my wonderful zoo

Chapter 120 Foshan Fort

The most obvious ones are alcohol, tobacco and sugar, which are all subject to tax and residence tax of up to 50.00%. There are also regulations that products that have not been taxed are not allowed to be sold on the shelves.

This means that the original ex-factory price of one tael of sugar is one tael and a half taels of sugar, and the cost of shipping it to the store is one tael and a half taels of silver.

This does not include the tax on sugar cane purchased by sugar mills ([-]%) and the profits added by sugar mills.

Merchants originally thought they could pay less tax through "tax farming," but the military government's "Industrial and Commercial Law" strictly prohibits tax farming in the local tax system, blocking this road.

Moreover, the new law imposes very severe penalties for tax evasion. Not only will the amount of tax evaded be fined twice as much, but the tax evasion amount will also be imprisoned.

For the above, merchants could have afforded it. After all, according to the governance capabilities of past dynasties, if the imperial power did not go to the countryside, there would always be ways to exploit loopholes.

But that’s all, the Industrial and Commercial Law stipulates:
"Based on the information provided by the whistleblower, the Taxation Department of the Ministry of Political Affairs successfully detects tax evasion, tax evasion, tax evasion and other cases. The whistleblower can receive a reward ranging from 20.00% to 30.00% of the value of the case. The specific amount of the reward will depend on the number of cases solved based on the information provided by the whistleblower. Determined by the importance, the total amount shall not exceed 1 taels of silver.”

In other words, if someone reports a merchant for tax evasion, and the Taxation Department finally determines that the merchant has evaded 100 taels of tax, the reporter can receive a reward of at least 20 taels and up to 30 taels.

This is the famous "whistleblower" system in later generations.

For those merchants, it is too easy to evade 100 taels of tax. For medium-sized merchants selling luxury goods, the monthly tax amount can far exceed this amount.

But for those poor insiders, the temptation of 20 taels is too great, and they may not be able to save so much money in their lifetime.

These insiders may come from the servants and shopkeepers of the merchants, their relatives and friends, their competitors, or their wives, concubines, and legitimate children who compete for the family property.

It is more likely to come from professional whistleblowers who make money by receiving bonuses for reporting.

The introduction of this regulation means that if merchants want to evade taxes, they will face a situation where everyone around them may become "whistleblowers."

It's so hard!

As soon as the Industrial and Commercial Law was promulgated on September [-], it immediately caused an uproar in six counties in Guangzhou (excluding Chenjiazhuang County).

No, in just ten days, most merchants from Guangzhou, Nanhai County, and Panyu County gathered in Foshan Fort.

We need to negotiate with the military government.

In their view, this evil law will destroy their lives.

You know, in the eyes of people of this era, hiding from each other is the most sincere emotion in human nature.

The laws of all dynasties and dynasties stipulate that one should protect and conceal one's relatives, and not report the crimes of relatives.

There is a principle in criminal law that relatives who are guilty should conceal each other's crimes. Those who do not report or testify will not be guilty, but those who do not will be prosecuted.

This principle has been put forward by Confucianism since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and has been passed down to this day.

The Song Dynasty even made clear provisions in the criminal law: if relatives are guilty of hiding from each other, no matter the crime or the sentence is reduced; if you accuse a relative who should hide from each other, you will be punished; there are two types of crimes that do not apply to the principle of hiding from each other: one is treason and conspiracy. Treason, conspiracy and other serious crimes, and the other is the crime of mutual aggression between certain relatives.

However, the Industrial and Commercial Law encourages relatives to inform each other for money, which is against common ethics.

It is not difficult to see that there must be support from the gentry behind the scenes in this farce, but they did not end it personally.

Chen Jiajun continued to get off the boat and began to form an array on the south side of Foshan Fort. Foshan Fort also noticed the movement here, and more and more Baoding soldiers climbed onto the fort wall with weapons in hand.

Some of these bodings used to be the guards of various merchants, but most of them must have been craftsmen of various industries.

In Chen Xun's view, these people are walking miniature money printing machines.

Therefore, in today's battle to attack the fortress, weapons that can cause mass destruction must not be used. Grenades and explosive packets must be put away first. "Chen Yu, how do you think we should break the fort?" Chen Xun pulled Chen Yu, who had just been free, to the front.

"Well, Sun Tzu said: 'The first is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and the third is to attack the city.' I think we should try to persuade them to surrender first?" Chen Yu replied.

"Oh? I thought you would talk about artillery approaching, musket cover, and explosives breaking down walls." Chen Xun was a little surprised.

"Of course, I really like breaking down the city like this. It's simple and straightforward. But the siege will inevitably cause casualties. I don't care about those enemies, but for my subordinates, I'm still willing to try to persuade them to surrender first." Chen Yu nodded.

"Okay, then let's persuade him to surrender first." Chen Xun doesn't have any good strategy for the time being. The worst is to attack by force. It's better to try other methods first.

Some loud-voiced officers were sent forward and loudly persuaded them to surrender a hundred paces from the fort wall.

"Only pursue the culprit, and ignore others."

"When the siege begins, casualties are inevitable."

"Don't resist. There is no city that the military government cannot conquer."

"If you die, others will sleep with your wife and beat your children..."

……

All kinds of down-to-earth words of persuasion to surrender were greeted at the "pure recruits" on the fort wall.

Of course, there are also those for those merchants:
"As long as you surrender, the military government promises not to pursue this rebellion."

"This is your last chance, otherwise when the fortress is destroyed, all the big families you participated in will be destroyed."

"Don't say it's unpredictable!"

……

After changing two groups of people and shouting for half an hour, until all preparations for the siege were completed, the merchant alliance in the fort still showed no sign of opening the fort gate and surrendering.

I don't know whether it was the tall fortress wall or the wide moat that gave them confidence that they could use force to win the right to speak in the hands of the military government.

"Lu Hui, capture it." Chen Xun ordered.

"Accept orders! Governor."

The new tiger crouching guns (curved guns, similar to mortars) were pushed two hundred steps away from the fort wall, five guns, more than twenty steps apart from each other.

The reason for such a long distance is that the newly developed explosive bullets will be used for this shooting.

The explosive bombs, which were still in the experimental stage, were carefully carried over in wooden boxes.

There are two types of fuses for this type of cannonball, one for each side of the round cannonball.One is a fuse ignited by propellant, and the other is ignited with a fire pin before putting the shell into it.

Two types of fuzes are designed to increase the probability of the explosive bomb exploding after it hits the ground.

Both designs are very simple and very low-tech.Chen Xun had absolutely zero knowledge about this and could only rely on the gunsmith to figure it out on his own.

Today's battle happened suddenly, and Chen Xun didn't have time to understand how the gunsmith achieved the delayed fuse.

(End of this chapter)