Become a feudal king from today

"Your Highness, please enjoy your meal. Read М"

Luan'er placed two bowls of red date porridge on the table and stood beside them.

But he glanced at the rice porridge in the bowl and swallowed his saliva.

Feng'er and Luan'er have become accustomed to taking care of Zhao Xu on weekdays. Remembering that he hasn't had breakfast yet, Luan'er went to the kitchen to prepare it.

"Your Highness has just recovered from a serious illness. Didn't the dining room prepare anything?"

Feng'er looked at the two simple bowls of red date porridge on the table, her pretty face full of dissatisfaction.

Normally she wouldn't say anything, but she knew that the palace was in dire straits.

But King Yan finally recovered, so he should be given a hearty meal to replenish his health.

"There's nothing else. The kitchen said that there is only rice and red dates left in the palace. There is not even much rice left. Why are you asking when will you give them the money to buy rice?" Luan'er said with a bitter look on his face.

Feng'er sighed, worried that Zhao Xu would blame Luan'er, so he explained the situation in Yan County.

"The Beidi cavalry plundered every year, and the people were killed and robbed. The food they had saved for a year was often robbed, leaving them hungry, cold, and miserable."

"The wealthy families in Yan County not only did not help the people, but instead took advantage of the people's crisis and lured the starving people to death with a few steamed buns and two or three bowls of porridge to exchange for land, turning the people into their vassals and slaves. , plowing the fields for him.”

Zhao Xu nodded.

Before the age of thirteen, Zhao Xu received formal palace education.

The bachelor who was responsible for teaching him at that time told him.

This situation is not a matter for one state or one county, but a problem currently faced by the entire Dasong.

Due to historical reasons in this world, local forces within the Central Plains Dynasty are deeply rooted.

Those with less power are called powerful clans and control the power of counties, such as the current wealthy clan in Yan County.

The powerful ones control the rights of a state or even several states. They are powerful and are called powerful clans.

During the heyday of the dynasty, these powerful families were still suppressed by the royal family, and they also obeyed the rule of the imperial court.

However, with the decline of the royal family and lack of control over the states and counties, they began to form their own separate regime and compete with the royal family.

At the beginning of the founding of the country, Dasong learned the lessons of the previous dynasty's demise at the hands of powerful clans, so it attached great importance to the growth of the clan and allowed princes to be enfeoffed in order to fight against the wealthy clans.

Only then did the state of Dasong become more than 200 years old. Otherwise, Dasong probably would not have had the luck of a hundred years.

However, in recent years, the royal family's strength has been continuously consumed in the fight against foreign races, and this balance has been broken.

And because Yanzhou where he was located was on the border, the sky was high and the emperor was far away, and the war was chaotic, the powerful families regarded the royal family as nothing.

In order to strengthen their own power, they also tried their best to squeeze the people.

"Isn't it true that the royal palace can't collect taxes?" Zhao Xu pondered for a while and asked.

"How does Your Highness know?" Feng'er was slightly surprised.

"The common people are hungry and unable to pay taxes. The wealthy families are rich, and the officials in Yan County are all from proud families. Naturally, they collude with each other to evade taxes." Zhao Xu stirred the porridge in the bowl.

The historical development trajectories of the two worlds are different, but human nature is still the same.

"It's true. In the past three months, the palace has spent all the money brought from Jinling." Feng'er shook his head gently.

"Not only that, in order to force the people to sell their land to them, the wealthy families in Yan County deliberately raised the price of rice, making it impossible for the people who could originally afford to eat, and forced them to sell their land. Our palace has also been affected. If it continues, rice I can’t even eat it,” Luan’er added timidly.

In the scene in Zhao Xu's memory, after arriving in Yan County, the people in the palace gradually became thinner and sallower.

It probably has something to do with the lack of financial resources in the palace.

If taxes don't come in, there will naturally be no money. What's more, even if there is some tax money, it will first pass through the hands of Yan County officials and finally reach Zhang Han's hands.

And Zhang Han, a bastard, must have enriched his own pockets, so how could he leave it to the palace?

"Liu Fu, bring the account books from the palace."

Zhao Xu drank rice porridge and decided to take over the affairs of the palace.

If Yan County continues to develop like this, in addition to Xiliang, Beidi and local wealthy families are afraid that the common people will also rise up.

Until then, he can only lie down and wait for death.

Liu Fu went there for a while and brought over an old man with half-white hair.

This is the Qin accountant in the palace.

"Your Highness, I was also coerced by Zhang Han. Please spare my life, Your Highness..."

Zhang Han was detained, and the news spread throughout the palace. The old accountant naturally understood who was the real owner now.

"As long as you tell the truth, I will spare your life." Zhao Xu came to the old accountant.

These little people are people who do things. Naturally, they will do whatever Zhang Han asks them to do. There is no need to kill them all.

"Yes, Your Highness." Qin Zhangfang tremblingly held up the account book and turned it page by page to Zhao Xu.

Seeing that Zhao Xu's words were just like ordinary people, he didn't dare to lie.

"Three months after arriving in Yanjun, the prince's palace received a total of fifty taels of tax silver from the Yanjun government office, but Zhang Han took all of it away in the name of repairing the prince's palace."

"Zhang Han sold the three thousand acres of fertile land owned by the prince for one penny of silver per mu on the grounds that the prince's palace was in dire straits and needed silver. Zhang Han also took the money." said the old accountant.

"What!" Zhao Xu almost fainted after hearing this.

These three thousand acres of fertile land were assigned to him as private property according to the royal decree when he left Fanyan County.

The reason is that there is no tax at all, and the palace can live comfortably on the rent of these three thousand acres of fertile land.

Zhang Han actually sold it to him directly, and it was still at such a low price. I don’t know how many kickbacks this bastard got.

"Is Zhang Han awake? If he wakes up, he will beat me hard." Zhao Xu wanted to kill someone.

Anyone who dares to sell royal property would be punished by death.

"Yes, beat them hard." Liu Fu immediately ordered the two servants over.

Zhao Xu was still heartbroken.

There are no taxes and fertile farmland, which means that the palace has no income at all. How can it support the whole family?

After scolding him, he looked at the old accountant hopefully and asked, "How much money does the palace have now?"

"Less than forty taels. Rice is expensive nowadays. If you save a little, it will be enough for the palace to use for another five or six days." The old accountant did not dare to tell lies.

After hearing this, Zhao Xu sat down.

These more than forty taels are enough for one person. After all, one tael of silver in Dasong is enough to live in an ordinary house for a month.

But his royal servants, servants, and staff all had to eat for him.

In addition, there were a hundred guards who came from the capital to protect him.

These dozens of taels of silver are simply not enough to do anything.

What's even worse is that the palace has lost its income, and now it can only go in and out.

No wonder Luan'er was greedy for the two bowls of porridge.

If he continues like this, he will have to dismiss his slaves, and he will no longer be able to afford a big bowl of food.

With a long sigh, Zhao Xu asked the old accountant to go back.

He walked out of the dormitory and looked at the dilapidated walls, roofs and verandahs of the palace due to years of disrepair.

He frowned and thought hard.

It's clear that the situation he's currently in is pretty bad.

He couldn't count on the wealthy families in Yan County.

These bastard royals were so stupid that they couldn't care less about him, a down-and-out prince with no power. It would be more to their liking if he starved to death.

If he wants to control Yan County, he must rely on the people of Yan County. They are the cornerstone of Yan County.

However, if you want to bring these people back to their hearts, you can't just rely on words.

After all, in their eyes, there was no difference between themselves and the wealthy Yanjun clan who exploited them.

Only by giving them land to grow and food to eat can we gain their support.

To do this, the prerequisite is that the palace must allocate land to them. After all, in ancient times, land was the lifeblood of the people.

But currently, the land is in the hands of the wealthy people in Yan County. This seems to be an endless cycle.

The only way to break this cycle of death is to fight fire with fire. The palace purchased a large amount of land to make the people depend on the palace, and they became the largest wealthy family in Yan County.

When his wings are full, he can then completely control Yan County, eliminate the forces that disobey him, and control Yan County.

"silver!"

Zhao Xu initially had his own plan in mind. No matter what he did, he first had to have a lot of money.

Looking up at the scorching sun in June, the blazing sunshine made him feel hot.

Suddenly, a way to make the rich people of Yan County willingly give him money came up.

And all he used was a tiny bit of chemistry.