Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 705: The Only One Who Died of Poverty

"The more you do, the more people will criticize you. Who doesn't understand this?"

Cao Cao sneered twice, but the laughter seemed somewhat empty in the hall and no one echoed it.

For him, after listening to Zhang Fei's incoherent talk for a while, he finally realized that this was something that happened hundreds of years later. He had no interest and just wanted to listen briefly, but when the voice mentioned "powerful prime minister", Prime Minister Cao had to pay attention.

Even if we exclude those nouns that he didn't understand, he still roughly understood the reason for the destination, so he sighed.

There was silence in the hall for a moment, and then a voice sounded:
"The Prime Minister has done many things, so he is hated by the world! However, the slander and criticism cannot overshadow the Prime Minister's achievements!"

Zhang Fei immediately slammed the table:
"Liu Ye, are you done yet?!"

This made Liu Ye's face turn red: "How dare a common man..."

But under Zhang Fei's cold gaze, Liu Ye finally did not say the rest of the words.

Zhang Fei then sat down again, changed his expression, patted Cao Cao's thigh and said:

"That's true...but what your Cao family has done is really too much."

"A few years ago, I remember you said that if it weren't for Cao Cao, I don't know how many people would be emperors and how many would be kings."

"As a result, you, Cao, were the first to be crowned king, and your son was the first to be crowned emperor, and you were even given the title of Emperor Wu of Wei."

In the corner, Xun Yu's expression changed, and there was a hint of worry between his brows, but he felt a lot more relaxed in his heart.

The expression on Prime Minister Cao's face suddenly became interesting.

If the matter of the early death of children and grandchildren could be refuted, then what Zhang Fei said at this time was really a bit difficult to refute.

After all, one's own family knows one's own business. If it weren't for the changes in Jingxiang, he would probably have really proclaimed himself the King of Wei by now.

He proclaimed himself king, his son usurped the throne, and eventually the country died after three generations. Could this be the original history without the light curtain that Zhang Fei mentioned?

Cao Cao's hand trembled, and he subconsciously grabbed Zhang Fei's arm:
"My history..."

"Why are you in such a hurry? There will be a time to watch it. If you don't watch it then, I will force you to watch it!"

Cao Cao was speechless and became more and more uneasy.

At this point, Zhang Fei suddenly felt a little regretful:
"It's a pity that I couldn't invite Brother Shiwan to attend, otherwise..."

Cao Cao pondered over this sigh and realized it was from Sun Quan. After all, he was a qualified person present. Looking at Zhang Fei's character who was only concerned about the world being in chaos... But Cao Cao couldn't stand Zhang Fei's attitude, so he still wanted to make a few remarks:

"You remember Wenyuan's achievements clearly."

Cao Cao saw that Zhang Fei's face looked quite strange, and finally shook his head and said:
"This title was not given by me, but by future generations."

……

In the Guangzheng Hall, Zhao Dezhao looked at the light curtain while listening to his father slowly narrating the changes in the two Song dynasties in a complex and entangled tone.

The voice in the light curtain sounded about the same age as him, but after hearing the final sigh, Zhao Dezhao was still a little suspicious:

"To say that one could offend Mongolia or the emperor in the Southern Song Dynasty sounds like praising the emperor for his generosity and magnanimity."

"Why can't we offend the powerful and the literati? How can we suppress annexation if we can't suppress the powerful? And the literati..."

Zhao Kuangyin hesitated again and again, and finally sighed, stood with his hands behind his back and said:
"De Zhao, do you know how you died in the history books?" Zhao De Zhao himself did not know, but seeing his father's dejected attitude, he guessed a little and comforted him:

"Daddy doesn't want to think about those things, my son is still alive and well."

Shaking his head, Zhao Kuangyin said calmly:

"You committed suicide after being reprimanded for asking for rewards from your soldiers. And it's not just you. Defang's death is also suspicious."

"Historical writers can change their writings because of the threat of war, and they can also write in a veiled way because of their personal likes and dislikes."

"A sharp knife can cut off a person's head, and a curved pen can destroy a person's name. They are all sharp weapons."

Seeing that his father was a little silent because of this, Zhao Dezhao simply calmed down and pretended to be curious:
"The fact that this person specifically mentioned Hai Rui shows that he is a very good person. I wonder which king is lucky enough to have such a capable minister."

Zhao Guangyi, who was standing next to him, saw that his nephew had slightly adjusted his position so that his back was completely facing him, and his mood was very complicated for a moment.

[Speaking of the "Public Land Law", we have to mention that the last years of most dynasties were basically accompanied by financial crises.

Therefore, the primary purpose of most changes in the last years of dynasties was to make money.

Let’s take the Ming Dynasty as an example here.

In order to increase revenue during the reign of Emperor Wanli, the land tax was increased by 9 cents each time. But when Emperor Tianqi ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty still had a fiscal deficit of more than 2 million yuan. So from the beginning of his reign, he imposed several non-agricultural taxes to raise money.

In the first year of the Tianqi reign, miscellaneous silver, salt taxes, and customs duties totaled 1.27 million taels. By the third year of the Tianqi reign, the salt tax, reed tax, and customs duties totaled 410,000 taels, and the miscellaneous silver had increased to 2.3 million taels, not only eliminating the apparent fiscal deficit but even generating some revenue.

However, the reason why Emperor Tianqi could be so leisurely was that the commercial taxes of the Ming Dynasty were too simple, and the tax collection entity was erratic, so there was a lot of room for maneuver.

The major categories of collapsed house tax, wine and vinegar tax, deed tax, fishery tax and market stall tax basically cover all commercial taxes. Except for wine, these taxes are basically not worth much money just by hearing their names.

The miscellaneous silver added by Ming Muzong was basically related to commercial taxes, but in order to avoid the interference of the vassal kings, it was not collected through the tax bureau. Therefore, these commercial taxes became miscellaneous items on the surface.

It's a pity that if more drastic actions had been taken at that time to take back the salt permits of the royal family and relatives by marriage, to rectify the salt administration, and to remove liquor from commercial taxes and to monopolize the taxation, the Ming Dynasty might have died a more graceful death.

After all, people have to eat salt no matter how expensive or cheap it is. As a result, successive dynasties had to increase the salt tax again and again in order to make money. This not only caused public resentment, but also gave rise to private salt dealers like Huang Chao. It was not worth it.

On the contrary, alcohol is something that tends to be enjoyed, and its attribute of necessity is relatively weak. In modern times, tobacco and alcohol are major sources of tax revenue in many countries. Even in the Song Dynasty, the alcohol tax could reach tens of millions of strings of cash. The Ming Dynasty was larger in size, but the alcohol tax collected was almost negligible, which is very strange.

Of course, this is getting off topic again. The complexity of the Ming Dynasty's taxation cannot be explained in a few words. After we finish talking about the Song and Yuan dynasties in this issue, we will definitely talk about it in detail.

After all, Li Zicheng once sighed that he was the emperor, but he only had 200,000 yuan. How could he not perish?
Among all the great unified dynasties, the Ming Dynasty was the only one that died of poverty. 】

The originally peaceful atmosphere in the Huagai Hall was suddenly cleared, and Zhu Biao clearly heard that his father's voice beside him had become much hoarser.

"Dead of poverty?"

"Isn't it because they were destroyed by the barbarians?"

After a moment of silence, a hoarse voice roared:
"How could he die of poverty?!"

The anger in his voice was clearly evident, but Zhu Biao also knew that what his father had told him was that being killed by the old enemy in the north was already unacceptable, so why did he say this now?
No, not to mention the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, even his Crown Prince couldn’t accept it.

At this moment, Zhu Biao was even quite confused:
Could it be that in order to adapt to the so-called window period, an emperor must also understand wealth?

(End of this chapter)