Han official!

Chapter 18 Hidden Field
"Please spare my life. I don't want to die."

"My brother is the magistrate of Gaoling. You can't kill me."

"Chief, save me."

There were three roads in front of the Gaojie Duting Pavilion. On the wide streets where twelve carriages could run side by side, there were guards lying there groaning with serious injuries, as well as corpses killed by knights. The blood had dyed the snow on the edge of the stone steps red.

Near the wall of the neighborhood were parked a number of sewing carts, a type of cart with a closed trunk and windows on both sides. Compared to a carriage with only an umbrella cover, it could block out the cold wind and snow.

A powerful clan leader was sitting in a sewing cart, wearing an expensive xun robe that cost two thousand coins in the market. He had come to see Guo Jie humiliated, but he saw his clan members being brutally slaughtered.

The powerful clan leader was so angry that he was shaking all over.

"How dare Guo Jie act so recklessly?"

"Does he want to make enemies with all the powerful people in Gaojielu?"

"When a person dies, it is important to bury him in peace. First, go and take the body of our tribe member back and bury him."

Jia Ziguang, a powerful clan leader, walked out of the sewing cart and looked at the corpses of powerful clan members on the ground. His teeth chattered, but he did not dare to call hundreds of clan members and guests to kill Guo Jie.

Guo Jie was wearing an official robe, which was only worth 230 coins, far less than the purple robe that cost 2,000 coins. But he was just a minor official in the government after all. Even if it was only worth a few coins, no one dared to kill him in Chang'an City.

Two knights blocked Jia Ziguang's way, with murderous intent in their eyes. They were not comparable to ordinary knights.

The knight-errant values his life and loves to have fun, so he won't take risks easily.

The assassins will risk their lives at the command of a powerful person, exchanging their own lives for the life of a powerful person.

Jia Ziguang angrily said, "Today I only want to retrieve the bodies of my two nephews and take them back for a proper burial. You also offer sacrifices to the gods and believe in ghosts and gods. Don't you know the principle of being buried in peace? Do you want to make enemies with all the powerful people in Gaojie?"

Guo Jie was just a hero in a county, and he was not Ju Meng who was treated with courtesy by the princes of the Liu family. With one order, the heroes from all counties and prefectures in the world would rush to help.

With the addition of a great hero from Linjin named Ji Shaogong, he can call on the knights from two counties at most.

A large county governs thirty to fifty counties, and the powerful can often influence the wanderers in a county, and even the government and temples have to rely on the powerful to collect taxes.

Not to mention that Guo Jie only had three squads of rangers, even if he brought hundreds of rangers.

Still not worth mentioning.

Guo Jie said coldly: "Behead them all and place their heads at the gate of the capital to form a memorial."

Beijing. Beijing view!

Jia Ziguang's body inside his long purple robe was shaking with anger. He pointed at Guo Jie with trembling hands and couldn't utter a word for a long time.

The powerful clan leader in the sewing carriage looked at Guo Jie through the window with tears in his eyes. He was so angry that he was out of his mind and kept repeating the same thing in his mouth.

"How dare Guo Jie! How dare Guo Jie!"

"puff!"

"what!"

"puff!"

"what!"

As the knight raised his sword and slashed, and the guards screamed one after another, human heads were piled up next to the earthen wall of the extraordinary house of the Gaojie Duting, gradually forming a mound and building an astonishing Jingguan.

Guo Jie then said something that made Jia Ziguang and the other powerful men even more distressed. He said in a cold voice, "Leaving corpses in the city will inevitably breed plague. It's freezing cold today, and the stray dogs on the roadside can't find food. They must be starving. Throw them all out to feed the dogs."

Without hesitation, Mang Tong led his knights to drag the corpse and throw it into the countryside outside the Zhicheng Gate, which immediately attracted a group of wild dogs. He did not leave the headless corpse to the powerful.

"Go to Chang'an Ling and seek justice!"

Jia Ziguang was frustrated and grief-stricken. Seeing his sons and nephews' bodies being eaten by wild dogs, he almost cried: "If you continue to be lawless, the Chang'an magistrate will not be able to withstand the pressure of the powerful. Wait for you to be beheaded and thrown into the public square!"

Guo Jie spat on the ground and said, "I dared to kill people at the palace gate, and the people I killed were officials. Why would I be afraid of you?" "I've given you black clothes."

With a loud shout, Guo Jie led many knights into the Gaojie Duting and began to distribute the black clothes worn by officials, as well as various red-ribboned armor, ring-handled swords, and two-foot swords stored in the Wukuli.

And the most important thing is millet wine.

Enough pipe!

Many rangers cheered.

The powerful people rode on a carriage and went to the official temple in Chang'an to seek justice, forcing the Chang'an magistrate to kill Guo Jie.

There was a wall inside the official temple in Chang'an that divided the county court into two parts. There was a door on the wall, called a he. Inside the he was the residence of the senior officials, opposite to the court.

There was more than one Chang'an Ling in Chang'an. The residence where the Chang'an Ling lived was called Lingshe.

The magistrate's residence was divided into courtyard, hall and inner part. The magistrate's residence of Chang'an also had a garden. It was difficult for ordinary officials and common people to enter the gate and see the senior officials living there. Only those who were close or favored were allowed to enter and exit.

Officials and people saw it and were honored by it.

Zhang Tang, the Chang'an lieutenant, frequently visited the magistrate's residence. He brought a pile of bamboo slips informing him of the tax bills and said, "Lord Zhao, according to my calculations, there are many errors and omissions in the tax slips. Last year's tax collection was a staggering 7,000 dan less than the year before. The common people's fields have been continuously seized by powerful individuals, resulting in hidden fields."

It is easy to collect taxes from the common people.

It is difficult to collect taxes from the powerful and wealthy.

The powerful occupied a large amount of land, but only reported a part of it. The part that was not reported was called hidden land, which caused the court's tax revenue to decrease day by day.

Taxation is the foundation of a country.

Measuring land has been the biggest problem throughout the dynasties. Most officials come from powerful families, so asking them to measure their own land is tantamount to asking them to report the actual number.

Measuring land has always been a complicated matter.

"Snapped!"

Zhao Yu threw a scroll of bamboo slips to the ground, a fierce look on his face. "Those wealthy and powerful people are all parasites that are crawling on the back of the Han Dynasty. They should all be killed! In my opinion, the current emperor should take advantage of the relocation to Maoling to kill all the powerful people! Kill them until the whole world is clean!"

Zhang Tang agreed with this, but unlike Zhao Yu, he believed that all executions had to be carried out according to Han law.

The powerful should be killed.

But you cannot disrupt the law.

There was some distance between the inner court and the county government, and there was a special person to convey messages, called "Lingxia".

A bell-keeper came over and bowed, saying, "The powerful men of Chang'an, Jia Ziguang and others, are seeking an audience. They appear to have been wronged and have come to seek justice from the magistrate."

Jia Ziguang and many other powerful people rushed into the gate directly, crying and complaining about their grievances, as if they were wronged by the whole world.

"The superiors need to make a decision for us. Guo Jie dared to kill people on the day he took office."

"Guo Jie was so audacious that he killed all the officials of Gaojie Duting."

"More importantly, those people are all from powerful clans, not untouchables digging for food in the mud."

Zhang Tang looked at the many powerful people crying and complaining with a strange expression on his face. If they were the magistrate of any county in the world, they would give the decision to the powerful and influential people, but they chose to go to Zhao Yu.

A man who believes in stopping killing with killing and fighting violence with violence.

"color!"

Zhao Yu's frustration over the reduction in tax revenue was completely swept away, and he felt extremely happy. "Haha! Good job killing Guo Jie! You parasites should have been killed long ago. Guo Jie is very much in my heart."

(End of this chapter)