From a freeloader to a world leader

Chapter 329 What does this mean?

On April 25th, Emperor Yuanfeng and his entourage had entered Hengzhou Prefecture.

We conducted a relatively detailed investigation of Huayang and Hengshan counties and found that there was indeed no head tax for entering the city that was common in other prefectures and counties along the way, and that the taxes on rural farmers were also quite low.

Basically, only the minimum tax to be paid to the empire was retained.

This made Lu Jinxi so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth.

He had been navigating the empire for thirty or forty years, and had been engaged in the specific work of the Ministry of Revenue.

Having walked all the way from the county town to the imperial court, he was well aware of all the bad habits in the local areas of the empire and some bad rules that were forced upon him.

This is because the imperial court only provided salaries to some local officials of certain ranks.

All the yamen runners in other government offices do not receive any salary.

Firstly, it was impossible to manage it, and secondly, there was really not enough silver to feed the huge number of yamen officials, which were dozens of times more than the officials of high rank.

For example, a county town would generally have no more than ten officials of high rank.

However, there were more than a hundred clerks in the six departments of Li, Hu, Li, Bing, Xing, and Gong alone, not including other departments, such as granary, salt room, warehouse, etc.

If all these people are added together, the number of clerks in a county will not be less than 200.

So where do these people’s salaries and benefits come from?

This forced the local governments to add some miscellaneous taxes on top of the most basic taxes levied by the imperial court.

Often these taxes were several times higher than those collected by the imperial court.

Moreover, it will give local government officials an excuse to extort money from the people in a legitimate manner.

Generally speaking, each dynasty will have stricter control at the beginning.

Besides, at the beginning, the aristocratic families of yamen runners had not yet been formed and their influence was small.

But as the court lasted longer, more and more people came to rely on it for a living, and its influence grew, and gradually a local community of interests was formed.

Often these yamen runners' families would sideline the superiors sent by the court, or win them over to form alliances with them.

But now, the Hengzhou government has actually cancelled most of the local taxes, and is paying the salaries of local yamen runners directly from the government office, and has also ordered them not to interfere in local affairs.

During the four or five days of investigation, Lu Jinxi and Li Shimin both discovered that although there were still a small number of yamen runners who continued to do as they pleased and, in addition to receiving salaries from the yamen, they also continued to take bribes.

But more than half of the yamen runners took a wait-and-see attitude and took much less action.

This made the hundreds of high-ranking officials who came with Emperor Yuanfeng simply unable to believe their eyes.

When did the yamen runners of our Great Sui Empire develop such high quality?

Amid this doubt, Emperor Yuanfeng and his entourage arrived at the Ten-Li Pavilion north of Hengzhou City on the first day of May, the place where Sun Shan sang the farewell song for his brother-in-law.

From a long distance away, they saw red brick houses of varying heights on both sides of the official road.

After inquiring, we learned that this was a new type of building material created when the Datong community was built in Hengzhou City last year.

Compared with traditional blue bricks, it is much smaller in size.

Its refining time and cost are much smaller than those of blue bricks.

Even if we calculate it with the same volume, it will be more than half the price.

The closer they got to the Ten-Li Long Pavilion area that came to greet them, the more prosperous it seemed. It was even more prosperous than many of the county towns along the way.

Unlike other county governments, except for the city where the government office is located, the area outside the city is desolate.

"Welcome to the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

Following Heng Wang Yang Yuanqing's loud shout and kneeling, tens of thousands of people in the entire Shili Changting all knelt on the ground and shouted along with Heng Wang.

Sun Shan also followed in the crowd. This time, he was a representative of the students of Chuanshan College and followed the headmaster Wang Fuzhi.

He is not like the people in this world who are greatly shocked by the imperial power.

While shouting, he looked up and glanced secretly.

I saw that more than 100 meters away, on the huge dragon chariot, a middle-aged man who was not very tall and a little thin, was smiling and shouting to the dark crowd: "Stand up!"

At this moment, Sun Shan's eyes were so sharp that even from such a distance, he could still clearly see the haggard face of Emperor Yuanfeng. He saw that he was only in his early forties, but his temples were already half white, and he looked old.

He sighed in his heart: Oh, it's not easy to be the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, especially when the emperor is in a precarious situation. It's like steering a sinking ship and struggling desperately.

Emperor Yuanfeng looked around the ten-mile long pavilion, which was more prosperous than other county towns. He saw a banner that read: "We warmly welcome Your Majesty to Hengzhou for inspection!"

Suddenly, he felt someone looking at him, so he followed the feeling and looked away.

I saw that not far behind King Heng, there was a tall and strong man, who seemed to shake his head before I swept him away.

I was slightly stunned: Who? How dare you look around when you are welcoming the Holy Emperor?

Could it be that kid Sun Shan?

So, he stared at Sun Shan's direction and took another look.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After Yang Yuanqing stood up, he led Zhang Pingan and other high-ranking officials of Hengzhou to approach Emperor Yuanfeng, saying, "Your Majesty, you have worked hard on the journey! We should have been welcoming you thirty miles away-----"

"It doesn't matter. This is my order. I have strictly ordered officials of all levels not to jump over the city walls to welcome me this time. If you, Prince Heng, follow my orders, then what is there for me to inspect?"

"Your Majesty, this is because you are considerate of the people and take care of their opinions. This is a favor to the people of the Great Sui Dynasty."

After a long and meaningless greeting, Yang Yuanqing introduced everyone to Emperor Yuanfeng one by one.

At this time, Wang Fuzhi, the principal of one of the four major academies in the empire, also followed behind them and walked forward step by step.

At the same time, he glared at Sun Shan, and seeing that he was smiling and looked somewhat indifferent, he gave him a warning with his eyes.

In fact, when Sun Shan came closer, not only Emperor Yuanfeng saw him clearly, but other high-ranking officials of the court also saw Sun Shan clearly.

There was no way around it. Among this group of old and middle-aged men, his tall height, which was almost a head taller than theirs, and his ethereal look made it easy for anyone to notice his presence and see his brilliance.

Yang Yuanqing saw Sun Shan finally following behind Wang Fuzhi, and he slowly approached him, smiling happily, "Your Majesty, let me introduce you to Sun Shan, the famous master of Hengzhou Chuanshan Academy. Today, he is here as a representative of the academy to welcome you!"

As he spoke, Yang Yuanqing glared at Sun Shan seriously and said, "Sun Shan, you haven't seen the emperor yet. Greetings, His Majesty!"

It is indeed this guy!

He is such a handsome man, one in a million!

Emperor Yuanfeng said nothing, but looked at him quietly, as if he was the tall young man who had just looked up at him.

"Student Sun Shan, on behalf of our Chuanshan Academy, all teachers and students welcome the emperor to Hengzhou for inspection. I wish the emperor good health, a prosperous country, and a strong empire!"

"Good! What a good young man! So you are Sun Shan. I heard that you are an expert in poetry. Can you write a poem for the couplet based on this scene?"

When these words were spoken, not only Sun Shan was stunned.

All the high-ranking officials of Hengzhou, as well as the high-ranking officials of the imperial court and the officials of Chuzhou who followed them, were also stunned.

No one expected that the first thing Emperor Yuanfeng said when he met Sun Shan was to ask him to write poems and sing songs for him.

What does it mean?