Li Tai, as the boss of Jingzhou, did not have too urgent communication tasks, but immediately after returning to the town, he also arranged for envoys to go to Xiangyang and Jiangling to congratulate the New Year.

Although Li Tai is not in a hurry to visit others, many people are eager to visit him, especially since he has not stayed in Jingzhou for the New Year for the past two years. This time, the troops were out again, and they did not return to the town until the day before Chinese New Year's Eve, so that many people could not see anyone even if they wanted to.

Therefore, when the masses learned that General Li stayed in the town for the New Year, in the past few days after the New Year, the entrance of the Governor's Mansion was almost flattened, and there was an endless stream of visitors, and the visiting carriages and horses were almost lined up from the gate of the Governor's Mansion to the outside of the city!

With so many visitors, it is naturally difficult for Li Tai to meet them one by one, and most of them still need Cui Qian, the chief historian, and the subordinates of the governor's office to be responsible for receiving and entertaining these visitors.

So after Cui Qian ate a meal of dumplings from Li Tai's house, he fell into a busy welcome and delivery the next day, because Li Tai was in the town for the New Year this year, which made the workload of their government officials surge.

In addition to the subordinate officials at all levels in Jingzhou, these visitors are the powerful chiefs in the territory, such as Handong, Shannan and other places have come to Jingzhou as early as a year ago, and have been waiting to meet General Li.

Naturally, those who came to visit did not visit empty-handed, and soon all kinds of gifts were piled up in the warehouses in Fuchu. And this is still light, as early as the previous year, in the whole month of the month, there was an endless stream of people who came to the governor's mansion to give gifts, and the number and types of gifts were also more, and the horses were carried.

Since these gifts were given to General Li in the name of his personal person, it was inconvenient for the governor's office to inquire and check them, so they could only be sent to the inner government.

Although Miaoyin Niangzi often pretends to be old to maintain her posture as a housewife, her experience is limited, and she rarely faces and deals with such a large amount of money and silk exchanges. In the years after marrying Li Tai, there were also old family members such as Li Zhusheng who were responsible for treating people.

Now she followed her husband to Jingzhou, but she had no way to shirk it, so she could only accept it in full, and she was afraid that she would be affected by ignorance, so she sealed all these gifts in the inner house, and no family members were allowed to open them, and then decided whether to accept or return them after her husband returned home.

After Li Tai came back, the little lady carefully reported the matter to her husband, saying that those gifts filled more than a dozen empty rooms in the inner mansion, and Miao Yin was full of worries: "My family has received so many gifts, will the court investigate the husband's corruption?" ”

Looking at this lady's worried appearance, Li Tai was also happy in his heart. At his level of power, even if he is questioned, he has to be a big tea meal like plotting against the theft of the country, and if he is done because of corruption, it will be really humiliating. What's more, this is not corruption at all.

Li Tai checked the gift list, and these people who gave a large number of gifts were often officials and powerful people from Handong, Shannan and other places.

These places are newly developed, and they themselves have to rely on the local power to govern themselves, and because there is no systematic household granting land, they do not charge taxes and mediocre labor, but it does not mean that they have no rights and obligations to the Western Wei regime and Li Tai, a direct official.

Just as Li Tai had to obey the military dispatch of the Chinese and foreign governments, the delivery of these goods to Li Tai was also a manifestation of their obligations. In other words, they don't have to pay taxes, but they do have to pay protection money. Since there are no formal channels such as land rent and taxation for this kind of power-money interaction, it can only be carried out through this form of private granting and receiving.

If there was no protection fee, how could Li Tai protect them from the invasion and oppression of Jiangling or other Xiao Liang vassal kings, as well as Hou Jing's rebellious army?

This in itself is part of the rules of troubled times, even if the imperial court and the overlord know about it, they are not easy to inquire. Unless Li Tai expropriated violently, the people's resentment boiled, and the local order was ruined and rebellion became commonplace.

In the past few years, there have been a large number of gift goods, and the treasury of the government is almost full for a while, so Li Tai arranged for his nephew Li Zhen to take Zhao Jingzhi, Yang Yu and other protégés into the house to quickly inventory and store these gift goods.

It took them several days to complete the preliminary inventory of the gifts they had received so far, and the amount of gifts that could be converted by statistics alone reached more than 500,000 pieces of silk, as well as other special products of unknown value, pearls, jade and gems, etc., adding up to hundreds of boxes.

When Li Zhen got this number, he didn't believe his eyes for a while, and looked at Li Tai and said in a trembling voice: "It is rumored that many people in the south are still luxurious, but they don't want to be able to accumulate such heavy goods in a festival!" Uncle Thirteen, this huge amount of money, can my family be based on it and do not need to return it? ”

Although the Li family in Longxi is also a famous family in the world, and there is no shortage of official eunuchs, this New Year's Spring Festival can receive hundreds of thousands of silk gifts, which is still much beyond the cognition of Li Zhen, a young man.

"If you want to return it, I don't know how many people can't sleep at night!"

When Li Tai heard this, he smiled and said, "It's not that these Handong and Shannan families don't know that money and silk are precious, and these money and silk are what they should have sent to maintain their dominance in their respective places."

Of course, in the end, the money will be distributed among the local people, but this is also the logic of feudal rule.

Although Li Tai is now quite famous among the Jiang and Han dynasties, his influence has not yet reached the level of sinking into the countryside of Luli, although the people of Handong have heard of his prestige, but if the real money is paid to him, these people still have great resistance, so they still need these places to maintain local order and extract local money.

Just like some commercial behaviors in later generations, although many X soldiers were charged IQ tax, they also gained a sense of belonging and honor.

Of course, there is still a fundamental difference between the two, after all, society is progressing. These burdens of feudal society are unavoidable for the small people, and those commercial behaviors in later generations can be avoided as long as they have a brain and don't make a fuss.

Hundreds of thousands of horses of silk may seem like a lot, but if these places can establish a perfect tax system for arranging households and paying taxes on the land, the income will only be much more.

However, at present, these places are far from the time to set up the right rule of officials, and if you want to implement it strongly, you must be prepared to deal with the popular uprising, or you must wait patiently for a more suitable time.

Historically, the rebellion in Shannan alone lasted for a long time, and now under the protection of Li Tai, the Ankang Li clan and other local heroes still stay in place to maintain local order.

Theoretically, these gifts belong to Li Tai's private property, but in fact, he is only a distributor, and some of the generals under his command who are stationed in various parts of the army and maintain local order must also be given a part as the cost of their respective army.

At the same time, the Chinese and foreign governments will also lose to a part. Li Tai is fully responsible for the military and political affairs in the southeast, which is also the position of power given by the hegemon, and the deterrent power he has, in addition to his own prestige, is also inseparable from the authorization of the Taiwan government. If he is not subordinate to the Western Wei regime, then the deterrent effect will also be greatly reduced.

In short, the community must develop, and everyone must not have too much selfishness. The hurdles that can span the hurdles, the people who can cut people, the people who can carry the gang rules, who want to feel that they have a lot of power and can challenge the rules, then it is best to wear a helmet for everything.

So while the New Year's festival atmosphere was still there, Li Tai ordered his subordinates to bring tens of thousands of gifts of money and silk, and went to Huazhou Bafu via Wuguan as a private gift to Daxing Tainei Mansion. Who can not love such a handsome and stylish subordinate who can win battles and make money?

In addition to these officials and powerful people in the territory, some surrounding forces also sent envoys to congratulate the New Year. The most hardcore one is naturally Liang Wang Xiao Jing, and his old friend Cai Dabao arrived on the morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year.

Then came Xiao Yi, the king of Xiangdong in Jiangling, and Wang Gu, who sent the medical letter last time, has not yet left, and this time another mission came. Even Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling, who wandered in the southeast of Anzhou and the territory of Qichang County in the southern Liang, sent envoys to pay New Year's greetings.

Of course, what surprised Li Tai the most was that Hou Jing, the general of the universe, also sent someone to Jingzhou to greet him. This really flattered Li Tai, Hou Jingdu has become such a big commander, and he hasn't forgotten his little guy with one side.

(End of chapter)