Before formally meeting with Zhao Chuyan and his entourage, Huang Hanhua returned to his office and spent a day dealing with some long-standing government affairs.

Most of the government affairs are the feedback on the tax situation in various places, including the collection of taxes, the people's discussions on them, and some problems exposed in the process of collection. These things are not supposed to be in his hands, or not all of them should be in his hands, but the director and deputy director of the General Administration of Taxation are all old men in their seventies, and they have long been in charge of things, and they are usually responsible for signing and signing benefits, issuing benefits and bonuses, and their daily work is basically thrown to the directors below. And because Wang Yan, the executive committee member in charge of finance, finance and taxation, attaches great importance to Huang Hanhua, he took over more than sixty percent of the government affairs, and also served as a tax inspector.

Huang Hanhua read these documents and reports very carefully, and carefully attached his own handling opinions one by one. He thought about the more important ones for a long time, then pasted a note, wrote hundreds of words full of comments, and circled the highlights for his superiors or colleagues to review.

At present, the General Administration of Taxation is a unit under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, but it is likely that it will become independent after a while, and the State Administration of Taxation will be established to work alone, and it will no longer be subject to the discipline of the "mother-in-law" of the Ministry of Finance. However, once the tax department is upgraded to the State Administration of Taxation, I am afraid that it will be targeted by many people, so Huang Hanhua plans to take advantage of the east wind of this tax reform to do more practical things, come up with a beautiful report card, and successfully take over the post of deputy director who is already 75 years old before the unit is upgraded and restructured, and then logically promoted to deputy director. Otherwise, once the restructuring of the unit is completed, the position of deputy director will be much more dazzling, and the competition will be much fiercer out of thin air.

"The documents were grouped into file bags and sent to the Directors for approval." After rattling the secretary in, Huang Hanhua put a large stack of papers on the corner of the table and said, "I heard that some members of the parliament criticized our local tax police for violently enforcing the law, and the methods were too 'cruel'? ”

"There's such a saying." The secretary nodded and reported in a low voice: "It is mainly Councilor Menghu and a few grandmothers, who say that our tax police are fierce and barbaric, and they don't look like state cadres." Drink and play mahjong when you have nothing to do, and act like a bandit when you collect taxes, so you should pay attention to your image. It is wrong for those people not to pay taxes, but they should not be treated so roughly, which will only have a negative impact on the country's image, and the excess tax may not make up for it. ”

"Leave them alone. Just listen to them when they say, be polite, and don't get into a hard fight with them. Huang Hanhua waved his hand indifferently and said.

What a joke and don't look at how hard it is to collect taxes now! In the early years, the prestige of the government was very high, the police and secret agents were rampant, the people were trembling, and there were many grassroots veterans who were accustomed to carrying out orders, so the tax collection was very efficient. But now that it has been more than 50 years since the founding of the country, and the grassroots have gone through two generations, although there is a lot of sand mixed in between (new immigrants and non-nationals), the local relations are still inevitably complicated, and there is a kind of intertwined relationship. Many grass-roots officials who were quite sharp in the early years have now been working for so many years, and they have long since become more and more vigorous and resolute in their work style, and they are naturally unwilling to get their hands dirty about things that offend people such as collecting taxes, and they have even colluded with some villagers to find ways to transfer them to outsiders, causing many civil disputes.

As a result, the East Bank government has been forced to passively begin some reform measures in the face of a gradual decline in grassroots executive power. The establishment of tax police offices in various localities, the increase in the number of tax officials, and even the emergence of tax police battalions all reflect this line of thinking, that is, they no longer trust the consciousness of grassroots village officials and have begun to use other means to safeguard the interests of the ruling class.

Therefore, there are some "virgins" in the Founding Parliament (formerly the National People's Congress) who make some incomprehensible remarks, but Huang Hanhua does not care much, because in his opinion, this does not represent the mainstream, and the vast majority of parliamentarians are still supportive of increasing taxes. After all, the people on the east coast are fierce, and there are no "capable" tax police in the local area, and they can't recover a few dollars just by talking about breaking the sky.

"Parliamentarian Meng Hu's remarks are not supported by the majority, even his son Meng Xiaohu is not very supportive, he believes that taxes can be taken from the people and for the people, and the rude means of taxation can be slowly improved, but now we must not be choked on food, because further promotion of primary education, improvement of medical and health conditions and construction of various infrastructure still need to be supported by a large amount of taxes." The secretary replied: "By the way, Director, the ministry asked me to quickly transfer a sum of 100,000 yuan, I heard that they are going to remit it to the Qingdao County Health Bureau, so as to establish a hospital there, the name seems to be Qingdao Memorial Hospital, all specifications are imitation of the most modern Ping An Memorial Hospital in China, and the cost is not small." It is said that when the county convened a political consultative conference at the beginning of the year, more than half of the deputies from all walks of life demanded that their county be one of the best cities in the country and that it could not do without a top-notch hospital, and that all the CPPCC deputies were willing to jointly donate 50,000 yuan if the government agreed to build the Qingdao Memorial Hospital. As soon as the Ministry of Health saw that someone was sending money, it made a decision. ”

"The Ministry of Health is also here to fight the autumn wind!" Huang Hanhua's mood suddenly became irritable, and he said helplessly: "Look at it, look at it, all the criticism and all the notoriety are all fucking borne by our tax office, and then the recovered taxes have not been covered yet, and they have gone everywhere." Moreover, the big men of the Ministry of Finance are also funny, and the next year's financial budget made at the end of each year is just like a fart, increasing projects and increasing investment at will, so that they overspend every year, eat more food, and borrow money to get by. In the end, there is no money to use, and it is really a trick to put pressure on our tax office. ”

The secretary lifted his glasses expressionlessly, not knowing what to say. Fortunately, there are no outsiders here, and others are not afraid of hearing it, some of Huang Hanhua's amazing words will not have any bad impact on him, and the secretary changed the topic in time after seeing that he was almost vented, and only heard him say: "Director, don't forget that Zhao Chuyan, the envoy of the Korean Kingdom, will come to visit you tomorrow morning, and you may need to give them a lecture at that time." ”

"Okay, I see. These North Koreans have been here for a few months, and they don't know what they're doing. Huang Hanhua irritably opened a box of cigarettes, lit one, and said.

It is said that the delegation of the Kingdom of Korea arrived at the port of Yicheng at the beginning of last year and attended the inauguration ceremony of the Yicheng Iron Works at that time. Later, because the head of the mission, Zhao Chuyan, the head of the eastern bank, accidentally contracted the disease and recuperated for two or three months, during which everyone had to stay in the local area and wait.

After Zhao Chuyan recovered, he and the mission continued westward on the armed transport ship "King Hyeonjong", but encountered bad weather off the coast of Cape Town, and the ship was greatly damaged, and had to sail into the port for repairs, which delayed a lot of time.

In late July, the "King Hyeonjong" left Cape Town, followed the Benguela Stream northward, crossed the Atlantic Ocean after passing through the Portuguese Angolan colony and New Courland, and arrived at the northern tip of the east coast in September. Here, once again, they repaired the ship, and at the same time sold some of the goods they had brought from North Korea and other countries along the way to raise funds, which was also a struggle.

The "King Hyeonjong" finally arrived at the port of Vostochny, the capital of the eastern coast, at the end of October, and was warmly welcomed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China. Li Qing, a member of the Executive Committee in charge of foreign affairs and foreign trade, expressed surprise and appreciation for their travel to the East Coast, and encouraged them to walk around the East Coast more, see more, broaden their horizons, and learn more about different things.

To be honest, Zhao Chuyan is still relatively open-minded and has an "international vision" among the two classes in North Korea, otherwise the North Korean monarch and ministers would not have discussed letting him serve as the East Governor. It's just that his open-mindedness now seems to be only more enlightened and knowledgeable among the group of conservative ministers who have studied Cheng Zhu's science, but when they go abroad, this so-called insight looks a little ridiculous, which makes people sigh at the conservatism and backwardness of North Korea - it is not unreasonable for later generations of foreigners to call this country "hermit country".

And when Huang Hanhua and his secretary were talking about the Korean Kingdom Mission in the office of the Tax Office, Zhao Chuyan, who was a student in the middle school examination at the age of 20 (a student of the Korean imperial examination with a higher status), a liberal arts student, and a senior in liberal arts, and successively held important positions such as deputy Zhengzi of the Kwon Zhi Seung Bun Academy, inspector of the Art and Culture Museum, and ceremonial Cho Zuolang, was also chatting with the attachés in the room of the state-run Dongfang Hotel.

It has been several months since he came to the East Coast, and most of the pride that Zhao Chuyan had originally developed because he had studied the Confucian classics had been worn off, but it seemed that he was a little dissatisfied with the strange situation of the upper kingdom on the East Coast, which was actually the suzerain, and the Korean monarchs and ministers were embarrassed to admit it.

For example, when he heard that the name of Shangguo had the word "Huaxia" in it, Zhao Chuyan was still full of expectations, but after walking around like this, he now no longer recognizes that the East Coast is "China" in his heart, and it is written in his accompanying records.

In his opinion, although the East Coast country has sharp armor and unparalleled wealth, the "courtesy" when interacting with people and the "virtue" when interacting with foreign countries are very lacking and very utilitarian, which can be said to be mercenary, which makes him uncomfortable. For example, due to the lack of funds for travel, the North Korean mission carried a lot of goods, including high-grade furs, medicinal herbs, and other North Korean specialties, and purchased some Southeast Asian, Indian, or East African specialties along the way, and brought them to the east coast for sale. In the various ports where their ships had docked, the merchants on the east coast competed with them, and hardly let them take advantage of it, which made Zhao Chuyan unhappy.

After arriving in the capital of the East Coast, they gave many special products, including bear skins, sea otter skins, mink skins, brocades, whole ginseng, and the four treasures of the study, as a state gift to the officials of the East Coast's diplomatic department. As a return gift, although the goods provided by the people on the east coast are also very good, in terms of value, they are similar to those on the North Korean side, which makes Zhao Chuyan even more angry.

He still remembers that when someone in the country went to Beijing, the capital of the Ming Kingdom, although they would be extorted by the people and horses of the Liaodong General Army on the way, but after entering the capital, it was like returning home, and the Ming court not only arranged them well, but also sent people to accompany them around, and sometimes participated in some royal ceremonies, and received countless rewards. More importantly, the so-called national gifts such as folding fans, hats, papers, inkstones and other so-called national gifts offered by the North Koreans (in fact, they are all worthless things, which shows the small family spirit of the Korean monarchs and ministers), can always be exchanged for dozens or even hundreds of times the reward, which often makes a group of envoys smile from ear to ear - the only few times they get less return gifts, it will not make them lose money, it can be said that the North Koreans are very fond of going to Beijing, for example, when the Wanli Emperor had an ordinary birthday (12th birthday) and sent a mission, there is no one in particular.

Therefore, from this point of view, Zhao Chuyan feels that the East Coast country is not atmospheric enough, and the "etiquette" is not good. If we look at the fact that they don't read the books of sages and don't respect their names and religions, it is obvious that this eastern country cannot be called China. In Zhao Chuyan's heart, only the Ming Dynasty who desperately rescued them from the hands of the Japanese was qualified to call China and China, and the Korean Kingdom, which has always admired China's "state of etiquette and righteousness" and studied and practiced this value system well, is "Little China". For example, countries such as the East Coast Country, the Dutch Country, and the Franco-Rang Country, although the ships are strong and the guns are strong, and the rich side are indeed barbarians, and the country is naturally under the bottom of morality, and the people are naturally mad. In this regard, North Korea, a small China, still has an advantage! This is Zhao Chuyan's increasingly firm view recently.

"All day long, flies camp dogs, chase the profits of copper smell, take pride in strange tricks and ingenuity, and don't know what is the matter of etiquette, righteousness and shame. In the long run, how can we be vigilant? So far, I know that the people of the Eastern Dynasty are not yet learning. This is a passage written in Zhao Chuyan's last report document, which should be able to reflect his current state of mind. Although he is more open-minded, it does not mean that he recognizes everything about the people on the east coast, speaking of which Zhao Chuyan is not even as enlightened as scholars such as Li Zhen and Hubei Sanyuan at the end of the Ming Dynasty.