Lin Xiuyan clearly remembered that there were no typhoons last year and the year before.
She told Ye Junfei all of this, and Ye Junfei said calmly, "This booklet is fake."
Lin Xiuyan was somewhat surprised, and Ye Junfei continued, "This is what the old geezer reported to the imperial court, asking for subsidies from the court."
When he was in the capital, he received memorials from Liefeng Prefecture every year.
Most of those memorials were complaints about poverty, saying that the typhoon had caused great damage to Liefeng Prefecture and that compensation was needed.
Every year when the emperor received such a memorial, he would scold the Prince of Pingnan and tell them to find a solution themselves.
Then the Prince of Pingnan took the opportunity to request the emperor to reduce or exempt Liefeng from taxes. Over the years, Liefeng Prefecture had basically not paid any taxes to the imperial court.
After listening to Ye Junfei finish speaking, Lin Xiuyan frowned slightly: "The imperial court has exempted Liefeng Prefecture from taxes, but the people of Liefeng Prefecture still pay taxes every year."
"In that case, wouldn't all these taxes fall into the hands of the Prince of Pingnan's mansion?"
Ye Junfei said calmly, "Theoretically speaking, that's true, but I've seen the accounts of the Pingnan Prince's Mansion before, and it's true that the Pingnan Prince's Mansion doesn't have much of a surplus."
In fact, the Prince of Pingnan's mansion not only had no surplus, but was also very poor. The mansion was always very frugal with its finances.
Lin Xiuyan asked with some curiosity, "Then where did all this money go?"
Ye Junfei smiled and said, "That's a good question."
Although his relationship with the Prince of Pingnan was extremely bad, he knew very well that the Prince of Pingnan was not a fool.
The Prince of Pingnan has absolute control over the entire Liefeng Prefecture; nothing here can be hidden from him.
In this situation, the fact that he didn't check these accounts can only mean that he was quite aware of where the money was going.
Ye Junfei had just looked at the Ministry of Revenue's records. Although their annual tax revenue wasn't much, it wasn't small either.
Furthermore, apart from basic daily expenses, there are no particularly expensive places in the entire Liefeng Prefecture each year.
The current tax revenue and expenditure are clearly mismatched, which suggests that the Prince of Pingnan may have other expenses that require his own spending.
In the half year since Ye Junfei returned to the Pingnan Prince's mansion, he has discovered that the Pingnan Prince is not a extravagant person, and the money was definitely not spent on him.
Ye Junfei narrowed his eyes slightly and said in a calm voice, "What do you think is the most expensive thing in Liefeng Prefecture?"
Lin Xiuyan inexplicably thought of Zhou Chenyang from before, who had gone crazy trying to squeeze all the money out of the Lin family.
Zhou Chenyang was in dire need of money simply because he had a private army.
She stared wide-eyed at Ye Junfei and said, "You mean..."
Ye Junfei sneered, "That old codger is truly shameless."
"From the day he left me in the capital as a hostage, he never intended for me to return."
"Because he had other plans long ago, the emperor should have been aware of them, which is why he had the plan to abolish the vassal states."
"Removing the princes from the palace was the emperor's way of giving that old codger a warning, and letting me come back was also the emperor's way of doing things. He wanted me to divide the Prince of Pingnan's mansion."
"What nonsense is this about Liefeng Prefecture being too weak, which is why the emperor used it as an excuse to withdraw the troops from Liefeng Prefecture? You old geezer are just spouting rubbish."
Ye Junfei had some guesses about these things before, but none of those guesses came to fruition.
After seeing these things today, he finally fully understood the conspiracy hidden deep within.
Lin Xiuyan sighed softly: "I used to think the emperor was shameless, but now I realize that the old bastard is even more shameless."
"Young Master, your current situation is not good!"
If Ye Junfei seizes power in the Pingnan Prince's mansion, the Pingnan Prince and Ye Jingxian will kill him.
If he seizes power in the Prince of Pingnan's mansion, the emperor will kill him.
Ye Junfei sneered: "What's there to be afraid of? Whoever tries to kill me, I'll kill them first."
“I never thought it was a bad thing that the Prince of Pingnan’s mansion had so many soldiers.”
Lin Xiuyan raised an eyebrow slightly, knowing that he did indeed have the ability, after all, he had done it in his previous life.
However, his actions in this life are somewhat different from those in his previous life, and the things that are happening now are completely different from what she remembers.
Lin Xiuyan recalled that in her previous life, after Ye Junfei took control of Liefeng Prefecture, he fought with Zhou Chenyang.
The number of soldiers recorded in Liefeng Prefecture is only 50,000.
These 50,000 troops are for the Pingnan Prince's Palace to guard the border.
At that time, in addition to Yu Zhan's troops, Zhou Chenyang also asked Chu Mengsheng to transfer tens of thousands of troops, bringing the total number to well over 50,000.
However, almost all of these troops were lost at the hands of Ye Junfei.
In her previous life, Lin Xiuyan thought that Ye Junfei was very good at fighting. Now that she thinks about it, she is afraid that not only Ye Junfei is good at fighting, but the number of soldiers in Liefeng Prefecture is also far more than the number registered.
Her gaze narrowed slightly: "You're right, this is essentially a good thing."
"But before that, you need to have control of those troops."
Ye Junfei chuckled and said, "You're right."
Taking control of the entire Pingnan Prince's Mansion is no easy task.
After discussing the matter, the two continued to quickly review the important documents inside.
There was so much information inside that it was impossible for the two of them to read it all in one day, but they could still learn about the current situation of the entire Liefeng Prefecture.
By the time the Prince of Pingnan and his wife returned from the royal mausoleum, Ye Junfei and Lin Xiuyan had already finished reading the most important part of the information.
When the Prince of Pingnan returned and heard that Ye Junfei and Lin Xiuyan had entered the Hall of State Affairs, his face turned very ugly.
He glanced at the medical sage, suppressing his anger and forcing himself not to lash out.
He had the physician escorted back to his guest room, while he himself went to the Hall of State Affairs.
When he arrived, Ye Junfei was flipping through the last file that interested him.
The Prince of Pingnan said coldly, "Who allowed you to enter the Hall of State Affairs?"
Ye Junfei did not answer, but simply reached out and took out the key, waving it in front of the Prince of Pingnan.
Prince Pingnan: "..."
He didn't know if Ye Junfei had discovered his secret after spending the whole day in the Hall of State Affairs.
However, Ye Junfei's arrogant demeanor at this moment displeased him greatly.
He said coldly, "I only allowed you to participate in political affairs, not to come in and look through the files."
Ye Junfei said unhurriedly, "According to the ancestral rules of the Pingnan Prince's Mansion, all the heirs of the Prince's Mansion have the right to freely enter and leave the Hall of State Affairs."
"This doesn't require Father's permission; the Ancestor already gave his approval."
The Prince of Pingnan really disliked his calm and composed demeanor, but what he said was also true.
The Prince of Pingnan pointed at Lin Xiuyan and said, "Our ancestor did not allow women to enter the Hall of State Affairs."
Lin Xiuyan had been disgusted by the Prince of Pingnan many times recently, so she wasn't going to tolerate him anymore: "Father, you talk as if you weren't born of a woman."
"If a woman can get in, why can't other women?"
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