After recognizing Han Chengke, Zhu Cilang did not disturb him and continued to eat and drink.

Han Chengke didn't pay attention to Zhu Cixuan's side, and just kept drinking tea and eating peanuts there, as if he had something to do.

After a little awkwardly quiet, suddenly there was a sound of gongs and drums opening the way outside the door.

Everyone looked up and saw a large group of people walking on the official road outside, including officers and soldiers, divisions, and maids. They often waited, and they were surrounded by stars and walked by in a mighty manner in an official sedan chair.

"Who is this? The show is almost up to the imperial envoy!"

Zhu Cilang frowned and looked unhappy.

There was only a dull sound, and Han Chengke threw the tea bowl on the table and said with a dark face: "Hmph, it's just a seventh-rank magistrate, what a big style!"

The boss lady who liked heard this, hurriedly said, "Oh, you can't say that. Where can an official lose some pomp?"

She couldn't stop talking as soon as she opened her mouth and began to say things like "the people don't fight with the officials" or "the guests are careful to cause trouble".

Zhu Cilang couldn't help but look at Han Chengke. As the censor of the Censorate, he still has the right to manage things like the style of an official, and he doesn't know how he will act.

Han Chengke was very patient. Not only was he not annoyed by the talkative boss lady, he took the initiative to talk to him and asked, "I dare to ask my sister, what is your county magistrate in Ji County?"

The boss's wife was stunned and did not dare to answer such questions directly. She just said ambiguously: "In the past ten years, we have changed four magistrates. Except for the second one who was beaten by the emperor in the second year of his tenure, the rest are basically the same."

Then, the boss lady kept looking left and talking about its shifting topic, trying her best to avoid commenting on the county magistrate.

Han Chengke didn't give up and continued to ask: "Then how much has this county magistrate consumed?"

The so-called fire consumption is the deduction when local governments collect taxes from the people. The scattered silver paid by the people will be unified and recast into silver ingots by the government. It began with the "one-whip method" implemented by Zhang Juzheng during the Wanli period.

However, when local governments collect taxes, the additional "fire consumption" is often greater than the actual "fire consumption". For example, if one tael of silver consumes one ounce of money through fire and ten taels of tax, the people have to pay eleven taels of tax.

One tael of silver consumes two cents of fire, and ten taels of silver taxes will have to pay twelve taels of tax.

The fire consumption is not fixed. Only the government knows how much it has been lost. Therefore, the governments in various places have different collections, so the difference is the ones that belong to the officials.

In a word, the fire consumption required by the honest officials is less, while the fire consumption required by the corrupt officials is more.

A county pays more than tens of thousands of taels in all aspects every year. If you charge one extra ounce of 10,000 taels, it will be one thousand taels more, and one hundred thousand taels more. If you charge two more coins of silver, the county magistrate will be well developed!

Through fire consumption, we can intuitively see the greed of the county magistrate. Just now, Han Chengke asked the boss about fire consumption, in order to examine the administration of the officials and see how the officials in Ji County were appointed.

After hearing this, Zhu Cilang smiled and shook his head, thinking that Han Chengke is really a elm head.

I have carried out the new currency reform and issued the silver round system, one of which is to fundamentally eliminate fire consumption!

In the past, people used to use broken silver to pay taxes, but now they use silver and copper circles, with a fixed face value, so there is no need to exchange fires at all. What do you ask about the energy consumption of fire?

Zhu Cilang is quite content with the fire consumption innovation.

In history, Yongzheng attributed the money to fire. It seemed that the benevolent government was hyped up to heaven, but in fact it only fixed the amount of fire consumption, which must not exceed 20% of the regular tax, generally between 10% and 15%. The people still have to pay money, but they only paid less.

The new currency system issued by Zhu Cilang was cancelled directly! People don’t have to pay a single coin!

Just as Emperor Zhu was immersed in the joy of achievement, the boss lady spoke.

"Since our Emperor created the silver balls and copper balls, the fire consumption silver has been cancelled. Officials dare not blatantly collect one or two cents, but..."

Hum? Still something happened?

Zhu Cilang pricked up his ears and expressed his concern.

The boss lady sighed: "The people who only pay taxes with silver dollars are mostly merchants, and we who do small businesses, those who farm, pay food, and there is no fire consumption, but there is no food consumption!"

"Some day ago, my sister in the countryside was still complaining, saying that the kick of Master Guan was like kicking her into her heart!"

Due to years of war and natural disasters, food production decreased, the Ming Dynasty was severely short of food in the first few years of the Chongzhen Dynasty and even the Tianwu Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang formulated a basic tax system of "merchants pay silver, farmers pay grain", to ensure the support of the army, the filling of national warehouses, and the response to natural disasters and wars.

Now it seems that there are still big problems, especially this kind of slurry-tip-killing husk for taxed grains.

After listening to the boss's wife's story, Han Chengke had a gloomy face and left without looking back after paying the tea.

Zhu Cilang's face was also not good-looking, and he also wanted to see how this local official collected taxes and how he kicked the hukou!

The group left Longfeng Inn and quickly went to the county government.

On the way, Zhu Cilang happened to meet a commoner who went to the county government to pay public grain. He spent a lot of money to buy the grain truck and asked the Jinyiwei to pretend to be the farmer to deliver the grain for a live broadcast.

There were many people in front of the county government gate, with various flat carts and push carts everywhere, and there were many people coming to hand over the public grain.

Zhu Cilang was mixed in and patiently waited for the official to appear to collect taxes, but he had not been able to get it.

There was a shouting sound and a muffled sound of kicking sandbags in the backyard of the county government.

I saw the magistrate who had been swaying across the city, wearing plain clothes and practicing "iron leg skills" in front of a big tree.

The local officials of the Ming Dynasty were not all weak literati. Even before the new imperial examinations implemented by the Tianwu Dynasty, they were all people who could be literary and martial. At least in terms of their attainments in "leg skills", most of them were very imaginative.

Since they became local officials, they began to practice martial arts hard in their spare time, kicking hard at the big tree every day until they practiced to the state of "the tree does not move, the leaves fallen everywhere". And they only had one kick, and it would not be possible to kick one more kick!

Why do you need to practice iron leg skills? Is it possible to practice iron palm skills?

Unfortunately, no! Local officials must practice iron legs!

Because this is the skill of eating, if you don’t have this skill, you can only be poor for the rest of your life if you become an official.

"Bang!Bang!Bang..."

After repeated practice, Ji County Magistrate Shi Taigui breathed a long sigh and finished work.

Next, he will go to the front yamen to collect grain and test his "skills".

Even though County Magistrate Shi had collected public grain several times and was extremely skillful in the process, he always insisted on practicing iron leg skills repeatedly before work, in order to earn more food.

Because when the people handed over grain and used hu of grain, he kicked it over. According to the rules of the officialdom, all the food he threw belonged to him and he had to take it seriously!
Chapter completed!