Zengtou City ...... Now it should be called Jin Gaotang, although it has not been affected by the war between Liangshanbo and the Zeng family, but it has still become very depressed, the shops are closed and the streets are sparsely populated, dirty and messy, compared with the prosperity and hustle and bustle of the past, it is like a dead city!

Why is this happening? Liang Shanbo did not plunder the whole city, and the defeated army of the Zeng family did not regroup in Zengtou City to endanger the local area, who turned Zengtou City, the most prosperous grass market within a radius of hundreds of miles, into this?

This person is none other than Gao Lian, the governor of Gaotang Prefecture!

Since Gao Lian, the governor of Gaotang Prefecture, led the state soldiers into Zengtou City, the merchants and people here soon found that except for the fact that the owner of the city changed from Zeng Lane to Gao Lian, and the people guarding the city, or the people guarding them changed from the original Zengtou City sergeants to state soldiers, everything has not improved in the slightest, and the situation is even more difficult.

Because the first thing Gao Lian announced after coming to Zengtou City was that from now on, the taxes of Zengtou City would be collected twice, once according to the tax items stipulated by the Great Song Dynasty, and once according to the tax items stipulated by Zeng Lang.

Now the common people don't do it, they have no opinion on collecting taxes according to the tax items stipulated by the imperial court, and they have long expected to pay taxes like that, but the Zeng family has been driven away, and the taxes he set before are unreasonable, and they are illegal taxes, since they are illegal, why do they continue to pay?

Besides, the taxes that have been made are already very heavy, and the taxes of the imperial court are not low, only a little lower than those that have been made, and now both taxes have to be paid, which is simply unreasonable and too heavy, and the shops in the city can't afford it at all!

In this regard, Gao Lian's answer is very simple, he said, in the past, the imperial court did not know that this place was so prosperous, coupled with the deception, so it did not collect taxes, now that it knows, it is not only necessary to collect taxes, but also to collect the taxes that everyone missed before, so the original tax items that have been collected are not repeated taxes, but supplementary taxes!

This explanation is ridiculous!

The prosperity of Zengtou City is known far and near, and your Gaotang Prefecture and Zengtou City are only a few dozen miles away, will you not know? You're just afraid of Zeng and don't dare to take it. Although you didn't dare to collect taxes, we had to hand over the taxes to Zeng Rong, we have already paid taxes, where is the reason to make up now?

And all the people of the city scolded the high price, and at the same time no one paid taxes.

Gao Lian did even more, he first ordered the state soldiers to close the city gate, only after paying all the taxes can you enter and exit the city with documents, Zengtou City relies on the turnover of goods, this city gate is closed, the goods outside can not come in, the goods inside can not get out, what else to do in this business?

But the people of Zengtou City are not afraid, when Zeng Rong just occupied Zengtou City, he was cheaper than you and a bastard, at that time, it was the joint efforts of the people of the whole city that forced Zeng Rong to make concessions, and the previous situation was formed, he dared to be so arrogant, in addition to being a foreign expatriate, but also because he was self-made, without any scruples, but you are a high-ranking official of the imperial court, aren't you afraid that we will sue you? !

But it turned out to be ...... Gao Lian was indeed not afraid, and even if he knew that the people in the city had gone to the transfer envoy (Note 1) to complain, he did not make any obstacles, but on the contrary, he ordered the state soldiers to open the city gate and send these people who had planned to sneak out of the city out of the city.

Then when the people in the city anxiously waited for the people who went to complain to come back, everyone learned from the blue noses and swollen faces of those people and the trembling answers that the pleadings sent by the people who went to complain were not only like stones sinking into the sea, but also were caught in the palace by the people of the transfer envoys, saying that they slandered the officials of the imperial court, and that the first offense was only re-beaten with 30 boards, and if they dared to commit it again next time, they would be severely punished!

For such a violation of law and discipline, the transfer envoy not only does not uphold justice, but also helps to abuse it? The people of the city were just dumbfounded.

But soon, an inside piece of information came out, and it turned out that Gao Lian was the younger brother of Gao Yu, the imperial lieutenant!

No wonder he is so fearless, no wonder even the transshipment department is so indiscriminate, it turns out that he is so ......!

The people in the city finally understood that if Zeng Lang was a vicious wolf, then Gao Lian was a vicious tiger, and it was a vicious tiger with the support of his master!

As a result, those who could not bear the oppression reluctantly left the business and homes that they had lived for decades and worked hard to build, and left Zengtou City.

Those who were reluctant to leave had to pay two taxes, and the business was reopened, but it was not as good as before!

Zengtou City has shown signs of ruin!

Is Gao Lian a fool? It shouldn't be, even if he is a Gaotang Zhizhou who relied on Gao Yu's talent, he shouldn't be an idiot,

Then why did he make a good Zengtou City like this? Doesn't he understand that this act of killing chickens and eggs is the most ignorant and unfar-sighted practice?

He knew, but he didn't care, and besides, he was furious!

At this moment, he was standing in the Zeng Mansion, although he had obtained such a prosperous mansion for nothing, but his face did not have the slightest joy, on the contrary, his front was full of state soldiers digging holes in the wall, and the Zeng Mansion that had taken a lot of effort to build the Zeng Mansion had become as if it had just suffered an earthquake.

And this has been a sight for many days.

"My lord," a staff member wiped his sweat and stepped forward to report, "My lord, I have been digging for three days, and I am about to dig up the Zeng family, except for digging out a dozen corpses that are estimated to have been dead for several years, not a single copper plate has been dug up, and there is really no need to look for it anymore." ”

Gao Lian's face became even more ugly, "What did you interrogate from those people's mouths?" ”

"They were all tortured, and they all said that they didn't know if the Zeng family still had a treasure room and a cave."

"Keep fighting! I don't believe I can't pry their mouths open! ”

"Your Excellency...... that ......,"

"Say!"

"According to the villain, there should be no need to fight anymore, I have already checked out, they are all ordinary subordinates and soldiers of the Zeng family, the Zeng family should not tell them such an important matter, and if they continue to fight, even if they are all killed, they can't ask."

"Doesn't anyone know?!"

"Alas, there should be, but they were all killed by the Liangshan Bo thief, and all the people in Zengtou City saw it."

"Liangshan thief Kou ......! How much money do you estimate for the Zeng family that was robbed by the Liangshan thieves? ”

"Those people said that the money and treasures that had been laid out of the secret room were piled up, and they filled dozens of large chests, and they did not know the exact number, and the villain tried and found with the same large boxes, and even if the least number was counted, the money was not to mention...... Four million pieces! ”

"Smack!" A tea bowl was thrown to the ground by Gao Lian, and the state soldiers who were digging in the yard were stunned.

"Liangshan thieves! Liangshan Bandits! I want to exterminate the Liangshan bandits! Gao Lian roared angrily!

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Note: The local administrative division of the Great Song Dynasty is divided into three levels, the county is the first level, the government, the prefecture, the military, and the prison are the first level, and the "road" is the highest level.

But in reality, the "road" did not become an independent first-level administrative unit, because its top administrator alone has several heads, such as the pacification envoy, who is responsible for the finance, taxation and supervision of the road. There can be a prison department to be in charge of the prison on the road. There is a promotion of Changping Division, responsible for the warehousing of the road. There is a pacification department, which is responsible for the security of the road, military. The various envoys divided the powers of the road, and there was no de facto supreme officer. The reason for this is that the emperor of the Song Dynasty was afraid of the phenomenon of rebellion and seizure of power during the period of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms in the late Tang Dynasty, so he divided the supreme power of the road into four and let them restrain each other.

But relatively speaking, the power of the transshipment envoy is greater and more practical, because in addition to having the power of finance and taxation, he also supervises and evaluates the local officials of the road or several roads, scientific examinations, etc., and its highest official is called "the water and land transfer envoy of a certain road and prefecture", referred to as the transshipment envoy, and the official office is called the transshipment envoy.