After dinner, Qin Tai held a collective meeting again. Qin Taiguan called this kind of meeting "Zhuge Meeting", and everyone could speak freely and express their opinions. With brainstorming, you might have a good idea or a stumble discovery.

The old drunkard master was the first to speak: "It seems that my opponent is not simple at all. First, they are very well organized. He is careful when doing things and leaves almost no clues. Second, they have a lot of talent. There are not only those who are familiar with astronomy and geography, but also those who control the climate, and those who are proficient in medical skills. Third, there are many strongholds, and it seems that there are quite a few people in this organization. Fourth, there is no small amount of courage. If you dare to dig up the robbers' men, aren't you afraid that the bandits will come to them in droves to make trouble? It seems that we have to be careful, the other party is in the dark, we are in the light, and the dark arrow is difficult to prevent. The others nodded in agreement.

Qin Tai added: "First, these people are not only proficient in astronomy and geography, familiar with the climate and environment here, there are masters who can denominate souls, strange people who help people take over their feet, and there are also masters of poisoning, as well as people who can be easily transformed. Second, these people are engaged in clandestine work, possibly hired killers or secret organizations. They have only one goal, which is to get more money. Third, they are our enemies, even if there is nothing to do with Ma Liang, they will not let us go. On the other hand, we will not let them go. ”

Zhan Xiaoxiao's eyes widened and said, "Why?" Could it be that they are Deng Hui's people? ”

Qin Tai shook his head and said, "I don't know if it's Deng Hui's person." But one thing is for sure, they're the ones we're looking for. Survivors who participated in the rebellion. Someone who knows the truth about this. ”

Zhan Xiaoxiao asked, "How do you know?" Ma Liang didn't know about it, and he didn't tell you? ”

Qin Tai said to everyone: "Ma Liang mentioned one point, after they lost their minds. He suddenly sobered up once, remembering that he was wearing a black cloak and fighting with a scimitar. He had one of his hands cut off by the enemy and fainted from excessive bleeding. Think about it, what kind of fight needs to be so motivating? They have the same costumes and the same weapons, and they may all be soulless. Using soulless people to fight on a large scale, will it be an ordinary grudge between the rivers and lakes? Besides, the Lost Soul is their tool of use, a tool for making money, under what circumstances will they lose too much blood and faint? This can only happen if there are too many people to take care of it. So I thought of a rebellion, and only officers and soldiers could put these lost souls on this shock. It should have been them mixed in with the rebellious people, trying to kill the officers and soldiers. It seems that this rebellion is really a conspiracy planned by someone with a heart. first connived at the people of the yamen to bully the people, and then pretended to be the people of the yamen. The next step was to instigate the government to send troops to deal with the unarmed people. Then they thought that under the pretext of revenge for everyone, they killed officials and seized the official mansion, and used the name of the common people to rob the official warehouse. When a large number of officers and soldiers came to suppress it, they disappeared again. Innocent civilians became scapegoats and took all the blame. They continue to fan the flames and provoke a struggle on both sides. In it, they play right and wrong and expand their influence. But what is the ultimate goal of doing this? ”

Xiao Lingzi said: "Could it be that you want to create chaos and raise prices? Doing so can make it bigger. ”

Qin Tai shook his head, but if you want to get rich, you don't need to spend so much.

"Ma Sandao" said: "Will you want to take advantage of the chaos and establish your own local forces?" A rich landlord in our hometown took advantage of this method to grab a piece of his own land from others. ”

The old drunkard said: "This rebellion has affected the two provinces, as well as some surrounding areas. Who can eat such a large piece of land in one sitting? Even if the local forces were willing, would the imperial court be willing? ”

When he said this, the old drunkard master and Qin Tai suddenly glanced at each other, and the two of them seemed to have understood something. Qin Tai immediately drew a simple map of the country on the table with water. The old drunkard also kept thinking. The last two men suddenly stood up at the same time and said the same sentence almost at the same time: "Division." ”

Qin Tai explained to everyone: "The northwest is a treasure land. Although the land here is relatively barren, it is the ancient Silk Road, and it is the birthplace and upstream of the Yellow River. There is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the west, many small countries in the Western Regions in the north, the Mongolian steppe in the east, and Sichuan in the south. There are not many garrisons here, and they are not very powerful. The common people here hate the court very much, and they have long lost their loyalty. As long as there is a force that has a lot of hearts and money in its hands, it can control the people here. But it can only be done in secret, and it cannot be blatantly opposed to the government. If there is a large-scale battle together, the imperial court will send reinforcements, and even if they win, they will be greatly damaged. Therefore, they took advantage of the people's riots to destroy the image of the court in the eyes of the people again and again. It also gave the imperial court an illusion that things in the northwest were continuous, but they were also easy to suppress, and they did not need to be suppressed by the imperial court's army. When the time comes, come ruthlessly and completely destroy the military forces in the northwest. When the imperial court organized its men and horses to suppress it again, they had already seized power and stabilized the people's hearts. As long as the local people agree with them, it will not be easy for the imperial court to exterminate them. At that time, the imperial court had no choice but to recognize their identity, and they became the kings of the northwest recognized by the imperial court. If the imperial court did not agree, they would establish a country on their own, divide the territory, and not recognize themselves as the people of the Ming Dynasty. The Maritime Silk Road has been broken because of the Japanese Kou, if this land Silk Road is also broken, the Ming Dynasty will not circulate goods, and the life of the common people will be even more sad. These people wanted to use this only trade route to threaten the imperial court, and this trick was actually too vicious. ”

Zhan Xiaoxiao said incomprehensibly: "Isn't the imperial court based on agriculture? Why is there such a need for business? ”

The old drunkard explained: "In ancient times, agricultural taxes have been available for a long time. Before the Tang Dynasty, the vast majority of tax revenue came from the fields. A year's tax, excluding daily expenses, officials' salaries, soldiers' provisions, and so on, can save two to three million taels of silver each year. In the Tang Dynasty, the tax system changed, and the peasants paid taxes according to the land they planted and the number of people. This is where the field tax and the poll tax come from. With such a reform, although the imperial court has lost nearly one million taels of tax revenue, the lives of the common people have been much better. Besides, these taxes are enough for the imperial court, and there is no need to bother to make money. After the Song and Yuan dynasties, our Emperor Taizu was considerate of the people of the world and decided not to raise taxes. Tax revenues have not increased, but the number of people in the world has nearly tripled. When there are more ordinary people, there will be more soldiers, and more officials. Therefore, the annual tax is no longer enough for the expenses of the imperial court. During the reign of Emperor Taizu, the system of wealth and poverty was implemented, that is, the rich increased taxes, which caused a large number of rich people and officials to oppose it. Emperor Taizu killed a group and finally stopped their opposition. But you can't keep your eyes on these rich people all day long. The national teacher Yao Guangxiao put forward a proposal to increase taxes on merchants, especially on the Silk Road. In order to ensure the smooth flow of this land Silk Road, Emperor Taizu sent heavy troops to guard the west gate all year round. After Emperor Chengzhu succeeded to the throne, he sent the great eunuch Zheng He to the Western Ocean seven times in order to open the door to the Maritime Silk Road. In fact, since that time, Daming's taxes have actually changed. The tax revenue of the two Silk Roads amounted to almost 30% of all tax revenues in the country. Not only that, the circulation of goods has led to the vigorous development of various domestic industries, such as silk, tea, porcelain, etc., which directly and indirectly affect nearly half of the country's tax revenue. Since the interruption of the Maritime Silk Road due to the Japanese Invaders, this overland Silk Road has been the only golden trade route. The expenses of the imperial court and the foundation of national strength are here. If this road is broken, the imperial court will lose nearly two million taels of silver in taxes every year. Large local tea farms, kilns, and weaving workshops will be suspended, and a large number of workers will lose their jobs. Not only that, but the imperial court will disperse a large number of soldiers and dismiss a large number of officials because it cannot pay military salaries. When the time comes, the world will really be in chaos. ”

Zhan Xiaoxiao asked incomprehensibly: "Don't the ministers of the court and the emperor know about this stake?" ”

The old drunkard master sighed and said, "The current emperor believes that his courtiers can manage this mess well. He just wants to be a long-lived immortal emperor, and an emperor forever and ever. The ministers of the court didn't care about this, Yan Song sent his cronie Yang Yi, Xu Jie also sent his cousin Deng Hui, and even the military general Wang Kui was also a capable person. But for the sake of their own interests, for the sake of their own territory, they have forgotten the most fundamental things. For a country to develop, it needs a stable situation. Only when the people live and work in peace and contentment can the country become prosperous and strong. But these people want their wealth to increase, and their own people to control their own territory forever. I hope to make profits from the chaos, and I hope that the emperor will change every year, and the court will change the first assistant every day, so that they can earn more benefits. They are actually moths of the state, people who should really curse the people. The emperor and the bigwigs in the court thought that one person or a few people could govern a place well, but they didn't know that these people were either assimilated or set aside when they arrived at the place, but in fact, it had no effect at all. This Deng Hui may know something, or he has become their person, so he is in a hurry to deal with us. He was afraid that we would inadvertently know his secret, so he would strike first. Unexpectedly, we really found clues, and found clues to Deng Hui's crime from Deng Hui's behavior of killing people and killing people with knives. The next step is to find this group of people and use the local forces to investigate more secrets. ”

Qin Tai also said: "Yes, let's go back to Yanzhen and go to find the black widow that Ma Liang said." We don't have power, they do. I heard that these people in the rivers and lakes are very righteous, maybe they can really help us. ”