Three days later, Jiang Jian brought all the sorted information and the Qingshizhou Tiger Tally to Princess Yongkang's mansion.
Jiang Jian was puzzled. Her Royal Highness the Princess even wanted to take the tiger talisman. It seemed that she really wanted to make some political achievements.
I don't know why a pampered princess would have to endure this kind of hardship.
Ji Wan took Jiang Jian to check for a long time before she found something wrong, "Why is Tongcheng's annual tax revenue and trade so small?
Five years combined is less than half of one year's income in Gold City and Silver City?"
Tongcheng has two copper mines and an iron mine with very low output. Moreover, the three cities of gold, silver, and copper are all border cities adjacent to the Northern Rong Kingdom.
Logically speaking, taxes and trade should be similar, but the amount of copper and iron ore alone cannot be so small!
Jiang Jian coughed twice in shame and lowered his head: "Your Highness, it's not that the people of that city don't want to pay taxes, it's just that the bandits in Anliang Village of Beirong Country are too rampant.
The border villagers had no ability to defend themselves, and almost all the copper and iron ore mined by the residents was robbed by the group of bandits.
The caravans that came and went, even the grain grown in the spring and autumn, and anything good near Tongcheng were almost all looted.”
Anliang Village? Ji Wan recalled that she had heard about it from the people of Jincheng a few days ago. It was widely spread.
The Anliang Village caused widespread public outrage, and many people in the city spontaneously organized to suppress the bandits, but unfortunately they all failed.
Before this, Ji Wan had been focusing on the resettlement of the slaves and ignored such groundless rumors.
Now it seems that the rumors may not be groundless.
Moreover, the suppression of bandits was actually organized spontaneously by the people. To put it nicely, it was called suppression of bandits, but to put it bluntly, it was equivalent to an uprising.
Every autumn when the first batch of grain comes down, the people of Tongcheng are forced to supply it to Anliang Village.
Anliang Village is located on the other side of the Yongcang River outside Tongcheng, within the border of Beirong State. It is well-armed and has a large number of people.
It is said that the magistrate of Tongcheng County has dealt with such matters before. Whenever he wanted to send troops to capture the bandits, they always managed to escape.
The border guards of Beirong State naturally sided with their own people, and every time they tried to stop the soldiers of Donglin State with the spirit of fighting.
But the soldiers of Beirong Kingdom are good, but the soldiers of Donglin Kingdom are not.
It is only because the current emperor has ordered that the armed forces on the border cannot take the lead in sending troops to other countries.
"So we can only passively take the beating?" Ji Wan raised his voice unconsciously.
"Jiang Jian, have you ever captured the people from Anliang Village?" Ji Wan asked.
"Your Highness, I have never seen anyone from that bandit camp."
Jiang Jian shook his head and frowned. It seemed quite true.
"It's strange to say, but those bandits always manage to escape from the border guards."
"You've never seen any? They always escape?" Ji Wan knocked on the table unhappily.
Jiang Jian was stunned by the muffled "dong dong" sound. When he looked up, he saw Ji Wan with an unhappy face and sharp eyes staring at him.
He was so frightened that he trembled inwardly and knelt on the ground in an instant.
I thought that His Highness seemed to be going to take drastic measures, so I couldn't pretend to be deaf and dumb any longer.
"Your Highness, uh, there might be a mole among the border guards."
Ji Wan stared at Jiang Jian with her eyes fixed, her brows furrowed in disgust. She hated it most when someone didn't tell the truth in front of her.
"A traitor? Why don't you just say there's something wrong with the Tongcheng County Magistrate? Hmm? Jiang Jian, I didn't come to this bitter cold frontier to enjoy myself!
Don't try to fool me the same way you fooled my brothers and sisters."
These words were spoken without mercy. Jiang Jian's heart skipped a beat after hearing them. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and spoke with a guilty conscience.
"Your Highness, I will order someone to investigate when I return. Your Highness, please calm down. I will give you a satisfactory answer."
In fact, if he thought about it for a moment, he could guess what was going on.
It was just that the Tongcheng County Magistrate and his subordinates colluded with each other and let the bandits from the Beirong Kingdom go.
Donglin State is the smallest of the four countries and has the weakest national power. This kind of thing happens in almost every border town.
So this is basically a tacit secret among local officials who govern border towns.
But it was bad luck for the Tongcheng County Magistrate to run into this newly appointed little princess.
Fortunately, I did not go along with the Tongcheng County Magistrate.
Otherwise, how can I be worthy of the Imperial Concubine's cultivation?
How to explain this to the imperial concubine and the precious little princess?
Ji Wan sighed.
How could this place develop if those bandits came so frequently? She had originally thought that Qingshizhou was just bitterly cold.
But there are bluestone imperial kilns, copper and iron mines, and development potential.
Now it seems like a complete rip-off.
"Are all the soldiers guarding the border good-for-nothings? The enemy has come to your home, and you can't capture a single one? What is the purpose of you, the governor of Qingshi Prefecture?
Anliang Village? They are both border towns, so why doesn’t Jincheng have Anliang Village?
Ji Wan was so angry that she grabbed the document on the table and smashed it on Jiang Jian's official hat.
They are all border cities on the same line, so why is Tongcheng the only one that is often robbed and looted?
It was obvious that someone had opened the city gates to welcome the thieves into the city.
Ji Wan sneered.
If you want to develop well, you must take root here.
If the land is not good, you can slowly reclaim it; if the copper and iron mines are small, you can engage in trade.
But there are termites who eat away the results of people's hard work, so no matter what policy she promulgates, there will be these termites who will pretend to obey but actually disobey.
If the fruits of the labor of the lower-class people always fall into the pockets of parasites, then who would be willing to work hard to improve themselves?
The people are the foundation of the country!
After Jiang Jian left, Ji Wan called Yang Guan.
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