Chapter 11 The Sunset of the Long River Section 45 December 25, Chang'an, Prime Minister's Mansion. Prime Minister Li Wei put his hands behind his back and paced slowly in the study.

The Great Sima Xu Rong, the Taiwei Zhang Yan, the Great Si Nongqing Tian Yu, the Shang Shuling Tian Chou, the Prime Minister's Mansion Shi Jiakui, and Sima Wenhui sat around the brazier, their expressions grim, each contemplating.

"His Highness's attitude is very resolute." Tian Chou coughed, breaking the silence in the room,

"The national focus suddenly wants to make such a subversive adjustment, and His Highness can't accept it. She asked us to convey it on your behalf, please be sure to go to Liyang before Chinese New Year's Eve and explain things clearly. Li Wei stopped, looked up at the candlestick in the corner of the house, and didn't speak for a long time.

"Zhong Yuan, have you already drawn up a preliminary plan for the specific measures for the adjustment of the national policy?" Xu Rong asked.

"I asked you to come here to hear your opinions." Li Wei nodded, walked to the seat and sat down,

"I want to know, how much military money will be needed to quell the rebellion in northern Xinjiang next year? Is there a detailed figure for the Taiwei Mansion? Zhang Yan smiled,

"If you don't ask, I'll say that after the fifteenth day of the first month, the armies of the Northern Expedition to the desert will be assembled one after another, and I urgently need money. According to the preliminary budget, the army of the Northern Expedition needs about 4 billion yuan in military resources, and if the war drags on until next year, it will need at least 2 billion more money. ”

"Six billion dollars." Li Wei smiled bitterly,

"Another six billion. This year's expedition to Liangzhou has already cost 6 billion yuan in military funds, plus the pacification and relief of various counties in Xiliang, we have spent a total of 6.5 billion yuan in Xiliang. If you count the consumption on the battlefield in northern Xinjiang, the numbers are even more staggering. ”

"Seventy-five billion dollars." Tian Yu sighed,

"That's seven and a half billion dollars in total. The total expenditure of the imperial court this year is 11 billion yuan. Of this amount, 3.5 billion yuan was spent on the reconstruction of Chang'an and other expenditures. The cost of fighting a war was too great for the imperial court to support it. ”

"What is the income of the imperial court this year?" Xu Rong asked,

"The above count is basically over, are the specific numbers out?"

"It's out." Tian Yu's smile was very bitter,

"The conversion of land rent is about 1.4 billion yuan, the conversion of the manuscript (the collection of farm fodder, straw and other physical goods) is about 100 million yuan, the total amount of oral endowment, calculation endowment and change endowment is about 3 billion yuan, and the amount of money (i.e., goods, property tax) is about 1.7 billion yuan. The sum of the above items is about 6.2 billion, which is the total income of the imperial court this year, and the highest income since the implementation of the new policy. ”

"So much?" Xu Rong, Zhang Yan and others were pleasantly surprised.

"The reason why the imperial court's financial endowment has grown so fast is first of all due to the promotion and implementation of the new policy in Yanzhou and Qingzhou, which has entered a bumper harvest stage. The second is because the imperial court recovered Yuzhou. Tian Yu explained,

"If it weren't for the recovery of Yuzhou last year, the wealth of the imperial court this year would not have increased to 6.2 billion yuan anyway. It can be seen from the 6.2 billion financial income that in fact, the imperial court did not have a land levy. This is because the land rent, slash, and draft in the new tax system are all "taxes per acre", which are actually levied by 'mouth', except for the property tax of 1.7 billion yuan, the rest are all poll taxes. The larger the population, the higher the taxes. This is very similar to the tax system of 'making up households and uniting the people' that was implemented in the early years of this dynasty. ”

"The imperial court's wealth has increased, but the imperial court cannot make ends meet, and it is seriously in deficit, with a deficit of 4.8 billion yuan this year alone." Tian Yu shook his head helplessly,

"If you add the deficit over the years, the imperial court has borrowed a total of 17 billion yuan on credit. To put it bluntly, the imperial court is now living by borrowing money. ”

"What about Shaofu?" Xu Rong asked,

"If the income of the Shaofu also increases, it can alleviate the financial crisis to a certain extent." The income of the Shaofu was used by the emperor and was mainly used for court consumption and rewarding his subordinates.

Since the eldest princess took power, because of the needs of Zhongxing, the money of the Shaofu has basically been allocated to the treasury.

"The products of the mountains and forests (containing iron), the sea and rivers (containing salt), the public fields, gardens, vegetable and fruit orchards, the taxes of the commercial market, and the profits from the water balance and coinage, are about one billion yuan." Tian Yu said,

"In the past two years, in order to build Weiyang Palace, His Royal Highness not only spent all the money of Shaofu, but also borrowed more than 3 billion yuan on credit......" Tian Yu smiled bitterly,

"Your Majesty and Her Royal Highness the eldest princess are also in debt now, two poor eggs." Several ministers in the study looked at each other, not even thinking of smiling bitterly.

In order to attack the Central Plains and recover Luoyang, the imperial court poured everything into it and borrowed a lot of money on credit. Now the army is about to pacify the western and northern frontiers, the old debts have not been repaid, the new debts are coming, and the days are getting more and more difficult.

"Where's the money?" Li Wei suddenly slapped the case hard, and said angrily,

"Where is the big man's money?" The ministers all know where the money is, but it is difficult to get it back.

Where is the big man's money? In the princes and nobles, in the families of the gatekeepers, in the bureaucrats, in the families of the rich merchants.

The richest people in the Han Dynasty, except for the emperor, were princes and nobles. Princes and nobles include kings, princes, princesses, and marquis of Guannai.

Kings, princes, and princesses all have fiefs (kingdoms or eups). Although the Marquis of Guan Nei is only a noble title, generally speaking, the family background of those who can get this title can be imagined.

The income of the nobles with fiefs was divided into two types: public and private. The public fee is to collect land rent and household taxes (each household pays 200 per year), which is mainly used to meet the emperor and worship ancestors.

Private maintenance is the possession of the fields in the fiefdom, slaves and maids, and the collection of garden and pond merchant market taxes, etc., for private enjoyment.

The princes and nobles had limited public income, and in order to meet their own needs, they had to find ways to increase their private support, and the more common way was to annex land in large quantities and make extensive use of tenant farmers, hired farmers, and slaves.

Another way is to do a lot of money lending money through businessmen or simply in person, and do usury business.

More powerful nobles, such as Wang Gen, the Marquis of Quyang of the Emperor Xiaowai Dynasty, built a mansion in Beijing, built two cities privately in the house, and openly did business.

Kong Guang, the prime minister of the Emperor Xiaowai Dynasty, had planned to implement the policy of restricting land and slaves and maids to prevent the princes and nobles from endangering the society, but was strongly opposed by the princes and nobles and ended in failure.

The gate valve family had both aristocrats and bureaucrats. From the prime minister to the county officials, they all belong to bureaucrats of different ranks.

There are too many and too easy ways for bureaucrats to amass money. It is by nature a lust for profit and tyranny, as it has been since ancient times.

Of course, there are still many honest bureaucrats. When Emperor Xiaozhao built the mausoleum, Dasi Farmland hired 30,000 folk ox carts to transport sand and soil for a period of 1,000 yuan, and Tian Yannian privately increased to 2,000 and got 30 million stolen goods.

Another example is Zhang Yu, the prime minister of the Xiaocheng Emperor's dynasty, who was a famous Confucian who once violated the law to buy high-quality fields as many as 400 hectares.

There are also many powerful bureaucrats, all of whom are secretly engaged in business, and the law is simply a pile of broken bamboo in their eyes.

The big officials of the imperial court are greedy, and the small officials are naturally no exception. If a large county keeper dies in office, he can get 10 million funeral money according to the law.

There is such a high pension after death, which shows that the benefits of being an official are not only to get a monthly rank, but also to have an uncalculable hidden income.

There are two kinds of merchants, one is a businessman with a city registration, and the other is a businessman without a city registration. Municipal registration is a necessary condition for merchants to do business in the city, and they pay taxes according to the regulations.

It is mainly small and medium-sized businessmen with low status, low status, despised by others, and even the court has regulations on what kind of clothes to wear, and the situation has always been very bad.

The big salt and iron merchants, the big traffickers, the big money family (usurers), and the big hoarders, are generally not in the city.

They have a high status and economic power, and many people with great influence are

"Officials and businessmen" are integrated, concurrently dealing in patents, and dominating one side. (The so-called part-time business is to see the profit and convenience map, not to specialize in one business; The so-called patents are the savings of goods, the monopoly of market prices, and these are the actions of usury hoarders.

Loan sharks and hoarders are different from legitimate merchants who have or are not in the currency market, and legitimate businessmen take two-tenths of the interest per year, and usurious hoarders take at least three-tenths of the interest, sometimes even ten times the interest.

In the counties of the Han Dynasty, the largest group of wealthy people is Haoqiang. Haoqiang generally have a scholarly status and a very wealthy family, and under normal circumstances, becoming an official is the main way for them to get rich.

If you can't be an official, then you can do business or lend money, and if you can't do business, then you have to bully the weak and rob violently.

Ordinary heroes are less able to cope with disasters, and once they have nothing left for unforeseen reasons, they tend to become the most dangerous group to destroy the society, such as many leaders of the Yellow Turban Army.

Although the local tycoons, ordinary merchants, and ordinary officials were rich, they were still very different from the wealth owned by princes and nobles, big bureaucrats, and big businessmen.

Where is the money of the big man? It was in the hands of the princes and nobles, the big bureaucrats and the big businessmen. If the imperial court wants to snatch the money back, it must first do something to them.

In the four hundred years of this dynasty, there has been a precedent of success and a precedent of failure. The precedent of success was Emperor Xiaowu, who implemented a series of measures, killed many people, and succeeded.

The precedent of failure is Wang Mang, when Wang Mang was in power, the Han Dynasty had fallen into a deep crisis, Wang Mang also implemented a series of measures, and also killed many people, but he failed, and finally the society was turbulent, and the Han was almost destroyed.

Today's Han is in the early stage of Zhongxing, and the world has not yet been unified, so it does not have the conditions to do it at all.

Whether it is Emperor Xiaowu or Wang Mang, they all started to reform under the premise that the society is basically stable.

They have enough strength to push for the implementation of the New Deal, but today's Dahan does not have such strength.

However, the crisis encountered by the Han Dynasty today is far more serious than that of the Xiaowu Emperor Dynasty and the Xiaoai Emperor Dynasty, because if the imperial court does not immediately change the status quo, the treasury will not have the financial endowment, and it will not have the strength to pacify the world, let alone the strength to realize the prosperity of the Han Dynasty.

"If the financial crisis of the imperial court continues, the result is obvious: the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. When the poor people really can't live, or like in the Zhongping and Chuping years, disasters come one after another, and the people are hungry all over the wilderness, then the world will collapse again, and our efforts for more than ten years will be in vain, hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died on the battlefield will die in vain, and the Han Dynasty will no longer be able to prosper. Li Wei let out a long sigh,

"Restructuring, we must immediately restructure, and the national policy must be adjusted immediately, otherwise, we will become sinners for the ages who have lost the Han Dynasty."

"Dong Zhuo brought disaster to the country, the world was in turmoil, and the princes and nobles, the family of gate lords, the wealthy businessmen and ordinary people were hit like never before, which is an important reason why our new policy can be promoted, implemented and quickly achieved results. At that time, we needed wealth, we needed everyone to create wealth, and the princes and nobles, the family of lords, and the wealthy merchants also needed to use our power to regain wealth, and the common people also needed to use our power to survive, so the New Deal quickly came into play. But more than ten years later, today, the power of the New Deal no longer helps the revival of the Han Dynasty, but seriously hinders the prosperity of the Han Dynasty. ”

"Now let's see, who is the poorest in the big Han? The imperial court was the poorest, and the common people were the poorest. What is the purpose of Dahan Zhongxing? It is the prosperity of the country and the strength of the people. But if this development continues, can the country still be rich and the people still strong? ”

"Why did Great Qin fall fifteen years after unifying the world? Why did Wang Mang's rebellion two hundred years ago overthrow Sheji? Dong Zhuo's small mutiny, why did he push the Han into the abyss of defeat? Li Wei looked at everyone and said excitedly,

"The history of the past 400 years, the bloody lessons of the past 400 years, can't we still soberly see the essence of the matter?"

"The foundation of the state is the land, the farmer who cultivates the land. The wealth of the country, the prosperity of the country, comes from these lands, the grain on these lands, and the farmers who cultivate the land and harvest the grain. If we can't let the farmer own a piece of land, if we can't let the farmer eat and clothe after a year of hard work, how can the world be stable? How can we revitalize the community? ”

"If the Han Dynasty wants to prosper, it must first let the farmers be fed and clothed, let the farmers have a piece of land to sustain their survival, and let the imperial court have a sustainable and stable financial income. But the Han Dynasty has so much land, so much grain in a year, and can only mint so much money in a year, and there is only so much piece of cake. Therefore, if you want to make the court and farmers rich, the only way is to grab it from the hands of princes and nobles, gate lord families and wealthy merchants, which is the only way. ”

"How to rob it? There is only heavy agriculture and suppression of business. Heavy peasants need strong support from the imperial court, they need money, where does the money come from? The most effective and fastest way is to run the salt and iron government and levy heavy taxes on business. ”

"This method is actually the method of Emperor Xiaowu to increase the wealth of the imperial court, we all know it, and we all know the pros and cons. Now that the Han Dynasty is in the early stage of the Chinese revival, if the imperial court forcibly implements this policy, it will kill people, it will cause turmoil, and the direct consequence is likely to be the overthrow of the society. Therefore, we should think of a more secure way, which can not only increase the wealth of the imperial court, but also allow the farmers to live a life of food and clothing, and at the same time take into account the interests of the princes and nobles, the family of the gate lords and the wealthy merchants, so as to ensure the success of the great cause of Zhongxing. Li Wei picked up a roll of bamboo slips and gently put it on the left side of the desk.

"For the farmers, the top priority is to raise the price of grain to increase their income, issue a credit order, let the government lend money to ensure their land, and build official warehouses to stabilize the price of grain and prevent famine." Li Wei picked up another roll of bamboo slips and put it heavily on the right side of the desk.

"The imperial court asks for money, whether it is a counterinsurgency war or the implementation of a policy of heavy agriculture. Therefore, the imperial court must first take back all the mining rights and half of the management rights of salt and iron to ensure that the imperial court has increased its financial income. Secondly, the land is limited, and the princes and nobles, the family of the gate lords, the bureaucrats, and the wealthy businessmen all have a certain amount of land to occupy, and if the land is exceeded several times, several times the land rent will be levied. Third, it is necessary to appropriately and gradually raise commercial taxes to ensure the interests of ordinary wealthy people and businessmen. Fourth, the implementation of the policy of 'entering the border and paying homage to the people', allowing the rich merchants to buy the millet and lose the borders, and to give them knights according to the amount they lose, so that the border counties can not only get enough grain to defend the border and provide relief to the common people, but also improve the status of the ordinary merchants and tycoons, and at the same time improve the difficult situation of the peasants, and in addition, these ordinary and rich merchants can be used to effectively restrain and crack down on the big businessmen and tycoons. This is Emperor Xiaowen's method of making a mistake in the imperial history, and it worked well when it was implemented that year. Finally, a law was promulgated prohibiting the disguised buying and selling of land and sheltering a large number of tenant farmers, hired peasants, and slaves. Xu Rong and Zhang Yan looked at each other and didn't answer for a while.

Several of the strategies proposed by Li Wei directly hit the key points of the princes and nobles, the family of the gate lords, and the wealthy merchants, and the controversy in the court must have been very fierce.

Although the eldest princess's support is crucial, in today's situation, the eldest princess may not dare to openly support Li Wei's reform.

This is because restructuring is not only related to the issue of system adjustment, but also related to the interests of all parties. Once the battle in the court gets out of control and becomes an uncontrollable situation, it will not end well in the future?

Who will bear the responsibility? If the eldest princess takes this responsibility, she will have to give up the authority in her hands, but if she resolutely supports Li Wei and wins this battle, then the eldest princess will become the enemy of the loser, and the day when she will be forced to give up her authority is not far off.

Could it be that Li Wei has such a deeper purpose?

"Zhong Yuan, this policy has also harmed the interests of the military meritorious class to a certain extent." Zhang Yan hesitated for a long time and said worriedly,

"If our people are against it, then there is little chance of success unless it is ......"

"The general can't come back, and when he comes back, things will be difficult." Li Wei sneered,

"The matter of salt and iron is too involved, especially Xu Ling and Lizhong in Guanzhong and the Wei family in Hedong. Northern Xinjiang was able to support it at the beginning, thanks to the help of the three of them, and now we have to take them down in order to deter others, so these three families need us to come forward in person. If they are working against us, then don't blame us for turning our backs. Xu Rong and Zhang Yan thought about it for a long time, agreed to Li Wei, and decided to help.

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