After leaving Jiyang County, Yang Shixiang suddenly changed his mind and put out the governor's guard of honor. Greeted and escorted by state and county officials along the way, they arrived in the capital Jinan on April 23. Among the officials in the suburbs, there is no person who wants to see the most.

Zhou Fu had already gone south to Liangjiang in early April, and during this time it was Bai Ruiting, the political envoy of Shandong, who "presided" the administrative affairs of the province. Together with Xuezheng, Fantai, Gaosi and Jinan Futai, he welcomed the new constitution into the governor's yamen.

After the sealing ceremony, after the reception banquet set up in the back hall of the governor's yamen, the assistants took their leave, and the etiquette of welcoming the officials came to an end for the time being.

"Dong Weng, I have inquired clearly." Luo Xiaocai flashed in, "Long Qian went to Laizhou to hold joint exercises with the German army in Qingdao, and it has been three days!" ”

"Joint exercises with the Germans?" Yang Shixiang was taken aback. The Jiaoji Railway is about to open to traffic, and Germany's power in Shandong is great, and he, the governor, is destined to deal with the Germans, but he didn't expect Long Qian to start a joint exercise with the Germans...... "Which part of the army participated in the exercise?" Patrol Battalion or Fifth Town? ”

"This is not clear," Luo Xiaocai muttered, "Dong Weng, this is too much!" He's demonstrating that to you! If you don't do it early, you don't do it late, but you have to avoid the day you came. Moreover, who allowed him to engage in military exercises with foreigners? Brother Xingcheng said that he had different ambitions, and it seemed to be true. Don Ong must beware of this person. ”

Long Qian is currently in a dual capacity, as far as the admiral is concerned, he is the highest military commander in charge of the military affairs of a province, nominally under the control of the governor, but in fact he can completely decide the training and combat readiness of the army under his command. The Fifth Town is a new field army directly under the Ministry of War, and the governor has no right to intervene in the actions of the Fifth Town.

"Does Lord Bai know about this?" Yang Shixiang asked. Then I realized that this was complete nonsense. Since he entered Jinan City, Bai Bu's political envoy has almost never left, and Luo Xiaocai's news must have come from other people's mouths.

"I don't know. You should know the way, right? When I was having dinner with the following people, I deliberately tried to find out that there was a situation in which Lord Bai's little daughter seemed to be marrying a co-ordinate surnamed Wang in the fifth town. ”

There are only two co-leaders in the fifth town, and although Yang Shixiang has not met, his name is all known. Zhou Yi has long been married, and his uncle Zheng Du once had a relationship with him. Of course, Bai Ruiting's daughter will not be a concubine, she must be married to Wang Mingyuan. It is said that this person is Long Qian's absolute confidant. Luo Xiaocai has always been smart. He reminded himself that the surnamed Bai was afraid that he was already sitting in the same boat with Long Qian.

"Well, I see. Mr. Luo has been working the saddle horse all the way, so let's rest early. Yang Shixiang didn't want to take a premature stance on this issue. Even to his confidants who have followed him for many years. One of the most important ways to be an official is to maintain a sense of mystery in front of your subordinates. Yang Shixiang is unswervingly committed to this.

Seeing that Yang Shixiang didn't want to continue talking. Luo Xiaocai withdrew.

Yang Shixiang drank a lot of alcohol, although he drank a lot of entertainment wine, he was not drunk now. The house he lives in now. It was Zhou Fu's study, located in the second entrance of the three-entry courtyard of the governor's compound, which Luo Xiao chose for him. did not use the bedroom with the best location where Zhou Fu lived at the beginning, but deliberately let the following understand that Yang Futai is different from Zhou Futai, and will never engage in Xiao Gui Cao Sui. However, after Yang Shixiang's family came, it is estimated that the inner courtyard will have to be requisitioned, so let it be empty now.

Electric lighting has been used for a long time, and the Western-style table lamp on the bookcase casts a soft and bright light. Yang Shixiang casually flipped through a volume of "Guwen Guan Zhi", which is his favorite collection of essays for recreation, and he always reads one or two articles every night. But tonight he couldn't see it.

Jinan is located in the north-south traffic artery, he does not remember how many times he traveled back and forth between the north and the south. Almost all the famous places in Jinan have been visited. But this time, as the owner, I found a lot of changes. First of all, there are a series of factories in the western suburbs, and the towering chimneys emit black smoke, indicating that those factories have already started. Entering the city at noon today, he peeked at the street scene from the eight sedan chairs, but it gave him a strange feeling. Many sections of the road were being renovated, forcing him to take a detour. He noticed that there were many Western-style buildings built in the city, and once the rustic atmosphere of the past was changed, it even felt like a concession.

There was nothing special about the appearance of the governor's yamen, but there were still some things in it that surprised Yang Shixiang. The electric light is one piece, and it is simply a favorite of readers. The second was the running water, which the governor's yamen had already connected, much to his surprise. The Zhili Governor's Mansion in Baoding does not have such a convenient Western gadget, let alone his inspection envoy yamen. Is there anything in the palace that he doesn't know, but he only knows that the queen mother and the emperor have always eaten the water of Yuquan Mountain, if it is convenient, how can it not be compared to tap water? At that time, when he saw a servant connecting the water pipe in the front yard, he asked and replied that the pipe was bought from Germany, but the water tower was built by himself. With electricity, running water is not difficult. He couldn't figure out why the clean water flowed out when he turned on the faucet. It's just that I didn't expect that there would be such a novel thing in the city of Jinan, which was in the middle of the earth. No, it's not a thing, it's something that is most practical and convenient.

During the banquet, the prefect of Jinan, Ding Yuji, said that this year, he plans to renovate several main streets in Jinan, pave them with ash, and install electric lights and plant French plane trees in some sections.

The change in the appearance of the city is still secondary. What impressed him the most was the several high-ranking officials who drank and feasted with him, which really made him feel a strange atmosphere. Whether it is in Jiangxi or Beijing, the atmosphere of the officialdom when everyone drinks and feasts is similar, talking about officialdom dynamics, talking about the wind and moon, and there are conventional topics among officials of the same level. But these officials actually made him feel different, except for greeting some royal families, the same year and other innocuous topics, unconsciously, they were all talking about economy and construction, and even Gao Si, who had always ignored money, had a lot of data at his fingertips, as if he was not in charge of judicial and criminal laws, but Futai and political envoys. What surprised Yang Shixiang even more was that from these high-ranking officials, he saw a strong businessman atmosphere. They even talked about the rise and fall of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Is this something they should be concerned about? There are also accessories, which also make him rush to the alternative, such as watches, and the officials of the Beijing Division either do not wear Western watches, or they wear pocket watches. But Bai Ruiting and Ding Weiji were wearing watches. There are also Western cigarette rolls. Half of the officials at the banquet smoked Western cigarette rolls, and the cigarette boxes were placed on the table, which were not imported, but were native to Shandong, and the words "Quancheng" printed on the cigarette boxes indicated that the cigarettes were produced in Jinan. Yang Shixiang vaguely remembered that Jingshi also had this kind of cigarette roll.

Shandong has indeed undergone drastic changes. There is no doubt about it. But is this change something you want to see? What's changed?

There is no need to say it explicitly, Yang Shixiang knows that Yuan Shikai wants to control Shandong and suppress and control the young military general who made Yuan Shikai suffer a big loss. He is the head of a province, and controlling the whole province is the proper meaning of the question, not for Yuan Weiting, but for himself. Nor can there be any tolerance for the aberration of power. What is the core of power? The first is the appointment and dismissal of personnel. The second is the control of money. The rest are leaves. Just grab these two? Yang Shixiang did not believe that Long Qian could influence the political situation in Shandong.

After making up his mind, Yang Shixiang quickly entered the role, and the first thing he did was to listen to the financial revenue and expenditure of Shandong Province. As a result, the political envoy Bai Ruiting and the feudal lord came to the governor's signing room.

Fiscal revenue and expenditure are the business of the domain. Shandong Fantai's surname is Dong. Singular forest. The word is Chaoxi. Nor do they bring books. 1510 reported to the governor the financial revenue and expenditure, last year's figures, and this year's figures. In terms of income, how much is the main item, how much is miscellaneous, in terms of expenditure, the money for the deportation of the Beijing Division, and the regular expenses in the province, such as a few treasures, come casually.

Yang Shixiang listened attentively, the figures he inquired about Shandong's finances in Beijing were not outrageous, and Dong Lin expected that this year's income would reach as much as 23 million taels. But the expenditure was as high as 27.5 million taels. Among them, the figure of the deportation department is 3.5 million taels, which is 1 million more than last year!

At present, the imperial court has to pay reparations for the defeat of two wars, 250 million in the First Sino-Japanese War, and 300 million in the Gengzi National Disaster. Even with interest, it will pay nearly 30 million taels to the foreign powers every year. Of course, these indemnities had to be shared among the provinces, and although the indemnities were mainly paid in the form of tariff collateral, the imperial court had less tariffs and naturally had to increase other revenues, but it was just playing the trick of transfer payments. After calculation, Shandong Province, which is not economically developed, bears one-tenth of it, which seems to be a bit heavy. Moreover, the imperial court suddenly increased the share of Shandong, I don't know what it was for?

After Dong Lin finished speaking, he asked, "Chaoxi, why did the silver taels of the Shandong Deportation Department increase by 1 million?" ”

Dong Lin glanced at Bai Ruiting, and there seemed to be something unspeakable.

"Lord Kaiyu." Bai Ruiting smiled slightly, "Here's the thing, Lord Zhou and Lord Admiral Long remembered the difficulties of the imperial court, and jointly wrote to the Queen Mother, voluntarily increasing support for the central government. So ......"

Damn it! In order to please the court, Zhou Fu's old puppet actually dug a pit for Lao Tzu! It's just abominable! But Yang Shixiang is inconvenient, he can't say in front of two subordinates that the courtiers are worried about state affairs, and they shouldn't voluntarily serve the court, right?

"If the deportation has increased, why has the province canceled the centi?" Just now, Dong Lin specially pointed out that Shandong Province has canceled the centigold this year!

The tax levied on the common people in addition to the main item originated in the third year of Xianfeng (1853), when the war against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was raging, and the imperial court really ran out of money, so a staff member of Taichang Siqing surnamed Lei proposed to levy the lijin, which was immediately approved by the imperial court. To the Guangxu Dynasty, a total of more than 700 bureaus were set up in the country, of which Shandong was a few, only ten. Originally, it was said that it would be canceled after the end of the rebellion, but the imperial court was reluctant to keep the income. In the early years of Guangxu, the total revenue of the country was more than 2,000 taels, but the actual collection was as high as 70 million taels. Seventy percent of them were filled by officials at all levels.

"There are many drawbacks. Zhou Futai listened to Long Junmen's suggestion and believed that the abolition of centijin was conducive to the rise of commerce. This loss can be fully compensated by the increase in commercial taxes. Brittin explained.

The unit of centigold used in Dong Fantai's report just now is yuan, not two. The total amount of gold in Shandong last year was 600,000 yuan, equivalent to about 420,000 taels of silver.

Will the abolition of the penny increase the commercial tax? Yang Shixiang pondered.

Not only that, Zhou Fu also planned to rectify the tax system. Abolish the unified donation, and increase the tea tax, tobacco and alcohol tax, etc. Jinan cigarette factory sold 500,000 boxes of cigarettes last year, with a profit of as much as 2.5 million yuan, and 500,000 yuan can be collected by charging 20% of the tobacco and alcohol tax. This almost offset the loss of centigold. This year, cigarette factories will not increase production by less than 20%, which will be enough to offset the loss of centigold. Bai Ruiting was triumphant, "Long Junmen thought that it was imperative to rectify the tax system, and the way to do this was to reduce taxes on ordinary people and increase taxes on the rich, killing two birds with one stone." ”

Yang Shixiang knew that the tax system of the Qing Dynasty was chaotic, and the provinces did their own thing. There are often more and more items, and the reduction of levies is the first time I have heard of it. Rectifying the tax system is a huge article, and Zhou Fu dug a pit for himself again, and was obviously induced by Long Qian.

A martial artist, what kind of tax reform is in charge? It's just a mess of playing the piano.

Yang Shixiang noticed Dong Lin's report that the proportion of land tax in Shandong Province is very low, accounting for only a little more than 40% of the total tax revenue, and the rest of the income mainly comes from commercial tax (including salt tax), and the tea tax, tobacco and alcohol tax mentioned by Bai Ruiting are also in the category of commercial tax.

Yang Shixiang's thoughts turned to the expenditure budget. Shandong is expected to spend as much as 7 million taels on education, transportation and water conservancy (including river defense expenditures) this year, which is simply unexpected. And the cost of raising troops in the patrol battalion is as high as 2.3 million taels! It's almost the same as the cost of a town in the Beiyang New Army! Spending so much money to raise soldiers, build roads and run schools, but it has led to a budget hole of 4.5 million, how to fill it?

He held back the unhappiness in his heart and said to Dong Fantai, "As you said, this year's province turned out to be a deficit plate, how to make up for the gap of 4.5 million taels?" ”

"Bonds. It is planned to issue bonds in the province. "It's still Bridging.

"Bonds? To whom are the bonds offered? ”

"Facing the whole province. I have figured it out a few years ago, and it is not a problem. The first tranche of bonds has been sold, with a total of 2 million taels sold. The second phase is expected to sell 3 million taels, which should be completed. ”

That's how to get on debt. Although Yang Shixiang is no stranger to the government's issuance of bonds, and many of the Taixi countries have made such moves, it is impossible to find another way. But it didn't fit his usual perception, and he had a feeling of being kidnapped......

"What is the interest?" Yang Shixiang held back his unhappiness.

"Five cents."

"It's nonsense!" Yang Shixiang finally broke out, "All matters related to the reform of the tax system will be suspended, except for the river embankment project, and the construction of roads and schools will also be suspended!" Yang Shixiang gave his first order since taking office. (To be continued......)