Chapter 447： ask for contempt

After August, the county government began to collect taxes from each township.

 Wei Zhan sent people to follow the rural officials who collected taxes and recorded how much grain each family paid.

There are a total of twelve towns in Zhouhe County. Each town has about a dozen villages, and each village should have at least ten households.

But some villages have a sparse population, and some have less than ten households.

This is very wrong.

Wei Zhan told Yingbao all the things he had investigated: "There are many people fleeing from farmland in this county, and most of the land is concentrated in the hands of officials and gentry, and they actually registered the upper-class fields as lower-class fields, and even sat down Those who have entered the house three or four times are classified as fourth-class villagers."

The villagers of the fourth and fifth classes could pay a lot less taxes, so the gentry colluded with the officials and asked them to rate their houses in the fourth and fifth classes.

In this way, you can pay a lot less tax.

However, there is a fixed number of upper-class and lower-class fields registered with the county government. When filing tax returns with the court, taxes will be determined based on the registered fields.

However, due to the gentry's tricks, the county government was unable to collect the prescribed grain, so it had to impose the remaining tax burden on the poor people.

It is estimated that this is what Zhouhe County did, so it forced batches of powerless and poor people to move away from home.

Yingbao read through the investigation files with a sullen face and said: "First pick the most arrogant squire in the household and compare his land with the land registered by the county government, and then report it to the Ministry of Household Affairs. If there is evidence of deception, Just arrest everyone involved and kill the chickens to scare the monkeys.”

The emperor’s master handed over this county to him, probably because he wanted her to manage it well.

In this case, there is no need to be lenient.

Wei Zhan nodded: "Okay, I will take someone to check it tomorrow."

"When you go, take Song Changshi with you." Ying Bao said, "When you go out from now on, bring more people with you to prevent someone from deliberately retaliating."

Wei Zhan smiled and said, "Don't worry, I bring dozens of people with me every time."

He is not stupid. Doing these things is actually ruining people's wealth and will definitely make people angry.

But since this county has become his wife's fiefdom, it must be managed well, otherwise the people will not be able to make a living. It is strange that he and his wife are not impeached.

The two talked for a while, and then ordered the servant to bring the food. They wanted to eat, wash and rest afterward.

In the next few days, Wei Zhan was busy every day, and he really arrested a big gentry.

However, after taking the radish out of the pit, Wei Zhan quickly discovered that several officials were connected with the squire, that is, they helped the squire conceal the land and underreport taxes.

There are actually the figures of the Lord Bo and the county captain here.

Afterwards, Wei Zhan urged the county magistrate to arrest the squire and several officials.

Magistrate Mei County was exhausted mentally and physically, but he did not dare to disobey, so he had no choice but to throw out a few arrest signatures and let the police catch the person.

The next day, all those people were arrested and taken to the county government office, and the county magistrate held a court hearing.

In the end, it was decided that the squire's family should compensate the court for thousands of stones of grain. If they could not pay it, they would use their fields and houses as mortgage.

Several other officials who colluded with his family were beaten dozens of times and deprived of their positions.

 Wei Zhan also recruited several students with good moral character to fill the vacancies of minor officials.

Next, the tax collection work went very smoothly. The squires knew that they would encounter hard problems and did not dare to deceive them. They quietly paid up all the taxes and grains without daring to act evil at all.

Ying Bao finally breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the grain piles in the charity warehouse being filled up little by little.

Food is the most important thing for the people, and I can finally spend the New Year with peace of mind.

The twelfth lunar month has entered in a flash, and after the sacrifice to the stove, several families in the county sent New Year's gifts and greeting cards to the princess's mansion. Ying Bao picked up a greeting card, read it over, and told Mu Dan: "Check these greeting cards with the gift list, and then send a greeting. If there is an invitation, send a letter saying that I am temporarily unavailable."

Mudan agreed and went out with the invitation and gift list.

In the evening, Wei Zhan came back and told Ying Bao about the loom.

“We have customized five hundred looms. According to your wishes, we have given them to the Five Good Homes.”

The five good things are not to commit adultery, have a harmonious family and be filial to the elders, be friendly to brothers and sisters and love the younger ones, be diligent and capable, and be friendly to neighbors.

In order to improve the economic situation of the poor people in the county, Yingbao spent his own money to buy 500 looms and gave them on credit to poor people from families rated as "five good" at cost price, asking them to repay two taels of silver every year until they were all repaid.

“I asked Chu Shun to go to Qinchuan County to transfer a batch of cotton seeds, and when spring comes next year, the people will plant them.” Wei Zhan sat down at the table and picked up his chopsticks to eat.

“That’s very good.” Yingbao served him a dish, removed the spines from the fish, and put the fish into his bowl.

Wei Zhan has been busy outside these days, and his whole body has become dark and thin. Ying Bao saw it and felt very distressed.

But it is not easy to govern two counties. If you want the people in your land to have enough food and clothing, you must work hard in the early stage, especially in Zhouhe County. The rich are unkind and the poor are ruthless. Some villages even take advantage of the slack season to go out together. Jie Dao.

“After the New Year, I will go with you to visit the four townships.” Now, not only does she want to make the whole county rich, she also wants to set up free schools in each township so that all villagers’ children can study.

Only by establishing a sense of integrity in their hearts can their behavior be changed.

She has asked people to write a lot of picture books about getting rich through hard work, being humble and friendly, and being filial and benevolent. Every time there is a market, they are posted on the grassroots in each township for the villagers to see, even those who are illiterate can understand.

Wei Zhan glanced at her and said, "The people in this county are no better than Qinchuan County. It's better for you to stay at home."

He did not want his wife to suffer any danger, because not only were the villagers in this county barbaric, but some big gentry were even more unscrupulous. He had been poisoned twice when he ate out.

Fortunately, he was always vigilant. Even if he received food and water from those people, he would not eat it. Instead, he would feed it to chickens and dogs first.

Ying Bao: "It's okay, don't forget, no one here can beat me."

Wei Zhan chuckled: "Okay, I will take you with me when the spring inspection begins. However, you must listen to me when I go out."

Yingbao nodded: "I'll listen to you."

It's New Year's Eve, and the whole family will get together to have a meal in the evening to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new.

Wei Zhan took his wife to celebrate the festival with his parents.

Walking into the gate of Wei's house, I saw that the huge courtyard was full of people.

The seven concubines of Wei Shixian, the head of the Wei family, all came to Zhouhe County and lived in Wei's house.

Not only that, the children born by the concubine also came, a large group of tall and short, some were even held in the arms of the wet nurse, Ying Bao was dazzled by the sight.

They all saluted Yingbao and Wei Zhan, and expressed their greetings to the princess.

The head of the Wei family stood under the eaves of the upper house, watching with a smile, feeling very proud of himself.

Wei Zhan was also speechless and waved his hand: "You all go and play, don't hang around here." After that, he took Ying Bao and walked to the yard of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Wang.

Seeing this, the head of the Wei family also followed. Qi Yiniang, who was the most favored around him, also wanted to follow, but he glared at her: "Go back!"

Madam is most impatient to see his concubine, and would be asking for trouble if she goes there.

Qi Yiniang curled her lips in embarrassment and almost shed tears.

Mrs. Cao came over and whispered: "Qi Yi Niang, why are you doing this? Madam and the princess dislike us the most. Not to mention you, it is my husband who works hard to make money for the family, but he is still ignored by others." See you soon.”