"Liukou has attacked Jiangxi?"

This news not only spread to all parts of the south of the Yangtze River, Pang Gang, who was in Qingzhou, naturally did not know, but unlike those panicked elite scholars of the Ming Dynasty, Pang Gang had a lively attitude towards this matter, although the situation in the Ming Dynasty is becoming more and more chaotic, but it did not affect Pang Gang's mood at all, because just a few days ago, Wei Manyao, who had reached the due date, gave birth to a fat boy for nothing.

After the news came out, the house was lively for a few days, and all the maids, old mothers and servants almost had cramps with laughter on their faces, because the rewards in the house were constantly sent down in the past few days, and these rewards were worth their monthly salaries for a year.

However, with Pang Gang's title to the king and the birth of his second son, not only in the palace, but also the subordinates below Pang Gang gradually had some discussions, they were very curious, and they didn't know which of Mrs. Kong and Mrs. Wei would be their princess, after all, this is not the same as before, this is a question related to who will be the son of the world after the eldest son and the second son.

However, compared to the discussion of his subordinates, Pang Gang did not care at all, and at this time he was staying in the signing room, looking at the simple map of Daming on the table.

This is a very simple map in Pang Gang's opinion, this map only roughly marks the place names of various state capitals, as well as some large rivers in the Ming Dynasty, but if you want to find the place names below the county, sorry, no.

However, in this era when there are neither communication satellites nor high-altitude reconnaissance planes, and they all rely on their eyes to observe hand-drawn maps, this is also a matter of no way, but the map in Pang Gang's hand has spent a lot of money to ask someone to get it from the military headquarters in Nanjing, and its function is only to enable people to roughly understand the distribution of each state capital.

Now this map is marked by Pang Gang in several colors, the blue part is the representative Pang Gang's own territory, the red part is the territory of the current Ming Dynasty, and the white part is the Manchu Qing Dynasty green is the representative of the Liukou. Although there are only two places representing Liukou now, Shaanxi and Hunan, in the Hunan part, there is already a green arrow pointing towards Linjiang Prefecture, to which Jiangxi belongs.

Looking at this arrow, Pang Gang's brows furrowed a little, and he said to himself: "This Liu Zongmin, I don't know if he can capture Jiangxi, but if he really captures Jiangxi, I am afraid that he will be strongly repelled by all the Jiangnan gentry." ”

For Jiangnan, it is impossible to say that Pang Gang is not rare in his heart, Jiangnan is a rich land of the Ming Dynasty, in history, whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, Jiangnan's annual taxes account for more than seventy percent of the country's taxes, as long as anyone occupies Jiangnan, then he can smash a country out with silver.

Although Pang Gang is also very enthusiastic about Jiangnan, who has seventy percent of the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, he also knows that he does not have the ability to enter Jiangnan at present, and with his current strength, if he rashly enters Jiangnan, I am afraid that it will not be a good thing to wait for him.

There was a knock on the door of "Tuk Tuk".

Pang Gang said without looking back: "Come in!" ”

Following Pang Gang's voice, Wen Renjun walked in with a handful of official documents, and said as soon as he entered the door: "Lord Wang, here are these official documents received by the prince, all of which have been instructed, and now they are sent to you for review." ”

Pang Gang waved his hand and said: "You are now the prefect of Qingzhou, you don't have to ask this king for instructions on everything, if everything is like this, then what else does this king want you people to do?" ”

Wen Renjun smiled bitterly: "The prince is angry, how dare you bother you if it is an ordinary matter, but these things are very tricky, I have to ask you to decide." ”

"Oh, what the hell is going on? How can it be tricky for our erudite and talented prefects? ”

When Pang Gang heard this, he stretched out his hand with some curiosity, Wen Renjun hurriedly handed over the stack of official documents in his hand to Pang Gang, Pang Gang took out an official document and looked at it slowly, and slowly Pang Gang's face became a little ugly.

He casually took out a few more official documents, and the speed of flipping through them became faster and faster, and after a while, Pang Gang raised his head and asked lightly: "Did these all receive at the same time?" ”

"Yes!" Wen Renjun nodded hurriedly, "All the official documents have been received in the past three days, and all the wealthy gentry have asked to reduce the tax rate to the same level as before, that is, thirty to one, otherwise all merchants will be overwhelmed and have to consider withdrawing from Shandong and other places." ”

Pang Gang sneered noncommittally: "Hehe, do they all say that?" ”

Wen Renjun said a little depressed: "Exactly, as if they had unified their statements, they forced us to agree to their conditions in unison." ”

Pang Gang snorted lightly: "Hehe, they don't mean to drink because they are drunk, and they want to force us to bow their heads to them." ”

Pang Gang set himself up as the king, although many gentry and wealthy families in Shandong, Henan, Hubei and other places have written to show their loyalty, but Pang Gang also knows that these guys can listen to what they say, if you really believe in them, then you will not be far from death. And those businessmen also believed that although Pang Gang had established himself as the king, his foundation was stable, and many things had to rely on the support of them, the gentry and wealthy households, so they had the courage to write to Wen Renjun, the prefect of Qingzhou, at the same time.

Wen Renjun glanced at Pang Gang, hesitated and said: "Lord, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the commercial tax has been set at thirty taxes and one, if we rashly set it at two percent, those businessmen will naturally make a fuss, do you think the implementation of this measure is suspended?" ”

"No, absolutely not!" Pang Gang said without hesitation: "We have just promulgated these regulations, if we encounter a little resistance, we will take them back, how will we promulgate the new policy in the future, if there is a kind of example, what majesty does the government have!" ”

Pang Gang's attitude is very resolute, since Pang Gang self-reliance, in Shandong, Henan, Hubei promulgated a new business bill, the most important of which is to reformulate the commercial tax, the previous tax rate increased to two percent, this tax rate came out, the rule of the uproar, many merchants and gentry have written to the Ming Dynasty as an example to strongly demand a reduction in the tax rate, some also threatened that if the Shandong government does not agree to their request, they will turn to other places, no longer do business in Shandong.

In the face of the request that flew like snowflakes, Rao was calm and calm, but because he had just stepped into the officialdom, the kung fu of nourishing qi had not yet arrived at home, and he couldn't help but panic for a while, so he went straight to Pang Gang's palace.

Pang Gang looked at Wen Renjun, who was still a little breathless, and mentioned Wen Renjun to the prefect's position at once, it seems that he still has less experience, and he still can't hold his breath.

Pang Gang said in a deep voice: "You have to remember, twenty percent of the tax is our bottom line, no one can shake it, if those businessmen don't want to stay with us, we won't stop them, they want to go casually, but as long as they do business with us, then they must pay the full tax, otherwise don't blame us for being polite!" ”

Pang Gang's words were faintly murderous, to be honest, since Pang Gang came to this era, he has always hated the taxes that Daming's cheating father moved. Thirty taxes and one, if this tax rate is placed in the future generations, those businessmen will probably wake up laughing even from their dreams.

When he first came to this era, Pang Gang couldn't figure out how a country as big as the Ming Dynasty could not cope with some unexpected natural disasters and large-scale military operations with tax revenues? You must know that many countries in history that are much smaller than the Ming Dynasty are still comfortable with carrying out larger-scale military operations for many years.

For example, it is needless to say that those countries in the Warring States Period, Zhao State, Qin State, many wars have used hundreds of thousands of troops, and later such as the Three Kingdoms period, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, etc., can give many examples. On the other hand, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was no need to talk about the number of troops in name, but in the real sense of the word, the use of 100,000 troops to fight a war was already close to the limit, and more than 100,000 was okay, but if it was close to 200,000, the state finances would no longer be able to sustain itself. In such a large country, a country with an area of more than 1 billion mu of cultivated land and a population of nearly 200 million, the tax revenue is so small that it cannot even recruit 200,000 elite soldiers with real combat effectiveness.

But then Pang Gang thought of a few more questions, why in the early Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di were in charge, the country carried out several large-scale engineering construction, launched large-scale foreign wars, and there was no problem in providing relief to the victims when famine occurred. And at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it won't work? Could it be because the economy of the early Ming Dynasty was more developed than that of the late Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty was in constant recession for nearly three hundred years?

This is obviously not true, any study of the economic history of China, as well as the records of any people of the time, tell us the fact that the economy of the Ming Dynasty became more prosperous and developed in the later period. In the Wanli period, the economic prosperity, the development of the productive forces has reached a peak, the beginning of the Ming Dynasty is beyond reach, even in the Chongzhen period after successive natural disasters, although relative to the Wanli period, the economy has declined, but on the whole, much higher than the beginning of the Ming Dynasty is not a problem. What is the reason that the economy is more prosperous, the productive forces are more developed, and the country's finances are more difficult?

With these questions, Pang Gang studied for a long time and came to the following conclusions, 1. The tax in the Ming Dynasty was too low, the agricultural tax was low, and the commercial tax was even lower.

2. The tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty did not increase for almost two hundred and fifty years (in fact, it was constantly decreasing, the agricultural tax was decreasing, and the commercial tax was reduced even more) 3. In the late Ming Dynasty, people complained about any tax increase, so much so that there was a lot of resistance when the government axe tried to increase the tax.

The more Pang Gang studied, the more angry he became, and the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a cowherd, personally stipulated, "All commercial taxes, thirty and one, those who pass will be judged as violating the order"

Zhu Yuanzhang did not tighten such a regulation, after Lao Zhu's death, whenever his descendants had no money and wanted to raise taxes, they would be blocked back by the civil official group below with this "ancestral teaching", so the imperial court became poorer and poorer, the merchant group represented by the civil officials below became richer and richer, the land annexation became more and more serious, and the number of bankrupt peasants continued to increase, and finally the old Zhu family played themselves to death in this way.

Pang Gang didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the old Zhu family, the army under Pang Gang had developed rapidly in recent years, but the money used by the army was basically out of Pang Gang's own pocket, and all he used was the money he came from developing animal husbandry, breeding, farming, and selling salt.

The annual expenditure on military salaries alone is an astronomical amount, and if it weren't for Pang Gang and the mutated "Modern Weapons Encyclopedia" to support him, I'm afraid Pang Gang would have gone bankrupt long ago. In the past, when Pang Gang had not officially turned his face with the imperial court, he only strictly investigated tax evasion, although thirty taxes were not much, but those businessmen still tried their best to evade taxes, and then Pang Gang was ruthless, rectified a few guys who made a lot of trouble, and seized their shops, and those businessmen were more honest.

But a few days ago, after the introduction of the new tax rate set by Zi Pang, these businessmen and gentry finally couldn't sit still, and the tax of 20% is equivalent to paying one tael of silver in the past, but they will have to pay six taels in the future, which is six times! How can this not make those merchants jump to their feet?

Wen Renjun is also a person who raises his eyebrows, seeing Pang Gang's face, he knew that Pang Gang had already made up his mind that this matter was absolutely irreparable, after thinking about it, Wen Renjun asked with some anxiety: "Lord Wang, that old man Kong's side"

Pang Gang said expressionlessly: "Old Man Kong's side is no exception, although he is the father-in-law of this king, he also has to pay taxes according to the rules, this is an iron law, and no one is allowed to shake it." ”

"Yes!"

Wen Renjun gritted his teeth and walked out with the flirtatious official document, and his emaciated figure had a bit of a decisive taste. He heard a little bit of flavor from Pang Gang's tone just now, if he didn't do a good job in this matter, maybe he would really be taken down. Thinking that he heard that Renjun had been cold for ten years, it was not easy for someone to appreciate him and sit on the position of Qingzhou prefect, and he would never dare to enter and be taken down like this.

The night soon shrouded the earth, and then the moonlight illuminated the earth in a silvery white, and now Qingzhou has developed into a very prosperous city after more than two years of operation by Pang Gang, not only the merchants of the state capitals are constantly coming and going, and even those Taiwanese Yi people also frequent here.

The changes in Qingzhou have also led to the prosperity of many industries, whether it is taverns, inns, car foot shops and even Qinglou and other industries have also flourished.

Although it is now night, the streets of Qingzhou are still crowded with people.

On a street in the middle of Qingzhou City, there is a three-storey restaurant, which is also called Zuixian Building. The drunken immortal building was just built this year, built with the cement produced by Lingshanwei, after the building, it immediately became one of the landmark buildings in Qingzhou City, of course, the price here is naturally not expensive, and the people who can come are basically not rich or expensive.

Tonight, the shopkeeper Zhao of the Drunken Immortal Building stood in front of the door and greeted the guests attentively.

"Outside of the king, you haven't been here for a long time, rare guests, please come in!"

"Eh, outside the Qian staff, you are finally here, Master Bao and they will all go in for a while, and they will be waiting for you."

"Master Sun, please come in"

The fat and round shopkeeper Zhao stood at the door of the Drunken Immortal Building with two guys, nodding at the old men who had just gotten off the sedan chair, and the muscles on his face were squeezed together with a smile.

When it was time to arrive, after everyone had entered, Shopkeeper Zhao was the first to walk in, and the two men behind him each grabbed the handle of a door, and pulled it inside, and the door made of heavy iron and wood made a creaking sound, and finally closed with a bang, so cut off from the outside world.

At this time, on the third floor of the Drunken Immortal Building, there were more than ten tables here, and these tables were now full of people, an old man about fifty years old, sitting on the east side, wearing a plain robe, looked at everyone and stood up with a smile, and said to everyone: "Everyone, the old man is polite. ”

Everyone got up one after another to salute back, "Boss Li is polite!" ”

Li Jierong said with a smile: "You are all smart people, so you naturally know why you want to invite you to come over and talk about it, right?" ”

Everyone glanced at each other and smiled bitterly, they are not stupid, they naturally know why Li Jierong, the vice president of the Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce, invited them today, isn't it because of the recent uproar about the tax rate.

Although Li Jierong still showed a kind smile on his face, the sharp gaze in his eyes still swept over everyone's faces like lightning, and he still said in a tone that was not slow or hurried: "You should know that just a few days ago, our Royal Highness the King of Zhou issued a new law against our merchants, that is, to increase the tax rate of our merchants to two percent!" ”

When he said this, Li Jierong's voice suddenly became sharp, and he shouted fiercely: "Liangcheng, do you know what this means?" This means that you have to hand over your hard-earned money to others to squander at will, which will mean that we have to shrink our clothes and diet to satisfy some people's extravagant desires, let's say, is this fair? ”

"It's not fair, we must not endure such oppression!"

"Yes, we can't take it!"

As soon as Li Jierong's words fell, several people who didn't know whether they were overexcited or Li Jierong found them waved their hands and shouted next to them.

"Yes!" Li Jierong shouted: "We must not go on like this, if we accept this result this time, you can think about it, what should our children and grandchildren do in the future?" ”

"Yes, if each of our families pays an extra 10,000 taels of silver a year, then ten years is 100,000, and a hundred years is a million, our children and grandchildren."

When everyone thought of this, their hearts felt like they were being cut by a knife, originally they businessmen had to call the tax rate of thirty draws one every time was enough to make them feel distressed, but now Pang Gang simply raised the tax rate to two percent, which simply killed them.

Thinking of this, everyone's expressions showed resentment, and their expressions were all seen by Li Jierong, who knew that the time was coming, so he stood up and was about to say something else

(To be continued)