Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 236 Yang? Wei? Can't wait so soon?

As soon as Li Yuanji finished speaking, Cen Wenben was stunned. He knew that Li Yuanji had changed, but he didn't expect that he would become so cruel all of a sudden.

Immediately, Cen Wenben became a little hesitant.

"Your Majesty, I will present the perfection of the law to Your Majesty later. It will only increase taxes on the people. Do you really want to proceed?"

Li Yuanji looked determined and nodded slightly. He had made up his mind about the tax increase this time. He had been too kind to these people before, and now it was time to put some pressure on them.

Even if taxes are increased, the impact on the people will not be that great. The taxes he imposes on the people are still not as high as those in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, he has hybrid rice and corn here, as well as other grains grown, so the lives of the people will still be better than in the Tang Dynasty.

The bulk of his tax revenue is still commercial tax. The huge trade volume, the large number of business people, and the unique product advantages make his business particularly prosperous, and commercial tax has become a special bulk of his tax revenue.

The reason he is doing this now is that he doesn't want these people to have too much idle time. The policies he formulated are obviously good for these people, but some people are taking advantage of loopholes. This incident has directly touched his bottom line.

After seeing Li Yuanji's confirmation, Cen Wenben did not say anything else, because even if the levy was increased, the impact would not be too great. Cen Wenben was clear about all this, but the degree of it needed to be controlled.

"I will go down and formulate the standards later, and then submit them to the king for review."

Li Yuanji nodded. The issue in Leizhou Prefecture had been resolved. The next issue would be the issues in Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture.

Thinking of this, Li Yuanji immediately said: "Okay, let's leave it at that for now. Now tell me, what is the situation in Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture?"

After he finished speaking, a while passed and Li Yuanji looked at Cen Wenben with confusion.

"Jingren, is there any special secret about the situation in Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture?"

Li Yuanji was really confused. With the previous experience of Leizhou Prefecture, he thought that the situation in Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture should be similar. However, now it seems that the situation is obviously different.

Looking at Cen Wenben, who was melancholy, conflicted and extremely silent at the moment, Li Yuanji felt puzzled, heavy and curious at the same time.

The fact that Cen Wenben could behave like this shows that the affairs between Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture are really not simple.

After another moment, Cen Wenben finally spoke slowly.

“Your Majesty, the affairs of Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture are relatively simple, but the people involved are different.

The first is Guangzhou Prefecture, which involves Guangzhou, Xunzhou and Chaozhou. Among them, Guangzhou has the mildest situation, with only Bao'an.

There are Haifeng and Guishan in Xunzhou, and there are Chaoyang and Haiyang in Chaozhou.

As for Nanzhou Prefecture, there is one in almost every province, involving eight places: Yancheng, Chengmai, Lingao, Fuluo, Linshui, Xiangshi, Linzhou, and Ningyuan.

And everyone involved this time, directly or indirectly, belongs to the Yang, Wei, and Feng families."

After hearing the last part, Li Yuanji's pupils shrank. Yang? Wei? Feng?

Li Yuanji was really shocked this time. There was no need to say much about Yang and Wei. His harem now consisted of Yang Qingwan and Wei Gui, the two women were from the Yang and Wei families respectively.

These two tribes are related to Li Yuanji, but this matter now directly involves people from both tribes at the same time.

As for the Feng family, Li Yuanji also felt extremely heavy-hearted. Now, the only one who could be called Feng in Lingnan was Feng Ang’s Feng!

Nanzhou Prefecture had previously been under the charge of Feng Ang's eldest son Feng Zhixun. Now Cen Wenben told him that the affairs of the two prefectures actually involved the Feng family. This was even more unacceptable to Li Yuanji than the affairs of the Yang and Wei families.

Li Yuanji was not angry at this moment, but extremely calm. However, his calm heart was filled with murderous intent.

Compared with Leizhou Prefecture, the affairs of Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture directly touched Li Yuanji's real bottom line, especially since people from three families were involved. He really wanted to know the reason.

"I will not read the memorial. Please tell me in detail what is going on in Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture."

Looking at Li Yuanji, who was like the calm before the storm, I felt relieved but also a little worried.

Li Yuanji did not become furious or lose his mind. From this point of view, Cen Wenben was relieved and admired him. Because the people involved were different, Li Yuanji was still able to remain sober.

This is exactly what we are worried about. Unfortunately, this time the people involved are from the Yang, Wei and Feng families, so it will be difficult to deal with.

Cen Wenben put aside what he was thinking and spoke slowly.

"Your Majesty, Guangzhou Prefecture is now in charge of Wei Xiangcheng, the Governor of Guangzhou is Feng Lian, the Governor of Xunzhou is Wei Zhelin, and the Governor of Chaozhou is Yang Xinghe.

The Nanzhou Prefecture is now under the charge of Yang Peng, the governor of Yazhou is Gao Cheng, the governor of Wan'anzhou is Feng Pingzhen, and the governor of Zhenzhou is Wei Sheng.

Among them, Wei Xiangcheng, Wei Zhelin, Yang Xinghe, Yang Peng, and Wei Sheng were all from the Yang and Wei families who had arrived with Yuanlin and Siyan. As they were good in all aspects and later due to a shortage of manpower, I, after seeking the king's consent, demoted them and transferred Ning Chun and Feng Zhixun back to the palace.

Feng Lian and Feng Ping are really members of Feng Ang's clan, coming from two other lineages, not Feng Ang's direct lineage.

Gao Cheng was Feng Ang's nephew, and his mother was a Li people, whose surname was Xian.

When Li Yuanji heard this, he was silent for a while. He had observed the people who came with Wei Ye and Yang Cheng for a long time before finally agreeing to let them go. However, this release caused him such a big trouble.

Why do these people do this?

Even though Li Yuanji didn't know the reason yet, he could already guess that they must be obeying the orders of their family. Those who came out of the family, the orders of the family, were even higher than those of him, the king.

As for Feng, Li Yuanji never expected that everything Feng Ang showed was completely different. In particular, he not only valued Feng Zhixun, but also intended to value Feng Ang's other two sons.

Everything he gave to Feng Ang was beyond the standard. Even Xie Shufang, who had always followed him, did not have as much as Feng Ang. All these were because Feng Ang chose him and allowed him to smoothly control Lingnan. However, now it seems that all this has become an illusion. He just doesn't know whether Feng Ang knows about it. If he doesn't know, it's fine. If he knows, Lingnan will probably not be stable in the future.

As for Gao Cheng in the end, Li Yuanji was really in trouble. The Xian family produced a great woman, Lady Xian, also known as Lady Qiaoguo.

This Lady Xian became the leader of the Li tribe at the age of 23. At least half of Feng Ang's original territory was controlled by Lady Xian, including Nanzhou Prefecture, which was always controlled by the Xian family.

And this Lady Xian had achieved extraordinary things. To be precise, even though he was the King of Qi of the Tang Dynasty, he seemed to have no qualifications to evaluate Lady Xian.

A truly recognized heroine who insisted on unity and strengthened solidarity, Lady Xian devoted her entire life to maintaining unity between the Li people and the Central Plains dynasty and not engaging in division.

On the spiritual level, there are Xian Tai Temples built for Lady Xian in many Southeast Asian countries. In Gaozhou alone, there are more than 200 Xian Tai Temples.

Among them, Gaocheng Xian Tai Temple, also known as Madam Xian Memorial Hall, is located on Wenming Road in Gaozhou City. It was built in the 14th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty.

There is also the Lady Xian Temple in Leizhou. Although the construction time is unknown, it was rebuilt in the ninth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, which shows how long ago this Lady Xian Temple was built. Now it has become a cultural relic protection unit in Leizhou City.

Li Yuanji respected such a legendary figure very much. He treated preferentially the Li people who were direct descendants of Lady Xian. Now, most of the low-level officials in Nanzhou Prefecture were originally Li people and were directly re-employed.

In Yazhou, he even built a temple for Lady Xian, including in Leizhou Prefecture and Haikang New City, where temples were built within the planned area.

Now that someone directly related to Lady Xian has gotten involved in this matter, Gao Cheng’s participation is no less than that of Feng.

Perhaps the only thing that could make Li Yuanji happy was the direct male descendants of the Xian family, as no one else got involved.

Li Yuanji's heart was full of complicated feelings for a moment, and then he became extremely calm. He now wanted to know more and more why these people caused this incident. It couldn't be because of the indicators this time, right?
Li Yuanji looked at Cen Wenben and said slowly: "Go on."

Looking at Li Yuanji who was still calm, Cen Wenben immediately continued to speak.

“The reason why this happened is that these people chose to go overseas to do business.

After interrogation, I learned that they were worried that the interests of their own people doing business at sea would be damaged if the common people went out to sea to do business, so they united to suppress the matter.

Wei Xiangcheng and others knew that the matter could not be suppressed for too long, so they set a deadline of one year. Only after one year would these people be allowed to go out to sea to do business, and at that time only a part of them would be allowed.

The people of the Yang and Wei families all received messages from their respective caravans. They used the power in their hands to match their own caravans with long-distance cargo ships, allowing the caravans of the Yang and Wei families to go out to sea to do business and seek profits.

As for the Feng family's people, they were secretly connected with each other because Feng Ang had very high demands on them and they saw that those merchants made huge profits every time they went out to sea, so they took the risk. After the Yang and Wei family's people contacted them, they hit it off and united.

Finally, Gao Cheng, under the joint persuasion of Feng Lian and Feng Ping, could not resist the temptation and joined forces with several people. He then brought in some of the original Li people's collateral branches and his own direct relatives to participate.

Now, these people have made a huge profit of 1.2 million taels of silver and embezzled 11 ocean-going cargo ships.

All the money has now been sealed up. Of the eleven ocean-going cargo ships that were embezzled, three are still overseas and have not yet returned. The remaining eight have all been seized and are docked at the port. "

After hearing this, Li Yuanji finally understood the hidden story.

The affairs of Guangzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture can be said to be simpler than those of Leizhou Prefecture. With so many people involved, it is easy to find out without any difficulty.

But what Li Yuanji couldn't accept was that Yang and Wei were so impatient to start collecting interest from him.

He remembered that the people who came with Yang Cheng and Wei Ye were the ones who were completely released to him by the Yang and Wei families. Now they actually went back on their word and let these people seek benefits for them. The most important thing was that they could have told him clearly, but in order to save him the favor, they let the people below do it. This made him more and more angry.

The most important thing is, are Yang Qingwan and Wei Gui aware of this matter?

Yang Qingwan and Wei Gui were his bedmates, especially Yang Qingwan. He had always been very good to Yang Qingwan, not only because of Yang Qingwan's beauty, but also because since he came to the Tang Dynasty, Yang Qingwan, a woman, had helped him a lot.

Especially a woman like this, who gave up a lot for him, he has always been compensating Yang Qingwan.

What made him feel better was that Feng Ang was unaware of the matter. As to whether Feng Ang was really unaware of it, he didn't know, but as long as no connection was found, he would assume that Feng Ang was really unaware of it.

Feng Ang did not get involved, and this was the only thing that made him feel relieved.

As for Gao Cheng, he didn't want to say anything anymore. He had given many generous treatments to Madam Xian's direct descendants. If these people continued to do so, he would not show any mercy to them.

Cen Wenben was quietly waiting for Li Yuanji's final decision. As for how to deal with these people, Cen Wenben did not have any suggestions for Li Yuanji this time. The truth was that these people were extremely sensitive and only Li Yuanji himself could handle it.

If it were just these few people on the surface, it would be fine. The key is what these people are involved in behind the scenes. He really doesn't dare to think about it. Now is only his first trial. He doesn't know whether Li Yuanji will investigate further.

Once we get deeper into the matter and some people are implicated, no one will dare to make a decision on this matter lightly.

Li Yuanji was still in deep thought and remained silent. After a long time, he slowly spoke.

"This matter will be kept secret for the time being. Meanwhile, you will go down and investigate. In addition to the current people, find out who else is involved. Find them all for me!
The handling of these people will be postponed temporarily until you have thoroughly investigated them and then determine the responsibility.

As for the people of the two prefectures, people should be arranged to appease them immediately. However, the number of people going out to sea to do business must be limited. If everyone goes, is there still a need to farm the land?

Don’t they need long-distance merchant ships to go out to sea?

Now that they cannot afford it, we can provide it to them for a fee. For example, a merchant ship worth 100,000 taels can be paid off in one year, but only 100,000 will be repaid. If it takes two years, the interest will be increased, and the interest will increase for every year later.

At the same time, five households must sign an agreement for a ship. If the debt is not repaid within a specified number of years, the household registration will be cancelled.

The price of the boats sold to the people should be relatively low, but at the same time, the boats and the people should be tied together to prevent them from buying the boats at a low price and then selling them to others at a high price. "

(End of this chapter)