Chapter 2398: It's Not Easy for Anyone

Chapter 2398: Chapter 2116: It’s Not Easy for Anyone

“This talent is frighteningly good!” Tong Yuan showed no concern for Ma Chao’s actions, rather he looked slightly surprised. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei easily restrained Ma Chao to prevent him from causing a scene here.

With a flick of Tong Yuan’s finger, Ma Chao’s talent was almost completely relayed back to him. Sensing the significance represented by that talent, Tong Yuan couldn’t help but view Ma Chao differently.

It’s fair to say that Ma Chao is the only one Tong Yuan has ever seen whose talent is close to Zhao Yun. If all these talents were converted into data, in some aspects he might even surpass Zhao Yun. Of course, Zhao Yun is terrifying in that all of his qualities are high—a perfect barrel of data.

“Ahhh, don’t hold me back, I want to teach him a lesson!” Ma Chao roared and struggled.

Ma Chao had only seen Tong Yuan a few times. Although Ma Chao also saw this old man during the time Zhang Xiu self-destructed, such insignificant details had long been erased from Ma Chao’s mind. Moreover, Ma Chao had no habit of respecting elders and caring for the young, he just felt this old man was provoking him and deserved a beating, so he desperately lunged at Tong Yuan.

“Give it a rest.” Zhang Fei, holding one of Ma Chao’s arms, looked at Ma Chao speechlessly.

“Kid, look here.” Tong Yuan created an electrical spark in his hand, which then grew larger and even started crackling.

Ma Chao was stunned, seeing lightning attribute Inner Qi from someone else for the first time. Compared to his own, which harmed both himself and others, the other looked incredibly skillful.

“Watch closely.” The lightning in Tong Yuan’s hand grew ever stronger and spread throughout his body, yet the lightning was restrained by some force, not exploding chaotically at all and without even affecting the ground. As the lightning continued to retract, the sound of the spark grew stronger until it suddenly vanished at a certain limit.

At the same time, the lightning on Tong Yuan’s body seemed to disappear completely, yet his body was filled with explosively powerful energy, even his muscles swelled slightly.

“Want to learn?” Tong Yuan asked, observing the effects of transforming his Inner Qi attribute, shaking his beard with a smile as he looked at Ma Chao. At this moment, Ma Chao was dumbfounded.

Ma Chao nodded eagerly like a chick pecking at rice.

“Not teaching you.” Tong Yuan suddenly straightened his face and left, leaving Ma Chao stunned. Ma Chao immediately struggled and quickly broke free, chasing after Tong Yuan. That move was absolutely suitable for him, he had to learn it!

“Master, don’t go, fate grants the teaching!” Ma Chao excitedly shouted, following Tong Yuan, completely forgetting about wanting to chop Tong Yuan earlier.

Watching Ma Chao leave, Chen Xi sighed slightly and said, “So this matter isn’t over yet, is it?”

“Probably not. If Zilong can’t give a satisfactory explanation, he might have to lie low for a while to let the Marquis Wenn cool down.” Hua Xiong said, looking conflicted. Lyu Bu was still as terrifying as ever.

“A month, huh? It’s almost New Year’s, and I was planning for Zilong to come over and check the agricultural tax as before. But since this happened, we’ll forget about it.” Chen Xi thought about the current situation and decided to spare Zhao Yun.

Every year, the agricultural tax was audited by Zhao Yun and Liu Ye. Liu Ye calculated the average and the warehouse numbers, while Zhao Yun checked tax ratios in various regions, confirmed storage quantities, and verified grain prices to ensure stable grain prices for the coming year.

Every year, Zhao Yun spent four months in the civil official system, and everyone was so used to it, they saw nothing wrong with Zhao Yun handling these tasks.

Similarly, Zhao Yun had become very proficient over the years in handling agricultural taxes.

However, given the current situation, it’s basically impossible for Zhao Yun to continue this year. With Lyu Bu likely arriving around New Year’s, Zhao Yun should focus on honing his strength to avoid being beaten bedridden.

Well, not necessarily bedridden; Physician Hua and Dr. Zhang are here, but being brutally beaten during New Year’s would lead to an unlucky start to the new year.

Hence, Chen Xi decided to give Zhao Yun a month off to focus on training, to avoid being black and blue during the festivities.

“Ziyang, the agricultural tax and storage, and grain price calculations are up to you this year.” Chen Xi decisively tasked Liu Ye, considering that half of this work had always been Liu Ye’s, so it was only natural to assign it to him.

“Spare me, I’m still dealing with the year-end official review; I’ve got a lot on my plate.” Liu Ye said tiredly, aware that with Lyu Bu arriving in a month, his responsibilities would explode.

“There’s already the year-end official review going on, and I’m working with Cui Jigui on official audits, even if someone else is doing the actual work, I still need to oversee it. I can’t watch three big projects at once!” Liu Ye looked at Chen Xi helplessly.

In short, Liu Ye expressed, I’m already stretched thin, these tasks are all important. If I have to juggle all three and mess it up, it would lead to a year’s worth of trouble.

“You all recommend someone, let’s see who can handle this.” Chen Xi thought for a moment and decided to ask openly. Although at their level, they rarely engage in such practical matters, they must still grasp the direction. Letting Liu Ye oversee three things is indeed unreliable.

“There are capable people, but at this moment, we can’t reassign them. Any handover of work could easily cause issues next year.” Lub Su firmly denied the suggestion. “I suggest Ziyang take over Zilong’s responsibilities, while we assign the audit to someone else.”

“That’s not out of the question, but the problem is who should I assign this audit responsibility to?” Liu Ye asked bluntly. Recently, he had been rebuked several times by Cui Yan, and he was quite frustrated. He finally understood how disgusting an upright official could be.

“Wen Ru, Zichuan, and I all have other things to do. The three of us need to lead a team to verify various matters in preparation for next year, so we can’t spare any personnel from our side.” Lub Su directly rejected Liu Ye’s idea of borrowing staff. It was tough on their side too.

“What is Fengxiao working on?” Liu Ye promptly pointed at Guo Jia.

“Come on, let’s swap.” Guo Jia said with a sly smile, raising the item in his hand. Liu Ye’s face twitched; it was about the necessity of reforming conscription, achieving alignment among the three parties after merging, and standardizing allowances, along with deepening models.

“Who do you have working on this?” Liu Ye said, pulling his mouth. “Can you finish this within three months?”

“Xiaoo Zhi, Gong Xi, Yuanzhi, Weichang, Zuozhi, and actually quite a few others.” Guo Jia counted on his fingers.

“In short, if you want to borrow people, it’s basically impossible. Everyone is very busy at the end of the year.” Fa Zheng said with a mischievous smile, “But I can offer you a suggestion, why don’t you try it?”

“What suggestion?” Liu Ye asked with curiosity.

“Announce the cancellation of the audit, and then withdraw.” Fa Zheng looked at Liu Ye with a cunning smile. Liu Ye was taken aback by the suggestion but quickly understood the intent.

“Lots of noise but little outcome, and then let Suzhi strike hard, right?” Liu Ye frowned and said, “Honestly, the situation below is not very good right now, I’ve already uncovered a lot of things.”

“It’s normal; those issues not being reported doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It’s just that people’s lives have improved somewhat over the past few years, and many things have been covered up.” Chen Xi said with a pout, admitting that even he couldn’t resolve some issues in a short time.

“Let’s talk about something a little more amusing.” Chen Xi tidied up his stationery before turning with a smile to the few remaining individuals in the Political Office.

“What’s amusing?” Li Youu straightened his posture and asked.

“Do you all know how we’re currently collecting taxes?” Chen Xi asked with a playful smile.

Li Youu squinted at the question, knowing this topic well. It had too many points for manipulation, but the others probably hadn’t realized how much trickery was involved.

“What’s so difficult?” Zhang Fei chimed in, “Of course, it’s the county officials who notify the people below to start collecting the taxes. Then the people below begin the collection, once collected, they send them to the county, it’s a very simple process.”

“Eight-thousand-to-one ratio of officials to civilians, how do you collect that tax?” Chen Xi laughed and said.

“Naturally, it’s handed over to the local landlords, who then forward it to the county officials.” Before anyone else could respond, Li Youu spoke with a sarcastic smile.

“The so-called local sages and three elders exist to do precisely this.” Lub Su said with a tilted head. His family also counted among the big households among Local Tyrants, so he naturally had experienced such matters.

“Large-scale collection of agricultural taxes from the peasants, reported to the government with smaller measures.” Chen Xi held his forehead, somewhat helplessly, “This year we’ve promoted the new metric system, inform Suzhi, any local sage still not using it should be arrested.”

In this regard, Chen Xi had always been aware, but had never taken action. After all, collecting taxes relied on these people. Although they surely exploited the citizens due to the metrics issue, the circumstances at that time were beyond Chen Xi’s control, forcing him to turn a blind eye.

Anyway, as long as the overall situation improved, even if citizens were exploited once, the overall scenario remained unchanged. Chen Xi considered it gathering black materials prematurely, akin to raising pigs, only to slaughter them when fattened—it’s a form of policy.

Ultimately, Chen Xi was also concerned about public discontent, regarding these landlords as tools. Should any political strategy mistake lead to public outrage, one swift wave of actions against these individuals would quell the anger and shift focus.

However, Chen Xi’s strategies had consistently progressed stably without much public discontent arising.

Even this wave of Village Merging, although the lower-class citizens grumbled, once the migration was complete and they received new standardized brick houses, the complaints turned into mere criticism about the government’s failure to explain beforehand, nearly turning good deeds into bad ones.