"Pravda" is published every three days, after the first few issues of Yang Feng quietly followed the circulation of Pravda, and found that the comments on this newspaper in the market were polarized, and the people at the bottom had a good evaluation of Pravda, while the scholars and the upper echelons of the imperial court did not have a very good evaluation of Pravda, and it could even be said that it was a disdainful attitude.

The reason for this polarization is that Pravda lacks articles about really influential people, and the reason why it is loved by the common people is not only because the newspaper is written in the vernacular.

Although the above articles are clichés for officials and readers, after all, the editors of this newspaper are some unsuccessful or unsuccessful readers, and their level is naturally not much better. But this is not the case for the common people, who have never been exposed to books, where do they come into contact with these articles on weekdays, because at first glance they think these articles are not bad, so that the fame of Pravda has quietly spread in the market of the capital.

After the first six free releases, Yang Feng's marketing strategy began to change.

"What...... Is this newspaper going for silver? In front of Pravda's newspaper headquarters, a guy from a shop who had come to pick up the newspaper looked at the newsboy in front of him in surprise.

"Yes...... From now on, the price of Pravda is three cents per copy! The thirteen or fourteen-year-old newsboy, who was wearing a special bright red vest with the words "Pravda" written on it, said solemnly to the fellow.

The same young fellow almost jumped up, his eyes widened and asked, "What are you kidding, you even need three pennies for this thing?" Do you know that I can buy two meat buns for three pennies, why do you want to buy your broken newspaper? ”

"It's just a piece of broken paper, and it costs three pennies, and your shopkeeper is too dark, right?"

"Black-hearted newspaper, black-hearted Pravda!"

The people who came to ask for the newspaper also spoke out one after another, staring at the newsboy one by one, as if the other party had done something evil that hurt nature and reason.

Looking at these menacing people, the newsboy's eyes showed a look of sarcasm, "This big brother, I remember that you are a guy in the teahouse in Yuanliu Hutong, right?" If I go to your teahouse to drink tea, will you let me drink it for nothing? ”

"I ...... I ......"

The guy couldn't help but say that he had to pay for something, and this rule has been a matter of course since ancient times. It's just that the first few issues of Pravda were given away for free, which also gives people a hint that this thing is definitely not worth any silver, and now that they see that the other party has begun to ask for silver, they are used to being free and immediately feel that they have been slaughtered.

This situation is similar to the reaction of residents living in cities who have not had time to be happy when they learn that they have to charge money for tap water after they use tap water for the first time in modern times. People are questioning the water company. The water came down from heaven by God, and Lao Tzu has never seen anyone collect money from using water for generations, why did you start collecting money when you came here, what a profiteer.

And to deal with these people, the company's way is also very simple. Since you can't make money, you can continue to drink from the well or from the water.

Looking at these people who seemed to be about to jump to their feet, this guy remembered the instructions from above, and simply said: "Everyone, our boss has ordered." If you want to continue reading the newspaper, you have to pay for it, or else you will have to leave. ”

"If you don't look at it, you won't watch it...... Could it be that Lao Tzu can't afford to lose a piece of meat without reading this broken newspaper? The man from the teahouse shouted loudly, then turned around and made a posture that he was about to leave.

It's just that when he walked a few steps, he found that the figures of the people around him were still not moving, and many people looked at each other, you look at me, I look at you for a long time, and the last young man dressed as a servant said with some hesitation: "This...... Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that three pennies are nothing, so it's not impossible for us to try to buy one, right? Bub...... Here...... Here's Sanwen, get me a newspaper! ”

The newsman of "Give ......" took the brass plate and handed a copy of Pravda to the servant.

"Hey...... You kid is too spineless, aren't you, are you willing to ask for three pennies for this thing? The man looked at the servant and grumbled.

"You know!" The servant glared at the guy angrily, "This newspaper was specially ordered by my young lady to buy it, if I can't take it back, my young lady can't see this issue of Dream of Red Mansions, will she blame it on you or on my own?" ”

"Yes."

Only then did everyone remember this stubble, in fact, most of the people who came to ask for the newspaper were men and subordinates of various mansions, and they all came to receive the newspaper on the orders of their masters.

Especially the guys in the teahouses, the storytellers in the teahouses are still waiting for this newspaper to read the Dream of Red Mansions, so that they can tell stories for the guests of the teahouses, if they can't get the newspaper back and the other guys take it back, doesn't this mean that the storytellers in the teahouse don't have the Dream of Red Mansions? Without the Dream of Red Mansions, wouldn't the guests in the teahouse have to go to other teahouses to listen to books?

As soon as I thought of this, the eyes of many guys immediately became wrong. Nima's, this has risen to the question of the quality of his own tea house business,

"That's it...... Today I will give your owner a face, and reluctantly buy a newspaper to go back! ”

It wasn't who started this, and soon these people took out the silver......

The time was noon, this time was originally the time for everyone to eat and rest, but everyone in the newspaper office stayed in the hall of the newspaper office and waited for the data that was constantly transmitted back in front of them, looking very anxious.

"Three hundred and twenty-eight copies were sold in Dongcheng District?"

"Four hundred and fifty-three ...... were sold in Nancheng District"

"Beicheng District ......"

By noon, a total of 2,135 copies had been sold, which was a bit of a disappointment to the editors in the newsroom, which was a bit different from their expectations.

"How...... Are you all a little disheartened? Yang Feng looked at everyone and asked with a smile.

"Uncle...... We ......"

Lu Zijian hung his head in shame, before that, the 3,000 newspapers that were distributed for free in each issue of Pravda were all snatched up, which also gave them a lot of confidence.

The editors, including Lu Zijian, were full of confidence, believing that with their own writing and the content of the newspaper, Pravda would definitely become an instant hit and cause a sensation in the entire Beijing circle. The number of newspaper sales can easily exceed 10,000, and the editors of them have become famous in one fell swoop, and maybe some people will take a fancy to their buried talents.

But the reality gave them a slap in the face, the reason why the previous issues of the newspaper were snatched up was because it was free, in line with the psychology of not wanting to be in vain, people were naturally happy to accept it, but once they let others buy things out of their own pockets, the reality will tell them that there is an inevitable reason for their repeated failures.

"Well, don't be discouraged!" Yang Feng smiled and comforted: "Our newspaper has only been published for a few issues, and it is normal for the people in the capital not to know. Moreover, the quality of the articles published in our newspapers is indeed worrying, and it is normal for people to dislike them. ”

Hearing this, the editors' heads hung lower. Before, these people all had the common problem of readers, one by one thought that they were all buried in the people, Guan Zhong and Liu Bowen, and the reason why they repeatedly failed the test was because the examiner was blind, so when they heard Yang Feng say that they could publish their current affairs commentary articles in the newspaper for the public to read, they were all as excited as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.

But when their article was really published, after hearing everyone's evaluation, they realized that the reason why they failed the exam was not because of the examiner's eyes, but because their own articles were really bad.

Seeing that the atmosphere in the editing room had become dull, Yang Feng knew that if he didn't cheer everyone up, he was afraid that the hearts of these people would be scattered. In the words of later generations, it is difficult to lead the team when the hearts of the people are scattered.

He laughed and said: "Okay, all head up, the outcome is not yet known, you must know that what our newspaper published today is not only the book of Dream of Red Mansions, but also the article that Ben Bo made for them, which should surely attract the attention of many people......

After listening to Yang Feng's words, Lu Zijian, Liang Zixin and other editors not only did not show any happy expressions on their faces, but they all showed worried expressions, but because of Yang Feng's face, they couldn't say it clearly, they all bowed their heads and kept silent, seeing that everyone was like this, Yang Feng also knew that the cannon he put this time was really a bit big, no wonder they all showed such an appearance. But he doesn't want to explain anything, so let reality tell people that they're wrong.

As Yang Feng expected, the people who bought Pravda back were surprised to find that Dream of Red Mansions, which had been placed on the front page, had been moved to the second page, and the most important front page actually put an article called "The Theory of Taxation", on which the author's signature was awe-inspiring: Yang Feng.

At the same time that everyone was surprised, the first sentence of this article read: Taxation is the foundation of a country and the foundation on which the operation of the imperial court depends, just like human blood is indispensable, if no one pays taxes, the Ming Dynasty will die!

The first sentence of the opening of this article expounds the importance of taxation to the imperial court and the country, and the second sentence is: The Ming Dynasty tax is so important, when Hongwu was ten years old, my Ming court had more than 15 million taels of taxes, and it reached more than 20 million taels during the Yongle period. It has been more than 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, but the taxes collected are getting lower and lower, and in the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the taxes collected by the Ming Dynasty are only more than 5 million taels, why is it so little?

If the first sentence of this article is eye-catching, then the second sentence is to make people's hearts jump suddenly.

Next, Yang Feng expounded on the importance of taxation for a country in this article, and pointed out that if a country does not have sufficient taxes, then the government will be paralyzed, the army will have no way to fight, there will be no way to provide disaster relief in the event of a local disaster, and even once a rebellion in a place cannot be suppressed, then it will be a disaster for the whole country, and it also indicates the beginning of the collapse of a regime.

It can be said that the first half of the article is shocking, and in the second half of the article, Yang Feng mentioned why the population of the Ming Dynasty is increasing, and the fields are not decreasing, but the taxes are getting less and less, there is only one reason, that is, at the beginning of the founding of the country, most of the land in the country was in the hands of the people, and the land at that time was the main source of taxes for the imperial court, so with the continuous increase of the arable area of the imperial court, the taxes were also greatly enhanced, so the Ming Dynasty at that time was able to sweep the eight wildernesses, Beat the Mongolian Tartar to cry dad and mother.

But after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, most of the land in the Ming Dynasty was concentrated in the hands of the landlords, and these people were all scholars with meritorious reputation, and the scholars did not have to pay the field tax. Eighty percent of the land in the Ming Dynasty is in the hands of those landlords and gentry who do not pay taxes, so the entire land of the Ming Dynasty depends on the farmers who own two percent of the land to pay, which is the reason why the land that the Ming Dynasty can collect is getting less and less.

After talking about Tian Fu, Yang Feng turned his pen and talked about taxes on salt, iron, and tea. And pointed out that these should have been monopolized by the imperial court to make a living, now has been monopolized by the rich gentry in the Jiangnan area, and the annual commercial tax is getting less and less, those rich merchants can not hesitate to spend thousands of taels of silver to comb for a Qing people, but they are reluctant to pay a few hundred taels of silver in commercial tax, once the imperial court levies commercial tax on them, they will cry and cry that the court and the people compete for profit.

After the article said this, he asked rhetorically, why did those businessmen have so much courage to go against the imperial court, but the imperial court could not do anything about them? The reason is very simple, because there is a group in the imperial court that speaks for those rich merchants in Jiangnan, whenever the imperial court wants to levy taxes on Jiangnan, these people will jump out and shout frantically and oppose any policy of the imperial court to impose commercial taxes on Jiangnan merchants, and the name of this group is called Donglin Party!

When I saw this, all the people who saw this article, no matter who they were, were all stunned on the spot, and they all screamed in their hearts, and they were going to be pierced next day.

"Bang ......"

A loud noise came from Gao Panlong's mansion, and one of Gao Panlong's favorite vases was broken.

"Presumptuous...... It's too presumptuous, what does this Yang Feng want to do? Is he trying to force us to break the net with him? ”

As the backbone of the Donglin Party, Qian Qianyi, Li Qiyuan, Fang Zhuangli and other dozens of officials were also present, at this time they have long lost their former sanctimony, and their faces are all anxious, even frightened, they know that the biggest crisis since the establishment of the Donglin Party has arrived......