Mao Chengjun in Zhang Hu's mouth is a feudal monarch in Jiangdong County, who was fed up with the cowardice of the Jin people in Jiangdong County, and went to Yongxing River to find some self-esteem under the sign of the king of soldiers, but he was killed in disgrace and almost lost his life.

As for this Mao Chengjun, it is difficult for him to protect himself, where can he protect the businessman under the shadow of his privileges.

Now if you want to talk about where there is safety in the country, Bailiyan is undoubtedly the safest everywhere, even if Zhang Hu and others ran to Jiangdong, Jiangdong is next to the occupied Jiangdong East County, and the people of the Jin State have no fear of setting up cards to charge.

Seeing that Xianguo is about to die, and now it is even more unscrupulous to cross the line and exploit it, can Zhang Hu and others do business with peace of mind? If the Xianguo is finished, who will protect the legitimate interests of the people? What's more, now is the end of slavery under the old feudal aristocracy, where can I tell you what is inhumane and inhumane, the country is dead, and the common people are enslaved animals.

When reasoning with businessmen, we often have to talk to them about strategies and methods, about the survival of the country and the interests of the nation, and about the literacy rate and ideological consciousness of the common people at the moment. To make them willingly obey your will, you must have enough speaking strength and confidence to protect their interests.

Businessmen want a stable, safe, or even fair market environment. In the troubled times, being able to protect the territory and the people and win the battle is strength, and having someone behind you is confidence.

Bailiyan (Wei Xian) is both soft and hard, just to tell Zhang Hu that he is fleeing to the south and north of the world, and it is safer to be covered by Bailiyan.

Zhang Hu consulted with a group of businessmen for a long time, during which scouts came from time to time to hear news of the rebels. Affected by Lu Gao's arson, the fire in the southwest of Guangxin burned off the channel for the rebels to continue northward, temporarily delaying the momentum of the rebels, which is undoubtedly good news for Bailiyan. This can at least buy Guangxin an extra day.

About two moments later, Zhang Hu came to the front hall, and his face also recovered a little.

"Zhang Caidong, how are you discussing?"

"They are all small people, lonely and unheard, and they don't know the prestige of the general, and they are disrespectful and disrespectful."

"So, you've figured it out."

"Uh...... In fact, we don't want to leave Guangxin, after all, the huge city, close to Chenling, business is doing well, even if we move to Jiangdong, we can't find a second Guangxin. I was really worried that Guangxin would not be able to hold it, and the city would be ruined. Therefore, Zhang Moudai wants to ask General Wei, can this Guangxin be defended or not. ”

"There is no victorious general in the world, only endless blood, as long as Ben will live for a day, Guangxin will not fall. However, Guangxin is short of food, there is no food in his hands, the army is unstable, and no matter how many soldiers there are, no matter how strong the city is, there is no place for it, Zhang Caidong will not know this truth. ”

"Uh...... The general said this, that is, there is a fifty percent certainty of holding Guangxin. Well, as long as the general can promise us the conditions, we should contribute to the general. ”

"Let's say, as long as it is within Wei's ability, does not violate the king's law, and does not harm heaven and reason, it will be considered."

"That being the case, there's nothing to hide from below. This is a form that I am waiting for, and all the conditions are on it, and if the general can agree, I will admit it. ”

"Show me."

Zhang Hu handed the form to Bai Liyan, looked at it, and wrote no less than 30 conditions, most of which are transactions of the most valuable industries in Guangxin, which are industrial transactions, not a single workshop storefront.

But without exception, they have all been occupied by Qin Han before, such as spinning and weaving, tung oil pressing, silkworm raising, silk reeling, and winemaking, among which the monopoly of the shipping industry is particularly serious, and there are still people who want to buy Qin Han's brothels and Guile Fang, focusing on a few top girls who clearly mark the price, and the names of Xiao Chunyu and Tang Tao are also impressively listed.

In addition, there are two things worth pondering, one is that the government must not break the contract and pursue it, and the other is to protect their interests.

Zhang Hu was worried that Bai Liyan would sell Qin Han's property if his hands were tight today, and if the rebels retreated one day, Bai Liyan would turn his face and refuse to recognize anyone, and then forcibly ask for the sold property back, who would they find to reason.

Secondly, due to the impact of the war, the tax rate of Xianguo has reached an unprecedented five taxes and one [Note 1], counting the abnormal expenses such as passing cards, bribery and loss, the actual tax rate can have three taxes and one tax, and the government's suppression measures against prices are unprecedentedly severe, and in the current situation of extreme shortage of materials, it is undoubtedly for merchants to buy and sell at a loss.

The interest appeal demanded by Zhang Hu and others is reasonable and understandable, and the tax rate of five taxes and one is indeed too high, and it is not a profit tax, but a gross tax, and the selling price is taxed.

Because there is no reasonable market guidance mechanism for cost, it is difficult for the government to know the cost price of each merchant in different regions, the same product, or different products, so it can only be taxed according to the terminal selling price.

If the price of a commodity is 10 yuan, the profit is one and a half yuan, and the 20% gross tax is two yuan, which cannot even earn back the capital. The unreasonableness of taxation directly leads to the tax avoidance behavior of businessmen, which pushes up the rise of prices.

In peacetime, the commercial tax is mostly maintained at 15 taxes to 1 to 10 taxes, and Bai Liyan remembers that there was a prosperous era of 30 taxes and 1 in the previous dynasty, and the tax rate of 5 taxes and 1 was indeed too cruel.

After carefully reading the list, Bai Liyan said:

"Except for brothels, music shops, women and military supplies, all Qin Han's markets can be sold at market prices, what does Zhang Caidong think."

"This, this brothel and music shop are the most valuable businesses, and General Wei still wants to keep them?"

"The brothels and music shops were dissolved on the spot, and all the women were good, and those who were willing to work would have other arrangements. As for someone wanting to ransom the woman, there is no objection to this, but the woman's consent must be obtained and cannot be forced. The ransom money was paid in gold and silver, or twice the amount of the ransom money.

In addition, Xiao Chunyu and Tang Tao are no longer listed, and the rest of the women should have been approved as long as the woman herself has no objections. ”

"Oh......"

Zhang Hu didn't ask much, but he knew that these businessmen bought women, some to marry concubines, and some to get a wife for their son, in short, they couldn't be kind.

Now Bai Liyan refuses to redeem Xiao Chunyu and Tang Tao in person, obviously the deep meaning of this Zhang Hu is clear in his heart, but it is better not to say it thoroughly.

After thinking for a moment, seeing that Bai Liyan basically agreed to the conditions, Zhang Hu said again:

"General Wei, Xiaomin still has a reluctant request, and I hope the general will be accommodating."

"Accommodating? Didn't the general say that it must not be illegal, and since it is accommodating, it must be a matter of transgressing the king's law. ”

"General Mingjian, although we contribute to the general, in fact, there is not much benefit. The commercial tax is so high that if the rebels cannot be quelled, it will be unprofitable for us. I just want to live a few more years and watch my children and grandchildren pass on the lineage, so I also asked the general to save me from the disaster of guarding the city with a small army. ”

"I see, if you change to another place, maybe it's really not easy to do, Guangxin is a huge city, with a population of hundreds of thousands, and there are not a few of you men. However, the ugly words of this general are ahead, this will be one day, to ensure that you will not be filled with troops for one day, if this general is ordered to be transferred, what will be the successor, it is difficult to say what will be the general. ”

"As long as the general says this, I will be relieved."

The situation is stronger than people, Zhang Hu and others have managed to come up with financial resources and solve the urgent need, if they send other people's sons to the battlefield again, this will be to avoid being unkind, not to mention, why not do it for nothing.

Under Zhang Hu's persuasion, more than 120 people have set up a contract to draw and sign, all of them are well-known rich people and businessmen in Guangxin City, Bailiyan confirmed that it is correct, and then stamped the official seal of the city government.

A total of more than 30,000 stone of refined white rice was pledged, and more than 400 pigs, cows, donkeys, horses, etc., among which the largest one pledged 1,200 stone of refined white rice, but it was still less than what Qin Han received from his family.

Of course, this part is only a pledge, and the so-called pledge is a free donation, and it is impossible for people to donate to you. People pledge donations, naturally they don't want to make more trouble, and at the same time, they also hope to get internal special prices for certain projects.

According to the preliminary subscription accounting, we can probably raise more than 60,000 stone rice grains, more than 70,000 copper coins, more than 3,000 inches of silver, and more than 50 inches of gold. Except for Qin Han's brothels, music shops, and women's houses, more than eighty percent of the confiscated property was sold at a price two percent lower than the market price.

Among them, there is a bad old man who is over fifty years old, and he still has the face to ask, when will he be able to redeem Zhao Qingqing, a girl from Guilefang, Bailiyan thought that he was marrying his youngest son, and when he asked, he knew that this product was actually going to marry Zhao Qingqing as a concubine.

It was dusk when the contract was finalized, and Bai Liyan sent Zhang Hu and others to the department store to find Xiao Er to pick up the goods and settle the bill, and handle the handover.

After dark, there were also rich households who came to the government to pledge donations, and after inquiry, they learned that these rich families mistakenly thought that as long as they pledged, they could be exempted from the army and defend the city, so they came to pay protection fees one after another.

Bailiyan did not deny it, and took all the orders in full, and sent out the wind, but those who gave more than 200 stone of grain could be exempted from defending the city, or the equivalent value of horses, pigs, cattle, wounded medicine, oil, copper coins and other military supplies, gold and silver can be offset by half of the discount.

Those who pledge more than 300 yuan, except for the head of the family, can send one person out of the city, and the more they donate, the more people they will send out.

So soon Bailiyan found a reasonable and reasonable way to get money, and bought a way to buy it by pledging, as for what way to go, it was the money spent's business.

In the form of pledges, exemption from military service and conscription is relatively common in various places, and it is a privilege opened by the government to obtain additional revenue, especially for the rich and powerful to exempt themselves from poll tax, conscription and military service, and the imperial court can also get a certain source of tax revenue for this purpose, but most of these exempt taxes are withheld by the local government, and how much goes into the treasury is not known at all. Now it seems that the profits in this are staggering.

After dark, the fire burned dozens of miles southwest outside the city, Jiang Gan and Chen Yunfeng thought that the rebels were making trouble outside the city, and rushed to the city to take a look, but they did not see any trace of the rebels.

Looking at the fire, Chen Yunfeng said:

"Young master, I have inquired clearly, it was Wei Xian who asked Lu Gao to go to the border and set fire everywhere."

"Hmph, there's really nothing he can't do. The news came just now, Wei Xian asked people to post notices throughout the city to spend money to eliminate the disaster, and it was really a shame that he could think of it. ”

"In fact, every time there is a war, most of the counties and counties are like this, but they don't collect so much like Wei Xian, he is taking advantage of the fire to rob, and he has to give."

While the two were talking, Bai Liyan took a car to the city wall.

The fire outside the city burned worse than expected, Bai Liyan thought, the army of the Thunder King may be having a hard time tonight, and now the fire has fueled the northeast wind, and it is blowing very strongly. The Thunder King led his army from the southwest and marched against the wind, if this was not done well, the fire would have to drive the rebels all the way south.

[Note 1] In ancient times, due to the influence of factors such as communications, markets, places of origin, regions, productivity, bookkeeping methods, legal systems, etc., there were roughly two ways to levy commercial taxes, the first is the profit tax that is common in modern times, that is, the profit tax that excludes costs. The second is tax extraction, which is based on the final selling price and the selling price of the circulation link, commonly known as gross tax. For example, 10 tax is levied at 10 percent of the selling price, and 1 tax at 15 percent of the selling price.

Affected by the technical level, the tax system was more common in ancient times, because the cost of the same goods in different regions was very different due to the difference in communication, origin, and productivity. However, in ancient times, there was a lack of relatively developed communication and a perfect legal mechanism to ensure real-time feedback on the consumption cost of various production raw materials in the production of commodities.

Therefore, if the tax is levied on the basis of profits, the government cannot check the cost of producers, especially if the goods from other places are sold locally, even if they are traced back to the source, it will take a lot of time.

At the same time, the difference in production equipment also makes producers who use university equipment more cost-effective than producers with lower production efficiency, such as taxing profits, which was unfair in ancient times. At the same time, it is highly productive, easy to quickly create wealth groups, and easy to undermine the stability of imperial rule.

The tax system, on the other hand, was relatively fair in the era of agriculture with low productivity, and no matter what the cost, it was levied according to a certain percentage of the sales price. Whether it's high productivity, low productivity, or long distances, increased logistics costs, everyone is taxed the same. Moreover, it also eliminates the need for a large number of statistics and verification by the government.

However, in terms of productivity and technological progress, the profit tax can encourage technological development, give rise to more iterative advances in efficient productivity technologies, and at the same time be more competitive. The Southern Song Dynasty is a typical profit tax model, but at the same time, it also implements a tax collection system according to different industries and different links. Therefore, the handicraft equipment technology and commercial finance of the Southern Song Dynasty reached the peak of agricultural civilization, and behind it was a set of relatively efficient tax models.

Of course, the fundamental reason for the implementation of the composite tax model in the Southern Song Dynasty was that the Northern Song Dynasty collapsed, the old bottom was copied, and more than half of the population was lost.

When the tax is more reasonable, it is relatively fair, and when it is unreasonable, such as the tax rate is too high, small capital and low-profit products have no way to live, and large capital does not want to be squeezed out of profits by the imperial court's taxes. As a result, the profits squeezed out by taxes can only be earned back from prices, which undoubtedly contributes to price increases and inflation.

If the tax is too relaxed, big capital is prone to rapid expansion, which endangers the stability of the ruling class and the regime, and if it is too loose, the profits of capital will increase, and the enthusiasm for technological progress and productivity will be discouraged.

Although the excessively high tax rate stimulates capital to turn to improving productivity to a certain extent, the lack of capital makes the power for technological iteration insufficient, so the tax collection system largely inhibits private progress.

However, most of the ancient Chinese dynasties were imperial systems, and technological progress was largely due to the will of the ruling class and the official institutions of the imperial court, which to a certain extent made up for the technological progress under the blow of tax rates. Therefore, the ancient Chinese system must be looked at from what level, there are drawbacks, but also its advantages.