Lord of the Desert

Chapter 477 Cangxu
Twelve days later, it was mid-July.

Wheat waves are surging on the northeastern plain of Zhongzhou, and above them are floating huge shadows cast by moving clouds.

A long team consisting of nearly a hundred knights and more than twenty carriages walked on the official road in the fields, as if walking through the iron threads of golden gauze.

"General Hong, the common methods of hiding in the field are nothing more than hiding, flying, and pretending to be exempted."

Inside the carriage, Zhen Yanchu, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, and Hong Fan sat cross-legged facing each other.

The chief official was at the fifth level below the Shangshu, Shilang, Langzhong and Yuanwailang, and his rank was only the sixth rank, which was nominally two levels lower than the fifth rank military official position of "Wude General" in Hongfan.

Normally, land surveying requires the responsibility of senior officials, and those sent from the central government to local areas are given temporary titles to facilitate their work.

However, the affairs of Qing Emperor Zhenzong were led by the Zhangwu Academy, and the Ministry of Revenue was auxiliary, so old officials who had been inspecting for a long time and were proficient in general affairs and a group of accountants were specially selected to participate.

"Hidden property is not registered for newly reclaimed land; spoofing is a household setting up several or even dozens of fictitious household names, breaking up the land and registering it under fake households to enjoy the lowest tax rate; and false exemption is using a tax exemption quota to exempt excess land from tax."

Zhen Yanchu knows all of them like the back of his hand.

"To deal with these measures, we need to check the fish scale register, re-measure the land and determine the tax level. We are familiar with the relevant account checking and the Thousand Steps Square Field Method (grid measurement), but the difficulty of this matter is not here."

"I see."

Hong Fan nodded calmly.

The carriage was silent for a moment, and the sound of Hongqi, who was pulling the cart, pretending to be tired, could be heard from outside the tent.

"General Hong, before we set off, my department and the Ministry of Personnel sent a letter to the Qingzhou Provincial Administration Office, asking them to cooperate..."

Zhen Yanchu wanted to say something but stopped.

"Master Zhen, do you mean that the letter sent from the capital will alert the enemy and make them prepare in advance?"

Hong Fan asked back.

Zhen Yanchu nodded imperceptibly.

Hong Fan smiled when he heard this and suddenly changed the subject: "I heard that the Qing Emperor Zhenzong owed taxes on at least 10,000 acres of land. Do you think it's credible?"

"More than credible?"

Zhen Yanchu sneered instinctively, but quickly restrained himself.

The sounds of people and horses outside were faint through the tent.

He studied Hong Fan's serious expression, observed the solidity of the carriage frame, and after a slight hesitation, he lowered his voice to add.

"I have been an official in the Ministry of Revenue for more than ten years and have inspected several states. In my estimation, the proportion of hidden farmland in the world is roughly close to this number."

Zhen Yanchu made the number five with his fingers.

“Although I am not a warrior, I have heard that the Qingdi Zhen Sect has a long history and a strong martial virtue, so the proportion will be even higher.”

"That's all right."

Hong Fan sat solemnly with a dignified smile; Zhen, the chief official, felt relieved when he saw this.

"There are over 10,000 mu of land right there. They won't hide or run away. How can we deal with them in a dozen days? Besides, I don't think they're willing to deal with them at all."

"Let's see what each of us can do."

He drank up his tea.

When you lift the carriage curtain, golden wheat fields extend as far as the eye can see; when you go around the foot of the mountain, majestic green mountains and ridges appear before you.

The convoy thus realized that they were already in Qingzhou.

······
Ten days later, it was July 25th.

The sky is bottomless blue.

The blue bird is like an arrow, piercing through the mountain sky.

The convoy followed the official road, facing the low main body of Cangxu Mountain, and drove towards the two foothills surrounded by it like two arms.

"I checked the Cangxu City Records in Shenjing and found that its name has a great origin."

Hong Fan sat on the shaft of the carriage, looking out at the valley that was several kilometers wide and the peacefully lying Baiyan City.

"The city chronicles record that there was once a towering sacred tree here, which burned down three thousand years ago. The flames dried up the sky and burned for a full hundred years before it went out."

"How tall can a tree that can burn for a hundred years be? It must be just a legend."

Song Xuan Ge, the military marquis of Shengyu Army, rode a warhorse beside him and tried to sketch it in front of him, but still couldn't imagine the scale. "There is no direct evidence for this record, but there are indeed a lot of charcoal mines buried in the Cangxu Mountain, which is said to be the trunk and root system of the sacred tree."

Zhen Yanchu in the carriage interjected.

"So the Qingdi of Qingdi Zhenzong refers to this tree?"

Song Xuan Ge asked again.

Although he had some skills, his mind was mainly on battle command and he didn't know much about martial arts sects.

"That's not it."

Hong Fan explained to him.

"The Green Emperor was originally a celestial being from the previous dynasty. The Wood Element Sword Sutra he created directly connected the two realms of heaven and man. The Green Emperor True Sect was created by his only disciple after his death, and it has lasted for nearly three hundred years."

"The Green Emperor Sword Canon is even better than the gods?"

Shen Hong, who was a few steps away, interrupted.

"Didn't the Second Young Master mention it last time and stop at the fourth level of Yuanci?"

"Yes, it is quite interesting."

Hong Fan nodded with a slight smile on his face.

"It is said that in order to ensure that the martial arts skills were passed down without leakage, the founder of the Zhen Sect set an iron rule that skills above Yuanci must be passed down orally by the sect master without leaving any written records. As a result, since the founding of the Qingdi Zhen Sect, no one has ever cultivated to the peak of Yuanci, let alone a celestial being."

This speaks volumes.

Song Xuan Ge, who has been in charge of the army for many years, and Zhen Yanchu, who is good at general affairs, each had their own thoughts when they heard the words. However, Shen Hong, who had been Hong Fan's frequent attendant in recent years, did not understand what he meant.

"Second Young Master, is there any trick here?"

The latter asked, scratching his bald head.

"Let's put it this way. It's possible that there weren't any disciples with exceptional talents in the first few decades of the sect's founding, but the fact that the period has been extended to three hundred years clearly means there's something wrong with the inheritance."

Hong Fan glanced at him and explained patiently.

"When I was young, I played a seemingly simple game of passing on a message with my peers. A few long sentences with simple meanings would become distorted after being passed on seven or eight times. So you can imagine that the method discovered by the Green Emperor himself was passed down from generation to generation by people who had never experienced the heavenly realm. How could there be no misunderstandings and omissions over time?"

"The sects all over the world have tried every possible means to preserve the inheritance of martial arts, but whenever we count the cases of the loss of martial arts, these means are often the culprit."

As he spoke, he sighed, with a tone that sounded half mocking and half regretful.

While chatting, the horses' hooves had unknowingly eaten the entire road ahead, and the city gate was already towering in the shadow at the end of the official road.

The team of more than a hundred people, with well-equipped horses and fully armed, immediately made the gatekeepers extremely alert; fortunately, Hong Fan and his entourage had all kinds of documents ready, so there were no setbacks.

After entering the city, Shen Hong took the lead.

Since receiving the task in early July, Hong Fan sent him here early to serve as the vanguard - the official inn would definitely not be able to accommodate a team of more than a hundred people, and it would be inconvenient to do things under the eyes of others, so Shen Hong finally took over a large trading house.

Although Cangxu City has a long history and is smaller than Duanli City, it was inevitable that the road was crowded with over a hundred people and horses. When everyone approached the center of the city, they found that the flow of people gradually became sparse, and finally they saw a huge funeral shed with a height of three meters stretching across the front, occupying most of the street.

The cavalry stopped amid the ear-piercing wails of the mourners.

Hong Fan lifted the carriage curtain and saw a funeral couplet hanging across the white tent.

The green sword still hangs on the dark moon; the white city is empty with the mighty wind.

The horizontal banner reads "Sword Spirit Hanging Long".

This couplet was obviously written about the old leader of the Qingdi Zhenzong sect, "Blue Sky Hanging Sword" Yang Cuiwei, who had just passed away. However, there was only a memorial tablet in the shed, and her coffin was not placed there.

Suddenly, a group of sharp-looking knights with swords drawn came to the door of the mourning shed. The atmosphere suddenly became weird, and the crying stopped for a moment.

However, the mourners were professionals doing their own thing, and they thought that an important person had come to pay their respects, so the volume of their cries doubled.

Seeing several Zhenzong disciples who noticed something was wrong glaring at him, Song Xuan Ge raised his hand to order everyone to dismount, and quickly walked to the side of the carriage to ask, "Sir?"

"The funeral shed is for showing the honor of the deceased and for the general public to pay homage to. I am here in a different capacity, so I should not burn incense here."

Hong Fan glanced at Shen Hong, whose face was flushed, and replied expressionlessly.

"Let's take a detour."

(End of this chapter)