He raised a hand to wipe away his tears, stepped forward to support Yang Biao, and helped him out of the Great Hall toward the palace gates.
Chapter 495: Duke Wen's Battle-Formation-Breaking Music: Wherever the Son of Heaven Sword Points, the Iron Hooves Shall Follow!
After Liu Xie issued his decree to survey farmland throughout the country and conduct a census, Jia Xu swiftly sprang into action.
Teams formed jointly by the Embroidered-Clothes Envoys and the Tax Bureau immediately headed out across the country, beginning their census with the local wealthy and distinguished clans.
The speed of their movements caught all the great aristocratic clans off guard.
They did not even have time to react.
The investigation of the great aristocratic clans began with the Hongnong Yang Clan. With Yang Biao's authorization, the Yang Clan proved extremely cooperative.
In this investigation, the Yang Clan's surveyed land and clan assets totaled over a hundred thousand mu. They had concealed a full seventy thousand mu of land!
And the tenant farmers attached to the Yang Clan numbered as many as ten thousand!
Viewed in isolation, these figures might not seem like much, but these were merely the numbers uncovered in the Yang Clan!
With the realm so vast and its aristocrats and wealthy gentry so numerous, one could imagine how much land and how many people had been concealed.
The taxes that should have been paid to the Imperial Court had all flowed into the pockets of the aristocrats and wealthy gentry. This was the fundamental reason the state treasury stood empty!
From the start of the investigation into the Yang Clan to the final results, only ten days passed.
As soon as the results came out, Yang Biao submitted a memorial to the Son of Heaven confessing his offense. However, in