Chapter 200.
A desk table, two cups of spirit tea, Wang Chen and Yu Feihong sat down to talk.
It was a long story to tell.
What happened today in this mountainous and barren temple was directly related to the current state of affairs of Da Qian.
During the sixty years of the late emperor’s reign, he had been practicing the policy of advocating literature and suppressing the military, and had treated the scholars very favorably.
In order to take care of the scholars, all the scholars who have a meritorious title can enjoy the benefits of field tax and commercial tax.
The higher the merit, the greater the discount!
This was originally a good policy, because many scholars came from poor families, studied hard and had nothing to eat, and had no other skills to earn a living, so how could they compete with those rich and noble children?
Many people with outstanding talents were therefore buried!
This kind of favorable treatment could undoubtedly help these capable scholars.
However, decades down the line, the gentry class expanded rapidly.
A large number of merchants and farmers put their stores and farmland under the names of the scholars in order to pay less tax.
And a large number of hidden households, hidden fields and hidden properties appeared!
As a result, Great Qian’s annual income was greatly reduced.
During the reign of the Supreme Emperor, the annual income of the Qian dynasty was more than 55 million taels of silver.
By the time of the late Emperor’s death.
This figure was drastically reduced to about 30 million taels.
The loss of nearly half!
And Qian has been facing the threat of the Northwest Daxia, last year’s border payroll expenditure was as high as eight million taels.
The treasury is in the red every year, relying on the accumulation of hundreds of years to hold on.
After taking the throne, the emperor decided to take on the gentry class.
To this end, he set up the Department of Investigation.
The task of the Inspection Department was to investigate those hidden households, hidden fields and hidden properties, and to increase the revenues from the field tax and commercial tax to make up for the deficit of the state treasury!
The task of the Inspection Department was to investigate those hidden households, hidden fields and hidden properties and to increase the revenue from field tax and commercial tax to make up for the deficit of the state treasury!
After the establishment of the Inspection Department, the first target of the inspection was placed in Jinzhou.
Jinzhou is a prosperous place with rich trade and commerce.
If the situation could be opened here, then half of Emperor Qian’s goal could be realized!
However, what people did not expect was that the Department of Inspection sent three teams of people to Jinzhou before and after, and as a result, two teams of people encountered interceptions on the way, losing troops and suffering heavy casualties.
The other team was besieged by the local gentry when they arrived in Jinzhou, and a tragic conflict broke out.
The court was shaken!
Emperor Qian was furious and ordered the Department of Defense to investigate the case thoroughly.
Yu Feihong traveled south by order and soon investigated part of the truth.
The Zhang Clan of Jinzhou, who was deeply involved in the bloodshed at the Qing Zha Si, was the first to be copied and exterminated by the Department of Prohibited Guards.
“The gold, silver, fields, and stores we copied from the Zhang family amounted to 3.74 million taels of silver!”
Yu Feihong said, “And Da Qian’s annual income last year was just over twenty-nine million taels.”
Wang Duan was somewhat speechless.
The wealth of one family in one state had exceeded one-tenth of a country’s total fiscal revenue!
No wonder the current Qian Emperor wanted to wield a butcher’s knife.
It would be impossible to live this year without killing a few pigs!
However, the Zhang family of Jinzhou is not a simple character, over the centuries, they have produced more than a dozen jinshi and hundreds of jurors, with deep roots and extensive connections, so how could they obediently lead their necks to be killed!
On their way to the capital, the guards were besieged by unknown forces.
After a fierce battle, the Defense Department suffered hundreds of casualties.
Although dozens of Zhang family members died, all the others were taken away.
This was undoubtedly a heavy slap in the face of the Forbidden Guards Division and Yu Feihong.
As the Governor of the Department of Defense, Yu Feihong could not let it go, and while sending out arrest papers and bounty orders to capture the remaining members of the Zhang family, he personally led a team to chase and kill the Greenwood heroes who had taken the prisoners.
Xiao Wentian, the warrior of Linjiang who was killed by Shenji crossbow earlier, was precisely one of the targets!
As for the master and servant who had just been taken away, Yuchi Zhong was a vassal of the Zhang Clan, and the brocade-clothed boy was the first grandson of the eldest house.
They apparently fled here to join Xiao Wentian, not realizing that the Forbidden Guards had tracked them down.
In one net, they were killed!
“The Golden State right now has become a boiling pot of chaos.”
Yu Feihong sipped his Spirit Tea, the corner of his lips hooked up in an icy sneer, “A bunch of scholars are agitated, and they went on a blood book to ask the Emperor to chop off my head.”
“Heh.”
“Now the pressure on the emperor is also very big.”
The Zhang family is actually nothing, but the local powerhouse.
However, the Zhang family had a very close relationship with the White Deer Academy, and was one of the key members of the Deer Party.
Deer party in the dynastic field is very powerful, at least one-third of the officials in the dynasty from the White Deer School Palace, today’s Qian Huang bypassed the Cabinet to form the Department of investigation, undoubtedly greatly touched the interests of the deer party.
This behind the back of the open and secret struggle and swords and shadows, not a few words can be said clearly!
“Immortal Master Wang ……”
Yu Feihong said to Wang Duan very sincerely, “As far as I know, the White Deer School Palace has always been hostile to the Yunyang Immortal Sect, and believes that the Zhentai Heavenly Master’s Office should be abolished.”
“Ruan Zhaoming, the county guard of Nan Shao, is a member of the Deer Party, and the position of the Nan Shao Zhen Guarding Celestial Master has been vacant for three years, so I’m afraid that people in the Celestial Master’s Office have already developed dissenting views, so you have to be on your guard!”
Wang Chen nodded, “I know.”
Yu Feihong’s words were believable.
But they could not be trusted in their entirety.
As for what kind of dissent the people in the Heavenly Master’s Mansion had.
He was completely unconcerned.
Wang Chen had run away from the mortals this time, mainly to avoid the turmoil of the Yunyang Sect.
He only wanted to live in peace for a while.
Whoever would make him unhappy, then Wang Dust would make the other party regret it!
Seeing Wang Dust’s indifference.
Yu Feihong sighed darkly.
Immortal Masters from the Immortal Sect were so high up that they didn’t eat the fire of the earth, and they didn’t understand the sinister nature of the human heart.
Immortal Masters were certainly powerful, but they were not invincible.
As far as he knew, there had been an innate martial artist who had successfully attacked and killed an Immortal Master in the past!
And the mundane world was a place of extinct spirits that Immortal Cultivators detested, and ordinary cultivators were simply unwilling to reside there.
If Wang Chen died in Nan Shao, the Yunyang Sect would certainly be thunderstruck by this, but it was unlikely that they would make a big deal out of it.
However, the Forbidden Guard Division would definitely be out of luck!
After thinking about it, Yu Feihong pointed to the woman serving beside him and said, “Immortal Master Wang, you are traveling to Nan Shao alone, and your life might be a bit inconvenient, so let Xiao Wan serve by your side.”
“Xiao Wan is a member of our Forbidden Guards Division and is guaranteed to be loyal and reliable.”
“Moreover, she has a peak Houtian martial cultivation, so she won’t be a burden to you.”
“In addition Xiaowan understands the situation in Nan Shao, so if there are any trivial chores in the future, you can rest assured that you can leave them to her!”
Yu Feihong drummed his tongue like a reed, and really talked Wang Chen into a heart.
At first he refused.
A person is free to go alone, but if more people follow around, there will always be trouble.
But Yu Feihong’s words made sense.
Wang Chen had come to Nan Shao with a mission to become a Heavenly Master, and it was impossible for him to ignore his duties after his arrival.
It would be much more convenient to have an assistant.
Some things, he could completely instruct the other party to handle.
When it came to the time when he needed to personally take action to solve the problem, he didn’t know how much time he could save!
Although Yu Feihong’s suggestion had the suspicion of sugar-coating it.
But Wang Chen smiled and accepted it, “Good!”