"Menliang City?"
Zhang Ming was no novice. Information on every city, large and small, across Jiangnan was recorded in his mind.
But the next moment, details of Menliang City—its location, population, history, and why it did not pay taxes—surfaced in his mind.
Menliang City was a small coastal city on the edge of Jiangnan Province.
It was not large, with a population of roughly a hundred thousand. Most people made their living through trade and fishing.
Of course, none of that was the important part.
The important part was that near Menliang City stood a powerful martial sect.
It was Jiangnan's foremost martial sect: the Ten Absolute Sect.
Therefore, the reason Menliang City did not pay taxes had never been about Menliang City itself.
It lay with the great martial sect nearby: the Ten Absolute Sect.
The relationship between the Great Zhou Empire and the martial sects of the jianghu was complicated.
Great Zhou ruled over all its territory.
Yet in areas surrounding certain powerful sects, Great Zhou also granted a degree of autonomy.
Menliang City was precisely such a case.
Rather than calling it Great Zhou's Menliang City, it would be more fitting to call it the Ten Absolute Sect's Ten Absolute City.
The officials and minor clerks within Menliang City were practically all disciples of the Ten Absolute Sect.
So tell him—did Menliang City listen to Great Zhou, or to the Ten Absolute Sect?
Naturally, the Great Zhou Empire was not without means to check the sects, nor did it simply let them run wild. The Town Martial Division was one such countermeasure.
Thus, the task of collecting the unpaid taxes naturally fell upon the Town Martial Division.
"Menliang City, Menliang City. Ten Absolute Sect, Ten Absolute Sect."
Zhang Ming frowned. This mission would not be easy at