The Female Assistant of Wei Yuyan Shuangfei

In the living room, everyone looked bitter when they heard Xie Tingwen's words, and no one was willing to ask the doubts in their hearts first.

They all knew that paying taxes was a decree issued by the imperial court, and there was nothing wrong with that, but collecting taxes for three years at once was obviously too much for him to bear.

Cao Shuang couldn't help himself after all, and stroked his hand and said, "Sir! I wonder how this tax is collected?"

Xie Tingwen smiled when he heard this. As long as someone asked, it would be easy to deal with. He waved his hand and said, "Come here! Ask the clerk of the household registration office to bring the household registration outline to the living room."

"Yes!" the bailiff outside the door responded immediately.

"Dear fellow gentry! Please have some tea first. I will summarize the documents from the household office once they arrive. We can discuss the details later. Please!" Xie Tingwen raised his hand to signal as he spoke.

Everyone smiled apologetically and took a sip of tea. The tea that was originally fragrant now tasted bland when it went down their throats again.

If there is, I'm afraid there will only be bitterness.

Not long after, a minor official came in quickly, and stroked the hand of Xie Tingwen, who was at the head, and said, "I am Li Yun, the clerk of the Household Department. I am honored to meet you, sir."

"Yeah!~"

Xie Tingwen nodded, then glanced at everyone and said loudly: "How much tax does Laigu County owe currently? Do you have a general outline?"

"Reporting to the Lord! I am here with you, but..."

While Li Zan was speaking, he raised his eyes and looked at Xie Tingwen. Xie Tingwen naturally knew what was not said.

He just waved his hand and said nonchalantly: "It's just a bad account, not a secret, I'll just read it to you gentry!"

"Yes!~" Li Zan leaned over and responded.

He slowly opened the book in his hand, glanced at it, and said in a deep voice: "There are 630 businessmen in Laigu County, and 12,738 workers...a total of 7,600 acres of land..."

Everyone was confused, but the shop owners in the living room heard something different.

They were good at calculations, and through the figures reported by Li Zan, they had a rough understanding of Laigu County's tax revenue for the past three years in a moment.

In other words, paying the three years of tax arrears may be a big challenge for the people of Laigu County.

Xie Tingwen listened for half a minute, then raised his hand to interrupt Li Zan and said in a deep voice: "No need to talk about the rest, just report the taxes owed for the past three years!"

"Yes!~" Li Zan responded quickly.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and calmed himself down. He quickly flipped through the outline to the last page and sorted out his thoughts. "Laigu County owed 17,300 strings of silver for summer and autumn taxes in the 25th year of Jingyun, and 16,100 strings of silver for summer and autumn taxes in the 26th year of Jingyun. This year, 13,800 strings of silver for summer and autumn taxes need to be paid, a total of 47,200 strings of silver."

"Forty-seven thousand two hundred strings of cash?" Everyone couldn't help but gasp in fear.

The head of the household office and the clerk were thrown into jail by Xie Tingwen one after another. Li Zan saw that the situation was getting out of control, and he didn't want to follow in the footsteps of his "predecessors".

Thinking of this, Li Zan hurriedly said in a loud voice: "Gentlemen, please be at ease. What I just reported was the total amount. Although the total tax amount is 47,000 strings of cash, I did not specify the commercial tax, industrial tax, and land tax. Please do not panic."

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this. An elderly man stroked his hand and said, "I am Lin You, the head of Xiahe Township. I would like to meet Mr. Xie. I have something to say, so I dare to ask."

"Lin Lizheng, please stand up quickly." Xie Tingwen floated in the air and said softly, "Lin Lizheng, please feel free to speak."

Lin You calmed down and calmed his restless heart. He stroked his hand and said, "Then I am overstepping my authority. May I ask, sir, does the 47,200 guan include the taxes on surcharges, deductions, and...personal income?"

The previous 47,200 strings of cash had to be handed over to the imperial court, but local county officials had always come up with endless ways to deal with taxation.

For example, adding consumption, to put it bluntly, is loss.

If you give ten dou of rice to the county government, one dou will be lost. Maybe rats eat it, or it gets moldy, etc., causing a loss.

This part was collected in advance. With this operation, people in the tax office made a lot of money every summer and autumn.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "three years as a clean county magistrate earns 100,000 silver coins". The changes and population numbers are even more ridiculous.

Faced with such heavy taxes, the lower class people can only be exploited, and the county magistrate in power only wants one result, which is to pay the summer and autumn taxes in time.

Now, hearing Lin You openly revealing something that everyone knew was a secret, everyone present was shocked and their faces suddenly turned cold.

Xie Tingwen seemed to be completely unconcerned about the expressions of the crowd. He looked at Lin You with a smile and said, "Li Zheng Lin is also a good official who cares about his hometown. I am here to express my gratitude."

"Sir! I am just a village head. I was elected to this position out of necessity. Please forgive me for my presumptuous behavior today." Lin You stroked his hand and said.

"It's all right. Lin Lizheng, please get up quickly."

Xie Tingwen paused for a moment between words, glanced at everyone, and said slowly, "This 47,200 strings of cash is collected by the court, and I only want this amount."

"grown ups......"

Upon hearing this, the headmen of the three townships and seven villages fell to the ground and kowtowed to Xie Tingwen. Such a favor was like a blessing of rebirth to them.

Xie Tingwen had not anticipated the change in the situation at all, and hurriedly said, "Gentlemen, please stand up quickly. If you continue like this, I will not be able to say anything good about the future."

Hearing Xie Tingwen's refreshing tone, everyone helped each other to stand up in a daze, and then slowly sat down again.

Xie Tingwen nodded in satisfaction, then looked at Li Zan and said, "Of the 47,200 strings of cash, first distribute 30,000 strings of cash and report them to the headmen according to the land tax. As for the commercial tax and labor tax, your people in the household office will collect them."

"Sir, this..."

Before Li Zan could finish his words, Xie Tingwen frowned and asked, "What? Do you not understand what I am saying or do you have other ideas?"

"I...I dare not. I will go down and arrange it right away." Li Zan stroked his hands, bowed, and quickly left the living room.

Cao Shuang digested Xie Tingwen's words, pondered for a moment, and couldn't help but ask: "Sir! Just now you said that the 30,000 strings of cash will be shared, so does that mean we don't have to pay the rest?"

Hearing this, Lin You couldn't help but chuckle and said, "Old Cao! You really dare to think that. Mr. Xie has helped us so much, and you still want to charge less."

"I'm just asking. Lord Xie didn't say anything. Why are you so mad?" Cao Shuang frowned and said a little angrily.

Xie Tingwen couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard this, "What Li Zheng Cao said is not impossible."

"what?"

Everyone couldn't help but gasp, and all looked at Xie Tingwen in astonishment, trying to tell from his eyes how much truth and how much falsehood there was in what he had just said.