After making every deduction and researching in various ways, Liu Hong found that in order to solve the problem of the shortage of military food for the border defense troops from the root cause on the premise that the existing 20-level military merit lord system is not attacked and does not increase the financial burden of the central government, it is necessary to increase the financial revenue of the Han family from the current 300,000 yuan per Chinese New Year's Eve to about 1 million yuan.

At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the price of food is generally maintained between 80 and 90 cents today.

For today's Han family, this is undoubtedly an impossible task!

Today, the Han family has a registered population of about 22 million, about 3 million households; The arable land area is about 30,000 mu.

The state's fiscal revenue reaches 1 million yuan, which is equivalent to saying that 12,500 stone corn needs to be collected in the annual agricultural tax.

Coupled with the administrative expenses withheld by the local government, almost every two acres of land need to be collected for one stone of corn; According to the yield of three stones per mu, it is six taxes and one.

Raise taxes?

Liu Hong is still thinking about reducing taxes in the future!

At the very least, the agricultural tax must be reduced to the 'thirty taxes and one' of Emperor Wen in history, so that the country can develop well.

Because of the rash increase in taxes, for the feudal society, it is undoubtedly killing the chicken and taking the eggs!

Higher taxes mean that the burden on the people is increased, and there is no surplus food to feed the children, which is equivalent to hindering population growth; Historically, Emperor Wen lowered taxes in the hope of reducing the burden on the people and achieving the goal of promoting population growth.

If the people can't survive and sell themselves into slavery, the country will directly lose a taxpayer!

Therefore, the tax increase is not within the scope of Liu Hongdi's consideration at all - not only can the tax not be raised, but Liu Hong will also strive to reduce the agricultural tax to 30 taxes in the shortest possible time.

As a result, in order to truly solve the problem of military rations for the border troops, Liu Hong needs to increase productivity, increase the population base, expand the area of arable land, and increase grain production step by step.

None of this can be done overnight.

Under the premise that the Xiongnu in the north are eyeing the tiger and are about to usher in the peak of the founder - Lao Shangji porridge, the number of border troops must not be reduced, but will also increase in the near future.

If the throttling fails, Liu Hong can only open source.

In the short term, the only way to overdraft the central government is to overdraft the central government through the huge transportation costs, so that the two meals a day of the border guards can be above the level line.

In the long run, every effort has been made to promote agricultural development, and agricultural output has increased by a large margin, so that both grain output and state finances have grown to the extent that they can bear the annual expenditure of 10 million stone of military rations.

During this period, in order to properly liberate the border defense troops and reduce the financial burden of the state, the Han family also needed to achieve a strategic victory over the Xiongnu, so as to reduce the defensive pressure on the front line of the Great Wall.

In addition, in order to increase the state's fiscal revenue without increasing the burden on the people, Liu Hong needed to find another source of income in addition to the agricultural tax.

Thinking about this pile, one by one, Liu Hong couldn't help but feel physically and mentally exhausted - I really can't figure out what those people who are fighting for their heads and want to sit on the position of the Ninety-Five Supreme are in their heads...

It's tiring to be an emperor, isn't it!

Seeing Liu Hong rubbing the corners of his eyes with a tired face, Chai Wu stopped talking at the right time and quietly looked at Liu Hong.

"It's okay, the general continues."

Regarding Liu Hong's idea of 'exempting border guards from agricultural taxes', Chai Wu quoted scriptures and analyzed its pros and cons in an all-round way.

To sum it up: absolutely not!

However, the loopholes pointed out by Chai Wu are still unable to refute them.

First: If the 200,000 border troops are exempted from agricultural taxes, the state fiscal revenue will be directly reduced by 30,000 yuan, but the military rations that should be allocated to the border troops will still have to be paid.

Liu Bang made three baht money, the collapse of the Han economy was only more than 20 years ago, after Liu Bang's death, through a series of measures by Empress Lu, the central finance of the Han dynasty barely reached a balance a few years ago.

As for the annual financial income, every penny has already been paid for long before it is collected.

Suddenly, because of the exemption of the agricultural tax of the border generals, the financial revenue was reduced by one-tenth, and Jiuqing Yousi would not buy it at all - since it was a reduction or exemption of the agricultural tax of the border guards, it would be deducted from the military expenditure!

In other words, the exemption of agricultural taxes for border guards will not only not appease the border soldiers who are not full of food, but will further reduce the already pitiful military rations.

Second: The border troops are exempted from agricultural taxes, so is the standing field army like the Flying Fox Army exempt from agricultural taxes for soldiers and soldiers?

Should the guards and soldiers of the local counties, the guards of the government service, the guards of the Jiuqing of Chang'an, and even the agricultural taxes of the northern and southern armies be exempted?

If it is inevitable, isn't it favoritism?

After subconsciously spitting out the word 'free', Liu Hong was frightened by the data that Chai Wu put out!

If the local guards of the county, the armed forces of the government, and the young people in the countryside are all included in the tax-exempt ranks, then the tax-free scope will cover more than half of the peasant households!

That is to say: if all the military soldiers are exempted from agricultural taxes, then the central fiscal revenue will directly drop by two-thirds!

It was not until this time that Liu Hong realized how the later sentence 'the country will be destroyed by weakness, and the Han dynasty will die with strength' - the Han family is in the world, and it is not an exaggeration to say that all the people are soldiers!

Therefore, tax exemption for soldiers is simply Liu Hong's fantasy of completely ignoring the actual situation!

The last point put forward by Chai Wu made Liu Hong abandon all luck and admit that his plan of 'exempting the border army from agricultural taxes' was even more naïve than 'sweeping away the Xiongnu within five years'.

-- Tax exemption will only reduce the fiscal revenue of the central government, but it will not affect the daily operation of local governments!

When the central government orders the exemption of agricultural taxes for the families of military soldiers, the local government will use various methods to press the taxes that should be borne by the 'military households' to the families of ordinary people who have not joined the army!

This means that the central government's control over the localities will become lower and lower, and the burden on the people will become heavier and heavier, moving in the direction of two extremes.

Or, all the people will squeeze their heads and send their children to the army, so as to exempt them from agricultural taxes; The country eventually faced a situation where no one paid taxes, and then declared its demise.

Or, the people who are crushed and can't survive rise up and overthrow this tyranny that doesn't give them a way to live!

Thinking that he had thought about it for a long time, and even consulted the archives in every possible way, before he 'conservatively' put forward a plan, but the result was very likely to lead to the demise of the regime, Liu Hong felt a deep sense of frustration welling up in his heart.

- This is just a problem that Chai Wu can see!

If you really put this plan in front of the old officials who are skilled in government affairs and have a deeper understanding of the people's livelihood and economy, I am afraid that there will be more problems that can be discovered!

"Your Majesty?"

A soft call woke Liu Hong up from his infinite frustration.

Liu Hong, who was paralyzed on the edge of the collapse, straightened his upper body slightly, straightened his complexion, and bowed his hand slightly: "Fortunately, the general is here, so that I did not cause a catastrophe..."

After this incident, the sense of superiority in Liu Hong's heart, which has never disappeared since the time of crossing, and which belongs to the traverser, was finally knocked apart in the face of reality - the traverser is not a big deal!

Even if he has a vision of more than 2,000 years, Liu Hong is still like a rookie who has just sat on a hundred stones, and everything must be learned in a down-to-earth manner.

Thinking of this, the frustration in Liu Hong's eyes slowly disappeared, and was replaced by a surging fighting spirit like fire!

- He's still young!

The most important thing is that the rich experience accumulated by the two lives is enough to ensure that Liu Hong maintains an absolutely cool head most of the time.

Seeing that Liu Hong walked out of his depressed mood a moment ago, Chai Wu's words of encouragement that he was about to utter came to an abrupt end, and he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

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