travel through the past to be emperor

Chapter 156
Everyone knew that what Zhao Fei was going to say next must be an extremely important matter, and Zhao Fei's face must be extremely serious.

Whenever Zhao Fei showed this look, it would cause a great shock in the court.

It was the first time Zhao Fei showed such a look when the imperial court established the Military Aircraft Department, and the prime minister's power was reduced by half.

The second time Zhao Fei showed this look, the imperial court established the Jinyiwei, a spy organization that officials are increasingly afraid of.

The third time Zhao Fei showed this look, the imperial court confirmed the cooperation plan with the eagle tribe on the grassland, recruiting warriors who can fight well to go to the grassland.

The fourth time Zhao Fei showed this look, the imperial court agreed on the orders of hundreds of officials in Hebei Province, and now Sha Huwei has taken the imperial decree and the Habayashi Army to Hebei Province, and there will be a bloodbath.

And now Zhao Fei showed this look again.

In view of the previous four times, all the court officials present knew that Zhao Fei might have made some new decision, and no matter what the content of the decision was, someone must suffer from it.

Sitting in the main seat, Zhao Fei could clearly see the expressions on everyone's faces, and knew that these people were thinking about what he wanted to say at the moment.

Without letting people wait, Zhao Fei said directly: "As far as I know, there are four main sources of income for the imperial treasury. From high to low, the first category is the land tax collected from farmers; The second category is [-]% of the annual income generated by the state-owned assets owned by the state; the third category is the project income generated by some powers of the imperial court, such as the examination and approval authority; the fourth category is the commercial tax collected from merchants. Well said!"

As Zhao Fei spoke, he looked at Zhao Zilong and Qin Hui. One of them was the household minister in charge of money, and the other was the prime minister who had an overview of the government affairs. Naturally, they were very clear about these data.

Qin Hui and Zhao Zilong nodded at the same time, and Qin Hui said: "Your Majesty is right. These four types of income are indeed the main income of the treasury. The income generated by the two categories is negligible, and the income of the imperial court mainly comes from the first two categories."

"That's right." Zhao Fei nodded and said, "If you want to solve the financial problems of the court, you have to study the main income of the court. Now that everyone knows the source of the court's income, what do you think the court should do?"

After speaking, Zhao Fei turned his gaze to Qin Huidao: "You are the head of all officials, so you should speak first."

"Yes." Qin Hui nodded, stood up, and said: "From the perspective of income, the main income of the imperial court is the first two types, one is land tax, and the other is income from state-owned assets. As far as I know, the imperial court now collects The land tax will still be levied according to the thirty-one tax set at the beginning of this dynasty, and I will consider whether it can be increased."

As soon as Qin Hui finished speaking, Yang Jiajie, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, stood up and said loudly, "Your Majesty, this proposal of Lord Qin must not be agreed to by my minister."

"Well, let me tell you what you think." Zhao Fei looked at Yang Jiajie in a blink of an eye. This guy had been standing there without saying a word, but now he jumped out all of a sudden, which really shocked Zhao Fei.

Yang Jiajie said: "Your Majesty, I was born in a farming and studying family. Among the ministers of civil and military affairs who are full of this kind of land, although I am not the most knowledgeable about farming, I am also ranked first in farming."

Seeing Zhao Fei nodded, Yang Jiajie continued: "As far as the land tax is concerned, Your Majesty doesn't know something. In fact, the land tax of [-] yuan per tax is already very high. The imperial court collects [-] yuan per tax, but it is implemented at the local level. However, most of the taxes collected are [-] yuan, and some places have even collected [-] yuan."

"What?" Zhao Fei suddenly said with surprise on his face, "I can assure you that what you said is true."

"Of course it's true." Yang Jiajie looked around at a group of officials, and said with a cold snort: "Many people know about this matter. Since His Majesty has closed the door today, it is for the ministers to tell the truth. Your Majesty must know, otherwise, once the imperial court collects excessively high land taxes, it is very likely that the farmers who are already heavily burdened will abandon their land and flee famine, and the foundation of the country will definitely be shaken at that time."

"Is what Master Yang said true?" Zhao Fei looked at the officials.

Facing Zhao Fei's question, everyone lowered their heads and did not speak. Seeing everyone's appearance, Zhao Fei didn't know that these people actually knew about this matter.

Looking at the silent expressions in front of him, Zhao Fei sneered and said, "Why?"

Seeing that everyone looked a bit puzzled, Zhao Fei continued: "I want to know why the imperial court clearly collects a tax of [-] yuan, but when it comes down to it, it becomes [-] yuan of tax?"

Everyone looked at me, I looked at you, and finally Qin Hui stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, in fact, Mr. Yang may only know the first half of this matter, but he doesn't know the second half."

"You know, then tell me." Zhao Fei looked at Qin Hui, pretending to be listening carefully, but actually he was very annoyed.

He didn't blame these people for deceiving him, but blamed these people for knowing that the officials below were operating illegally, but they didn't stop them.

The people are the foundation. If the court wants to maintain its rule and establish a foundation for eternity, it must let the people protect itself.

In order to allow the people to protect themselves, the founding monarch of the Great Song Kingdom established a system of [-] one tax, but he never thought that after hundreds of years, under the great Song Kingdom's accumulated disadvantages, the following has received [-] tax ones, Even fifteen tax one.

This kind of behavior is tantamount to shaking the foundation of the Song Dynasty fundamentally, which makes Zhao Fei very angry.

Qin Hui naturally knew why Zhao Fei was angry, but he had to explain this matter. After all, he was the head of all officials, and the first thing he had to do was to protect the interests of all officials.

"Your Majesty, before I speak, please listen to an inappropriate metaphor from me." Qin Hui said.

"Say it." Zhao Fei still spoke the truth.

"Your Majesty, do you think there are people who would do things for others for free?" Qin Hui said.

"Except for some special cases, there shouldn't be any," Zhao Fei said.

"Yes, in this day and age, everyone loves money, and everyone likes money. If you don't give people money, people will never do things for you for free." Qin Huidao: "Your Majesty knows how many officials and people there are in the imperial court. ?"

"This..." Zhao Fei was dumbfounded. No one has given him a correct number for these two questions so far.

"There are more than 4 officials in the imperial court." Qin met Zhao Fei without saying a word, and went directly: "These [-] people are in charge of at least [-] million people in the country. Please forgive me for not being able to give your Majesty an accurate number." After all, there are too many people who have not been registered in the court register, but the number of registered people is close to [-] million."

"And then?" Zhao Fei asked.

"Does Your Majesty think that these 4 people can really govern the affairs of 4000 million people?" Qin Huidao: "Or to put it simply, does Your Majesty think that one official can manage [-] people?"

"This?" Of course Zhao Fei didn't dare to say yes, one person manages 4000 people, are you kidding?So Zhao Fei said, "What exactly do you want to say?"

"The imperial court has ten households and one guarantee, ten guarantees and one village. There is a guarantor, and the village has a village head. There are also a large number of people under the baochang and the village head who specialize in managing the people. These people are not imperial officials, but they are actually for The imperial court is doing things." Qin Huidao: "What does your Majesty think is the reason?"

"Because of benefits?" Zhao Fei said, "Because the positions of the security chief and the village chief can bring them benefits."

"That's right." Qin Hui nodded and said, "Of course these people will not be obliged to do things for the court. They need to be paid for doing things. The court does not have this money, and the Ministry of Households has no budget for this money anywhere. What's more, the little money from the household department can't even pay the salaries of the court officials, so there is no money to pay the salaries of these informal officials who are dozens of times the ordinary officials."

"So?" Zhao Fei asked.

"So they have to figure out their own way." Qin Hui said with a wry smile, "The way is simple, just increase the tax."

"The imperial court has clear regulations on the amount of tax. Can the local government increase it at will?" Zhao Fei said.

"Naturally, the local government has no right to add it at will, but they can use other names to collect it, such as labor service fee, measurement fee, agency fee and many other names." Qin Huidao.

"You all know these things?" Zhao Fei said coldly.

"I know." Qin Huidao: "Aside from the government, the ministers are just ordinary people, and the ministers naturally know the things that ordinary people know."

"Then why don't you care about it?" Zhao Fei's voice suddenly became cold and severe, and he said, "It's just that they corrupt the court's laws and regulations like this."

"Your Majesty, it's not that I don't care, but that I can't!" Qin Hui smiled wryly.

"Can't control it or don't want to control it?" Zhao Fei sneered.

"I can't control it." Qin Hui knelt down on the ground, kowtowed and said: "Your Majesty, the imperial court can't collect taxes by posting notices. It needs people to collect them from house to house. The officials in a place are too capable. It is also impossible to collect all the taxes with a few of them, so they have to find someone to collect, and they have to find someone with local influence to collect it, otherwise you can find a beggar and the people will ignore you. , and looking for someone requires money, and the court does not give money, so they can only find a way by themselves, and collecting exorbitant donations and miscellaneous fees is naturally the best way."

"Can't you bypass these people?" Zhao Fei said.

"Your Majesty, do you know that the Ministry of Household Affairs can detect a large number of lands that do not pay taxes every year." Qin Huidao: "In fact, no matter how low the tax rate is set by the court, this kind of tax evasion is unavoidable."

"So?" Zhao Fei frowned.

"So if the imperial court doesn't use all kinds of benefits to lure those local tyrants to do things for the imperial court, the imperial court may not be able to collect any money." Qin Hui smiled wryly.

"Don't you all know the harm of doing this?" Zhao Fei asked in surprise, "Don't you think of a solution?"

"Of course I have thought about it." Qin Huidao: "The kings of all dynasties have devoted a lot of energy to this issue. Even before the death of the first emperor, they called a group of ministers to discuss this matter, but every time the discussion ended The results were fruitless."

"Why?" Zhao Fei looked at Qin Hui with flickering eyes.

Qin Hui spread his hands and said, "Your Majesty, you know that it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice."

(End of this chapter)