After the promulgation of the Law on the Protection of Armor and the implementation of the system of protecting the armor by the officials and gentry, and the unified taxation of officials, the effect was really good, although the expected effect was not achieved in a short period of time, but with the extension of time, as long as the promulgated decree was thoroughly implemented, it would certainly exceed expectations.

When collecting taxes, forced labor, and taxes, Qin Dong was always worried that the officials below would find out about the problem of fire consumption and pass it on to the people, which proved to be completely unnecessary.

What is Fire Consumption? Originally, it refers to the wear and tear of broken silver when it is melted and recast into silver ingots. "Fire consumption" began in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng implemented the "one whip law", all taxes were levied on silver and handed over to the treasury, and the broken silver handed over by the people was melted and recast into silver ingots. The additional "fire consumption" at the time of taxation is greater than the actual "fire consumption", and the difference goes to the officials. Officials in the early Qing Dynasty followed this practice. Moreover, the "fire consumption" continues to increase: the fire consumption of ordinary states and counties reaches two or three yuan, or even four or five yuan per two. Remote states and counties pay less taxes, and fire consumption is several times higher than that of regular taxes. Although a ban was also issued during the Shunzhi and Kangxi years, it did not work, and it was acquiesced in the future.

Why did the Ming Dynasty have the problem of fire consumption, and why did the later Qing Dynasty continue to have fire consumption? It is because the money collected is silver, and it is all loose silver, and the broken silver needs to be smelted back into the furnace to make official silver ingots of the same specification and weight, if the tax silver collected does not need to be smelted again, there is naturally no problem of fire consumption.

Why didn't there be a problem of fire consumption before the Ming Dynasty? For example, there was no fire consumption in the Song Dynasty? In the Song Dynasty, the most common money in circulation was standard copper coins, and taxes were mainly collected by copper coins. Copper coins are all minted, round on the outside and square on the inside, of the same specification and weight. The copper coins collected can continue to circulate to the private sector as financial expenditures, and do not need to be re-furnaceed. However, in the Ming Dynasty, since Zhang Juzheng implemented a whip law, the collection of taxes was to collect silver, and the most circulating in the market was also silver, because during this period of maritime commerce and trade developed, a large amount of foreign silver flowed into China. When there is more silver in China, the people spontaneously use silver as currency, and the silver that can be circulated is not a standard silver coin. It is the kind of scattered silver, the fineness of the silver is still different, and how much it is worth depends on the merchant's estimation when selling goods. Merchants must also have scales and scissors on hand. Scales are used to weigh silver, and scissors are used to cut silver. After the loose silver is collected, it has to be smelted back into the furnace to smelt into silver ingots of the same weight and size, why should it be smelted into silver ingots? This is to prevent robbery by robbers during transportation, and to prevent officials from stealing by themselves, and the official silver has marks on it, indicating how heavy the silver weighs, when it was smelted, and with these marks. Once this piece of silver ingot is robbed or embezzled, as long as it appears on the market, the source of this batch of official silver can be traced. This is the same reason that later generations had coinage dates and numbers on banknotes.

During the Yongzheng period, the Yongzheng Emperor tried to rectify the rule of officials and strengthen the finances, so he implemented the "fire consumption" to return to the public and issued honest silver to officials. The return of "fire consumption" to the public is to standardize the collection of "fire consumption" and hand it over to the state treasury as fiscal revenue. The government stipulates that the surcharge on "fire consumption" is generally 10%-15% of the regular tax, and the maximum is not more than 20%. Part of the revenue from this "fire consumption" is used for fiscal expenditures, and the other part is used as the maintenance of officials at all levels. According to Guangxu's "Cases of the Qing Dynasty", the maintenance of officials at all levels is: 13,000-20,000 taels for governors, 10,000-15,000 taels for governors, 5,000-9,000 taels for political envoys, 3,000-8,444 taels for inspectors, 1,500-6,000 taels for Taoists, 800-4,000 taels for prefects, 500-2,000 taels for governors, 400-2,259 taels for magistrates, and 400-1,600 taels for Tongzhi.

Now the official coins of the Xiongnu Empire are standard coins, not scattered silver, and do not need to be smelted again, and all that is collected when collecting taxes is new coins, and they can also be used as financial expenditures to re-flow tax money back to the market, and there is no problem of fire consumption.

Over the past year or so, Qin Dong's series of measures have made the situation in the area where he can control better and better, and a series of reform decrees he promulgated have also attracted strong attention from neighboring countries, the most influential of which are the reform of the official and military systems, the introduction of the examination law, the issuance of currency, the implementation of a whip law, the protection of the armor law, and the integration of officials and gentry to pay taxes.

Although the Xiongnu Empire is now fragmented, the royal court still exists, and Qin Dong suddenly rose up, put Enek on the throne, and made himself the regent, which made Qin Dong quickly appear in the sight of the Western Roman Emperor Avitus, the King of the Vandal Kingdom, the King of the Visigothic Kingdom Theodoric II, the leader of the Franks of the Sali tribe, Meloves, the king of the Kingdom of Burgundy, etc., and many sources confirm that the real ruler of the Xiongnu Empire today is Qin Dong and not Enek, Qin Dong also became a super celebrity on a par with their status.

As early as August 456 AD, the general of Corsica in the Western Roman Empire, Richmel, secretly sent someone to Constantinople of the Eastern Roman Empire to meet Emperor Leo I, hoping that Emperor Leo I would support him against Avitus, Leo I was worried that there was no excuse to interfere in the politics of the Western Empire, and now the opportunity came, just like he was trying to sleep and Richmel sent a pillow, he immediately wrote down a secret letter and handed it to the person sent by Richmel, asking this person to bring the secret letter back to Richmel.

In September 456, Reichmel, who had received a secret letter from Emperor Leo I, had support and immediately led his troops north, and when Reichmel led his troops to Italy proclaimed his opposition to Avitus as Emperor of the Western Empire, Achilles became angry when he found out, and immediately ordered his army to attack Richmel's army.

In October, the two sides fought a battle at Piacenza, a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, which is the capital of the province of Piacenza. In this battle, Avitus's army was defeated, and Avitus himself panicked when he learned the news, and immediately fled to the Visigothic kingdom, but he died on the road before he could reach the territory of the Visigothic kingdom, the specific cause of death is unknown, there are rumors that he died of illness, and there are also rumors that he was killed by his subordinates.

When Avitus was defeated by Richmel. When the news of Reichmel's control of Rome reached Saidika, Qin Dong had not had time to make a move, when news suddenly came from Constantinople. Empress Pulkaria of the Eastern Roman Empire is dead! The cause of death could not be ascertained, and the cause of her death was blocked by the Constantinople side.

Originally, according to the course of history, Pulkaria should have died in November 453, but Qin Dong let Marcian die four years early, and Pulkaria delayed his death for three years.

After Qin Dong got the news, he did not ask people to investigate the cause of Pulkharia's death. It doesn't make sense anymore, no matter how she died, after she died. Leo I was bound to take over the military and political power of the Eastern Roman Empire, and this was a foregone conclusion, and no one could stop it.

When Leo I eliminated the remaining forces of Pulkaria and took full control of the military and political power. Then the diplomatic relations between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Xiongnu Empire are probably about to change. In the past, Leo I sat on the throne and his foundation was unstable, and he did not have much power in his hands, so he had to let Qin Dong, a foreign aid, help him, and with Qin Dong's foreign aid as a deterrent, he would be able to gain a firm foothold in the Eastern Roman Empire, but now it is different, as long as he fully controls the military and political power of the Eastern Roman Empire, he no longer needs Qin Dong's foreign aid. At that time, it is still unknown whether the relationship between the two countries will be as harmonious as it is now.

No matter what, Qin Dong must take precautions. Historically, Leo I was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and after he ascended the throne, he constantly pointed fingers in the political turmoil of the Western Roman Empire, and also used force against the Vandal kingdom in an attempt to expel Vandal rule in North Africa, and during his reign, the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Empire often clashed, but he did not launch an attack on the territory controlled by Deng Zhixik and Enek, because in his opinion, the Huns had no fixed place to live, and the light cavalry was erratic. If the labor expedition can not find the main force of the Xiongnu decisive battle, it is equivalent to a work in vain, this kind of thankless thing is still less to do, but later when Deng Zhixik led his troops south to invade the Eastern Roman Empire, Leo I still ordered the army to go out of the city to meet the battle, Deng Zhixik was defeated and died, and his head was hung on the head of Constantinople to show the public.

Avitus was overthrown, the Western Empire once again had no emperor, although Richmel controlled Rome, he was a barbarian general, the Romans did not buy his account at all, and he himself knew that it was impossible for him to sit on the emperor's throne, so he tried to control the situation in Rome on the one hand, and on the other hand, he looked for someone who could sit on the emperor's throne and could easily control it.

The situation in the Western Empire was in chaos, and the Eastern Empire was no better, and after Pulkaria's death, Leo I was busy eradicating the forces she left behind, taking over the military and political power, and consolidating his rule, and he had no heart to care about the outside affairs, and even Richmel sent someone to consult him about the throne of the Western Emperor, but he did not have time to deal with it.

Except for the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire, the Visigoths have no time to worry about the outside world now, and recently the Visigothic king Theodoric II led his troops to attack the Suebi Kingdom in northwestern Spain, and captured all the land of the Suebi Kingdom, the Suebi people perished, Theodoric II was busy collecting prisoners, managing the newly acquired land, and had no other idle time.

Theodoric II is the son of Theodoric, this Theodoric is the Visigothic king who died in the Battle of Chalon, not the later king of the Ostrogoths, after Theodoric was killed in the Battle of Chalon, the crown prince Torismund, who accompanied him on the expedition, was put on the throne of the king by the generals on the battlefield, and two years later, that is, in 453 AD, in the year when Qin Dong came to Pazar, the Visigothic king Torrismond died of illness in Toulouse, and his younger brother Theodoric II inherited the throne.

The surrounding neighbors have no time to separate, Qin Dong knows that the time has come to lead the army to the north, but he can't find an excuse to send troops, Deng Zhixik is Enek's younger brother, is Attila's youngest son, he is still very prestigious among the Huns, and there are many people who support it, if there is not enough reason to rashly send troops to conscript, I am afraid that it will cause dissatisfaction among the Hun officials, just when he was struggling to find an excuse, watching the opportunity to send troops slip away day by day and could not do anything, suddenly a news came from the north wind that made him ecstatic. (To be continued......)