Chapter 434: The Hearts of the World Flow Like Water
Jimo.
This had once been Qi State's largest city after Linzi, and was the most prosperous city within the Jiaodong Kingdoms, accounting for almost thirty percent of the entire kingdom's tax revenue.
But it did not belong to the Jiaodong Kingdoms. It belonged to the Jimo Lü Clan's Marquis Lü State, which, alongside the Linzi Lü Clan's Qi Duchy, formed the two great regional seats of the Jiang-surnamed Lü Clan.
Especially after five counties had been carved out of the Jiaodong Kingdom to establish Jiaobei Commandery, the Jiaodong Kingdoms could no longer match the Marquis Lü State in either population or economy.
The former Queen of Jiaodong, now the Queen Dowager of Jiaodong, was the current Marquis Lü's younger sister.
Inside a quiet room.
Marquis Lü, Lu Chan, looked at his sister with some heartache and said softly, "Your husband has only just passed away. Rest here at home and spend some time with Mother."
A trace of grief flashed through Lü Ying's eyes, but she let none of it show on her face. Her voice was hard as iron. "Brother, I did not come home to indulge in such tender sentiments. I came because our family is being battered by wind and rain. The court is investigating taxes, and I am deeply worried."
Lu Chan thought Lü Ying wanted the family to relinquish its commercial taxes. Quite troubled, he said, "Sister, you know very well what sort of man I am. I am not someone unwilling to give up profits, nor someone so blinded by gain that he would stake his life on money.
"The Lü Clan once possessed lands stretching a thousand li. We were once the royal clan of a state. Having suffered the destruction of our