I understand, I understand, but what the new tea method should be, everyone is weighing in their hearts. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, the implementation of border entry into the central government began, and although the officials who supported it listed various advantages, those who opposed it still raised the possible drawbacks. That is, from the very beginning, everyone knew that there were pros and cons to the system. However, due to the limitations of the times, they can only have qualitative estimates, but they cannot quantitatively, and the pros and cons are not clear at all, so they have been used.

According to the historical knowledge of his previous life, Xu Ping knew that now was a rare window of time to reform the tea law, and if in a few years, the war between the northwest and the party would start, and there would be no chance to change it.

The atmosphere in the Chongzheng Hall was a little dull, everyone was bowing their heads and thinking, but they didn't speak. Xu Ping put the data out, in fact, he fundamentally denied the current tea method, whether it is the "three sayings" or the "cash method", which is beyond everyone's expectations, and the words that he thought of before can no longer be said. Just like Xu Ping said earlier that no stone of grain has entered Shaanxi for three years, he has fundamentally denied the entry into China along the border, and then the tea law, and the entire financial system related to the border has been crumbling.

There are so many things involved, who dares to talk nonsense? Kou Xuan usually has a lot of discussions with Xu Ping, and he has a rough outline in his heart, but his current strategy is to stand behind Xu Ping, Xu Ping can get up, and he has a future himself.

At this moment, Lu Yijian, who had been silent, suddenly spoke: "Xu Ping, then according to your meaning, should the tea law be changed or not?" ”

At this time, Xu Ping had already gained the upper hand, looked at Lu Yijian and said, "Naturally, it is going to be changed, what do you think?" ”

Lu Yijian nodded: "The shortcomings are deep, and I have to change them." In this way, the new tea law is still presided over by Li Shi, and according to what he said before, the old disadvantages of the past few years will be removed. For the future tea law, the three divisions will discuss first, and the political hall will make a final decision after it is agreed. ”

Zhang Shixun looked at Lu Yijian, and then at the emperor Zhao Zhen who was sitting at the top, his mouth opened, and finally swallowed his words back. Xu Ping was not allowed to speak before, but now that he has finished speaking, it is quite lively, why did he return to the original point? What does Lu Yijian mean? Can Xu Ping be convinced by this treatment? Can the emperor agree? But today he has made a fool of himself, and finally he doesn't dare to come out.

Xu Ping, who was in front of the blackboard, smiled and bowed his hand to Lu Yijian: "What the minister said is that the tea law still has to be changed first." However, I already have a final plan for the tea law in the future, and since I have this opportunity, it is better to speak out and ask the ministers for advice. ”

Lu Yijian said in a deep voice: "It's okay, you talk about it, then it's here." ”

Seeing that Xu Ping readily agreed, Zhang Shixun's eyes were so shocked that his eyes almost bulged. Looking at the people around him, Zhang Dexiang was naturally on Lu Yijian's side, but even Cai Qi, who usually didn't deal with Lu Yijian, had a calm face, and he became more and more depressed in his heart.

In fact, the matter is very simple, Xu Ping fundamentally denied the current tea method, so no matter what suggestions he has, it is impossible to complete it in a short time. And it has been discussed to this extent, the temporary measures are still to use Li Shi's new law, and Xu Ping's opinion should be considered in the long run, and the tea law should be changed slowly step by step.

Lu Yijian has been in charge of Zhongshu for many years, and naturally understands this truth, that is, Cai Qi and others have also been working in the planning system for many years, and as soon as Lu Yijian said it, they understood the meaning. Only Zhang Shixun and his people, who have no concept of the entire financial system at all, and always consider problems from the perspective of the interests of the party and individuals, will feel confused.

Of course, there are temporary measures for this kind of state policy, and then there are long-term plans. The tea method involves a wide range of things, and changing where it is fundamentally is something that can be completed in one or two years. In terms of actual affairs, Zhang Shixun is not a little bit worse than Lu Yijian.

Xu Ping sorted out his thoughts and decided to start with the tea plantations in Yongzhou.

"The national legal system, tea is only in the Sichuan Gorge 4th Road and the Quang Nam area, and the people are allowed to buy and sell freely. Yongzhou is located in Lingnan, which was originally vast and sparsely populated, and most of them were natives, and they were not included in the national household. There have been tea trees in the mountains since ancient times, but no one has ever made tea to sell. During the Tiansheng years, I passed the judgment of Yongzhou to guide the local people to grow tea, and it has been six or seven years now. ”

Speaking of this, Xu Ping looked at the several cages of Yongzhou tea in the hall, raised his voice and said: "Yongzhou alone, last year, the government made more than 280,000 yuan in tea. And as you all know, last year, all the tea farms in the southeast were added up, and the government's profit was only more than 10,000 yuan, which does not include the salaries of officials related to tea, and does not include the food of the tea carriage army. In other words, in fact, the Southeast Tea Farm has been unprofitable since last year. ”

This point is clearly listed in Xu Ping's previous chart, and everyone has no objection. The Southeast Tea Farm now has no profit from the government, and Li Shi also mentioned it, so the tea law has to be changed.

Xu Ping said: "There is no tea profit in the southeast tea field, and all that is left now is to count on the merchants to make huge profits and help the imperial court transport grain and grass to Shaanxi." But the actual situation is that Shaanxi has not had any grain in the past few years, and it all relies on exploiting local households to fill the grain and grass. In other words, the imperial court gave up the tea profits of the entire southeast tea field, but in exchange for not paying taxes in Shaanxi, and borrowing the hands of businessman Jia Haoqiang to do this. ”

In this era, whenever an official proposes to change a certain system, his favorite sentence is "the people do not add endowment and use self-sufficiency", which sounds really beneficial to the country and the people. The actual situation is that it is handed over to the hands of businessmen without additional endowments, which is more harmful than additional endowments. The reason is very simple, even if the government operates without profits, or even if it loses money a little, it will continue to operate for the sake of people's livelihood, and if there is no profit, which businessman will do it? Naturally, the government will transfer the local tyrants to the lower class households, but the tycoons will also collude with businessmen to obtain huge profits.

Doing the same thing, the government still has the advantage of scale, and there are many administrative resources available, and the cost will only be lower than that of the merchants, so why should it be transferred to the merchants and small people to benefit?

If it is some trivial small-scale business activities, it is indeed more suitable for businessmen. But an industry like the tea industry in this era has a large scale and a single business behavior, so there is no such reason.

The reason for the current situation is related to the overall environment. During the Five Dynasties period, there was no distinction between officials, and officials were often born as small officials, and they were very familiar with all aspects of administrative affairs. In addition, at that time, there were constant wars, and all countries were exhausting their national strength to raise troops, and every profit link was eager for the country to grasp it in its own hands. The sum of the two means that the profiteering industry is basically in the hands of the state, and to some extent it has reached the extreme of ancient society, and the whole society is also in a state of tension.

Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, these administrative and financial systems have not changed much, and there were no problems in the early days. At that time, the capable ministers, such as Zhao Pu and Chen Shu, were basically born as small officials, and they could control the whole system.

However, since Taizong, the officials have been separated, and the officials have become less and less familiar with specific affairs, and they have become more and more powerless.

At that time, why did the implementation of entering the middle along the border rely on the power of merchants? Looking at the reasons listed by the officials, it is clear that it is difficult to control small officials and the cost is too high. The transportation cost of tea and salt is even higher than that of private individuals. Why? The petty officials who work below make it bad, and the ship breaks down and the cargo sinks at every turn. They also keep adding sediment to these goods, and if they are far away from the place of origin, the salt will simply not taste salty.

On the other hand, sales are not smooth, the sales season is missed at every turn, and the goods in the officialdom are piled up and cannot be sold, so they can only be scrapped or forcibly pushed down. But the shortage of private goods is very serious, but it is impossible to produce and sell well.

Knowing that there are these problems, the officials don't know why they have them, and they don't know what to do. In the end, the only way to solve the problem of insufficient official capacity is to rely on social forces, forming a vicious circle.

Knowing that there is a problem, but not knowing how to solve it, is a common problem of the new generation of officials who are slowly growing up. As a result, they advocate empty talk more and more, and look down on officials who can do things more and more. Finding fault is unparalleled in the world, and it is useless to let them do things well.

Lu Yijian's generation is the last official who can also have both talents, Xu Ping can be regarded as catching a tail, if it is another twenty or thirty years, Xu Ping is afraid that he will not even have the opportunity to talk here.

Petty officials have the problem of petty officials, they only pay attention to the small profits in front of them, if they use petty officials to govern the country, the whole society is afraid that the people will not be able to make a living. Officials and officials should complement each other, and the whole society will develop steadily. In this way, officials are required to have both official talents, not necessarily to be able to do better than the small officials, but at least to understand specific affairs, and to be able to see all kinds of ways.

Xu Ping is not familiar with poetry and scriptures, and is willing to bury his body to do things, which is what makes him stronger than other officials.

Pointing to the cages of Yongzhou tea next to him, Xu Ping said loudly: "As I said just now, Yongzhou was a state last year, and the government received 280,000 yuan in tea. The same tea, why is there such a big difference? ”

Zhang Shixun shook his head and said: "Yongzhou produces tea there, just sell it, you don't need to be like the southeast tea farm, but also consider the grain and grass along the border of Shaanxi." Xu Ping, two years are separated, don't mix them up! ”

Xu Ping looked at Zhang Shixun and nodded: "Zhang Xianggong is right, Southeast Tea Profit supplies grain and grass to Shaanxi." But as I said just now, there is no grain and grass in Shaanxi, so where is the tea profit? Moreover, in the land of Yongzhou, there are nearly 20,000 people in the forbidden army at this time, and the sugar cane service has exceeded 100,000 people, and the demand for grain and grass is not much less than that of Shaanxi! ”

Since last year, Yongzhou has begun to increase its troops, more than double that of Xu Ping's time. Xu Ping's ability to use the township soldiers does not mean that others can also make this system run without hindrance. In fact, according to the suggestions of Pang Ji and others, Yong Langlu needs to increase its troops by 10,000 in order to ensure that it can continue to open up outward.

Yongzhou is no longer the remote and small state when Xu Ping was here. (To be continued.) )