Xie Shen had already deduced several possibilities before, so he told Li Xiaoji one by one. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Seeing Li Tongzhi's gloomy face, Xie Shen asked, "Could it be that Li Tongzhi offended someone and was retaliated against?" ”

Li Tongzhi felt helpless for a while, where can he be a magistrate who should not offend people. But he can't tell Xie Shen all if he offends people, right?

You must know that the prefect and the same knowledge are the relationship between the chief and the deputy, and they are also natural competitors.

If he leaked his old bottom to Xie Shen, wouldn't he become a clay man who could be manipulated by others?

But if he didn't say it, it would cause Xie Shen's suspicion, which was also very bad.

The lesser of the two powers, Li Tongzhi gritted his teeth after thinking about it and said: "If you say that you offend someone, the lower official really offends one person, it is that Huo Yi." ”

Huo Yi?

What's going on?

If Xie Shen is not mistaken, isn't this Huo Yi Huo Yuanwai introduced to him by Li Tongzhi?

On that day, Li Tongzhi held a banquet and invited a group of gentlemen from Lu'an Mansion, including this Huo Yihuo member.

If Li Tongzhi really has a disagreement with this Huo Yuanwai, why invite him to the banquet?

Or is there something else going on here?

Without waiting for Xie Shen to ask, Li Tongzhi sighed and said: "The prefect doesn't know, that Huo Yi has a lot of dealings with Zhejiang merchants, and he has obtained salt to sell salt in Jin and Zhejiang, and has made a lot of money. The former prefect wanted him to come up with some money to build the school, and a fierce dispute broke out with him. ”

Li Tongzhi swallowed his saliva and continued: "At that time, the lower officials gave the previous prefect an idea, so it was better to find a money bank under the name of Na Huo Yi and force him to comply. Who knew that this news was finally learned by Huo Yi, and finally dragged the relationship of the governor of Shanxi to save Qianzhuang. Since then, relations between Xiaguan and Nahuoyi have been very poor, and it was not until shortly before the earthquake that they eased slightly. ”

Hearing this, Xie Shen had basically understood.

That Li Tongzhi invited Huo Yi to a banquet, and it turned out that he was also taking the opportunity to repair the relationship. No wonder at the banquet, the two talked and laughed so bluntly.

But if it is concluded from this that Huo Yi is making trouble behind his back, it is too arbitrary.

"What Li Tongzhi means is that these mobs may have been arranged by Huo Yi?"

After all, Li Xiaoji is a veteran of mixed officialdom, so he only smiled and said: "I also learned that the master of the mansion made a decision, and the lower official just raised a possibility." ”

Xie Shen secretly scolded Li Tongzhi in his heart for being shameless, but he was also helpless. After all, he is the chief official of Lu'an Mansion, and he really has to decide the matter.

Li Tongzhi just said that this Huo Yuanwai ran a money village and sold salt from Jiangnan to Shanxi, which shows that his main business is business. What good is it for him to arrange a mob to resist taxes? ”

Logically, Li Tongzhi's assumption does not make sense. A businessman wants the small-scale peasant economy to collapse, so that he can hire cheaper labor and earn more money.

Li Tongzhi smiled and said: "The prefect doesn't know, this Huo Yi is not only a businessman, but also a big landlord. The acres of land under his name account for seventy percent of Lu'an Mansion. ”

Hiss, Xie Shen gasped when he heard this.

That's too sensational, isn't it?

Seventy percent?

A merchant actually owns seventy percent of the land in a prefecture?

"Li Tongzhi isn't joking, right? How could this Huo Yuanwai have so much land? ”

Scholars were exempt from paying taxes, so many neighbors would compete to donate their land.

But Huo Yuanwai is just a businessman, even if he has a lot of money, he can't enjoy the policy of tax exemption, how can he own so much land.

Li Tongzhi explained: "This Huo Yi's eyes are very vicious, and he is very fast. In recent years, there have been many natural disasters in Shanxi, such as locust plagues, floods and droughts......"

He observed Xie Shen's face, and saw that the young man was no different, so he continued: "Whenever there is a catastrophe, there are always people who sell land cheaply in order to make a living, and at this time, Huo Yi will buy the land on a large scale, and over time, the land under Huo Yi's name will have today's scale. ”

I see......

It has to be said that the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy in ancient China was very fragile.

Locust plagues, floods, droughts and earthquakes can be devastating to the agricultural economy.

The advantage of the smallholder economy is that it is less dependent on the outside world, but the disadvantage is also very obvious, that is, the ability to resist major disasters is very weak.

Once hit hard, it will be difficult for ordinary farmers to resume production on their own, and those with poor foundations will even go bankrupt and collapse.

After going bankrupt, these farmers were faced with two choices. One is starvation, and the other is selling land.

At this time, a wealthy gentleman like Huo Yuanwai jumped out and bought the land in the hands of ordinary people.

No business, no treachery.

The only pursuit of a businessman is to make money. In their view, there is nothing shameful in lowering the purchase price at such a time and asking farmers to sell their land at a low price, but it is worth showing off.

It is by this almost shameless means that the land in the hands of the big landlords will become more and more.

It seems that this Huo Yi also uses this road number.

So it's not hard to explain.

Although Huo Yi annexed a large amount of land, because he had no fame, he would still pay taxes on these lands.

Now that the spring tax is about to be levied, it stands to reason that Huo Yi has seventy percent of the land in Lu'an Mansion in his hands, and he can't escape. However, it happened to encounter natural disasters such as earthquakes. When today's Zi is benevolent, he will definitely issue an edict to reduce and reduce Lu'an's taxes. Therefore, Huo Yi wanted to delay it, as long as it was delayed until the will of the imperial court, he could pay a large amount of taxes.

However, Li Tongzhi was very "faceless", and instead of communicating with Huo Yi in advance, he also collected taxes as usual.

In addition, at the banquet, Xie Shen asked the businessmen to pay for the repair of the damaged houses of the people of Lu'an. In Huo Yi's opinion, this must be the ghost of Li Xiaoji, the adjutant.

After all, Li Tongzhi has a "criminal record", and once gave the former prefect the idea to ask Huo Yuan to go out to pay for the construction of the school.

This time, Xie Shen asked the businessman to pay for the repair of the house, but in Huo Yuanwai's opinion, Li Tongzhi repeated his old skills, and he didn't take him as a local gentry in his eyes at all.

Therefore, Huo Yi turned two things into one thing and decided to take revenge on Li Tongzhi once.

"Your Excellency, please take a look."

Li Tongzhi took out a land measurement booklet, flipped through the homepage and said: "Here is a record of the household names of all the land in Lu'an Prefecture. The land in the west and north of the city is almost all surnamed Huo. ”

He said it almost through gritted teeth.

Huo Yi is not benevolent, don't blame him Li Xiaoji for being unjust!

In Li Tongzhi's view, this booklet of acres of land alone is enough to prove that Huo Yi is the culprit behind this tax resistance.

After Xie Shen read the booklet, he found that it was indeed as Li Tongzhi said, this Huo Yuanwai was really a tyrant in Lu'an Mansion.

From a logical point of view, Huo Yuanwai owns the most land, and these lands are not exempt from taxes. Fighting taxes is the most beneficial to him.

......

...... (To be continued.) )