Guo Ye shook his head and replied: "Shaoquan, war consumes too much wealth, now we have these family foundations, what we have to do is how to give birth to more money in the shortest possible time, instead of using him for the bottomless pit of war, these places must be recovered, but not now, what we have to do now is to recuperate and lay a solid foundation for a rich country and a strong army!" ”

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said with appreciation: "Yes, recuperate, this is the royal road, now that the Chinese Empire has just been established, the people's hearts are unstable, and it is indeed unfavorable to the country to use swords and soldiers, but how to recuperate?" Your Majesty, what do you think? ”

"It's easy! First, reduce the people's taxes and reduce taxes, Brother Da Xian, the heavy responsibility of light and meager taxes will be handed over to you, this year's time, we must remove all miscellaneous taxes in all provinces, and at the same time halve the taxes for farmers, and rest with the people! ”

Liu Kun was taken aback, and said suspiciously: "Your Majesty, it is a good thing to rest with the people, but as soon as we come up, we will remove all miscellaneous taxes, and at the same time, the farmers' taxes will be halved, what will we do with our finances?" Especially the agricultural tax, which is twenty or thirty million taels of silver a year, is halved at once, and then tens of millions of taels are lost! After the abolition of all miscellaneous taxes, then our treasury revenue will be reduced by at least half, how to support? ”

Guo Ye said in a deep voice: "No! Brother Da Xian Zhuang, let's talk about miscellaneous taxes first, why do miscellaneous taxes and donations exist, but they are only collected because of the existence of the training army, the existence of the rebellion and the suppression of bandits, these revenues have never entered the treasury, and now the training army has been disbanded, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Twist Army have been quelled, how can we collect these from the common people again? It doesn't make sense! Second, the agricultural tax, why is there now a swarm of thieves and endless civil unrest? Isn't it that our taxes are too high and the peasants have no way to live? The Chinese people are the most simple and timid, as long as there is a way to live, they will not rebel, once they rebel, it means that they are already embarrassed to the point where there is no way to live, so we must leave them a way to live, otherwise, we will have no way to live......"

Ha ha......

Everyone laughed, Liu Kun's face turned red, and he stopped talking. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Article 2: Reducing or exempting commercial taxes and encouraging the development of industry and commerce; all non-governmental investment in commerce and preparations for the establishment of factories and mines shall be exempted from tax in the first year, reduced by 50 percent in the second year, reduced by 30 percent in the third year, and resumed normal tax collection in the fourth year. This policy is implemented throughout the country, which official dares to stretch out his hand indiscriminately, and severely punish him! We want to set aside three years for the merchants to grow from a small sapling to a towering tree! ”

Liu Kunyi couldn't help it, and asked, "Your Majesty, is there really no guarantee for next year's taxes......

"No!"

Guo Ye replied: "Next year, Shandong Province alone can pay taxes and profits of up to tens of millions of taels of silver, and other places such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, and Huguang can also pay 20 million taels of silver, plus our tariffs, the money and grain handed over by other provinces will definitely not be less than 40 million taels of silver, you know, we now have no drag on the banner, and the income of 40 or 50 million taels of silver is enough for us to squander." As for the year after tomorrow, it can be said that our fiscal revenues will increase year by year, even if we subtract a large amount of miscellaneous taxes, donations, and even agricultural taxes, it will still increase, because we have more and more prosperous industry and commerce to support it! ”

As he spoke, Guo Ye set his eyes on Tang Tingshu and said, "The third one, Brother Jianshi, will fall on your head, introduce Western science and technology, and make every effort to develop heavy industry; I give you five years, and in five years, the coal production of our Chinese Empire must reach fifteen million tons; Steel production reached one million tons; These are two hard indicators that must be completed! ”

Tang Tingshu's face was full of shock, and he said urgently: "Your Majesty, you are trying to drive me crazy!" I don't have exact figures, but I do know that one-third of the country's coal production is in Shandong, and half of the steel production is in Shandong! However, the total annual output of Shandong's coal mines does not exceed 1.5 million tons! The production of steel does not exceed 100,000 tons, that is, the whole country combined, our coal production will not exceed 5 million tons; The output of steel is only 200,000 tons, and you have made me triple the output of coal and increase the output of steel fivefold in five years, and you have squeezed me dry, and I don't have the ability to do it......"

Guo Ye waved his hand and replied: "Brother Jianshi, you are now my chief minister of industry, you can't be discouraged at this time, the first task I give you is to develop Zhili, merge Zunhua Prefecture and Yongping Mansion together, form a new Yongping Mansion, and immediately prepare a large coal mine and a large iron mine in Kailuan and Qian'an, my requirement for you is that within five years, the annual output of Kailuan Coal Mine shall not be less than 3 million tons, the output of pig iron in the iron plant shall not be less than 150,000 tons, and the output of refined steel shall not be less than 80,000 tons. Rails can be produced in accordance with Western requirements, and the annual output of rails is not less than 50,000 tons! ”

Hiss......

Tang Tingshu was startled and shouted, "Your Majesty, you can't do it!" You must know that the annual coal output of Yanzhou Coal Mine is less than 1.2 million tons, and it has been in operation for three years; The annual steel output of Laiyang Iron Works is only more than 50,000 tons! Your requirements for Kailuan and Qian'an are more than several times higher than those of the two large factories in Shandong! This ......"

Guo Ye smiled: "Brother Jianshi, you are too timid, only you can't think of it, there is nothing you can't do!" To tell you the truth, in Qian'an and Kailuan, the coal and iron mines contained in these two places are more than ten times more than those in Yanzhou and Laiyang! Kailuan mines 3 million tons of coal a year, and there are enough coal mines there for you to mine for 2,000 years! Now Yanzhou and Laiyang have experienced a large number of skilled workers, there is no need to worry about the problem of workers, as for the equipment, imported from the United States, and since the year before last, we have purchased a large number of equipment from the United States, enough to open these two factories, money is not a problem, no money, loan from Qilu Bank in accordance with the rules! Ensure that these two coal plants and iron factories are all owned by our country, as for the management personnel, they will be transferred from the two places, and if the personnel are not enough, they will be transferred from Qilu University! Within five years, the requirements I made must be met! From tomorrow, I will make every effort to prepare for this matter, ask for money to give you money, people, talents from all over the country, as long as you bring it up, I will tie it up and help you! ”

"But,"

Tang Tingshu smiled bitterly: "Not to mention whether we can produce so much, just these two large factories and mines, not counting the iron factories and coal factories prepared in other places, just the investment, I am afraid that it will not be less than tens of millions of taels of silver, how can we raise so much money?" ”

(To be continued.) )