Seeing Yao Anle sitting at the table and eating, County Magistrate Cheng and Chairman Dong smiled, they also took the plates together, went to serve vegetables and meat, and returned to the table. Seeing Du Zhongxiao smiling at him, they both relaxed and poured a bowl of wine.

When other young officials saw that the superiors did this, they would be polite to them. They each took the plates, put them like mountains, and sat down at the table.

Du Zhongxiao looked at everyone coldly, and they tried to make up as much meat as possible. Those who decorate some vegetables and vegetables were mostly embarrassed, so they put a few vegetables to decorate. After seeing this scene, Du Zhongxiao sighed inwardly. In this era, only meat is the king. These are all officials, and officials eat meat without a life, let alone ordinary people.

What is delicious? In different eras, different people will have different answers. In this era, most people will tell you that meat is the best. It is very simple, and there are too few opportunities to eat meat. Even if Du Zhongxiao was not a relaxed family, he and Han Yueniang would have a tight life. So what if he became an official? In this era, a small county magistrate would not have much money to make you greedy. Thousands of families in a county are similar to a big village in his previous life. How much spare money can the officials be greedy?

This is the gap between the times. The current counties are larger than those in Du Zhongxiao’s previous life, while the smaller ones are only equivalent to those in a village. In addition, the population is scattered and inconvenient transportation is not easy to manage, and it is even more difficult to move a little.

Yongcheng is a large county, not only with a large jurisdiction, but also because it is next to the Bian River waterway, with many merchants coming and going, and the county town is very prosperous. In fact, leaving the county town, the population in the countryside is very sparse. Du Zhongxiao once estimated that the population in this era was only about one-twentieth of his previous life. However, the Central Plains region, which was densely populated in his previous life, seemed to be vast and sparsely populated in this era, including Yongcheng.

What does this mean? The Yongcheng in Wangxian has a total of less than 6,000 households. In the prosperous county, the city and outside the city are less than 2,000 households. Speaking of which, the urbanization rate has reached an astonishing 30%. These nearly 2,000 households make a living by relying on the Bian River waterway.

I remembered my previous life, there was a big village near my home. Three villages were piled up tightly, separated by one road from each other. The three villages had nearly 5,000 households in total. After a thousand years of time, I knew what kind of quality of my magistrate was.

Today it is said that the magistrate invited the county officials to have a banquet. The actual situation is equivalent to the dinner party of village cadres in their previous life?

After everyone sat down, Du Zhongxiao raised his glass and led everyone to drink a glass of wine, saying, "It is rare to get together so neatly today, so eat and drink first. I have something to say until I have enough food and drink."

The two Wei Wei Cheng and Chairman Dong thanked each other, and were no longer polite. They grabbed the big piece of meat and took the lead in eating it.

Du Zhongxiao was afraid that everyone would not be more careful when eating meat, so he brought more pork in the special parts of the ribs and cooked them so that they were cooked and served. In his previous life, the ribs were more expensive than meat, but in this era, the fat and thick meat were everyone’s favorite.

After drinking a few tours of wine, I saw that everyone was covered in oil and had almost eaten, Du Zhongxiao said, "Let's stay and listen to me say a few words. Since I arrived here last year, I have taken care of the Yingtian according to the instructions of the state. As a capital, the state intercepted the taxes of the county, and I also set up a venue for fireworks and firecrackers, which was very prosperous. At that time, the county taxes were intercepted, and the state did not say what happened afterwards, because the camp was a matter of the state."

There was no independent financial power at the county level of the Song Dynasty. In principle, all the amount of money in and out should be registered in the book and tested by the state. All income, except for the province, and the local income is also divided into the state, and the county has no right to use it. In short, all the money collected by the county is from the state, except for the tribute to the court, is all from the state, including the salaries of the county officials, and the county has no spare wealth. This is not counting. All the officials in the state have a share of money, such as ministerial money, because Yongcheng is too far from Bozhou, and it is basically difficult to get it. Du Zhongxiao heard a saying in his previous life that the county was unfortunate in three lives, and the county was attached to Guo; he committed evil deeds in three lives, and attached to Guo Provincial Capital; he committed evil deeds in three lives, and attached to Guo Jingcheng. This is what the situation in the Song Dynasty was just the opposite of this. Because the officials in Guo County could get money from ministerial money and other funds, the official affairs were directly managed by the state, and the money was taken more and more easily.

The further away from the city of the state, the worse the treatment of officials is. This is the current situation in the officialdom in this era. Don’t think that the mountains are high and the emperor is far away. The officials in the county can do it and be more greedy. It is not how high the officials’ awareness is, but to send the money to the state. Officials have to use their brains and come up with various solutions, but they really don’t have much spare time to make money for themselves. The further away from the city of the state, the higher the taxes the county has to pay.

The taxes in the Song Dynasty were based on counties. Since the time of Emperor Zhenzong, the tax was basically no longer increased. In the past, more money was left in the local area. Officials were relaxed and since they started a war with the Dangxiang, the Sansi wanted to dispose of all the money in the local area to the capital, and their lives were tighter day by day. Since it was about money, it was the money of the Sansi. What else could they say in the local area?

The tax amount is set there, and the time remains unchanged for one or two hundred years. Everyone knows that the court has strict orders and is not allowed to change. The government is located here, and every move from salary to administration is costly, and it cannot be saved. There are many things transported to the capital, and the land is convenient. What should I do? I can only think of various methods, including discounts, transfers, disciplines, and other items, and so on, and the so-called ancient method of stripping is available at this time. Because the governance of this time is based on examples, and once some temporary measures are fixed, the number will be determined. Later people have to think of other items. Therefore, it is said that if the taxes of the people are heavy, we cannot look at how many items there are, but we must see how much private income has been plundered. Because the examples remain unchanged, once the local economy improves, although there are many items, it is possible that the taxes are less than before.

Everyone here knows the difficulties in the county. When they heard Du Zhongxiao mentioned that he intercepted the tax on Yingtian in the county last year, and then remembered that Du Zhongxiao also served as the Yingtian envoy this year, everyone felt a lot of pain. The benefits of Yingtian have not been seen in the county, so they would not have to pay off their debts, right?

Looking at everyone's faces, Du Zhongxiao sighed: "You are thinking well. The state wants us to pay back the money. The spring planting and autumn harvest will not be harvested until autumn. The state is not unkind. We will pay back the money and grain from last year during the autumn tax. Also, the state is doing fireworks and firecrackers. The state is watching the money making, so I will make bookkeeping and send it to the state. In the future, the state will be under the jurisdiction of the state and will send a supervisor to the state."

After hearing this, Chairman Dong's face changed immediately, and he couldn't help but shout: "As soon as the sir said, how can we eat?"

Du Zhongxiao waved his hand: "Don't be anxious. I'll come to you today, just discuss what to do. The Northwest peace talks, but the three officials have no intention of reducing the money and food to the capital. I guess we still have to live a hard life. As an official, I can't bear to see my subordinates endure hardships. Everyone left their hometowns and came here to work for the court. As a result, they didn't say they had wine and meat, or even suffered from cold and hunger. How could they bear it? They always have to think of a way to pay the money and food of the court, and let everyone live a good life. Do you think it's okay?"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and bowed together: "It is really a blessing that we can do things under the magistrate's minister in the previous life!"
Chapter completed!