The road to Jianghu started from the martial arts hall

Chapter 428 Salt Tickets and Land
Fang Xun and his party returned home without causing any commotion in the Prince of Yue's mansion.

It has been nearly three years since Yu Jiaolong ascended the throne. Now it is no longer the same as when she first ascended the throne. The Yue Palace has suffered heavy casualties, and a bunch of dizzying messes are waiting for her to clean up.

After three years of hard work, the country had already recovered its vitality, and was even better in all aspects than when the old King of Yue was. Of course, this was also due to the revival of inspiration.

After the revival of spiritual power, there are more and more Grandmasters and Grandmasters, and their strength on paper has already surpassed that of before.

After everything was on the right track, not only Fang Xun, but even Yu Jiaolong, the King of Yue, no longer had to do everything personally. Instead, they just gave general directions and let their subordinates execute them. They also had more free time to practice every day.

She was only away for four months, so the operation of the Prince of Yue's Mansion was not suspended. However, there were indeed some documents piled up that needed her to review in person.

Early in the morning, Yu Jiaolong and Fang Xun got up from the bed, had breakfast together, and then went to the study to deal with official documents.

Fang Xun jumped onto the wooden kite and soared into the sky, speeding away towards the direction of Dongting Prefecture.

Thousands of feet in the sky, in addition to Fang Xun, Old Man Mo, the commander of the Jiangnan Guard Xiao Zhen, and the chief secretary of the royal palace Li Muzhi were also on the back of the wooden kite.

Xiao Zhen and Li Muzhi had complicated expressions on their faces. They looked at Fang Xun with an expression as if they wanted to say something but were hesitant to speak. They wanted to say something but were hesitant to do so.

When Old Man Mo saw the two of them like this, he shook his head in his heart.

Fang Xun seemed to be thinking about something. After a long while, he looked at Old Man Mo and spoke.

"Old man, you are the director of Jiangzhou Film Market. You should know the details of the film market very well. Tell me about the film market."

"Why are you suddenly concerned about the film market?"

Old Man Mo was stunned for a moment, but he didn't care and started to tell the story in detail.

"Outsiders speculate that the big boss behind the film market is a certain emperor from Shuntian Prefecture. Although this is not true, it does have some truth to it."

"The film market is indeed opened by the imperial court."

Fang Xun understood immediately after hearing this. The Film Market was well-known in the martial arts world, with branches all over the country. Almost every prefecture in the Central Plains had a Film Market. Many things that were inconvenient to sell could be seen in the Film Market.

The Black Water Abyss alone was enough to make the imperial court furious, not to mention the film market. The mistake was originally made by the imperial court. Fang Xun even doubted whether Wan Haoren, who sat on the dragon throne in the capital, could sleep well every day.

".The film market is jointly managed by the Six Gates and the Imperial Clan Court. The personnel of each branch are all secret detectives of the Six Gates, and they are only responsible to the Six Gates headquarters in Shuntian Prefecture.

Don’t look at me as the director of Jiangzhou Film Market. Usually, those secret detectives obey my orders. But once I interfere with the personnel appointment power, the director’s hat will be taken off within a day. It’s almost the same in other places.”

After hearing this, Fang Xun suddenly realized that he roughly understood the nature of the film market. Basically, it serves as the eyes and ears of the court, monitoring any movement in the underworld.

The heads of the film market branches in each state are all famous local masters, which can be regarded as outsourcing the management rights of the branch. Some of them are people from the imperial court, while others are masters of the martial arts world.

The secret detectives under him are responsible for collecting various intelligence information from the guests who come and go, while the supervisor is happily making money, and everyone does not interfere with each other.

Old Man Mo asked again in confusion: "Why are you suddenly asking about the film market?"

Fang Xun smiled and said, "Nothing, I just thought that the largest private salt channel in Dongting Prefecture seems to be controlled by the local film market."

"Smuggled salt?" Old Man Mo became even more confused.

Fang Xun did not explain immediately, but asked him a question.

"Old man, do you think that besides eating, people also need to eat salt?"

Old Man Mo was stunned for a moment, but soon understood something and said, "You want to borrow salt to check the household registration?"

Fang Xun nodded: "We all know that the government's household registration is unreliable. There are many tenants hiding in the homes of local gentry. Their names will not be recorded in the government's files, but they also need to eat salt!"

From now on, every household in Dongting Prefecture who wants to eat salt must go to the government to buy a ticket. Only with a salt ticket can they buy salt. Otherwise, they will be punished as if they were selling private salt!"

Li Muzhi had a sad look on his face, while Xiao Zhen had cold sweat on his forehead.

Old Man Mo nodded and said, "Yes, every dynasty has been a monopoly on salt profits, but private salt is too profitable and has been banned repeatedly. However, Dongting Prefecture is only a prefecture, so it is easy to completely eliminate private salt.

When the time comes, we only need to check the accounts to know how many people in our jurisdiction consume salt!"

At this time, Xiao Zhen was sweating all over and couldn't hold it in any longer. He quickly bowed and said, "Let Senior Mo and Lord Hou know that the director of the Dongting Prefecture Film Market is my second uncle."

Fang Xun was stunned for a moment, but when he saw the other person's nervous expression, he smiled and comforted him.

"Don't be nervous, Commander Xiao. Since he is your second uncle, we are all family members. It's not for nothing."

Unexpectedly, before he could finish his words, Xiao Zhen became even more nervous.

"The prince and the marquis have worked hard for the development of their fiefdom, how dare Xiao Zhen ask for compensation? When I return home this time, I will immediately ask my second uncle to hand over the salt road and all the account books!"

Fang Xun shook his head: "Commander Xiao, you are too polite. We don't have such a rule in our palace. Since your family has suffered a loss, there must be compensation!"

Seeing that the other party's tone left no room for doubt, Xiao Zhen breathed a sigh of relief and thanked him, "My lord, you are fair!" Fang Xun nodded, then turned to Li Muzhi, which immediately made him feel nervous.

This time the two of them went to Dongting Mansion together to discuss the affairs of the elder families. They gathered all the households in Dongting Mansion together and conveyed Yu Jiaolong's intentions.

In the next few years, the palace will carry out a thorough reform of Dongting Prefecture, and all previous rules, whether explicit or implicit, will be abolished.

For example, this land survey and population census is just the beginning. Afterwards, the official system will be reformed and all of them will be replaced with the royal family's loyal followers!

This will naturally cause serious damage to the interests of these veteran families.

But Yu Jiaolong didn't want to kill too many people because of their old friendship.

If they feel unhappy living in the Prince of Yue's Mansion, they can go and participate in the Northern Expedition, and Yu Jiaolong will arrange everything for them.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to go north, but you will only be able to live as a rich man in Dongting Prefecture and enjoy your old age.

Xiao Zhen and Li Muzhi came forward. They are the two people with the highest status and the strongest power in this group. Having them come forward to intercede can serve as a buffer.

Otherwise, when Yu Jiaolong goes to Dongting Mansion in person, they will completely fall out.

Li Muzhi felt complicated when Fang Xun looked at him again. He sighed for his old acquaintances in Dongting Mansion. Dongting Mansion was so small that everyone knew each other. He hoped that they could part ways in peace this time.

"Li Changshi, you used to be the Tongpan of Dongting Prefecture. You should be familiar with the household registration books of Dongting Prefecture, right?"

Li Muzhi quickly replied.

"My Lord, the population of Dongting Prefecture is over three million households, estimated to be around twelve million people, with 30 million acres of land."

A series of data came out of his mouth, all of which were familiar to him. Fang Xun couldn't help but sigh after listening to his report.

"If you calculate it this way, on average, each person has only a little more than one mu but less than two mu of land. Although the eight states in the south of the Yangtze River enjoy good weather and are known as the land of fish and rice, each mu can only yield less than three shi of rice per year. Some good land can even yield five or six shi.

But after deducting all the exploitation and taxes, ordinary people can barely get enough food and clothing. If something happens, such as getting sick, I am afraid they can't even make a living."

This time it was Li Muzhi's turn to break out in cold sweat, but Fang Xun continued talking.

"Haha, this is really shocking. If Dongting Prefecture really only had this much farmland, it would have suffered from famine a long time ago. I think every household has at least hidden several times more!"

Fang Xun chuckled, but it made Li Muzhi's forehead sweat even more, and he said with a look of panic.

"I am guilty. This is all my fault."

"Okay, I don't mean to blame you," Fang Xun shook his head, "I just want to let you know why I have to make things difficult for those elder families.

It's not that I want to make things difficult for them, but they have made no contribution to the palace at all, yet they feel at ease sucking the blood of the palace from us!

Zhao Ning and I have been busy and exhausted, not to support a group of blood-sucking parasites! "

After hearing this, Li Muzhi bowed solemnly and said, "I understand your intention, Lord. I will not let you down on this trip!"

At the same time, he was also feeling fortunate that he was transferred from his fiefdom to his side by Yu Jiaolong three years ago and that he had corrected his position early on. Otherwise, his Li family would have been liquidated by Fang Xun and Yu Jiaolong!

Xiao Zhen also felt sad.

Although this Marquis Lin Chuan claimed to be a son-in-law and would not usually interfere in the specific affairs of the palace, he knew that the palace's ability to recover its strength and move to a higher level in the past three years was inseparable from this Marquis Lin Chuan who was a son-in-law.

Sometimes, compared to the words of Yu Jiaolong, the King of Yue, Fang Xun's words were more important to him, and he dared not miss a single word.

Even though Xiao Zhen has now achieved the status of Yangshen Grandmaster, he can still feel Fang Xun's terrifying strength more clearly.

Fang Xun sensed the awe in the two people's emotions and sighed as well.

"After all, they are the elders who watched Zhao Ning grow up. I am not really unkind. As the saying goes, three chances is the limit. I will give them two chances. If they are still stubborn after the third time..."

Having said that, Fang Xun shook his head again and said no more.

Xiao Zhen and Li Mu were silent, and Old Man Mo was also shaking his head in his heart.

The four of them fell silent immediately, leaving only the wooden kite still flying in the air, all the way towards the direction of Dongting Prefecture, as if it would never get tired.

An hour later, they arrived at the territory of Dongting Prefecture.

I saw that the earth was desolate, the weeds on the roadside were dry, and the leaves were yellow.

There were also rows of officials dressed in dark brown official uniforms heading to various towns and villages to measure the land.

Yu Jiaolong and Fang Xun are both decisive and swift. They just returned to the palace yesterday. Early this morning, government offices in various places in Dongting Prefecture dispatched a large number of personnel, which was also inseparable from the credit of the "Wuwo Fanyin" communication instrument.

(End of this chapter)