The eldest son of the red mansion

Chapter 446

After Zhang Zhi reprimanded Liu Yu, he raised his head and cupped his hands to the emperor, saying, "Long live, I also ask the emperor to take back the crime money and increase the tax. If not, the world will not be far away."

The emperor heard Zhang Zhi's words from above became more and more outrageous, and couldn't bear it anymore.

"Come here, take this traitor down for me and put him in the sky prison. I will show him that if I collect this tax, the world will not perish."

As soon as the emperor finished giving his orders, several golden armored warriors broke into outside the hall, dragging Zhang Zhi out without any explanation.

Seeing this scene, Xie Xiang, the deputy capital censor of the left, wanted to step forward to persuade him, but at this moment, Jia Ke stood there and shook his head gently.

Xie Xiang, the left deputy capital censor, saw Jia Ke's gesture and immediately understood.

Zhang Zhi pleaded for the people, complained for the injustice of the world, and was imprisoned in the sky prison, which just brought out the emperor's fatuousness. Isn't this what Jia Ke hoped for.

So Xie Xiang, the censor of the left deputy capital, quietly retreated to his class, while the other ministers saw this situation, and hurriedly retreated to their class.

The emperor who was standing above felt satisfied when he saw that all the ministers who had been admonishing him confidently just now retreated in desperation.

"There is no need to talk about this matter again. It is a conclusion that next year's taxation will be added to the original basis. You just follow the order."

And the ministers below saw the emperor's aura, and no one dared to persuade them, so they reached a consensus.

Jia Ke saw that the emperor had reached an agreement with all the ministers to only collect [-]% more tax next year. At this time, he was a little unhappy and wanted to cause some trouble for the emperor.

Jia Ke stood up and cupped his hands to the emperor, "Long Live Lord, it will be difficult for the common people to collect an extra tax next year. Therefore, I ask Your Majesty to waive the tax for next year, so that the common people can have a chance to breathe."

After hearing what Jia Ke said, all the ministers immediately focused their attention on the emperor.This matter is indeed related to the vital interests of the emperor.

In ancient times, tax and tax were two different concepts.Taxes are land tax, salt tax, tea tax and other taxes paid by the people to the country.This is the main income of the country.

When Fu first started, it was a kind of money collected from the subjects by the ancient monarchs from time to time for military wars.But later it gradually evolved into a poll tax, also called Ding Fu.

When the dynasty was founded, Emperor Taizu stipulated that taxes belonged to the state and belonged to the royal family.

And the annual gift is also a large amount, and the money is used for the emperor's expenses and the salaries of the princes.

This is also the foresight of Emperor Taizu. In this way, the court does not have to bear the salary and living needs of the royal clan.

This is also the lesson that Emperor Taizu learned from the previous dynasty. You must know that in the previous dynasty, the country's annual tax revenue may not be enough for the salaries of these royal family members in the end.

So that in the end the imperial court had neither money for disaster relief nor money to suppress the rebellion, and finally it was overthrown.

The Emperor Taizu learned this lesson. He collected taxes, and the money was not under the management of the imperial court and the household department, and was used exclusively for the royal family's income and expenditure.

With a growing population, that's a lot of money.The small tax is a heavy burden on the peasants, so the landless peasants are often forced to flee in order to refuse to pay the small silver.This situation of under-recruitment due to people fleeing has always existed since the Taizu of this dynasty, and these people are often absorbed by the rich.This has also become a way for the local rich to absorb the population.

But now Jia Ke proposed to the emperor to reduce the tax, which has no effect on the court's tax revenue, but it has a huge hindrance to the royal family's income.However, once the collection of Ding Fu is reduced, the increased land tax for the common people is also within an acceptable range.

After hearing Jia Ke's words, the emperor felt a little embarrassed. The collection of Ding Fu was related to a large part of the royal family's income, which was several million taels a year.

In the past hundred years since the founding of the country, the royal family has multiplied a lot, and the money may not be enough to pay these people.

Every year, the emperor has to make up some money from other places in order to maintain the expenses of these royal staff.

After Jia Ke finished his suggestion, he returned to the class. He wanted to see if the emperor could be ruthless.

Who knows that this emperor is also ruthless, he is not only ruthless to others, but also ruthless to himself.

The emperor closed his eyes and thought for a while. When he opened his eyes, his face was serious, and he seemed to have made up his mind.

"Jia Aiqing, this suggestion is very good. Don't talk about Dingfu. I suffer alone, but I can solve the troubles of the people in the world. Why not do it. The decree is that from today all Dingfu collections will be halved."

Xia Shouzhong, who was standing by the side, was shocked when he heard the emperor say this, "Long Live Lord, you have to think about it. How will the people in the palace live with this?"

Xia Shouzhong is reminding the emperor how you should support the maids, eunuchs, queens, concubines and empress dowagers you raise in the palace.

The emperor also felt a little embarrassed when he heard this. Although the emperor still has many farms, these are a bit stretched for the annual royal family's expenditure.

But the emperor did not compromise, and directly ordered Xia Shouzhong: "From now on, all my expenses will be halved, and the expenses of all concubines in the harem will also be halved."

Xia Shouzhong was a little afraid of being confident, but since the emperor had made up his mind, he had nothing to say, but he still had to ask the emperor about some things.

"Long Live Lord, what should we do with the Supreme Emperor?" This is exactly Xia Shouzhong's difficulty. Whether the emperor's orders can be placed with the Supreme Emperor is still a matter of opinion.

The emperor was not happy to hear Xia Shouzhong's question, "You stupid slave, don't you even know about this? The Supreme Emperor and the Empress Dowager, naturally everything will continue as usual, and the offerings of all the concubines must not be reduced."

The emperor has finished his decree, and all the officials below are now looking at the emperor with admiration.Even Jia Ke admired the emperor a little.No wonder he was able to overthrow the Supreme Emperor in the Dream of Red Mansions, and was able to wipe out all the nobles. He was indeed a courageous and wise monarch.

If the emperor hadn't harbored inexplicable hostility towards Jia Ke from the very beginning, and was always on guard against Jia Ke, perhaps now Jia Ke would also fall under the charm of the emperor and would wholeheartedly work for him.

After hearing the emperor's will, Liu Yu was the first to come out and knelt down on the ground, sobbing, and complimented the emperor: "The emperor is really the wise monarch who is the closest to Yao, Shun and Yutang in all ages. With you here, there is no need to worry about the world. ?”

The other ministers saw it, well, since you have said so, let's kneel down and congratulate together.So all the ministers knelt down in the hall and shouted long live to the emperor.

The emperor stood next to Yiyi and watched condescendingly, and the minister knelt down in front of him, feeling a sense of satisfaction in his heart.

Jia Ke knelt down and felt a little helpless. He originally wanted to embarrass the emperor, but he didn't expect the emperor to be so cruel.This not only moved back to the game, but all the subjects in the world thought he was a wise monarch and gave him a wave of presence.

Although this time it could not completely make up for the emperor's fault of collecting taxes and negotiating money, it could also cover up the emperor's face very well.

The emperor stood on the imperial steps intoxicated for a long time, and then let the ministers stand up and return to their respective positions.

"Now that we've finished talking about Yinzi, let's talk about Jianghuai next. People from the Military Aircraft Department will tell you about it." The emperor is actually still worried about the accident in Lianghuai.

Jia Ke, as the head minister of the Military Aircraft Department, was naturally the first to tell everyone about this matter.

So Jia Ke came out in front of the crowd, stood in the center of the hall, bowed to the emperor, and then said to the ministers: "My lords may know that there have been two heavy rains in the Lianghuai area. Zuodu Censor Shi Tianye is the Minister of Military Aircraft It has been several months since he went to the Lianghuai area to sit in town, and it seems that he can't hold on anymore. These days, he has been sending memorials to the emperor, asking the emperor to send more food and relief money as soon as possible, and everyone knows that this year the treasury has already It’s empty, and I can’t take out more things. I’m afraid I have to wait until after September for taxes. What should I do now? Let’s give an explanation.”

Everyone now understands what the emperor and Jia Ke meant, so what's so difficult about it is to let the yamen collect money to fill in the holes for this year for the time being, and we'll talk about the rest later.

For this kind of thing, all the ministers just stared at each other without saying a word.

Seeing the appearance of the minister, the emperor had no choice. Could it be that he really couldn't make it through the last few months?
Seeing that all the ministers were silent, Jia Ke turned around, knelt down in the hall and kowtowed to the emperor a few times.

When the emperor saw Jia Ke kowtow to him, his heart couldn't stop trembling.Who is Jack?It's just a sugar cock, and other people's iron cocks are nothing but hairless. When he comes to him, not only will he be hairless, but he will get stained with everything he sees.Kowtow to yourself at this time, there is nothing good.

Sure enough, after Jia Ke kowtowed, he put his hands on his neck, "Your Majesty, the world today belongs to the emperor. Now that the imperial court is in crisis, please ask the emperor to open the internal treasury to send relief to the disaster victims in the Lianghuai area and the disaster situation in Shaanxi."

As soon as Jia Ke finished speaking, the ministers below all understood.After thinking about it, they thought it was a good idea. Although this kind of thing didn't happen in this dynasty, it happened frequently in the previous dynasty.It can be regarded as a precedent.

In order to protect their own interests, these ministers knelt down on the ground together and begged the emperor: "Please open the inner treasury to provide relief to the victims of the disaster all over the world. Long live my emperor, long live, long live."

The emperor is so angry at this time, Jia Ke has been giving him difficult questions since the morning of today, but you can't refute him, because he has hit the point.

Just now, Jia Ke asked himself to cut Ding Fu in half, and now he asked himself to open the internal treasury.Is this treating himself as the God of Wealth or something?Don't look at yourself as an emperor, but there is no food left at home.

The emperor looked helplessly at these ministers who were booing with Jia Ke, and could only look at Xia Shouzhong next to him, which meant that it was time for you to speak.

Xia Shouzhong was also clever, and immediately cried bitterly, and knelt down on the ground wailing: "Master Long Live, you can no longer open the inner treasury. There is no Ding Fu. If you open the inner treasury again, the servants may not even be able to eat."

(End of this chapter)