Several things happened in Yangzhou that made the people talk about it for a long time.

First of all, Tonghai County, the old man of the Lu family announced to the outside world that he was old and sick, and could not take care of things, and the head of the family was taken over by Lu Yu, the second son of the Lu family. Admitting that due to poor management of the Lu family in previous years, the family had transported and carried contraband many times without permission, personally tied up several family members to the government to surrender, and had to bear all relevant responsibilities, and at the same time handed over the arrears of taxes and fines of 5,000 taels of silver, this measure directly shocked the people in the county.

After the second son of the Lu family became the head of the family, he rushed to Shuyang Mansion and once again took the initiative to hand over a fine of 1,000 taels for contraband, expressing his very much agreement with the relevant punishment measures of the government and demanding severe punishment of the relevant personnel involved. The second son of Lu privately begged to see Governor Cui and Zhou Tongju, and offered 1,000 taels of silver respectively as a thank you to the two parents for their care.

Shuyang Mansion fully expressed its goodwill, although the Lu family has improper use of people and poor management responsibility, but the old man Lu has been benefiting the neighbors for many years, building bridges and paving roads, and also donated money many times to fight against the bandits, in view of the fact that the Lu family actively paid taxes, the old man Lu was exempted from punishment, except for a few people who were found to be carrying smuggled goods and strictly investigated and punished, the rest were released.

Not to mention the county government here, Wang Zhixian did not make any more reproaches, whether it was for the face of the old man or the face of the eldest young master. He knows Master Lu's knowledge, and sooner or later he will try to succeed, but at that time, everyone is a person on the scene, and there is always a time when they need help, and it is most appropriate to leave a favor.

Looking at Shuyang again, it is also a chicken feather.

Since the Cui Governor of Shuyang Prefecture went to Yangzhou to meet the new inspector, he first summoned the subordinate officials in the mansion and assigned several things.

The first is to arrange for the scribes to go down to each village to supervise the confirmation of the population and land production that is about to be carried out, and at the same time to make statistics on the output of various crops, both in total and in average, and this is carried out directly, and the county has already been informed.

The second is to arrange for people to learn about the business of the big families in each county, the main things they buy and sell, the number of servants, and the annual tax situation. According to the scribe, it is pure understanding, and it doesn't matter if it's true or not.

The third is to arrange for people to classify and count the number of employees in other industries, the taxes paid, and the whereabouts of sales.

Governor Cui also took time to discuss with Zhou Tongju the strategy of dealing with the bandits in the territory, and in accordance with the arrangement of the patrol envoy, made arrangements for the expansion of the militia group, expanding the number of people in each of the four counties to which Shuyang belonged by 200, and adding the original 300 people, each county should maintain at least 500 people, and step up time to train in preparation for fighting against the bandits.

Tonghai County is getting busy, Shuyang Mansion is also busy, and people feel as if the whole Yangzhou is busy.

In every village, they were busy checking on people in every household, measuring the fields, and checking the grain, goods, and taxes paid by each household in the past three years.

The interior of the prefecture and the county town also became noisy, and the officials in the yamen were divided into multiple roads, with official scholars, along the streets, door-to-door questioning, there were unified standard questions, and the scholars only kept records, regardless of whether they were true or not, whether there were mistakes or not. At first, I scared the merchants a lot, I don't know why, check taxes, smugglers or people!

In less than half a month, the whole Shuyang seems to be in chaos, the farmers are panicking, the businessmen are panicking, and even the people of the government are panicking.

But if you are a person with a heart, you will find some subtle details in the middle, some counties are also noisy and chaotic on the surface, but there are many people who do not belong to the county officials interspersed with them, they have their own independent way of doing things, and not every family goes, there are these people in the county, and there are also in the countryside, they are like idlers, often squatting in the fields and talking nonsense with the people.

Of course, Shuyang's movements have spread to Yangzhou, and many people are nervously paying attention to it, for fear that Yangzhou City will also be stirred up.

However, sitting and waiting, there was no movement, and many people were even more bottomless at this time.

And just when everyone was vying for a big eye, for fear of missing the excitement, a big drama actually opened.

One of the top figures in Yangzhou, Liu Sihai, the leader of the Sitong Gang who has been responsible for water transportation in Qingzhou, Yangzhou, Zhangzhou and other places, died of a sudden illness before the end of the month, and then the three major hall masters of the Qinghai Gang fought for the position of the gang leader, and now the entire Jiangnan from Qingzhou to Zhangzhou, from Zhangzhou to Yuezhou, inland river and coastal trade has stopped most of it.

But the people of Yangzhou have not been able to react from the shock, and the inspection made the yamen come out with an even more shocking news, Gaoyang Meng's family was found to have changed the fake salt quotation without permission, mixed the real and fake salt quotations, and privately sold Youzhou, Jingzhou, and Tanzhou private salt at least more than 5,000 quintals, and now the Meng family and the eldest son of the Meng family who is responsible for dealing with the salt transportation department have been seized by the salt transportation department, and the inspection envoy has also sent someone to seal all the Meng family's current account books, stores, and goods, and at the same time restrict the Meng family's entry and exit.

Although these things are not widely spread and are not very big, they have added fuel to the fire of Yangzhou now!

These things in Yangzhou reached Yuan Rui's ears in a few days, the matter of the Lu family was one of the countermeasures discussed by everyone last time, or it was expected, and it was also the best result that could be obtained, it was nothing more than the loss of a little money, not an old saying, what can be solved with money is nothing!

But the chaos in Shuyang Mansion, Yuan Rui couldn't figure it out. Of course, what he heard were also vague statements, the situation in Tonghai City was told to him by the fifth uncle, mainly from some merchants, now many merchants are more panicked, not at ease with the relevant policies of the government, and even some have transferred a lot of gold and silver treasures to the countryside, for fear that the government will turn its face and confiscate.

The eldest prince of Tonghai also sent a letter, he was light-hearted, and said a few words lightly about the practice of Shuyang Mansion, the theme content is, there should be no substantive effect, this external performance is too perfunctory, he just told Yuan Rui, according to his ideas, don't worry about anything, nothing.

The most direct thing is in front of me, Jijiazhuang came to a few people from the government, and they also learned about it everywhere, statistics and measurements, Uncle Wang heard others say, and hurriedly asked Yuan Rui what to do, what about hundreds of acres of land at home, Yuan Rui didn't care, just say a word, just tell the truth. When asked again, Yuan Rui stopped talking.

On this day, Yuan Rui was closing his eyes on the recliner in the backyard, and Uncle Wang walked in quickly from the front yard to say, "Young master, there are three ministers outside, saying that they are your classmates and have come to visit," he said and took out the greeting post in his hand.

Wang Ruofu, a classmate, seems to have a little impression, he is his classmate in the official school, and he usually works with a large group of people, but he is not a prominent character, and neither is this Wang Xianggong, so although the two have seen a lot, they don't talk much.

Let's look at the other two posts, one surnamed Zhang and the other surnamed Yao, both of whom are government students. Yuan Rui got up and walked to the front yard, ready to greet a few people, since the classmates are here, no matter what the intention is, if you are a guest, you must be entertained well, so as not to be rude.

Yuan Rui smiled secretly in his heart, it is estimated that the news that he deliberately released has spread all over Tonghai, Wang Xianggong must have wanted to find out his true thoughts, and then find an opportunity to explain, so as not to mistake himself.

Although Yuan Rui has a good impression of Wang Xianggong, he has a lot of mouths, and he has to deal with it for the time being, so he can only tell Wang Xianggong that after returning to his hometown, his old illness has not healed, and he has a headache when he reads a book, so he has the idea of giving up the imperial examination.

Wang Xianggong also smiled bitterly, and could only be appeased again, it may be that the injury is not long ago, and he has not fully recovered, and it will be fine after a while, and said that he must let his family explore what other famous doctors in Yangzhou are, and then invite him to Jijiazhuang to help diagnose it.

Yuan Rui was grateful, and sincerely kept Wang Xianggong to stay for a few days, but Wang Xianggong said that he had already made an appointment with his classmates from the government and school, and he didn't want to affect Yuan Rui's cultivation at this time. Yuan Rui kept sending them out of Jijiazhuang before turning around.