Don't move, this child bride is not easy to mess with.

"How do the county magistrates in various places complete the collection of mu tax?" Xie Chengan said uneasily.

"If there is insufficient money and food, we need the cooperation of the local squires." Jiang Ruiyan looked at Xie Chengan and said in a deep voice after a long silence.

What can be done? If we continue to exploit ordinary farmers, they will not be able to extract any profit.

Landowners and squires with more fields and more money will have to pay for the insufficient summer taxes and autumn grain. If they refuse to cooperate, it will be difficult for the county to complete its mission.

If you can't complete the task, don't talk about political achievements. It's good if you get promoted or not lose your position. The core performance of Zhengyin officials in various places is tax collection.

For those who do not pay taxes, they can be fined with silver, confiscated from the army, put in labor force, or beheaded.

It is impossible to deal with these landlords and squires forcefully.

The so-called landlords, squires, and members of the public, none of them are easy to get along with.

Landowners are those with a lot of land and money. They are the big taxpayers in the countryside, so they often play the role of village chiefs.

In the lijia system of this dynasty, ten households constitute one jia, and one hundred and ten households constitute a li. The ten households that pay the most money and grain are the head of the Jia, and they take turns to be the head of the village.

These landowners had many fields, many tenants, and even many slaves. Moreover, they often colluded with the tax collectors who went to the countryside to collect taxes.

The squires are scholars and civil servants who are famous but not in official positions. They themselves have tax-free privileges. Scholars can be exempted from land tax of 80 acres of land, and civil servants can be exempted from land tax of 400 acres!

These squires were also landowners, but they were stronger than ordinary landowners.

Because of their status as scholars, they were actually responsible for the taxation and grain collection, military service, private school education, water and land transportation, etc. in the village.

Yuanwai refers to people who have idle posts in the court. Often, although those officials who have become official no longer have official duties, they still have honorary sinecures and are not among the official members of the court, so they are called Yuanwai.

Out of the ten most powerful members of the county, eight of them have people in the court!

For example, the family of Guo Xuan, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the father of Zhong Jiaqian, the head of the Ministry of Personnel, and the family of Zhang Cheng, the censor of Zuodu, etc.

Of course, many wealthy businessmen and landowners can also buy a title outside of membership through donations. They gained status, the court received money and food, and everyone was happy.

Those landowners who have no roots are just paying off. These squires and members of the government are not something that Xie Chengan, a county magistrate, can handle casually.

The two murder cases are also inextricably linked to these squires and officials. Perhaps Mei County Prime Minister and Master Xia were just two agents.

To find out the two murder cases, it may be necessary to take action on these landlords, squires, and members of the public. However, the county's tax collection requires them to provide food and money.

Xie Chengan felt helpless secretly.

It seems difficult to complete Qiangu's work; it is difficult to clearly investigate the criminal names of two murder cases; in terms of public security, there are horse thieves and mutinous officers and soldiers causing chaos. Only education is acceptable.

Xie Chengan finally knew the sinister motives of Ning Shilang in appointing him as An Lan. This is putting him on the fire.

Xie Chengan's relaxed mood suddenly became heavy at Jiang Ruiyan's words. He looked in the direction of Su Zhai, knowing that he must not see Su Mulan now.

Unless he is willing to be a confused magistrate and compromise with all forces.

If he wants to make a difference, he will have to face overt and covert attacks from various forces. At that time, Su Mulan will become these people, dealing with Xie Chengan's weakness.

Qingniu, who was standing guard outside the third hall gate, also heard everything the two said. Although he didn't quite understand it, he also understood that Xie Chengan was in a dangerous situation and was under great pressure.

Qing Niu originally came to Anlan to serve out of gratitude to Su Mulan. But since he followed Xie Chengan, he was impressed by this young and outrageous magistrate.

Not to mention that Xie Chengan regarded him as a confidant and trusted him in everything, even above the followers he brought with him.

In terms of benefits alone, Qing Niu had to be moved.

The county government has a fixed quota of servants, with sixteen people in the soap team, and each person has six taels of labor and food silver per year. But he had thirty taels of green cattle. Although Su Mulan had agreed to it at the beginning, it had to be paid by the county government.

The extra twenty-four taels were paid for by Xie Chengan himself!

Although you can still earn this income from selling braised vegetables in Qingsong County, your status is completely different.

Although Qing Niu is just the leader of the soap squad now, he is not only in charge of the sixteen slaves.

Xie Cheng'an entrusted Qingniu with the supervision of the gatekeepers, grooms, jailers, sedan bearers, umbrella bearers, lamp bearers, warehouse boys, warehouse boys, waiters, cooks, watchmen, and house servants.

Qing Niu manages three to four hundred people!

The filial piety paid to Qing Niu by the officers from all walks of life has amounted to 800 taels of silver in less than a month!

How dare you accept Qing Niu privately?

The first time a subordinate secretly gave Qingniu ten taels of silver, he was shocked and hurried to report to Jiang Ruiyan.

Jiang Ruiyan believed that they had just arrived and needed to integrate into the local officials first. So all these overt and covert money and meals must be accepted first.

Most of this money, under the command of Jiang Ruiyan, was used by Qingniu to recruit county government officials and mingle with them.

There are thousands of officials in the county government, who doesn't know that Qing Niu is the confidant of the county magistrate?

Under the deliberate flattery of these people, Qing Niu gained more respect in these twenty days than he had in the more than ten years he lived in Qingsong County.

However, Qing Niu was simple in nature and knew where his current status and money came from, so he was loyal to Xie Cheng'an.

Seeing Xie Chengan and Jiang Ruiyan in trouble, Qingniu naturally felt depressed.

However, he was unable to share the worries between the two of them, so he could only blame himself in despair for being useless.

When he got off duty that day, Qingniu arranged the manpower everywhere, and when he was bored, he took a rest in the service room. After thinking about it, he was still at a loss, so he changed into casual clothes and left the county office to relax.

Because Qing Niu is now also a "big shot" among the government officials, Jiang Ruiyan instructed him not to go to Su Mulan privately for the time being.

In Qingniu's view, Su Mulan might be able to help Xie and Jiang, but he couldn't find Su Mulan himself, so he had to wander on the street.

After walking for a long time, Qingniu felt a little hungry. He looked around and saw the famous Zhengxiang Restaurant in the county nearby.

Qing Niu is no longer the country boy who can't even afford white-flour steamed buns. He has been to Zhengxiang Restaurant many times.

He lowered his head and entered the lobby with his hands behind his back. He was thinking about what to eat when he was bumped into by someone.

When he looked up, he saw that it was Wang Sanhaier.

The two of them were young, so Su Mulan was able to take in Wang San's child just for Qing Niu's sake. A few months ago, the two of them came to Anlan County together with Su Mulan.

Both of them have been busy during this period, but they haven't seen each other for some time.

Since we met by chance in a restaurant, we naturally enjoyed each other very happily.

Qing Niu took Wang San and asked for a private room to eat, drink and talk.

Qing Niu is no longer as dull as before. He can't go to see Su Mulan. He can talk to Wang Sanhai. Wouldn't it be good to let him pass the news in the middle?