Chapter 682: The Eve Before the Storm

More than an hour later, Li Qing'an's army was ready to set off after lunch. This time, Mingzhu bid farewell to the dilapidated carriage and got into Li Qing'an's super luxurious carriage pulled by twenty-four horses, like two small rooms.

"Please come in!" Li Qingan smiled and pulled out the carriage.

Mingzhu's face was a little red, and so many personal soldiers were watching her! She bit her lips gently. If she had been careless and unceremonious in the past, but today her mood changed a little, and she felt a little shy, as if she was going to be in a sedan chair, shy, expectant, and worried that all kinds of complex feelings would be intertwined in her heart. In the end, she mustered up her courage, pulled up her skirt and quickly got into Li Qing'an's carriage.

The carriage is very spacious, one zhang wide, but three zhang long. The walls are cork and thick carpets are paved with. The carriage is divided into two front and back rooms. The front room is where Li Qing'an works, and the back room is a dormitory. The carriage is bright and it feels very comfortable.

"I want one inside, you're outside!"

Mingzhu started to split up as soon as she got on the bus, but Li Qingan smiled and said, "The carriage only takes three miles, and it will be on the boat when it leaves the city. The boat is more spacious and comfortable."

"oh!"

Mingzhu ran all the way and felt very tired. When she found Li Qing'an, she felt safe. Her tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and her eyes were so sleepy that she could hardly open her eyes. She wanted to take a nap, but she was about to get on the boat, so she had to hold back her sleepiness and sit down by the window.

When she turned around, she saw Li Qingan pouring tea for her, and she quickly stood up, "Brother, I'll do it!"

Before she knew it, she had changed her name to Li Qing'an, just like Rushi Ruhua, calling Li Qing'an the eldest brother. In her heart, she actually disliked calling Li Qing'an the brother-in-law the most, which means that she will always be a vassal of her sister and that she will always be a wife and sister.

She was about to get up and pour tea, and the carriage started. When the carriage swayed, she fell and sat down again, "Ouch!"

"Be careful!"

Li Qing'an brought a cup of herbal tea in front of her and smiled and said, "Do you have a little tea and take a break, get on the boat and go to bed."

Mingzhu held up the teacup and smiled sweetly, "Brother, I will do things like pouring tea in the future. I can also help you organize the documents. The words I write are no worse than those of my sister."

"Okay! I'm worried that no one will serve me when I'm out."

Li Qingan lay down comfortably on the other side of the small table, stretched his waist, smiled at her sideways, "Mingzhu, pound my legs first!"

"Go to you, I'm not your maid."

Mingzhu lay down in anger, but she felt something was wrong when she lay down. She sat up again and moved Li Qing'an's legs over angrily, "You asked me to beat it. It was uncomfortable to beat it, don't blame me."

"Okay! I won't blame you, just be gentle, don't think you're beating the drum."

Mingzhu gently pounded his legs for him, and at this moment a hint of tenderness appeared in her heart. She remembered that when she fell into the water, Li Qing'an gave her mouth-to-mouth arrogance. Her face slowly turned red. She secretly glanced at Li Qing'an, but saw him staring at her with bright eyes. She jumped suddenly and couldn't help but feel embarrassed. She hurriedly pushed Li Qing'an's legs away and turned around, "I won't beat you anymore, you... are you peeking at someone!"

"No! I'm thinking about things! Come on, give me another hit to my elder brother, you're very comfortable."

Mingzhu heard that he no longer called himself brother-in-law, but called himself eldest brother like a poetic and picturesque person. A trace of sweetness surged in her heart. She stopped talking, but gently and carefully beat his legs for him.

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The carriage swayed rhythmically, Mingzhu leaned against the wall of the car, and his legs were pounding slowly. Her eyelids were fighting up and down, but Li Qingan did not alarm her. He was full of love for Mingzhu at this time. She was already twenty-one years old and still refused to get married. How could he not understand this infatuation? Now he came to him from afar.

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Alas! When he calms down, he should have a good talk with Mingyue.

Mingzhu was already asleep leaning against the wall of the car. Li Qingan did not disturb her, and quietly retracted her legs and stood up to help her lie down. The car body suddenly shook, Mingzhu woke up suddenly. She found that she was actually asleep. She couldn't help but smiled embarrassedly, sat up and asked, "Brother, where have you been?"

Li Qing'an looked outside through the car window, "I've arrived at the dock and am about to get off the bus."

The carriage stopped, and the personal soldiers said outside: "General, you have arrived at the dock."

Li Qing'an got off the carriage, and he reached out to Mingzhu, "Get down! Go to the boat and rest."

Mingzhu held the hem of her skirt with one hand and held Li Qing'an's arm with the other and walked off the carriage. The river breeze blew, and the vast Huai River suddenly appeared in front of her, making her feel relaxed. In the distance, a long fleet was already anchored on the shore. On the other side of the pier, more than a dozen huge ferries were carrying Li Qing'an's cavalry team across the river.

Li Qing'an pointed to a three-story boat in front and smiled and said, "That's our boat. You get on the boat first, I'll arrange the army and come over."

Mingzhu nodded and followed the two personal soldiers to the big ship, looking at her on board. Li Qingan then turned around and asked Han Jin just now, "How is the investigation going?"

"General, you can describe it in four words: horrifying!"

Han Jin said angrily: "The court stipulated that the tax on land is two liters per mu, but here it is four liters per mu, four liters per mu, which is twice the extra tax. The household tax has also been changed from one year to two liters per year to three hundred liters per year. The extra tax is called the military expenses for suppressing the rebels. It is said that it is transported to the court as military expenses for pacifying An Lushan and the Southern Tang. There are also fish tax, road and bridge fees, canal transportation fees, salt tax, and tea tax. These have been there for a long time. From states to counties, and even every yamen runner is rotten. Therefore, the people were so happy when they heard that the Southern Tang was destroyed, because they thought that the wartime taxes would not be paid."

Li Qing'an nodded, Cui Ning told him the same thing, but it was not as detailed as Han Jin's investigation.

Li Qing'an looked at the dock and found that there was no official in Sizhou who came to see him off. It was enough to see their guilt. He sneered, "I understand this. Let's go to Yangzhou first, then look at other prefectures and counties, and then settle the general accounts together!"

Half an hour later, Li Qing'an's fleet left the Huaihe Wharf and continued to go along the Caohe River toward Yangzhou.

The officials in Sizhou were not cold and Li Qing'an left. On the contrary, their hearts were raised to their throats and they sent people to disguise fishermen to the dock to check the situation. When the news of Li Qing'an's fleet leaving Linhuai County came, the officials in Sizhou all celebrated with each other. They were lucky. Li Qing'an's low-key made the people of Sizhou almost know that it was him, so there was no large-scale kneeling and shouting for justice, which allowed them to escape by chance.

Just as Li Qing'an's fleet left, the county magistrate Wang Jiaju rushed to the prefecture yard, and he looked excited.

"Encourt!" He tripped and almost fell when he ran into the prefect's house.

"Mr. Wang County!"

The prefect Zhou Bingyi was a little dissatisfied with Wang Jiaju's loss of composure, "What are you doing in such a hurry?"

"Encourt, Li Qing'an is gone!" Wang Jiaju couldn't help but feel excited.

"I know, but are you going to be so proud?"

Seeing the prefect's heavy expression, Wang Jiaju was shocked, "Eunuch, what happened?"

Zhou Bingyi touched his round belly and sighed, "Although he didn't find anything, our good days are over."

"What the prefect means is that we want to stop collecting taxes?"

Zhou Bingyi nodded, "Li Qing'an took Jiangnan twice in half a year, which is enough to show his importance to Jiangnan. The first time was because the separatist rule of the King of Wu ended. He needed to appease Jiangnan, so he did not move. Now he has controlled Jiangnan and the Southern Tang was destroyed. He has no worries anymore. Now he is going to Jiangnan again. Even if it is just an inspection, it shows his importance to Jiangnan. Wang County Magistrate, since the Southern Tang Dynasty has been destroyed, we can take advantage of this opportunity to stop. We have made enough money in recent years. Don't fall into this place in the end, do you understand?"

"But....."

Wang Jiaju wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Zhou Bingyi. He looked at Wang Jiaju coldly, "Nothing, but I already have something to say first. If you refuse to let go, the one who is unlucky in the end is you, County Magistrate Wang. In fact, you did a lot of things. I just missed the attention. Don't be ungrateful!"

Zhou Bingyi's tone was extremely cold, as if he pushed Wang Jiaju into the bottomless ice cave. He didn't know how he got home. He repeated Zhou Bingyi's words over and over again in his mind, "Mr. Wang, in fact, you did a lot of things, I just missed the attention!"

Obviously, his initial idea was that Zhou Bingyi decided, but now he wanted to push it all over his head. Wang Jiaju felt that the sky was about to collapse.

When he lived in the back house of the county government office, he returned from the county government office. Instead, he went home in a daze.

Wang Jiaju is over 40 years old this year. He is not from a professional background, but has been promoted from the head of the county government office. He has become a county magistrate of Linhuai County step by step. There are generally three types of officials in the Tang Dynasty. One is a professional team. After the imperial examination, this type of officialdom can often become a high-ranking official. Secondly, it is a family. The family is a system that facilitates the generation of second generation of officials, but the system is very strict. There are strict standards for any position and many quotas, and the army is staring at it! No one dares to make a false statement.

Secondly, the official is promoted to an official, that is, officials under the ninth rank are promoted and entered the officialdom are mainly concentrated in the county government. This way of becoming an official is the most difficult of the three types of officials. It not only requires backstage, but also capital. Wang Jiaju was originally a rich child and a relative worked in Yang Guozhong's mansion in the capital.

In order to become an official, the Wang family obtained the title of chief clerk through the relationship of this relative, and then worked hard in the officialdom step by step. For this reason, their family had almost exhausted their family wealth, so he became the county magistrate step by step. Since he had power in his hands, he would definitely make all the lost family wealth back.

In just a few years, Wang Jiaju made tens of thousands of tons of money by making various names of taxes and fees, but he only spent his money and recovered it, and it was not worth making money.

Now Zhou Bingyi wants him to stop, and not only stop, but also ask him to take full responsibility when he hears it. Wang Jiaju feels exhausted and locks himself in the study when he gets home.

"Master, what's wrong with you?"

Wang Jiaju's wife found her husband's face pale and thought she was busy and tired from official business, so she quickly poured him a cup of ginseng tea and placed it on the table.

"Master, you can go to bed!"

"Madam, I'm afraid my life will not be saved." Wang Jiaju slowly closed his eyes, as if he saw that he was taken to the execution ground and beheaded.

"Master, what are you saying?"

The county magistrate's wife panicked and thought her husband was talking nonsense, "I'll go and call a doctor!"

"lady!"

Wang Jiaju stopped her, "Don't go to the doctor, I'm fine."

The county magistrate’s wife’s surname is Zhang, she is Wang Jiaju’s cousin and a wealthy woman. She can calm down at night when something happens.

"Master, tell me what happened? It made you lose your soul."

"It's the taxes and fees in recent years. Li Qing'an is here today. Although he has left, there is a likely censor to investigate the case." When it comes to investigate the case, Wang Jiaju twitched all over.

"But... this is not your own business. Sizhou has a lot of money. Didn't you say that Zhou Bingyi is more greedy than you?"

"But the problem now is that Zhou Bingyi said that all this was my mastermind, he just failed to pay attention, and all the responsibility lies with me, and it has nothing to do with him."

Speaking of this, Wang Jiaju was a little angry. He remembered clearly that on the third day of the first lunar month three years ago, Zhou Bingyi called himself to his house, coerced and tempted him, forcing him to submit, and he did not admit it now according to the implementation of the plan he proposed.

"Master, you have to think of a solution! Otherwise, go find someone and find your backstage."

"Backstage!" Wang Jiaju sneered, "My backstage is Yang Guozhong, where can I find him now."

After pausing, he said again: "Besides, this time, Li Qingan is going to Jiangnan in person. Even if I have a backstage, who dares to help me at this time? Wouldn't you be seeking death?"

Women are often more ruthless than men at critical moments. Mrs. Zhang suddenly stood up and said resolutely: "Master, why don't you take action first and report Zhou Bingyi first!"

"But I have no evidence."

"Master, do I remember you don't have the tax increase prefect's order issued by Zhou Bingyi? This is the best evidence."

Wang Jiaju's eyes suddenly lit up, and he also remembered it, and hurriedly stood up, "Let me find out first, where did I put it?"

Wang Jiaju searched through the boxes and found it. He finally found the already yellowed tax-raising prefect in the corner of a box. He carefully laid the government order on the table. This was the original, and Zhou Bingyi's signature was still very clear on it, and his seal was also there.
To be continued...