"I am also a merchant, running the country for the benefit of everyone. Your government hall is the big treasurer, do you want me to settle accounts for you? ”

In the Huangpu Political Affairs Hall, at the regular political hearing, Qu Chengshuo, the secretary of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Culture, mentioned the North Korean issue, which immediately attracted the seconding of the officials of Shangshu and the two provinces, with the same meaning, that Britain could no longer sit idly by and watch the situation in North Korea and let Nian Qianyao swallow it for personal gain.

These officials are all sages, sages, benevolent Confucianism and other school scholars, and now they are called the "Ying Confucianism", claiming to be "Yinghua New Confucianism", and they are still trying to maintain the existence of Confucianism in the court and state politics. When they looked at the Korean issue, first of all, from the perspective of the vassal state of China, they felt that Korea was a loyal vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and that Yinghua had to inherit this relationship, otherwise Yinghua's status as a vassal state in China would not be satisfactory. It's a matter of face, and face is politics.

Although the focus of a country is currently on Jiangnan, the Western Regions, and Annam, the news that Nian Qianyao has blocked off the waters of Shandong and obtained the Minister of Korean Affairs has spread in the country, and the Ying-Confucian faction also wants to take advantage of Korean affairs to enhance their voice in national affairs.

Affected by this trend, the political hall pushed the first assistant Tang Youzeng to put forward a motion to the emperor: send troops to Korea, and Tang Youzeng himself was a "British Confucian".

Li Shi said: "If the government hall can persuade the West Court to raise the industrial and commercial tax by 20%, or persuade the two courts to levy an inheritance tax, this can be done." ”

Tang Youzeng and a group of courtiers were suddenly deflated, and the industrial and commercial company tax was increased by two percent? Not to mention raising, now the West Courtyard is clamoring to reduce corporate tax all day long. And the inheritance tax ...... It was a hundred-year-old topic, and Tang You once regarded it as his ultimate goal during his tenure as the first assistant.

Last year, Yinghua took advantage of the Great War between the North and the South to implement the land division deed tax. This law was regarded by people of all factions in the country as the beginning of the road of "equal wealth and poverty", and Mo Ru and even some Taoist people hoped to go further and make a property inheritance tax.

Unlike the legal theory of deed notarization, which is charged by the government for notarization, inheritance tax is to cut the meat directly. Suppress the rich and help the lonely. Based on such jurisprudence. The tax rate is not 3% and 5% of the deed tax. Rather, it is a heavy tax of at least 10% or more.

It is easy to collect deed tax on land, but at present, Yinghua is vigorously promoting the division of land to households and even people, and the big landlords are in a weak position before the new industrial and commercial class, and can only be slaughtered. Inheritance tax can be extended to all movable and immovable property such as money, stocks, houses, etc. This is the cheese of the vested interests, and even the emperor feels that the time is too early. The relevant technology and concepts are immature, so there is no need to touch them first. Relying on him Tang Youyi was alone? I'm afraid that the next day, the newspapers all over the world will be all his bad deeds, and even the story of him eating Xinhui's daughter incense can be arranged.

"Jiangnan is still a bottomless hole. The average loss is two to three million per year. In the case of Annan, a three-year budget must be prepared, and millions of dollars a year can be put in order. It is difficult to turn back from the march into the Western Regions, and the annual expenditure is three or four million, plus the relevant government affairs, it is five or six million ......."

Li Xian listed the bulk of the state finances one by one. With each word, the courtiers sighed.

"This year's deficit of five million is still a conservative estimate. The bottom line in my heart has fallen to 10 million, and I am suffering from a headache. If you want to make a fuss, it's okay, the official's petition for the new system of Lu Jue's dispersion is still on my desk, I can refute it, save three or four million, and it is barely enough to fight this battle. ”

Li Xi began to raise the bar, and Tang Youzeng said with a wry smile: "The ministers are rash and thoughtful, and Your Majesty should not retaliate with a tooth for a tooth." ”

From the time of the Tianwangfu, Li Shi promised that Yinghua would not engage in the Ming and Qing official systems, but would take the route of high salaries in the Song Dynasty. Called the emperor once, once every five years, the official salary was greatly adjusted, and the new system at this time, with the addition of a number of elements, made the Anglo-Chinese official system finally complete and mature. ..., the new official system will be the official treatment of Pinlu, the job, the loose level subsidy and the knight's gold, the product is equivalent to the Song Dynasty's own officials, the original is from the nine products and eighteen levels of the system is divided into the middle from the nine grades of the twenty-seven level system, and the job is equivalent to the Song Dynasty's dispatch, as the name suggests, it is also the Song Dynasty's things. Jue is a pension, another system.

The new system of Anglo-Chinese officials is covered with a layer of Song skin, but the inside is completely different. In the Song Dynasty, there were standards for the officials and the dispatches, and the officials were selected to be the ones who were higher, while the Yinghua officials were both.

Pinlu was allocated by the central government, but all those who had official qualities were the so-called "Beijing officials" in the Song Dynasty. However, the salaries of the courts, the planning departments, and the central ministries and provinces are all under the responsibility of the central treasury. The local government is responsible for the duties of local officials, from the governor of a province to the post office in the township.

There are currently as many as 42 ranks, which are promoted according to seniority, promotion and jinshi, which are used to balance high and low incomes, especially to appease those officials with old qualifications, so that they can be distinguished from the juniors who are young and newly promoted to middle and high-level officials.

Based on the Yinghua Country Post Zheng, the big post is the ninth grade, the official Lu is three taels of silver per month, and the salary is determined by each locality, such as the general county in Hunan, and the township post is four taels per month. If this post is an officer who is discharged from the army, or has sufficient qualifications, he also enjoys a low-level scatter-level subsidy, which is about between one and two taels, plus the subsidies for carriages, horses, food, clothing, etc., and this post is able to get ten taels of silver per month.

The housing, schooling, and hospitalization of all officials are guaranteed by the state, and of course, only to meet the needs. If you have something else to ask for, you have to pay for it. After retirement, it is the lowest knighthood, and you can also get a pension of one to two taels per month. This amount, at present, is equivalent to the average income of ordinary workers.

To sum up, the salaries of Anglo-Chinese officials are not too high, and they are naturally incomparable with the era of "three years of Qing prefect and 100,000 snowflakes of silver". However, in the transition to modern society, the annual income of a low-level official at the grassroots level is six to eight times the per capita income of the society, which is of course a high salary. If you compare it with Zhi County, a county from Wupinzhi, the total annual official subsidy is 500 to 1,000 taels, and the gap is naturally greater.

The officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties were all divided by a set of tax contracting responsibility systems, and the level of the government was not of much significance, while Yinghua abandoned the tax contracting system and carried the taxes by the commercial system, and the identity of the officials was naturally different from that of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties are like the heads of the branches under the accounting system, while the Yinghua officials are the employees of the company who only have the right to handle the overall accounting system.

Anglo-Chinese is still centralized. In a bureaucratic society, Li Shi is promoting decentralization. Weaken the bureaucracy's control over society as a whole. However, it is unlikely that it will evolve into a modern civil society right away. Stabilizing the core of the social elite with this system is also an inevitable means in the period of social transition. For this reason, even if the salaries are divided into local governments, the central government will also have to increase the expenditure of three or four million taels of maintenance officials, and this is the price.

Broadly speaking. At present, there are as many as 200,000 people with official qualities in the central part of the Yinghua region, which is average. There were 220 officials per 100,000 people, compared with the scale of 51 officials per 100,000 people in the Song Dynasty, which was known as "redundant officials". It's more than four times that. But the Anglo-Chinese country made 70 million. Fifteen million officials are raised, 40 million are from the local government, and 10 million are from the local government, which is less than a quarter of the expenditure on supporting officials, compared with the 20 million military expenditure of the central government. The investment of 18 million in medical and health care and key projects is only the third largest financial burden of the state.

It is no longer a matter of life and death for the country. But for officials, the new system has increased their income by two or three percent, and it is only for the sake of fighting North Korea, even if it is only postponed for a year, and everyone in the political hall will be spit on by hundreds of officials. ..., so Tang You chose to give up very rationally, and he could also see that the emperor really had no intention of stirring up North Korea, and the emperor's account was also very clear, and the country was indeed powerless to reach out now.

"If Rong Nian Qianyao and the Manchu Qing take root in Korea, there are still too many harms, will Your Majesty have no other solution?"

"It should be easy to send a fleet, send a messenger ashore, and conclude a treaty to let Korea respect our Yinghua, just like it did when Japan was disposed of in the past!"

"That's exactly how it should be! North Korea is the domain of my Chinese destiny, and it is in the nearly three suits, and it must not be colluded with the Manchu Qing Dynasty! ”

Qu Chengshuo was still unwilling, and the members of the "Wang Dao Society" of the Hanlin Academy also raised their throats, and the eyes of the Wang Dao Society have always been staring at outside of China, although recently because of the change in Annan, they are arguing about how to change Annan's status in the six foreign services, but North Korea is the object of the nearly three services that they are never willing to let go.

"In my opinion, it is better to follow the example of the Nanyang Company and let the Beiyang Company rectify North Korea."

Fan Jin came to say this, but was refuted by everyone. The South Seas are full of Yidi, and naturally merchants can be allowed to plunder. North Korea is a country that admires China and despises Manchuria. Pushing those businessmen to cause trouble in Korea will have only one result, and that is to push North Korea into the arms of the Manchus or Nian Qianyao.

It is the Ying-Confucianism who talks about people's hearts, but the people in the Wang Daoshe and the pragmatic Taoist Party believe that the benefits of North Korea are not yet apparent, and that North Korea, that is, ginseng and rice, are worth mentioning, and there is nothing else. The Beiyang Company not only had no intention of entering North Korea, but also aroused the jealousy of North Korea, believing that Yinghua would treat it as a South Sea country.

Li Xian looked at Fan Jin sympathetically, this time it was Fan Jin who jumped out to help him carry the black pot, the Beiyang Company was almost his emperor's private company, and its main business was the sea trade from Luzon and Ryukyu to the Satsuma Domain in Japan. North Korea is at the end of this line, the margins are too thin, and the company has no intention of interfering, and it is Japan and North Korea that operate.

"The Beiyang Company will not move, let the businessmen who are willing to go to North Korea to seek profits make their own tinkering, and when they pry open the mouth of North Korea, the court will move again. Before the DPRK takes the initiative to contact our Anglo-Chinese people, it will not send a general officer or send a fleet. ”

Li Shi set the tone, and all parties thought about it, and they all felt that they could accept it. If you want to pull North Korea over, you have to put it in. But now a country has no spare energy to invest, drive a beast of the level of the Beiyang Company, the hostility is too strong, and North Korea is not like the South Seas, there are so many interests in the open, and it can't attract many businessmen to gather forces.

If a businessman is willing to pay for it himself, that's great. Prior to this, the imperial court could not send an envoy to Korea in advance, lest the relationship between the two sides should be set in a tone and the space for merchants to operate would be restricted. Moreover, there are not many forces within the DPRK that support Anglo-Chinese, and now they are sending envoys to the past, most of them are sending their faces to the door.

"I really don't know who will be eyeing North Korea......"

Tang Youzeng and others were still quite puzzled, seeing the emperor's attitude, they had a bottom in their hearts, but this business not only had to stir up the situation in North Korea, but also had to be the enemy of Nian Qianyao and even the Manchu Qing Dynasty, what kind of businessman would have such courage?

"A person who has the ability to take charge of foreign affairs, but was pushed out of the door by the court."

Li Shi pointed out that Fan Sihai was originally the person he fancied, and he wanted to use this person to manage the Nanyang affairs of the Privy Council, but he was opposed by the political affairs hall. After all, this person has caused turmoil in people's hearts, and using him will damage the face of the court, and Li Xi has no choice but to be good and let Fan Sihai continue to churn in the rivers and lakes.

Tang You didn't know whether he didn't think about it, or pretended not to think about it, or he looked puzzled: "Businessmen pursue profits, what benefits can North Korea have?" ”

Li Shi shrugged his shoulders, North Korea is advantageous, but scattered everywhere, I don't know which advantage Fan Sihai can find.

After listening to the political meeting in the political affairs hall, Li Xi got into the carriage, opened a small cardboard box casually, took out a thing with a width and length about the middle finger from it, put it on his mouth, and then stabbed and lit a match......... white smoke rose, Li Yan swallowed the clouds and spit out the fog, tasting the taste of cigarettes after 18 years of absence.

Since the introduction of tobacco from the Americas in the Wanli period, China's tobacco industry has gradually developed. In his previous life, Li Xi was also half an addict, but the tobacco leaves in this era were mainly yellow flower tobacco, and the processing method was also drying.

After so many years, Li Xi has long been interested in cigarettes, but he is unwilling to avoid the tobacco industry. Tobacco cultivation can feed farmers in barren mountainous areas, and distribution and sales can also contribute a staggering amount of taxes to a country.

So he communicated with the Spaniards through the Pacific Company, introduced tobacco varieties suitable for roasting from North America, and tried to grow them in Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou. In the past few years, it has expanded to tens of thousands of acres, and the tobacco produced is also sold in Liangguang and Nanyang.

But Li Xian is still not satisfied, tobacco processing is still artificial, and the tobacco leaves that come out are only suitable for pipes, and the price is not low, which is not affordable for ordinary people.

Under his promotion, the steam engine and production line gradually entered all aspects of the tobacco process, tobacco leaf roasting, tobacco cutting and tobacco packaging were also replaced by machines instead of manpower, and now he smokes the latest "machine smoke" produced by Yunyan Company, and also took a brand name of "Yunluoxiang".

A box of 20 sticks, the market price is 30 Wen, which is still too expensive. Because the sales are not large enough, the price must be raised, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain production, but it is believed that this thing will quickly wash away the old tobacco, and the sales will increase exponentially.

Between the clouds and mist, Li Xi suddenly remembered the events of the Chongzhen period of the former Ming Dynasty, when tobacco was widely spread in China, and it is said that because some people mixed opium with tobacco and smoked it, creating a lot of smokers, so Emperor Chongzhen issued a ban on smoking. As a result, people could no longer smoke cigarettes and simply smoked pure opium.

Thinking of opium, Li Shi shuddered, Nanyang Company also built an opium plantation, said to be medicinal, and the scale is not large, but this is all on the surface, what is the truth?

Longmen Fujian Hall, Fan Sihai smiled a little hideously: "If you want to pry open the door of North Korea, you have to use extraordinary weapons!" ”