The Qinghe army entered Mengyang as scheduled.

Thanks to the joint efforts of Ruan Shiping and Meng Yangzhan, the low-key entry of the Qinghe army did not have any impact on Meng Yangzhan.

How low-key is it?

Not to mention that the attack and defense of the city was impossible to launch, there was not even a little bit of obvious setbacks.

With one hour left until noon, Ruan Shiping arrived at the city gate and told the gatekeepers and soldiers that a large army was about to enter the city. He asked them to maintain order and ask the people who were entering and leaving the city to move faster. When the army arrived, they should temporarily close the road to prevent the people from colliding with the army.

And then, nothing happened.

As soon as noon arrived, the Qinghe Army, which had been lined up in a square formation outside the city, lined up and entered the city according to the plan and instructions. The whole process took less than half an hour and did not even affect the business of the vendors at the city gate that day.

If there was any impact on the city, it was that Lin Hai ordered the Qinghe Army to start patrolling the city, which greatly improved the deteriorating public security.

Many Mengyang residents only gradually felt the changes in the city after several days.

First, the slave camp outside the city disappeared. Lin Hai couldn't stand the existence of slaves under his rule. It wasn't that Lin Hai was so noble and looked down on slavery. After all, any system that allowed people to work for free without paying was full of temptation in Lin Hai's eyes.

However, slavery also means that these people's labor efficiency is terribly low. Even if you whip them hard, they can't work faster. After all, death is no longer the most terrifying thing for slaves.

Moreover, the slaves lacked the most basic education. In other words, even for the simplest physical labor, if you arranged more than three steps, they would be at a loss.

A group of strong laborers with such low labor efficiency and ability is the fundamental reason why Lin Hai cannot tolerate it. Moreover, in the hot and humid weather of Cambodia, a group of people who have never taken a bath since birth are gathered in a small space every day, which is simply a paradise for the spread of disease.

In the past, the Khmer government did not care about the lives of slaves at all. Even if an epidemic broke out, they would just kill them all and burn them. But now that Lin Hai wants to make full use of these slaves to supplement the increasingly scarce labor force in Qinghe County, he can only find ways to improve the living conditions of these slaves.

It was very simple to get the slaves to move out of the slave camp. Just give the order without even having to explain the reason. After all, no one would explain why they did anything in their daily lives. The new slave camp was chosen to be the former Khmer garrison camp in Mengyang. The original slave camp was too dirty and small to clean up, so Lu You ordered it to be burned down.

The second thing is about taxation.

The people found that the tax collectors who were rampant in the streets had disappeared.

Although Ruan Shiping had been offsetting Mengyang's taxes by obtaining pig iron from Qitian Village, the outrageous tax rate still greatly affected the lives of the locals. According to the data obtained by Lin Hai, in the past autumn alone, more than one hundred households in Mengyang City went bankrupt and were enslaved because they could not pay taxes.

Now it is time to collect taxes again. The people opened their doors tremblingly, looking at their almost empty homes. They had no choice but to bring their young sons or daughters to the door so that the tax collectors could take them away when they came.

However, the tax collectors didn't show up until nightfall. Instead, a yamen runner shouted an announcement on the street: "The new prefect, Meng Yang, acting as prefect, Ruan Buping, has been cleaning up the tax system and discovered numerous illegal activities. He has apprehended all the tax collectors involved. Some of the most heinous offenders will be executed at noon tomorrow. The new tax rates will also be announced. All citizens of the city are advised to gather at the prefectural yamen at noon tomorrow to witness the executions."

No one cares what will happen to those damn tax collectors. After all, from the common people's simple sense of right and wrong, it seems that there will be nothing wrong in killing them all. What everyone cares about is the new tax rate.

However, since the new acting prefect, who took office at an unknown time, wants to rectify the tax collectors and even behead those tax collectors who used to have strong tax collection abilities and excellent performance, I guess the new tax rate will not be too high.

The new tax rate is indeed not high, it is even a little scary to say the least.

As a newly occupied area, Lin Hai has always been worried that excessively high tax rates will lead to serious consequences. For example, the people who can no longer bear the oppression will rise up in rebellion and form various groups such as the Restoration Army, the Death Squad, the Elderly Stormtroopers, the Cambodian Salvation Army, etc. to attack the Qinghe Army.

The jungle nature of Cambodia also means that once these guerrillas hide in the forest, it will be very difficult to find them again.

After all, in Lin Hai's memory, there was a superpower in the previous life that suffered a setback in a jungle country, and "When trees speak Vietnamese" has become an enduring meme on the Internet to mock this superpower.

Qinghe's strength is far inferior to that of this superpower and cannot withstand the turmoil.

So when setting the tax rate for the occupied area, Lin Hai directly rejected Shi Zhener's proposal to "collect taxes at ten times the rate of Qinghe to supplement Qinghe's finances in the short term." For the first time in a long time, he blushed at Shi Zhener and told her, "If we continue to collect taxes this way, we'll soon be running back to Qinghe with our pants up."

However, after seeing the tax rates set by the Cambodian government in Mengyang, Lin Hai couldn't help but sigh that everything depends on the comparison with peers.

The tax rate was eventually implemented at five times that of Qinghe County, and it was reduced every year thereafter until it reached the same level as Qinghe County after five years.

The whole city was jubilant, feeling that with such good governance, Meng Yang was saved.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!