Although I have heard that the tax collector has done such a humiliating thing, this is only a one-sided statement.

Luo Ming didn't rush into a rage, but continued to listen.

Then, he chatted with a few more people in the neighborhood and got more information—almost everyone knew about it.

After cross-checking the information, Lockin came to the conclusion that unless the people here unanimously put together a confession to frame the tax collector, his crime would be real and obvious to all.

It is almost certain that the tax collector had indeed set up a false name to collect an old hen in the name of taxes.

On the modern earth, an old hen is worth at least more than 100 yuan.

And for these farmers who are not wealthy now, losing a chicken is similar to the feeling of losing thousands of yuan in modern times.

This is not a big case to be handled, but it is definitely not a trivial matter that can be casually pretended not to be seen.

Moreover, violating the tax rules and regulations set by Luo Ming himself must not be forgiven—otherwise, you can violate the regulations today, you can violate the law tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, you may be able to falsely proclaim the holy decree.

However, by now, Luo Ming's anger had faded, and although it did not disappear completely, it had also calmed down most of it.

First, while the consequences of corruption are severe, they are generally not a catastrophe for the world – at best, it will reduce the credibility of the government and reduce revenues.

As for the fact that too many exorbitant taxes will force the peasants to rebel, even if they dare to rebel, they will be easily suppressed in the face of the strong people with vindictive spirit.

In Luo Ming's opinion, it is even simpler, suppress the peasants who were forced to rebel, and then catch a few culprits who collect taxes indiscriminately, pull them out to raid the house for public trial, and finally execute them publicly, and take out a little bit of his greedy money to give the peasants some bread, ensuring that they will immediately kneel down and shout the king's sage.

The heroes of Liangshan in the Water Margin are often confused by the slogan of anti-corruption officials and not anti-emperor, saying that they want to rebel for Tianxingdao, and when they are really recruited, how many people breathe a sigh of relief directly in their hearts?

Although there have been occasional people in this world who started as civilians and eventually rose to high positions in the past, at least no one has shouted "The prince will have a kind of Xiangning", or rather, those who dare to shout this have long since died.

Not only the other nobles, but also the power of the church will definitely destroy him.

Therefore, no one dared to say "to replace the aristocracy." Even if someone says that, they will definitely be regarded as crazy and stupid by other people, and they will not listen to him.

Therefore, as long as there is a symbolic propaganda such as "the good king has been deceived by the cunning traitor", most commoners will still choose to trust.

Another reason why Luo Ming didn't get angry was that Luo Ming heard ten times more things that made him happy along the way than a bad thing.

Although there are a lot of things that Luo Ming has met among the civilians who complain about it, except for this one, the other things that have been complained about are just small things.

In their eyes, the tax collectors and overseers, who had always been vicious, seemed to have become much kinder lately.

If there was only one bad thing, Luo Ming felt that the quality of his subordinates was not bad—except for that one fool, no one else had done anything that would arouse the anger of the people.

"Probably this is called the vitality of the rising sun, right?" Luo Ming asked in his head.

"Well, so to speak. I'm not a political scientist or an economist, but I've read a lot of history books, so let's just assert that—"

Aya said with a smile: "I haven't seen a truly immortal dynasty yet, but no matter what, there is still a clear difference in the longevity of a regime or organization - a short-lived dynasty of twenty years and a dynasty of a hundred years are of course incomparable, and a three-hundred-year dynasty and a thousand-year-old dynasty cannot be compared.

One of the big differences is whether there is a new source of income – for example, a wasteland that can be cultivated into fields, or a colony, or the success of the Industrial Revolution and a dramatic increase in industrial output.

After all, almost anyone has an instinctive desire to expand their wealth. ”

For example, in a small aristocratic family, the grandfather passed down 8,000 acres of land, and the father earned 1,000 gold coins, so should the son's generation achieve nothing? Such a person will naturally find a way to increase his property.

"If there were new sources of wealth, the powerful factions of the aristocracy, officials, and wealthy merchants would tie themselves to the chariot of the state as much as possible and share in this great benefit.

But if there is no new source of wealth at all, then the powerful factions of the aristocracy, officials and wealthy businessmen will stir up trouble in the country.

Since there is no new source of income, the fastest way for them to get more benefits is to grab it from others. In this way, land is annexed, wealth is gathered, and intrigue is ...... Not only will it quickly cultivate a number of local mountains that are difficult to control, but it will also make the central government have fewer and fewer forces to control. Then, it is strange that this national life can last for a long time. ”

After the fierce infighting, there will be heroes who stand out from the competition.

The expansion of the power of the tyrants is to encroach on the interests that originally belonged to the supreme ruler - many nobles do not give priority to the royal family but obey these tyrants, and these tyrants also encroach on the land that was originally subordinate to the royal family, and after their strength grows, they often ignore the royal family.

There are more and more power in the hands of local powerful factions, and the power that the royal family can control is getting less and less, even if it will not change the dynasty, it is inevitable that it will be ignored - if the power at hand of your royal family can't even beat a single earl, why should the big nobles listen to you?"

As a result, there is even an extreme situation in Japan - the emperor claims to be a descendant of the gods, and no one dares to directly exterminate other clans for hundreds of years, but the entire imperial family is often bullied by powerful samurai, and at the worst time, they can't get together the cotton clothes to go out in winter, and a poor insect emperor has no money to bury after his death, so it took a long time to borrow money to buy a coffin board.

Thinking of this, Luo Ming snorted. But it's not just a joke – it's also a warning.

Aya laughed: "Let's get down to business, let's take the history of your world as an example."

So many dynasties, at the beginning of the founding of the country, seemed to be loyal and good generals, the emperor was wise and powerful, and he conquered all sides without ministers, and almost won every battle. Let people think that the stars have descended to earth.

However, in the middle and late stages of the dynasty, it was clear that the population had increased by tens of millions, and a large number of 'talents' in the world had been gathered through the method of opening imperial examinations, and the economy was prosperous, but there were often famines, financial crises, or deflated in foreign wars. ”