Speaking of sugar making, Dugu Changqiu was a little hesitant, he hesitated for a while and said: "Your Highness, there is a sentence that I don't know whether to ask or not, but it has indeed been confusing us. ”

"Say it! After all, you are an elder, so what's so hard to say? ”

"Alright! Then I'll dare to ask. ”

Dugu Changqiu sighed for a while and asked: "It's about the monopoly of the imperial court, I know that salt has always been controlled by the imperial court, and later the wine was also controlled by the imperial court, in fact, we are very worried about whether the imperial court will control sugar in the future?" ”

Guo Song thought for a moment and said; "This is actually very wide-ranging, the imperial court controls not only salt, nor only for fiscal and tax control, such as mining is not allowed to private gold, silver, copper, nitrate four kinds of minerals, not to allow private smelting, not allowed to export pig iron, etc., this is for safety reasons, and for example, there are restrictions on horses, residences, and boats, which are for hierarchical considerations, generally speaking, they are also concentrated in the four aspects of clothing, food, housing and transportation.

Clothing restrictions are also related to rank, clothing colors used to be restricted, now except for the purple and bright yellow of men's clothing, other colors are not restricted, but there are restrictions on clothing and hat accessories, I won't talk about this much.

I have considered that salt, sugar, tea, and wine may be restricted in the future, salt, sugar, tea, and wine, not to mention salt, everyone knows that wine is mainly controlled by the imperial court, and tea is a tax levied in the cake-making process. ”

Dugu Changqiu suddenly said urgently: "Then what should we do with so many sugar beet farms and sugar cane farms?" ”

Guo Song waved his hand, "This doesn't affect you, you can produce it yourself for your own use, but after you transport the raw sugar to Chang'an, you need to pay a commercial tax to the imperial court, or you can sell the raw sugar to the imperial court, and then buy the raw sugar back from the imperial court in the refining process, and the difference in the middle is the sugar tax." ”

Dugu Changqiu was really a little depressed in his heart, he thought that sugar might not be monopolized by the government like salt, but he didn't expect that the imperial court would still not let go of sugar.

Guo Song saw the disappointment on his face, so he smiled and said: "Actually, it's the same thing, commercial tax can't be exempted forever, you need to pay a commercial tax to transport the jaberseed from Lingnan to Chang'an, and there are a lot of transportation costs, but if you sell the jaggery to the imperial court in Lingnan, then there is no commercial tax, and there is no transportation cost, and then you buy the raw sugar directly from the official warehouse in Chang'an for refining, and the difference in the middle is actually equivalent to the commercial tax plus freight." ”

Guo Song said again: "You are a businessman, you should know that the profit is mainly in the refining link, just like all the wine is made from the imperial court to buy wine koji cakes, some wine can only be sold for more than ten wen per catty, but Meishou wine can be sold for five yuan per catty, and the same wine koji cake can produce completely different profits, isn't it the same for sugar production?" ”

Dugu Changqiu groaned and said: "Your Highness is right, the raw sugar is 100 wen a catty, but we control the cost of fine sugar to 150 wen per catty, and we sell it for 500 wen a catty, of course, there are shop rent, wages, etc., calculated our net profit is 300 wen a catty, even if the competition is fierce in the future, the fine sugar is reduced to 200 wen a catty, we still double the profit." ”

Guo Song said with a smile: "Eating alone can't last long, it's the king to get rich, the court needs finance and taxes, but the Dugu family is greedy and greedy, this is not a long-term way!" ”

Dugu Changqiu was shocked in his heart, suddenly came to his senses, and hurriedly laughed at himself: "The businessman has been doing it for a long time, always thinking about profits, but he has forgotten the longevity of the family, His Royal Highness has taught the right lesson, I remember!" ”

Guo Song smiled faintly, "It's not a lesson, it's just a kind reminder!" ”

.......

When I came back from Xishi, I happened to meet Du You and Pan Liao at the door of the official room, Guo Song invited them to sit down in his official room, Du You smiled and said: "Your Highness went to inspect the sale of sugar, how do you feel?" ”

Guo Song smiled slightly: "This time it's just a stone to ask for directions, to see how well everyone accepts sugar, it seems to be very popular, and it will be on a large scale at the end of the year, and sugar and tea will become our new tax source in the future." ”

Pan Liao sighed with emotion: "These should be things that we should consider, but let His Highness do his best to worry about the tax source here, which makes us ashamed!" ”

"It's okay, I also got the inspiration from the salt tax, why salt can be taxed, one is because everyone can't do without it, and the second is that salt is very cheap, there is room for taxation, and wine is the same, but I don't advocate encouraging drinking, wine consumption is too food, and then I thought of tea and sugar, these two can be the same as salt, the implementation of thin taxes and wide taxation, as long as we have sufficient indirect taxes, then we can reduce direct taxes, exempt from labor, reduce field taxes and household taxes."

"Your Highness said it well!"

Du You exclaimed: "The idea of using taxes to reduce taxes is indeed clever, and the officials of the household department must learn what is the way to govern the country." ”

"That's it! All right! ”

Guo Song waved his hand and smiled: "I'm embarrassed to praise you, what are you looking for me?" ”

"It's news about refugees!"

Pan Liao said: "We have just received news that Qiu Jingzhong led an army of 60,000 into Songzhou, which caused the panic of the people of Songzhou about the war, and a large number of people fled in each county, as His Highness expected before, the people in the north fled to Yanzhou, and the people in the south fled to Bozhou, there were hundreds of thousands of people, and the situation was very chaotic. ”

......

Guo Song frowned, "Is the news of the chaotic situation accurate?" I had already ordered Li Bing to prepare. ”

"Your Highness, the news should be accurate, now the chaos is mainly happening in Songzhou, we suggest that the army immediately enter Songzhou to maintain order, distribute dry food, and now that the weather is hot, we must also prevent the outbreak of epidemics."

Guo Song took two steps and said to the two: "The problem of maintaining order in the entry of the army is not big, the key is to have a competent civilian official to manage it, Wang Yu is here in Yanzhou, I am not worried, but there is no suitable person in Bozhou, and I am most worried about that side." ”

Pan Liao thought for a while and said: "Wechen recommended Yangzhou Assassin Wang Qinian to go to Bozhou to resettle the victims, this person is extremely capable, and Yangzhou has recovered in just one year, Wechen is not saying that he will be transferred to Bozhou, but borrowing his ability to resettle the victims." ”

Guo Song looked at Du You again, Du You is the secretary of the ministry, he has the most say in the evaluation of officials, Du You nodded, "Weichen agrees with Pan Xiangguo's evaluation, Wang Jinian is indeed a rare talent, not only is he outstanding, but he is very strategic, Zhu Zhu is frenzied to oppress Yangzhou merchants, but at least half of Yangzhou merchants were preserved by him by various means, Yangzhou merchants are full of gratitude to him, once order is restored, under his call, a large number of businessmen have returned to Yangzhou, and Yangzhou's vitality can be restored so quickly. ”

Guo Song said happily: "Since you all say so, you must have some real skills, you can use him, I will use the warrant of King Jin to transfer him to Bozhou Abbot Refugee Resettlement!" ”

..........

The war has not yet broken out, but the atmosphere of the war has been shrouded in the sky over Songzhou, the people of Songzhou are panicked, and they have fled from home, because Zhu Zhu's army is from the northwest, and Qiu Jingzhong's army is from the southeast, so the people's escape route is basically the northeast and southwest.

In the northeast is Yanzhou, which is the territory controlled by the Jin army, which has a strong attraction to the people of Songzhou, and everyone was reluctant to give up their land and homeland before, but now they have to give it up, and everyone has fled to Yanzhou.

On an official road leading to Yanzhou, the crowd of people helping the old and the young is more than 20 miles long, the carts are full of all kinds of household goods, the men are driving in front, the wife is sitting next to her husband with her young children in her arms, behind them are shabby furniture, pots and pans, tattered bedding are piled up in the corner, there are several children on it, and there are two sheep squeezed next to it, and an old man is lying tightly on a large dilapidated box in the middle of the furniture, and it can be seen that the box contains their meager property.

There are also men carrying two large baskets, one side is the father, the other is the mother, and more people are unlucky, walking with difficulty, staggering on the official road.

At this time, a group of cavalry came galloping from a distance, and the people gave way to the side, and the cavalry shouted: "Fellow villagers, there is water and steamed buns ten miles ahead, and you don't charge a penny, everyone hold on and go to the front to rest!" ”

When they heard that there was food in front of them that did not cost money, the refugees were in high spirits and sped up their speed.

——————