Luoyi held a minor court session every three days and a major one every ten, but in truth, those were merely court assemblies. Aside from their days off, the officials remained busy the rest of the time.
Returning from the government office at noon, Xie Peng, Supervisor of Revenue at the Ministry of Revenue, was somewhat weary, but his mood was still quite good.
Of the four passes under his overall control, one had already fallen. At present, he effectively controlled three Empire Tax Passes.
The various documents sent daily by those three Empire Tax Passes were vast enough to drown a man.
Xie Peng had to work together with more than a dozen Ministry of Revenue clerks under him to sort out the goods passing through the checkpoints each day, the taxes due, and the general destinations of those goods, before reporting everything directly upward to the Minister of Revenue.
However, ever since he, an old retainer from the Crown Prince's residence who had followed the dragon, had taken up the post of Supervisor of Revenue, an extra copy of the reports submitted by the Empire Tax Passes every ten days had to be sent to the palace.
Naturally, the one in the palace who wanted to see them was the new sovereign, Ji Ao.
To control an empire, the first things one had to seize, aside from the military, were money and provisions. Only then came personnel appointments and dismissals.
Xie Peng was naturally one of the new sovereign Ji Ao's key pieces in controlling money and provisions.
Knowing this, the Minister of Revenue simply stopped paying much attention to the Empire Tax Passes. The Emperor had intervened directly—what else could he do? He could only let Xie Peng have his way.
For this reason, Xie Peng had