"Yes, Qiu Hong once served as the home of a bandit in the county. After the bandit was wiped out by us, this property became cheaper for Qiu Hong."
"Chen Minggang knows about this, right?"
"Of course I do, but now I understand some of their rules," Zhou Botao reported. "As usual, this kind of thing is divided between the fast class and the strong class. Chen Minggang has to give at least part of it to the two classes.
Suddenly, such direct engulfment, they call it 'injury', and it is a very serious matter to say it."
"Don't bring this matter up for now. We'll do it later when we need to have a dog-eat-dog fight between the six rooms." Ran Yao said, "But if you have any little information, let it out first and let them quarrel."
Zhou Botao understood this and immediately ordered his men to collect all the black materials about Class 3 and Room 6 collected over the past year. There was already a lot of these materials, but since Gou Er's account book was partially deciphered, many old events have been added to it.
The materials are more credible when disseminated. At present, I found some suitable ones and distributed them one by one with Jackie Chan.
A wind of suspicion suddenly began to blow in the Lingao County government office. Lingao is a small place, and rumors can spread from Dongmen City to the county seat in less than a day. The "official" people in the county can't help but murmur -
―There are so many people who live in officialdom, so many old things will not be mentioned. Once they are mentioned, all kinds of suspicions from back then will come to the fore.
In addition to such rumors, news also spread, including that Chen Minggang was planning to let Australians take over this year's taxes. This news was released by Chen Minggang's apprentices. Needless to say, it happened;
Even if the Australians are not prepared to wade into this muddy water, they still plan to use this big brand to scare people. Anyway, no one will dare to ask the Australians whether this is the case, and then they will repay some of the money and food to Australia.
It's just people.
Wang Zhaomin had no interest in these rumors, but he was sweating with anxiety that Chen Minggang was going to recruit Australians to take over the tax revenue. This matter had been widely spread now, so it was probably not groundless. He hurriedly called Chen Minggang and asked him seriously if he
Is there such a thing?
"That's exactly what happened." Chen Minggang replied generously. Although he was respectful in front of Master Wang, his air was extremely arrogant - a subordinate official in such a remote place, because local administration relies heavily on him.
Even the county magistrate is not in his eyes, let alone a master like Wang Zhaomin.
"You are so brave!" Wang Zhaomin was so angry that his beard spread out, "What is the origin of the Kun thieves? You dare to collude with them. When the imperial soldiers come in the future, I will see how you can get away with it!"
"Returning to Master Wang, if we can't get rid of the relationship by then, there will naturally be someone more handsome than the younger one." Chen Minggang looked like a rogue.
Wang Zhaomin suddenly became angry. Speaking of which, there are probably countless people in the Lingao County government office who can be said to be clean and self-sufficient and not in cahoots with the thieves. It's easy for the officials to say that Zuo just collected a few circulating cards.
Damn, he's like this, he just can't explain clearly to the scene.
After all, Wang Zhaomin was from Jiu Mu. He was very calm and said in a deep voice: "Old man, I advise you to be more clear-minded! This group of thieves is definitely not a kind person. If you provoke them, I'm afraid the only one who will suffer in the end is
Own!"
"Whether we should suffer a loss or not is a matter for later. Master Wang must find a way to deal with the matter at hand." Chen Minggang showed no sign of weakness. Of course he knew that Australians were not easy to deal with, but relying on his familiarity with the county's money and food,
Even if you Australians are extremely capable, you can't collect food without your own help - "reasonable burden"? This thing is indeed clever, but the food that can be collected is also very limited, and it can only be regarded as a "pleasurable donation" from the government.
, it is impossible to maintain it in the long term.
The matter at hand naturally refers to the autumn grain collection that is about to begin. Not only the grain, but also the additional levy, as well as the county's miscellaneous taxes and salary. All these things taken together are the top priority of the county.
Wang Zhaomin has also been troubled by this recently.
The grain tax itself was not bad. Wang Zhaomin knew that as long as he pushed hard, he could generally finish the class. Moreover, after the Australians wiped out the bandits this year, the powerful local landowners who colluded with the bandits have restrained themselves a lot, and openly defied the government.
They won't do it, but now they have a better choice - the Australians.
If they openly use Australians as backup, which is not impossible, just as they colluded with bandits in the past, it will be very difficult to collect food.
It seemed that no matter what, if he did not cooperate with the Australians, he would be in great trouble for the autumn grain. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but secretly hate Chen Minggang for going to the Australians to discuss the autumn grain for his own personal gain. Now he had to talk to the Australians again.
When it comes to cooperation, I'm afraid if the price isn't high then I won't be ignored.
Xiong Buyou came back and reported the results of the meeting with Chen Minggang to Wu De. He heard that Chen Minggang also wanted to use the Cross Travel Group, which surprised Wu De - it seems that there are money-making masters everywhere.
"It seems that we have become popular. Both Wang Zhaomin and Chen Minggang want to borrow our brand." Wen Desi smiled after hearing this.
"This way we can have a good discussion on the price." Wu De said, "Wang Zhaomin originally didn't plan to cooperate with us. He just wanted us to make a gesture. Now that Chen Minggang came to disrupt the situation, he had to come. It saved us a lot of time.
A lot of effort.”
"It seems that Chen Minggang will offer a better price."
"Should we cooperate with him?"
"I don't think it's necessary." Wu De did not hesitate, "We are not here to be officials in Lingao, but to control the county government. There is no need to go through so many twists and turns. One more thing, based on our understanding of this
With their understanding of society, if we have to compete with them professionally, I’m afraid they are no match for this group of subordinates.”
Even the county magistrate himself is not clear about various official affairs in the county government, let alone outsiders like them. As a foreign athlete, he has to compete with local athletes who are familiar with the rules. No matter how good he is, he will still lose if he commits a foul.
To deal with this situation, the only way is to break it with force, destroy the old order, establish new rules, and force everyone to operate under the new order they prescribed.
"Of course, in terms of information, we still need to rely on their expertise for the time being." Wu De said, "Let's not break up with him for the time being. We will see how sincere this guy is, and we will be ready to take over."
"Want to cooperate with Wang Zhaomin?" Xiong Buyou doesn't like this master very much, but he still thinks that people like Chen Minggang can negotiate prices and conditions directly and easily.
"Of course! This is the right way." Wu De said with certainty, "The subordinate officials are untouchables. We want to establish our own image, so how can we get involved with them? Wang Zhaomin and Wu Mingjin are upright officials. These two
Their status in the minds of the people is different."
Leaders are always good, but it is the crooked monks below who read the scriptures incorrectly. This theory is not new to modern times. Chinese people have believed this since ancient times. It is not something that time travelers want to change overnight.
Because the collection of autumn grain was imminent, various parties held a joint meeting. At the meeting, it was decided with Chinese characteristics to set up a special county government leadership working group, which was directly controlled by Wu De's Civil Affairs Committee.
"Manpower and material resources are at your disposal." Wen Desi said to Wu De, "You can also control the intelligence department. You can also mobilize the special reconnaissance team when necessary - I have already said hello to Bei Wei and will be on call.
This time we will concentrate our efforts to take down the county government!"
"It's a big responsibility," Wu De said, "but I will try my best. In addition, I have to find some ruthless guys for me."
"Okay." Wen Desi said, "Anyone you want can do it."
So Wu De transferred Zhou Dongtian. Zhou Dongtian had been doing printing recently and his face was full of ink. Because he had to test the type, he came directly to Wu De's office.
"Lao Zhou," Wu De said, "I know you have done odd jobs for Ran Yao, but recently you may have to do this side job on a large scale."
Zhou Dongtian grinned, showing his white teeth.
On this day, Zhang Youfu came to Xiong Buyou and said that Master Wang wanted to secretly meet with the big boss of the Crossing Group under his house. Xiong Buyou guessed that it was probably for the purpose of collecting autumn grain.
The next night, in Zhang Youfu's village, the two sides held a secret meeting: Wang Zhaomin saw that not only Xiong Buyou was there, but also a big boss - he recognized Wu De and knew that this person had great power among Australians.
It belongs to the level of "giant canal".
After the two sides exchanged a few polite words, Wang Zhaomin got straight to the point and asked: Is it true that the recent rumor that Chen Minggang wants to ask you to take over the autumn grain taxes is true?
"You can say yes, you can say no." Xiong Buyou said vaguely.
Wang Zhaomin secretly cursed that the thief was really cunning, so he had to ask patiently: "What does it mean to have something and not have it at the same time?"
"Chen Minggang did come to mention this matter to us, but we are still discussing it and have not yet reached a conclusion."
"There is no conclusion" means that there is still room for redemption. Wang Zhaomin knew that this was going to be a bargain. He had to cheer up.
"What do you plan to do?"
"Chen Minggang made a few conditions." Xiong Buyou said, "It's very generous."
"A county coward like Chen Minggang is just a despicable villain. Do you think you can trust him?"
Xiong Buyou smiled and said: "Trust me, I'm sorry he doesn't have the guts to lie to us."
Wang Zhaomin pointed out earnestly that the so-called fraud did not refer to the discrepancy in the amount of money and food, but that he would use the traveling people to pretend to be powerful outside and extort money everywhere.
"...You have just arrived here, and you don't know much about the Ming Dynasty or the county situation here. It doesn't take a day for these untouchables to control the county government. They are very familiar with it. If you use the power of the nobles to do some harm,
Common people, it is very harmful to the reputation of the nobles!"
Wang Zhaomin knew that Australians took his reputation seriously, so he had no choice but to impress them in this aspect.