Chapter 65: law

"So there was no tax on evil before?" Xia Fan asked.

"Yes, this is something that came out after Master Hu took office. He said

that evil spirits are becoming more frequent and it is difficult to cope with

the allocations above, so the county residents are allowed to share the

points. Blessed, you can talk to the big people above Is it true that we can't

afford this money..."

At the end of the talk, the old man stood up tremblingly on the door frame, as

if he wanted to kneel down, Xia Fan quickly got up and supported him.

"I will find a way, you don't have to rush for a while. By the way, when did

the magistrate take office?"

"I remember... ten years ago."

Ten years and eight years... the difference is not that far, plus the later

tax on evil, is this some kind of coincidence?

wait again! An electric light flashed across Xia Fan's head. If we deduced

from this guess, then the stable days of the previous ten years, wouldn't it

be--

He picked up the bowl and drank the cold well water, making his voice not

sound so dry, "Do you remember how many magistrates changed in Gaoshan

County?"

"This..." The old man hesitated, "I don't know about my father's generation,

but in the past few decades, there should be four or five. The short is three

to four years, and the long is more than ten years."

"How long did the magistrate before Master Hu work?"

"It's pretty long, about fifteen or six years."

In fifteen or six years, isn't this perfectly connected with the frequency of

evil spirits?

Xia Fan suddenly felt cold behind his back.

He has always wanted to find clues from anomalous cases or disappearances, but

now he realizes that the clues are probably right in front of him.

"By the way, do you remember the name of the magistrate? Did he get promoted

or transferred away, or..."

"Hui En Gong, that adult whose surname is Zhu, has passed away."

"How did you die?" Xia Fan asked subconsciously.

"I heard that I was entangled in unclean things and eventually died of

illness."

……

When the sky was set off by the afterglow as a ** orange-red, Xia Fan

returned to the inn.

In order to avoid omissions and misinformation, he deliberately visited

several households that had received funding.

The answers are basically the same.

The frequency of appearance of evil spirits and the replacement time of local

officials present a strange correspondence.

After setting up the fox demon first, Xia Fan summoned the other companions

into a wing, and said what he had heard from beginning to end.

After listening to the final narration, Wei Wushuang took a breath, his eyes

widened in disbelief, "Do you suspect that Hu Zhixian is related to this

matter?"

"It's just a guess at the moment, I want to hear your opinions."

"But there really wasn't any big problem in the county--"

"No major problem is the problem," Wang Renzhi interrupted Wei Wushuang. "If

you want more than a dozen lives to disappear silently, it is indeed more

convenient to have official cover."

"Where does anyone come from?"

"Come from outside!"

"Huh?" Wei Wushuang didn't expect the other party to answer that way, he

couldn't help but pause, "Master County, what did he picture..."

"Picture money! Isn't there an evil tax? I think he just wants to make money!"

Wang Renzhi patted Xia Fan's shoulder appreciatively, "Oh, you are quite

courageous, I was wrong before. I count on you."

"But...that's actually not much money." Wei Wushuang whispered.

"What? Not much?" Prince Wang raised his brows.

"While listening to Brother Xia just now, I thought about it in my mind. The

evil tax is only collected from neighbourhoods that have been attacked by

evil. Every household is ten taels of silver, and a block is only 300

households, and the sale of land can be discounted. The county magistrate can

also be exempt from farming, and 300 households can receive two thousand

taels. In addition, he will give the money to the families of the victims, and

each person can receive 35 taels. In addition to the hard work of errands and

quick catches, the magistrate will probably be able to save this amount--" Wei

Wushuang stretched out a finger.

"One thousand?"

"Almost, and this is already a high estimate."

"Is there only so little?"

"Of course I can't say that one thousand taels of cash is a small amount--"

Wei Wushuang glanced at Xia Fan secretly, "It's just that it's obviously not

very cost-effective compared to what to do."

"What if he didn't do it for money?" Shangguan Cai said suddenly.

"What else is there then?"

"If you only want money, it would be unreasonable to collect taxes uniformly.

Instead of setting up so many reductions and exemptions, it is better to

expand the scope of apportionment and draw more from the big family." She drew

out half of her spear and swiped it lightly on the ground. "He The purpose of

setting this line is to push those who are nervous at hand into desperation

without affecting the majority of the county."

"You mean... the field?" Wei Wushuang reacted quickly.

"Inaccurate, he wants both fields and people, or what he wants is the grain

produced in the fields." Shangguan Cai slightly raised her mouth, "You may not

know that the locust plague occurred in Fengguo last year, which affected

several western states. Foods that can be eaten have been fired up to sky-high

prices, and this year has not completely subsided, so that riots have occurred

in many places. And similar things happened seven or eight years ago."

"Where did you hear this news?" Wei Wushuang asked in amazement

~www.mtlnovel.com~His family sells food, and he doesn't even know about it.

"Gyeonggi always has no shortage of well-informed people, provided that you

can find them." She spread her hands, "Of course, if you want to resell the

food at this time, you will find your own way, like yours, the government

permits you, don't you know? It makes no difference. The only thing that can

sell high prices is the private grain that has not been counted, and it has to

be shipped to Fengguo. A small county magistrate is probably just a partner."

"I feel that neither of these may be the main motivation."

Xia Fan said slowly after listening to everyone's speech.

"What's your opinion?" Shangguan Cai asked with interest.

"It's not a good opinion. It's just that the prefects and counties didn't

mention the tax elimination more than 20 years ago, and the locust plagues are

unlikely to happen every year." Xia Fan looked around everyone, "but evil

incidents still appeared frequently at that time, so we might as well. Think

of things simpler."

"Simplicity means..."

"Someone instructed, bought out, or required the magistrate to do so. This

included risk compensation. Compared with his predecessor, Hu Zhixian, the

only difference is that the former is more greedy."

His summary caused a brief silence in the wing.

"That... Brother Xia," Wei Wushuang cleared his throat after a while, "After

all this, it's just everyone's guess. If there is no actual evidence, no one

will believe us. It would be slanderous to say it. Suspect of court

officials."

"Yes, but at least we have the direction for further investigation." Xia Fan

stood up, "The next step is to find out the other party's flaws!"

"You already have an idea?"

"That's right," he decided to make a quick decision, not to give the opponent

a chance to be calm, "the result will be known in one day tomorrow."