"Just after the autumn harvest, this year's grain is all down and put into the warehouse, this year is harmless, it is a bumper harvest year, the people are full of warehouses, and the court has confidence, this time we will fight on both sides, Han Seng Shou led the troops to Liaoxi, and Gao Jia led the troops to Hexi. After these two battles as soon as possible, the imperial court will have another Northern Expedition to sweep the grasslands. Yi Feng is very satisfied with the current situation, and if it continues like this, the imperial court will soon be able to balance both inside and outside.

Yi Feng was very happy, but everyone in the political hall was sad, especially Fan Zigai, the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who had already made several folds and resigned.

The reason is very simple, although the prime ministers of the political hall are now unable to manage the military, but the war still requires money, food, and weapons, and these are prepared by the political hall. It is good to say that the mobilization of soldiers can be carried out, but the transfer of grain and grass, and the supply of weapons are quite laborious and not good jobs. No matter how hard you try, it is always difficult to make the front line very satisfied.

At present, Liaodong has taken hundreds of thousands of stone grain from Liaodong City because of Li Jing, which can be regarded as a great burden for the prime ministers of the political hall. However, as soon as a war starts, in addition to the already high burden of military salaries, a large number of rewards and pensions must be issued, and hundreds of thousands of troops will be transferred and supplied with rewards, and tens of millions of them are simply not enough to stuff the gaps; in the military expenditure calculation table for the 19 years of the emperor's reign of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, this year's military expenditure has already exceeded 10 million yuan, and this is only the military expenditure after the new emperor ascended the throne, and has not yet counted the previous expenses. In just two months after the emperor ascended the throne, military expenditure had already reached 10 million, which made the nine chief and deputy prime ministers of the political hall have the intention of resigning en masse.

Under the emperor's new military system, hundreds of thousands of Northern Ya troops were paid military salaries, and the military salaries were not low. In addition, 200,000 Turkic troops are now considered mercenaries of the imperial court. In the same way, they will be paid for the salaries of the army. Coupled with the troops of the Nanya and the border army, although they are compulsory soldiers and government soldiers. Usually I don't take money, but once I am called up to fight, I have to give a lot of allowances. And the military is still only a very small part of military expenditures, the bulk is still rewards and pensions, especially what makes Fan Zigai bitter is what kind of insurance the emperor also bought for his soldiers, usually the soldiers pay one percent of their monthly salary to buy insurance, and the court has to paste the same amount of money into it, and then there is no war is fine, but once there is a war. When the soldier died or was disabled, the court had to pay a large sum of money. In the case of a war death, the soldier must be paid up to 60 months' insurance of his usual salary, which is equivalent to a one-time payment of five years' salary. And the reward is really rich, after a big war, it is millions of military expenditures.

At present, the war in Liaodong is to be expanded, Hexi is going to send troops to fight, and the emperor is going to move the capital to Luoyang at this time, plus the canal project that the imperial court has already started. It's literally asking for money everywhere.

The taxes of the imperial court are basically fixed, giving the people of the world equal land, and then collecting rents and mediocrity, except for this tax. The rest of the business tax what income is too little. Fan Zi covered this money bag, and he couldn't help but find it difficult for a clever woman to cook without food.

After Fan Zigai was forced to be anxious, he resigned three times in a row. After being directly vetoed by Yi Feng, he simply played another note. In the name of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, he borrowed 10 million yuan from the emperor's inner treasury.

Look at this movement. Yi Feng couldn't help laughing, this Fan Zi was still full of courage, and he dared to ask the emperor to borrow so much Neinu. However, looking at this movement, Yi Feng also realized that the current tax policy of the Sui Dynasty is already a little backward and cannot keep up with the pace of the development of the imperial court. However, the tax system of the imperial court was too backward, and the imperial court could not collect taxes at all. Unless people in later generations go to open a store and a company, they generally don't feel that taxes have anything to do with them. But in fact, everyone in later generations is paying taxes for the state, but the country's taxes are very hidden. Every commodity you buy, in fact, has already paid taxes when it is circulated, and the more links in circulation, the more taxes are finally passed on to the goods, and in the end, they are actually passed on to the people who consume, but there is no additional tax from everyone, so everyone can't feel it. But at this time, the tax system was too backward, and the imperial court basically did not have any commercial taxes and customs duties, not to mention housing tax, stamp duty, and personal income tax. The most important tax of the imperial court is the rent adjustment, which is actually equivalent to a poll tax, the state distributes the land to the people, and then collects taxes according to the ding, and the man is counted as a ding after the age of 21, and each ding loses 2 stone to the state every year for rent; 2 zhang of silk, 3 taels of cotton (or 2 zhang 4 feet of cloth, 3 catties of hemp), for the tune; After serving for 20 days, it is called regular service, and those who do not serve receive 3 feet of silk (or 3.6 feet of cloth) per day, which is mediocre. If the assignment is increased due to events, the additional number of days will be used to offset the rent adjustment, "five days in ten days will be exempted, and in thirty days, the rent and adjustment will be exempted", and the total number of additional days and regular duty shall not exceed 50 days. In the final analysis, this is actually the Ding tax, that is, the poll tax. This tax was fixed and hardly varied, and the income of the imperial court was therefore also fixed. Relying on this income, it is enough to maintain expenses in peacetime, but in the event of wars, disasters or something, it is not enough, so in the end, it is inevitable to increase the levy and distribution, and then those ordinary people cannot afford it, and as a result, the displaced people are everywhere and the fields are barren, and then thieves swarm and rebellions are everywhere.

One of the biggest drawbacks of this kind of tax in the imperial court is that it is apportioned equally. Although the word average seems to be fair, in fact it is the biggest unfairness, because ordinary people cannot be compared with those wealthy and powerful households, and how can ordinary people pay a hundred yuan tax and those big landlords pay a hundred yuan tax the same thing?

The essence of taxation should be to receive the most wool from the fewest sheep, and to listen to the fewest sheep. In other words, those who have money pay more taxes, and those who have less money pay less taxes, but it is not simply and rudely taxed directly from the rich, but you have to be skillful to make the rich feel fair. Just like the industrial and commercial tax that Yi Feng made when he was in Huaifa, the merchants were the richest group of people, and it was much fairer to collect taxes from them through various links such as industrial and commercial business, rather than directly apportioning them. And the court can also receive more tax revenues without hearing the taxpayers complain. Of course, the specific situation will not be so simple.

Yi Feng is also thinking about how to reform the current Sui Dynasty's tax system, so that the imperial court can increase its fiscal revenue without causing social unrest.

And now, Fan Zigai wants to borrow 10 million yuan from him, and Yi Feng did not hesitate to approve it.

However, he didn't directly take out the money himself, of course Yi Feng had so much money, but he couldn't take out so much cash even if he had money, Yi Feng's solution was the same as always, directly asking the court to borrow from the bank, and the bank's money was not just from him alone, but from countless depositors who deposited money in the bank. The money of the people finally went to the bank and lent it to the state, and the court got the money from the people, but in a different mode, the money had to be repaid, and interest was also charged.

For this result, Fan Zigai was happy and worried, happy that he opened his mouth and asked the emperor for 10 million, but the emperor really got the money for him immediately. But what worries him is that the money is actually borrowed from the bank, and not only has to be repaid, but also has to calculate interest. The annual interest rate is 6 percent, which is already the lowest interest rate given by the bank, but the interest alone is 600,000 yuan a year, and the repayment period is five years, and after five years, 13 million will be repaid with interest. How much does the imperial court now have a year's tax revenue? Fan Zigai thought about it for a long time, but he couldn't think of how to repay such a huge sum of money after five years. And this battle has just begun.

Yi Feng was not so worried, and smiled to comfort Fan Zigai, who was looking at the loan agreement in a daze: "Actually, there is no need to worry so much, after the imperial army captures the Liaohe Plain and even the Liaodong Peninsula, how many 10 million will come back." ”

"Even if you take the Liaodong Peninsula, you can't sell it for a few dollars, right, that remote place?" Fan Zigai didn't believe it.

"You have an old concept, the Liaohe Plain is so fertile, how much arable land can be cultivated? How much grain can be harvested each year? And the medicinal herbs, timber, and even livestock and mines on the Liaodong Peninsula are not valuable? If the imperial court can't develop it, it can be contracted out for private development, and the imperial court can just collect benefits. Land is priceless, a vast Liaohe Plain, plus a Liaodong Peninsula, not to mention 10 million guan, is 100 million guan, all of which are not lost. In addition to losing, as long as the war is won, it will definitely not lose money, but will only make a fortune. Don't look at the rewards and pensions given to the soldiers, but they are completely worth it. Yi Feng said to Fan Zigai.

"But war is always risky, now the court takes so much money to fight this war, this money is still borrowed from the people's savings, in case, the minister said that if it fails, what will the court do then?"

"There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, although there is no reason to win the war, but as long as we calculate accurately, there will not be much possibility of defeat."

Fan Zigai sat there and thought for a long time, and finally suddenly said, "That Weichen wants to borrow another 10 million." ”

Yi Feng was stunned for a moment, "Borrow another 10 million, can you pay it back?" ”

Fan Zigai smiled slyly, "The minister doesn't have that ability, but the minister believes that His Majesty has this ability." ”

Yi Feng couldn't help but laugh, and finally had to shake his head, he didn't expect that this Fan Zigai, who is usually so strict, actually had such a time, but after thinking about it, he still said, "Yes, it's not impossible to add 10 million, anyway, I am absolutely sure that I can return the money." ”

"There is no problem with that minister, with 20 million, the war in Liaodong, the war in Hexi, the relocation of the capital to Luoyang, the excavation of canals, etc., there is no need to worry about running out of money." (To be continued......)