Talisman Reincarnation - All My Clones Are Dao Ancestors-Chapter 144: Planning Alliances

"Arrange a meeting with the Shan Family. I want to meet them tomorrow. You should be able to do it, right?"

"A meeting?" the agent was confused, "Should this meeting be arranged as the assigned Royal Inspector...?"

"No, of course not. Before we got a proper overview into the city, I will be staying in this inn.

There will be several people who will come to our aid.

Just tell the Shan Family that the Hua Families’ next-in-line heir is here. You only need to arrange the meeting.

Tell me about the other two forces."

Nodding, the agent started explaining, "In the north, there is the Blue Fox Pavilion, a..." he seemed to hesitate when he saw the two children.

Mu Yan looked at them then at him, "What do you think they teach in the Royal School? They know of these matters, so just be clear."

"They are a brothel. Several top courtesans from other cities have come here, established their own pavilion and invited many guests. It is quite expensive to dine there, but compared to the outside, they are quite welcoming."

"Great, that’s good. If they manage everything themselves, then we can use this chance to promote their pavilion." He would still help them even if the pavilion was owned by a force, but as a local force, they would pay their main taxes to the local Yamen, benefitting him greatly.

The issue with many pavilion is that while they’re high-earning, they are mostly owned by some clan or sect, with the tax flowing towards different places, only a part landing in the local Yamen.

"I also want a meeting with them. How many top-courtesans at the fourth stage are there?"

"Two... technically three."

"Three? So many?" Mu Yan was surprised, such a force wasn’t just a newcomer.

"With so many, arranging a meeting might be difficult. Will there be a way for me to meet them?" Mu Yan was curious. If he could bind them to the Stone Lotus County and used them as advertisement, he was sure to attract the attention and money flow from quite a few counties around. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Which other pavilion had three top-courtesans?

"Then, the southern one..." the agent spoke out.

The mood cooled and the agent felt like it became icy.

He waited for a moment before telling Mu Yan about them, "They are the Lu Family, a fisherman family. They have farmed fish on the two rivers for many years. Five hundred years ago, they suddenly rose from a third-stage family to a fourth-stage family, and in just these five hundred years, they’ve added six fourth-stage cultivators!

It’s said they found a secret realm under water that’s able to stably produce fourth-stage advancement materials!"

"No." Mu Yan shook his head, "A fourth-stage material needs at least a thousand years of high spiritual density to grow. Either the secret realm they found has a large storage of items, or they found a different way to advance.

Regardless, it seems they’ve become quite strong.

Six cultivators...

To take them down, it would require at least nine, possibly even eleven or twelve cultivators of the same stage.

This matter... it has to wait for after we’ve advanced to the third stage. From then on, I should be able to supress one or two, and closing off the county will also be possible."

From the moment he saw these people gnaw at the Royal Office, he knew they would be his enemy.

If he didn’t solve this issue, then regardless of what he did, his moves would be difficult to execute.

’Newly advanced forces haven’t yet seen the power of the dynasty. While these older forces are also strong, they don’t bother getting involved into government authority. Only such a new force dares to cross.

This magistrate, what’s he doing?

Such a matter happened and he wasn’t able to take control of this place." He felt a surge of anger the more he thought about it.

"I saw a shop selling spiritual herbs in the city centre, what is that force and why is it so close to the city centre? The shops in the centre require the decree of the Yamen."

After all, there were many large forces that stationed their various shops in every county. But these are businesses that require a good location. So in addition to the normal tax, they have to pay extremely high rent to get a spot in the city centre, which would directly flow into the coffins of the city, becoming liquid money that can be used freely.

"That herb shop is the shop of the Xin Family. Their family is the strongest among the third-stage forces. They grow underwater plants on both sides, having rented over fifty percent of the seabed."

"Is that how they paid the rent?"

The agent shook his head, "No, these... their daughter has married the magistrate, and the spot was given to them as a celebration."

"Is that so?" this time, Mu Yan didn’t feel it was much. After all, it was normal for the government to be close to local forces. In addition, they didn’t steal government authority but just gained a spot.

Based on what he knew, in most cities, half the spots were given to large chambers of commerce, and the other half was open to be distributed locally. It’s just that few of the weaker counties could have such booming local industries, so many times, 90-100% of the spots were given to larger forces.

To think there were spots left... it seemed the magistrate wasn’t as incompetent as he thought.

"Alright, everything looks good."

Besides the southern forces, the other three fourth-stage forces were fine. He would have to see whether he could get the Shi Gui family to support him too, or maybe he would take back their passage rights.

After all, to pass this section of the river, every ship would have to pay a certain amount of tax.

He quickly understood that the government had three ways to earn taxes in this county: from the local forces, from the passage fee, and finally from the individuals entering the county.

It might seem like individuals entering was of little value, but this was just because the name was confusing. Of every spirit stone these individuals used in the county, a part would go to the county as tax.

As an example, if an item costed 100 spirit stones, then locals would pay 100, and 25 of that would go to the county in the end. If the buyer was from outside, then 25 was the base tax, and an additional 25 would also go to the county.

While it might seem bad, there were a lot more people coming from outside the county than those that lived here.

So while an outsider is worth only three quarters as much as an insider, with three or four times more outsiders, the profit was still very high.

And for the county, this tax would result in huge tax, as valuable as the passage fee and base taxes.