A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 528 Haha, loan from the dead

"Send someone to follow those people." Li Xuan said.

"Wei!" A guard beside him turned and left.

Although there was nothing wrong with the IOU document just now, Li Xuan didn't believe it. Although he knew that there were indeed some cunning people, there were not many who dared to come to the county guard's office.

Just now, all the people had borrowed Qingmiao Loan, which was beyond his expectation, and the attitude of the agricultural officials also made him a little suspicious. It's not a big deal for people to check the IOU documents, so why should he stop it.

There were still a few wealthy households in the village who did not need to borrow money, but they also borrowed money, which was a bit unreasonable.

However, Li Xuan had no way to continue the investigation for the time being. Instead, he asked the guards to protect their safety to prevent these people from slipping into the water or dying of serious illness.

Next, Li Xuan exchanged pleasantries with the county governor, and then attended the reception banquet. The banquet was a feast for the guests and the host. It seemed that nothing happened, but both Li Xuan and Gao Qi knew very well that today's event It's just the beginning.

In the following days, Li Xuan did not check Qingmiao Loan anymore, but began to check Changpingcang and Tancheng's taxes over the years.

Over the years, the imperial court has dispatched inspection censors. One of the most important reasons is to prevent local officials from acting recklessly and collecting exorbitant taxes. These exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are basically used by local governments for their own use and are rarely turned over to the court. However, these governments collect them in the name of the Daqian court.

This kind of operation is to let the court take the blame and benefit from it. As long as the court finds out, the whole family will be killed and the three tribes will be exiled. The highest punishment imposed by the imperial court was on the Yi tribe, but this decree was rarely used.

The explanation of the three Yi tribes is the father's tribe, the mother's tribe and the wife's tribe. The father's clan is the father, brothers, and sisters of the father, the mother's clan is the mother's father, brothers, and sisters, and the same is true for the wife's clan. All three clans will be killed. This will most likely result in your son-in-law committing a serious crime and causing your family to be killed. . It can be said that it is the most serious criminal law, and the execution of the Nine Clan is not as serious.

Killing the nine tribes does not mean killing all the nine tribes, but implicating the nine tribes. In addition to the main criminals who are to be killed, the other implicates are exile, confiscation as slaves, or priests. Of course, Zhujiu Clan is no better than Yi Tribe.

Because the imperial court had always wanted to immigrate overseas, cases like the Yi tribe rarely occurred. After all, if these people were killed, the imperial court would even want to drive them to the frontier to be used as consumables.

Tancheng does not charge excessive taxes. Li Xuan has already checked this. However, this does not mean that there are no problems with taxes. People all over the world will cultivate acres of land, and the population and fields will increase. The same is true for merchants' taxes, but local government taxes will not be consistent with There was a big difference in the past.

Did they not collect taxes from those merchants and the newly added farmland? No, it's just that all these taxes fell into the hands of those officials. Moreover, this kind of tax is difficult to verify. Unless you make great efforts to measure the acres, you will not be able to verify it at all.

In addition to checking taxes, Li Xuan also checked those noble, powerful, and official families. For these people, the court always strictly investigated them, and once problems were discovered, they would be dealt with severely.

What surprised Li Xuan was that these noble, powerful, and official families had no problem with land occupation, and there was no problem with paying taxes. It can be said that he was a role model under the rule of Da Qian, but the problem came again. If the noble, powerful, and official families were so abiding by the rules, how could they have the money to spend so much.

It is not a small amount to provide food to the people in the city every year. There are tens of thousands of people in the city. Even if each family has one liter, it requires thousands of stones of food. Plus those lanterns and other consumption, these nobles, officials, and powerful people still need There are a lot of family members and servants to support.    The money spent in a year is not a small amount.

Li Xuan thought for a while and immediately asked people to check out these noble, powerful, and official families. This aspect is easy to check, but it is not easy to hide it.

Li Xuan asked people to investigate, and soon discovered that many nobles, powerful people, and official families were lending money. And these usury money is not so easy to borrow. Nine times out and thirteen times out, that is just the basis. Relying on these, noble, powerful, and official families can easily earn a lot of money.

Although Li Xuan looked down on these people for loan sharking, it was not illegal. It is impossible to punish someone with this. However, although there was no way to punish them, Li Xuan would not let them pass easily.

Under the vigorous investigation, there are always some problems that arise. Anyway, they have already been torn apart, so naturally they will not let it go. For a time, the entire Tancheng was stirred up by Li Xuan. Officials at all levels were also exhausted and busy. Even the county guard was overwhelmed by various affairs. entangled.

After entangling these people, Li Xuan also began to secretly send people to the villages in the countryside to look for more evidence. Li Xuan didn't believe that those people would do it flawlessly.

After several days of open and secret inspections, the embroidery envoys soon discovered many problems. According to what these people said, they did not sign the Qingmiao loan, but when they paid taxes in the past three years, the tax collectors did Let them sign the deposit after paying the tax.

This was originally a normal thing, but now they remembered that when they first drew the stamp, they pressed their fingerprints three times, one more time than before.

In the court tax collection, after the tax collection is completed, it will be written that the head of a certain household in a certain place, a certain village, and the tax for that year should be paid on that day. Keep one part for yourself and turn the other part over to the government office. Now they say they pressed it three times. At that time, the officials said that the extra portion was to be handed over to the state capital.

As the inspection censor, Li Xuan knew very well that the court did not have this regulation, and even the signature and affixation after tax collection were not mandatory, but were handed over to the local authorities to make a unified list.

After hearing the news, Li Xuan still didn't understand what was going on? When these officials then paid taxes, they deceived the people into signing their signatures. The people were illiterate, so they had no idea what was written on it.

What's even more cruel is to just let the people print their fingerprints on white paper, and then they can write the rest as they please. As an official, Li Xuan is very aware of the moral integrity of some officials. Although the vast majority of officials abide by the law, some of them have no so-called bottom line at all.

At this time, the Embroidered Clothes Envoy brought another piece of information. A few days ago, it was discovered that among the documents of the people who took out the Qingmiao Loan, one of them had been dead for two years.

"The person died two years ago, but last year I was still able to borrow a young crop loan. Haha, I didn't expect that the agricultural officials in Tancheng were so powerful that they could communicate with the underworld and lend money to the dead!" Li Xuan sneered, and immediately You're welcome, just write an official document and request the court to send troops to prepare for a thorough investigation.

(End of this chapter)