Many years later, the sunset country, the capital, and the court

The door of the main hall slowly opened, and the ministers entered the main hall in turn. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoDuring this period, Ren Xiaoyao has been communicating with the prime minister and Prince Jing, and has not had any communication with Bai Liyun. This made Bai Liyun's hanging heart finally fall.

As soon as the ministers stood in the hall, Baili Tianheng walked in wearing a dragon robe.

After the salute is finished.

Baili Tianheng sat on the dragon chair, glanced at the ministers, and only stayed on Baili Yun for a while, and then said: "Don't hide it from you, since I came to the throne, these few short months have made me understand that this emperor is really not good, and it is even more difficult to be a Ming monarch." I remember that on the day I ascended the throne, I encountered a bunch of thorny problems that have been bothering me and making it difficult for me to sleep. ”

"The ministers failed to share their worries for the monarch, and asked the emperor to forgive them."

The ministers shouted very hypocritical words in unison.

Baili Tianheng waved his hand and said: "But last night, I received two folds, the content of the folds is about the problems that plague me, and it also explains the way to crack it, whether I really have it or not, which makes me very relieved and happy, and I am very much looking forward to today's early dynasty. ”

He said and suddenly turned to Bailiyun, and said: "It was presented by the newly appointed economic envoy, and after I saw the economic envoy's performance, I was very glad that I had made the original decision, if it weren't for this, I would have lost a good helper." ”

The ministers looked at Bai Liyun in surprise, they originally thought that Bai Liyun, as a woman, would definitely be very low-key on the first day of the court, who knew that last night's recital was presented, and it was praised by the emperor, which was no longer low-key, but a blockbuster.

Ren Xiaoyao was not the slightest surprised, because she knew the purpose of Bai Liyun as an economic envoy, so it was reasonable for Bai Liyun to do this, as for what to do, he has always had a disdainful attitude, he usually dictates things, and rarely goes to the chapter, even if there is, it is written by the prime minister, in fact, he is ashamed of pen and ink!

Bai Liyun stood up without humility or arrogance, and saluted: "Thank you for the emperor's compliment." ”

Baili Tianheng nodded with a smile, and said loudly: "In fact, the shortcomings of my Great Song Dynasty have already been revealed, and it can even be said that everyone knows about it, but it has not been able to solve it, the most critical of which is nothing more than the phenomenon of land annexation and three redundancies, and the imperial court has also been seeking the law to improve this phenomenon, but the harvest is very little, after I ascended the throne, I made up my mind to change all this, if this phenomenon is not removed, my Great Song Dynasty will be dragged down sooner or later." ”

"Your Majesty."

Baili Tianheng said to the prime minister again: "Right Prime Minister, you said in the chapter that this is the best time to curb land annexation, but then you said that you can't do it by brute force, only a perfect tax system can do both, and you can talk to me." ”

The prime minister said: "Back to the emperor, when the minister was the deputy economic envoy of the Bureau of Commerce, he did a lot of research on the land, and found that China's farmers only occupied 30% of the country's fields, but the landlords occupied 70% of the land, and the farmers accounted for 80% of the country's population, but the landlords only owned 10%, which shows that the land annexation has been very serious. ”

When this set of data came out, the ministers secretly smacked their tongues, they all knew that this was very serious, but they didn't expect the gap to be so big.

Baili Tianheng frowned when he heard this, and said, "You go on." ”

The prime minister said: "In fact, many people know this phenomenon, every time we change the law on land, it fails, and the minister thinks that the root cause is not all the loss of the law, but the resistance of the landlords. However, the landlords are also the people, no different from the peasants, why this less than one percent of the people can oppose the court to benefit the rest of the eighty percent of the people, the reason is very simple, that is, among the landlords, the vast majority of them are ministers of the court, even if they are not, they also have a great relationship with these people, these officials have a great position in the court, and it is precisely because of their power that the failure of the reform of the law. ”

Baili Tianheng snorted and said, "You're right, I've seen it with my own eyes. ”

The prime minister said: "And now under the emperor's wise decision, the old bureaucrats have all surrendered to the law, and their fields have all been returned to the imperial court. ”

The reason for this is very simple, that is, while these newly appointed officials have not yet consolidated their power, they should quickly start changing the law, and the further it is delayed, the greater the resistance to the change will be.

The Prime Minister continued: "The Privy Counsellor has said before that land can generate benefits, so it can be regarded as goods, and in the new law, what is advocated is the free trade of goods, and the forcible suppression of land annexation is tantamount to hindering the circulation of goods. ”

Baili Tianheng turned his eyes to look at Ren Xiaoyao.

Ren Xiaoyao nodded and said: "I said so, and now I also think so, legal land trading can enhance the circulation of money, I am in no way in favor of suppressing land annexation, this is a wrong practice that violates the natural laws of the economy, and it is difficult to stop, but the premise is to be in a fair environment, not to take advantage of it." ”

The prime minister said: "The opinion of the privy envoy." Weichen also deeply agreed, but the land is the foundation of the people, and the people without land seem to have no roots, which is also the main reason for the people's uprising, so the minister feels that the court still has to restrict the annexation of land, and the court can formulate a set of rules within the rules. You can buy and sell land, but outside the rules, if you want to annex the land, you have to pay a high price, leaving the final choice to the people and landlords. ”

Baili Tianheng said: "The rule you said is the Masuda tax?" ”

The prime minister said: "Yes, although this Masuda tax has been gradually implemented in our country, because there were always opposition forces in the DPRK and China, the implementation was not thorough enough. And the original Masuda tax was not perfect, and there were still many loopholes, but Wechen thought that this Masuda tax would be promising. ”

Baili Tianheng nodded. Said: "Then you can tell me in detail." ”

"Wechen obeys."

The prime minister said: "Regarding the land tax, to put it simply, the land tax increases exponentially with the growth of the land. If, according to the previous calculation, the tax of one acre of land is ten yuan, then ten acres of land is one hundred yuan. Under this tax system, landlords will consider more carefully when merging or buying and selling land, and when the land in their hands reaches a certain amount, no matter how much land they have, it will become poison for them, because the multiplication of taxes will make them unable to make ends meet.

The imperial court can use the land tax as the main means of balancing the landlords and peasants, the more land means the more taxes, and the money still flows into the hands of the imperial court, and the imperial court can take this part of the extra money to make up for the losses of the peasants, so as to achieve a balance between the two sides.

In addition, Wechen suggested that two new contents should be added to the land tax, one of which is that the land and the house should be planned separately, because if the land tax is used for the house, it will hinder the new law, and in the planning of the new law, a large amount of non-arable land will be used to create industrial areas and commercial areas, in this regard, the imperial court should encourage merchants to use these barren land, so the land tax should be relaxed, and if a certain landlord holds a large amount of land, but only a small part of the cultivated land, most of which is sandy land, It is not possible to generate profits, and the Masuda tax is not fair to such people.

Second, with regard to the land recently recovered by the imperial court, Wechen suggested that these lands should be leased to landless peasants living nearby, but for these lands owned by the imperial court, if the land increase tax is adopted, it will be unfair to both parties, because the imperial court is the landlord. Therefore, Weichen thought of a new tax system, in the past, we were taxed according to the number of acres, that is, an acre of land must pay less grain, so that if there is a natural disaster, the people will face a double blow, and the people and the country are not good, in order to avoid this, the imperial court can extract taxes according to the annual income per mu, for example, if a person's grain income this year is 100 stones, the imperial court will extract 10 stone of taxes, and next year it will be 50 stones, the court will draw 5 stone of taxes, in this case, Taxes will become more flexible and easy to regulate, and of course, the imperial court will have to set a minimum limit to encourage farmers to cultivate the land, but this limit does not need to be very high, and it can also be subsidized in times of famine. ”

It is obvious that this series of suggestions of the prime minister are for the benefit of the poor, and now most of the ministers standing in this palace are from poor families, they not only agree with the prime minister's opinion, but also have a lot of good feelings towards the prime minister, and feel that the prime minister is very far-sighted.

A slight smile appeared at the corner of Baili Tianheng's mouth, and he said, "Do you have any objections to the suggestion of the right prime minister?" As he spoke, he glanced at Ren Xiaoyao.

What do you see me doing? Ren Xiaoyao slowly lowered his head.

Strange, doesn't he have any opinion at all? This is impossible, usually as long as he mentions any matters related to interests, he will talk endlessly, how can he be so honest today? A trace of doubt flashed in Baili Tianheng's eyes.

However, the prime minister was also a little confused by Ren Yao's silence.

Prince Jing suddenly stood up and said: "Your Majesty, Wechen very much agrees with the suggestion of the right prime minister, but there is one point, the court must seriously consider it, although the tax on increasing land is flexible, but it has also become very complicated, such as fertile land and wasteland, cultivated land and non-arable land, how many acres of land began to increase the tax, in order to balance the interests of farmers, landlords, and the imperial court, once there is a loophole, it will be self-defeating, all of which requires a lot of data to support, so, Weichen suggested that the imperial court should be cautious. ”

"Well, what the third envoy said is very good, this must be carefully weighed, and there must not be the slightest mistake, otherwise all efforts will be wasted."

Baili Tianheng said and glanced at Ren Xiaoyao again, seeing that he still didn't mean to speak, he secretly thought, this guy won't be really dumb. He added: "But the land annexation is urgent, and I don't want to delay it any longer, Prime Minister." ”

"Wechen is here."

"This matter will be entrusted to you, in addition, the Bureau of Commerce, the three divisions, and the Ministry of Industry will assist. Remember, when I see this plan, I hope you will also be able to convince me with sufficient reasons, otherwise I will see you as derelict in your duties. ”

"Wechen obeys."

Prince Jing and Bailiyun sang one after another.

Ren Xiaoyao lowered his head slightly, glanced at the prime minister out of the corner of his eye, and thought to himself, this guy is really a talent, he actually stole so many things from me, and used my economics to consolidate power, TMD, what a beautiful job!

The prime minister seems to be doing this for the country and the people, and the public is selfless, but in fact, it is not, but every new prime minister, they will immediately come up with a set of policies to win the hearts of the people, and Wang Huang did the same at the beginning, and also won the support of the people.

Moreover, the prime minister is very targeted, when Ren Xiaoyao changed the law, although he said that he was benefiting the people of the world, but in fact, he mainly served the rich, because in this way he could control the country's economy more calmly, which was conducive to changing the law, and his concept was to use the rich to get rich and the poor. So much so that almost all the wealthy people in Tokyo supported Ren Xiaoyao at that time, but because of the previous movement, these supporters of Ren Xiaoyao also suffered heavy losses, which was also one of the reasons why Ren Xiaoyao was reluctant to go to court at that time.

But even so, the rich people who stayed behind still looked forward to Ren Xiaoyao, the prime minister knew this in his heart, and he didn't think about seizing this part of the power from Ren Xiaoyao's hands, because it was too difficult, so he simply turned his target to the poor class, and the Masuda tax was his main means of gaining the hearts of the people, because no matter how perfect the Masuda tax was, it still inhibited the growth of the wealth of the rich, but it greatly reduced the pressure on the poor, and he was also able to obtain a part of the power from Ren Xiaoyao, that is, about changing the law.

Even though Ren Xiaoyao knew the prime minister's purpose, he did not show great anger or depression, but was very calm and calm, showing a slight weird smile.

Baili Tianheng suddenly turned his gaze to Baili Yun and said, "Economic envoy." ”

Bai Liyun took a deep breath hard before standing up and said, "Weichen is here." ”

Ren Xiaoyao's eyelids raised slightly, and a trace of worry flashed in his eyes, he actually expected that Bai Li Yun would definitely make a difference today, because she was a very special single person in the court, and she was also under huge pressure, she had to quickly show herself to relieve this pressure, and to prove for herself, and also for Bai Li Tianheng, that appointing her as an economic envoy was the right choice.

But because of this, Ren Xiaoyao was worried that Bai Liyun would be quick and self-defeating, so he planned to go to Bai Liyun last night, but in the end he dispelled this idea, since Bai Liyun has sat in this position, he must face all this, and he can't protect her all the time, so Bai Liyun has to rely on himself to change those negative ideas about her.

Baili Tianheng said with a smile: "Compared with the Prime Minister's recital, your recital makes me more curious, I remember a sentence in your recital very clearly, production except redundant soldiers, election except redundant officials, the combination of the first two except redundancy, I should not be mistaken." ”

Bai Liyun said: "The emperor remembers correctly. ”

"Then let's talk about what is production and redundancy?"

Baili Yun replied: "Weichen thinks that production is the foundation of the country, and it is also the great plan of the country, and everything, including the Masuda tax mentioned by the right prime minister above, is based on production, and without production, any method is in vain." (To be continued.) )