Hearing Li Fugui say that Fengzhou was going to collect taxes, Fan Yongdou's brain buzzed, he never thought about paying taxes when he went to Fengzhou to do business, and after a while he stammered and said: "I, I have already paid taxes to the imperial court, and besides, I have already lent you 10,000 taels of silver, and you have never paid it back, we businessmen are very risky to do business, why should we collect my taxes?" ”

The eldest king was also taken aback, and hurriedly said: "Our Taifu Temple is doing the business of the imperial court, how can the local government collect our taxes, this joke is not to be made." ”

"I'm not kidding, I can't survive in Fengzhou without collecting taxes, and I can't send troops when the court tells me to fight Jiannu," Li Fugui sneered, turned around and said loudly to everyone, "Since ancient times, how can the government not collect taxes, from now on everyone who does business, work, farming and grazing in Fengzhou should pay taxes, Fengzhou is everyone, and the Great Commander's Mansion is forced to collect taxes. ”

"Lord Qianliang, we are willing to pay taxes, why don't we wait for Fengzhou?" Fang Zhikun immediately responded, he and Zhang Shi'an and his ilk are all doing business for the government, and it is necessary for Fengzhou officials and businessmen to be consistent with the Grand Commander's Mansion.

"We can trust the Consulate, and we are willing to pay taxes." The officials and people of Toyosu Beach raised their hands excitedly and shouted - the attitude of the people of Toyosu is also very clear, eating a big pot of rice has already made everyone bored, and it is the wish of all Toyosu people to get a share of their own benefits.

Fan Yongdou was stunned by the shouts of everyone, muttered and lowered his head, Ma Qi wished he was unlucky, and said coldly: "Old Fan, I understand what you think in your heart, you paid taxes in Mingguo, and Mingguo does not pay business taxes, and you can't pay a few dollars, but do you have less money by increasing distributions, donations, and bribing the government every year?" Has Fengzhou ever asked you for a tael of silver? Don't think it's okay to move your nest to Zhangjiakou, believe it or not, I copied your nest in Zhangjiakou. ”

Fan Yongdou was startled, he did flash the idea of moving the nest just now, Ma Qi's words reminded him, Fengzhou and Chahar outside the border of Xuanfu are in-laws, if everyone turns their faces, the merchant Louis of Zhangjiakou is like a palm - if you want to eat the bowl of rice in border trade, you still have to rely on Fengzhou, he explained with a red face: "Old Ma, don't get me wrong, we are not afraid of paying taxes, we are afraid of being unfair, if someone pays taxes and someone does not pay taxes, then our business will not be able to do." Old Fan said as he looked at March, thinking to himself that if I pay taxes, you won't want to run away.

"Lao Fan is telling the truth, I am afraid of being unfair in business, so all businesses in Fengzhou will pay taxes, including the business of Lao Ma Shang City Division, Lao Fan, you are a trustworthy person for our Fengzhou people, how about you preside over the tax department?" Li Huai looked at Fan Yongdou seriously and said.

Fan Yongdou's head buzzed again, he didn't know what to say for a while, the big old king calmed down at this time, the grain, ironware, cloth, and medicinal materials he sold to Fengzhou were all necessities, and only he had the ability to provide them in large quantities, Fengzhou couldn't leave him, and the tax was finally wool out of the sheep, it was nothing more than a price increase, he had nothing to worry about, after thinking about this, the big old king felt the need to remind his partners of the risks.

"The collection of taxes is the top priority of the government, the Ming Dynasty established the country with farming, the beginning of the founding of the country was not much in the court, the vassal king has to support, the military household has land, the officials are not redundant, the Taizu Emperor is the implementation of light taxation, Emperor Chengzu also decreed never to increase, the burden of the people should not be heavy, but to land, people to pay taxes is too large and cumbersome, for the collection of taxes in the world Ming had to raise countless officials, in order to prevent officials from being greedy and had to raise lessons, laws and local punishments, the more officials used in the Ming Dynasty, the more clans to support, And the Ming Wei in name only has to pay more soldiers, the tax is constant but the burden is greatly increased, then the court can not make ends meet, the more additional distribution, and the people must pay their own property in the warehouse, the border town, which is several times the tax paid, corrupt officials, the strong take the opportunity to get up and down, the people are increasingly poor, so the name of the Ming Dynasty is a heavy tax, Wanli Dynasty Zhang Taiyue Gong to' A whip law 'apportionment of taxes on the acres of land is to solve this drawback, but this method needs to use silver taels, so there is a time when the silver is expensive and the grain is cheap, and the people suffer from it. ”

"Thank you Lord Wang for your teachings, the lessons of the past must not be checked, the Great Commander's Office thinks that the simpler the official system, the simpler the tax system, the lighter the burden on the people, so we will convene the sages of Fengzhou to discuss carefully, but Fengzhou will never take the old road of the Ming Dynasty," Li Fugui gave a deep salute to the old king, and said to everyone, "The people pay taxes with coins The burden is the lightest, and the simpler the coins, the better, the Ming Kingdom strictly controls the silver and coins out of the customs, there is no money available on the grassland, transactions are usually bartered, cumbersome and complicated, and it is difficult to carry out industry and commerce, Not to mention paying taxes, Toyosu had to find the right coin. ”

Li Fugui said and took out a piece of paper, and said to everyone with a smile: "This is an IOU made by the Great Commander in the Guannei, everyone knows what's going on." ”

Everyone laughed, the soldiers were afraid of trouble to hand over the silver distributed in the customs to Li Yu for centralized custody and transport back to Fengzhou, just a few days after returning there were people to take the IOU to take away their silver, but then few people took the silver, but some merchants came to the Grand Commander's Office with IOUs to confirm whether the IOUs were true, and whether they could be exchanged for silver at any time, often the Grand Commander's Mansion stamped a big seal to confirm, the merchants put away the IOUs and left, some IOUs have changed hands four or five times, and those who took the silver also handed back the silver and asked for the return of the IOUs.

Li Fugui sighed with emotion: "Our people are too smart, they have never seen silver and have never used silver grassland people, with the simplest way to complete the transaction, eliminating the trouble of judging the fineness and weight of silver, which they do not understand, I have discussed with the people of the Great Commander's Mansion, Fengzhou development of industry and commerce, money is the top priority, so we want to use our silver as a guarantee to issue silver banknotes, in the future in Fengzhou silver banknotes and cash, property and use together, can be used for buying and selling can also be used to pay taxes." ”

Everyone was confused by Li Fugui's words, and they turned their ears in twos and threes, and someone shouted, "We can trust the commander, but he is not here, why should we believe your money?" "The IOU is easy to use, but it only works if the commander presses his handprint, it's useless for you to give us a note", "Quickly call the commander back, whatever he says is what he says".

The officials of the Great Commander's Mansion were a little embarrassed - it was not them who could really help the grassland people make a deal at the lowest price, nor silver, but Li Yu's credit, Zhu Yiqian, who had not spoken, had long been impatient with these deviant guys, and said coldly: "Without the will of the imperial court, it is not okay to issue coins indiscriminately, you can send an IOU to the deputy general of Jingyu, it is best to draw his head, if you don't pay back the silver in the future, you all go to him, he can't hide anywhere he escapes." ”

Everyone laughed, thinking that this was a good idea, Wu Langha couldn't sit still and shouted: "Why do you ask my family Yuzi to bear this debt, this is obviously everyone's money, Yuzi is not my family, you don't want to harm my family." ”

Several officials of the Great Commander's Mansion hurriedly persuaded Wu Langha, but Wu Langha was told by them that he was anxious, gritted his teeth and said: "Give money, if you lose two thousand taels, you will definitely not do it!" And how much money you send, I have the final say with Ulan, my elm is stupid, but our sisters are not stupid. ”

"Okay, I'll give Hartun two thousand taels." Ortai patted his thigh and said.

Wu Langha didn't expect that Ortai, who had always been more scathing than her, would actually agree, but he hesitated a little, hesitated for a while, patted Xiao Li Meng in his arms, and asked timidly: "Give four thousand taels?" Let Adahai stamp his father's mudra. ”

Ortai ignored her, and this resolution was passed, but Wu Langha didn't know that the two thousand taels of silver given by Ortai were originally discussed and distributed to Li Yu by everyone - if there was no him for this entry, where would everyone go to make money? Of course, give him more money.

The meeting was noisy for a long time, and when it got dark, everyone was still unsatisfied, so they ate something and lit torches to continue the meeting.

Li Huai read out Li Yu's letter to everyone, and then Ortai announced the adjustment of personnel in the Great Commander's Office: Ortai, Li Fugui, and Li Huai are the newly established Tongzhi of the Great Commander's Office, Zhao Ji, Yunrong, Batu, and Liu Xingzuo are the ministers of the Great Commander's Office, Du Hongtai, Bu Yantu, and Bai Xianzhi are participating in politics, and Ma Guangyuan, Ma Qi, Fan Yongdou, and Man Dahai are the four people participating in the council. In addition, under the Great Commander's Mansion, the Jinglu Deputy General's Mansion was established, and Zhao Ji, Liu Xingzuo, Bai Xianzhi, and Ma Guangyuan praised the military affairs. Everyone has no opinion, there are only a few talents in Fengzhou, who else can they use without them, and this resolution was successfully passed.

When discussing the military system, there was a lot of quarrel, they all wanted to be a standing army, they didn't want to stay in the guard, and everyone wanted to ask for more soldiers and more salaries, and the Great Commander's Office was also unceremoniously argued, and in the end everyone had to compromise: build five more battalions of standing soldiers, including Zhang Chuanjie's battalion, which was named the front of the Black Hawk, the rear, the left, the right, and the middle battalion, since Li Yu was not in Fengzhou, the pro-guard battalion was renamed the Flying Tiger Battalion, and only 200 people were retained, and the others were assigned to other battalions as officers and backbones, and when the commander returned, he selected elite personnel from various departments to supplement. The other battalions also had only 200 soldiers, and Ma Guangyuan set up a military selection battalion, and officers from each battalion and each 1,000 and 100 households had to take turns to join the military selection battalion for training. However, there are too few people who can be officials in Fengzhou, and the standing army has been expanded, and there is even more shortage of people who can be officials in the guards. The Grand Commander's Office also assigned each battalion two thousand households to make a reserve of soldiers, and each battalion was responsible for the daily training of the 1,000 households, and at the same time, it was necessary to train 600 reservists as a source of troops that could be used at any time.

The meeting did not disperse until very late, and Zhu Yiqian also proposed that the Grand Commander's Office should let Li Yu come back as soon as possible before the meeting, Li Huai shook his head and said, of course we hope that he will come back soon, but do we have the final say? Datong also has to think of more ways to do it, Zhu Yiqian had to promise to go back and think of a way, the eldest Wang immediately patted his chest and said that he would return to Beijing in a few days, and he could help bring a letter.

When everyone left, Ortai couldn't help but say: "We are at a loss about the affairs in the Guannei, and it is not easy to communicate with Yuzi, how can we go on like this!" ”

Li Huai nodded and said: "We must consider setting up a pond in the Guan, otherwise we won't know what will happen in the Guannai in the future, and we will suffer a big loss!" ”

"Zhang Shi'an went out to sell illicit salt, he should come back in the next few days, we have to talk to him well, and he can't eat our Fengzhou food for nothing." Li Fugui replied thoughtfully.

At the beginning of July, after the old king inspected Datong and Shanxi horse markets, as soon as he returned to Beijing, he immediately asked his subordinates to find Li Yu to the Taifu Temple, and saw Li Yu coming in a hurry. ”

Li Yu took the letter in surprise, and there were two copies of the letter - one was written by Wulan and Wu Langha, telling him the good news of the birth of Li Meng and Li Jin, and the other was written by Ortai on behalf of the Great Commander's Mansion, reporting to him what happened in Fengzhou during this time, and both letters hoped that he would return home as soon as possible.

The eldest old Wang said on the side: "Hanmin, the old man also went to Fengzhou for you to take a look, your subordinates are also honest, but they don't know the rules very well, and the major affairs of Fengzhou have also been discussed with a large group of illiterate people, what do the people know, what kind of system is the chaos and commotion, you will have to take care of it in the future." ”

Li Yu couldn't care less about what he said, and after saying thank you, he turned his head and rushed out, and when he arrived at the entrance of the military department, he shouted to Mo Rige, Chen Erzhu and Liu Shi, who were waiting outside the door: "I have sons, two sons, let's go buy wine and meat, go back and have a good meal." ”

Li Yu has a son, this good news soon spread in Beijing, Ma Xianglin and his son, Wang Pu, Ding Qiming immediately went to Li Yu's small courtyard to beg for wine, Zhou Yuji pulled his fellow villager Huang Degong from Beijing also came - Huang Degong is a person from Jinzhou Wei, and this time he was also transferred from Shanhaiguan to Beijing, Li Yu met him a few times and recognized this fellow villager from Liaodong. Everyone sat down and ate and drank again, halfway Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao's uncle and nephew came back and joined in, Zhang Fengyi drank a few more bowls of wine, and complained vigorously that Li Yu did not give birth to a daughter this time, she has a son who has not yet been married, but unfortunately this time she failed to become an in-law, Li Yu herself also felt that she did not give birth to a daughter this time and came out to be sorry for the eldest brother and sister-in-law, so she had to wait for the next time.

After everyone dispersed at night, Li Yu, Cao Wenzhao, and Zhou Yuji sat and chatted for a while, Cao Wenzhao said apologetically, he is too poor now, such a big thing, and he can't even take out the gifts for his two nephews as an uncle, but it will be fine soon, and he must make up for this gift in the future.

"Brother Cao, you went to the military department today, did you have an errand down?" Zhou Yuji's eyes lit up and he hurriedly asked.

"The will of the imperial court has come down, and I was sent to be the deputy general of Yansui, and I was promoted to a level, this time it is a real shortage, and life may be better in the future." Cao Wenzhao replied a little proudly.

Li Yu said a little worriedly: "Brother Cao, I heard that the thieves over there are rampant and have occupied all the county towns of Fugu, and now there is a famine everywhere in the northwest, and there are thieves everywhere, I am afraid that this battle is not easy to fight, you have to be careful!" ”

"I'm not afraid, our military generals are the life of bloodshed for the emperor, these thieves scourge the people, erosive places, don't kill ruthlessly, the people will not have a peaceful life, since the court can afford me Cao, Cao will never let down the court," Cao Wenzhao replied disdainfully, he looked at Li Yu and Zhou Yuji and said, "Hanmin, this Jingshi is a good place, but it is not a place where we can stay as poor soldiers, you also have to prepare, the northwest has been in drought for many years, and the hungry people are everywhere, and the court can't take out food money to help the victims, The Northwest Frontier Army has been in arrears of more than two million taels over the years, and the people's hearts are floating and the soldiers and bandits are converging, I don't know when this battle will be over, the court is in a hurry, I'm afraid it will also send you up, Brother Zhou, I know that you are not doing well in the Beijing camp, if the Han people want to leave, you had better follow him, others are unreliable. ”

Zhou Yuji nodded, the Jin army occupied Kaiyuan, his home is long gone, he is almost thirty years old, so poor that his wife can't afford to marry, he did things honestly after he arrived in Beijing, and other officers also ridiculed him, most of the people are nobles, relatives or powerful courtiers, eunuchs come in, he can't afford to provoke others, there is bitter water can only be swallowed in the stomach, he doesn't know when such days will end, maybe following Li Yu, a fellow villager who treats him as a brother, is his destination.

Li Yu thought about other things, in Anshan Yi he saw the Han people who couldn't live and rebelled, the sentence "Jiannu came to kill Jiannu, and the dog official came to kill the dog official" He always remembered, if he faced the hungry people who were looking for a way to live again, did he do it? Li Yu didn't want to think about this, he got up and walked out the door, and came back in a while, putting a heavy cloth bag on the table.

"Brother Cao, I know that the Ministry of War will not send you travel expenses, and you don't have much money on you, you can use this bit of silver, don't go to the pawnshop of the capital division to borrow the debt of the king of Hades."

Cao Wenzhao glanced at Li Yu gratefully, and silently accepted the money, they have been in Beijing for a month, and many officialdom things have also been heard, the Ming Dynasty sent officials to other places to take up posts, usually do not pay travel expenses, poor officials have to borrow usury from the money village pawnshop in order to raise road expenses, these money village pawnshops with a background will also take the initiative to lend money to officials, but the Ming officials are meager, and they must not be able to repay the debts of the king of Hades, and the money village pawnshop that lends money will definitely send people to follow the officials to take office, When they take office, these people will act as the private officials of the officials, using the power of the government to extort the people and extort money, so as to repay the old debts, and the officials are helpless against them.

"Brother Cao, rest early, I'll give you a ride when you leave." Li Yu put down the money and left.