At dusk, Li Yanqing's team arrived at the silkworm town, which was about 50 miles away from Chengdu County, and then walked forward to the endless rice fields, and Li Yanqing immediately ordered the army to camp in the town to rest.

The army had a simple marching tent, and soon set up a barracks in the open space outside the town, but Li Yanqing was quite interested in the town, taking advantage of the gap in the camp, he took Hu Qing'er and two personal soldiers to the town unhurriedly.

Silkworm this town is actually not small, but relatively scattered, there are still large rice fields between the east and west of the town, Li Yanqing's garrison is in the east of the town, and the prosperous place of the town is in the west of the town a few miles away.

However, there is also an inn, two taverns and a grocery store in the east of the town, at this time, it is not completely dark, Li Yanqing saw a courtyard with an open gate, so he walked in, but saw an old couple in the courtyard weaving bamboo utensils.

"Do officials want to buy bamboo?" The old man greeted him warmly.

The old man said a pure Sichuan accent, but he could still understand it, Li Yanqing saw that the bamboo ware was well knitted, so he smiled and said: "You can buy a few, but can the old man give me a bowl of water first." ”

"Old woman, go pour water!"

The old woman got up and went to pour water, and the old man took out a few bamboo stools and warmly invited them to sit down.

"Listen to the official accent, it should be a northerner!"

"I'm from Xiangzhou, Hebei."

"No wonder they're so tall."

The old man glanced at Hu Qing'er in tight armor again and said with a smile: "It is still relatively rare for a female child to join the army. ”

Hu Qing'er's face turned cold, she didn't like others to joke about her joining the army, Li Yanqing smiled and changed the topic, "Does my husband make a living by weaving bamboo tools?" ”

The old man shook his head, "Weaving bamboo is just to subsidize my son's family, farming is too hard, and life is stressful!" ”

At this time, the old woman came out with a pot of water and a few large bowls, she smiled gently at Hu Qing'er, and continued to weave bamboo utensils.

Hu Qing'er hurriedly poured a bowl of water for Li Yanqing, Li Yanqing took a sip of water from the bowl, nodded and said, "The water quality is good, it's very sweet." ”

"We have good well water here, drink it slowly, there is something in the pot!"

Hu Qing'er went over to the old woman to choose bamboo utensils, but Li Yanqing chatted with the old man very casually.

"I see that the land here is fertile, the water is abundant, and the products are abundant, why are you sad?"

"Hey! The tax is too heavy, in addition to the field tax exemption money, there is also the anti-Jin military expenses, each head has always been money, our family of six, a year to six times, and now they are all talking about the foot, equivalent to the previous eight money, at least four big fat pigs to pay the anti-Jin military expenses, I heard that the military expenses of Shaanxi Road are pressed on our Bashu, life is hard! ”

Li Yanqing was silent for a moment and asked, "Is the salt tea at home expensive?" ”

"Salt tea wine has always been very expensive, now I go up the mountain to pick wild tea by myself, but I am not allowed to sell it, and the wine is also, I make my own fruit wine to drink, and I am not allowed to sell it, and if I sell it, I will go to jail, there is no way to salt, and a bucket of salt costs hundreds of Wen, so I have to save some food."

At this time, Hu Qing'er picked more than 20 bamboo utensils, paid the money for the soldiers, and directly followed Li Yanqing back to the camp with the bamboo utensils.

"Old man, you just talked nonsense, that young man doesn't seem to be an ordinary person, that girl is his entourage, I can see clearly, even the helmet is made of silver."

The old man also regretted that he had said too much, but he still said stiffly: "It doesn't matter, everyone knows what I said, and it's not a secret!" ”

Having said that, he hurriedly closed the door and gave the old woman a look, and the two of them packed up their things and hid in the back room.

.........

Li Yanqing returned to the camp almost silently, he heard for the first time that there is a tax item of anti-Jin military expenses, each person has a consistent amount of money per year, Chengdu Fulu has a population of five million, so at least five million guan is levied every year, and last year, the money that Chengdu government handed over to Jingluo Mansion was six million guan, that is to say, in addition to the anti-Jin military expenditure, other taxes are only one million guan, is this possible?

Land tax, household tax, commercial tax, exempt money, not to mention the government's monopoly of salt, tea, wine, sugar, pig iron and other daily necessities, the monopoly income of these daily necessities alone must be at least 10 million yuan, where does this money go?

Li Yanqing has realized that this incident may be Zeng Xiulin's handle.

........

At noon the next day, Li Yanqing's party arrived in Chengdu County, and dozens of officials, including the prefect Zeng Xiulin, the general judge Xu Qingwei, the transfer envoy Zhang Ji, and the commander Hong Zhaonian, went out of the city to welcome the arrival of Li Yanqing, the envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy and the king of Jin.

Zeng Xiulin is about sixty years old, tall and fat, energetic, with a smile on his face anytime and anywhere, and he is very good at controlling the topic, from the city gate to the government office, he is almost talking alone, and the other officials just have a polite smile, and no one interrupts Zeng Xiulin's words and interjects.

It can also be seen that Zeng Xiulin's strength is not the same, in Chengdu Mansion and even Chengdu Mansion Road, he is the same.

.........

Everyone sat down in the mansion, Li Yanqing pointed at Zhao Kai and introduced with a smile: "This is Zhao Yuanjun, our Shaanxi Road transfer envoy, I think everyone knows it!" ”

Everyone's faces showed embarrassment, and Zeng Xiulin laughed dryly and said: "Zhao Yuanjun met Bole again, congratulations!" ”

Zhao Kai snorted coldly, "The prefect of Zeng's care for Zhao has always been engraved in Zhao's heart. ”

The smile on Zeng Xiulin's face finally couldn't hold back, he quickly changed the topic and asked with a smile: "What is Li Jingluo coming to Chengdu for this time?" ”

"Three things!"

Li Yanqing smiled slightly: "The first thing is my normal inspection, as a strategic envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, I have only come to Bashu Third Road until now, which has made me very ashamed, this time I am mainly visiting everyone." ”

Everyone laughed and said: "I am saying that when Li Jingluo arrives, he must be punished with three glasses of wine as a punishment for not coming to Bashu for a long time." ”

Li Yanqing smiled and waved his hand, "Thank you for your kindness, if I have the opportunity, I will definitely punish myself with three cups to make amends for everyone, but I'm afraid that I can't drink alcohol because of my official duties, so next time I have a chance!" ”

"Li Jingluo's second thing is ......."

"The second thing is about the local Xiang army to go to Jingzhao for a month of training, as you know, I don't ask too much about Bashu government affairs, this is also the meaning of the official family, let me focus on the military, as the military in charge of the strategy, the Xiang army training is a task I must complete this year, there are eight thousand Xiang troops on Chengdu Fu Road, how about it, take the lead for the other two roads!"

Zeng Xiulin is actually not interested in military training, since Li Yanqing admits that he is only in charge of the army and not politics, Zeng Xiulin has to give Li Yanqing this face, if he refuses, I am afraid that it will be difficult to talk about the next topic.

Moreover, this time Li Yanqing only took 500 female soldiers to the south, which invisibly made him relax his vigilance.

Thinking of this, Zeng Xiulin nodded, and smiled at Hong Zhaonian, the commander of the capital: "Since it is the task that Li Jingluo wants to complete this year, of course we have to support it, and Commander Hong will arrange it!" In the past few days, Xiang Jun will be sent to Jingzhao Mansion to strive to come back before the New Year. ”

"I understand the humble position, and I will arrange it immediately."

Li Yanqing smiled again: "Anyway, the army will escort Qian and Liang to the north in the past few days, and it happens to be trained in Jingzhao Mansion." ”

The lobby was immediately silent, and after a while, Zhang Jicai, the transfer envoy, smiled bitterly and said: "Don't hide it from Li Jingluo, it's a bit difficult to do money and food!" ”

Li Yanqing glanced at Zeng Xiulin coldly, "Governor Zeng, it's already October, but the money and grain for the first half of the year haven't been sent to us, when do you plan to delay it?" ”

Zeng Xiulin said with a dry smile: "Li Jing doesn't know a little, we are very embarrassed about this matter, because Song and Jin negotiated peace, and the imperial court thinks that there is no need to transfer all the money and property of Bashu to the northwest. ”

"I haven't heard of reducing money and food, the official family has never told me that Song Jin can reduce military spending by negotiating peace, could it be that the prefect Zeng received the official decree?"

"The will of the official family has not been received, but the will of the Emperor Taishang has been received, asking us to halve the supply of money and grain to the Northwest Third Road."

Li Yanqing was stunned," ********* Xiulin nodded, "Although the Emperor Taishang has abdicated, he is still guiding the Son of Heaven to govern the country, and our magistrates dare not disobey his will, please Li Jingluo understand our difficulties." ”

Li Yanqing pondered for a long time and said, "That's it! You first escort the money and grain for the first half of the year to me, and then I ask the official family for instructions, let's take the official will of the official family as the standard, if the official family also decides to cut the money and grain, then I can only accept it, Zeng Governor, this plan is not too much! ”

Zeng Xiulin bit his lip and said, "Either I'll give half first, and the other half will be owed, and I'll make a decision when the official's will arrives." ”

Li Yanqing shook his head and continued to bargain: "The Song-Jin negotiation is in May, so the whole must be given before May, and half of the next two months can be given first, even if the Emperor Taishang can't violate the Song-Jin agreement!" ”

"Oh well! It's decided, first escort 2.5 million yuan and 500,000 stone grain to Jingzhao Mansion, and we will listen to the arrangements of the imperial court for the rest. ”

Zeng Xiulin is still confident, he believes that in this matter, the official family will definitely not be able to fight the emperor.

"Then we'll make up our minds!"

Li Yanqing got up and said with a smile: "My army will rest for half a day, and I will continue to inspect Zizhou Road early tomorrow morning, and the money and food will be arranged by the prefect Zeng, and I will try to go on the road in these two days. ”

Zeng Xiulin smiled happily: "No problem, prepare today and tomorrow, and go on the road the day after tomorrow at the latest, and the eight thousand troops will go to Jingzhao Mansion for training by the way." ”