Chapter 13 Tough Questions (1) ()

Tang Feng was completely unaware of the hostility and conspiracy between the Wang family and his son towards him. He even thought that the Wang family was not as arrogant as he thought, so he quickly threw his original plan aside.

Now the officials of all sizes and big and small counties have been impressed by themselves, and the people are living their own lives. The simple small county town is very peaceful, which makes Tang Feng begin to feel that being an official is very simple. Just read the official documents and give a few words to the day, and then Tang Feng has more time to practice the martial arts taught in solving doubts, which finally made him feel a little bit of true energy in his body. This really made Tang Feng excited for a while. Of course, this was a very ordinary thing for solving doubts, but he naturally would only be happy for him when he saw Tang Feng so happy.

In addition to practicing martial arts, Tang Feng was also paying attention to the situation in the court. He found that the Donglin Party was still in charge of the court, and the whole country was very peaceful. Obviously, the person who harmed the country and the people had not yet made a fortune, but he also knew that it was not far from that dark time. Although Tang Feng knew what kind of disaster was coming, he was in a small county town and was just a seventh-rank county magistrate, and he deeply understood that he could only watch here and watch the Ming Dynasty running towards its end. Sometimes Tang Feng felt sad for his powerlessness, but when he thought about it carefully, he had no way to stop all this, so he was a little open-minded. Tang Feng knew that all he could do was to manage She County well and let the people here live a good life.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it is mid-June, and the weather is hot one day. On that day, just as Tang Feng was looking at some case files in the second hall, thinking about how he should determine some people who had committed the crime, Tian Jing hurriedly walked in. Since the incident two months ago, Tian Jing already knew that he could not have a foothold in the county government without Tang Feng, because people from Gao Ming regarded him as a rumor, which forced him to stand completely on Tang Feng's side and become his capable subordinate. Seeing him walking in sweat, Tang Feng hurriedly gave up his seat and ordered someone to get tea, and then said, "Master Tian, ​​you are too old, why don't you cool down in the house on the hot day? If there is anything you want the yamen runners to do, why should you go there yourself?"

After receiving the tea with gratitude and thanking Tang Feng for his concern, Tian Jing said: "Sir, my subordinates have to go there. In addition to grain tax, there are also some other taxes such as commercial tax. According to the usual rules in previous years, some taxes have to be paid to the county government office this month, but this year, not many people have paid the taxes to the yamen. I think something is wrong, so I went to the village near the county town to investigate."

Although Tang Feng knew that the main assessment of the county magistrate was whether the tax paid by their county was enough, and the second was the prison, he did not pay too much attention to this point, so he smiled and said, "Master Tian, ​​you are too anxious. Maybe the people are unwilling to pay taxes in the sun when they see the hot weather, so it's only a few days in the evening. Why should we rush to urge them so quickly? This year, She County is also in good weather and prosperous. Will the people lose the tax silver for the yamen?"

After hearing his words, Tian Jing not only did not relax, but instead said with a grief: "Sir, this is the blame here. This year is going well, but when I went to ask the people for tax silver, they stammered and refused to give it to me. In the past few days, I have also gone to four or five villages, but only more than a dozen families have given tax silver."

"What happened like this?" Tang Feng was also shocked. He knew that the people of this era had an innate sense of fear of officials. They would not pay the tax unless they really couldn't pay it, otherwise they would not pay it. Otherwise, the possibility of scoundrels' debts was possible. But seeing that this year's year is not good, why did the people under his control not even pay the taxes? After thinking about it, Tang Feng asked again: "Then did you bring the yamen runners when you went there? What did those people say?"

"I brought two yamen runners, but no matter what I said, they all refused to say that there was no silver at home and asked me to give me a few more days of gratitude. The adults once said that we would not blame the people, so we had to come back." As he spoke, he seemed to be a little complaining about Tang Feng, and it seemed that he was a little angry in the countryside.

Tang Feng smiled and said, "Maybe they really can't get the silver for a while, you don't have to take it too seriously. You have been tired these days, so go back and have a good rest." After sending Tian Jing away, Tang Feng did not take this matter seriously, because he had always had a fixed idea in his mind, that is, ordinary people in ancient times were honest and would not have made many tricks of tax evasion like modern people.

A few days later, Tang Feng's idea finally changed a little, because Tian Jing came to him again and told him that he could not receive the tax and silver, and those who had been to before could still not receive it. This made Tang Feng's heart a question: What are these people thinking? They have to pay taxes every year, but why did they become like this when they were in their hands?

When June was late, when June was approaching the end, it was not obvious that this matter had improved. Tang Feng finally couldn't help it. He didn't want to be dismissed for the tax bank issue less than a year after he took office, so he let the servants in the county government scattered to collect tax bank, and asked the subordinate chiefs of each township to the county government. He wanted to ask what happened. Everyone arrived soon, but what Tang Feng expected was that they were complaining when they saw him, saying that they had come to ask for it from door to door, but most families always delayed it for one reason or another. Tang Feng had already issued an order not to beat and scold the people, which made these subordinate chiefs have no choice but to the people under his rule.

Seeing that these subordinates had tried their best, Tang Feng was not inconvenient to say anything about them. After comforting them for a few words, he sent them out. Soon, the yamen handlers also came back, but the result was the same, that is, the vast majority of people got nothing. At this time, a few yamen handlers with bad temper couldn't help it: "Sir, these yamen are clearly against the yamen. It seems that it is not enough to just reason with them. As long as these yamen bring them to the lobby and scare them, they will obediently pay the tax silver."

Tang Feng did not make any statement. He didn't want to treat the people like this, but it seemed that he was going to take action against a few people according to the situation. When Tang Feng was still unsure, Tian Jing walked out of the signing room and said to him: "Sir, he has reported his love to me." Tang Feng asked the yamen staff to retreat first and said: "You guys go and have a rest, even if you want to take the people, you won't be in a hurry." Then he looked at Tian Jing and waited for him to report the matter.

After seeing the yamen runners leaving, Tian Jing said cautiously: "Sir, I have looked through some of the situations of the people who refused to pay the tax and silver. Now I can finally be sure that someone is behind the scenes."

Looking at his serious look, Tang Feng's heart also tightened: "Are you saying someone asked them to do this? Who has such great ability and so courage to fight against the county government?"

Tian Jing took a step forward and lowered his voice and said, "As far as I know, the person behind this should be the Wang family. Because judging from the situation of these people, they either rented the Wang family's land or had some connection with the Wang family. In the entire She County, only the Wang family has the strength and courage to oppose the county."

After hearing what he said, Tang Feng felt very reasonable. It was indeed not so courageous for these ordinary people to come and fight with the county government. Moreover, if so many people are connected together, it seems unreasonable to say that there is no one behind the scenes. The Wang family is the most likely candidate for the promoter. But there is another thing that Tang Feng couldn't understand. He asked: "Didn't you say that the relationship between the Wang family and the county has always been good? This time when I took office, they held a banquet, but now they suddenly do this? What's the benefit of this?"

"I don't understand this humble position very well." Tian Jing said after thinking about it carefully: "The Wang family has no reason to oppose the county, but it may also be that they have had some hatred with the adults, so they suddenly made such a move, which made the adults unable to fulfill the court's requirements and thus dismissed the adults." When he said these words, his voice became even lower, and only the two of them could hear it.

Speaking of hatred, Tang Feng thought of Wang Dedao, who was burned that day. Did they already know that it was their own book boy who solved the problem? Tang Feng was not sure, but he also knew that this idea could not be ruled out. "If this is true, then we can't continue like this, because the longer it takes, the more unfavorable it will be for us." Tian Jing continued on the side.

Tang Feng stood up and walked a few steps in the hall, and said, "Then according to the words of those servants, first catch a few people to the yamen and knock on these people. Maybe they will pay the tax bank if they are afraid. After all, in my She County, the real adult is still me, not the Wang family!"

Tian Jing smiled bitterly in his heart and thought, "That's not necessarily the case. The county magistrate has been in office for only a few years, but the Wang family has a deep foundation in She County, and these people can tell which one is stronger and which one is weaker. Moreover, there are still people in the Wang family, so I'm afraid that the threat to the people is a bit greater than the county government." Thinking of this, Tian Jing suddenly thought of something and said, "Sir, I'm afraid that this is not enough..."
Chapter completed!