Although there were a lot of things to deal with after the war, Ning Zhiyuan still asked his little son-in-law to return to Jiujiang first.

After all, Jiujiang is the most important place for salt production, taxation and trade in the entire northwest, and Ning Zhiyuan is not at ease to let others take care of it.

And counting the days, the youngest daughter Ning Yazhi is about to give birth, so he asked the little son-in-law to go back to Jiujiang first.

Since his father-in-law said so, Chi Fei, who had already returned home, readily agreed, and immediately set off to Jiujiang with his escort.

After more than half a month of day and night, Chi Fei and others finally arrived in Jiujiang.

At this time, Jiujiang is in a festive atmosphere everywhere, which is more lively than the New Year.

The news of the Northwest Army's victory over the Wei Army had spread throughout the Northwest and Northeast as early as half a month ago, and the people of the two places, who had been anxious about the war, were all relieved after knowing that the Northwest Army had won, and spontaneously began to celebrate.

Among them, the people of the northwest are the happiest, because most of the soldiers of the Northwest Army are recruited from the local area of the northwest, and they are the real soldiers of the Northwest and the basic plate of the Ning family, so when the local people hear the news that the army has been won, they feel happy from the bottom of their hearts.

Although the people in the northeast did not support the Ning family who had been guarding the northwest for a hundred years from the bottom of their hearts like the people in the northwest, most of them were still very happy about the great victory of the Northwest Army.

Today's northeast, under the governance of the northwest authorities, is indeed much better than when the Great Wei government governed it in the past.

One of the most intuitive points is that all the miscellaneous taxes in the past, which used to be a variety of local miscellaneous taxes. For the common people of Northeast China, there is nothing more pleasing than this.

In the past, when the Great Wei government was still there, in addition to the land tax and poll tax that the people in the Northeast had to pay, there were also various miscellaneous taxes such as average silver, fire consumption, Lianyong silver, cabinet fees, scale fees, and lock fees.

A large part of these miscellaneous taxes were assigned to them by the local government, and were not regular taxes stipulated by the imperial court.

But even if the people knew what to do, they had nowhere to go.

Because local miscellaneous taxes are similar in different places, at most the names are different, and they all have to be paid anyway.

This variety of positive taxes and local miscellaneous taxes have almost made most of the people miserable.

Later, after the Northwest Army occupied the Northeast, these miscellaneous taxes were still there at first.

But two years later, the Ning family enacted a new tax law.

The new tax law raised the taxes and fees of the three positive taxes, namely, the land tax, the poll tax, and the average silver tax, but abolished all local miscellaneous taxes.

Although the positive tax has increased, if the local miscellaneous tax is really reduced, the total tax will be reduced by about one-third in an instant.

At the beginning, the people of Northeast China did not believe that such a good thing really happened, thinking that the government was just taking the opportunity to raise taxes.

Although he was dissatisfied, he could only dare to be angry because he was afraid of the strength of the Northwest Army.

But as the tax collection began, the people were pleasantly surprised to find that the government really only collected regular taxes and did not collect miscellaneous taxes.

Moreover, when the government collects taxes, there are also a group of officials called the "Honest Society" who will make a special trip to the scene to supervise and check the accounts, so that no county lord dares to make a ghost under the noses of these people.

Now that the people of Northeast China have been paying taxes for more than two years, the taxes and fees are still the same as those stipulated in the new tax law, which finally convinced all the people that the Ning family really kept their promises.

The so-called no comparison, no harm, compared with the behavior of the Great Wei government to continuously raise taxes in various places, the Ning family's measures of not only not raising taxes but also reducing taxes really made the people of the Northeast full of good feelings towards the new ruler of the Ning family.

In addition to tax cuts, the emergence of the "clean and honest society" has also greatly reduced the phenomenon of local officials exploiting ordinary people and businessmen under the pretext of exploiting them.

Whoever dares to do this, as long as someone reports it to the local integrity society, there will soon be a full-time personnel to investigate and collect evidence from the officials.

If this is the case, the offending officer will be immediately imprisoned. It's so efficient that it's unheard of.

It is precisely because of the intimidating effect of the Honest and Honest Society on local officials that the atmosphere of local officials in various localities has changed.

Not only did all the officials no longer dare to arbitrarily exploit the people and businessmen, but even their work efficiency has improved a lot, and they no longer dare to procrastinate and deal with them sloppily.

All this is seen by the people in the northeast and deeply benefited.

Now, except for a very small number of stubborn Confucian students who still miss the past, the vast majority of the people in Northeast China have completely accepted the rule of the Ning family and are unwilling to return to the previous environment.

Therefore, after learning of the great victory of the Northwest Army, the vast majority of the people in the Northeast were very happy.

This is a common idea of the people in the Northeast, let alone Jiujiang.

Today's Jiujiang is not only prosperous in business and the income of residents has increased greatly, but also as a first-tier city in Northeast China, when a person goes out, most of them will look at it differently when they hear that they are Jiujiang people. This sense of superiority was something that the local people and merchants had never dared to think of before.

Nowadays, all the local people are proud to be Jiujiang people.

When Chi Fei entered the city with his guards, all the people who saw him along the way immediately ran over and knelt on both sides of the road to warmly welcome him.

"Lord Su is back, Lord Su is back!"

"Is it true? Is Master Su really back? ”

"Of course it's true, he's already in town."

"Let's go, let's go and see."

Under the rush of everyone to tell each other, more and more people gathered over, all wanting to see the demeanor of Master Su with their own eyes.

Although Chi Fei rarely appears in public on weekdays, all the local people know that it is precisely because of the appointment of Master Su as the prefect of Jiujiang that Jiujiang has undergone such a huge change.

After knowing that Master Su had personally gone to the Northwest Battlefield, everyone was worried.

I'm afraid of what will happen to this prefect who has brought real prosperity to the whole of Jiujiang.

Especially those businessmen who have profited a lot from commercial trade, they pray to God and Buddha all day long, hoping that Master Su will be safe and sound, and never have an accident.

Here in Jiujiang, they enjoy unprecedented fair treatment and a generous and relaxed business environment. And all of this comes from the policies and governance of the Su prefect.

After so many years of doing business, it was the first time they had seen an official who valued business so much and respected businessmen.

All the merchants were worried about whether they would be able to continue to enjoy such favorable conditions if Jiujiang was replaced by someone else as the prefect. Therefore, the merchants were more afraid of Chi Fei's accident than ordinary people.

In addition to the common people and merchants, the officials under Chi Fei hurried out to greet them after learning that Shangfeng had returned, so as not to be slack.

"That is Su Zhen, the prefect of Jiujiang?" On a two-storey teahouse along the street, a scholar dressed as a Confucian scholar in a long robe said while looking at Chi Fei, who was carefully guarded by 500 guards in the center and surrounded by the excitement of many people, smiling and saluting everyone.

"Yes, that is the much-loved and famous Master Su.

We were able to do business freely in Jiujiang, and we didn't even have to pay customs duties, which was all due to Master Su. A middle-aged businessman sitting next to him said with admiration on his face.

"Is it true that there is no need to pay customs duties at all? So how does the government profit from it? The scholar was a little unconvinced.

The middle-aged merchant smiled mysteriously, "This is the genius of Lord Su.

Although the non-collection of tariffs made the Ning family earn less, it was precisely because of this that Jiujiang became one of the largest ports in the Central Plains in just a few years.

There is an endless stream of businessmen coming and going every day, and there is no worry about running out of business at all.

As soon as there were many merchants, the rents of inns, shops, and warehouses for merchants naturally increased.

Do you know that the entire land of Jiujiang Port was bought by the Ning family, and several trading markets near the port are also the property of the Ning family.

The Ning family had already made a lot of money just by collecting rent from these inns, shops, and warehouses built on the land. ”

"It turned out that it was profiting from rent, so it's no wonder that it is willing to be so generous and not charge tariffs." The scholar sneered.

The middle-aged businessman who said so much didn't notice the scholar's attitude, and continued to say excitedly: "That's not all, last year, Master Su also made a more profitable business, that is, the collection of stamp duty.

It was really a genius idea, and it really made people have to be amazed. ”

"What is stamp duty?"

"Generally speaking, it means that when people or businessmen conduct real estate transactions, large loans, or goods transactions, they will definitely have some certificates.

For example, if you have a house or farmland, you will have a title deed or a land deed, if you borrow a large amount of money, you will have an IOU, and so on.

Since these transactions are not small, both parties to the transaction are afraid of being deceived, so they often file with the government.

And this stamp duty was born for this.

In order to ensure the legality of the transaction, both parties to the transaction can go to the yamen together to ask the impartial officials in the government to testify and trade in person.

After the transaction is completed, both parties ask the government to stamp the deed or IOU, making it a legal document recognized by the government.

Of course, if you want the government to guarantee and stamp, you have to pay taxes, so this stamp duty comes from this.

The advantage of this is that in the event of a dispute in the future, the victim can use this certificate stamped with the official seal as evidence to fight the lawsuit.

As long as you have this certificate, the lawsuit is basically won and not lost.

If you think about it, there are so many things that are traded by the private sector, and if this stamp duty is fully promoted in the northwest and northeast, the income will be so amazing that it is difficult to estimate.

Only a genius like Master Su can come up with such a way to make money. ”

Compared with the admiration of the middle-aged businessman, the scholar said with disdain: "Hmph, isn't it natural for people to buy and sell houses and go to the government to record the deed?" Even this kind of money has to be collected, this Su Zhen is too dark. ”

The middle-aged merchant finally sensed the scholar's dissatisfaction, and couldn't help frowning: "This is wrong, this stamp duty is completely voluntary, and both parties to the transaction can not pay it and continue to file it in the government as before."

But in other words, if you spend a lot of money to buy a house, of course, you don't want any disputes or troubles in the future.

At this time, spending a little money to ask the government to stamp a seal as a witness can avoid a lot of trouble in the future, why not?

As a result, the stamp duty was very popular upon its introduction.

In particular, those large merchants who often have to trade large quantities of goods are full of praise for this. ”

The scholar said angrily: "These things are supposed to be done by the government, but they still have to collect money from them, is this reasonable?"

Su Zhen, who proposed this strategy, is obviously not a good person, and you still admire him so much. ”

When the middle-aged businessman heard this, he immediately said with a calm face: "Do you know that in the past, when you went to the government to record the house deed and land deed, you had to spend money to pay for the benefits of the clerk, the government servant and others who specialized in this matter, otherwise the matter would be delayed by them again and again, and it might not be possible to do it for a year or two."

And this benefit fee is quite a lot, much higher than stamp duty.

Nowadays, because of the existence of the Honest Society, not only do the people in the yamen dare not collect money indiscriminately, but this stamp duty is also completely voluntary, and it can be paid or not.

Since both sides are willing to do so, what else do you have to complain about such good governance?

If we really want to change to before, how can we have such a good environment and conditions to do business at will.

The mere fact that the government is exploiting is enough to make us businessmen miserable. ”

The so-called words are not speculative for more than half a sentence, and after being instigated by the middle-aged businessman, the scholar who couldn't think of how to fight back for a while simply walked away with an expression of "not seeing people like you".

After the scholar left, the middle-aged businessman had a sarcastic expression on his face.

Another rotten man who wants to restore the old times!

Originally, he brought this person who failed the imperial examination out to do business because of the face of the other party's father, but the other party not only looked down on the businessman from the bottom of his heart, but also was full of dissatisfaction with the various good governance of Master Su.

That's it, go back and make it clear to his father that this son is not suitable for business. As for the favors owed to his father, he will find another way to repay them later.

After the middle-aged businessman made up his mind, he immediately checked out and left.

In fact, like that scholar, there are quite a few people who want to restore the old times, and most of them are scholars who are interested in the imperial examination.

Because Ning Zhiyuan has been unwilling to resume the imperial examination in the northwest and northeast in order not to fall into the grip of others, these scholars who were originally interested in becoming officials in the imperial examination feel that they have suddenly lost the way to get ahead, so they will inevitably feel resentful.

On the other hand, a few years ago, Chi Fei proposed an official selection system similar to the modern civil service examination system, which requires all those who want to become officials to be admitted to the official examination first, and then serve for five years without major faults before they can further participate in the official selection examination.

This kind of promotion path is of course far better for ordinary people than the difficult imperial examination, but for these scholars who were originally interested in the imperial examination, it is a system that is completely unacceptable to them.

Because since ancient times, officials have always been lowly servants who do not enter the ranks, and their status is even below that of Shinong and industry.

Although there are many benefits of being a civil servant, in terms of social status, it is indeed not high.

Naturally, these pretentious scholars were reluctant to engage in this kind of menial labor, and felt that their faces were disgraced, so few of them were willing to take the official examination.

This dilemma of not being able to go up and down and not being able to go down makes many scholars full of resentment towards the Ning family and the northwest authorities.

They can be said to be the only group of people in the Northeast who hope that the Great Wei can defeat the Northwest Army and restore the Northeast to the old times.

But God did not fulfill people's wishes, but this battle was won by the Northwest Army, and it was a big victory, and this result naturally made these people very frustrated.

Of course, Chi Fei knew about the existence of these people, but as long as they didn't really break the law, Chi Fei wouldn't do anything to them.

But if they really dare to try to mess up the current good situation in the northwest and northeast, Chi Fei will never be merciful.

Since they are not willing to adapt to the times and make changes, let the times eliminate them.