After easily taking Yangzhou, including Cui Anqian and others, they all thought that Li Rupei was going to take advantage of the situation to take Qianzhong Road and Lingnan Road, after all, the officials in these two places were already panicked, and the army owned by those Jiedu envoys was vulnerable to the iron-blooded army, and they did not dare to resist.

However, Li Rupei rejected this suggestion, and the iron-blooded army actually temporarily stopped the expedition under such a good situation.

Is it because of the emperor's holy decree, because of the position of the Southern Dao Daxingtai, according to the emperor's holy decree and the imperial decree of the imperial court, it is impossible to restrict Li Rupei.

After returning to Xiangyang, many people did not understand the reason.

Li Rupei has never made a reasonable explanation, just locked himself in the wing of the palace, not knowing what he was thinking, and everyone also knew very well that whenever Li Rupei thought like this, there would be major decisions made, and everyone would not bother at this critical moment.

Two days later, Li Rupei arrived at the official residence of Daxingtai on Nanfang Road.

Cui Anqian and the others were busy in the official residence.

Li Rupei went to the wing of the official mansion, and when he saw Cui Anqian, Kan Zeyu and others coming in, he just nodded slightly.

The soldiers around him quickly spread out the map brought by Li Rupei, and everyone's eyes fell on the map.

"These days, I have also heard a lot of discussions, all saying that the situation of the iron-blooded army is very good, why can't they take advantage of the victory to pursue, why don't they occupy Qianzhong Road and Lingnan Road, the Jiedu envoys and observers in these two places don't dare to resist at all."

"I don't want to do this for the time being, it's not that I won't do it in the future, it's just that the timing is not very right yet."

Speaking of this, Li Rupei pointed to the map in front of him.

"The Iron Blood Army has occupied Shannan West Road, Shannan West Road, Huainan Road, Jiangnan East Road and Jiangnan West Road, and the territory is already very large, but the current situation is worrying. The situation in Shannan West Road and Shannan East Road is good, and the people can basically live and work in peace and contentment, but look at other places, especially Jiangnan West Road and Jiangnan East Road, the people are struggling to live, and the situation in Huainan Road is not very good. ”

"The government is exploiting the people, so that the people can't live. Jiangnan Province and Huainan Province were originally rich and prosperous places, but now the population has plummeted, and the prosperity of the past has long ceased to exist, and the officials sent to various places are basically complaining, and there is no silver and grain in many places, and there is nothing to be done about the people who are freezing and starving. ”

"Under such circumstances, if the Iron Blood Army occupies the Qianzhong Road and Lingnan Road, where the conditions are more difficult. If you think about what kind of situation will arise, you have said a long time ago that conquest is not the main goal, and the local people must be able to stabilize. Being able to farm with peace of mind is the key. ”

"There is a shortage of officials in the Southern Provincial Government, and there is a huge shortage of talents, and this problem has not yet been solved. In this case, the larger the territory, the more problems will be. Therefore, after thinking about it carefully, it will take one to two years to make the south basically restore its former prosperity, and at least the people can stabilize. ”

"If you want to be fast, you can't be greedy, and you can't be happy, you must be down-to-earth, step by step, so that Huainan Road and Jiangnan Road can be revived."

"The people are already very poor, if they can't rest with the people at this time, the south will not be able to completely stabilize, and I am ready to give the imperial court another twist, and implore the imperial court to exempt Huainan Province, Jiangnan East Province and Jiangnan West Province from paying taxes for three years, so that the people can really settle down and farm well."

Li Rupei said the idea of exempting taxes, Cui Anqian and others were dumbfounded, you must know that Huainan Province and Jiangnan Province are the main places for grain production, if the taxes are exempted for three years, then what will the government rely on to maintain, Nanfang Dao Daxingtai can not take out so much silver and grain, not to mention that the Iron Blood Army is recruiting sergeants, and the 150,000 army must be maintained.

After Li Rupei finished speaking, Cui Anqian continued to speak.

"The prince still has to be cautious, Huainan Road, Jiangnan East Road and Jiangnan West Road, the place is very large, and the local government also relies on taxes to be able to maintain, if you are exempted from paying taxes for three years in one go, not to mention what the imperial court will say, the local government will not be able to maintain it, Daxing Taifu has received a lot of twists and turns, all of which are begging for assistance, some local governments are already unable to open the pot, and the problem of maintaining a year in Daxing Taifu is not very big, and the aid can be maintained for three years, there is not so much silver."

Kan Zeyu looked at Li Rupei and didn't speak, after all, he hadn't been in Daxingtai Mansion for a long time, so it was not good to speak rashly at this time.

"Kan Zeyu, if you have any ideas, just say it, since you are doing things by Cui Ge's side, you have to say whatever suggestions you think, otherwise it will be a dereliction of duty."

Kan Zeyu's face turned a little pale, and he hurriedly clenched his fists and spoke.

"Lord Wang, my subordinates agreed with Cui Ge Lao's suggestion, and my subordinates went to Jiangnan West Road and Jiangnan East Road some time ago to take a look, especially Yuezhou, Jiangzhou, Hongzhou and Raozhou, etc., encountered the looting of Huangchao, the infestation of bandits, the people were poor and could not afford to pay taxes, even the seeds of the spring ploughing season needed the help of the government, plus the gentry and wealthy households in these places, a large number of fled, or were killed by Huangchao, there are many ownerless arable land, the government needs to re-register, let the farmers cultivate, and the subordinates think that they will be exempted from paying taxes for one year, It is very necessary. ”

"As for the exemption of taxes for three years, it is indeed difficult for the local government to maintain, in February and March, the Daxing Taifu has taken out more than 700,000 taels of silver, so that the local government can maintain, it is expected that one million taels of silver will be needed throughout the year, and within this year, the Daxing Taifu will take out so much silver, which can meet most of the expenses of the local government, including the salary of the officials, but if it still needs to take out so much silver next year and the year after, the Daxing Taifu will also be difficult to bear."

Li Rupei nodded slightly.

"There is a reason, there are specific figures, very good, I would like to hear such suggestions, a certain today, is specifically talking about the matter of taxation, in fact, there are still methods, but the Daxing Taiwan government has always not attached much importance to commerce, so I think it must be impossible to think of any good way, if you pay attention to the composition of Shannan East Road and Shannan West Road tax, you can understand the importance of commerce and trade, last year's tax, trade tax has accounted for more than seventy percent of all taxes, and the people's tax is insignificant."

Cui Anqian shook his head slightly, his understanding has been fixed, thinking that agriculture is the fundamental, and taxes are not the main thing, such an understanding is impossible to change, and Li Rupei does not want to change Cui Anqian's understanding.

So he thought that in the Daxingtai Mansion, Kan Zeyu was specially responsible for business and trade, and Ma Haoxuan, who was previously in charge of business and trade affairs, had already served as the envoy of Shannan Dongdao.

This is the result of Li Rupei's careful thinking, the future of commerce, will be Xiangyang as the center, Ma Haoxuan has been very aware of the importance of commerce, as the Shannan Dongdao Jiedu envoy, can play a good role in the central region, so that the southern trade in the direction of a game of chess.

As for Cui Anqian, he is mainly responsible for the appointment and evaluation of officials and the revenue and expenditure of local money and grain.

"For business matters, let Kan Zeyu be responsible, Ma Haoxuan was in charge of this matter before, Ma Haoxuan is now the envoy of Shannan Dongdao, Kan Zeyu is not familiar with anything, ask Ma Haoxuan for advice."

Kan Zeyu, who was overjoyed, immediately clasped his fists and saluted.

"The subordinates must do their best to live up to the expectations of the prince."

Kan Zeyu of course understood, it was Ma Haoxuan who was in charge of business and trade matters in the past, and he did a very good job, and he was promoted to the envoy of Shannan Dongdao so quickly, if he did it seriously, there would be no problem in serving as the envoy of Jiedu, after the south stabilized, the iron-blooded army would definitely occupy Qianzhong Road and Lingnan Dao, and the position of Jiedu envoy would not come out soon.

Li Rupei's expression became serious.

"In the future, commerce and trade are completely different from before, and what we think about is to take the approach of point to area, Xiangyang, Liangzhou, Yangzhou, Suzhou and Hongzhou five places, must be practiced into a line, these five places are the station of the Yamen, the households are relatively concentrated, the development of commerce and trade has natural advantages, the center of business and trade development, here in Xiangyang."

"The commercial development of Yangzhou and Suzhou is stronger than that of Xiangyang, and the reason why a certain chose the business center in Xiangyang is also to be able to cover more places, Kan Zeyu, then you must consider the trade of salt and iron and other materials, and appropriately limit these transactions to Xiangyang, Liangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou and Hongzhou, which can naturally attract a large number of businessmen."

"It is difficult for traditional commerce and trade to bring about a large increase in local taxes in a short period of time, so it has been decided to set up maritime commercial ports in Yangzhou and Suzhou to attract overseas trade from Guangzhou and other places to these places, and this matter still needs to be seriously discussed."

"Kan Zeyu, you are in charge of commerce and trade, there are clear requirements, within a year, the local trade tax must fully meet the expenses of the Iron Blood Army and the local government, and within three years, the trade tax must occupy about eighty percent of the entire tax."

The development of commerce and trade, the problems brought by it must be many, a new class will be born with the development of commerce, but the wheel of history always has to move forward, Li Rupei has long thought of these, which is also due to his identity as a traverser, but he has enough confidence to guide all this, restore the glory of the early days of the Tang Dynasty, this is not his purpose, he wants to let the Tang Dynasty stand at the top of the world, so that the influence of the Tang Dynasty spread all over the world. (To be continued......)