During the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the annual tax revenue of the Han Dynasty was around six billion yuan. According to the usual practice, 10% of this money, or 600 million yuan, went to the emperor's direct disposal. In fact, Liu Hong squandered far more than this amount of money every year, reaching an astonishing more than 3 billion yuan, and the state treasury was empty.

And Liu Xin now controls the money allocated to the inner treasury at one percent, and promises not to spend even a penny from the treasury, which makes all the ministers in the hall very surprised. Because the total tax revenue of these states under Liu Xin's rule last year was only 4 billion yuan, and one percent was only 40 million yuan, which is equivalent to 40,000 taels of silver.

In fact, several states under Liu Xin's rule have had good weather in recent years, and the grain harvest has been like a year in a year. However, because of the implementation of the policy of tax reduction, the total amount of agricultural tax revenue was even lower than that of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. Although the reopening of the Silk Road has brought about the rapid development of commerce, the effect of the past two years has not yet appeared, and the income of commercial tax is lower than that of agricultural tax, so the tax revenue is so small.

For the royal family, the expenses are significant. For example, so many ministers gathered here today to discuss matters, and each minister made a cup of fragrant tea in front of them. Although these high-grade teas are tributes sent by Jiangnan, Liu Xin pays them according to the price, and the only convenience is that they can guarantee the supply. Liu Xin stipulated that in addition to providing tea to the ministers, he would also provide them with some small snacks, and these expenses would be paid from the inner treasury, and the amount would be very high in a year.

There are many other places that need to be spent, such as sacrifices, tributes, and annual gifts, and each item is not a small amount. And the biggest expense has not yet been revealed, that is, when Liu Xin's children grow up and open the mansion, each of them can be said to be an astronomical amount.

The ministers who can participate in today's court meeting are Liu Xin's confidants, and they usually have access to some confidential information, and they are very clear about the annual tax situation of the Han Dynasty. They are all smart people, and they naturally know how nervous the inner treasury in the palace will be after such independent accounting. The ministers didn't expect that for the sake of a few women, Liu Xin would be forced to this role, and they couldn't help but look at each other.

In the end, he stood up, bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it is better to use a compromise method to make the two ladies concubines, and the proportion of the annual tax transfer to the inner treasury is still according to the convention of one percent. I wonder what Your Majesty thinks? ”

For Liu Xin's independent accounting method, Fu Zhu is still very much in favor of it. Liu Hong's example is there, after all, the emperor's power is too great, if the emperor can dispose of the state tax at will, in case the emperor becomes mediocre, it is very likely that the treasury will be emptied. If we follow Liu Xin's method and separate the treasury from the inner treasury, we can solve this hidden danger well.

Of course, the idea of the whole world is not the king's land has been deeply rooted in the bones of the frustrated master, so he still does not want to limit the royal family's funds too little.

Who knows, Liu Xin didn't appreciate it, he waved his hand, and said in a non-negotiable tone: "I have made up my mind, and there is no need to discuss this matter again." You still care less about my family affairs, think more about the people of the world, and think more about how to make our Han Dynasty more prosperous! ”

This time, even Chen Gong lowered his head in shame, and the hall suddenly fell silent. Liu Xin continued: "I will give you three days, and you can draw up a charter and let the cabinet and the six ministries perform their duties. What things must be decided by me, what things need to be decided by the cabinet, and what things can be solved by the six ministries on their own, all need to be clearly divided! ”

The three days were very tight, and everyone didn't dare to delay, so they hurriedly bowed down and retreated, and rushed to the cabinet yamen near the palace to discuss, these major events were enough for them to be busy for several days, and no one had time to dwell on the matter of Liu Xin's canonization of concubines.

In fact, Liu Xin's courage to propose such a compromise plan was not a whim, but the result of careful consideration.

Although the total tax revenue last year was only more than 4 billion yuan, this was only the income of the six prefectures of Jing, Yi, Si, Liang, Yang, and Jiaozhou, of which Yangzhou and Jiaozhou are still in the initial stage of development, and there is still a lot of room for development.

And next year's situation will be different, because the entire Han has been unified, and the six northern states of Hebei, And, You, Qing, Xu, and Henan have always been the richest places in the Han Dynasty. Although the people in these places were struggling to make a living due to years of war, Liu Xin believed that as long as they had two to three years of recuperation, these places would soon regain their vitality, and at the same time, they would bring a lot of tax revenue to the imperial court. On the other hand, with the opening of the Silk Road, commerce will become more and more prosperous, and commercial taxes will one day surpass agricultural taxes and become the main force supporting the finances of the Han Dynasty.

With these two reasons, the tax revenue of the imperial court will only increase, and even show a geometric progression. As the tide rises, the amount of money allocated to the inner treasury will naturally increase. The difficulties are only temporary, and the future is bright.

Liu Xin doesn't have to worry that Neiku will fall into a situation where there is no money available, and there is another important reason, that is, he has the support of Dahan Qianzhuang behind him.

In recent years, Liu Xin has vigorously developed armaments, fought foreign wars, and comforted the people, all of which need to consume a lot of financial and material resources, and such a level of taxation is not enough to support it. However, Liu Xin did not appear to be trapped by money and food like Cao Cao, nor did he go to the situation of being as reckless as Yuan Shao, and the reason for this was due to the support of Dahan Qianzhuang.

The silver stamps issued by Dahan Qianzhuang were not only used in the areas under Liu Xin's rule, but also in Dawan, Kangju and other countries in the west, and even in the urban areas originally controlled by Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, they were also very sought-after hard currency. And Ma Yun has always controlled the total amount of silver bills issued at a fairly safe ratio, as long as there is no nationwide run, Dahan Qianzhuang is Liu Xin's inexhaustible gold and silver mountain.

Liu Xin does not have the control of Dahan Qianzhuang, and he can be so confident because he has Ma Yun's support in this matter.

With Liu Xin and Ma Yun's thousands of years of knowledge, it is natural that the history of China is actually a history of continuous changes of dynasties. At the beginning of the establishment of a dynasty, it is often the most prosperous period of the dynasty, and it is really a monarch and a wise man, but at the end of the dynasty, the emperor is either unscrupulous or cowardly and incompetent. And every change of dynasty will bring profound disasters to the people.

The root cause of all this is due to the imperial system, but Liu Xin and Ma Yun both understand that in this era, not to mention the implementation of a republic, even the establishment of a constitutional monarchy is absolutely impossible, so the only solution is to limit the imperial power and put a sleeve on the emperor.

On the other hand, Ma Yun knows very well the truth that it is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift. She and Liu Xin may be able to restrain themselves, but who can guarantee that their children and grandchildren will not be arrogant? Therefore, taking the initiative to limit the expenses of the royal family to a low level is also so that their children and grandchildren can develop a good habit of frugality.

Early the next morning, Liu Xin announced to the world that the six of Bian Yu and Cai Yan were canonized, and the jade plate gold book was issued, and at the same time, Qiao'er and several of them were also named talents. And Fu Zhu, Tian Feng, Guo Jia, Chen Gong and others are so busy with the things that Liu Xin explained to them that they have no time to advise Liu Xin anymore.

Another day later, the new Han law, which Ma Yun had spent a lot of energy revising, was also promulgated by Liu Xin. In many respects, the new law is not fundamentally different from the old law, and the same emphasis is placed on killing people to pay for their lives and paying debts. However, two core concepts were introduced in the new law, one was the sanctity of private property, and the other was that a prince was guilty of the same crime as the common people.

These two were unthinkable in the law of the past. Everything in the world belongs to the emperor, as long as the emperor wants, anyone must give it unconditionally, so how can we talk about the sanctity of private property? In this era, people are originally divided into three, six, nine and so on, and since ancient times, there is a saying that "if you can't be courteous to a commoner, you can't punish a doctor", how can a prince break the law and be guilty of the same crime as the common people?

These two articles of the new law, if brought to the court for discussion, were likely to be opposed by the courtiers. Therefore, Liu Xin did not disclose it to them in advance, but directly promulgated it. The emperor's words are golden and jade, not to mention the laws written in black and white, printed in books. By the time the Confederacy and others, who were busy drafting the statutes, saw this law, it was already the evening of the day. Their statutes had just been drafted, and they had to revise and polish them overnight, and they didn't even have time to read the law from beginning to end, and of course it was impossible to discover some of the changes hidden in it, let alone give their own opinions.

However, in addition to the above two important changes in the law, there was also a relatively large change in punishment, that is, more prison sentences were used instead of corporal punishments. Of course, the death penalty for the most heinous crimes is still retained, but it is limited to beheading, and torture such as Ling Chi and Wu Ma dividing the body has been permanently abolished. Other punishments, such as cutting off ears and noses, and gouging out kneecaps, were mostly abandoned, and the only thing that remained was palace punishment. Due to the particularity of the palace, some eunuchs are always used, so some juveniles who are not enslaved in the palace still need to be retained.

The ministers were busy until the third watch, and finally drew up the regulations required by Liu Xin. Seeing the fruits of their labor, the ministers were very excited, and no one proposed to go home and rest. Some people were still immersed in those few statutes, while others picked up the latest Han law that had just been sent from the palace and read it leisurely.

Suddenly, Chen Gong cried out: "That's not right! This law has changed so much, why didn't Your Majesty consult with us beforehand? ”

It turned out that the ministers thought that the new law was just a reprint of the old law originally written on bamboo slips and printed on paper, but they did not know that the content had undergone a major change, which immediately caused an uproar among the ministers.