The peasants under Li Ze were undoubtedly happy.

Because they are now, and they are now paying the lowest taxes since the establishment of the dynasty. Even when Datang was at its most prosperous, they had never enjoyed such treatment.

And the reason why Li Ze did this was only for one reason, to solve everyone's food and clothing problem first.

Keeping the people fed is the most basic question of whether the imperial court can be stable. But those who cannot solve this problem will not be far from downfall.

There is no agriculture and there is no stability, and these four words clearly illustrate this problem.

The farmer who can eat a full stomach is definitely the most obedient and docile group of people in a dynasty.

Since he couldn't loot the farmers, Li Ze could only hit the merchants mainly.

Now the merchants of Datang are definitely the class with the heaviest burden in Datang. The commercial tax has risen from the original ten taxes to the current ten taxes three.

But the merchants of the Tang Dynasty not only did not rebel, but became more and more supportive of the court under the control of Li Ze, why?

It's very simple, it's nothing more than an equivalent exchange.

First, Li Ze greatly improved the political status of the merchant class.

In the past, the status of merchants was even worse than that of farmers, and there were many restrictions on them, and Li Ze abolished these things in one fell swoop. The fact that the children of merchants enjoyed the same right to study and become officials as everyone else made many merchants grateful.

Second, we need to broaden our financial resources. After consolidating his rule, Li Ze let go of the privileges of many large transactions that had been controlled by the state, allowing merchants to join them. At the same time, it vigorously expanded overseas trade, the Silk Road was reopened, and the long-distance fleet was endless, which was a profiteering industry.

The taxes paid by merchants may seem like a heavy weight, but they are not unaffordable relative to their income. Compared to the past, their total assets are even steadily increasing year by year.

For Li Ze, if he wants to collect more taxes, then he needs to stimulate the development of industry and commerce more vigorously.

Therefore, knowing that some businessmen are lawless and doing some hurtful things overseas, Li Ze also pretended not to know. It can be seen from the report of the internal guard that the merchants are expanding their territory in many places overseas. They hired large numbers of veterans to arrive overseas, and in some places set off large tracts of land to grow jagan, boil jaggery, and then ship it back home for fine processing. When the rubber industry was just emerging, some people started to do this business in places with suitable climates. There are even those who have begun to farm overseas, and in some places where the climate is suitable, they can grow three crops a year, and those who work for them are undoubtedly on the same level as slaves.

In this process, nature is full of blood and tears.

However, Li Ze is not a bodhisattva, and he can't care about these people now. For him, these businessmen who return to China, as long as they pay taxes in full according to the requirements of the state, and take out some money to help the local pave roads and build bridges to build schools, they are good citizens of Datang.

Any country, his primitive accumulation, is always full of blood.

When we Datang is truly prosperous and stable, let's talk about human rights in these places!

The major matters that Li Ze is concerned about now are, first, the great cause of dominating the world in China. If you don't unify the world, you can't talk about bringing Datang back to the top of the world.

Second, he wants to create a stable external environment for the Tang Dynasty, and to achieve this goal, Tubo must be destroyed, and the Western Regions must be stabilized. The northern desert must become a buffer zone for Datang.

Only after doing this, did Li Ze dare to say that Datang had already taken the first step on the road to prosperity.

It is undoubtedly the most cost-effective for businessmen to complete the first step of foreign expansion.

Businessmen are profit-seekers by nature.

With a 30 percent profit, they dare to take risks.

With 100 percent profits, they dare to gamble their lives.

When the profit reaches a few hundred percent, they dare to defy the law.

Li Ze has a deep understanding of this.

Domestically, the laws were constantly perfected to restrain these merchants, but outside the Tang Dynasty, these laws became ineffective. It's not that Li Ze doesn't want to have a long arm to govern, but he now needs these businessmen to use their money to do things that are inconvenient for Datang as a country.

"Li Xiang, the Wuyi Chamber of Commerce has intervened in the civil war of the Wa Kingdom!" Gongsun Changming put an internal secret report in front of Li Ze, "Their purpose is to control Iwami Yinshan. For now, their goal is almost achieved. The two sides are negotiating to exchange Iwami Ginzan's ten-year mining rights in exchange for the full support of the Wuyi Chamber of Commerce. ”

The Wuyi Chamber of Commerce is undoubtedly the most powerful chamber of commerce in Datang now, because behind them are some prominent figures. For example, the original Hezhong Mansion Jiedu envoy Gao Lei, the former Tang Dynasty high-ranking official Wang Duo, etc. These people not only have money, but also official backgrounds, and they can always get things that no one else can get. For example, the Datang military knocks out a staggering number of weapons and armor every year.

The Wuyi Chamber of Commerce is a circle. Except for these people who defected to Li Ze very early, the rest are all upstarts after Li Ze took power, and this circle is not something you can enter if you have money. Like the Hedong Liu family, they tried their best to enter the business circle of Wuyi, and with their financial resources, they couldn't join it. And what it means to enter this circle is naturally clear to the Hedong Liu clan, who has been at the top of this food chain for a long time. So now, they are trying to save the country by marriage. Several of Liu's daughters are now preparing to marry into some of the people in this circle. And the descendants of the Liu family are also preparing to marry the daughters of some families in this circle, they don't care about their appearance, they don't care about their concubines, as long as they can succeed.

The Wuyi Chamber of Commerce is undoubtedly the top circle in Datang now.

"Boxing Trading Company suffered a big loss in Europa this time. The goods were swallowed, and hundreds of people were lost. I heard that Yelu Fengze was furious, and he had already organized a larger fleet, vigorously recruited sailors, retired the army, and prepared a big counterattack. He even asked the general for artillery. Tu Hu can't get an idea, I don't know whether to sell or not? ”

"Yangzhou Chamber of Commerce is ready to deepen the American continent, but the interesting thing is that this time to join the Yangzhou Chamber of Commerce, it is actually some maritime merchants in Fujian, in recent years they have been pressed by us to not be able to go to sea, the fleet was almost sunk by us, they finally can't hold back, began to lose sincerity to us, although these Fujian maritime merchants have been miserable enough by us in recent years, but the financial resources, the power is still considerable, if they also begin to fall Rong Hong, I think this is a good phenomenon."

"Sell, why not?" Li Ze slapped the table, "But the price has to be set high." Mr. Gongsun, I think we can issue privateer warrants to these ships that go to sea. ”

"Privateer warrant?" Gongsun Changming didn't react at once.

"It's to allow them to legally rob everyone except our Datang." Li Ze grinned and said: "Of course, we will send someone to supervise their fleet, and the imperial court will share half of the property obtained from privateing." ”

Even a person like Gongsun Changming, who had no taboos, was a little stunned when he heard Li Ze's sudden idea.

"If this matter spreads, I'm afraid that Li Xiang's reputation will be hindered." He hesitated. "It's just a sneaky job, the court publicly issues privateer licenses, which is a public robbery."

"I need money." Li Ze spread his hands and said: "Mr. Gongsun, you have also seen the current appearance of Chang'an, all kinds of ruins are waiting to be rebuilt, and the Central Plains, if you want to restore the old scene, you need a lot of investment. Although the Western Regions belong to us in name, they are still impoverished there, and if we do not invest heavily in them, there will inevitably be chaos in the future. Xue Ping and the others have already had direct contact with those big cannibals, and the two sides may enter a state of war at any time, and we must not lose this territory, which is related to the strategic security of our Datang in the future. In the same way, Tibet must also be eaten. Now Tocharian has braided his hair, but Delhi Chinan has also unified Tubo because of this, and it is only a matter of time before we completely turn against us. It is not possible to rely on those serf rebels alone, Li Cunzhong's army wants to enter Tibet, and then we have to send more troops to enter, which also requires money. ”

Li Ze glared at Gongsun Changming: "Where does the money come from?" We can't exploit the people under our rule, and the reputation that has been established in the hearts of the people with great difficulty can't fall because of this, so I can only ask for it from the outside. ”

Gongsun Changming was speechless.

Li Ze's plan was too grandiose, far beyond Gongsun Changming's previous estimates.

"These caravans sell artillery and allow them to form similar military organizations overseas, and I'm a little worried that they won't be able to do it in the future!" Gongsun Changming voiced his concerns. "Once something really happens, then they will either be at sea, or far away in other Great Souths, beyond the reach of the whip, so what can they do?"

"How to control them, that's a matter for the Supervisory Yuan, this shouldn't bother you, right?" Li Ze said with a smile: "This matter, you and Yang Kai and him go and discuss it well." I hope that one day, these civilian armed merchant ships will become the invincible sailors of my Datang. Then again, as long as we get stronger and stronger, who wants to give up holding such a thick thigh as us? They are the people who have the fullest understanding of our national strength, and they know very well what will happen to them if they betray. ”

Gongsun Changming nodded slightly.

There was a gentle knock on the door, and Li Peng said outside: "Li Xiang, Li Shangshu of the military department asks to see you." ”

"It seems that the battle of Eyue has come to an end!" The two looked at each other.