Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 116 The Real Old Rival: The Aristocracy
Chang Sun Yan didn't know whether his grandfather or uncle Yuchi could sleep.

He couldn't sleep anyway.

"Didn't you say yesterday that you needed a letter of guidance from the government office?

"Now that we have the guide letter, why don't you let us register to open the market?"

In the service hall of the Lulong County Supervisory Office, Chang Sun Yan tried his best to keep his tone calm.

In line with the principle of carrying out incognito visits to the end, Li Ming and his party all changed into businessmen's clothes and went through the registration procedures before opening a business.

All steps were strictly followed in compliance with the laws of the Tang Dynasty to avoid giving others a chance to criticize and be bitten back when impeaching Liu Xin and his party.

Since he was free anyway and the public security in Lulong County was relatively good, Li Ming left the small task of running errands between various government offices to Chang Sun Yan and his two friends.

Then, Chang Sunyan got a little bureaucratic shock.

"This is the pass for Pingzhou Prefecture. What I want is the pass for Lulong County, which I can't get."

The old clerk spoke slowly and leisurely.

"Aren't your provincial government and county government together? And you didn't say that yesterday!" Chang Sun Yan squeezed out a word from between his teeth.

The old official glanced at him and took a sip of tea slowly:

"Need I say this? Our market is located in Lulong County, so we must be looking for a ticket from Lulong County~"

"Yiyiyi!" Chang Sunyan pulled his hair madly and yelled at the top of his lungs:
"I've been running around for days just for this little thing!

"It's either this signature or that note that's missing. Can't you just tell me all the materials you need at once?"

The old official put down his teacup and said slowly:

"If you yell in court again, the police will take you away."

“You...?!” Chang Sun Yan’s eyes widened with anger.

Before the situation escalated, Fang Yize and Yuchi Xunyu quickly stopped him:
"Brother, forget it, let's go to the county government office again."

The three little ones returned to the Lulong County Government and Pingzhou Prefecture Government in a hurry.

The clerk glanced at them over the tall counter:
"The county government office is in the front yard."

The three of them ran to the front yard.

Clerk: "What business?"

Chang Sunyan: "A guide letter for opening a shop."

Clerk: "The merchant should go to the second room in the side corridor."

Went to the side corridor again.

Clerk: "What business?"

Zhang Sunyan: "Fur..."

Clerk: "The fur will go to the Agriculture and Sericulture Department on the second floor."

Go up to the second floor again.

Clerk: “What are you doing?”

Zhang Sunyan: "Doing fur business..."

Clerk: "Go to the front yard to get a guide letter."

Yuchi Xunyu and Fang Yize: “Eeyeeeeee!!!”

They both finally broke down.

He managed the small county government into a maze, worthy of being the governor who always ranked top in the annual assessments.

Envoy Liu Xin is so terrifying!
…………

While the three little ones were competing with each other in wits and courage with the official document processing department, Li Ming and his two advisers were also looking for sources of purchases of mountain products such as ginseng and deer antlers.

The first is to perform a complete show, and the second is to get close to the people, so as to have a more comprehensive understanding of the general situation of one's own base.

As the saying goes, if you have mud under your feet, you will have peace of mind. Sitting in the office will bring you problems, but going to the grassroots will bring you solutions.

After a few days of investigation, Li Ming did figure out some clues.

If one word is used to describe his impression of Pingzhou, it would be:
poor.

The passers-by looked pale and skinny.

There are also a lot of idle refugees, and a lot of people who go to the mountains and seas to make money by illegal means.

Sea cucumbers as thick as your arm can be bought with just a few liters of rice.

Obviously, people are poor not because of the constraints of natural conditions.

Pingzhou itself has good natural endowments, as it can support so many people.

Since we can't blame it on natural disasters, it's obvious where the problem lies.

"An incompetent general exhausted the entire army. Liu Xin was a figurehead who did nothing but eat and drink, which led to the decline of people's livelihood."

Wei Daijia couldn't help but sigh.

As the designated governor of two states, he felt the burden on his shoulders was heavy.

It’s all the fault of that greasy, incompetent and hypocritical middle-aged bureaucrat who left him such a mess.

"It seems that rating Liu Xin as middle-class Ding is too high."

Hou Junji was also frowned by Liu Xin's outrageous behavior.

He didn't care whether a governor was corrupt or not.

But his incompetence made him feel unforgivable.

"But this may not be a bad thing." Hou Junji changed the subject.

"The more incompetent Liu Xin's governance is and the more corrupt his officials are, the more reason there is to move against them."

Wei Daijia smiled bitterly:
"This is a blessing in disguise, but it makes the people suffer."

Li Ming listened quietly to the conversation between his two confidants, concentrating on thinking about something.

Wei Daijia felt unsure and asked in a low voice:

"Your Highness, isn't that right?"

After following Li Ming for a long time, he gradually grasped the characteristics of the young master.

When the noisy little master suddenly stops talking, it usually means that things are not simple.

"Hiss~ Did you feel anything about Liu Xin's attitude and problems when he received us that day?" Li Ming asked suddenly.

Wei Daijia and Hou Junji looked at each other in bewilderment:
"What is the problem?"

Compared with overthrowing Liu Xin's party and cleansing up the Pingzhou officialdom, they felt that attitude was just a minor issue.

"His attitude is too respectful." Li Ming said in a deep voice:

"We are businessmen. Even if we have the credentials of a senior official in the central government and even if we are very rich, we are still low-level businessmen.

"And he was the governor. As a result, we not only met the governor smoothly, but we were even on equal terms with him.

"Isn't this attitude a little too easy to talk to?"

Wei Daijia tried to answer:
"Is it because he covets our 'mountain and sea donations'?"

Hou Junji expressed his objection from the perspective of a professional corrupt official:

"If an official wants money from a businessman, he can just extort it directly. Why should he be so humble?"

This is true.

"Why is that?" Wei Daijia couldn't help but start thinking.

"This shows that in Pingzhou, foreign merchants are a rare thing, so Liu Xin takes it very seriously." Li Ming said slowly.

This leads to a bigger question -

Why are traveling merchants so rare?
"Is it because of the inconvenient transportation?" Wei Daijia asked.

Li Ming shook his head.

There are two main routes from Pingzhou to the Central Plains:
An ancient coastal road along the Bohai Sea, passing Linyu Pass (Shanhai Pass), which is the southern section of the modern Liaoxi Corridor.

During the Tang Dynasty, due to high sea levels, this road would be submerged in water during high tide or rain, and large vehicles could not pass.

Another route goes through Yanshan Mountain, along the Wuzhong Ancient Road in the Qinglong River Valley, out of Liujiakou to Jizhou.

Large-scale marches are indeed inconvenient.

But it is more than enough for a small caravan.

“As you can all see, Pingzhou’s products are all lightweight, high-value luxury goods, such as sea cucumbers, dried abalone, ginseng, and deer antlers.

“Transportation is not difficult and the profits are very considerable.

"How come there are no traveling merchants?" After Li Ming's suggestion, the two also felt that this matter was strange.

"Go to the market and ask around."

The market in Lulong is located in the center of the county town. It has no special features. It is neither big nor small. It is just an ordinary market that can be found in all states of the Tang Dynasty.

The vendors are mainly locals, and most of the goods they trade are local daily necessities such as rice, flour, oil and salt.

This is a high-value commodity unique to Pingzhou, but almost no one trades or sells it.

This was very rare in the Tang Dynasty, where foreign merchants were everywhere and trade was prosperous.

It was as if Pingzhou was a closed place, completely separated from other territories of the Tang Dynasty.

"Buy some of the best rice," an old vendor called out weakly.

Li Ming looked at the old man and thought he was a good target for questioning, so he deliberately asked:
"You can make a lot of money selling rice, why not sell ginseng?"

The old man choked:
"Ginseng and antlers can't be eaten as food, so who would buy them except for the patients?"

Li Ming deliberately argued:

"You can sell it to the Central Plains. Who told you to only do local business?"

The old vendor looked at Li Ming and his group, not disguising the mockery in his eyes:
"You're from out of town, just arrived in Pingzhou?"

"Yeah." Li Ming nodded.

The old man laughed:

"Forget about the Central Plains. Can you transport these delicacies from the mountains and sea, such as ginseng, fur, abalone and sea cucumber, out of Lulong County intact?"

Hou Junji frowned:
"Why, the officials here don't allow you to sell things outside?"

"What does it have to do with Guaner?" The old man waved his hand:
"It's the 'mountain and sea donation'. As long as the products of the mountain and sea leave the county, the 'Murong' family will first skin you. What profit can there be?"

Shanhaidon, it turns out to be this!

This directly led to the stagnation of business. Liu Xin imposed heavy taxes and levies to make money, which caused great harm to people...

and many more.

The old man just said that it has nothing to do with officials?

Why do you say that? Isn’t the miscellaneous tax “mountain and sea donation” collected by officials?

What is the "Murong" family?
"Old man..."

Li Ming wanted to ask more, but was turned away.

"Go away! If you don't want to buy it, don't block my way to wealth!"

The old man suddenly looked around nervously and kicked the three people out without saying a word.

The three people were confused.

Just at this moment, a man wearing a tiger skin coat, a fox tail hat and other aboriginal features approached.

The guy first looked around with a sly look in his eyes, then lowered his voice and said in fluent Chinese:

“I have the goods!”

If you don’t know, you might think they are selling something incredible.

Li Ming nodded slightly:

"lead the way."

…………

The four people turned around and around and finally came to a corner.

Wei Daijia asked in the Khitan language he had just learned.

"Huh?" The Hu man blinked his confused eyes.

"...Where are the goods?" Awei asked again in Chinese.

"Oh."

This time the other party understood, and pushed aside the leaves on the ground. There was a pit underneath, filled with piles of animal fur.

"Look! Fine furs, buy some!"

The three of them looked at each other.

Fur is not a prohibited item, so why is it so secretive?
Before asking questions, Li Ming tried to get close to me:

"Brother, you are rarely seen wearing this outfit. Are you a Khitan? Or a Black Water Mohe?"

Nowadays, even among ethnic minorities, few dress so roughly.

The "barbarian" grinned:
"I'm not a barbarian, I'm a Han Chinese!"

what?
"Oh!" The guy looked at his own outfit with self-mockery and sighed:

“I used to be a farmer, but there was a flood and my family was almost starving to death, so I had no choice but to borrow high-interest loans from the Murong family.

"Then, I couldn't pay back the principal and interest, so they took my land away and I had to go up the mountain to make a living."

Li Ming heard a key point:
"Who are the Murong family? Are they very powerful in the local area?"

Just now, when the old vendor was talking about the so-called mountain and sea donations, he also mentioned the Murong family!
"The Murong family is the largest family here. They have been entrenched in Pingzhou for hundreds of years. No one can afford to offend them. Bah!"

The man spat angrily.

"The head of the Murong family, Murong Yan, is the local tyrant of Pingzhou. That guy has occupied almost all the land, and all the villagers have become his tenants.

"I didn't want to work for the guy who took my ancestral property, so I fled to the mountains and became a savage."

Li Ming listened carefully and couldn't help but sigh.

Small farmers have weak risk resistance and when faced with natural disasters, they are easily exploited by landlords using usury and their land is plundered.

This was a common phenomenon in the thousands of years of feudal society.

This is the specific micro manifestation of the grand narrative of "land annexation".

In fact, the aristocratic families used a combination of natural disasters and usury to legally and reasonably bring about the collapse of the equal-field system of the Tang Dynasty.

Well, the families of Wei Daijia and Hou Junji around me must have done this a lot.

It seems that this "Murong Family" is a powerful family in Pingzhou.

They are not well-known, and are essentially the same as the "aristocratic families" such as the Five Surnames and Seven Families...

Just as Li Ming's thoughts were wandering, the man explained:

“This is your first time here as an outsider, so you don’t understand the rules of Pingzhou.

"Murong Yan occupied the land, even the mountains and the sea.

"If his lackeys see you and I trading furs, they will ask us for a mountain and sea donation, and 70% of the transaction will have to be given to him!"

That mysterious so-called "mountain and sea donation" turned out to be just like this -

The local tyrants just made up excuses to exploit people and take advantage of them.

"Seventy percent?!" Li Ming was surprised.

This "tax rate" is so sharp that even draining the pond to catch all the fish is considered sustainable development.

Hou Junji frowned immediately:
"How could the governor be so indulgent to Murong Yan?"

Corruption, usury, land annexation and so on are still common practices.

This phenomenon is not only common in the remote Pingzhou, but also in the capital area.

But collecting taxes is another matter!
This is simply playing skipping rope with the nerves of imperial power!
What was Liu Xin doing? He indulged the local tyrants so much. Wasn't he afraid of causing trouble? !
"Indulge? Haha, don't praise those mediocre officials too much."

The man sneered:
"Pingzhou is far away from the emperor, what's the point of appointing an official from the imperial court?

"The Murong family has many private soldiers. What use can a governor without any soldiers do?"

Li Ming's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.

"The ruling boundaries of the feudal dynasty", these cold words in the history books have become extremely concrete at this moment.

If we say that in remote areas far away from the heartland of the Central Plains, transportation and communication are extremely inconvenient.

What could be more serious than local officials colluding with local tyrants?

That is, the local tyrants simply left the officials behind and went it alone!

This is the rhythm of establishing a new court and splitting up and establishing separate regimes!
And the territory that was split was Li Ming's!
How come this person called Murong Yan stole his script?
This is no longer an ordinary local tyrant!
Must hit hard!

At this moment, Li Ming finally realized who his real opponent in Liaodong was.

It was still the old rival, but he had shed his gentle, courteous, frugal and modest appearance and revealed his true face of brutality and greed.

Aristocratic family!

(End of this chapter)