Lee House

Compared to the outside scene, this place should be considered a paradise on earth.

Stone elephants outside the house stood on the left and right sides of the doorway, spitting stone beads in their mouths and eyes facing forward.

Xiao Yongjue felt uncomfortable when he stepped into the mansion, especially when he listened to Li Zhenshou's laughter.

The people outside are suffering, but the inside of the Li Mansion is magnificent, and there is still a jade jade inlaid on this door, if this jade jade is deducted and taken out to pawn, it is enough for those ordinary people to live a good life for several years.

Knowing Xiao Yongde's identity and knowing what identity he came from, he showed it so blatantly, did he really think that he could cover the sky with one hand here on the frontier?

"Lord Li's mansion is really magnificent."

Xiao Yongjue praised, this is not perfunctory but sincere.

In addition to being smaller than the Xiao Mansion, the decorations and carvings used in the interior are all a little more exquisite than the Xiao Mansion.

"Haha, Vice General Xiao has won the award, my small mansion is nothing compared to those big officials in the capital, it's not worth mentioning,"

Li Zhenshou touched his mustache, although he was modest, his words had already revealed pride.

"General, please, as for your subordinates, they have also arranged a place to stay, master."

Li Zhenshou was quite polite to Xiao Yongde, but he was not polite at all to the group of soldiers behind Xiao Yongde.

When the master heard this, he hurriedly made a gesture of invitation to the soldiers behind him, but those soldiers remained motionless, straightened their waists, and prepared to stand by.

After experiencing the previous incident, they didn't even dare to move a step without Xiao Yongde's instructions.

Three thousand soldiers, who were already small, lost half of them all at once, and they really didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past.

"General Xiao, this ......"

Li Zhenshou smiled at Xiao Yongde, but his eyes drifted to the soldiers behind him.

"You go with the master."

Xiao Yongde gave an order, and the soldiers behind him followed the master and left in an orderly manner.

It's just that compared with half a month ago, they are much more mature now, and even their pace is orderly.

"General Xiao, please."

Li Zhenshou said with a smile, nodding in front of Xiao Yongde.

Xiao Yongde followed Li Zhenshou to the direction of the hall, and as soon as the front foot stepped in, a maid brought tea to the back foot.

"General Xiao, try it, this is the tea shipped from the Tang family in the capital, and it will be kept to your taste."

Before drinking, Li Zhenshou talked about the origin of tea.

It's just that he didn't say that this tea was the batch that was seized at the beginning, although he asked Tang Moshu to get some back later, but he detained some in private.

"The Tang family's? The capital is thousands of miles away from here, and it will take a month at the earliest, so if this tea is transported from there, if it rains or wets, isn't it bad? ”

Xiao Yongjue opened the teacup, and the Xiao family had also been drinking the tea sold from the Tang family for a long time, and as soon as he smelled it, he knew if it was from the Tang family.

Li Zhenshou is right, it is indeed the tea of the Tang family, and it is a fake.

"Haha, Vice General Xiao doesn't know, the things transported by the Tang family to Yan must pass through this area, as long as it passes through this area, not everything must be taxed and reported to the imperial court, and after coming and going, the lower official is familiar with the Tang family's guys who transport goods, this tea is brought by him, as for why the tea is still good when it arrives in the frontier, this lower official does not know."

"Officials and businessmen go their own way, and we can't study any way to keep secrets."

Li Zhenshou explained that Xiao Yongjue knew that the Tang family's business was big, especially the tea that would cover the entire capital, but he didn't think that he was still doing the business of Yan Kingdom.

Chao Shang really can't be underestimated.

Whether it is the capital or other countries, they are all full of friends.

When he thought of Chaoshang, Xiao Yongjue thought of the dead woman, that is, Xiao Changge's mother.

He didn't have much impression of Xiao Changge's mother, after all, who remembered what happened when he was a child? What's more, he was still a baby at that time, but later I heard from his mother that the woman was a slut who seduced his father, and climbed up to the position of the eldest lady after seducing Xiao Yongde's soul, and before becoming the eldest lady, the woman was also a courtier......

Although he has never been in contact with the court, he has always heard others mention it since he was a child, it is a kind of lowly industry, which is not as good as even the women of the Qinglou, especially the women who show up all day long, what kind of system.

But when he heard Li Zhenshou's words today, he felt that he had misunderstood the court.

Although lowly, he has a wide range of contacts.

"Yes, we don't know the way of the merchants, Master Li, dare to ask those people outside what ......"

Xiao Yongde took a sip of tea, and his body warmed up.

He still couldn't help but ask, those people looked very pitiful, they thought they were making some kind of famine, but they could see that the Li Mansion was built so magnificently. It's not like that.

"Does General Xiao think those people are pitiful? In fact, they are not pitiful, every year the people in the frontier are required to pay taxes and grain, some people are cheap, occupy the fields and thatched huts and refuse to pay taxes, and the people above have been urging, the official has to let them take the house as a mortgage, sell some grain money and hand it over to the court."

Li Zhenshou asked and answered himself, but he didn't shy away from talking about it, as if he was not afraid that Xiao Yongde would report the matter to the court.

Xiao Yongde's body moved, and he was very surprised.

"What do you mean? The people who are sleeping on the streets outside are being kicked out because they can't pay their taxes?"

Xiao Yongde remembered that there were still some people on the street who were frozen and stiff, how could the court allow this kind of practice?

In order to hand over enough food, regardless of the life and death of the people, how could the Emperor of Chu agree if he knew?

"Hehe, General Xiao guessed right, those people are cheap bones, don't pay attention to them. 、”

Li Zhenshou waved his hand and said indifferently, as if human life was not worth mentioning to him.

Saying this matter so easily, Xiao Yongde was slightly angry.

"These are human lives, how can the imperial court allow it?"

Xiao Yongjue was young and vigorous in the end, and slapped the table with his hand and said angrily.

Li Zhenshou didn't care about Xiao Yongjue's anger, but the table,

"Vice General Xiao can be leisurely, the table is mahogany painted, and it's terrible if it's broken."

"General Xiao, Vice General Xiao is really young and ignorant, I still need to learn more from you, if it is not for the permission of the people above, how dare the lower officials do this?"

Li Zhenshou touched his beard and said proudly, Xiao Yongjue's face was shocked.

"What did you say?"

Xiao Yongjue's anger was half extinguished, to be precise, it should be half cold.

Court? Allowed by the imperial court?

At this moment, he really thought that he had misheard.

"The grain and taxes paid by these people are handed over to the imperial treasury for public use, Vice General Xiao has been in the army, and he should know that the food eaten by the soldiers is taken out of the treasury, as well as the monthly salary... All this money belongs to the people, if you don't feed the soldiers, who can protect the Chu country? Preference is given to young and strong soldiers over those helpless people. ”

Li Zhenshou's words made Xiao Yongjue stunned.

In his eyes, there was confusion.

He never knew that his food and money in the army would be obtained in this way.

"Hey, so Vice General Xiao doesn't have to pay attention to those people, feeding himself is the most important thing,"

Li Zhenshou wrote lightly, but he didn't see Xiao Yongde's hand holding the teacup tightened a little.

"Dare to ask how much tax each household should pay to the imperial court in a year?"

Xiao Yongde asked, if each family has one acre of land, there should be enough to save in addition to the amount of food they eat, and it is enough to hand it in, so how can they not pay it?

"General Xiao, this doesn't seem to be your responsibility, what you have to think about is how to drive out those earthen houses with more than 2,000 old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers."

When it came to the key point, Li Zhenshou was not happy to continue.

"You!"

Xiao Yongjue wanted to make a move, but was stopped by Xiao Yongde.

Li Zhenshou told them about this first, but now he has attracted their attention but is unwilling to continue.

But what he said also makes sense, Xiao Yongde is a military general, and this civil official did it and was ordered from above, so it was not his turn to ask.

"Vice General Xiao, the lower official just finished saying that you want to learn from General Xiao, why can't you hold your breath again?"

Li Zhenshou was still smiling, full of spring.

Those people outside were dying of hunger and freezing to death, but Li Zhenshou was wearing thick clothes and drinking good tea but didn't care about the life or death of those people.

"General Xiao, did you think of the current result?"

Li Zhenshou asked, as for what he said, only the two of them knew it.

Li Zhenshou still hated him in his heart.

But if you hold a grudge, why do you welcome him?

"But there's nothing bad about it here except for the cold spots in winter, it's leisurely, and you can eat well and dress warmly."

Li Zhenshou straightened out the sable cloak on his body and smiled.

Xiao Yongjue realized that Li Zhenshou wanted to take revenge on his father.

"General Xiao should be tired from a long journey, why don't you go down and rest first? As for your 2,000-odd soldiers, why don't you send someone to ask them to come with you? Those earthen barbarians are all guarding outside the frontier, if they don't know the situation in the city, the lower officials may be afraid to attack it, those soldiers are outside the city, it is too eye-catching. ”

Li Zhenshou 'cared', but what he said also made some sense, but it was all evil and crooked.

"No need, General Ben's subordinates are used to living outside the city, and if they rush into the city, it will attract even more attention, and it is inappropriate."

Xiao Yongde shook his head and refused. How much more can there be so many people in this small city?

Li Zhenshou was not angry but grinned brightly.

"In that case, then follow the general, Wangcai, and lead the way for the general."

The man named Wangcai hurriedly walked in from outside and made a gesture of please.

Xiao Yongjue looked at Li Zhenshou and always felt that the smile was ill-intentioned, but now that they have entered the other party's place, they can only comply.

"Please, two of you."

Xiao Yongde glanced at Li Zhenshou and followed behind Jiading.

Looking at the back of Xiao Yongde and them leaving, the smile on Li Zhenshou's mouth became lighter and fainter, and the master sneaked in from outside, with a thief's eyebrows, like a thief.