Thief Emperor

Chapter 915: Putting Shackles on the Upstarts

"New tax law?"

Du He looked up at Li Yun, then lowered his head slightly and asked, "Your Majesty, may I ask what the new tax law is? After I go back, I will discuss the rules with the officials of the Ministry of Revenue."

"Well."

Li Yun reached out and knocked on the table, then said, "I'll just briefly talk about the general outline."

"The most important thing is to gradually reduce the Ding tax within the next three years and merge it with the land tax."

"After three years, all taxes on males will be exempted, and all will be allocated to land taxes."

The poll tax has been collected for thousands of years.

If it were normal times and the land was relatively uniform, then there wouldn't be much of a problem with this method of harvesting, but the problem is that the land is not uniform.

Some aristocratic families, through hundreds or thousands of years of accumulation, have occupied too much land. These aristocratic families and landlords have privileges and are exempt from taxes. Even landlords who are not tax-exempt only need to pay the poll tax for their own family and a portion of the land tax.

The tenants who farmed the land for them had to pay the poll tax themselves. As a result, the tenants were basically living on the survival line, not starving to death but not having enough to eat either.

If the tax is distributed according to the amount of land, the situation will be much better. At least, those who do not own any land will no longer have to pay the tax.

Upon hearing this, Du He first looked up at Li Yun, then lowered his head slightly and said nothing.

Li Yun looked at him and said in a deep voice: "Also, from today onwards, there will be no more tax exemptions in the whole world. No matter who owns the land, as long as it is within the territory of the Tang Dynasty, land tax will be collected."

"Including the future princes of the royal family, the fields of the imperial farm, and the official fields that were previously confiscated."

Mr. Li looked at Du He and said calmly, "All land and property will be taxed. There will be no exemptions."

Hearing this, Du He's face changed. He looked up at Li Yun and said with his head down: "Your Majesty, this, this..."

"Oh."

Li Yun looked at him and remembered something. He exhaled and said, "There is a group that can be exempted from tax."

"In recent years, those who have made contributions in the army have been awarded military titles. When land is distributed in the future, the land awarded will not be taxed, but it must be clearly stipulated."

"No matter how much land the court awards, only this portion of land will not be taxed. If there is more land in the future, taxes will be collected as usual."

Li Yun looked at Du He calmly, "Not only that, in the future I will also set the rules for the country, and future kings will no longer be allowed to exempt any person or group from taxes."

Du He bowed to Li Yun and said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, this way, this way, I'm afraid it will be unstable."

Li Yun's method is certainly beneficial to the court and the country, but at the same time, it will inevitably harm the interests of some ruling classes, such as future princes, ministers, vassal kings and nobles.

They didn't have to pay taxes, and no one dared to collect any taxes from them.

Moreover, they had originally been closely surrounding Li Yun, but now Li Yun's actions had more or less harmed their interests.

This could lead to instability within the ruling group.

At least in the early years of the dynasty, it was obviously inappropriate to do so. Now, the most sensible thing for Li Yun to do is to show favor to the ruling group and let them unite closely around him.

Li Yun looked calm and said with a smile: "Since I dare to say so, I am more or less prepared in my heart. If there is any turmoil, it is nothing more than another fight."

"This is what I'm least afraid of these years."

At this point, Li Yun knocked on the table and continued, "Let's continue."

Li Yun continued to speak one by one. By the time he had roughly stated his ideas, Du He's expression had become quite strange, but he did not dare to say anything more. He just bowed to Li Yun and responded with "I understand."

"After I return to the Ministry of Revenue, I will immediately convene a meeting of officials from the Ministry of Revenue to discuss the matter. After a conclusion is reached, I will report it to Your Majesty."

Li Yun hummed, and said calmly: "Thank you for your hard work, Minister Du."

"There is no need to hide this news. You can spread it out and inform the people in the court. I also want to see what the people in the court think."

Du He replied respectfully, then bowed, said goodbye and left.

Li Yun watched him go away, then looked down at his hands and did not speak for a long time.

After a long while, he looked up outside the Ganlu Palace, then turned his head to look at the documents at his hand.

He didn't know how long it had passed before a voice rang in his ears: "Your Majesty, Duke Qin wants to see you."

Li Yun came back to his senses and answered subconsciously: "Please come in."

"Yes."

Soon, Duke Qin Du Qian came in with small steps, knelt in front of Li Yun, bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you." Li Yun looked at Du Qian and said with a smile: "Brother Shouyi, how can you perform such a great ceremony? Get up quickly."

Du Qian responded and then stood up.

Li Yun just glanced at him and understood what he meant. He waved his hand and dismissed the palace servants.

Soon, the king and his minister were the only ones left in Ganlu Palace.

Du Qian took a deep breath, looked up at Li Yun, and said, "Your Majesty, just now my third brother went to the Secretariat and told me some of Your Majesty's wishes."

"I understand what your majesty wants to do, but I think this matter should not be rushed."

Du Qian whispered, "We can gradually implement the tax distribution over the next few years, but we should grant other favors where they are due. Otherwise, the new dynasty will not be stable."

Li Yun just looked at him quietly.

"Brother Yihui, tell me in detail."

Du Qian looked around and whispered, "Your Majesty, if you use this method, outsiders will think that Your Majesty is a money-grubbing person who wants to gather all the wealth in the world into his own hands."

“It’s not the wealth of the world.”

Li Yun looked calm: "It's just the taxes that should be collected. I am also prepared to reduce the tax by 10% or 20% based on the old Zhou national tax."

"Moreover, my imperial farm, and in the future the land of the royal family and princes, will also have to pay taxes. The taxes will not go into my treasury, but into the Ministry of Revenue's national treasury."

"What is the problem?"

Du Qian lowered his head and smiled bitterly: "At this time, it seems that we should win over the hearts of the people..."

"I didn't say anything about giving grace on taxes."

Li Yun looked at Du Qian, motioned Du Qian to sit down, and then said, "Some of the people who are close to me will not say anything to me about this matter. Those who are not close to me will not be dissatisfied in their hearts."

"It's up to them."

Li Yun looked at Du Qian and said with a smile: "If it doesn't work out, I will pay for the taxes that should be paid for the fiefs under your name."

Du Qian sat down by himself. He looked at Li Yun and shook his head, saying, "Your Majesty, you know that I don't care about these things."

At this point, he sighed slightly and said, "Your Majesty, as long as you follow the procedures to grant grace, you can become an eternal sage king. Why do you have to do these things that offend people?"

"Taxes will not be a big problem in the next 100 years. Your Majesty, why would you offend the people of today for the sake of the court a hundred years from now?"

Hearing this, Li Yun also sighed: "Brother Shouyi also misunderstood me."

"Brother Shouyi thinks that I am doing this for the court a hundred years from now and for future generations a hundred years from now, but I don't think so."

"What I want is that the founding of my dynasty should be somewhat different from other dynasties."

"I am not doing this for the imperial court to last for thousands of years, and for the Li Dynasty to prosper forever."

"What I think in my heart is that if this policy is implemented, the people at the bottom will have a better life."

"As for why we don't give them the tax... No, I should say why we don't give tax exemption to our own people."

Li Yun looked at Du Qian and said, "So far, New Tang has not distributed much land to them. We can't collect much tax from these people. It doesn't matter whether we collect it or not, but the key is..."

"This hole cannot be opened."

Li Yun looked calm: "Once this loophole is opened, someone will plunder the farmland and deposit the farmland in the name of these tax-exempt people. In the future, they will still turn those farmers into their tenants."

"Brother Yiyi, do you understand what I mean?"

Du Qian's expression changed slightly when he heard this, and he looked up at Li Yun.

Li Yun continued, "Official and private fields, including my Li family's fields, are all treated equally. All proceeds go into the national treasury and are still used for the people. They can't say anything to me."

Du Qian whispered: "But there will always be people who are dissatisfied."

"I know."

Li Yun lowered his head and drank tea with a calm expression.

“I’m ready…”

"Be prepared to be stabbed."

(End of this chapter)