Breathing tax, eating tax, talking tax!
"Ah!"
A miserable scream could be heard from outside. This scream was extremely mournful, causing everyone in the hall to tremble. The timid officials were so frightened that they trembled.
Wang Xu's result made everyone feel lingering fear. Now that they were facing Li Ke, they really had no other thoughts.
There was only reverence in his heart, and no other thoughts!
Li Ke looked at everyone expressionlessly. There were ten people kneeling on the ground, and there were six people who were standing.
In the dignified Yizhou, only sixteen people were considered innocent!
No, it wasn't sixteen people who were considered innocent!
Only six of them were innocent!
The other ten people only chose the right one.
Looking at these 16 people, Li Ke's face was as cold as ice.
He had never thought that there would be such a hell-like place under the golden age of Zhenguan.
This time, he was lucky to have transmigrated.
But what if he didn't transmigrate?
How much more pain would those commoners have to suffer?
How much longer would those vermin bastards continue to oppress the people?
Perhaps it was because he was infected by the emotions of the Virtuous King Li Ke, so when he saw this kind of thing happen, he was extremely angry!
Fortunately, the trash had almost been cleaned up.
The only thing left was to mend the broken Yizhou.
Li Ke took a deep breath and let out the anger in his heart. Then, the expression on his face finally softened a little.
He looked at the sixteen people in front of him and slowly said,"Although some of you have also committed crimes, now is the time for this king to use people. Moreover, you know how to repent, so this king will give you a chance!”
"Those who have bribed the higher-ups will be demoted by one rank and temporarily stay in their original positions. If you perform well, your merits and demerits will offset each other, and this king will not make things difficult for you!”
" But if you continue to do evil…"
Li Ke's eyes flashed with a cold light. He swept his gaze across these officials and saw that all of them instantly fell silent like cicadas in winter. All of them lowered their heads and did not dare to look at Li Ke at all.
"Humph!"
Li Ke didn't say anything else and only snorted coldly.
However, this cold snort made all the officials feel as if they had fallen into an ice cave. They did not dare to have any more distracting thoughts.
The officials who were kneeling on the ground kept kowtowing and said,""I will enforce the law impartially in the future and will never do anything that violates the law again!”
"I know my mistake, I won't do it again!”
"This lowly official admits his punishment and will follow Your Highness's lead in the future!”
"In the future, we will follow Your Highness's lead!"
Everyone kowtowed to Li Ke, but the six standing officials also kowtowed to express their loyalty.
Seeing this, Li Ke nodded and said,"Get up!"
"I don't care what Yizhou was like before, but now, get rid of all those dirty things! Whatever this king says, do it! You don't need to ask for any reason, just listen to this king's orders!”
"Yes, yes!"
"I know!"
All the officials stood up and agreed.
Li Ke glanced at everyone and immediately said indifferently,"Who is in charge of household registration and taxes? Tell this king about the current situation in Yizhou.”
Soon, an official walked out shakily. He bowed to Li Ke and said,"Your Highness, I am the official of the government office. I have a lot of money and am in charge of this work.“
"Quite a lot of money?"
Li Ke glanced at the official and said lightly,""What a unique name! Tell me."
Qian Buduo quickly replied," Your Highness, ever since His Majesty ascended the throne, Yizhou has been under the jurisdiction of Jiannan Road. Currently, Yizhou has ten counties under its jurisdiction. They are Chengdu County, Shu County, Xindu County, Xinfan County, Xipu County, Shuangliu County, Guangdu County, Pi County, Wenjiang County, and Lingchi County.”
"Because Yizhou has many mountains and rivers, even though there are only ten counties, it covers a large area of more than 500,000 square kilometers. The population is scattered, with the Miao and Han people leading the way. The population is about 300,000.”
"What is the proportion of the Miao and Han population? How is their relationship?" Li Ke suddenly asked.
Since ancient times, ethnic issues had been difficult to resolve, especially in Sichuan. If the ethnic issues could not be resolved, it would definitely be a big problem for Li Ke to manage Yizhou.
Qian Buduo hesitated for a moment before saying,""The Miao people only make up about 20 - 30% of the population, about 70,000 people. As for their relationship with the Han people, it's not very friendly.”
"Of course, they are all barbarians. We look down on them. Usually, they hide in the Miao stockade village. Other than paying taxes and trading with us, they have almost no communication.”
"So, your relationship is very bad?"
Li Ke frowned. Although Qian Buduo had said it very subtly, how could Li Ke not see through these lies?
He thought for a moment and had some ideas on how to govern the Miao village. However, whether these ideas were practical or not would depend on whether he would personally go to the Miao village.
He looked at Qian Quite a Few and asked,"What about taxes?" Before I came to Yizhou, I had seen the taxes there. Ever since my father ascended the throne, taxes have been reduced across the board. Every household's taxes are less than one-tenth of what they were in the Han Dynasty, but the taxes collected are still not enough. They even need the court to reverse the allocation. What's going on?”
"This…this…"
Qian Buduo immediately hesitated. Cold sweat flowed down his face, instantly soaking his clothes.
"If you don't say it, then don't say it in the future…" Li Ke said directly when he saw this.
Qian Buduo's body trembled when he heard this.
He did not dare to hide anything and quickly said," Reporting to Your Highness, the taxes collected from the people every year are actually thirty times more than the taxes stipulated by the court. However, most of it goes into the pockets of Member Yang, so, so…"
"Thirty times the tax?"
"Where did the thirty times tax come from?" Li Ke asked expressionlessly.”
" This..." Qian Buduo swallowed and said,""These, these are all taxes set by Member Yang. In order to make the people pay more taxes, he set many taxes that are not stipulated by the imperial court.”
"Oh? What taxes are there?" Li Ke was really interested. How could he collect taxes 30 times more!
" There's…there's a breathing tax, and…there's a food tax…and…there's a talking tax, a walking tax, a rain tax, and a sight tax…" Qian Buduo said with a trembling voice.
Bang!
Before Qian Buduo could finish his sentence, a loud bang was heard. Li Ke smashed the table with his palm.
Qian Buduo was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed."Your Highness, this, this was all done by Member Yang. It has nothing to do with me. I tried to persuade him, but he didn't listen! He said that the commoners were all fat sheep. If he did not take advantage of them, he would be punished by the heavens!”
"Yang-Cheng-Member-"
Li Ke gritted his teeth and said his name word by word. Then, he said directly,"Someone come!"
"Your subordinate is here!" He Chenglin, the head of the personal guards, walked out.
Li Ke's gaze was cold as he said," Pass down the order. Put up a notice saying that at 3:45 pm tomorrow, this king will skin this member Yang alive at the market entrance!"!”
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