Dragon City in June is a little muggy.

The old emperor, who had just drunk rock sugar jasmine mung bean soup, held the twenty-third meeting of the month.

The imperial ministers who came from various departments all sat down in an orderly manner, waiting for Emperor Wenwu's instructions.

The old emperor looked at the more than 100 young and handsome men below, although there were also white-haired old men, they were all the kind of people who were in good health.

Unhealthy, can't afford to play this Game of Thrones.

There are no people who are too young, basically they are close to thirty to fifty years old, they are in the prime of life, calm in temperament, can withstand tosses, and have a certain amount of knowledge accumulation.

There is no shortage of talent in the empire.

Today's meeting, like the main issues discussed in the past few days, has always been a discussion and debate around taxation.

The empire has no enemies, and it is too large, and many problems that are considered problems by people at the bottom are not problems here.

The flood in Yunzhou will not be solved at present, as long as the stability is maintained and does not deteriorate, and the matter of water control will be discussed after the flood season, and there is no need to discuss it every day.

The old emperor asked the people below to speak, and he continued to observe.

At present, the people in the DPRK and China have a few opinions.

Package tax system: The imperial court sets a number, and the state capitals of each state find a way to raise this amount of taxes, and then distribute the rest by themselves.

In the tax-sharing system, several taxes in each state are under the unified responsibility of the imperial court, and the rest of the taxes are collected by the local people themselves. For example, the land tax, the commercial tax, and the salt and iron tax.

Round tax system: when the harvest is good, collect more, and if the harvest is bad, collect less, and levy a certain additional tax as an emergency.

Tax system: The local government hands over various taxes to the imperial court, and the imperial court decides how much money to give to the people below.

Generally speaking, the current implementation is a tax system, but in the past decade or so, with the increasing population and output, it has become more and more difficult to collect taxes, and the wealth has become more and more unbalanced.

Wealth inequality is happening everywhere in the states and has become a big problem.

In some places, the money given is seriously insufficient, and in some places, the old emperor feels that he has given too much, and those places with money do not need so much money at all.

The money printed and distributed every year cannot be recovered, and the money collected by the imperial court from taxes is becoming more and more insufficient.

Tax reform was imminent, but the old emperor could not make up his mind even though he knew very well that this tax system would be changed.

What everyone said was very reasonable, but the old emperor always felt that the tax system customized by his father was better and more able to show the majesty of the imperial court.

The problem of money is in front of him, and the old emperor himself knows that he can no longer print and distribute large amounts of money on a large scale, otherwise there will be big problems.

You can't advance, you can't retreat, you can't change if you want to change it, that's why this meeting has been discussed for half a month without results.

It is always the emperor who makes the decision.

"In the first half of this year, have all the tax revenues in various places been counted?"

The old emperor looked at the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The head of the household department in charge of finance was dismissed, and the original head of the household department was assigned to several people who were in charge of household registration, land, household registration, taxation, salaries, and all financial matters.

The Minister of Finance stood up and said respectfully: "Go out to a few states that are too far away, have been counted in advance, the first five months are specific numbers, the last month is the average, because of the encouragement of business, most areas have increased a lot compared with last year, among which Longzhou has received the most taxes, far exceeding the rest of the places." ”

The old emperor actually knew this, and he took a general look.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth places all add up, and they are not enough for Longzhou to play.

Longzhou is a good place, so many Jiang family members don't understand why they have to have so much territory outside, isn't it enough to have Longzhou?

The old emperor sighed, feeling a rather powerless loneliness and sadness.

He could not let go of his grip on the empire, no matter what, and he would not give up the territory of one state or one place.

In several large states on the frontier, the old emperor would put a lot of effort into strengthening his control every year.

Muzhou is not a frontier, the real frontier is the kind of place where the road is far away, and communication is insured by flying eagles and manpower.

Although the old emperor did not speak, the rest of the people understood that the emperor did not agree to the tax system.

The right to collect taxes can only be delegated to the central government, and absolutely cannot be delegated to the localities.

After thinking about it for a while, the old emperor said, "Let's get here today first and retreat." ”

The officials were still unable to come up with a policy that would satisfy the old emperor.

In any case, when it comes to power, the old emperor is very sensitive and will not regress even a little.

Accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger, this kind of emperor is definitely not the emperor that the court officials like.

Tax reform must be carried out, otherwise there will be chaos everywhere.

After thinking about it, the old emperor still felt that the territory and people of the empire were too big, and he didn't understand why he was so obsessed with expanding the territory and increasing the population.

In some places, it takes nearly a year just to transport the tax money back, and the gains really outweigh the losses.

But although he felt that his father was wrong in many things, the old emperor was sincerely willing to maintain the territory, and he didn't want the inheritance left by his ancestors to be damaged even a little bit.

In the end, I still can't think of any good way, and this kind of thing can't continue to be delayed, which is really getting more and more annoying.

The old emperor soon began to work, dealing with official documents and secret recitals sent from all over the country.

Secret agents from all over the country will hand over valuable information to the emperor to see, and Heishui County, as a place where there has been trouble recently, some of the big movements in it meet this qualification.

"Mountains and rivers are exotic...... The sun and the moon are the same day......" The old emperor looked at these eight words, and suddenly felt much better.

This world is all his, whether it is Xianzhou Bingzhou or Shanzhou Muzhou, the sky on the top is him!

"Wang Lanling...... Why did this kid run away from Muzhou? ”

The old emperor showed a puzzled expression, he was sure that Wang Lanling of Shanhai County was Wang Lanling of the big dung division.

Although I don't know how Wang Lanling ran to Muzhou to be the county commander, the old emperor didn't plan to get this person back to Yunzhou.

Wang Lanling hasn't been in contact with the old emperor for a few years, for the old emperor, this is just a person who can still remember, there is no special need, that's it.

Although a few years ago, he would have thought about reusing him, but now the old emperor can't even find a qualified successor, and he has no heart to cultivate any talents.

Talent? The talented people around the emperor don't know much, does he care?

After all, it made the emperor feel better, so the old emperor wrote a handwritten instruction.

"Well done, promoted to one level."

The old emperor didn't know what title Wang Lanling was, but in that place in Muzhou, it didn't matter if he was promoted to the seventh or eighth level.

As for the matter of Heishui County, the old emperor was not interested after taking a look.

I've been watching this kind of thing for decades, and it's all about the rules, and there are no mood swings.

In short, it is to borrow the heads of some people to calm the people's anger and enrich the treasury by the way.

The old emperor only pays attention to whether there are fewer kills, and the rest of the things will be handled by the people below.

There is no shortage of talents in the empire, and there is no shortage of talents.