A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 431 Immortal Means
The water of the spring of gallbladder soaks iron into copper.

In Huaiyi's view, this is Taoist fairy art, or alchemy. Although it sounds magical or even bizarre, Wu Huaiyu has cited many ancient records, such as the inner chapters of Ge Hongbao in the Jin Dynasty, and Tao Hongjing in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. According to records, even in the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were Taoists and warlocks who recorded this method.

He has no doubts about his brother.

He can't figure out how to do it, but it's not important, what's important is that his brother Huaiyu said he knows how to do it, so what needs to be done now is to go back to Shaozhou, find out the ancient road, draw up a new route, and submit a letter to the court to ask for permission to build the road , When the brother is done with the operation and the money is pulled out, he will start to recruit people and hire craftsmen to build roads.

The next step is to explore the mines, open mountains for mining, smelting and processing, and even send the smelted iron to the copper factory built by Danquan to turn iron into copper.

At that time, Huaiyu would even send people to set up a money casting supervisor there, and directly use the leached copper to cast Kaiyuan Tongbao.

There will be unlimited business opportunities here.

Once the road is connected, gold and silver flow.

"Aniang told you to bring more concubines," Huaiyu said with a smile.

Wu Huaiyi is very young, although the young couple can't bear to part.

According to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, all foreign officials are not allowed to send relatives and guests to their offices, and ask them to occupy fields and houses, build mills, and compete with the common people for profit.

This article directly states that local officials cannot bring their family members with them when they take office. This article prevents the family members of local officials from taking the opportunity to infringe on the people and compete with the people for profit. There are hostages in the hands of the court.

In the Sui Dynasty, it was stipulated that the parents of officials were not allowed to take office with them, even if their children were over 15 years old.

This year Li Shimin made a decree that Xu's sons under the age of 19 should follow their father and brother's official positions.

Under normal circumstances, concubines are brought along, especially for high-ranking officials. At the level of governor, the regulations are stricter. Parents and wives are basically not allowed to bring concubines into office.

Now it is only relaxed that sons and younger brothers under the age of 15 can accompany them, but parents and wives are not allowed, of course, daughters are allowed.

The samurai Xun went to Yangzhou to take office before, and he did not bring his wife and children with him. Later, when he took office in Liangzhou, Li Shimin allowed his wife to take him with him, but he did not bring his son either.

Although Wu Huaiyi was reluctant to part with his wife, Wu Liu's family hoped that his son could bring his daughter-in-law with him so that he could give birth to a grandson as soon as possible, but the court did not allow it.

Huaiyi also only planned to bring concubines who had no children to take up the post, and those who had children had to stay and take care of them.

"When you get there, you can take a few more." Huaiyu laughed. If there is a powerful clan in that place, if there is a suitable concubine, this can be regarded as an alliance with the place, which is beneficial to Wu Huaiyi in Shaozhou. work.

Although Wu Shiyi, the former governor, laid some foundations, but Wu Huaiyi, a young governor, also needs the support of local snakes.

"decide as things go."

Huaiyi is also a person who knows how to be flexible. In him, Huaiyu has long discovered that he has a very traditional style of ancient nobles, and he has no objection to such things as political marriage.

For example, when they were in Zhan County, Longyou, Huaiyi was close to the Yang family and the Liu family of the local Yanhu family, and took the daughters of the two families as concubines, and now they all gave birth to him.

When Huaiyu introduced him to be Lao Cheng's son-in-law, Huaiyi did not hesitate at all, and he was not at all hypocritical.

······
in the hall.

Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng are desperately trying to combine provinces, states and counties, streamlining organizations, laying off personnel, and cutting costs drastically, while Wu Huaiyu and Dai Zhou are doing everything possible to start new projects and strive to increase revenue.

If you are not in charge, you don’t know how expensive firewood is. The Zhenguan court in the Tang Dynasty is now prosperous and prosperous on the outside, but in fact it is full of deficits.

For this reason, the imperial court also had to make a combination. First, this year's household tax was changed from a small tax to a large tax, directly collecting 80 guan, which was spread to 200 million households in the world.

The second is to officially levy grain for free warehouses, which is actually a land tax, and the tax per mu is two liters.

But now the acres of land are not clear, so the emperor ordered all ministries and localities to make every effort to figure out the household registration and the acres of land, which are related to household rank, Dingkou, regular tax, household tax and land tax.

Wu Huaiyu proposed to replace the new title deeds uniformly.

The new land deeds of all land properties must be exchanged within one year. If there are new land deeds at that time, they will have property rights. If there are no new land deeds, the three-level yamen of the court, county, prefecture, and Ministry of Civil Affairs will not recognize the old land deeds if they do not require the archives of the new land deeds. owner ownership.

At that time, those lands will be regarded as unowned lands and taken over as official possessions.

This is even scarier than the introduction of real estate tax. Anyway, when it was first proposed in the court, there were voices of opposition everywhere, but now the emperor is afraid of poverty.

In other words, the emperor has officially formulated a timetable for the Northern Expedition to the Turkic Jieli under the urging of Qin Qiong, Li Jing and other military forces, and will attack the Turks in the fourth year of Zhenguan at the latest.

There is not much time left for the emperor, and he cannot wait any longer.

Although Wei Zheng insisted that we should fight when we are ready, and fight ten years later when we are ready, but Li Shimin can't wait. After ten years, with the current momentum of the Tiele people in Mobei, the Eastern Turks will be defeated by them at that time. If you can't do it, then you will have to face a new steppe khanate.

It is impossible for the Tang Dynasty to allow Xue Yantuo people to pick the peaches. It is necessary to destroy the Eastern Turks first. At least the area south of Yinshan Mountain must be taken first, especially the Hetao area, otherwise Xue Yantuo will take Monan, and there will be endless troubles.

What's more, the imperial court had to go to Tuyuhun after they killed the Turks, and even Goguryeo was scheduled to be beaten. Li Shimin didn't have much time to wait, so he had to hurry up.

1 years is too long, seize the day and night.

Nowadays, the imperial court’s rent adjustment is too little. There are only 200 million households in the district. However, it has to be handed over to the nobles and lords for two-thirds, and the court can only get one-third.

The two liters of free warehouse grain per mu is expected to earn more than the rent, how can Li Shimin let it go.

In order to allow this policy to go through smoothly, Li Shimin has even directly stated his position at the Golden Palace, and even the fields of the Royal Manor will receive this grain of grain at two liters per mu, not less than one grain.

This is simply unprecedented.

Everyone who was forced to exchange contracts had no way out.

If you refuse to exchange the lease, the land will be confiscated. If you exchange the lease, you must truthfully go to the government to register, clear the title, and confirm the title. At that time, you will not be able to escape the righteous warehouse.

Wu Huaiyu even revealed that starting next year, land sales will still require an official deed, and the deed tax will be levied at 5.00%.

Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, deed tax has been levied. When buying and selling slaves, cows, horses, and fields, the tax is paid by the transaction amount of property rights. Every ten thousand yuan loses [-] yuan, the seller pays [-] yuan, and the buyer pays [-] yuan.

Both the Sui and Tang Dynasties implemented the land equalization system, and there were relatively large restrictions on the sale and purchase of land, so the land property deed tax was no longer levied, and even other deed taxes were abolished.

Now Wu Huaiyu has proposed to levy deed tax again, and it has been increased to five hundred thousand yuan, and all taxes are paid by the buyer.

If the deed is not officially registered, the government will not protect its property rights.

The transaction must be signed and archived, and the deed tax must be paid.

The tax is not low, which Wu Huaiyu said will also help curb mergers.

Anyway, it's hard to say whether it can really restrain mergers, but the imperial court will definitely be able to make a fortune from the land mergers and acquisitions that have now begun to rise.

In the future, large-scale transactions such as houses, shops, servants, cattle, horses, vehicles and ships must be signed.

The emperor put a lot of pressure on Wu Huaiyu.

After all, I'm going to pay you respects, so why don't you repay me well?
Now Wu Huaiyu has already been given the nickname of scraping the land, scraping money everywhere, for example, receiving all the company's money from the Duzhi Division, and getting 200 million.

Turning around, they began to requisition warehouse grain again. Over there, they bought a lot of spices and other luxury items sold by Hu merchants in the Western Regions directly, and then sold them again, making a profit as a middleman.

It is even planned to set up municipal ship divisions in Guangzhou, Jiaozhou, Mingzhou, Dengzhou, and Yangzhou. Merchant ships coming to Tang Dynasty will be designated to land and berth at these five ports. Import and export transactions must be declared and taxed. Imported products have to be purchased first by the Shibo Department according to demand, and good things let the court make a lot of money first.

Land customs should also be set up on the border of the interior, such as Dunhuang in Hexi, Lingzhou in Shuofang and other places. In short, the imperial court will make a fortune first in the import and export trade in the future.

As for the detailed rules on the sale of salt, tea, and wine that are currently on the agenda, they are still being discussed and revised, and will be released soon. By then, buying and selling salt, tea, and wine will not be so free, and guidance is needed.

To get the quotation, you have to pay the quotation tax first.

Wu Huaiyu has many ways to make money, and Li Shimin appreciates it very much.

Of course, Li Shimin felt that it was still too slow.

He needs to go faster, faster.

Today's court meeting.

There is a lot of arguing about how to introduce the salt tax and how much the tax should be increased.

Now the price of salt is ten cents per bucket, which is not expensive.

Dai Zhou said that adding ten renminbi to each bucket would double the tax.

Wei Zheng jumped up and said that this is harmful to the people. Once the tax is introduced, many people will not be able to eat salt in the future and will have to eat light food. At that time, the people will scold their mothers.

Dai Zhou is now Li Er's loyal dog, and refute Wei Zheng mercilessly. Ten cents and one bucket of salt is the lowest salt price in the past 20 years. In the last years of the great cause, the salt price has exceeded a hundred cents, especially in some remote areas , more expensive, some people really can only eat light food.

But now that the imperial court has gradually stabilized prices over the years, not only can people eat less salt, but the quality of salt is much better.

Now the imperial court is in financial difficulties, and the tax is increased by ten yuan per bucket of salt, but twenty yuan per bucket is still relatively low in the past 20 years.

Ordinary people can't eat much salt in a year, so it's impossible to just eat light food.

The two quarreled for a long time, refusing to give in to each other.

In the end, I had to put it aside temporarily and move on to the next topic.

Wu Huaiyu took out a silver coin.

But it is different from the original silver Kaiyuan Tongbao. It is neither the pure silver nor the silver-copper alloy coin with less silver content.

"What's so special about this silver coin?"

"Your Majesty, this silver coin is eighty-nine silver coins, ten copper coins, and one tin coin. The total weight is one tael. This silver coin is exchanged for one tael of silver, which is worth [-] Kaiyuan Tongbao copper coins."

"Excluding silver, copper and tin materials, as well as labor costs, there is about [-]% of the profit,"

Li Shimin was very happy to hear the 5.00% silver coin minting profit.

The Kaiyuan Tongbao copper coins issued by the imperial court have been very popular in recent years because of their high quality and fineness. However, due to the lack of copper materials, the amount of casting is limited. The treacherous are melted into bronze, or recast into private money.

The imperial court mints money every year, but at most it can only mint [-] guan coins a year, which is a drop in the bucket in the market.

Finally, to sum up, the imperial court casts Kaiyuan coins every year, and it is still at a loss.

Copper materials are too expensive, especially because of the lack of copper, so some coin casting furnaces can only be set up in the copper mines in the mountains, and the transportation of the cast money is not a small cost, resulting in a loss of money.

This caused headaches for the imperial court. If the money is not minted, the currency market is chaotic, which affects the economy and finances.

Wu Huaiyu's silver coin can actually have a 5.00% profit?
"Isn't this Baoquan?"

Prime Minister Wang Gui was a little disdainful.

Baoquan or Chongbao, etc. To put it bluntly, one is worth ten or one hundred coins. Originally, the value of the copper coin itself was equal to the face value it represented by adjusting the copper content and the weight of the copper coin.

But sometimes when the imperial court's finances collapsed and there was no other way, they would mint a lot of money, using one as ten or even a hundred, using two or three times the ordinary money as copper, but casting money that would be ten or a hundred times the ordinary money. This is blatantly robbing the people.

Wang Gui thinks that Wu Huaiyu's current silver coin is also a kind of treasure spring, and it is also a robbery, but it is not so obvious.

"Master Wang, this is not the same."

"Even if the copper coins of the past dynasties, does their own value must be consistent with a coin?"

"Although this silver coin contains only [-]% silver and [-]% copper and tin, the coinage also requires technology, labor, and even transportation costs. Look at this silver coin. It is so exquisite that it is put into the market. To use, you don’t need to weigh it, you can use it directly by piece, isn’t it very convenient?”

Wu Huaiyu always felt that minting coins must be profitable, which is a legitimate right that the court should have, also called seigniorage.

If you still lose money by minting coins, what else are you playing?
As a result, the imperial court was unable to mint money, and the market lacked currency, which would inevitably affect the industrial and commercial economy, and even cause bad coins to fly all over the sky, or the people could only carry silk cloth or even use grain to barter.

Now the folk transactions in the Tang Dynasty, more than ten strings, basically use silk.

One piece of copper is too heavy, more than 60 catties, and copper coins are in short supply, so it is difficult to have a large amount of copper coins, which makes the transaction very inconvenient.

Wang Gui pointed out a fatal weakness of Huaiyu silver coins.

"Do you know how much silver is produced a year in the Tang Dynasty? It's just over [-] taels. Even if it's all used to mint this silver coin, the profit from casting the money is only over [-] taels, and the conversion is less than a thousand guan. Is it worth such calculations? "

"Wang Xiang's data is wrong. In Lingnan alone, there are 29 gold-producing states and 48 silver-producing states. Wang Xianggong said that the annual silver production in Tang Dynasty was only more than 1 taels, and they were all government-run silver mines. produced silver.

As far as I know, there are more than [-] taels of private silver mining in Lingnan alone. As early as the Han Dynasty, Lingnan used more gold and silver. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Central Plains has banned money from Lingnan. People mainly use gold and silver and cuckoo for transactions, especially for transactions with maritime merchants, more gold and silver are used. "

Because the past dynasties were relatively short of copper coins, the imperial court did not allow the inflow of copper coins in a barbaric land like Lingnan, so as not to lose them. Therefore, Lingnan people bartered and mined gold and silver mines in large quantities, and used gold and silver to make valuables. Big deal.

Lingnan gold and silver mining is very powerful.

If 1 taels of silver are minted in silver coins, you can get 500 taels of interest.If you add the gold and silver traded with maritime merchants, the silver on the Silk Road in the Hexi Corridor, and the silver in the southwest region, Wu Huaiyu said that it would be no problem to double it.

Then these silver coins can earn 2 taels of profit a year, which is converted into 3 taels of copper coins.

A money-making furnace in Datang can only cast [-] guan coins a year, which is equivalent to the money cast by ten money-making furnaces.

And minting money requires capital, which is the profit of minting silver coins.

Li Shimin did the math, even if it wasn't as much as Wu Huaiyu said, even if there was a profit of 1 taels a year, it would still be [-] taels, which is a lot.

"I'm sure," Li Shimin agreed.

(End of this chapter)