There are some things that you can say in private.

But this is not something that anyone can say.

If people like Cheng Zhijie and Fang Xuanling can say something, they have to think about it in front of Ma Zhou, and if they have to think about it in front of Ma Zhou, in front of Li Xiyu and these clansmen, it must not be said.

Of course, even if they don't say these words, everyone knows about them, after all, what the emperor has been doing, as long as the whole world understands it, can see it.

"Hey, the old man does have concerns about this......" Li Xianyu shook his head helplessly.

Cheng Zhijie's words are so clear, how can Li Xiyu be embarrassed to hide?

Besides, it's not a hidden problem.

If the imperial court can know about corruption in taxation, don't other aspects know about it? The imperial court must have known, which is why Li Xiyu asked Cheng Zhijie before this matter was over.

If this matter is not over, then the entire Yangzhou officialdom will be turned upside down, and the Yangzhou officialdom will be turned upside down, and there will never be any good results for him, the governor of Yangzhou.

At the very least, it is difficult to say whether the position of the governor of Jiangnan Province will fall on his head.

Although Li Xiyu is not the kind of person who particularly cares about official positions, with the hope of promotion, who doesn't want to take another step up?

Especially now that the restrictions of the clan are becoming more and more severe, Li Xiyu is an understanding person, so he did not complain about Li Yuanji in this regard, on the contrary, he supported Li Yuanji's decision, and in his own line, he always went to educate the clan, and did not rely on the identity of the clan to do some shameless things.

Cheng Zhijie is a good person, don't look at the muddy performance on weekdays, but this product in his heart is better than anyone else.

Problematic!

With Li Xiyu's exclamation, he saw that there was a problem here.

Of course, what's the problem? Do you still need to think about it?

It must be that Li Xiyu discovered other corruption problems, if you say it more clearly, it may involve one of Li Xiyu's henchmen, so he is so helpless and has this kind of worry.

However, as a human spirit, how could Cheng Zhijie break the casserole and ask the end in this kind of thing? Isn't that purely for Li Xiyu to not come to the stage?

"The environment has changed, and we can't expect everyone to look at piles of money in front of them every day and not be moved, so we still have a long way to go, and we still have to grasp it in terms of thinking." Cheng Zhijie said: "This is what Your Majesty said. ”

However, there is another sentence behind Li Yuanji, which Cheng Zhijie did not say.

Of course, ideology can play a certain role, but officials are also human beings, have families, and have their own lives, so just because they have become officials, they should not be asked not to eat the fireworks of the world, and they should be asked to live a miserable life every day with that little money.

Although there is not a lot of money, in comparison, the income of officials in the Tang Dynasty is not high, and it is the same now.

Therefore, Li Yuanji once mentioned in the cabinet that when the time is right, the treatment of officials will be appropriately raised.

This trick was learned from the Hong Kong government, and their public officials are highly paid, ranking among the top in the world, of course, this cannot completely eliminate the occurrence of corruption, but it can reduce the occurrence of corruption to a certain extent.

However, Datang is not the Hong Kong government, and although it has some money now, on the whole, it is not possible to raise salaries significantly, after all, there is still so much infrastructure to do.

So Cheng Zhijie didn't say this, because it was useless to say it.

Li Xianyu sighed again, what can he do about this kind of thing? Except for the officials under strict education, the others are not something he can interfere with at all.

The two chatted for a while, and Li Xiyu got up and left.

The task of coming this time can be regarded as complete, at least I know that I will not make trouble in Yangzhou in the future, and those tax officials who have been arrested will also be temporarily replaced by Jiankang's tax officials.

But even so, Li Xiyu has to go back as soon as possible to arrange new personnel to come up, and he can't let Yangzhou's taxes be controlled by Jiankang people, right?

The day passed like that, and everything seemed to be uneventful, with no difference at all.

The city gate is still the same, busy, and there are still many people doing the same thing as yesterday.

The difference, however, was that the money was collected, and then in a blink of an eye, the bribed caravans were seized in a place where no one noticed.

Of course, this kind of unhealthy practice must be severely punished, and officials are only one aspect of it, and it is also necessary to let the bribe-giver know how serious the consequences of doing so are.

……

"I don't think that's going to work." At night, a group of people gathered together, talking about today's achievements and summarizing everything today.

Today's results are not bad, 12 caravans were arrested, the amount was more or less, nearly 100 yuan at the most, 120 yuan at the less, and the dozen or so caravans together paid bribes of more than 600 yuan.

This may not seem like much, but don't forget, it's just one day, and if it's like this every day, it's eighteen times in a month, and more than two hundred and ten times a year.

And this is just the situation of just one state, there are more than 300 states in the entire Tang Dynasty, if you look at this situation, in a year, the imperial court and local government will lose nearly 65,000 yuan in tax revenue.

Considering that other regions may not be as prosperous as Yangzhou, it is more than enough to evaporate more than 30,000 yuan of tax revenue a year.

30,000 guan is actually not much for the imperial court that pays millions of guan taxes, but it also accounts for about two or three percent, and this is just the beginning.

Moreover, this is still in the area of taxation, not counting engineering and other aspects.

If you count them all, it is not known how many there are, but it is estimated that there are still 100,000.

100,000 yuan, what is enough?

In the hands of the imperial court, if the imperial court is allowed to operate, 100,000 guan can build a cement road about 1,200 miles long and a railway about 600 miles long.

Don't ask why you can repair so much, because all the costs of the imperial court's projects are only labor, and the materials are free.

Even if it is placed in ordinary people's homes, 100,000 yuan is enough to build more than 1,000 very good houses, and in Chang'an, the houses built with these money can fill three or four square markets, and it is still a very fashionable kind.

In more difficult rural areas, these 100,000 can build at least 150,000 to 300,000 houses, and how much can be built depends on the requirements, if it is a rammed earth house with a thatched roof, 300,000 rooms are very easy, and a rammed earth house with a tiled roof, 150,000 rooms is about the same.

Because this data was roughly speculated, these talents in the Governor's Palace felt pressure.

But they can't help the problem of money, the only thing they can do is to find these people as soon as possible, arrest them, pronounce sentences, take back the money that should belong to the imperial court, and let these people be punished.

But it's a pity that the four people who ran away didn't show up for a day today, so it can be said that there is no news.

Although their home was seized and a lot of money was found, no one was caught, and the Governor's Mansion could not touch the money.

"These four people shouldn't be showing up, after all, they already know the news, and they must know that we are looking for them now, and if I were them, they would hide and not even go out until this matter is over, or we are fleeing after we leave." Someone said with a frown.

"It makes sense, they must have a place to hide, and there are even people secretly who help to hide, in this case, unless it is a search of the city, they will not be found at all."

Everyone nodded in approval, but Sou Cheng ......

I still think about it, it's not worth it to go to search the city for such a thing, and the people who are panicking are not worth it.

It's not that those four people are not important, but the search of the city is not possible at any time, and it can only be searched when the rebels are arrested, or when other major cases are arrested, do you really think that it is so easy to search the city?

Don't be naïve, even now, take Yangzhou as an analogy, if you want to search the city, you can't search it without 5,000 people and three days.

Moreover, the search of the city cannot be stopped on the way, and it is necessary to block all areas, and it is strictly forbidden for anyone to cross the area, and the blockade will not be lifted until all areas are searched.

This is still a normal situation, if the other party digs a tunnel and is more hidden, then the problem will be big, even if it is a search city, it may not be able to find out.

Cheng Zhijie has also been thinking about this problem, and he has always been suspicious of this matter.

What is the identity of the four people who ran away?

First of all, none of the four people is the most important, according to the confessions of others, two of these four people are the most basic officials, who have a public service establishment but do not have official status, one is the lowest official, and the other is an official one level higher than him.

These four people can be said to be little grasshoppers, and it stands to reason that even if the people behind them want to help, they will not just care about these four people, and let go of those big fish regardless of it.

Another point is that although these four people are all tax departments, they are not in the same small department, but belong to four departments, and they may have intersections on weekdays, but they will never intersect more deeply than the same department.

"When the people from Jiankang come, the trial will begin, and as for these four people, the old man will find a way to ......" Cheng Zhijie ordered with a slight squint.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that this was too strange, and it seemed that he also had some eyebrows, how to say it? I want to beat people, especially want to beat people.

But in addition, after learning about today's harvest, summarizing the confession, and today's judgment, Cheng Zhijie has some different views on this matter.

There was still time, and after the meeting, Cheng Zhijie took up the pen and wrote a letter, and then asked someone to send it to Chang'an.