Lord, he is not a man [infrastructure]

The tax officials of Santai County came to Bailuling on the 15th day after the autumn harvest.

As expected by the steward, officials from Lvma City were also sent to inspect whether there were any difficulties after the succession of the new lord of Bailuling and the changes in the number of land and free people, etc., but in fact, everyone knew what they were doing. .

A long time ago, some ministers suggested that the lords from all over the country should pay taxes in the county capitals on their own initiative after the autumn harvest. This would save the trouble of dispatching tax officials and greatly avoid losses on the way.

The lords did not dispute this, and it was obviously good for concealing their real income.

But the tax collectors quit.

The tax officials are so awesome that they can be received politely by the lords all over the country, and their lives are better than ordinary nobles who have no real power. Isn't it because of the autumn wind once a year?

If they can no longer enter the various territories to inspect and actually collect taxes, their powers will be greatly reduced, and their chances of benefiting will be greatly reduced.

Most of the people who can be tax officials are the sons of nobles, but the family has no territory and noble titles to give them, so they can only find another way out.

Compared with working hard in the army, of course, being a civil servant is more comfortable and lucrative.

These aristocratic children and their families made a fuss, and Duke Luma also had his own considerations.The tax officials are not only collecting taxes, they are also his eyeliners. Asking them to go to the territories once a year can also help him see if the lords of those territories are honest and whether their wealth is far from what is reported.

The Duke of Luma also knows that the tax officials are very greedy, and the figures reported may not be true, but if he agrees to let the lords from all over the country send tax revenues to the county capitals, he will need to send another person to examine the wealth and strength of those lords , this will have to support another group of people, and will this group of people not be bought by the lords of various places?

In the end, the tax officials won the tax reform, and they maintained their right to inspect and tax the territories.

In the Principality of Luma, the tax officials are roughly divided into two levels, the tax officials of Luma City and the tax officials of the county capitals.

The tax revenue of each territory is first concentrated in the county capitals, and then sent to Luma City by the county capitals.

For this reason, in terms of oil and water, the tax officials in Lvma City do not have as much oil and water as the tax officials of the county capitals.

Of course, in order to allow myself to be a tax officer all the time, the tax officers of the county capitals will also share the benefits they get with them.

There is a fixed amount for this share, which is divided according to the size of the territory, which is five gold coins for large territories, three gold coins for medium-sized territories, and five silver coins to one gold coin for small territories.

For example, there are a total of twelve large and small territories in Three Tower County, with only one large territory, two medium-sized territories, and nine small territories.

The tax officer of Luma City can only get about twenty gold coins from the tax officer of Three Towers County.

There are a total of five tower counties in the Luma Principality, which add up to 68 large and small territories.Based on an average of [-] gold coins per tower county, the tax officials in Luma City can get [-] gold coins as a contribution.

This amount of money is already quite a lot. For an ordinary civilian family, a family of six, even if they live in Luma City, the annual expenditure is only about two gold coins, which is considered to be a relatively good life.

But one hundred gold coins are not given to one person, but to the entire Luma City Taxation Department according to their status.

The tax minister at the top gets half of all tribute, and everyone else gets the other half, and the smaller the official position, the less benefits they get.

This made the tax officials in the taxation department very dissatisfied, and they could not directly ask for money from the lower levels. For this reason, what they look forward to most is the change of lords in small and medium-sized territories, or the higher-ups require them to check the status of certain places. The actual wealth of Lord So-and-so.

According to the past practice, the tax officer of Luma City must make a trip for the White Deer Lordship change in Three Tower County.

The new lord of Bailuling took the throne, and his steward had already scattered a lot of gold coins, but this was obviously not enough for the officials of Luma City.

And the last time the butler came to throw money, it wasn't for the tax department. The people in the tax department had been waiting for this opportunity to scrape the money.

The tax officials of the Luma City Taxation Department competed a little internally for the spot to go to Bailu, and finally the younger brother of the Luma Grand Duke's niece and daughter-in-law got the job.

The tax collector named Liu Feng got a title of lord through his sister.

A lord is the lowest title, but actually there is no title, lower than the lowest third-class baron, but at least he has a title of nobility.

Liu Feng thought he had won a good job, but he regretted it two days after he was on the road. He had never traveled such a long way.

Although he rode in a carriage all the way, the road conditions were too bumpy. The lords he passed by were not as hospitable as he had imagined. Most of them avoided seeing each other. In the evening, let him have a good meal, the most is to find a beautiful woman to accompany him for a night.

But wanting more money is basically impossible.Those lords would give him some local specialties as if they had made an appointment, but that was all.

Before Liu Feng set off, he also inquired about some "rules" with his seniors. He knew that this situation was normal. The lords from all over the place didn't like tax officials like them. When the destination of tax officials had nothing to do with them, these The lords did not pay much attention to the passing tax collectors.

Although Liu Feng knew this, he still had some complaints against these lords, but he was just a lord, and these lords were lofty and far-reaching. As long as they had no obvious mistakes, the Grand Duke would have nothing to do with them, let alone his small taxpayer. official?

"You better not fall into my hands in the future!" Liu Feng spat secretly.He completely ignored the fact that there was only one empty cart when he came out, but now there were two more mule carts full of gifts behind him.

Tang Bo didn't know at this time that his territory was about to have a big greed that couldn't be filled.

On the third day after he brought the man back, he began to dispatch manpower to dig the canal.

Before digging, he took Yan Ren to walk through the entire Bailu collar.

"These places are places where I can feel obvious water vapor. If I dig down, I should be able to dig out water. If it is to dig canals and reservoirs, do you think the lines I drew before can be used?" Tang Bo humbly asked talents.

Yan Ren originally didn't intend to reveal too much, he just wanted to reveal that he was good at drawing maps, but Tang Bo didn't give him a chance to refuse at all, he pulled him to step on the ground together, and asked him so sincerely.

People who have goods in their stomachs and people who don't know how to speak and behave differently.

Yan Ren thought that he said very little and showed little on the way, but he didn't know that what he said was very important. Another person might not notice his peculiarity, but Tang Bo grew up from the information explosion. Traveling back to the modern age of the earth, Tang Bo himself has a wealth of knowledge, and he knows that this person is definitely an expert in geological exploration just from what Yan Ren revealed.

Tang Bo was worried about the shortage of talents, how could he let such a super expert go?

He didn't want to break Yan Ren's ability, so he pulled him along and asked him: "I see that the ground here is very soft, there should be no hard rocks underneath, and it should be possible to dig a canal. Ah Ren, what do you think?"

Yan Ren would nod if he thought the terrain and geology were okay. If he found it inappropriate, how could he hold back?

Because this damn Tang Bo actually asked Dong Lin to be in charge of building the canal with him, and Tian Min supervised it.

If he didn't say it at this time, wouldn't he worry about how to modify it after the unsuitable canal and reservoir map came out?

Yan Ren said very vaguely at the beginning, for example: "The soil here looks yellow, but you can see that there are no plants growing here. The top layer of soil should be floating soil, and the bottom layer is probably hard rock."

Or: "There used to be traces of a river here, but now there are no traces. Maybe there are faults below, and it may not be suitable for digging ditches."

Later, Yan Ren unconsciously talked more and more, and the words became simpler: "This place is not suitable, because of the wind direction, water flow, sunlight and terrain, the result of building a reservoir here is that it will dry up in a few years. .”

"It doesn't look like there is any shelter here, but it is very suitable for excavating a reservoir. Look at the traces of the surrounding soil, do they seem to be washed by water and concentrated here? If you dig it down, there must be a connection to the groundwater below. If you dig a reservoir here, you can form living waters."

Tang Bo silently handed over the canal route map he drew before to Yan Ren, and watched him make drastic changes on it.

Yan Ren changed the canal map by a third before realizing that he had fallen into a pit.

But Tang Bo made him an official, and now the entire Bailu collar, except for the butler, is the biggest!

The housekeeper also treated him with great respect and courtesy, and specially cleaned up the room for him to live in.

Yes, Yan Ren lives in the Lord's Mansion now.

In addition to his official position, Tang Bo also gave him a generous salary of one gold coin per month.

But why do those brick-burning people come to him and ask him where the soil is more suitable for burning hard bricks?

And those of you digging kilns even came to ask me where is more suitable for digging kilns?

Yan Ren was so annoyed that he became the busiest person in Bailuling.

Tang Bo didn't leave everything to Yan Ren, he thought he just distributed the work reasonably.

The housekeeper also mentioned to him tactfully: Is it not good to give the newcomer Yan Ren such great power?That Donglin is very prestigious among the salt workers, and Donglin listens to Yan Ren very much. If Yan Ren wants to do something, it will obviously be disadvantageous to Tang Bo as the lord.

But Tang Bo said indifferently: "If he has the ability to make me empty, let him do it. Bafu, you just need to know one thing, no matter how powerful or popular he is, I think it's easy to kill him. But he's going to have a hard time killing me, and he needs me to be in the front."

The butler guessed something from Tang Bo's expression and words, which made him secretly observe Yan Ren for several days, wanting to see if he was also the legendary god-favored person.

But Yan Ren's ability is very subtle. The butler didn't see it after looking for a long time. He only knew that this guy seemed to really understand geology. He also found a vein of suspected iron ore between the White Deer Collar and the Red Mountain Collar.

However, Yan Ren didn't want to talk about the iron mine at first, until the tax official named Liu Feng came, acting aggressively, as if he would not give up until he squeezed the white deer collar dry.

Moreover, in order to threaten the new lord, Liu Feng began to pretend to investigate so many new subjects brought back by Tang Bo.

Liu Feng refused to admit that the seven hundred newcomers were slaves, and insisted that Tang Bo forcibly turned the free people into slaves in order to avoid the poll tax. He asked someone to talk to the salt workers, trying to find out where they came from.

Liu Feng also went to visit Sanshuling next door, wanting to find out about the situation of Bailuling from Lord Sanshu.

And how could Gu Hui, who was led by the three trees, speak well of Tang Bo?

Bailuling is building water canals, Gu Hui insists that Tang Bo has the heart to attack other territories, instead of building water canals, he is building cities and war fortresses.

Gu Hui also told Liu Feng that the illness of Tang Ze, the former lord of Bailuling, was suspicious, and asked Liu Feng to find a way to find Tang Ze and talk to Tang Ze.

He also hinted that Tang Ze is a very generous person. If Tang Ze is really imprisoned by his son, if Liu Feng can help Tang Ze, Tang Ze will definitely benefit Liu Feng greatly.

After hearing this, Liu Feng was very moved.

Gu Hui wanted this greedy tax official to make Tang Bo a lot of trouble. He naturally concealed Tang Bo's abnormal force value, and also concealed the fact that more than 20 little giants such as Baidou took refuge in Tang Bo.

In order to reduce troubles, Tang Bo asked Bai Dou and the others to take a large amount of coarse salt and the chariots and horses they got from the salt cave to work as salt dealers in the nearby territory when the tax officials arrived.