Section 26: Collusion between officials and businessmen
Forcibly suppressing the dissatisfaction in his heart, Liu De moved his muscles and bones, and ordered the guards on the left and right: "Let's go, let's go in and take a look at the flag pavilion!" ”
As he spoke, he stepped forward, and the guards hurriedly followed, guarding him on the left and right.
The so-called flag pavilion refers to the tallest building that must be built in each city according to the laws of the Han Dynasty.
The so-called 'five-fold flag pavilion, looking down on a hundred times'.
Its status is probably equivalent to the Administration for Industry and Commerce in later generations, and it is the office of the city order and the city city.
Liu De led a large group of guards and went straight to the flag pavilion, which naturally immediately alarmed the officials on duty in Pingxin City.
According to the Han law, the order rank of each city in Chang'an is 600 stones, which belongs to middle-level officials.
But at this time, there was a vacancy in the city order and the city of Pingxin City, so the person in charge of power became a small official who did not have rank.
Without the supervision of the boss, and the imperial court has no time to appoint new officials because of the national funeral, so these little officials can be said to be full of fat stomach these days, and even have spare money to go to Flower Street and Willow Lane.
At this time, they suddenly saw a group of heavily armed guards of the forbidden army, walking towards them murderously, and they were immediately frightened, and a few of them were timid, and even collapsed on the ground and couldn't stand up.
"Is this our thing?" A little official trembled and thought in his heart: "It's over, is this going to arrest us and take us to the Tingwei prison?" ”
According to Han law, corruption and bribery are punishable by fines and corporal punishment.
However, when Emperor Taizong Xiaowen was in power, something happened - Ti Ying saved his father.
After this incident, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen deeply felt that corporal punishment was too inhumane.
Therefore, in the spirit of compassion and the nature of a virtuous saint, with a wave of his hand, many corporal punishments were abolished, including ink and nose punishments for embezzlers, and changed them to flogging and death.
This little official still understands some laws, and estimated in his heart that the death penalty is beyond the reach of the death penalty for his corruption, but the flogging is more than enough.
Thinking like this, he immediately collapsed on the ground and wept, wondering if he was going to settle himself.
As the lowest official, who doesn't know that flogging is 10,000 times more cruel than the death penalty!
This death penalty can survive until the autumn, and if there is an amnesty for the world at that time, then it will come out, even if it can't be touched, it is nothing more than spending some money to atone for the crime.
But this flogging must be carried out immediately!
Crucially, the number of lashes usually starts at 50 lashes.
If the person being executed is in a bad mood or is in a bad mood, he or she will usually be killed on the spot......
While the little official was struggling with whether to commit suicide immediately, so as not to suffer from the flesh and skin, a voice that seemed to come from heaven came from his ears: "Your Highness is inspecting with an edict, why don't you come out to greet you soon?" ”
As soon as he heard this, the little official's originally hanging heart was finally put back in his stomach.
One by one, they hurriedly took a deep breath, obediently walked out of the flag pavilion, and knelt down at the door: "The villain and others greet His Royal Highness......"
"Let's all get up...... Liu De glanced at the dozen or so officials and asked, "Who has been doing it here the longest?" ”
"Back to Your Highness, it should be a villain...... a little official stood up and bowed his head and replied: "The villain's father was the pawn of this Liushi before his death, and the villain's eighteen-year-old son inherited his father's business, and he has been in this Liushi for twenty-three years......"
"What's your name?" Liu De asked.
"The villain is cheap, and he doesn't dare to enter the ears of His Highness!" The little officer said.
"Cheng Yong, take me upstairs to have a look...... Liu De turned to the guards after speaking: "You just wait at this gate, remember, don't disturb the people!" ”
"No!"
Cheng Yong led Liu De to the top of the flag pavilion, Liu De leaned in front of the window, overlooking the entire Pingxin City.
In order to prevent industry and commerce from sitting on the big side, the Han system, each mayor shall not exceed 266 steps.
Therefore, the area of Pingxin City is not large.
It looks like it covers an area of two or three miles, and many workshops are crowded together.
In addition, Liu De also found that I don't know whether it was intentional or unintentional, the north side of this willow city turned out to be the Weishui River, and there was a wharf on the bank, and there were several small boats parked by the wharf, and some workers were carrying willow branches and other raw materials from the boats.
Workshops of all sizes are in full swing.
The steam coming out of the cauldron boiling wicker almost obscured the sky in one area.
"I don't see the business in this Liushi store is not very good, why are these workshops still working?" Liu De couldn't help but ask when he saw it.
"Your Highness doesn't know that most of the things produced by the workshops in Liushi will not be sold in Liushi, and they will usually be shipped to the big market in the east!" Cheng Yongnunu mouthed, facing the east.
Liu De looked to the east, good guy, the straight-line distance between Liushi and the east market is really close, and there is only a Wei River in the middle.
Huo Huo, isn't this the common production and marketing day dragon after more than 2,000 years?
In this way, this willow market can make some money.
So Liu De asked: "What is the annual tax in Liushi?" ”
The Han dynasty was not the Ming dynasty.
In order to avoid the merchants from curling their tails after paying taxes, they also wanted political rights and were treated equally by the imperial court like peasants, so the lawmakers played a word game, and the Han law unified all industrial and commercial taxes, including business tax, as taxes.
"About 100,000 yuan ......" Cheng Yong recalled and reported a number.
Liu De scoffed when he heard this, this liar!
Looking at the busy situation in this Liu City, the annual sales are tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars, and in the end, the state only gets more than 100,000 yuan in taxes, and it is not enough to even pay salaries to the city.
But there are some things that can't be said.
Like the Great Celestial Empire in later generations, the collusion between officials and businessmen in the Han dynasty and even the integration of officials and businessmen was very common, and sometimes even the princes and kings of various places would go into battle shirtless.
For example, where did Wu Chu in the east now get the confidence to dare to wrestle with the imperial court?
Doesn't it depend on the fact that Liu Bi, the king of Wu, monopolized the salt and coinage trading of the entire Wu Chu Qiyue?
In his previous life, Liu De's younger brother Zhao Wang Liu Pengzu also did things that forcibly interfered in business and monopolized some industries.
The local princes were like this, and the ministers of the central court were no better.
Liu De remembered that in the history books he had read, it was recorded that Zhang Tang, the later court lieutenant, took advantage of his power to disclose the news of the reform of the imperial court and the information of policy changes to his businessmen and friends, and made a lot of money.
Isn't there a sense of immediacy in the Great Celestial Empire?
Zhang Tang's son, Zhang Anshi, is also not a good bird.
According to the literature: An Shizun is a prince, and there are 10,000 households...... There are 700 children, all of whom have the skills to do things, manage the industry internally, accumulate subtlety, and are able to breed their goods, and are rich in the light of the general.
Therefore, in China, no matter what dynasty he is, he who does not understand the collusion between officials and businessmen will not be able to do it big and will not be able to do it.
To put it mildly, without an official backer, getting rich is just a big fat sheep that can only be slaughtered!
Therefore, Liu De doesn't have to think about it, a large part of these tens of millions of industries must have ended up in the pockets of the noble ministers.
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It's so sad, yesterday and today's collection was almost unchanged......
It was 350+ the night before yesterday, and now it's 385......
35 ...... in two days Somewhat discouraged...... Especially tonight, there was almost no movement, but a ......
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