"Master, you can tell me this, but don't tell anyone else. If the people of the Liu family hear it, they won't get any good results from you!"
Xu Lin said this very cautiously, then lowered his voice and said to Zhao Feng.
"Master, even though Mr. Yu is the prefect here, there are really not many places where Mr. Yu can speak on many matters."
"Almost everyone in the entire city knows that only the Liu and Li families cannot be provoked!"
"These two families can be said to be the most powerful in the entire city. If you offend the prefect, they will at best put you in jail. But if you offend these two families, at least the family will be destroyed, and at worst, the whole family will die!" "
Hearing this, Zhao Feng was suddenly shocked and said in disbelief.
"Don't these two families listen to the words of the prefect?"
Xu Lin smiled bitterly, shook his head, and said to Zhao Feng.
"Master, you still think of the power of the two families too simply. The two families have been entrenched in this city for hundreds of years."
"The main reason is because there is a salt mountain in this mansion. Relying on the business of this salt mountain, the two of them can be said to be extremely rich!"
"It is precisely because they control this salt mountain that sometimes even the prefect has to listen to them, because if they make them unhappy and they refuse to pay taxes, the court will only accuse the prefect. "
"Moreover, Official Liu now manages the entire treasury for some unknown reason. This makes the Liu family even more powerful!"
After Zhao Feng heard Xu Lin's words, he frowned. He didn't expect that there were so many things going on in this small city.
However, salt is necessary for people's daily life, and it will be a very important strategic material even in future generations. Whoever can control these things will naturally be superior to others in this place.
Moreover, the Zhou court did not prohibit the sale of private salt, and only needed to pay the salt tax, which was also a major source of tax revenue for the court and various localities.
But Zhao Feng did not expect that Yu Ruhai, as a dignified prefect, would be coerced into this by the Liu and Li families.
Xu Lin lowered his voice and said to Zhao Feng.
"In fact, it's not just our city, it's like this in many places. Those local officials just go to one place to take office. Of course, they have to have good relations with some local powerful people."
"There are many times when it is better to go to the local magistrates than to go to these powerful men!"
Zhao Feng nodded slightly, and now he could feel the truth behind it.
Even if Yu Ruhai was sent by the imperial court to serve in this place, he would still need the help of these local powerful men if he wanted to carry out some reforms in the imperial system.
Even if there is no reform, just to complete the annual taxation, there is no way to break away from these powerful people.
Because although Haoqiang appears to be a very big family on the surface, the forces within it are intertwined. For example, the Liu and Li families, although on the surface there are only these two big families, there are many people who rely on them to exist behind the scenes. small family.
If they really take some tough measures and make them unhappy, they will directly unite with the small families behind them to resist the government's measures.
After all, these powerful families have been entrenched here for many years. Even if the officials here are replaced, their status here will not be affected, so many people will cling to these powerful families.
In this way, if local officials want to implement some policies, these powerful families must take the lead. Otherwise, no matter how good these policies are, the people will not dare to listen to the officials.
Zhao Feng couldn't help but sigh and stopped thinking about what was going on here. Anyway, he was just here to help Yu Ruhai deal with some things.
The position of master is still very free. If the prefect does not assign you any tasks, then you usually have nothing to do, so Zhao Feng does not want to get involved in these family fights.
Seeing that Zhao Feng no longer asked, Xu Lin secretly breathed a sigh of relief and took Zhao Feng around the entire city.
In addition to the city, there are several counties under the jurisdiction of a government. In addition to Zhao County, where Zhao Feng was before, there are four counties in this government.
These four counties are like stars over the moon, surrounding the capital city, and most of the areas in between are ordinary villages and some farming areas.
Of course, due to the sparse population in this era, large swaths of land were not cultivated, but instead lay waste there.
After Xu Lin took Zhao Feng around the entire city, Zhao Feng asked if there were any written records about this city. It would be easier for him to do so.
But who knows, Xu Lin said in confusion.
"Master, do these things still need to be registered in writing? We have no way to register them!"
Zhao Feng suddenly felt helpless and asked Xu Lin.
"Then how did you know how much land there is in this mansion?"
"How do we know how many permanent residents there are in this mansion and how many migrant residents there are?"
When Xu Lin heard this, he couldn't help but said with embarrassment.
"Usually it relies on visits from some officials from time to time. As for the population, a rough estimate is enough."
"But there are more than 500 merchants in the entire city, and these are all registered because they need to pay taxes."
Zhao Feng couldn't help but sigh, thinking to himself what kind of place he had come to, and he didn't even have any knowledge about census, land planning and other related aspects.
However, this also shows the situation in most areas in this era. After all, this is not an exception, but represents all the state capitals of the Zhou Dynasty.
After Zhao Feng walked around the city for a few times, he had memorized the entire route of the city, and then Xu Lin took Zhao Feng back to the government office.
After walking into the government office, he saw Yu Ruhai sitting in the courtroom with a frown on his face and a thick book in front of him.
"Prefect, we are back!"
Yu Ruhai raised his head and glanced at Zhao Feng, immediately became happy, walked down quickly and said.
"Mr. Zhao, you are back. Come and help me find out what to do with the taxes this year!"
Hearing this, Zhao Feng walked over with some confusion and saw that what was placed in front of Yu Ruhai was the grain output reported by each county.
In this era, it is completely impossible to count the yield per mu because it is difficult to record and count all the grain.
They don't even know how much land there is in their respective counties!
