Lingzhou governor's office.

A fast horse galloped to the corner gate, but before it could stop, the rider threw his stirrup, jumped down, and rushed in, sweating profusely. The officer at the corner gate was about to curse, but when he saw the badge he showed, he immediately

He nodded and bowed with a smile on his face.

The man didn't even take a breath or speak. He just pointed forward and someone took him to the study.

When he got to the door, he replied, "Here we come."

Someone inside immediately said, "Quickly pass!"

The man went in and held out a letter. The master took it with quick hands and eyes and handed it to Zhang Cang, the governor of Lingzhou. After he read it, he finally breathed a long sigh of relief and his expression softened.

Seeing this, the master sent the visitor to rest and complimented with a smile, "Your Excellency, are you relieved this time? I have already said that I have good fortune and fortune, and trivial matters are nothing to be afraid of."

Zhang Cang smiled and handed the letter to him, "What a shame this time, Chai Rong actually came up with such a plan. At present, the seventeen tea villages and two hundred thousand taels of silver have been sent to Xianyuan Township. I want to see it.

Let's see how Prince Ping and his good son-in-law are going to accept this great gift."

After reading the letter, the master laughed to himself and said, "They were also careful, and they all cast fifty taels of official silver. With the more than a hundred people they had left, even if they added horses, they would be all alone."

If you want to carry it, you have to carry thousands of taels of silver. It is a long way from there to the capital. Not to mention encountering some accidents, even if you let them go smoothly, you are not afraid of hiding your waist. It is really a toast but not a penalty.

!”

Zhang Cang's eyes showed pride, but his face showed the maturity of an official again, "That's not true. After all, there has been no news from the capital. It is said that the emperor allowed Prince Ping and Ouyang Kang to come to inspect the tea tax. The matter at hand.

, but Prince Ping got excited by chance.

I had a tea fight with the villagers. They were rich, looked down on the things from the countryside, and even said a few unpleasant words. But the people in each township did not want to ruin the reputation of Lingzhou tea, so they took the initiative to make up for the tea tax. Please

It’s understandable that Prince Ping is so arrogant.”

The master took the words knowingly and said, "I'll make it clear then. It's just a misunderstanding, so we'll be fine. But whoever the emperor wants to send out in the future, please give it more thought. Sir, do you want to humble yourself first?"

Draft a memorial and have the Prime Minister deliver it to you when the time comes?"

Zhang Cang was like an old fox with narrowed eyes, "Be careful with your words. Don't hurt the emperor's face. Just stop talking."

Knowing that he agreed, the master hurriedly went to play with his pen, while Zhang Cang also got up and went to the inner house.

I have been worried for many days, and now I can finally listen to the song with peace of mind.

Although Ah Li sings well, after all, he has been here for several years. He has lost his new ideas, but the pair of children sent by Chai Rongxin are very cute and in urgent need of training. They need to be trained well.

As for the mess in Xianyuan County, just wait until Prince Ping and Weng Xiu have a headache.

※

Recently, Xianyuan County has gained a wonderful sight.

Climbing up the low wall of the county government office, you can see a square yard of silver piled neatly in the yard.

Fifty taels of ingots. They are arranged in rows horizontally and columns vertically. It is a very good number. Anyone who knows a little bit about arithmetic can calculate it. It is about more than 200,000 taels. To be more precise, it is two hundred and forty-three thousand taels.

One thousand eight hundred and fifty taels, a total of four thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven yuan.

Tong Chaoyi is going crazy.

Only then did he see another head popping up from the wall, and he suddenly shouted sharply, "Get down!"

Originally there was a more majestic sentence at the end, anyone who dares to covet official wealth will be killed! But these days, I talk too much, my voice has long been hoarse, I can't shout powerfully, and the people are not afraid, so I can only save it and just use the shining knife point.

past.

In fact, the people just looked at it curiously, stuck out their tongues, and left.

Tong Chaoyi turned his head with a livid face, and saw the local county government officials quietly looking at him and him and his brothers from the window opposite, gloating about their misfortune, and then they all turned around and pretended to be dead.

Tong Chaoyi was so angry that her teeth almost bled.

These bastards!

It is none of their business to say that the tax money has been handed over, and they are not willing to take any responsibility for it. If Ouyang Kang had not argued hard, he would not even lend them the money in the open yard of the county government for storage. By then, they should have such a large amount of money.

what to do?

Since the day of collecting money, Tong Chaoyi and more than a hundred brothers have not had a sound sleep. They are all nervous, jittery, and their eyes widen like toads when they hear the slightest movement.

Looking at these two bloodshot eyes, Tong Chaoyi felt heartbroken, but even more angry!

It's obviously money that should be given to the emperor, but these bastards not only refuse to hand it over, but also use it to make people angry. When he returns to the capital, let's see how he complains to the emperor!

Of course, the premise is that he must return to the capital.

Taking another look at the more than 4,800 large silver ingots behind him, Tong Chaoyi had never hated having too much money so much. How on earth was he going to bring back so much silver?

The same problem weighed more heavily on the minds of Ouyang Kang and Mu Shaoqin.

Tong Chaoyi didn't sleep well for many days, and the same was true for Weng and his son-in-law.

If Huiniang and Nianfu came back at this time, they would find that their husband-in-law had lost an astonishing amount of weight in just a few days. What was even more astonishing was that his expression looked like that of his biological father and son.

He frowned and was so annoyed that he didn't even think about food or tea.

Dr. Zou, who had never met Nianfu and his daughter, took a look at the bubbles on the lips of the two of them, sighed, and went to arrange lunch. There were few people and many things at the moment, and as a doctor, he had to wear many hats

Half a housekeeper's responsibility.

Tong Chaoyi's job was physical work, which required physical strength. He had to eat white rice and steamed buns with enough meat and some fat to be energetic when working.

Although the work done by Ping Wang and Weng's son-in-law is mental work, it is also hard work, but now they can only drink porridge with some mung beans to make them lose their temper.

Alas, this is autumn, I shouldn’t eat this, it’s not good for my health. But nowadays, who has the ability to cook up dishes that are both delicious and suitable for the season like Princess Jiashan?

But when Mo Yun heard that he wanted to feed his master mung bean porridge, he quit.

"Our young master doesn't like that at all. The mung bean soup is okay, but he doesn't like the porridge. Besides, the prince is weak. In the past, the princess only gave him mung bean sprouts to eat, and he didn't eat that."

Dr. Zou looked at him helplessly, "Then what do you think we should do?"

Mo Yun thought for a while. "Is it okay to have fish fillet porridge? Both the prince and the eldest young master like to eat it."

Mr. Xiao Zou pointed at him with a finger, "I don't have any problem with it as long as you can do it. As long as it's not a sexually transmitted fish, it's fine. But remember to pick out the thorns. Your two masters probably won't pick at the thorns now."

"

Mo Yun was a little embarrassed. Everyone was busy now. Who had time to pick fish bones? Even the waiters at the inn had their own things to do, so they couldn't help pick out fish bones. But after thinking about it again, he had an idea. He asked the local two-inch fish.

The little fish is fine. Mo Yun went to work.

Dr. Zou shook his head and walked away. When he returned to his room, he began to worry about the country and the people. What should he do with such a large sum of money?

Ouyang Kang's hair fell out in handfuls these days when he thought about this issue.

He and his father-in-law had thought of almost all the ways they could think of, but none of them were realistic.

Asking the Emperor for help? It takes too much time to come and go.

Mobilizing troops from other provinces to escort him? When he left the capital, the emperor only gave Shang Fang a sword, but not a tiger talisman. Besides, it was too risky to mobilize troops. If something happened again over the two hundred thousand taels of silver, it would be even worse.

Why not just rent a carriage and hit the road on your own? Haha, sorry, no one in the entire Xianyuan County area is willing to take their business. The risk is too great, everyone is afraid of robbery!

Ouyang Kang thought about it, didn't the emperor allow him to embezzle? He simply took the money back to his hometown in Huai'an! He then returned to the capital and used his valuables to pay the emperor.

But as soon as he said this idea, he got a cold look from his father-in-law. Then, Ouyang Kang also felt that he was stupid.

Not to mention whether the emperor will agree to this idea, even if he agrees, two hundred thousand taels of silver to bring back Huai'an, will this make the people of Huai'an sleepless? What if some thieves and robbers are attracted?

Do you want to see Mr. Jiangdong again in the future?

what to do?

Ouyang Kang felt that he was really exhausted.

Of course, there is another way out, that is to ask my father-in-law to take back his words. He returned the money intact, saying that everything was a misunderstanding and that we are still good friends. You continue to grow tea and do business, and we will continue to return to Beijing to build Wangye County.

Horses, everyone lives happily and no one has to worry.

I believe this is also the sentiment of Chai Rong and the officials in Lingzhou.

But Ouyang Kang would never choose this path even if he died!

A gentleman has something to do and something not to do.

If the corruption and bribery of Lingzhou officials made the people live a good life, he would not say anything. But what was the result of his open and secret investigation today?

In addition to paying taxes in accordance with the emperor's regulations, the honest tea farmers also had to pay a large number of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. The real money makers were the big tea merchants and officials.

What kind of withheld tax money was used to benefit the people? It was obviously all for benefiting themselves.

These people are like leeches clinging to the tea fields. They have sucked the blood of the emperor as well as the blood of the common people.

Look at how it was that two hundred thousand taels of silver were collected so quickly in the past few days. Seeing as the money was poured together, there were still some different marks from each house. Of course, it couldn't be Chai Rong's, so who could it be?

It is these big tea merchants, including some middle and low-level officials below.

Being able to scrape together such a huge sum of money casually, one can imagine how lucrative this line of profit is.

Fortunately, they had the nerve to claim that they had made up for the tax. Ouyang Kang didn't even need to look at those messy account books. After asking about the annual output, he could estimate that the 200,000 taels of silver did not even make up the tax for the year.

Do I need to collect this money?

Of course he wants to take it!
To be continued...