Heavenly Dao Formula Chapter 65: Regularity

　　 "Isn't there no evil tax before?" Xia Fan asked.

　　"Yes, this is something that Master Hu only came out after he took office. He said that evil spirits are becoming more frequent and it is difficult to deal with the allocations above, so the county residents are allowed to share points. Blessed, you can share the points with the above The big guys say it? We really can't pay this money..."

　　 At the end, the old man stood up tremblingly on the door frame, as if he wanted to kneel down, Xia Fan quickly got up and supported him.

　　 "I will find a way, you don't need to rush for a while. By the way, when did the magistrate take office?"

　　 "I remember... ten years ago."

　　 Ten years and eight years... the difference is not that far, plus the later tax on evil, is this some kind of coincidence?

　　 wait again! A flash of lightning flashed in Xia Fan's head. If we deduced it according to this guess, then the stable days of the past ten years, wouldn't it be——

　　 He picked up the bowl and drank the cold well water, making his voice not sound so dry, "Do you remember how many prefects have been changed in Gaoshan County?"

　　"This..." The old man hesitated, "I don't know about my father's generation, but in the past few decades, there should be four or five. The short is three to four years, and the long is more than ten years."

　　 "How long did the magistrate before Master Hu have worked?"

　　 "It's pretty long, about fifteen or six years."

　　 fifteen or six years, isn’t this perfectly connected with the frequency of evil?

　　 Xia Fan suddenly felt cold behind his back.

　　 He has always wanted to find clues from anomalous cases or disappearances, but now he realizes that the clues are probably right in front of him.

　　 "By the way, do you remember the name of the county magistrate? Did he get promoted, or..."

　　 "Hui En Gong, that adult whose surname is Zhu, has passed away."

　　 "How did you die?" Xia Fan asked subconsciously.

　　 "I heard that I was entangled in unclean things, and finally died of illness."

　　……

　　 When the sky was turned into **** orange-red by the afterglow, Xia Fan returned to the inn.

　　 In order to avoid omissions and misinformation, he deliberately visited several homes that had received funding.

　　 The answers are basically the same.

The frequency of 　　 evil spirits and the replacement time of local officials present a strange correspondence.

　　After setting up the fox demon first, Xia Fan summoned the other companions into a wing room, and recounted what he had inquired from beginning to end.

　　 After listening to the final narration, Wei Wushuang took a breath, his eyes widened in disbelief, "Do you suspect that Hu Zhixian is related to this matter?"

　　"It's just a guess at the moment, I want to hear your opinions."

　　 "But there really is no major problem in the county--"

　　 "No major problem is the problem," Wang Renzhi interrupted Wei Wushuang, "If you want more than a dozen lives to disappear silently, it is indeed more convenient to have official cover."

　　"Where does anyone come from?"

　　 "Come from outside!"

　　 "Huh?" Wei Wushuang didn't expect the other party to answer like this, he couldn't help but paused, "The magistrate, what did he picture..."

　　 "Picking money! Isn't there a tax that eliminates evil? I think he just wants to make money!" Wang Renzhi patted Xia Fan's shoulder appreciatively, "Oh, you are quite courageous. I misunderstood you before."

　　"But...that's actually not much money." Wei Wushuang whispered.

　　 "What? Not much?" Prince Wang raised his brows.

　　"While listening to Brother Xia just now, I thought about it in my heart. The evil tax is only collected from neighbourhoods that have been attacked by evil. Each household is ten taels of silver, and one block is only 300 households, and the land can be sold. Discounts are exempted for the magistrate’s farming. It’s not bad that 300 households can collect two thousand taels. In addition, he will also distribute the money to the families of those who have died, and receive 30 for every person who died. Fifty-two, plus the hard expenses of the errands and quick catches, this set will probably be able to keep such a number when the magistrate comes down--" Wei Wushuang stretched out a finger.

　　"One thousand?"

　　 "Almost, and this is already a high estimate."

　　 "Is there only so much."

　　"Of course, I can't say that one thousand taels of cash is a small amount--" Wei Wushuang glanced at Xia Fan secretly, "It's just that it's not very cost-effective compared to what to do."

　　 "What if he didn't do it for money?" Shangguan Cai said suddenly.

　　 "What else is there?"

　　 "If you only want money, it is unreasonable to collect taxes uniformly. Instead of setting up so many reductions and exemptions, it is better to expand the scope of apportionment and draw more from the big family." She drew half a long spear and stroked the ground lightly. "The purpose of his setting this line is to push those who are nervous at hand into desperation without affecting the majority of the county."

　　 "You mean... the field?" Wei Wushuang quickly reacted.

　　 "Inaccurate, he wants both fields and people, or what he wants is the grain produced in the fields." Shangguan Cai raised her mouth slightly, "You may not know that the locust plague occurred in Fengguo last year, and it was a burden. In the western states, all edible foods have been fired to sky-high prices. This year, they have not completely subsided, so that riots have occurred in many places. And similar things happened seven or eight years ago."

　　"Where did you hear this news?" Wei Wushuang asked in amazement~IndoMTL.com~His family sells food, and he doesn't even know about it.

　　 "Gyeonggi always has no shortage of well-informed people, provided that you can find them." She spread her hands, "Of course, at this time, if you want to resell food, you are seeking a dead end, like yours, the government permits. It doesn’t make a difference whether you know it or not. The only thing that can sell high prices is the unstated private grain, which has to be shipped to Fengguo. A small county magistrate is probably just a partner."

　　 "I think neither of these may be the main motivation."

　　 Xia Fan said slowly after listening to everyone's speech.

　　 "What is your opinion?" Shangguan Cai asked with interest.

　　"High views are not counted, but the magistrates did not mention tax exemption from evil more than 20 years ago, and locust plagues are unlikely to happen every year." Xia Fan looked around everyone, "but evil incidents still appeared frequently at that time. So we might as well think of things simpler."

　　 "Simplicity means..."

　　 "Someone instructed, bought out, or required the magistrate to do so, and this included risk compensation. Compared with his predecessor, Hu Zhixian, the only difference is that the former is more greedy."

　　 His summary caused a brief silence in the wing.

　　 "That... Brother Xia," Wei Wushuang cleared his throat after a while, "After all this, it's just everyone's guess. If there is no actual evidence, no one will believe us and say it. On the contrary, there is a suspicion of slandering court officials."

　　 "That's right, but at least we have the direction for further investigation." Xia Fan stood up, "The next step is to find out the other party's flaws!"

　　 "You already have an idea?"

　　 "That's right," he decided to make a quick battle, not to give the opponent a chance to be calm, "the result will be known in one day tomorrow."