The old emperor only desires immortality; you must not rebel.

There are very few places in the entire Qing Kingdom that the Holy Emperor cannot sense!

Today, the national strength of the Qing Kingdom is growing stronger, and its national fortune is naturally increasing as well.

Especially after completely annexing the State of Qi, the country's fortunes soared.

The three prefectures south of the Yangtze River now seem to have completely disappeared.

There's only one possibility!

There were bad people who didn't want the Holy Emperor to know what they were doing in Jiangnan.

The Holy Emperor smiled and looked at Qin Xiong: "Notify the Imperial Guards to prepare for our journey to Jiangnan!"

The dog emperor thinks of the beauties of Jiangnan whenever he thinks of Jiangnan.

Every emperor has a great longing for the beautiful women of Jiangnan.

The predecessor of the dog emperor repeatedly tried to select beauties from Jiangnan when choosing concubines, but unfortunately, the gentry and gentlemen of Jiangnan looked down on the dog emperor.

The Jiangnan region was prosperous, and the gentry and nobles were at odds with the major families in the capital, so they rarely sent their sons here.

Therefore, there aren't many beautiful women.

Moreover, how could the loyal ministers tolerate the emperor's incompetence and lust for beauty? Naturally, they intercepted him early on and shattered his unrealistic fantasies.

This pain, naturally, can only be borne by them on behalf of the Holy Emperor.

In the Jiangnan region, even members of clans rarely serve as officials in the imperial court.

This story begins at the very beginning of the founding of the Qing Kingdom.

The Holy Emperor's ancestor led the people of various powerful families to establish the Qing Kingdom, while the Jiangnan families had placed their bets on another person. Therefore, since the founding of the Qing Kingdom, they have suffered heavy blows.

They came from the royal family of the Qing Kingdom, as well as from several other aristocratic families!

The official positions in the imperial court have always been firmly controlled by the major aristocratic families, making it difficult for others to get involved.

The prominent families of Jiangnan then gave up.

Among the five prominent families and seven noble clans of Qing Kingdom, the Wang family of Jiangnan is now considered the foremost family in Jiangnan.

Back then, all the major families of Qing Kingdom were wiped out by the Holy Emperor, but the Wang family of Jiangnan managed to escape this calamity by hiding in the Jiangnan region.

After instructing Qin Xiong to notify the imperial guards to go to Jiangnan, the Holy Emperor himself took the lead and went to Jiangnan.

The journey from the capital to Jiangning Prefecture in Jiangnan takes more than ten days, but the Holy Emperor can fly there in just six hours.

……

Unlike the impoverished north, the Jiangnan region, which occupies a rich and prosperous area, has a very high level of economic development.

Of course, this also means that their moral standards will decline.

Economic levels are often linked to moral levels, especially when such an economy begins to grow in an abnormal manner.

The Jiangnan region has long maintained trade relations with the State of Chu, and its numerous merchants focus on tangible benefits; most of them lack a sense of national identity.

They didn't care who sat on the throne; they only cared about whether they could make money tomorrow and squeeze some more oil out of those peasants.

Inside the restaurant,

The Holy Emperor, dressed in black, cracked melon seeds and gazed eagerly at the courtesan in the building across the street.

"Brother, you must be from the north, right? Aren't the women from Jiangnan beautiful?"

One of the men next to him stood up, looked at the courtesan, and teased the Holy Emperor.

"That's Miss Song, she just arrived a few days ago."

"It's said she was the daughter of an official, who angered the dog emperor and had her family property confiscated, and then she ended up here as a wanderer."

"Pooh!"

"That dog emperor is no human being!"

The Holy Emperor, who had been watching with great interest, was suddenly scolded and said with a dark face, "What does this have to do with the Holy Emperor?"

The man gave the Holy Emperor a strange look, sized him up, and shook his head, saying, "You people from the north are all the same!"

"They keep calling him the Holy Emperor!"

The Holy Emperor asked in surprise, "Are you so certain that I came from the north?"

"Hehe!" Zhao Sinian laughed smugly, "We people in Jiangnan all call the Emperor a dog emperor!"

The Holy Emperor never expected the people of Jiangnan to be so courageous.

"How high are the taxes for that dog emperor!"

"A full 60% tax!"

Zhao Sinian shook his head and said, "Do you know how much money a merchant in Jiangnan has to pay in a year?"

Zhao Sinian held up four fingers.

"Four hundred thousand taels!"

"That's not all!" Zhao Sinian slammed his hand on the table and whispered, "There are also various kinds of rhapsodies!"

"I heard that the dog emperor even invented a tax on the dead!"

"Even when someone dies, they have to pay money!"

"When someone dies and is buried, there are land occupation fees and government management fees!"

Zhao Sinian angrily denounced, "There were even expenses for paying homage to that dog emperor!"

"We have to worship the dog emperor every day, and we have to pay a fee to do so!"

Even the wealthiest person can't withstand this kind of turmoil!

What should I do?

The only option is to squeeze every last drop of profit from those at lower levels!

The Holy Emperor once again refreshed his understanding of the audacity of the beasts in Jiangnan.

How come he doesn't remember that his dead tax was like this?

Also, what exactly is the pilgrimage fee?

Do people have to pay a fee to worship the holy emperor?

This is outrageous!

Clearly, these beasts have come up with new tricks on top of the Emperor's taxes.

"damn it!"

"Beast!"

The Holy Emperor was furious!

My money!

They're taking my money!

How much money is this? He's never seen so much money before!

The officials in Jiangnan didn't take the Emperor's Nine Clans Separation Technique seriously at all.

"Could this be a tax imposed privately by officials?"

The Holy Emperor frowned.

Although most people are ignorant, it's unlikely that all the people in the entire Jiangnan region are ignorant.

Moreover, the Jiangnan region is prosperous and has many scholars.

"Shh!"

Zhao Sinian quickly shook his head and said, "Don't say things that are detrimental to unity!"

Don't create trouble for yourself!

Zhao Sinian warned in a low voice.

Here, it's perfectly acceptable to denounce and insult the emperor, but if you dare to insult the prefect, you'll be sent to jail.

Just then, the sound of gongs and drums, accompanied by the noisy sound of suonas, came from the street.

A bright red bridal sedan chair appeared on the street.

The surrounding crowd was unusually lively, numbering at least forty or fifty people.

An eight-person sedan chair—this is clearly not an ordinary standard!

Zhao Sinian shook his head and said, "It's that time of year again to send off the river god as a bride."

"Is the river god escorting a bride?"

The Holy Emperor cast a questioning glance at him.

"That's right!" Zhao Sinian nodded and said, "This is the twelfth one already."

"A month ago, the Changling River suddenly flooded. Then a shaman was consulted, who said that he was going to send a bride to the river god and select a suitable woman to send to the river god's temple."

"You believe this?"

The Holy Emperor scoffed.

Zhao Sinian shook his head and said, "The River God is real; some people have seen him with their own eyes!"

"And if we don't deliver it, the Changling River will flood!"

The emperor's taxes may not kill anyone yet, but the river god is truly capable of murder.

Jiangning Prefecture is located on the banks of the Changling River, and it will inevitably suffer in the event of a major flood.

As the Holy Emperor watched the departing wedding procession, he vaguely sensed something amiss.

Although he was in this place, he still couldn't sense the situation here.

You can see it, you can touch it, but you just can't feel it; it's like it's long gone.

The Holy Emperor decided to first watch the so-called River God's Wedding.