Fuzhong Hall.

Fan Dan did not wear an official robe, he was wearing civilian clothes, his head was wrapped in a white curtain, he was wearing a black da, holding a feather fan in his hand, and he was dressed alone, which can be described as a famous gentleman who was proud of the princes.

He was saying loudly to Xin Er: "In the past, when Jiang Zuozu's grandfather was still in Huaibei, he was talking about books and books, seeking to communicate with each other. Zugong did not report the book, but listened to the mutual market, and collected ten times the profit, so the public and private wealth and the horse Rizi.

"Xihai County has a narrow jurisdiction, the people are few, the local output and taxes are not enough to support the local garrison, most of the food and military materials required for the garrison every year have to be transported from the interior of my Longzhou, and Xihai County is separated from the hinterland of Longzhou by the desert, the only water is connected, although the loss of water transportation is slightly less, but counting the grain and soldiers needed to the West Sea in previous years, there are also many losses on the road of transportation, if you can set up a mutual market in this county, the following official degree is calculated, even if you can't be as profitable as your grandfather when he was in Huaibei, At the very least, we can make up for the loss of military funds, and there is a large surplus, which is beneficial to our Dingxi.

"Because of this, the lower officials had the courage to make the decision and agreed to Pitan's request to 'set up a mutual market in Xihai County'. …… This is how things happened, if Ming Gong disagrees with this and thinks that what the lower officials did is inappropriate, then ask Ming Gong to send Rou Ran again? Rejection of Pittan is. ”

But it turned out? Although Pan Dan sent Rouran this time to recognize the title of Pitan Mobei Shan Yu, he was willing to give him some political help to help him strengthen and stabilize his position in Mobei? And in his time of need? In exchange for helping him resist the invasion of the Daibei Tuoba clan, it can be regarded as a relatively smooth agreement of "mutual non-aggression" between Dingxi and Pitan? But Pi Tan put forward another condition, that is, to ask for the establishment of a mutual market in Xihai County? Asking Dingxi to open the confinement? Trade with Rouran.

The "mutual market" is a market set up in the border area to conduct commercial activities with the enemy country or other countries.

It stands to reason that the requirement of "seeking to set up a mutual market" is a very important thing? Dan as a messenger? Just as the bald Boye and Yang Hezhi did not have the right to agree to the "five hundred herdsmen" who gave Zhao Guyan on behalf of the north to settle pastures in Shuofang County, they also had no right to agree without authorization, but once he came to Pan Dan "dared to do anything", he really felt that after the establishment of the mutual market, it would be beneficial to Dingxi? Second, what is undeniable? He is still very dissatisfied with Xin Er's expulsion of his father from the capital and suppression of the Fan family, and he is still very dissatisfied until now? In other words, he also deliberately used this to prove to Dingxi Chaozhong and Dingxi Shiliu? His family is not afraid of Xin'er, and his family still holds power? Is it right? Without asking for advice, he agreed to Pitan's request.

It's called cutting before playing.

Xin Er stroked the short mustache under his chin, but he didn't get angry because of this, he thought about it seriously, and said: "As Jun said, the establishment of a mutual market is also beneficial to my Dingxi, and it is not impossible to allow Pi Tan to set up a mutual market in Xihai County." ”

But it was out of Fen Dan's expectations, Fen Dan was ready to deal with Xin Er's anger, but Xin Er actually agreed, he was dumbfounded for a moment, reorganized his emotions, and said: "Ming Gong said this, is it not to blame the lower officials for making their own opinions?" ”

"But there are a few things that need to be noted."

"Dare to ask Ming Gong, what are the contents?"

"One is that the city must be under military control, and the mayor, city officials, etc., must all be appointed by General Suo from among the army; One is that not only armor objects, but also bow and lacquer should also be strictly prohibited from being sold; Another is that the establishment of the mutual market, although it is for the exchange of existence, but it is located in the border area bordering Rouran, it is necessary to consider the political influence, the city is inevitably treacherous, if this ruins the benevolent voice of my Dingxi, provokes the resentment of Rouran Hu Musheng, it will inevitably be detrimental to the stability of our border land, so it is advisable to be like the cities of the counties in our country, in the middle of the city to put copper buckets and iron rulers, hanging the gate of the city, in order to be a fair measuring instrument, and the philistines dare to be cunning and deceiving, severely punished! ”

These three contents of Xin Er take into account three problems.

The first content is aimed at the security of Hushi and Xihai County.

The second content is aimed at the country's military security issues, and the establishment of mutual markets in border areas and the exchange of information is one of them, and the countries involved often have strong military objectives. For example, Pu Qin's Jingzhou, the original intention of the establishment of this state, one aspect is to carry out mutual trade with Jiangzuo, so as to attract profit-seeking merchants in the south to sell southern materials that can be used for military purposes, such as "bow and pole wax paint", to Pu Qin, therefore, it is strictly forbidden to sell military goods, which is the proper meaning of the question.

The third content, needless to say. "Philistines" are people who buy and sell and exploit them for a living, or to put it mildly, they are market exchange brokers, and some of them will do bad things to deceive sellers or buyers for the sake of profit. For this, it needs to be banned. "Put a copper bucket and iron ruler in the middle of the city, and hang the gate of the city", this is Xin Er's "invention,——", in fact, even if there is no Xin Er to invent these things, in the original time and space of Xin Er, these things will appear not long after.

With an expression of "I thought you were going to say something, this is what you have been doing for a long time", Yan Dan said: "The lower officials have taken into account the points that Ming Gong said, and they have all been written into the mutual market regulations that have been roughly formulated with Rouran. ”

"Really? Zhu Shi, Jun Zhen is also a great talent in Dingxi, but I am too worried. ”

"Get rid of these points, Su Qing, who sent Rouran from the lower officials, put forward a proposal on taxation, and the lower officials also set it into the charter."

- Su Qing, that is, the main bookkeeper before Pan Dan, is now serving in the Ministry of Rites of Central Taiwan. This time, he was sent to the envoy, and Dan Dan brought him with him.

"What's the suggestion?"

Yan Dan said: "One of the purposes of the establishment of the Xihai County Mutual Market is to make up for the loss of military expenses required by the garrison of Xihai County, and the expenditure of military expenses is not allocated by the imperial court on a daily or monthly basis, so it is not good to tax the merchants in the mutual market according to the customary collection method of commercial taxes in the cities of the country. Su Qing suggested that the imperial court could send someone to calculate the full amount of the annual commercial tax that could be collected in the city, and that the voluntary merchants, or one or more people, should first pay the total amount of this tax to the court, and then the merchants of this one person or many people would collect the tax on each transaction from the merchants in the city, whether it was more or less, and the profit and loss of the income would be their own responsibility. ”

Speaking of this, Yan Dan paused, and then said, "I will take Shuofang this year, and then Nan'an, the overall military expenditure of the imperial court is very large, and next year it may be fought with Qin Yu in Qinzhou, which will require a huge amount of military expenditure,...... If this new tax system is pushed to the whole country of Dingxi, at the end of this winter and the beginning of spring next year, the implementation will be completed, and it will be more beneficial to my preparations for Qinzhou next year! ”

Xin Er picked up the tea bowl and took a sip of hot water, and said in his heart: "I don't read much, but the new tax law that I have talked about is not the tax system?" ”

There are two main ways to collect business tax.

One was customary for the Tang regime, that is, to tax both buyers and sellers in the city. One is sometimes used by the Hu regime, that is, everyone who enters the market, regardless of whether they trade or not, is taxed, which is called "market gate tax" or "market entry tax".

The new law of levying commercial tax proposed by Su Qing relayed by Pan Dan is the tax package law that did not appear until the time of Qi Liang in the Southern Dynasty and reached its peak in the Yuan Dynasty.

There are advantages and disadvantages to the tax package law, the disadvantage is that it opens the door to extrajudicial arbitrariness, and the advantage is that the state saves the cost of setting up tax collection agencies, and at the same time gets the tax revenue it deserves. Compared with the pros and cons, in terms of the burden of businessmen, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

But for now, what Pan Dan said also makes sense.

If according to the customary taxation method, according to the transaction amount of each trade, a little a day, a little a day, and a certain amount of money can only be used as a whole in half a year and three months, then in a short period of time, it will indeed not be of great benefit to the financial expenditure of the Dingxi Imperial Court, and if the annual commercial tax is received in advance at one time, it will be very beneficial whether it is the allocation of military expenses for Xihai County next year, or the great war with Pu Qin that is almost certain to break out next spring.

After thinking about it for a long time, he thought to himself: "For the sake of short-term interests, it is not advisable to cause a long-term burden to the merchants, which is to drink water to quench thirst; At this time, if this tax package system is implemented, those who can have a certain 'city' under their wallets for the whole year must be the local Haoqiang, which is strengthening their power, and is not conducive to my intention to take back the households they occupy. This system cannot be implemented on a large scale! ”

It cannot be implemented on a large scale, but it can still be implemented only in the "temporary market" of the Xihai Mutual Market.

Xin Er made a decision and said, "This law was proposed by Su Qing? ”

"Exactly."

"You ask him to pay a visit to Sun Fuchu tomorrow, and he will discuss with Sun Fuchu about how this law should be implemented in the Xihai Mutual Market, and how to ensure that the merchants in the city will not be exploited by the people who pay taxes because of this. If it is feasible, it will be practiced in the West Sea Mutual Market. ”

"What about the cities in the counties of the country?"

Xin Er glanced at Dan, and said in his heart: "I want to take back the matter of the people who are hidden by the gate valve and Haoqiang, and now I haven't officially started to make a policy, Lao Yan, this person, the ability is there, and the loyalty to my Dingxi is also there, but he is also a child of the valve clan, I heard that his family is attached to a group, and there are many hidden households, and I am dissatisfied, and this matter cannot be told to him now." ”

He did not use this as an excuse to refuse to implement this tax system in cities across the country, but said, "Since the reopening of the Western Regions Trade Road, the commercial tax has become more and more important in the proportion of the annual income of the national treasury in Dingxi. This needs to be carefully discussed, and decisions should not be rushed. ”

From the meeting to the present, although he is called "Ming Gong", his words and demeanor have always been proud, and when he talks to this, he suddenly became narrow, and he spoke seriously, and changed his nickname to Dan as if he was teaching, and said, "Ah Gong, you need to be cautious when seeking the country, and you must not be impatient." You're good anywhere, but you're too anxious. You have to change that. ”

Pan Dan was a few years older than Xin Er, but Xin Er had the attitude of an elder, and Fan Dan's anger came up at once, threw the feather fan on the case, stared at Xin Er, and said, "Ah Gua! Is your name Gong? ”

"Qing can call me melon, why can't I call Qing Gong?"

"You!"

Xin Er stroked his mustache and smiled, and said, "Ah Gong! Let's just say this, the Xihai Mutual Market can implement the tax system suggested by Su Qing, as for whether the domestic cities want to implement it, let's wait and talk! You only came back yesterday, and I will invite you here today, I think you are still very tired, go home and rest. The day after tomorrow, when the day after tomorrow, you will show the situation of your envoy to the queen mother and the king,...... You have worked the way back and forth, and successfully reached the covenant between my Dingxi and Rouran, you can rest assured, the queen mother and the king are indispensable to the reward that should be given to you! ”

Yan Dan was furious, and said: "I have done my best for the country and been loyal to the king, and I have made an alliance with the northern captives this time, is it to covet rewards?" ”

"By the way, you said that Pi Tan begged for Kumarosh, hoping that our country could send Kumarosh to Rouran, to him and the noble race of his country to preach the Dharma, this thing can't be done, Kumarosh is very busy now, I only went to the translation hall two days ago, ouch, the Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures in it are piled up like a hill, he can't be busy translating the scriptures, how can he go far away to Rouran? However, it is a good thing that Pi Tan admires my Dingxi Buddhism, and we can't completely refuse his request, I will invite the Queen Mother, the King, and another monk to send Rouran. ”

Yan Dan said angrily: "I am loyal, I can learn from the sun and the moon, Xin Agua, you don't insult my loyalty to the king with the king's reward!" ”

Xin Er beckoned outside the hall, summoned the beggars who had been waiting outside for a long time, and asked, "You are probing your brain outside the hall, sneaky, is there something wrong?" ”

Qi vigorously admired and said: "Ming Gong is wise, Ming Gong has fire in his mouth, and he said it at once!" ”

"What?" Xin Er didn't immediately understand what "there is fire in the mouth, say it all at once", he was stunned before he reacted, and he didn't feel like he smiled, Gu and Yan Dan, who was standing on the side of the couch, said, "Ah Gong, this is really interesting!" ”

Yan Dan glared angrily.

Xin Er asked beggar vigorously and said, "What's the matter?" ”

"Report to Ming Gong, the bald Boye is back! Now waiting outside the house for the summons of Ming Gong. ”

Xin Er was overjoyed and said, "Bo Ye is back? ”

"When he just entered the city, Bo Ye said that the matter of making an alliance with Daibei was very important, because he didn't have time to rest, so he came to report to Ming Gong first."

Xin Er's face was full of approval, praised the bald Boye, and said: "Okay, good, Boye is still sensible, knowing that the alliance is a major event related to the future of the country!" …… Ah Gong, listen, come to report to me before you can take a bath, what a royal family with a heart and dedication to your duties! ”