The next morning, the officials responsible for the interrogation of Wu Jingguo and the rest of the party reported the results, a total of 11 people were implicated, the dead Luo Pin, Li Nian did not count, Jia Chengfang was an accomplice to be exiled for betrayal, Xu Chunzhi abused his power to wantonly arrest the martial arts people and fined him for three years, the emperor was angry, so he promoted Wang Xiu to the eunuch of the palm seal and supervised the 'inner government' to preside over the matter.

Wang Xiu left, the emperor took out a piece of paper that had already been prepared, the paper was densely packed with the more important things in the past two years, he copied it down earlier, just waiting to take down the martial arts to show his strength, at this moment he picked up the pen to draw a circle on the top three things one by one, just waiting for the intention to hesitate and stop, waiting for a few months but not waiting for a day or two, now everything is ready, only the silver can not act recklessly, so as not to make mistakes again, but think about it, if the conditions are met, it will delay a lot of time,' Beichuan's situation is getting worse day by day, in the past, Wu Jingguo was in the power of his own actions, every move was restrained, every move was in Wu Jingguo's monitoring and calculation, although he was the emperor, he could only take care of some small things, once there was a big move, it was inevitable that Wu Jingguo would be on guard, so as to completely lose the opportunity to turn the tables, but the situation was different, Wu Jingguo had fallen, everything should be resolute, the longer it dragged on, the more accidents there were, the more popular uprisings, and the court could not afford to delay, once the "Golden Horse" eight kings seized power, they would knock on the south on a large scale again. The emperor had already calculated that Fang Bing's performance in the 'Beichuan' war was the most prominent before, and he originally planned to take the lead in using this person to deal with the 'Golden Cavalry' after taking power.

The emperor put down his pen again after making a decree, and the remaining two urgent matters were quite tricky, and he had no suitable candidate in mind, and he still needed to consult with a trusted minister, so he put it aside for the time being. He is waiting to go out of the palace to visit everyone, this one visit, the visit is the body of the meritorious person is the heart of the thirst for talent, in order not only to thank Shao Mingqian but also to the world surface an attitude, I Yin Tan Yin Jiusi is a bold and courageous emperor worthy of loyalty, my Yin family's court is also the court of the world, as long as it is dedicated to the court, for the people of the capable people, the court regardless of the birth of the meritorious reward, he wants to establish a flesh-and-blood emperor in front of the people of the world, but also in front of the people of the world to establish an emperor who shares weal and woe with the people。 He was about to get up, when suddenly the sound of the guards and eunuchs talking outside the hall sounded, and then the eunuchs came to report to Liang Xie to ask to see, the emperor was stunned, and his mind was already clear, and he immediately entered.

Liang Xie walked into the main hall, knelt down respectfully and saluted, the emperor did not wait for him to kneel down and hurriedly helped him up, and said with a smile: "There are no outsiders here, these etiquettes are waived." ”

Liang Xie thanked him, and the emperor glanced at Liang Xie's bandaged severed finger and smiled meaningfully, but did not speak.

The emperor, this person who was once very familiar to Liang Xie He didn't know how to evaluate it, and at first he had the impression that this person was young but dignified, and then his wife's affairs made Liang Xie re-identify him as a ruthless and vicious and calculating person and resented him, and now the emperor gave him a feeling that was both familiar and strange, and it seemed that it was still the same as before. Young Master's has matured too much in just a few months, although he looks like a teenager at this moment, he feels like a middle-aged man in his forties and fifties, as for whether the emperor is a conspiracy or sincerity Liang Xie believes in the former even more, he still doesn't have much good impression of the emperor at the moment, if he doesn't hate Wu Jingguo even more, if it weren't for the senior brother, in order to avenge Feng Qi, for himself, he wouldn't be involved.

Silence, a long silence, Liang Xie's guilt has disappeared after this betrayal, but this time he has asked for someone to make him a little awkward, at this moment Liang Xie is even more like a thorn in his back when the two are alone, and he doesn't know how to speak if the emperor doesn't speak.

Silent for a long time, the emperor finally opened his mouth first, gossiped a few times, remembered the past, and talked about the death of Yun Lao and Li Er, Feng Qi and others, the emperor seemed to be talking to Liang Xie and seemed to be talking to himself, Liang Xie listened quietly and occasionally followed a few words, his heart moved, and at a glance he saw the paper on the table, the paper was very large, almost half the size of a table, and the paper was densely written with fly-headed small letters, some recorded events, some recorded people's names, everything was neatly divided into sections, three of which were circled by cinnabar and thought it was a matter of urgency。

Liang Xie swept his eyes and saw that there was a square word in the first paragraph, and there were three state characters in the second paragraph, but it was a matter of the three states of 'Tangzhou', 'Zhongzhou', and 'Weizhou', and the third paragraph was a big tax word, and there were numbers and place names underneath.

Liang Xie's heart moved, 'Beichuan' is a side matter, it is very easy to understand, 'Tangzhou' can be called a major event, in recent years, there are many gangs and cults to bewitch and rebel, this is the first one, but I can't imagine that 'Zhongzhou' and 'Weizhou' also have. What does the word tax mean in the third paragraph? Could it be that the emperor wants to raise taxes? Liang Xie said in his heart: "If this is the case, then it is difficult to say whether they are doing the right thing for heaven or for the tiger this time." ”

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but take another look, this glance confirmed the two conjectures in front of him, but he didn't expect that things were much worse than he imagined, the third tax was not a tax increase, but a tax resistance, which greatly surprised him, in his impression that the people were honest farmers, all of them were good people who were oppressed by the official uniform, and it was not their turn to resist taxes.

Take' Zhongzhou's words, before Gao Kuo was in collusion with the four gangs, forcing the people not only to pay all the taxes of the imperial court, but also a variety of losses, such as fire consumption alone to consume nearly two percent, plus additional apportionment miscellaneous deductions, plus the price of grain by the four gangs and other grain merchants to control a tael of taxes basically to sell twice or even three times the value of grain to pay, if in the harvest years can barely survive, under the poor harvest in this successive years, it is forced many people to sell their sons and daughters, and even take risks to rebel, and on this piece of paper, The tax revenue of 'Zhongzhou' is only seventy percent, which is the highest proportion of tax collection in Kyushu, and most of the other states are about fifty percent, while the tax revenue of 'Gumeng Prefecture' is not even forty percent, Liang Xie even doubted his eyes, once upon a time the people were so rude?

The emperor glanced at Liang Xie and saw that there was a look of surprise in his eyes that did not stop him from continuing to look, but smiled and said, "Brother Liang also saw it, what's the matter, is it an accident?"

Liang Xie frowned and said, "The people have paid a lot, how can this be?"

The emperor smiled bitterly: "It's a lot, but the court doesn't receive much, it's the business of the people of the world to protect the family and defend the country, but the people of the world are not willing to pay, the rich are like 'Gu Mengzhou' The most so, even if I don't eat or drink all the silver of the 'internal money' is still less than the consumption of a 'Beichuan', not to mention that there is more than one 'Beichuan' in the side affairs, in addition, the officials' money, the people's disaster relief, and the royal family's support, every expenditure is a huge number." ”

Liang Xie was silent, he knew that 'Gumengzhou' was the most wealthy, not counting business, just in terms of cultivated fields, the yield per mu of fields in 'Gumengzhou' was more than twice as high as that of most fields in 'Zhongzhou'. Tangzhou's four or five times, but also two to three crops a year, the harvest can be described as a lot, mulberry field silkworm weaving on the silk fabric sold income will be higher, in recent years, Fanbang businessmen have learned a lot smarter, no longer only from the court or businessmen to buy silk but began to buy from the hands of the mulberry farmers, the mulberry farmers are scattered sand, rarely can take the initiative, so the price is lower year by year, the cheap Sang farmers sell cheap forced domestic merchants to sell silk The price is also a lot cheaper, the price of silk in the imperial court is also greatly affected, the price has fallen by more than two percent within three years, the selling price has dropped by two percent, and the profits have been cut in half, but these are not Liang Xie can know。 When the imperial court collected taxes, the tax paid per mu by 'Gumengzhou' was also higher than that of other states, and this kind of tax collection had its own reason, which was quite just, but it was unfair at the same time, and it was reasonable for the people of 'Gumengzhou' to find some reasons to resist taxes.

The two of them talked about state affairs for a while and gossiped for a while, most of the time the emperor was talking, Liang Xie was listening, he echoed his mouth and his heart was quite anxious, his former father-in-law Ren Kangnian was greedy for some silver before and could still get by in major matters, a few years ago, the party was so strong that he could also keep his duty and not collude with associations, how many years have passed, in recent months, but I don't know which tendon he pulled and suddenly took the car of Wu Jingguo, who knew that he defected to Wu Jingguo on the front foot and Wu Jingguo fell on the back foot, this is good, the benefit is not half a point, but it is inevitable to be liquidated, Liang Xie entered the palace this time to replaceThe 'father-in-law' family pleaded with the emperor, but Liang Xie opened his mouth several times and couldn't intervene at all. Xu is the emperor has been depressed in the past few months, Liang Xie has made him excited, sighing at the death of his friend who lamented the difficult situation at the same time, he is ambitious and full of confidence, he doesn't care whether Liang Xie understands or not, whether he is interested or not, just talk to Liang Xie, after all, there is only Liang Xie who has worked together now, the others are dead, and those who are not there are not there, as for Thirteen who did not wait for the injury to be healed and said goodbye last night, even if Thirteen is here, he is not interested in these messy things.

The two of them chatted for an hour, Liang Xie never had the opportunity to plead, and finally the emperor said it first, a commendation was prepared, Ren Kangnian turned into a stupid move to join Wu Jingguo and became an act of approaching Wu Jingguo to collect evidence of his crimes, the emperor first praised his loyalty to the country, and then criticized him for not building an inch, and finally arranged a vacancy for Ren Kangnian to be transferred away, Liang Xie thanked again and again, and then said goodbye to the palace, for him, ' Father-in-law's family only needs to save their lives, and he doesn't care if he is an official or not, and Liang Xie is extremely disgusted with their family's superior behavior in the official family, and it is not a good thing for them to lose the official.

Liang Xie came out of the palace at nearly noon, returned to the room to see the senior brother and others, but saw that Heng Wushu had woken up, it turned out that the 'Tianhu Daoren' came overnight after receiving the letter, and it was much better to drug Heng Wushu and force out blood stasis, Liang Xie was overjoyed, and when he learned that Lei Jun sent 'Xuanyi Wei' to pick up the alliance leader and everyone back, he couldn't help but feel warm in his heart after the great joy, Shao Mingqian, Heng Wuxuan, Xiang Tieyi and the others were extremely seriously injured, although they had recovered for two days, it was still not suitable for long-distance travel, especially Heng Wushu had just saved his life, and he was extremely weak, and he might lose his life if he was not careful in this cold winter, so Shao Mingqian decided to set off again after the New Year, and immediately sent two 'Xuanyi Guards' back to restore his life. After eating, Liang Xie returned to the room and lay down for a while, and the people sent by the emperor arrived, and after greeting everyone, the emperor's words were passed down, and tomorrow night in the 'Qinlong Tower' the emperor wanted to feast everyone, and everyone should go down to the eunuch to return to the palace to resume their lives. The eagle grinned in his arms and said, "This kid finally remembered to invite us to dinner, he has a conscience." The eunuch just stepped out of the door with his front feet, and when he heard the eagle's words, he suddenly looked back at him, the eagle's heart was cold, and he immediately stopped talking, the eunuch still had to teach the eagle a lesson, Shao Mingqian gave him a fist salute, and the eunuch was not good to have another seizure, and turned around.