Suddenly remembering the man with a ferocious face in the daytime, Xu Ping asked Lu Fang: "There is only one family in Jiang Da in this county. Who is Tong Qilang at the banquet today?"

"It's true that officials don't believe it. Tong Qilang is a client and has no land in the county."

After hearing this, Xu Ping was surprised: "Customer? If you are invited to accompany the county government today, you must have some status in the county. How could you be a customer!"

Lu Fang shook his head and sighed: "So there is strangeness everywhere in Heyin County. Tong Qilang opened several cellars to make porcelain and had a wealth of wealth. He just didn't buy real estate in the county. His cellars and residences were rented from nearby villagers. And not only him, but also customers who work under him, and only Fucai is the only local."

Xu Ping has never encountered such a thing. Although the customers do not pay taxes, they will lose a lot of rights accordingly. It is not just a problem that they will be bullied by the main household. Any matters involving official matters often require them to find the local main household to protect them and have to ask for help. Therefore, although the customer burden is light, as long as there are conditions, small farmers are often willing to buy some assets and establish a registered household as the main household. Overall, it is still cost-effective.

After thinking for a while, Xu Ping asked Lu Fang: "Tong Qilang's wealth is abundant, so he must have deliberately not purchased land. Do you know why he did this? Can a person with such a wealth still resist asking for help from time to time?"

"Please ask for someone? County Marquis, you have a bad idea. Tong Qilang never asks for someone."

Seeing Xu Ping's face full of confusion, Lu Fang continued: "The families near his cellar are all relying on him to dress and eat. They all want to curry favor with him but have no chance. How could he have the turn to ask for help!"

Xu Ping thought for a while before he understood the truth. Tong Qilang controlled the economic lifeline of the people around his industry. If others want to have food and clothing, they can only come to ask him for help. Correspondingly, the government has something to do, but they are afraid that the nearby owners will compete to come to him as the protector. Although he is a customer, he is a customer who is riding on the owners' accounts.

Heyin County has a small population, but unexpectedly there is such a strange thing. A large landlord who controls most of the land in the county, and a capitalist who monopolizes most of the commercial activities. I am afraid that there will be no few places in the country to find this situation, but Xu Ping encountered it here.

After inspecting the river, if the rainy season comes, the matter of opening the canal will be put until after autumn. When opening the canal, the manpower and material resources must be mobilized from the surrounding areas. How to mobilize Heyin County in this way?

The only people who serve the local main households are the tenants under Jiang Dayou. Whether they have food or not is a problem or not is there any way to do anything! In this era, corvee labor was collected but they didn’t care about food. When these people came, Xu Ping had to find something to fill their stomachs. Tong Qilang, the most capable of working, and all the subordinates were customers. They did not serve in the service and did not even participate in the maintenance of the Yellow River embankment, let alone open the canal.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that this place was funny. Xu Ping smiled bitterly and shook his head. It seems that if you want to open the canal, you must first solve the strange situation in Heyin County and liberate the manpower and material resources.

He looked up at Lu Fang in front of him and said, "Have you sent someone to send me the letter from Mengzhou Prefecture Office?"

"The person has left, the county marquis is at ease, and you should be able to arrive in Mengzhou tomorrow."

For the current plan, we can only wait for people from Mengzhou to use the power of the state to crush the situation in Heyin County. Regardless of whether Jiang Dayou and Tong Qilang committed crimes or not, they would be guilty of causing such a situation.

Since the Qin and Han dynasties, the primary task of local officials was to attack the powerful. Although the late Tang and Five Dynasties eliminated the powerful aristocrats of aristocrats, local tyrants were like weeds, destroying one after another, endlessly.

Heyin County Magistrate Yao Guangze sat down and watched this situation continue to be a dereliction of duty. Even if he uses some means that he cannot come to the forefront, he should eliminate these two major forces.

Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, strictly speaking, local officials have been sent by the central court. People themselves belong to the court, and they are just temporary dispatches to the local government. They represent the interests and authority of the central court, and they will never tolerate local forces threatening state power. At this time, it is a political correctness to eliminate local tyrants.

As long as he wants to do it, the county magistrate has many ways to make Jiang Dayou and Tong Qilang lose everything, but it requires the support of the officials above. Yao Zeguang did not have both, so he shrank his head and became an ostrich.

In the back garden of Mengzhou Prefecture Yamen, Li Di took a sip of tea, leaned comfortably on the chair, and narrowed his eyes.

It’s better to live in the local area. You don’t have to get up early to go to court, and you don’t have to worry about the affairs in the state. You just eat and drink enough every day to cultivate yourself. When you are interested, you go around to visit the mountains and rivers and talk about things outside the world with the monks and famous people. It’s really a life like a god.

The only thing is that when I think of the state affairs of the court occasionally, I feel a little lost. As an emperor, as an imperial teacher, I have been a prime minister many times, it is not so easy to let go if I want to give up.

Just as Li Di was just wandering outside the sky, a sudden sound of rapid footsteps came.

The only one who can walk like this in the prefecture yamen is the only one who can walk like this.

Li Di opened his eyes, looked at the middle-aged man walking quickly, and asked, "Qingchen, why are you in such a hurry?"

Li Shen, the magistrate of Mengzhou who was walking quickly, bowed and bowed: "I disturb my husband and I will forgive my crimes."

Seeing that Li Di had no intention of blaming him, Li Shen handed a letter from his hand and said, "Mr., Xu Weijian, the deputy envoy of salt and iron, arrived in Heyin County two days ago, inspected the waterway that led Luo River into the Bian River. Because he found that some people in the county fled on the road, he wrote this letter to the state."

"Xu Ping, it's Xu Ping again. Please go wherever you go!" Li Di shook his head, answered the letter and opened it to watch.

After reading the letter, Li Di put it on the table beside him and said to Li Shen: "Isn't that big deal? This year, the drought in Heyin County is severe. Although he has exempted money and grain and distributed food for disaster relief, it is inevitable that some people still feel that they can't survive and go to a foreign land to find a new way to live. A few fleeing people are nothing."

"What my husband said makes sense. However, Xu Waijian inspected the river and inspected the places. Since we had a letter, we couldn't sit idly by. There was nothing happening in the state recently, so I went to Heyin County and worked with Xu Waijian to prepare the matter in person, so as not to gossip in the face of others. My husband thought what?"

Li Di said lightly: "You can make the decision on the matters in the state. If you arrange it properly, go there." To be continued.

...
Chapter completed!