Dong Lun really asked the right person. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Dong Lun and Xie Jin are different, except for Dong Lun, Xie Jin has a good relationship with a few fellow villagers in Xixi, and he has no other friends; And Dong Lun has a wide range of contacts, knows a lot of people, has a good relationship, and has friendships with several Chinese scholars, so he doesn't necessarily have to come to find Xie Jin. After all, there are a lot of things on Xie Jin, and under normal circumstances, Xie Jin just knows about it, and I'm afraid he doesn't know the details.

But Dong Lun somehow felt that Xie Jin should know about it, so he came to ask him.

Xie Jin smiled proudly: "An Chang (Dong Lun), if you ask others, even Yang Zirong and a few of them, they may not be clear." But I know very well about it. ”

Dong Lun knew that although Xie Jin loved to brag and enjoyed the envious eyes of others, he would never say anything out of nothing, and he must know something. So he opened his mouth and asked, "Brother Gentleman (Xie Jinzi), what the hell is going on?" ”

"Your Majesty, not only to praise Guan Zhong's merits, but really want to implement Guan Zhong's policies." Xie Jin said.

Dong Lun was stunned for a moment, and then said after consideration: "Brother Squire, of course we know about this matter, but what kind of policy does Your Majesty want to implement Guan Zhong?" ”

He is not a fool, of course he knows what kind of policy Yun Xi intends to implement when he calls on everyone to learn from Guan Zhong. What he wanted to ask was actually which policy Yun Xi wanted to implement; There were many policies implemented by Guan Zhong back then.

Xie Jin patted his head and said with a smile: "I think it's bad." After a pause, he continued: "Your Majesty, what you want to implement is Guan Zhong's policy on taxation. ”

"Tax policy?" Dong Lun was puzzled.

"Yes, tax policy." Xie Jin said again. "Your Majesty, I'm not very satisfied with the current tax formulation."

"Could it be that Your Majesty wants to raise taxes?" Dong Lun was shocked.

"Your Majesty thinks that the commercial tax in the city is slightly lower now, and the agricultural tax also wants to be more flexible."

"At that time, the management of the middle government was very flexible in the collection of agricultural taxes. One and a half percent of the agricultural tax is levied in the harvest year, one percent of the tax is levied in the normal year, half of the tax is levied in the next year, and the tax is exempt in the disaster year. ”

"Commercial tax is more flexible, the tax on different goods is different, some are very low, some are very high, and some goods are not taxed." Xie Jin said.

"This," Dong Lun didn't know what to say. According to Mencius, the ten taxes of agriculture are an iron line, and more than one of the ten taxes is tyranny, and vice versa is benevolent government. If Your Majesty wants to raise the agricultural tax by more than 10 taxes, of course they must resolutely oppose it. Guan Zhong was still inferior to Mencius in their opinion.

But business tax is different. Confucianism despised merchants, and allowed them to raise commercial taxes or tax some things that were not taxed before, and gave the example of Guan Zhong—of course, he has also carefully studied the 'Guanzi Collection Notes' these days, and it is difficult for them Confucian scholars to argue with the commercial tax and tariff system of Guan Zhong's time.

"However, this is contrary to the tradition of lightening taxes, even if only to raise commercial taxes." Dong Lun finally said.

"Hehe, in all dynasties, how many can there be who are really lightly endowed? Especially businessmen, aren't they all fat sheep who have been exploited by the government? Guan Zhong's strategy is already the best for businessmen in all dynasties. Xie Jin said. The meager commercial tax in the late Ming Dynasty in history is beyond his imagination now.

"Hey, since Your Majesty thinks so, then we can only accept it." Dong Lun said. However, he immediately said to Xie Jin: "Brother Squire, if you reveal your Majesty's meaning to me so clearly, I'm afraid you have obtained Your Majesty's permission, otherwise, you will probably just say some ambiguous words." ”

"Brother An Chang is really smart. It was indeed His Majesty who asked us to reveal it when a friend asked His Majesty what he meant. Xie Jin said. Yun Xi still attaches great importance to confidentiality, and will emphasize to them the things he wants to keep secret, and they dare not disobey them.

Yun Xi actually not only wants to implement Guan Zhong's tax policy, but also has some other governance strategies, although he did not say it explicitly, Xie Jin has probably guessed it. But he definitely didn't dare to say it to anyone else.

However, Xie Jin said: "Even if Your Majesty doesn't allow it, I won't tell others, Brother An Chang, I will definitely tell you." ”

Dong Lun smiled, and he didn't know if he believed Xie Jin's words.

Since Dong Lun already knew what he wanted to know, and saw that Xie Jin seemed to be very tired, he took his leave and left. Xie Jin didn't stay, it seemed that he was really tired.

Not only Dong Lun, but many other officials who were familiar with Yun Xi's surroundings asked what Yun Xi meant, so Yun Xi's real purpose of not being able to export in person was spread like this.

Like Dong Lun, most people finally held the idea that "if His Majesty raises the agricultural tax, he will go all out, and if he only raises and levies the commercial tax, he will not speak".

Therefore, when Yun Xi formally proposed to tax the brothels above the court and made Li Guan's performance public, everyone did not have any objections except for expressing contempt for Li Guan's character after the meeting, and the matter of imposing a 'custom tax' was passed. His proposal to raise the tax rate of merchants in the city was also passed.

Yun Xi will not raise agricultural taxes now. At present, the agricultural tax rate in Daming is very low, and most places only pay 30 taxes to 1 to 15 taxes, which seems to be nothing to increase on the surface.

However, the actual situation in rural areas is very complicated and not so simple. Although Yun Xi abolished the privilege of tax exemption for officials and gentry in the last years of Zhu Yuanzhang's lifetime, the gentry, like the Qing Dynasty in history, 'invented' long and short prices and put more taxes on ordinary peasants. In addition, there is corruption such as grain chiefs who levy taxes in the countryside, and the peasants actually pay much more taxes than the official taxes. Yun Xi has no choice but to go like this for the time being.

After all the brothels knew about this matter, everyone suddenly thought that the 'change of customs' a while ago was to make the brothels pay taxes obediently. So although the high tax rate makes the owners behind them grit their teeth, everyone pays the tax honestly.

Then, as they expected, the police patrolled the brothel a little lighter. They couldn't help but secretly say: "In order to collect taxes in such a big circle, it is better to say it before 'changing customs', do we dare not pay taxes?" ”

But in fact, the lack of inspection of brothels is not Yunxi's order. Yun Xi actually told Huang Huai to 'pay attention to the inspection of brothels as always'.

But the grassroots patrol police involuntarily lowered the inspection of the Qinglou on both sides of the Qinhuai River. Yun Xi ordered a lot of tasks, and they had to check the secret prostitution and accurately collect the customs tax, and these patrol officers were really busy.

Everyone has the idea of being lazy, and the patrol is no exception. When they found out that the officials of Ying Tianfu did not pay much attention to the Qinglou on both sides of the Qinhuai River, they immediately began to be lazy.

And Yun Xi also ignored this matter at this time.