When Zeng Yu came to the construction site and saw the people enthusiastically boiling soil and ramming earth to build the city wall, the feeling in his heart was indescribable. After Tian Feng heard that Zeng Yu was coming, he told Zeng Yu that a total of more than 5,000 people had been recruited this time.

Zeng Yu didn't show any surprise, he had heard that the people's enthusiasm for signing up for work was very high, and he asked Tian Feng: "According to the current manpower, how long do you estimate it will take for Yuan Hao to be built?" ”

"Back to the lord, according to our original plan, the entire expanded city wall was built within two months, and the city towers and arrow towers on the city walls were left for next year. But with this extra 2,000 people, we can complete it all this time by the end of the year. Tian Feng replied.

"Well, do you have enough money and food?" If there are more than 2,000 people, then the government needs to provide at least 3,000 catties of more grain every day, plus the wage of 3 wen and 5 baht per person per day, and it will cost more than 100,000 yuan in two months.

"My subordinate told Yachuan that he told me that it was okay." Tian Feng knew that if he wanted these people to work well, he had to ensure good money and food, so he had already greeted Liu Neng.

Zeng Yu took a look at the construction site and saw that there was no problem, all the officials and supervisors were dutifully in their posts, and all the people were also very motivated to work. After greeting some people for a few words, and making sure that everyone had no resistance to the expansion of the county, and even agreed very much, he completely put his mind at ease.

Seeing that there was no problem with the expansion of the city, Zeng Yu and the others returned to the county government and came to the place where Yin Zhuo worked, and he was worried that the expansion would affect business. When he entered, he saw that Zhang Fuguang was also there, Zhang Fuguang can now be said to be an official businessman, and he is also the president of the Chamber of Commerce.

When the two saw Zeng Yu coming, they put down the affairs at hand and walked over, bowed their hands and asked, "The lord has arrived, I don't know what instructions there are?" ”

"I don't know if this county expansion will have an impact on our business?" Everyone is not an outsider, and Zeng Yu did not greet him, and asked straight to the point.

"Back to the Lord, our current new commercial law has abolished the tax on the passes, the tax on goods at the city gates, and the general miscellaneous taxes on merchants, and then changed it to a transaction tax, and will give a tax certificate, with which the tax on goods will no longer be collected elsewhere under the lord's rule. We currently only have one county, and our contacts are only limited to these few places on the border with the Shangdang, and the contacts are all small families who have been doing business all year round, so this expansion has not been greatly affected. ”

"Well, the small size of the site is indeed a big problem for us at the moment, but the time has not yet come, we can only lay the foundation first. And now although the people's livelihood is withering, but the wealthy family has not been affected, Nanyang Wancheng is still the center of commerce, where the territory of the wealthy family, if we want to replace it and then surpass him, it is tantamount to grabbing food, we also need enough strength to do it. Yin Zhuo said.

"I know this very well, these wealthy families despise businessmen, but they can't resist the temptation of five baht money, and they don't know how many white gloves they have supported to help them do business in private." Wei Feng added next to him.

"Nowadays, the whole society is despising businessmen, and the commercial tax can be as heavy as it is, although everyone tends to profit, and the big and small businessmen are endless, if we want to get enough money and food from the commercial tax, we must attract the big businessmen, that is, the big families." Yin Zhuo said.

This is also the time when the Tian family played too big, the small bucket entered, the big bucket came out, and the entire Qi country was bought off in a few decades, and even Zhou Tianzi could only grit his teeth and recognize the Tian family's generation of Qi. For example, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, large households from all over the country were regularly moved to the vicinity of Chang'an City, or regular mattress wool, which could not only maintain the advantage of the imperial center, obtain a large amount of money for the treasury, but also win the hearts of the people. The old Liu family played very well with this, but the descendants behind them did not give their best, and gradually this system was useless or even canceled, which also led to the rise of powerful families in various places, but one thing has been retained, that is, the contempt and suppression of businessmen.

For example, Yin Zhuo, there were people in their family who used to go out of the mountains to seek officials, but they were all used as a tool to collect money by the family Haoqiang, trying to harvest them into domestic servants, which made the children of the Yin family who were in charge of the descendants of the Yin family how to endure it, they all returned to the family to educate the younger generations after they hit their heads and broke their blood. Yin Zhuo is also lucky, when he first came out of the mountain, he met the old Cui County Order in Anping, he was purely for money, but he didn't care about government affairs, so Yin Zhuo was reluctant to implement some of his governance ideas, but after all, he couldn't let go.

After Zeng Yu intervened strongly, he was allowed to take the position of chief bookkeeper, he was worried that Zeng Yu, like other family members, just regarded him as a tool to collect money in his hands, so he did not apply at first, but just accepted the position of chief bookkeeper. But in the next few months of contact and understanding, he did not see in Zeng Yu and others that they despised him, on the contrary, he was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, and he really worshiped Zeng Yu.

It is said that Zeng Yu and they were originally inherited from the Guigu line during the Warring States Period, and they did not have a contemptuous heart for the merchants, although people from other schools joined in one after another, but they were also assimilated by the Guigu lineage, and they treated all industries equally, so whether it was Zeng Yu or the rest of Qianlong Village, there was no pressure to bring prosperity to the rule through merchants.

"I heard that there are currently five wealthy merchants, namely Jizhou Zhen's, Bashu Wu's, Hedong Wei's, Jiangdong Lu's, and Xuzhou Mi's, I don't know if they have caravans to settle in?" Zeng Yu has delegated power to Yin Zhuo for business, so he doesn't know the specific situation, but he has some impressions of the world's business giants, which he still knew when he and Yin Zhuo agreed on the new tax law.

"These five wealthy merchants, except for the Xuzhou Mi family, the other four are all old families, and they have not paid attention to our county town, and there is no caravan to settle in. Only Xuzhou's Mi family, they are rising stars, originally in the hands of the previous generation of Mi family, Mi family can only be regarded as a rich businessman, but since the death of the old head of the Mi family, Mi Zhu took over as the head of the family, its asset scale has increased several times, squeezed into the status of the five wealthy businessmen. Now is the time when the Mi clan is in full swing, and at the beginning of the month they have sent a caravan over, and I have sent someone to negotiate with them. However, Mi Zhu didn't come, and his subordinates didn't report to the lord. Yin Zhuo reported to Zeng Yu that he had investigated the five wealthy businessmen and knew that if he wanted to expand Anping's influence in the business world, he must use the power of the five wealthy businessmen, and Xuzhou Mi was undoubtedly the best choice.

"The matter of negotiating with the Mi family will be handed over to you, buy horse bones, don't be stingy with momentary gains and losses, as long as the Mi family gets on our ship, the benefits brought in the future will definitely be greater than what we pay today." Zeng Yu explained to Yin Zhuo.

"No!" Yin Zhuo and Wei Feng received the order at the same time, and at this time, the Mi family sent only a shopkeeper, so it was mainly Wei Feng who was responsible for following up.

Zeng Yu communicated with Yin Zhuo and others, and had a specific understanding of the business situation in Anping County today, knowing that after the new tax law was formulated, only one month later, the tax revenue reached the level before the reform, and he was still traveling in Jizhou. Although the growth rate slowed down, it still maintained a stable growth mode, which gave him great confidence in the business tax.

The Han is a big agricultural country, about the matter of agriculture and mulberry, there has already been a set of mature system, no need for Zeng Yu to bother to study, but whether it is industry or business, even if these things appear in the age is not short, but still in the initial stage of development, Zeng Yu has to do more than just reshape the Han Dynasty, dominate the world, he wants to revitalize the Han Dynasty and even the entire Chinese feudal era of a pool of backwater-like circles, so that the Han continues to grow, become a nation that can truly stand on the top of the world.

He knew that merchants were the most adventurous group in the world, and as long as they developed, they would naturally go to the realm outside the Han Dynasty and find that the outside world was wider and full of more opportunities, so as to guide the people and the imperial court to pay attention to the world beyond the territory of the Han Dynasty. Like the colonial period of later generations, Western countries are merchants who have opened the doors of various worlds, although with the help of cannons, but the core is for interests, and as long as there are enough interests, now the Han Dynasty can still suppress the Quartet, and the merchants of the Han Dynasty can also use the sword of the Han Dynasty to open the doors of various countries.

In this world, not only can the sword of the army find more land for the plough of the people, but the convoy of merchants can also bring a steady stream of wealth to the country, so that the country can forge sharper arrows, raise more strong horses, and raise more people.

After Zeng Yu left from Yin Zhuo, he looked at Zhu Wen and the others behind him, and said to them: "Let's go, let's go outside to take a look." ”。

After speaking, Zeng Yu took the lead and walked towards the west city gate, the main arrangement of Tuntian Point is in the west of the county seat, and the land on the other three sides is mainly granted to the displaced people who came to Anping County.

At this time, the Tuntian soldiers were all managed by He Yan, with a total of 20,000 people, all of whom were young and strong among the displaced people. In addition to cultivating during the farming season, they are also responsible for clearing the wasteland, and at the same time, they also have to take time out of the month for training, but Zeng Yu also gave them enough benefits. In terms of tax rate, the fixed tax rate is 50% of the agricultural tax, which means that half of their farming income belongs to them except for the general public service, so all the tuntian soldiers are full of energy. At the same time, although they did not participate in the battle, they also practiced military management, and they also had regular training, and they could even be pulled out to scare people in wartime, so these people still had a certain amount of money every month, although they were not as good as the regular troops, but they also had a few hundred dollars per month, and as for the officers, they were more numerous, and they were also the first choice of the regular army when recruiting.