Chapter 325: Naive

In a large mansion in the south of the city, the back garden was shrouded in a formation. Even though it was a cold night about to snow, it was still as warm as spring, with green trees like jade and flowers in full bloom.

There was a lake in the garden, with a pavilion built over it. In the pavilion, there was a table of exquisite wine and food, and two couches were placed on the side, different in height and style.

At this moment, Princess Ningguo was wearing a thin dress, leaning sideways on a couch, reading a storybook. The material of her long dress was extremely soft and fitting, hanging on her body like a flowing waterfall, like a landscape painting with undulating charm.

She was also not wearing shoes or socks, her small bare feet exposed, pinkish-white, looking slender, but every toe was round, with no bone structure visible at all.

Occasionally, when reading to a critical point in the storybook, her whole body would tense up, and her five toes would curl up, tugging at the hearts of everyone around her.

A branch of a tree in the garden shook and said, "Is it not time yet?"

A fish in the pond surfaced, looked at the full moon in the sky, and said, "There is still a quarter of an hour."

Another fish surfaced and asked, "What major business could that barbarian have to drag it out for two hours, insisting on coming at the hour of the Rat?"

A rockery in the garden shook and said in an all-knowing tone, "He obtained some extraordinary rewards and needs time to refine them; these few days are the most critical time, so it is not strange for him to be diligent. Besides, the night is quiet, which is just right to cover up his weak nature."

"*Hehehe... *" A duck in the dark corner let out a sinister laugh and said, "It's a pity he absolutely cannot calculate that we have already ambushed here in advance to witness his reputation of 'Three-Shot'! It's just that the Princess will have to be wronged once again."

Princess Ningguo said lazily, "You few, if you are to be the background, just be the background; why can't you hold your breath when it's not time yet? Oh right, the magic treasure must be handled first, lest you forget to use it when the time comes."

She flicked her finger, and several gauze curtains descended from thin air, shrouding the entire water pavilion. On the curtains, one could only see a pale pink flowing, and no matter how great one's divine powers were, one could not see the scene behind the curtains. The sound, however, could be transmitted without any obstruction.

The background crowd all fell silent. A moment later, an air of resentment and indignation permeated the back garden. They knew Princess Ningguo must have magic treasures in her hands, but this treasure was too strong; unless one was a True Lord, one couldn't see through it. How could it be like this!

In the night, a team of knights galloped past, heading straight for the West Gate.

The knights' bodies were all flashing with the light of Dao power, their iron hooves landing without sound, so the people in the residential houses on both sides of the road were unaware.

The city gate guards saw a group of knights rushing over and were so scared their sleepiness vanished. They hurriedly said, "Stop! Who is rushing the gate in the middle of the night?"

A magnificent precious sword was handed to the gate-guarding officer, and the knight on the horse shouted coldly, "This is the sword bestowed by the Great King; seeing the sword is like seeing the Great King! I am Wei Yuan, the Military Governor of Dingxi, and I have urgent military business to leave the city. Open the gate immediately!"

The sword had a unique magic power imprint, and the officers guarding the Royal City all knew how to distinguish the true from the false. After verifying the precious sword, they opened the city gate. Wei Yuan gathered the knights stationed in the Wei City and left the city under the cover of night, heading far away.

At this moment, the full moon was hanging high; it was exactly the hour of the Rat.

After rushing out for more than ten miles, Wei Yuan looked back; in the night, Ying City was like a monster crouching on the earth, eating people without spitting out the bones.

A full hour had passed since the hour of the Rat, and Princess Ningguo couldn't hold back anymore, sending people to the post house to find Wei Yuan, only to discover that the post house was already empty. After inquiring along the way from the night-patrolling soldiers and the gate-guarding officers, she learned that Wei Yuan had left the city overnight and his whereabouts were unknown.

The Princess was both ashamed and annoyed, but there was nothing she could do.

Thus, the yard full of living things—those in the water came out of the water, those rooted pulled their roots, and the duck almost forgot to turn back into human form, wanting to fly away on the spot. Fortunately, it was slapped down by a branch of the big tree next to it. This was the Jin capital; flying around in the middle of the night was easy to get shot.

The group of young masters had never suffered such a great crime, nor had they ever experienced the sentient beings so deeply.

After this day, "Ningguo issues a summons, fleeing a thousand miles overnight" became another piece of gossip about the Wei barbarian, which would surely be mentioned after tea and dinner.

Leaving the Jin capital, Wei Yuan no longer held back, leading the cavalry team to advance rapidly. In three days, they traveled twenty thousand miles and arrived at a city in the west of the Western Regions, Lai.

Lai City had about two hundred thousand households and was considered a large city in Western Jin. The trade routes here extended in all directions, and the surrounding fields were in patches, making it a wealthy city. Wei Yuan set this as one of the transit points, preparing to rest here for a day and observe the customs of Western Jin by the way.

Knights went ahead to handle all the procedures first, and then the cavalry team camped outside the city, while Wei Yuan entered the city in plain clothes, walking and looking around at will.

Lai City was indeed prosperous, with people surging in the city, filled with worldly smoke and fire everywhere. There were large mansions with high walls and deep courtyards in the city, and even more continuous patches of shanties, which were somewhat similar to Quliu Town, only a bit wealthier than Quliu Town.

Wei Yuan walked through the streets and alleys in the city, neither avoiding the fierce retainers of the great families nor disliking the filth and excrement everywhere in the shanty area. Just walking, looking, and occasionally talking for a few sentences, a whole day passed.

At nightfall, Wei Yuan arrived at the Prefecture Governor's mansion, where the Governor had already set up a banquet to wait.

The Governor was thin and already of some age. His name was Wang Duan, a Metropolitan Graduate of forty years ago, now over seventy years old, having attained the Dharma Form eleven years ago, with no further progress.

After three rounds of wine and the pleasantries were over, they entered the main topic. Wei Yuan said, "I have long heard that Lai City is wealthy; seeing it today, it is indeed well-deserved. I am governing a place for the first time and still have many things I don't understand, so I would like to ask Governor Wang for advice."

"I will say everything I know, and say it without reservation."

Wei Yuan said, "I have two questions. First, the number of people in the city seems to be much larger than what is recorded in the household register; I don't know where they come from. Second, many facilities in the city are in disrepair; with Lai City's wealth, it shouldn't be unable to afford repairs."

Wang Duan laughed and said, "Official Wei is testing this subordinate. First, let's talk about people. Lai City currently has 189,000 households on the register, but the actual number is probably more than double that. However, these extra people are not on the official register, but on the private registers of the various high-ranking families."

Wei Yuan was thoughtful: "Is it because of the household tax?"

"Exactly."

Western Jin had a household tax, commonly known as the poll tax, which was paid based on the households registered in the register, so since ancient times, there has always been the saying that if people are prosperous, taxes are sufficient.

Wei Yuan asked in detail along the way, and Wang Duan really said everything he knew without reservation.

Many people in the city, in order to avoid paying the household tax, chose to sell themselves to the large families, becoming unregistered servants. And the large families in the city were either surnamed Xu or Lu; these two surnames accounted for eighty percent, and the other ten percent plus were Li, Xu, Bao, etc. The large families that were not wealthy and powerful added up to less than half a percent.

At this time, the wine was slightly intoxicating, and Wang Duan spoke more deeply: "Official Wei, your two questions just now are actually one question. Lai City looks wealthy, but in reality, the treasury is empty; where would there be money to repair the streets? Do you know how much of the annual tax revenue I have here comes from the large families?"

!.

Wang Duan didn't need Wei Yuan to guess; while speaking, he stretched out a finger.

Wei Yuan was greatly shocked and said, "Ten percent?"

Wang Duan nodded: "Only ten percent! And most of this ten percent is collected from the local wealthy people outside the seven surnames. The 180,000 households on the register contributed ninety percent of the tax silver."

"If we don't count the tax silver, but only look at the income?"

Wang Duan smiled and said, "Official Wei is testing me again. This matter doesn't even need the clerks to check in detail; just by looking at it a little, one can know that in terms of income, this proportion has to be reversed, and probably even more."

"That is to say, ordinary people use ten percent of their income to pay ninety percent of the taxes?"

"Under the heavens, it is all like this."

Wei Yuan smiled: "I see that the streets where several large mansions are located are quite neat and clean; the repair costs shouldn't all have been used there, right?"

"Official Wei is talking about the upper three districts; indeed, all the expenses have been filled in there, but it is still not enough. Only when the large families pay out of their own pockets can they have the appearance they have today."

"So that's how it is! Drink!" Wei Yuan raised his glass.

The questions behind no longer needed to be asked. For example, why some small shops were clearly booming, but the shopkeepers were dressed in rags and the inside was also empty. Ninety percent of the tax silver was the answer.

And the large families in the upper three districts also needed to pay out of their own pockets to repair the streets, so they must have put a lot of pressure on Wang Duan, wanting him to collect more taxes.

After eating and drinking his fill, Wei Yuan said goodbye.

Before parting, Wei Yuan asked the last question: "Why not collect more taxes from the large families? To them, it is just a drop in the bucket."

Wang Duan said: "Official Wei is in a high position; how can you not know that although there are many roads to collect silver, every one of them is extremely difficult? From ancient times to the present, under the heavens, collecting taxes from the common people is the simplest."

"If you collect too much, wouldn't that be forcing the people to rebel?"

Wang Duan laughed and said: "Then this subordinate would rather suppress a few more factions of rebels."

Wei Yuan bowed and said: "Thank you, Governor Wang, for your guidance. Goodbye."

Currently, Wei Yuan's figure disappeared. Wang Duan returned to the mansion, ordered the main gate to be closed, and then shook his head, spitting out two words: "Naive."

(End of chapter)