During the Jianzhong period, the Youbei feudal town withheld taxes, the treasury was depleted, and the Shence Army was on the verge of mutiny due to lack of pay. The imperial court used Yunzhou as a pilot to implement the two-tax law, and investigated the hidden fields of aristocratic families to fill the financial deficit.
Family members secretly blocked canals and raised food prices to thwart the New Deal; officials from the Qing Dynasty took measurements in the fields with bows and rulers, veterans argued with reason, forbearing businessmen concealed evidence of crimes, and traveling doctors recorded the coldness of the world. A game about land wealth and national destiny is slowly unfolding between the court and the countryside.
