"Xue County Cheng (changed to County Cheng), you are an official, and they don't listen to you?" the aunt said with a sad face.

"Although I am the county magistrate, the Ming government is very wary of me. How can those dirty officials listen to me? They only have some power in this official robe!" Xue Yuan sighed, and everyone on the side could also feel it.

to his sorrow.

"It's raining heavily today, but luckily nothing happened. I was planning to open this place to watch books. It's lucky that I met it, otherwise it would have been really dangerous!"

Everyone also had a look of amazement on their faces. These little white servants made them tremble with fear. The power of the officials was evident.

"Xue Guanren, why are these white servants so shameless? These days, they are becoming more and more shameless when searching for money. They are very different from the past!" someone asked.

"Today is different from the past!" Xue Yuan sighed: "Do you know how many officials there are in Changsha County? Adding up the big and small, there are about 231 people with official status!"

"If you add thousands of white laborers, it will be extremely huge!"

"In the past, during the summer and autumn tax season, these white servants could still get some benefits and keep their stomachs full, but now, taxes are all transferred in and out through the Yamen, so they naturally have less harvest!"

"Those officials have no income and cannot go to farmland to find money. Even if they go, there will be no harvest due to waterlogging this year. They have no choice but to trouble merchants like you!"

Xue Yuan glanced at these scholars, thinking that they would enter the officialdom sooner or later, and couldn't help but explain, no matter what the taboos were.

"County Prime Minister, don't the gentlemen of the county government care?" Someone asked again. Li Jia took a look and realized that this person was probably a tool. He asked all the questions he wanted to know.

"How to manage it?"

Ban, how can you control this? If we don’t let these white servants have enough to eat, Changsha County will be in chaos!"

"With these white servants acting so chaotically, isn't Changsha City in chaos? Aren't these officials just bandits?" Li Jia finally said:

"Why not let the county magistrate recruit more officials? Wouldn't it be better?"

"This gentleman's thinking is simple. Unfortunately, where are the imperial court's customs, how can the county magistrate dare to violate them? Moreover, there will be very little tax revenue this autumn, and there is no money to recruit. We can only rely on white laborers. Just wait for a while.

Yeah!" Xue Yuan sighed:

"Next April is the day of the imperial examination. I hope you all can go to high school and benefit the people!" Then he bowed his hands to everyone, turned and left.

"Xue County Cheng is such a good official!" Those scholars were deeply moved and praised him.

Li Jia watched this man leave, feeling quite heavy in his heart.

When he was in Yongzhou, in order to prevent the people from being exploited and to win people's hearts, he spent money every month to send to the homes of government officials, and he really gained a lot of people's hearts.

However, this is only limited to Yongzhou. The other states and counties are still exploiting and exploiting and corrupting as before.

Li Jia, like the rulers at this time, had a limited vision. They believed that as long as they controlled the county magistrates and other civil officials and then punished them, they could reduce corruption and let the people live a good life.

However, this is just wishful thinking. They ignore the gray area, the class of officials who have been passed down from generation to generation.

They either marry or make friends, get involved with local powerful people, and then rely on their hereditary power to even bully those chief officials so that they can only see what they see.

If the county magistrate only embezzled national tax revenue, then this group of officials devoured and wiped out the common people.

In a lawsuit, the plaintiff eats the defendant, goes to jail, and makes your life worse than death, but you also have to knock out a copper coin. If a murder occurs in your family, the family will be destroyed.

The expenses for carriages and horses for government servants, autopsy fees for widowers, and some other contributions. In short, there are so many names that you will have to go bankrupt before you are willing to give up.

"It seems that Zhou Xingfeng is also like this. He only takes care of the high-profile people like the county magistrate, but forgets about the little ants like the officials."

Li Jia thought to himself, obviously, he was deceived by the illusion of Yongzhou, and these were the real officials.

At some point, the light rain stopped. Li Jia got on his horse and continued to secretly investigate the people's situation.

Afterwards, they walked half a circle around the city and left the city. It was already afternoon. They found a tea shop and were sitting on it to rest. Mainly because there was a market here and the nearby villagers were trading.

Here.

In fact, it doesn't work if it's not here. When goods enter Changsha City, they have to pass through the hands of local people, whether it's chicken, duck, fish, meat, or eggs. It's not okay to pick and sell them on the street. This is illegal.

There were even some villagers who were just picking vegetables and passing by the market without intending to buy or sell, but suddenly a group of people rushed out of the market with fierce looks. Without any explanation, they took away the vegetables and asked them to go to the store to collect the price.

The villagers did not dare to say anything more, because some people just said a few words and received several punches, leaving their noses and faces bruised and swollen, and they even kept wailing on the ground, but no one dared to care.

"These people are so domineering, are they just teeth?" Li Jia drank a cup of tea and asked the tea stall owner with a heavy heart.

"Xiao Langjun, these people are bastards!" The owner of the tea shop grinned and said angrily:

"We are outside the city. These people are selfish and have a rich background, so they are tyrannical and embezzle a lot of things!"

"The people in the guild colluded with them and everything must be sold to them. No one else is allowed to operate in this market!"

Yahang is an institution that was created after commerce developed. It can also be regarded as an auxiliary to the imperial court. It specializes in managing merchants and is similar to an intermediary.

Guilds are self-organized by an industry, such as the blacksmiths' guild, which mainly protects the interests of merchants. Once the two collude, their power will be extremely huge.

Therefore, when villagers bring goods to the market, since they are not allowed to trade with each other, the value must be determined by the local people, and then sold to the guild shops. Their interests are completely misappropriated, and all the fruits of their labor are exploited.

Of course, this is a private tooth, and a real tooth industry will not make a profit, but private teeth rely on their background to ask for more.

Often, those white laborers are their thugs, and they are a great deterrent to ignorant people.

Suddenly there was another commotion over there, attracting people on the street to watch. It was a young man who picked up two baskets of mountain snakes, weighing about a hundred kilograms and worth several thousand dollars. Because he was on a certain road.

, they were caught by the tooth people and forced to sell them to those shops.
Chapter completed!