Fu Nan is definitely a little baby who came to repay a debt of gratitude; she's incredibly easy to take care of.

Aside from eating, drinking, and using the toilet to tell their parents through various sounds, they are either sleeping or staring around with their big, dark eyes wide open.

Zhao Qingyan once suspected that her daughter was born with knowledge, in other words, born with memories.

Zhao Qingyan had tried various methods to test Fu Nan, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Fu Nan didn't react.

The little girl, however, seemed to be much stronger than the average person.

Zhao Qingyan suspected that the little guy had inherited her divine power.

This gave Zhao Qingyan some comfort, at least her daughter wouldn't be bullied after she got married.

After Fu Nan's first birthday, the person in the capital finally couldn't hold back any longer and simply transferred Xu Dongsheng and Zhao Minggeng back to the capital.

As for his official position, Xu Dongsheng returned to the Hanlin Academy and became a lecturer, a sixth-rank official.

That's it? Xu Dongsheng had no temper at all. After six or seven years of clearing land outside, he returned to the capital and was only a sixth-rank official.

Clearly, for Xu Dongsheng, who had served as a local official for many years, this kind of official position was nothing short of a dead-end job.

The salary was meager, and the official rank was low.

If it weren't for his wife's wealth and his older brother's subsidies, Xu Dongsheng would have doubted whether he could even support his wife.

They did manage to get Zhao Minggeng transferred to the Ministry of Revenue.

The position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue is a fifth-rank official. It seems to be a higher position than that of a county magistrate, and the salary is also higher. My intuition is that the emperor has ill intentions.

Sure enough, after Zhao Minggeng and his son-in-law returned to the capital, their prediction came true.

Zhao Minggeng was the butcher's knife the emperor was preparing to use.

There were many hidden fields among the common people. At the same time, as the country had been established for a longer period of time, the fiefdoms held by the successive vassal kings increased.

The emperor felt that he, as the emperor, owned less fertile land than the princes.

Furthermore, a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the county-level imperial examination) could be exempted from land tax on 50 mu (approximately 3.3 hectares), a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial-level imperial examination) could be exempted from land tax on 200 mu (approximately 13.3 hectares), and a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the metropolitan-level imperial examination) could be exempted from land tax on 500 mu (approximately

As the number of people obtaining official titles increased, more and more people were exempt from taxes. In order to maintain the economic stability of the court, taxes naturally could not be reduced. So what could be done?

The burden on ordinary people will become increasingly heavy.

The Emperor saw these drawbacks and recalled Zhao Minggeng, mainly to put him in charge of this thankless task.

Whether it's hidden land or tax-exempt land, it will affect the interests of certain people.

Especially for the vassal kings, taking back their fiefdoms is like cutting off their flesh; it would be strange if they didn't retaliate and even take a piece of their flesh.

The Emperor assigned this despicable task to Zhao Minggeng; is he really not afraid that Zhao Minggeng will be killed?

Upon first meeting the Emperor and being given such a hot potato, Zhao Minggeng felt like killing the Emperor.

Isn't this putting him on the hot seat?

What did he do to deserve this? He really wants to quit his job.

But how could the Emperor allow him to resign? He had gone to great lengths to bring him back, and still had high hopes for his abilities.

The main reason is that Zhao Minggeng was the most skilled in martial arts among the civil officials.

Of course, he would also be capable of being transferred directly to guard the border.

Therefore, the emperor felt at ease entrusting this task, which was so vulnerable to assassination, to Zhao Minggeng.

The Emperor was indeed at ease, but Zhao Minggeng couldn't sleep.

It's relatively easy to persuade these scholars and gentlemen to give up some of their tax-exempt lands, but it's much more difficult to persuade the vassal kings.

How to snatch food from a tiger's mouth without harming oneself is a major challenge.