taoist priest rushed out and started beating us."
Li Xia thought for a while and suddenly became suspicious of Yu Dechen.
"Go to the east camp to find Liu Jinsuo and Luhu, and ask them to bring thirty good soldiers."
"yes."
Someone said over there: "County Lieutenant, the landlord's secretary is here."
"You go down first and ask the landlord to come in."
…
Fang Yankai sat down opposite Li Xia and said slowly: "Someone in the county is selling smuggled salt. Does Li County Lieutenant know about it?"
"Is this happening?"
Fang Yankai looked at Li Xia's face and smiled bitterly: "You don't know how to act, so you don't have to pretend with me. Do you know that you ordered the government officials not to inspect this matter?"
"What is the landlord's book saying? The illegal salt must be audited."
"Stop pretending. Did you accept Wu Tong's benefits?"
"No, illegal salt must be investigated."
Fang Yankai's face became increasingly bitter and he said, "Feiyu, do you know how much effort I have put into investigating illegal salt sales in the past two years since I took office?"
"Yes, I would like to follow the example of the landlord."
"There is no one else here, how about you and I saying a few words from our hearts?"
"good."
"Did you know that 30% of the taxes in the Song Dynasty are salt taxes, and selling smuggled salt is a serious crime of decapitation..."
Li Xia interrupted: "Since the landlord knows that Wu Tong is selling salt, how about you and I report him together?"
Fang Yankai was stunned.
"Does the landlord refuse? Why?"
Fang Fangkai didn't answer, his expression was a little desolate.
Li Xia asked again: "Are you inspecting illegal salt for the sake of the Song Dynasty? Or for personal political achievements?"
"Since I took office, I have not only inspected illicit salt, but also opened up wasteland, hunted down theft, and worked hard to ensure the stability of people's livelihood and sufficient taxes. I am worthy of the court and the people. Even if I have a selfish desire for political achievements, I will not be ashamed.
Should it?"
"Yes. You are indeed worthy of the court and the people."
Fang Yankai didn't know why the topic ended up here again, so he asked: "Why don't you check the private relationship?"
"I never said I wouldn't investigate."
"you……"
"I will investigate illegal salt. Although the salt tax is turned over to the court, and there is corruption at every level, I don't know how many percent of it is actually implemented in the end. If it can be directly used to train a strong army, I wonder if it can protect Sichuan and Shu? They defeated the Mongolian army this year.
Will they not come next year?"
Fang Yankai closed his eyes and sighed.
"You all understand the truth. I don't need to say more." Li Xia said: "In addition, our three county officials know very well that once the court appoints us, County Magistrate Jiang and I will probably be promoted. I don't know if you can be promoted, but
I feel that you are in a lot of pain recently. Of course, it is impossible to belittle you by moving to the imperial court. People are afraid of comparisons.
The salt tax and promotion are all the same, and this is true even in the Song Dynasty. If you say, "If you don't correct the original, you will be destroyed, and if you don't correct the original, you will be in chaos," I don't intend to work in a framework that is almost rotten. What about you? From now on.
You should think clearly about how to do it...I'm not forcing you, if you want to be transferred, I can take care of it for you."
Fang Yankai said: "I understand... I understand... whether to follow the rules or not."
"Let the landlord choose to change or stay the same. If you change, you will succeed; if you don't change, you will die."
"Change leads to chaos."
"You consider..."
At night, Yu Deshen put on black clothes, covered his face, and lay on the eaves of the county government office.
He saw the girl he saw in the evening again, sitting in the courtyard talking to a child.
"That's weird, why didn't father scold you even after he came back?"
"Why is he scolding me?"
"You are deviant all day long and should be scolded."
"Father is afraid of me."
"Scared? Stop talking nonsense."
"Really, my father is afraid of Brother Li. The more I imitate him, the less my father dares to teach me a lesson. Don't you feel it?"
"Actually, I felt it. I also tried it and was beaten up, so I said you were talking nonsense."
"That's because you only learned its form, but not its spirit..."
"Sister, there seems to be someone on the roof."
"Have it?"
Yu Dechen lowered his body, feeling a little helpless, thinking that he was originally a Taoist cultivator with an immortal style, and it was his first time to be an assassin, so he still lacked experience.
Fortunately, the child in the courtyard said again: "It seems that I saw it wrong."
"Can I still endorse it honestly..."
Suddenly, Yu Deshen heard a big noise coming from the front office, followed by the sound of footsteps.
After a while, another little girl ran to the back office.
"Second sister is back, where is Lieutenant Li?"
"Brother Li took someone out to do something."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know, aren't you cold in the yard?"
"It's brighter outside..."
After hearing this, Yu Dechen frowned, stepped back from the eaves, jumped back outside, quickly ran through the alley, looked against the wall, and saw Li Xia leading someone to the south of the city.
In the yard, Jiang Cang looked up at the roof again, pretending to be casual, sent his two sisters away, and yawned all the way into the study.
He looked around, shrank his neck, and tiptoed to Jiang Chun's side.
Jiang Chun stared at his son with displeasure.
But he heard Jiang Cang whisper: "Father, there seems to be a thief on the roof. The kid doesn't dare to disturb him. He deliberately pretends not to know and calls the subordinates to catch him. It's approaching the New Year, and there are a lot of thieves...
"
"Stupid boy, which thief dares to come to the county government office to steal something?"
Jiang Cang was right when he thought about it. Just when he was wondering if he had seen it wrong, he suddenly realized that Jiang Chun was also whispering in his ear.
The father and son looked at each other with fear in their eyes...