Liu Zhenghui sighed helplessly and said, "Okay, I'll make it up, I'll make it up! I won't miss a penny!"

Immediately afterwards, Liu Zhenghui told exactly how much money he had evaded in taxes.

A full twenty thousand gold.

Li Chengfeng felt terrible when he heard it.

Unexpectedly, these ministers have leaked so much money just by evading taxes?

But it makes sense, because these ministers are all the founding heroes of the Tang Empire.

So when Li Shimin rewarded the twenty-four heroes of Lingyan Pavilion, he gave them pastures, iron mines, copper mines, gold mines, etc.

At that time, these so-called pastures were just grasslands, and the so-called iron ore or copper mines were just broken mountains.

So it's not worth the money.

Now more than ten years have passed.

Those pastures, iron mines, copper mines and abandoned factories have been developed in an orderly manner by these ministers, and their annual income is basically more than ten thousand gold.

So some of them are actually very wealthy.

Moreover, in order to prevent Li Shimin from knowing that he was very rich, they also lied about their annual income and paid less tax.

Moreover, I don’t know when this trend of tax evasion started and became so serious.

If it weren't for the severe drought this year, the national treasury would have to spend too much money to relieve the victims, and Li Shimin wouldn't even bother to care about the tax evasion of these ministers.

However, today is different from the past. When there is a severe drought and people are suffering from disasters, these ministers are sitting on tens of thousands of gold and enjoying the glory and wealth?

This is not what Li Shimin wants to see!

That's why Li Shimin sent the eighth prince Li Chengfeng to rectify this trend.

Although it is said that Li Chengfeng can take 40% of the recovered tax money.

But Li Shimin didn't feel bad at all, because Li Shimin just wanted to rectify this trend.

…

Soon, Liu Zhenghui also ordered his servants to carry two large boxes, which were full of golden gold!

It’s incredible, these ministers only have so much gold just for tax evasion? Then how rich must they be?

"Xing Guogong, please send someone to my house!"

"Yes, the Eighth Prince!"

Liu Zhenghui nodded and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Li Chengfeng turned to look at Wei Zheng and said: "Zheng Guogong, take notes!"

"Okay, Eighth Prince, I will write it down now! Xing Guogong Liu Zhenghui will pay 15,000 gold in back taxes!"

Wei Zheng was writing down the records and thinking about them.

"Okay, let's go. Whose house is better to go to next?"

Just when Li Chengfeng was thinking about going to that house to collect taxes, Liu Zhenghui suddenly ran over and said, "Eighth Prince, I also want to report this!"

"Oh?" Li Chengfeng's eyes lit up and he said, "Okay, welcome Duke Xing to join our tax collection force!"

"Okay, Eighth Prince, I have decided to report to Duke Chen! That old thief has the entire Chang'an City's government, salt and private taxes in his hands. His tax evasion is even worse!"

Liu Zhenghui was very angry.

Because Liu Zhenghui himself was reported by Cheng Yaojin, he thought, why not report others by himself? To win the favor of the eighth prince?

In this case, the emperor might blame himself!

Li Chengfeng smiled with joy on his face and said: "Okay, okay, let's go, let's go to Hou Junji's house now!"

Li Chengfeng walked in front with his hands behind his back, like a little adult.

Several ministers followed Li Chengfeng obediently.

Especially Cheng Yaojin and Liu Zhenghui, the two stared at each other as if they wanted to have a fight on the spot!

…

In the blink of an eye, the day passed like this.

During this day, Li Chengfeng worked from morning to night. He visited the homes of 8 ministers and paid taxes to them all.

Basically, every public servant has committed tax evasion.

Some of them evaded taxes as much as 20,000 gold, such as Hou Junji and others, while others only evaded about 1,000 gold, such as Qin Qiong and others.

Relatively speaking, Qin Qiong can be said to be a fair and honest minister. The 1,000 gold is the tax he forgot to pay last year, and he plans to make up for it this year.

However, since Li Chengfeng came to collect taxes in advance, Qin Qiong also made up for the missed taxes last year.

Because this is the Tang Dynasty, unlike in the 21st century, every tax payment will be accurate to the penny.

In the Tang Dynasty, calculations were basically done manually, and if you were not careful, errors would occur.

In addition, Li Shimin usually had enough headaches dealing with government affairs, so how could he have so much time to care about the taxes paid by the ministers?

So Li Shimin just turned a blind eye and that was it.

However, as soon as Li Chengfeng took action, all the ministers immediately showed their disgrace.

So much so that later, many ministers even joined Li Chengfeng's tax collection army.

Li Chengfeng didn't even need to take out his own notebook to read, he could ask these ministers to report each other, and then they would obediently make up for all their previous tax evasion!

…

After a day's work and a day's walking, Li Chengfeng was also very tired.

When he returned to the Zhenwang Mansion, Li Chengfeng said goodbye to Wei Zheng, panted heavily, and walked back!

"Eunuch Wu, water, I want to drink water!"

"Yes, Eighth Prince, I will fetch water for you right now!"

When Eunuch Wu saw that Li Chengfeng was back, he immediately went out to greet him with great joy.

After pouring a bowl of tea for Li Chengfeng, Li Chengfeng drank it all in a few gulps.

"Eighth Prince, it's been a hard day. Have you eaten?"

Eunuch Wu asked with a smile on his face.

Li Chengfeng nodded his little head and said: "I ate at Zheng Guogong's house! The food is not bad!"

"By the way, Eunuch Wu, when I went to collect taxes today, did some people come to our town palace with a lot of money?"

"Yes, yes, I have arranged for you to put it in the backyard of the Prince's Mansion!"

"Okay, take me to see it!"

"Okay, Eighth Prince!"

Later, Li Chengfeng and Eunuch Wu came to the backyard of the Zhenwang Mansion.

Li Chengfeng saw a dozen large boxes neatly placed in the corridor of the backyard.

Some of these boxes contain ten thousand gold, and some contain several thousand gold.

Altogether, there is at least one hundred thousand gold.

Li Chengfeng opened one of the boxes and took a look, and suddenly there was a burst of golden light.

"Good guy, you actually have so many gold coins?"

"It's a pity that these golds are just golden beans, not large gold bricks, otherwise it would be really scary to have so much gold!"

Because the alchemy industry in the Tang Dynasty was not very developed, the gold they produced was a darker golden color, and it must have contained many trace amounts of metallic elements.

Otherwise, and one hundred thousand gold is not equal to one hundred thousand taels of gold.
Chapter completed!