Although the yarn girl already knew that Shao Xi was an official from the capital, she did not feel at ease. Although Shao Xi is in the current crisis, what if Shao Xi leaves? It is difficult to guarantee that the Zhao clan will not rely on the power in their hands to find her account.

Now that he has offended Zhao Er, today Shao Xi humiliated Zhao Er so much in his yarn mill, thinking that the Zhao family would not give up.

Although Shao Xi can stay here for a while at present, if Shao Xi leaves one day, according to the Zhao family's power in Yujiang County, they will definitely not let go of the people who have offended them. How should I deal with myself then? Do you really want to close the yarn mill and go away?

This yarn mill is the only inheritance left to him by his father, and he can't give it up easily no matter what, but what ability does he have to fight with the Zhao family? I wanted to live a peaceful life with my own spinning and weaving, but I didn't want to cause so much trouble because I was chasing the ferry today.

Shao Xi also seemed to see the yarn girl's thoughts, so she smiled and comforted: "Girl, don't worry, since you have already intervened in this matter today, you will not let it go, and if you can't get a result, you won't leave this Yujiang County." In this Jingyuan Dynasty, there are still people who dare to ignore the royal law and dominate one side, and I will not turn a blind eye to the emperor's orders, and I will not leave until this matter is resolved. If I can't even keep your yarn mill, won't I be an official in vain? Rest assured! There I am! ”

Hearing what Shao Xi had already said, the yarn girl also knew that there was no other way at the moment, although her yarn workshop was important, she hoped that Shao Xi could stand up for the local people. If the Zhao family, which has been covering the sky with one hand and dominating one side in Yujiang County for many years, can be eradicated, it will really be a blessing for the local people and a blessing for the merchants who come and go.

"Young Master Shao, since you have spoken to this point, I don't think I need to hide anything anymore. This Zhao family has become a pest in Yushui County, called the local officials, in fact, it is no different from the bandits who are the party to the disaster, bullying the township, the fish and meat people are the norm, just that little Zhao Er controls the waterway transportation of the entire Yushui Town, whether it is the local people or the passing merchants, or the passing travelers must be knocked by him, otherwise it will be difficult to move an inch. Although the Qinghao Ziyun yarn made in my yarn mill is fine in workmanship and excellent in quality, it is also good quality and cheap, and now it is only because his Zhao family controls the trade route, resulting in the price of this cloud yarn is several times higher than the original, not only the money of the merchants is difficult to earn, but even our yarn mill has been affected by this, because the price is high and the sales are not smooth, and a large number of sales can not be sold. ”

When Shao Xi heard the yarn girl say this, he suddenly became interested, and couldn't help but ask excitedly: "I see that your cloud yarn is of excellent quality and beautiful, and it is rarely seen in the territory of Yuanzhou, even in Kyoto, it can be called the best grade." If you can sell your green haze purple cloud yarn to the land of Gyeonggi, it will definitely be sought after by those princes and nobles, rich businessmen and magnates, if the price is not high, you want to come to many well-off families can afford it, so you cloud yarn is not a lot of money? ”

The yarn girl shook her head with a wry smile, and said to Shao Xi helplessly: "Originally, as you said, if the high-quality cloud yarn in my yarn workshop is sold to the north, it is indeed very popular. It's a pity that all the yarn mills and cloth shops in Yujiang County are under the control of the Zhao family, and the forced increase in a large amount of yarn tax has caused the price of cloud yarn to skyrocket. Due to the high price in the end, the sales of cloud yarn were not smooth, and the huge profits were all made by the Zhao family, and our yarn mills and cloth shops that made and sold yarn could only be sustainable. This kind of thing is not only happening in our yarn making and yarn selling industry, many industries in Yujiang County are suppressed by such heavy taxes. ”

Hearing this, Shao Xi couldn't help frowning and said, "The imperial court does levy a yarn tax, but as far as I know, the tax levied is not very high!" The Zhao family in Yujiang County increased so much yarn tax but did not report it to the imperial court, didn't they all fill their own pockets and keep it for themselves? It seems that this matter really needs to be investigated. ”

After speaking, Shao Xi beckoned to Lao Wu, who hurriedly put down the wine jug in his hand and ran over.

"Lao Wu, although my father served in the Ministry of Rites back then, you also served in the 'Jingcheng Division', so you should know something about the Ministry of Households. As far as you know, how much yarn tax does the imperial court collect every year from the land south of the Yangtze River, especially from Yujiang County? ”

Lao Wu lowered his head and thought for a moment, and said with great certainty: "Old man, all I know are the accounts of more than 20 years ago, at that time, the annual tax and silver collected in the entire Jiangnan accounted for about sixty percent of the Jingyuan Empire, that is, almost more than 12 million taels, and Yuzhou alone accounted for nearly more than 8 million taels, of which the yarn tax accounted for more than 10 percent, at about one million taels, Yujiang County is rich in cloud yarn, and only this place pays more than 500,000 taels of yarn tax every year. But that was only twenty years ago, and I don't know much about what kind of old man he is now. ”

"The yarn tax alone can Yujiang County pay 500,000 taels a year? My good boy! ”

Shao Xi thought of the more than 6,000 gold he had stored in Taihe Commercial Bank at this time, and if it was converted into silver, it would only be more than 60,000 taels, so he felt that he was a very rich person, and now it seemed that his personal wealth was nothing compared to the finances of a huge empire.

Lao Wu looked at Shao Xi's face that he had never seen the world, and he was speechless for a while.

"You think the Jingyuan Empire is as big as the bookstore you opened? After making a few small bucks, I feel like a rich man. The annual tax revenue of the entire Jingyuan Dynasty is more than 20 million taels, but the expenses are also amazing, such as governing rivers, building water conservancy, developing farming, recruiting troops and horses, raising troops in the fields, providing relief to disaster victims, etc., where is there no need to use money? There is not much left in the treasury this year, especially if you have to come up with a sum of money to feed an official like you who eats white rice, which is a big burden, and the money in the hands of the saint must also be counted. ”

When Shao Xi heard this, the boss was not happy, and immediately replied: "Who is eating rice?" My money was earned by my own ability, and the Holy Lord gave me the money because he wanted me to help him make more money, but I didn't spend the Holy One's money, I spent all my own money. ”

"Okay, good, you're capable, you're the best, you're the best, but what about you? How many of these officials in the DPRK and China can really share the worries of the saints? Aren't most of them all corpse vegetarian meals? ”

"That's right, the annual income of officials alone is a lot of expenses."

Shao Xi turned his head and asked the yarn girl again, "How do you collect the yarn tax now?" ”

"I remember when I was a child, the government had to levy 250 yuan for every horse of cloud yarn sold to the cloth shop, and the cloth shop had to pay one tael of silver to the government for each horse of cloud yarn that changed hands and resold it. But since the Zhao family became officials in Yujiang County, the yarn tax of the yarn mill has risen from each horse to half a tael, and the cloth shop has risen to one and a half taels of silver per horse, so that each horse of cloud yarn has to levy two taels. For example, in addition to paying the normal ferry money and loading money at the ferry today, you also have to pay some benefit money to the steward of the ferry, otherwise you will suffer all kinds of difficulties, resulting in more losses caused by the failure of the goods to be shipped out smoothly. ”

"So, how many yarn mills and how many cloth shops are there in Yujiang County?"

"It's not very clear how much, but there are more than a thousand."

"The girl's yarn mill is a big yarn mill in Yujiang County? How many horses of cloud yarn can be made each year? How much can the largest yarn mill make in a year? ”

"My yarn mill can only be regarded as medium-sized, but twenty or thirty workers can produce at most two horses of cloud yarn a day, which is not bad, and about 500 horses can be made in a year, as for those large yarn mills that produce thousands of cloud yarns every year, but all kinds of expenses are also very large."

Shao Xi lowered his head and began to calculate, such a horse of cloud yarn is levied two taels of silver, according to the medium-sized yarn mill like the yarn girl and the medium-sized cloth shop like Boss Weng, five hundred cloud yarn will be levied one thousand taels of silver every year, and the average yarn mill and cloth shop has collected more than one million yarn taxes this year, and Yujiang County only pays five or six hundred thousand yarn taxes to the imperial court every year, where is the rest of the money? This Yujiang County is already a huge corruption in the area of yarn tax alone, not to mention other aspects, this amount is really amazing.

Lao Wu was also dumbfounded when he calculated on the side, the taxes of Yujiang County alone added up to more than one million per year, and in the past twenty years, he had embezzled the total tax revenue of the Jingyuan Empire for a whole year, what a terrifying number! If it is known by the saint, I am afraid that it will not be too much to punish the nine clans, and the Zhao family of Yujiang County is too bold.

Shao Xi looked at Lao Wu with a shocked face, and suddenly asked, "Old Wu, if you make as much money in your hands every year as the imperial court collects taxes every year, what do you think you will do with it with so much money?" It's not just about eating and drinking! ”

Lao Wu was suddenly nervous by Shao Xi's words, and hurriedly asked, "Do you mean that the Zhao family's annual greed for a large amount of tax money has other plans?" What will they do with the money? ”

Shao Xi smiled meaningfully, and asked Lao Wu rhetorically, "Do you think it costs so much money to do something?" And this money has been spent for nearly twenty years in the first place, what can require such a large expense for a long time? Think about it. ”

As soon as this question was asked, Lao Wu immediately reacted, looking at Shao Xi with a frightened expression, as if he couldn't believe Shao Xi's judgment.

"Young master, do you mean that this Zhao family raises a private army in Yujiang County? This large sum of money is used to recruit troops, buy horses, and support the army? If that's the case, what do they want to do? With such a large amount of money, how many troops do you have to raise? Do they secretly raise so many armies because they want to rebel? ”

Shao Xi waved his hand, "At the moment, it's just your guess, what is going on seems to need you and me to investigate carefully, but at present, it seems that this sign is indeed a little wrong, and it seems that this trip to Yujiang County will not be too smooth." ”

Lao Wu rolled his eyes and said, "You are really a broom star, you have something to do wherever you go." ”

"You old thing, can you speak? Isn't there no such thing if I don't come? ”