……

After the princelings agreed on the strategy of commercial tax reform, they agreed to keep their mouths shut and keep a low profile for the time being, so they left the East Palace one after another and returned to their homes.

said that the prince and young master Guo Tang, after returning to his house, found his brother-in-law Guo Min for the first time.

In the Guo family, the nominal head of the family is Guo Tang, who is the prince and young master, but the Guo family's chores, people, etc., and all kinds of industries have always been managed by Guo Min.

In a way, the real head of the Guo family is Guo Min.

However, this is not to say that Guo Tang is not important, in fact, if there is no Guo Tang, the prince and young master, as a signboard, the Guo family would not be as big as it is now!

"Brother, you came to me in such a hurry, but what happened?" After coming to Guo Tang's study, Guo Min hurriedly asked.

After Guo Tang hesitated for a moment, he didn't say what he decided to do in the East Palace today, but just asked, "Guo Min, tell me, how is our family's business doing now?" How big is it? How much is the benefit? ”

Hearing Guo Tang's interrogation, Guo Min couldn't help but be stunned.

In Guo Min's eyes, his brother has always been upright and not involved in world affairs, and regards silver money as a blockage full of copper smell, and he doesn't even mention it far away on weekdays, for fear that mentioning silver money will make him cheesy.

So, Guo Min asked, "What is my brother asking for?" But do you need enough silver to buy antique toys? If that's the case, my brother mentioned that our family's business is going well now. Profit is very good, if the brother needs it. It's not a big deal to come up with a few thousand taels of silver. ”

On weekdays, the two large parts of Guo Tang's silver are used to buy antique authentic works and the four treasures of the study. spent a lot on this, Guo Min also thought that this time Guo Tang interrogated the family's business, there was something elegant and expensive, and Guo Tang's money couldn't afford it, so he wanted to take some silver from the house.

Seeing that Guo Min was thinking about it, Guo Tang frowned and said, "Where did I ask you for silver?" What are you doing with your money? How can you associate everything with silver? You've gotten more and more vulgar over the years! …… Forget it, I won't talk nonsense with you, you just have to tell me about the current business situation of our family. ”

Seeing Guo Tang scolding him, Guo Min couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly.

……

Originally. The Guo family is not a solid family with abundant silver and grain, in fact, before Guo Tang entered the officialdom and rose step by step, the Guo family's family background was very ordinary, just an ordinary farming family, but because Guo Tang studied since childhood, aspired to fame, and was quite talented, the Guo family had high hopes for Guo Tang, thinking that Guo Tang would inevitably be able to shine on the lintel, but they never wronged Guo Tang.

back then. Guo Tang's parents worked day and night weaving, and they were very happy, but Guo Tang didn't even do housework, let alone farming; His younger brother Guo Min has been doing small business in the market since he was a child. suffered a lot of white eyes, but Guo Tang had half a tael of silver pocket money every month to spend; The Guo family is frugal, but they just devote the whole family to Guo Tang to study. And Guo Tang's quality of life is no different from that of the son-in-law of an ordinary landlord's family.

And then. Guo Tang did not disappoint the Guo family, and actually won the fame of the list. After entering the Hanlin Academy, he rose step by step with his articles and poems, so the Guo family also prospered more and more with the help of Guo Tang's prestige, and Guo Min started a business under the banner of Guo Tang during this period!

Guo Min has been setting up stalls in the market since he was a child, with exquisite thoughts, quick responses, and well-informed, and backed by Guo Tang's name, the business is naturally getting bigger and bigger, and the money is getting more and more! During this period, because Guo Min knew his brother's temperament, he never mentioned business in front of Guo Tang, but he would hand over a large sum of silver taels to Guo Tang's Chang Sui every month.

Therefore, Guo Tang has never experienced the embarrassment and pain of lack of money and food, and naturally he will not understand how precious and useful things like silver taels are! In Guo Tang's eyes, silver has never been lacking, why are there still people who are obsessed with it and insatiable? Or even embezzle, bribe, and harm the people for such a mundane thing? What a big vulgarity!

Although Guo Tang had never experienced the suffering of the people's livelihood and spent most of his life in the Hanlin Academy compiling commentaries on the history, since the sages had said that it was wrong to do so, this kind of thing was naturally wrong and still incomprehensible.

It is precisely because of this that Guo Tang has a good reputation in the officialdom, and is famous for "treating gold and silver as dung", and has never been corrupt or bribed in his official career for many years, and under the law of "like gathers like things", Guo Tang has not only become the prince's young master, but also one of the core figures of the prince's party! Since then, "talking and laughing are all Confucian, and there is no vain correspondence", and his conduct has become more and more lofty and arrogant.

So, in Guo Tang's eyes, his younger brother Guo Min's actions of talking about silver at every turn are really cheesy.

In fact, Guo Tang has criticized Guo Min's vulgar philistine more than once!

In this regard, Guo Min could only shake his head and smile bitterly, but he could never refute it.

……

At this time, Guo Min also shook his head with a wry smile, but when he saw Guo Tang asking, he didn't hide it, but just explained: "Brother, now our family's business is progressing smoothly, and the family business is getting bigger and bigger, and there are about nearly 10,000 taels of silver in the account every month, and it will further increase in the future!" ”

There are tens of thousands of taels of silver in the account every month, so isn't there more than 100,000 taels of silver every year? With so much silver, how big can you buy an elegant forest garden? How many antiques can I buy? As for Cao's rice paper, Jixi's Hui ink, the best Huzhou Zihao pen, and the precious Tao inkstone, wouldn't there be as many as you want?

Even though Guo Tang never knew the preciousness of gold and silver, he couldn't help but shake slightly at this time, but he finally came to his senses, and shook his head and said: "What I want to hear is not this, I just want to know, what aspects of our family's business are involved?" Have you ever done smuggling and tax evasion? ”

Guo Min was stunned again, seeing that Guo Tang asked in such detail. There was a faint premonition in his heart, but he still said honestly: "Brother." In our family's industry, although there are also some rice grain shops and taverns. However, the most profitable is the shipping of the Grand Canal, brother, you also know that the rice, salt, silk tea, enamel and bamboo ware in the south can get several times the income once they are transported to the north, and the furs, medicinal materials, cattle and horses in the north are also very profitable when transported to the south, and our commercial bank ...... Naturally, there are some cases of smuggling and tax evasion, but this kind of thing is just ordinary nowadays. Every commercial bank is doing this, and it is even more unavoidable, brother, you don't know, now the commercial taxes of the imperial court are too much and too heavy, you have to pay taxes when you pass through the county, you have to pay taxes when you pass through the government, you have to pay taxes when you pass through the province, and you have to pay taxes even when you pass by the Huangzhuang Barracks, so many business taxes, road taxes, and license taxes, all of them, if they are all paid, our commercial houses will not only not be able to make money. Instead, you will lose several times the amount of money! ”

Hearing Guo Min's answer, Guo Tang hesitated for a moment, and finally ordered: "These businesses are all temporarily suspended!" Today I go to the East Palace. The prince has already made a resolution to crack down on smuggling and tax evasion firms in the future, and I am a close friend of the prince's side. You can't defy the wind and ruin my reputation at this time! But you don't have to worry, in addition to the prince, he has to severely punish the smuggling and tax evasion firms. It is also necessary to rectify the commercial tax of our dynasty and eliminate the redundant tax stations. At that time, the business tax will no longer be complicated, and you can continue to do business. ”

After hearing Guo Tang's words, Guo Min's face changed.

Guo Min understands very well that the reason why the Guo family's business makes money is because of smuggling and tax evasion! If it is impossible to smuggle and evade taxes, even if the commercial tax is reduced, the Guo family's business income will be greatly reduced.

Compared with Guo Tang, Guo Min was a little fond of money, so he hurriedly said: "Brother, you must persuade His Royal Highness the Prince, you must not do this!" ”

Guo Tang frowned and asked, "This is a good thing for the people of the court, why can't it?" ”

Guo Min understood Guo Tang's temperament, and knew that at this time, it must not be said that doing so would cause the Guo family to lose a lot of silver, but he always had to find a credible reason, so his mind changed sharply, and after a while, he really found a practical reason!

"Brother, the prince has made too many enemies by doing this! Think about it, how many tax stations are there from south to north and from east to west? How many officials earn benefits from this? I'm afraid that there will be as many as five or six out of ten officials in the world! By doing this, the prince has offended more than half of the officials in the world! In addition, most of the world's commercial banks rely on smuggling to make profits, after the prince rectified the commercial tax, although the commercial tax was reduced, but because it could not be smuggled, the income of the merchants was also reduced, and now many of the people behind the commercial houses are noble and high-ranking officials, and the prince did this, which is equivalent to offending the world's businessmen and nobles! And also...... By the way, there is also the fact that the prices of our dynasty are not high, and it is also because of the smuggling of merchants, if we can no longer smuggle, then the price will definitely increase, and the prince will offend the people of the world at that time! So, don't do it! ”

If Zhao Junchen was here, when he saw Guo Min, he thought of the trap he had designed for the crown prince Zhu Heyu in the blink of an eye, and he was afraid that he would immediately regard Guo Min as a great enemy!

It's a pity that Zhao Junchen doesn't know Guo Min! Although I know that there is such a person, I don't pay attention to it at this time.

In a way, Guo Min's insight is much stronger than that of the princelings!

It's just that even if Guo Min sees the hidden dangers, how can he persuade the princeling party to change their minds?

Even, Guo Min couldn't even convince his brother!

"Hmph, although the future is difficult, as long as it is beneficial to the people of the world, what are we afraid of?" When Guo Tang heard Guo Min's reason, his face was full of disdain.

Seeing Guo Tang's statement, Guo Min became more and more anxious, so his heart turned sharply, and when he saw all kinds of antiques and treasures in Guo Tang's study, he suddenly paid attention to it again.

……

PS: The computer has repeatedly screened the screen of death during this time, and I really can't stand it and go to repair it, and the conclusion is that "I should have replaced it after using it for so many years", so I changed it, and it also delayed the update, so forgive me.

In addition, I saw that many new and old readers in the comment area asked the bug to update "Rebel Minister", thank you for your love and affirmation of "Rebel Minister", and Bug also assured everyone that "Rebel Minister" will definitely be completed, and it will be updated as soon as "Regent" is completed! It's just that updating two books at the same time is really beyond the ability of bugs, and I tried it some time ago, and it's really hard. It's not that the plot will be chaotic, but the style of writing is different, the style of "Regent" is dark and utilitarian, and the grammar is also practical and smooth, while the style of "Rebel" needs to be light and elegant, and the plot is more leisurely and gentle, the difference between the two is too far, it is a different attempt of insects, and it is really difficult to convert, please understand!

…… (To be continued......)