Your Majesty, please beg for mercy. The prince's rebellion was successful.

The time for autumn tax collection has arrived as promised.

Officials at all levels in Xiang County shouldered the task and began to collect taxes.

The collection of taxes from ordinary people is not a big problem.

What really caused headaches for officials was the wealthy gentry and landowners in various places.

They have thousands of acres of fertile land and are the real taxpayers. If they cannot deal with these big landowners, the officials will have no chance of completing their tasks.

But the most difficult thing to collect is the autumn tax from these landlords.

Not to mention that there is no precedent for paying taxes from large landowners in Xiang County. The benefits that officials have received from landowners in recent years prevent them from opening this hole.

This is the saying that eating people is soft-mouthed and taking advantage of others is short-handed.

However, the military order had been signed, so these officials had no choice but to go to the houses of major landlords to discuss tax matters.

At first, the landowners were relatively polite to the officials.

If it's good, we'll treat you with good meat, change cups and cups, and express your heartfelt feelings.

But once the word tax comes up, the landlords just pretend to be dumbfounded, or they just complain about being poor.

What's more, they turned against each other on the spot and kicked out the guests directly.

This undoubtedly makes the tax collection work of officials much more difficult.

Faced with the landlords' rebellion, these officials could only smile. How could they dare to get angry at will?

The further back they go, the humbler they become.

They even began to beg their grandfather and grandma, hoping that the landlords could lend a helping hand to help them overcome this year's difficulties.

It's a pity that these landlords, who are usually brothers with the officials, don't pay attention at all.

Officials in Xiang County thought that these landowners would contribute some money to help them meet their urgent needs, but who would have thought that the landowners would not get any money at all.

As for the five major families, none of them has more than 10,000 acres of fertile land.

But, which official with such a lack of eyesight has the courage to speak! ?

For a time, the autumn tax collection work in Xiang County came to a standstill.

The officials had drooped faces and cried like they were bitter and resentful.

The landlords did whatever they had to do, as if they were outsiders. .

The people had already stopped and watched, waiting to eat melons at any time.

"Your Majesty, the time to collect the autumn tax is over halfway, but the task progress is less than 30%."

Gu Jiang has been busy urging officials at all levels to collect taxes during this period, and has not had a sound sleep for many days.

However, the data fed back made him restless.

Less than 30%, this number is lower than in previous years.

"Isn't there still time?"

"What are you panicking about?!"

Zhou Zheng didn't seem to be in a hurry and asked Gu Jiang to sit down and drink tea.

"Prince, I have collected everything I can. I'm afraid I won't be able to collect it later."

Seeing Zhou Zheng so calm, Gu Jiang couldn't wait to explain.

In previous years, the landlords would have cared a lot about it, but this year it was completely ruined, which was not conducive to the officials at all.

As a result, let alone completing this year's tasks, even if we want to be equal to last year, we are afraid that we will not be able to do it.

To make such a big noise, he even went so far as to kill officials, issue military orders, and even offend the local gentry, but in the end he got this result! ?

What prestige will Xiangjun officials have in the future? ?

What prestige does the imperial court have locally? !

"Can't take it back?"

"Why, they don't want to be in charge of Wusha anymore?"

"I remember, the collection rate is less than 80%, and if a military order is issued, you will be dismissed from your post and your home will be confiscated."

Zhou Zheng still looked slow, pouring a cup of tea for Gu Jiang, then filling a cup for himself and tasting it carefully.

"Officers have really tried hard."

"Some officials even didn't care about their own faces and went door to door to beg the landlords and squires."

"No matter what, it has no effect."

It wasn't that Gu Jiang was colluding with those officials, but seeing the officials so humble made him feel a little unbearable.

"Everyone signed the military order voluntarily, and I didn't force them."

Zhou Zheng waved his hand and directly interrupted Gu Jiang's words.

But after hearing Zhou Zheng's explanation, Gu Jiang's mouth twitched, and he kept rolling his eyes while looking at Zhou Zheng.

Sign voluntarily?

Zhou Zhengdu beheaded the county prime minister Ding Jiang in public, who would dare not to do so voluntarily? !

"Don't worry, there are always more solutions than difficulties."

"I still remember that anyone who maliciously fails to pay taxes will be punished with a rod and sent to the army, and the family property will be confiscated or even beheaded on the spot."

"Why, don't officials in Xiang County know how to use their powers?"

With a sneer, Zhou Zheng couldn't see that the reason why these officials were unable to collect the autumn tax from the landlords was simply because they were unwilling to break up with the landlords.

"You tell those officials that they signed the military order themselves."

"Once the autumn tax comes and they fail to complete their tasks, I will have no choice but to confiscate their homes."

"Over the years, there have been hundreds of officials, big and small, in Xiang County, and there are quite a few officials. They must have saved a lot of wealth."

"The confiscation of that wealth might be enough to cover this year's autumn taxes."

Stretching his arms, Zhou Zheng spoke casually.

However, these words gave Gu Jiang and others a numb feeling in their backs!

"You heard that right."

"This autumn tax will be paid by either the landlords or the officials of Xiang County."

"Ding Jiang's house was raided a few days ago. There are more than 500 acres of fertile land and tens of thousands of taels of silver!"

"Based on this, it might be better to confiscate your home than to impose taxes."

Zhou Zheng's intentional or unintentional words made Gu Jiang break into a cold sweat.

Emotional Zhou Zheng had already thought of a way out. Regardless of whether he could complete the autumn tax collection work or not, he had found someone to back him up.

"By the way, tell those officials not to try to escape."

"In that case, I will kill three of them."

Zhou Zheng was too lazy to talk nonsense with Gu Jiang here and signaled him to go about his own business.

Seeing this, Gu Jiang could only give up.

But when he thought of Zhou Zheng's words just now, he could only breathe a sigh of relief.

Gu Jiang is a smart man, and he knows very well that the real purpose of Zhou Zheng's words is to let these officials in Xiang County make a choice!

Between their own interests and the interests of the landlords and gentry, they can only choose one thing!

Hey!

Howling up to the sky.

This choice may be more difficult than death.

......

"Boss, will this push the officials of Xiang County too hard?"

Zhou Ping stood behind Zhou Zheng, his face solemn, and he asked in a deep voice.

He naturally knows that these officials are not good people, but the current method may be a bit extreme.

"If these officials really don't finish the job in the end, is it possible that the boss will take off all their hats?"

Not only Zhou Ping had this idea, but also all the officials in Xiang County and even the landlords and gentry had this idea.

Without these officials, the imperial court in Xiang County was truly blind and deaf.

"Are you tight?"

"I feel this is not enough."

"Because, I had no intention of retaining these officials from Xiang County from the beginning!"

"It might not be a bad thing if we can take this opportunity to completely reshuffle Xiang County's officialdom."

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhou Ping's heart beat faster!

He looked at Zhou Zheng's calm face, and his eyelids jumped suddenly!

Xiangjun is about to completely change!

"Remember, in this world, except for those of us named Zhou, everything can be overthrown and started over!"

The pupils dilated, and a domineering aura burst out from Zhou Zheng's body!