This made Zhu Yunwen realize once again that there was a big problem here.

Are they really just local government officials? Don't they know about the policies issued by the imperial court?

That's absolutely impossible, so there's only one possibility.

The local government offices were aware of the imperial court's policies, but they neither implemented them nor publicized them.

This angered Zhu Yunwen. He never expected that, despite the Ming Dynasty's current prosperity and peace, officials would still be embezzling public funds. It was utterly despicable.

It should be noted that after Zhu Yunwen learned about the low salaries of officials, he had already discussed with Zhu Yuanzhang and made a certain increase in the salaries of officials.

Their salaries have been increased, yet these officials are still embezzling funds, and they've even set their sights on tax revenue—this is simply intolerable!

So Zhu Yunwen didn't say much in the shop. After leaving the shop, he and Zhao Qingzhu went to several other shops for a detailed inquiry.

After some investigation, it was discovered that the merchants doing business in Baicheng were not paying taxes according to the imperial court's policy of halving them.

On the contrary, other taxes have not been eliminated at all, and the old policies are still in effect: the more income you have, the more taxes you pay.

Zhu Yunwen's face darkened, and he then took Zhao Qingzhu back to the county government office.

He ordered his Imperial Guards to investigate the matter immediately.

If this is true, then the magistrate here is likely to be in trouble!