The fake daughter of a fallen ghost is reborn

When I returned to the table, the debate was about to begin.

As soon as Xue Zhiyi sat down, he saw Shen Qingtang holding his chin with red eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Seeing that Shen Qingtang didn't answer, she looked at Xue Runing again. Xue Runing didn't understand what was going on and just shook his head.

Shen Qingtang was already sad, and when she saw the two of them coming back one after the other, she sobbed and threw herself on Xue Zhiyi's shoulder. She didn't say a word, but just wiped her tears silently.

Xue Zhiyi wanted to ask her what happened, but Shen Qingtang just said with a nasal tone: "Zhiyi, don't ask, I'm fine, just let me lean on you for a while."

At this moment, another gong sounded.

Finally, it’s time for the public reading of policy papers.

As expected, as in the previous life, most opinions still focus on the short-sightedness of the people and the corruption of local officials.

Until that article that shocked everyone appeared.

In the Guanshan Pavilion, beside Ge Jingyang, a book boy was holding a policy paper and reading it aloud.

The viewpoint of this policy paper is different from everyone else.

He believed that it was not that the people were unwilling to pay the charity granary tax, but that they were simply unable to afford it because the taxes on the people were already too high.

Although the taxes written in the "Dayong Code" were not high, the actual taxes were much higher than that.

The aristocratic families in various places were deeply rooted, and most of the officials in the court came from aristocratic families, so they were able to use their power to manipulate the court and reduce taxes on their relatives. However, there was a fixed amount of taxes that the court had to pay to the court every year, so they could only exploit the people.

Your Majesty felt that the tax was not high, so he wanted to levy a charity warehouse tax, but this was due to deception at each level by the lower levels, which led to Your Majesty's misjudgment.

Furthermore, the court distributed land to the people according to population, and two-thirds of it became permanent land that could be inherited from generation to generation. However, officials used all means to impose taxes, forcing ordinary people to sell their permanent land or even sell themselves into slavery. The people became the family slaves of the aristocratic families, and the permanent land that they had inherited from generation to generation naturally belonged to the aristocratic families.

The noble families occupied most of the land, but evaded taxes, and the burden on the people increased day by day, so more people sold themselves into slavery in order to survive. If this continued, the rich would become more prosperous and the poor would become poorer, which would damage the foundation of Dayong.

To solve the problem fundamentally, it is not a matter of charity granary tax, but the tax should be changed. Taxes should no longer be levied based on population, but based on the amount of land held.

After this long speech was finished, everything was silent for a while.

Only Jiang Xu raised his face, with high morale in his eyes and tears in his eyes.

Gradually, everyone began to talk about it.

It’s not that no one else has thought of this view, but it is too harsh. Or, since he himself comes from a prominent family, how could he say such a self-defeating statement?

Xue Zhiyi glanced in the direction of Huo Wuyou.

This is why Huo Wuyou felt that her substitution would harm Xue Tingliu and even Xue Zhentong.

Regarding the discussion of this article, most of the children from poor families supported it, while the children from wealthy families tried their best to suppress it. The discussion was tit-for-tat and at a stalemate.

Although the discussion has not reached a conclusion, the authors of the articles that will be read to the public today still need to be announced one by one.

Many people are also curious about who wrote this overly bold article.

Jiang Xu adjusted his collar, raised his face, and looked calm and composed.

Ge Jingyang flipped open the signature on the back of the book and saw his eyebrows pause slightly, but soon he covered up the strangeness: "This essay was written by - Xue Tingliu."

In an instant, there was another uproar.

Looking in the direction of Xue Tingliu, he saw him sitting among the scholars, and his eyes were shocked.

The children from poor families were all amazed at this moment.

"Xue Tingliu? Isn't he the son of the Minister of Revenue? With such a background, he is able to sympathize with the people and has great literary talent. It is clear that he is as talented as the rumors say!"

"You don't know that the Minister of Revenue also came from a poor family. This shows that Minister Xue has a good way of educating his children and he doesn't forget his origins. This is really rare."

"With such a father and son serving in the court, our Great Yong will have successors, and the country will have hope for a peaceful and prosperous future!"

For the first time, Xue Tingliu felt that the exclamations around him were so harsh... Who was it? Who did it? !

When he met Ge Jingyang's gaze, he felt like sitting on pins and needles.

The noble families around him had fallen silent.

Who in the court doesn't know that Prince Gong is the most popular among the noble families? Prince Gong's party represents the interests of the major noble families. Although Xue Zhentong was born in a poor family, he has long been under Prince Gong's command and is related to Prince Gong by marriage. Now, Xue Zhentong's son wrote such an article. What does it mean!

Hearing the discussions, Xue Zhiyi couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth.

Prince Gong's biological mother, Concubine Ge, was of noble birth, and most aristocratic families favored Prince Gong.

Prince Sheng's biological mother was just a palace maid, so she had no support from her maternal family. In order to compete with Prince Gong, Prince Sheng had been trying to build up his own power. The most convenient way was to win over some noble families who were already dissatisfied with Prince Sheng's party, and then support the poor children who passed the imperial examinations and became officials to become new nobles, and make them his own followers.

Therefore, in his previous life, Jiang Xu's test paper was replaced not only because Xue Tingsheng was useless, but also because it was the result of the competition between Prince Cheng and Prince Gong.

With Jiang Xu's talent, Prince Cheng would definitely find a way to recruit him. By exchanging Jiang Xu's test paper with Xue Tingsheng, Prince Gong would not only get rid of a court official who would collude with Prince Cheng in the future, but also support Xue Tingsheng who would be loyal to him.

Now that Xue Zhiyi has made such a change, not only can he temporarily conceal Jiang Xu's edge and save his life, but it also disrupts Prince Gong's vision, making him doubt Xue Zhentong's position, and also makes Xue Tingliu, a member of Prince Sheng's party hidden in Prince Gong's party, be targeted by Prince Gong.

At this point, Xue Tingliu could only stand up and bow: "It's just a few shallow opinions from Xue, please forgive me for making fun of you."

Jiang Xu had already stood there in a daze, watching all this in disbelief... This was clearly his article, so how did it become someone else's?

He clutched the hem of his clothes on his knees, and his lips trembled slightly.

Next to him, a scholar asked him, "Brother Jiang, what's wrong with you?"

Jiang Xu gritted his teeth and shook his head firmly: "Nothing..."

The other party was the son of a Shangshu mansion, while he had traveled thousands of miles to Beijing to take the exam, all alone and without anyone to rely on. He had seen the horror of power before, so how could he defeat someone of such a background?

How could Fu Rongxin, who had been reborn, not know who wrote this article in her previous life? She turned her head and looked at Xue Zhiyi, guessing that the initiator was her.

However, Fu Rongxin did not think that deeply for the time being, and thought that Xue Zhiyi simply did not want Xue Tingsheng to pass the imperial examination and become the top scholar through this method as he did in his previous life.

She sneered secretly: Did Xue Zhiyi think she was reborn in vain? As long as she proposed to Fu Ling and Xue Zhentong, Jiang Xu's test paper would still be replaced by Xue Tingsheng in the end.

Could it be that Xue Zhiyi thought that if she could save Shen Qingtang, she could save everyone else? She really overestimated her own abilities.