After all, the Prince of Pingnan had specifically instructed that no one was allowed to enter without his permission.
However, Ye Junfei is not only the heir of the royal family, but also the key to the Hall of State Affairs.
The rule passed down from the ancestors of the Prince of Pingnan's Mansion is that anyone with the key to the Hall of State Affairs can enter it.
While he hesitated, Ye Junfei had already used the key to open the door of the Political Affairs Hall.
The guard took a step forward, but Wu Ge stood tall and blocked him, displaying great strength.
Wu Ge, who has served Ye Junfei for many years, is a guard whose hands are stained with blood, and is far superior to ordinary, conservative guards.
The moment his murderous aura emanated from him, the guards felt their hearts pound and dared not stop them.
The Prince of Pingnan has been extremely busy these past few days. After giving the key to Ye Junfei yesterday, he hasn't had time to organize the contents of the room yet.
Because he didn't have time to organize it, what Ye Junfei is seeing now is the most authentic information.
Although Ye Junfei had a basic understanding of Liefeng Prefecture, he didn't know much about its political affairs.
His visit to the Council of State this time was to make up for the deficiencies in this area.
If Ye Junfei wants to become the new King of Pingnan, he needs to understand the entire Liefeng Prefecture.
While he was looking at these official documents, Lin Xiuyan was also flipping through them.
As she flipped through the pages, she chuckled and said, "Young Master, when you had Fifth Uncle come to treat Ye Jingxian's illness, were you already planning to raid his house?"
If the Prince of Pingnan were in his residence, he certainly wouldn't have allowed them to enter the Hall of State Affairs so easily.
Ye Junfei said calmly, "Yes, you've discovered that."
Lin Xiuyan leaned closer to him and said, "When it comes to being cunning, you're truly number one in the world."
She had seen him in her past life; apart from his cruelty, he was always thoughtful and considerate in his actions.
He summoned the Sage of Medicine to treat Ye Jingxian, not only to allow the Sage to vent his pent-up anger, but also to have him review memorials in the Hall of State Affairs.
This is truly killing two birds with one stone.
The key point is that even if the Medical Saint heals Ye Jingxian's foot this time, it wouldn't be difficult for Ye Junfei to break Ye Jingxian's foot.
When Ye Junfei first returned to the palace, he had no guards at all, and even the Prince of Pingnan couldn't do anything about him.
Now that Ye Junfei has three guards and the key to the Hall of State Affairs, the Prince of Pingnan has even less power to deal with him.
Ye Junfei kissed her on the cheek and said, "Not bad!"
Lin Xiuyan: "..."
He said he was here to do serious business, is this really a good thing for him?
She glared at him, and he smiled slightly: "Since you've praised me like this, I suppose in your heart I'm already worthy of you."
He moved closer to her and said, "My wife, now that I'm worthy of you, shall we sleep together tonight?"
After returning to the Prince's mansion, although the two slept in the same room, they did not share a pillow.
Lin Xiuyan knew he wouldn't be serious for long, so she gave a light snort and went to look at the memorials on the other side.
When Ye Junfei saw her expression, the corners of his lips curled up slightly. He knew that they had to finish looking at the things before the Prince of Pingnan returned, and time was of the essence, so he gave up his idea of teasing her.
The government office houses important documents from the past year in Liefeng Prefecture, all of which are categorized and stored separately.
Both Ye Junfei and Lin Xiuyan have excellent memories, and they are both very good at extracting key information, making them very efficient overall.
Upon seeing these, Ye Junfei immediately realized that there were many problems in Liefeng Prefecture.
He knew that Liefeng Prefecture was poor because of its remote location, but when he saw the report from the Revenue Department, he realized that Liefeng Prefecture was even poorer than he had expected.
His brows furrowed slightly. Before meeting Lin Xiuyan, he had traveled all over Liefeng Prefecture.
Using his status as the heir apparent, he visited the lords' mansions of various cities and looked at their agricultural land records, where he discovered that some data did not match.
However, he noticed that the total number of fields for which taxes needed to be paid, as presented by the Household Registration Office, differed from what he had seen in the mansions of the various city lords.
The tax policy across the entire Chu state was basically the same: if an ordinary family produced a scholar, they could be exempt from taxes on ten mu of land.
If someone becomes a successful candidate in the imperial examinations, they can be exempted from taxes on 100 acres of land.
If a person becomes a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations), they can be exempted from taxes on a thousand acres of land.
This situation led ordinary people to rent land from these scholars to avoid paying taxes.
Moreover, after these people obtained official titles, they controlled the measurement of land by the government, and the one mu of land on the documents might actually be more than one mu.
Those who are even more ruthless will take the land that the people have taken over and turn it into their own. Even if the people are not happy about this, they can only keep quiet.
Over time, ordinary people had less and less land, while these powerful families had more and more land.
Ye Junfei glanced at the document in his hand and knew that the situation in Liefeng Prefecture was already very serious.
This results in extremely low tax revenues and very wealthy individuals.
He roughly calculated that the Hu family owned nearly one-tenth of the arable land in Liefeng Prefecture.
As for the land controlled by the Hu family but not counted in the accounts of the Hu clan, there should be quite a lot of it, so the actual proportion should be even greater.
The Hu family was the maternal family of the Princess Consort of Pingnan.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and he felt that the Hu clan should be wiped out.
However, the Hu family has a very deep-rooted presence in Liefeng Prefecture over the years, and eliminating them requires careful planning.
Before he could come up with a plan to wipe out the Hu clan, Lin Xiuyan let out a soft "Eh."
He asked, "What's wrong?"
Lin Xiuyan replied, "There are records here about the typhoon. Something seems off, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Could you come and take a look?" (cascoo.net)
The name of Liefeng Prefecture is related to the winds that blow through the area.
Strong winds blow here as soon as autumn arrives, and they often last for several months.
When a strong wind blows, all the crops can be flattened.
Therefore, all crops in the entire Galewind Prefecture must be harvested before the strong winds arrive.
Otherwise, there will be no harvest at all.
What Lin Xiuyan felt was wrong was the record of the disaster relief efforts after the typhoon.
She grew up in Liefeng Prefecture and was very familiar with everything here, but the things recorded here felt unfamiliar to her.
Because, as far as she knew, the typhoons in Galewind Prefecture did not occur every year.
Although the winds in Liefeng Prefecture are very strong, the people here have gotten used to it.
They have their own way of resisting strong winds, and as long as they sow properly each year, they can harvest their crops before the winds arrive.
Of course, every few years there will be one or two years when strong winds come earlier than usual, which can cause considerable damage.
However, the pamphlets here report that typhoons occur every year in Liefeng Prefecture.
Because of the unique nature of the wind, there are differences between cities. Lin Xiuyan initially thought it was normal for other cities to experience wind disasters every year in recent years.
However, the city she lives in, Chongqing, reported typhoons in both last year and the year before.
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