Chapter 786: Too Difficult

Zhou Shuren looked up and saw the prince looking through the annual tax situation of various places. He turned his head to look at the guards who were still moving the account books. It seemed that the prince could not leave for a while.

However, he was very depressed. This was not the room where he worked. Why should he work in the same room with the prince?

It was all because the prince had just said that he needed someone to explain things to him, so Lord Qiu immediately pushed him out, sighing quietly. He didn't want to be in the same room with the prince either. He was afraid that the prince would discover more of his talents and end up hurting himself. Well, he was just that narcissistic.

The prince raised his head and asked, "Why are you sighing, Lord Zhou?"

Zhou Shuren held the teacup and said, "I feel that life is short, so I think I must eat and drink well."

The prince curled his lips and said, "I don't think so. I still need a healthy body to do more things."

Zhou Shuren, "......."

This is no longer a hint, it is an explicit statement. Bah, who wants to do more? He doesn't want to work like a slave for the royal family. He will be exhausted to death. It's scary to think about it!

The prince picked up a tax book and said, "This is the tax revenue of Huaizhou last year. Lord Zhou, take a look at it too."

Zhou Shuren felt particularly familiar with Huaizhou when he heard it. Zhao Bo was in Huaizhou, and he and Zhao Bo had a lot of correspondence. He was curious about what the prince saw. To be honest, he had been busy seizing silver at the Ministry of Revenue, and then lending the silver, so he really had no time to look at the tax collection in various places.

Zhou Shuren took it and thought of Huaizhou. Huaizhou was one of the richest states. He looked through the account books. Other taxes were fine, but the one that caught people's attention was the salt tax. Zhou Shuren stood up and said, "Your Highness, I will go get the account books of the salt tax submitted to the Ministry of Revenue for the first half of this year and the past few years."

The accounts of the Ministry of Revenue only contain amounts, and the detailed accounts of salt tax are all in the Salt Transport Bureau. The Huaizhou tax records various taxes in the entire state, so there are not many records of Huaizhou salt tax, and only a few amounts are mentioned.

Zhou Shuren quickly found out that this was the account book for sending salt taxes to the Ministry of Revenue and recording the amount. Every time the salt tax was collected, the salt inspector would supervise the collection, and the detailed accounts were monitored by someone, so the Ministry of Revenue could only see the amount.

Zhou Shuren flipped through the records and compared them with the records of the two visits to the Ministry of Household Registration in the first half of this year and last year. He soon found a problem. The numbers were interesting. He took out a few books from a few years ago and was speechless.

The prince thought to himself, he discovered it really quickly, he could see the problem directly, that was in the Jianghuai area, his father had planted many spies, he had come into contact with them, so he knew, but Zhou Shuren only saw the numbers and found it. The prince asked, "What did Lord Zhou find?"

Zhou Shuren picked up a few books and wanted to put them on the Crown Prince's desk, but unfortunately there was no place to put them, so he could only put them on a chair. He took out the account book for the first half of this year, "Your Highness, this is the amount of money that entered the Ministry of Revenue in the first half of this year."

Zhou Shuren picked up the ones from previous years and said, "Your Highness, these are the amounts from the past few years. You can see that the amount from year to year is not much different. The biggest difference is only a few tens of thousands of taels. This is not right."

The prince was really curious, "Why is it wrong?"

This account book is very simple. It is not easy to find any problems when it is sent to the Ministry of Accounts, not to mention that the Ministry of Accounts only records the amounts.

Zhou Shuren pointed at the numbers and said, "Your Highness, the court has been enjoying good weather and good harvests in recent years. The people have been resting and recuperating, which means the population has increased and the life expectancy of the elderly has increased. In recent years, children have grown up year by year, and the number of people eating salt has increased. Although I don't know how much the population has increased in recent years, this number should have increased every year, especially in the past two years, it should have increased significantly, instead of the past five or six years when there has been no obvious change."

Salt tax, the most important tax for the court, a change of ten or twenty thousand taels, haha!

The prince took the account book, checked the amount himself, and asked the guards to get the account books that had been recorded earlier. Soon, the guards brought them back, and the prince looked at them one by one, his face very dark.

Zhou Shuren's mouth twitched. This number really didn't change much. If he was making false accounts, he would definitely take into account the population, natural disasters, environment, etc.!

The prince took a deep breath. What does this mean? This means that the tax collection of the salt administration had problems more than ten years ago. Even though the people in charge have been changed over the years, the problem has not been solved at all. His father's efforts are a joke. The prince thought of the people around him who had problems. He stood up and signaled the guards to put away the account book. "Master Zhou, I want to enter the palace. Please follow me."

Zhou Shuren, ".......Yes."

He was tired. He couldn't just say nothing when the prince questioned him. If he didn't say anything, he would seem incompetent. If he said something, he would be taken to the palace again. This was really too difficult. Zhou Shuren gritted his teeth in his heart. It was all the fault of the Salt Transport Bureau. Why didn't you be more careful when making false accounts?

Zhou Shuren greeted Lord Qiu first. Qiu Yan had noticed the movements of the Crown Prince and Zhou Shuren for a long time. Now that he knew he had to enter the palace, he felt very nervous. He was currently in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, and he didn't want anything to go wrong to be blamed on him.

Qiu Yan's forehead was covered with sweat. "Master Zhou, can you tell me if this matter has anything to do with the Ministry of Revenue?"

Zhou Shuren didn't want to scare Qiu Yan. It wasn't easy for Lord Qiu either. In the past few days, Lord Qiu didn't smile much. "It has nothing to do with the Ministry of Revenue."

Qiu Yan let out a long breath, which scared him to death. "It's okay, it's okay."

On the outskirts of the capital, there were three horse-drawn carriages in the Zhou Mansion. Zhulan and her two daughters-in-law were in one, and Deng Xiucai and Mingyun and others were in another. Yes, not only Mingyun came, but Mingteng and Mingrui and others also came. Zhulan could not resist the coquetry of these little guys, and finally took them all out.

The last car was occupied by a woman and a maid.

Of course, there were many servants following him, and Shen Xing followed beside him on horseback.

Zhulan felt very happy when she left the capital. The view in the suburbs was broad and her mood was different. Li and Zhao were also happy; they seldom went out.

Mrs. Li sat by the car window and said, "Mom, the crops in the fields are growing really well."

Zhulan took a look and said, "Well, after a few days, my in-laws will send grain to the capital."

Li was very happy because she would be able to see her family soon. Her family had lived well these years. Every time she read a letter from her parents, they told her to be filial to her parents-in-law. The Li family's current status was all due to her husband's family.

Zhao was also happy. She went out less often than her elder sister-in-law. It was rare that her mother-in-law was willing to take her out. The corners of her mouth curled up. She used to worry a lot and her life was unhappy. Now she felt very happy and her eyes were full of smiles.

They soon arrived at the manor. The servant went ahead and the steward was already waiting. Zhulan got off the carriage and looked at the tall wall outside the manor. It was really high. Looking at the area surrounded by the wall, this manor was really not small.

The steward said, "Please come in."

Zhulan walked into the main gate first. The housekeeper introduced, "This house was built just a few years ago. Not counting the front yard and the living quarters, there are six small courtyards, two pavilions, and two gardens, one is a flower garden and the other is an orchard."

This courtyard is quite large. The entire courtyard is nearly the size of two Zhou mansions.

Zhulan took her two daughters-in-law to visit everywhere. The courtyards of the houses were all built very delicately and with the best materials. There were hot spring pools with drainage in each courtyard. Zhulan blinked her eyes. If she didn't buy this house, she would cry. Then she looked at the orchard and there was only one word in her mind: buy.