"I invited Marquis Yang here because I have important clues to inform Marquis Yang. Is this what Yang Marquis has done?!" Ming Yuexin was not surprised when Yang Qingyuan served the cup, but immediately turned her back on the guests.
"..." Yang Qingyuan felt that there was no point in pretending.
In desperation, Yang Qingyuan could only pour another cup of tea, raised his hand, and let the tea cup fall in front of Ming Yuexin like an arm.
Although Ming Yuexin knew about Yang Qingyuan's martial arts, she was still surprised when she saw that there were no ripples in the tea in the cup.
Not only that, when the tea was just poured out, there was no heat, but now the tea water keeps rolling. Such pure yang internal energy is also breathtaking.
"I will personally serve you tea. This kind of treatment is not something ordinary people get!"
Tang Lan picked up the tea cup and took a sip, "The tea is just average, with more tea flavor but not enough fragrance."
She is from a noble family in the Tang Sect, and can be regarded as a child of a different kind of family, and she also has quite a lot of experience in this matter.
"You can tell me now! Why are you looking for me?"
Ming Yue Xin put down the tea cup and wiped her lips with a handkerchief, her posture elegant.
"Of course I won't invite you here for no reason. I have clues to provide you with!"
Yang Qingyuan slightly gestured to the female detective on the side, who immediately laid out the paper on the desk to record.
"Say it! If the clues you provide are indeed valuable, I will record them truthfully in the case file and commute your sentence in accordance with the law based on major meritorious service."
When Tang Lan heard about the reduced sentence, a hint of sarcasm appeared on her lips. She knew what crime she had committed, so she naturally didn't care about Yang Qingyuan's reduced sentence.
It doesn't make much sense to go from lingchi to beheading. If it gets to that point, she will kill herself even before the execution.
"Before this, I have a condition. If Mr. Yang can agree, I will inform Mr. Yang of the clues."
In principle, Yang Qingyuan is not allowed to negotiate terms, but it doesn't hurt to listen first.
"My nephew Tang Qingfeng has a pure nature. He is different from the people in the Tang Sect. He has never been involved in any illegal things in the Tang Sect. When Yang Hou leads his troops to destroy the Tang Sect in the future, he cannot be implicated in Qing Feng. ."
"That's it?!" Yang Qingyuan didn't intend to get involved!
Although it is said that the nine tribes are killing music, the specific people involved have not yet been decided by the Emperor and the Ministry of Punishment.
There are many cases of pardoning innocent children for the crime of ransacking homes. Although the punishment by association has a certain degree of truth, it is still inconsistent with moral principles and legal principles.
"Yang Hou just says yes or no!"
"Okay, I promise you, as long as Tang Qingfeng has nothing to do with what the Tang Sect has committed, no one can implicate him."
After receiving Yang Qingyuan's promise, Ming Yuexin seemed to feel at ease, and uttered three words from her mouth.
"Tongshan Village! Mr. Yang will definitely gain something if he sends people here."
Ming Yuexin just gave a place name and didn't want to say anything more after that.
…
"Tongshan Village?!"
Li Changyuan was a little confused when he heard the new terms coming out of Yang Qingyuan's mouth.
"Is there anything special about Tongshan Village, Marquis Yang?!"
Regarding Li Changyuan's question, Yang Qingyuan rolled his eyes. If you ask me, who should I ask? !
Ming Yuexin just mentioned the place name and said nothing else!
"Do you know where this place is?!"
Li Changyuan was a little embarrassed, "Sir, I have never heard of this place..."
This should have been Li Changyuan's dereliction of duty, but Yuzhou County has jurisdiction over 13 counties, 67 towns, and 2,759 villages.
Unless they are non-human beings like Yang Qingyuan, few people can remember every village.
Moreover, some villages and towns are hidden in the mountains, and they only go to the town when exchanging daily necessities. Maybe within ten or twenty years, Six Doors will not be able to go to the village for official business, so how can we know?
This is a problem caused by the limitations of the times. Transportation is inconvenient, and the imperial court has always had some control over such mountains and wilderness. Even if people in the martial arts can cross mountains and ridges, and their body skills are brisk, they cannot replace roads.
Even the infrastructure maniacs of later generations still have isolated villages and mountains that they cannot reach.
"Send someone to the Yuzhou County Government Office, and cooperate with the Hucao of Yuzhou County to find this Tongshan Village." Yang Qingyuan believed that Mingyue Xin would not tease him by telling him a location for no reason.
Especially in exchange for Tang Qingfeng not being implicated.
"yes!"
Li Changyuan immediately found two capable agents to go to Yuzhou County with Yang Qingyuan's warrant.
"Hey, aren't these the adults from Six Doors?! How come you have time to come to our place?!"
The four government officials stopped the two policemen from the six gates, and there was a strange air in their words.
However, the functions of both parties partially overlap.
Six doors took away the job of the original government servant.
Yamen servants were just civil servants, white-bodied and not officially recognized by the court. They were more like manpower hired by local officials themselves. They were contract workers and had no establishment. Their salaries are also paid by local officials themselves and do not go to local finance.
Originally, the salary of Liumen was similar to that of the government officials, and even the salary given by the generous local officials was better than that of the policemen of Liumen.
So both parties were harmonious.
But with the reforms of a certain official named Yang, the treatment of Liumen has improved.
Not only has his salary doubled, but his status in the court has also become much higher.
To put it simply, Six Doors has changed from a contract worker to a public institution now. In terms of establishment, it is managed vertically and is not under the jurisdiction of local governments.
This made the government officials feel very unfair. In some places, government offices even began to eliminate most of the government officials, leaving only some to run errands.
This is how people are, they worry not about scarcity but about inequality.
At first, the government officials didn't feel that they had less money and poor treatment, but now when they compare it, they feel uncomfortable.
The two detectives saw the government officials' appearance and knew their attitude, so they took out Yang Qingyuan's warrant from their hands and said, "We have been ordered to come to see Mr. Hucao, please report."
The head of the government office smiled when he saw this, "The six gates and the government office do not govern each other, so what tricks are you doing?"
One of the detectives wanted to get angry when he saw this, but was stopped by the other, "We are here to handle the case under orders. If this damages the reputation of the Marquis, isn't that what I was waiting for?"
Then he raised his hand to the head of the yamen team and said, "Boss Wang, thank you for your hard work. I will treat you to tea someday!"
It's not just the police officers, there are also sensible people among the government officials.
A yamen officer who looked older and had some gray hair said, "Boss, I'm here to do business, so let's forget it if we keep venting our anger. If we keep blocking and delaying the business, we'll go to the top to hold him accountable." I can’t afford to suffer!”
"Okay!" The yamen leader didn't really want to prevent them from entering, so he walked down the slope. "You guys wait, I will go to Mr. Hu Cao to report it."
…
"What?! You're keeping people out!?"
After Hu Cao read the warrant and heard what happened, he was shocked. He felt like he was going to be cheated by his pig teammates!
"What, Mr. Wu, is there any problem?!"
"You...you bastard, go quickly! Invite people in!" After saying this, Liu Hucao ran towards the government office regardless of his appearance.
"Master Zhang, Master Yao! Something bad has happened!" Liu Hucao shouted as he ran.
"What's going on! Are you in a panic?!" Zhang Gong, the governor of Yuzhou, was unhappy when he saw his subordinates running with their hair messy and sweating on their foreheads.
Although he is only a household minister, he is also an eighth-rank official and an official of the imperial court. What kind of appearance is this? !
"Sir, there are two... two agents outside the door..."
This Liu Hucao obviously lacked exercise in his daily life. He started to breathe heavily before taking two steps.
"What happened to the two detectives?! Look at you like this!" Zhang Taishou picked up a cup of tea and said with some disgust.
"No, they have the warrant issued by the deposed envoy!"
"What... hot, hot, hot..." Zhang Taishou was burned by the scalding tea in the cup, but he didn't care about it at the moment and just stared at Liu Hucao, "What did they say?"
This feeling is like being a local top leader who trembles when a comrade from the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision comes to visit with a letter from the imperial envoy inspecting the party.
"This... I don't know yet!"
After all, Prefect Zhang had been a fifth-grade official for many years, and he came up with the plan in the shortest possible time.
"If the deposed envoy needs your help, you must be careful and complete the errands assigned by him."
"Yes!" Liu Hucao knew this even if Prefect Zhang didn't tell him.
"If the deposed envoy is here to investigate other matters..." When talking about other matters, Prefect Zhang's tone was obviously different.
Liu Hucao also understood what Shangguan meant, "Xiaoguan understands that if the deposed envoy asks something that shouldn't be asked, then Xiaguan will be enthusiastic, polite, and ignorant of all questions!"
Governor Zhang nodded with satisfaction, "Go ahead!"
——
When he returned to his office and study, two detectives were already waiting here.
"Hahaha, you two, I'm sorry. The prefect just asked me to explain some official matters, so I neglected you two. Please forgive me."
"Liu Hucao is so polite! I can't even admire you for your diligence in official duties!"
Don't reach out to hit the smiling man. Liu Hucao was so polite. Naturally, the two detectives couldn't say anything.
"I don't know what the deposed envoy said, but I have an order, how dare I disobey it?!"
"We have been ordered to come and ask Mr. Hu Cao to check a place."
"I don't know where this place is? You can actually depose the envoy to personally intervene?" What the two detectives said was beyond Liu Hucao's expectations. He originally thought they were here to treat him to tea!
This time Liu Hucao's anxious heart was relieved.
"Please also ask Mr. Hucao to check if there is a place called Tongshan Village under the rule of Yuzhou?!"
"Tongshan Village?!" Liu Hucao was also unfamiliar with this name. "There are thousands of villages under the jurisdiction of Yuzhou County. It is difficult for me to find out at the moment. Please wait a moment while I check."
After saluting, Liu Hucao entered Hucao's archives and took out a village registration list of Yuzhou County.
All the villages with names and surnames in Yuzhou County are registered here. If there is no one in this book, it is a black household.
"Found it!" Liu Hucao followed the instructions on the roster and took out a dossier.
"You two, I found it!" After taking out the file, Liu Hucao returned to the study.
"This Tongshan Village is indeed under the jurisdiction of our Yuzhou County. It is north of Yuzhou City and seventy miles away from Yuzhou. There are 124 registered households in this village and a population of 512 people. "
As he spoke, Liu Hucao handed the file to the two detectives.
"I wonder what the deposed envoy would do with the case files from this small village?!" Liu Hucao carefully tested the two detectives.
But these two people were also alert, "We are just running errands, who knows what a person like the deposed envoy wants to do! Now that we have obtained the file, we need to return to our posts immediately, so we say goodbye!" "After saying that, the two of them got up and took the file back.
After the two people left, Liu Hucao also left the study room where he worked. This matter still had to be reported to the prefect as soon as possible. I don't know what medicine the deposed emissary was selling in his gourd? !
"You mean, these two detectives came here to remove files from a village?!"
Prefect Zhang looked suspicious, not because he didn't believe it, but because it was indeed a bit outrageous.
"It's a very remote village, seventy miles away from Yuzhou, and there are steep mountain roads..."
Zhang Taishou frowned slightly. He always felt that he had heard this place name somewhere before...
——
"Thank you for making this trip!"
Yang Qingyuan took the file from the two detectives and asked them specifically about what happened.
Yang Qingyuan also took this opportunity to see the situation in Yuzhou County.
After all, he was here to make "big plans" for the imperial court, so the officials of Yuzhou County naturally wanted to investigate.
After the two detectives left, Yang Qingyuan flipped through the files in his hand.
"Um?!"
"What's wrong with Brother Yang? Is there something wrong with this file?!" Liu Wangshu heard Yang Qingyuan's suspicion.
"It's not that there's a problem with the file, it's that there's a problem with this village!"
Liu Wangshu looked at Yang Qingyuan with a hint of disbelief in his eyes. This file recorded the basic information of the village and had registered population and tax. How could Yang Qingyuan tell that there was a problem with a village from this document? !
Although Liu Wangshu didn't ask, Yang Qingyuan also knew her question. The level of tacit understanding between the two was extraordinary.
"There's nothing wrong with the tax page of this file, and that's the biggest problem."
"There is a problem with paying taxes on time?!" Liu Wangshu didn't understand.
"This village is located deep in the mountains, and the fields are not fertile. Logically speaking, it is difficult for them to pay all the taxes. But Hu Cao has not even gone to this village to collect taxes once, and they have not missed any taxes in the past ten years. Isn’t it strange that payments and arrears are in arrears?!”
Yang Qingyuan is an affairs officer and is familiar with this kind of local affairs. In a county, if 70% of the taxes are not in arrears, they are already officials. Even in many wealthy towns, the taxes need to be paid and cannot be collected in full.
And a village that is not very wealthy has not defaulted on a tax payment in ten years. Isn't this intriguing? !
Is it possible that the people in Tongshan Village particularly support the imperial court and consciously pay taxes? !
Although it is biased to say that poor people come out of poor places, there is a certain truth to it. Poverty-stricken places generally lack awareness of the rule of law.
There must be something wrong with this Tongshan Village!
(End of chapter)
