Those powerful aristocratic families, almost none of them pay taxes.
Not only do they not pay, but even the tenants and merchants dependent on these families scarcely pay taxes, because these people are simply not on the tax department's register.
In areas controlled by these families, as local tyrants, it's exceedingly easy for them to deceive and conceal from the government.
If someone is imprudent enough to send out a tax collection team to investigate and levy taxes, then the cultivation disciples nurtured by the families would be put to use.
The tax collection teams often vanish without a trace, and when found, their bodies have already decomposed.
Over time, the taxes become increasingly difficult to collect, and naturally, the Da Li Dynasty becomes poorer.
"What? Can't we touch these families? I've even exterminated the Esoteric Buddhism; there's nothing in this world that I'm afraid to handle."
