In short, it is necessary to hurt each other, and at the same time increase commercial taxes.

Han Yi waited for them to say enough, and then said slowly: "What you said is very right, if it is calculated by the amount of tax paid, the stamp duty paid by the merchant may not be as good as that of the landlord, I also admit it, and I can't deny it." But you have overlooked one thing, and that is status and privilege. The imperial court gave so many preferential treatment and privileges to the landlords and gentry, and what was given to the merchants was all kinds of restrictions. There was no problem for the imperial court to raise the tax amount of the two to the same level, but the status of the merchant had to be raised to the same level as that of the landlord. Since you all say to be fair, then be fair in every way. ”

As soon as these words came out, the officials were all silent.

Han Yi will always only let them choose the lesser of two evils, this is also the usual trick of Lao Qian, give you a worse one, and you will feel that the world is beautiful.

The reason why this landlord is always able to suppress the merchants is not because they are smart enough, but because they are a privileged class, they are the same class as the emperor, and the emperor is the biggest landlord in the world.

And the businessman happens to be restricted, which is actually unfair.

However, it is impossible to achieve fairness in national policy, and it can only be said to maintain the overall situation.

Although this money is a little less, it is obviously not cost-effective to hold the social status of the tax businessman with this extra money.

"Why don't you speak, don't you want to be fair, this is very fair, everyone pays taxes, they all hope that the country is good, they can be better, I pay the most taxes, but the restrictions are also the most, will this businessman be willing to pay taxes? Moreover, this time the imperial court made it like this, many businessmen lost their families, and no one said a fair word for the businessmen? ”

Han Yi sighed again as he spoke, and said: "This person must be kind, the country is composed of different classes, each class is indispensable, you can't just take care of yourself." Moreover, the merchant actually paid a lot of taxes, and the merchant had to rely on the contract for everything, and the contract had to pay stamp duty, which was very considerable, and the merchant had to pay taxes when he bought land, and in addition, the city tax and the mountain tax would not be abolished by the imperial court, but they would be revised. ”

Changsun Yan said suddenly: "No matter how much this tax is, but this stamp duty has a drawback, that is, the imperial court cannot control the officials from embezzling and accepting bribes, and the landlord's land is very easy to calculate, but how does the imperial court know how many stamps the local government sells, if you want to count, this requires a lot of manpower and powerlessness, and the stamp duty is also convenient." ”

Li Zhi couldn't help frowning slightly when he heard this, and said, "The eldest grandson Shilang is reasonable!" In this crisis, corruption is really shocking, and the court must prevent such things from happening again. ”

Han Yi said with a smile: "Your Majesty, according to the minister's estimate, in the early days, Chang'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou, Muzhou and other places were big tax payers, and the rest of the commercial tax areas that were underdeveloped were not very many. As for the future, when the stamp duty of the merchants increases, the imperial court will control it. ”

Eldest Sun Yan was curious: "How can this be controlled?" ”

"Rely on invention!" Han Yi said: "At the beginning, the printing was stamped by the government, but after that, you can control the pigment of the seal, and even limit it by using decals, this decal is to paste a piece of paper, as long as the court controls the secret recipe of the sticker, and it is strictly confidential, and then sent to the local government, the account, according to the decal to calculate, this is very simple." And I'm sure it's not that hard to do. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "That's right!" That's a great idea. ”

This is similar to a voucher, as long as you make sure that this decal can't be produced, that's fine. The central government only needs to figure out how much I send out and how much is left, and then directly calculate the account according to the amount of the decal, and you officials can let your brother-in-law sell it, but how much you sell, you don't have to think about a penny.

Han Yi said: "Your Majesty, this is wonderful, but stamp duty has a very important premise. ”

"What premise?"

"It's a sacred gentleman's contract."

Han Yi said: "There is a factor that cannot be ignored that caused this crisis, that is, the violation of the contract, whether it is the court or the merchants, everyone is violating the contract, and everyone is messing around, which causes the situation to get out of control." And the stamp duty is completely based on the contract, if the court does not pay attention to the contract, soon the stamp duty will collapse, which is very terrible. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Then what do you suggest about this?" ”

Han Yi said to Li Zhi again: "Wechen suggested that a tax bureau be set up to investigate taxes, especially the rich merchants and landlords. In fact, they have been trying to find ways to evade taxes all along, and tenant farmers are the way they want to evade taxes. But this time the court must come with them seriously, they must really have the ability to evade taxes, and not let the court catch them, then the court has nothing to say, but as long as they are caught, then they must be punished for a bankruptcy, and they must not be tolerated, so as to deter them, because on the basis of stamp duty, tax evasion is a violation of the contract. Not only that, anyway, the household registration is also very chaotic now, and the imperial court will definitely count the household registration again.

Weichen suggested adding a credit rating to the household register, and anyone who violated the contract would not only be given a sign of dishonesty on his household registration, but also announced it locally, so that he could not stand in this world. In addition, any affairs involving the imperial court, these dishonest people are not qualified to participate, including the imperial examination, a person who does not even talk about integrity, do not summon into the court to harm others and themselves, the sages have said, the people have no faith, they do not stand, and the country is made up of people, then the country will perish if there is no faith. The imperial court can even separate the words of honesty that the sage said and revise a book to educate everyone about the importance of integrity. ”

This time everyone was silent, although this was obviously unfavorable to the landlords, but they were all people who read the books of the sages, and they also knew that honesty was the foundation of human beings, and they could not say that trustworthiness was wrong.

Cui Jijian suddenly shook his head and said, "This is not appropriate. ”

Han Yi asked, "Why is it wrong?" ”

Cui Jijian said: "Because the imperial court often does not keep its promises, if you can't be strict with yourself, how can you ask the people to keep their promises?" ”

Han Yi was surprised: "You --- you talking nonsense, when did the imperial court not keep its word?" The imperial court carried such a large debt in the northwest, which is a manifestation of trustworthiness. ”

Cui Jijian said with a smile: "As for the issue of taxation, if there is a war in the imperial court, it can only be taxed, but if it is based on stamp duty, the imperial court has no power to collect excess taxes, and there are many similar examples." ”

Han Yi looked at Li Zhi.

Without waiting for Li Zhi to speak, Li Ji said: "What he said is good, but sometimes, the imperial court has no choice, if a war breaks out, will the imperial court ignore it." ”

Han Yi said with a smile: "This is a last resort, but often the beginning of the loss of the country starts from the last resort." Take this crisis as an example, Li Yifu levied taxes in advance, resulting in the people having no money to pay taxes, and the people could only flee, and the world became chaotic. Even if the state and county encounter a disaster, it is better to let the government close than to impose taxes to fill the bad debts, because the imperial court still levies taxes when the people have no food, which is to make matters worse, and it will cost more money to make up for it, and this crisis is caused by this. ”

Li Jidao: "But if there is no tax, how can the imperial court have the money to fight?" ”

Han Yi said: "This court has to take precautions, usually save some money first, and specifically deal with emergencies, and the liquidation method is a very good method." ”

Cui Jijian said: "In other words, this stamp duty will remain unchanged for 10,000 years like the Juntian system?" ”

Han Yi said: "Of course not, but it can't be easily changed, you have to follow the rules, for example, the tax rate is renegotiated every five years, or even ten years, depending on the development of the country, the imperial court can first promulgate the law, and then adjust the tax, and the imperial court is also reasonable, and this can also prevent the local government from secretly collecting taxes." Since the imperial court required everyone to abide by the contract, the government was not eligible to levy an extra penny in taxes. ”

Changsun Yan said suddenly: "Actually, this is not very difficult, the imperial court only needs to take some special circumstances into account first, and then formulate regulations in the form of clear texts, and the imperial court always has the initiative." ”

Cui Jijian said: "But if this is the case, will it make my Tang Dynasty regulations very cumbersome." ”

Changsun Yan said: "It will definitely become very cumbersome, but if the officials and the people can do everything according to the rules, it will reduce a lot of trouble." ”

Li Zhi knew that doing this would definitely be conducive to the stability of the country, and everyone would act according to the rules, but he had not made a sound before, because he also had to weigh the interests of the emperor, and these rules could not check and balance the emperor's power, but Changsun Yan's words made him feel a little relieved, the laws were formulated by the imperial court, and the imperial court formulated them, and he must decide that he could clearly stipulate his own rights and interests, and he still had the absolute initiative, and at the same time he could restrain many people. So he said: "This matter is very important, you have to list all the laws before you can make the final decision, and leave this matter to Han Yi, Di Renjie, Ren Zhigu, Changsun Yan, and Lu Shigua." ”

"Wechen obeys."

The five of them said at the same time.

Li Zhi said to Li Hong again: "Prince, you should also go and study." ”

Li Hong said: "Father, the son wants to learn how to revise the book on integrity. ”

He was very fond of reading, and he was glad to go to the book on integrity, but he was not very interested in how the taxes were calculated.

Li Zhi also forced him, because every prince does this, this revision of books, is to ask for talents, many princes often use revised books to attract talents, build their own team, nodded and smiled: "Okay." ”

Ren Zhigu said suddenly: "There is another problem, there are so many more things, and the tax bureau must be established, so there may not be enough manpower!" ”

Han Yi said with a smile: "There are so many officials making trouble outside, are you still afraid that there will be no one?" Ladies and gentlemen, don't downsizing the anger of officials on my head, streamlining those officials actually has nothing to do with me personally, I just hope that the imperial court strictly abides by the relationship between demand and supply, if the imperial court has demand, it can recruit people, but it can also reduce people, only enter but not leave, then there will definitely be problems. ”