When Huang Suliang was sent away, it was close to Shenshi, Duan Fei asked someone to go to the carving shop to buy some carving knives and boxwood, cut them into neat rectangular pieces, and he played with carving with great interest.

At the end of the Shen period, news finally came that the official ship that Gui Cao and Rong Wensheng were on had arrived at the Suzhou wharf, and they were coming to the Suzhou Mansion.

Duan Fei was neatly dressed and took the guard of honor to the yamen to greet him, because Yang Shen was present, everything was done according to the practice of officialdom after everyone met, Yang Shen was ready to pick up the two of them in the yamen, and the wine and food were ordered from the Happy Building.

Duan Fei, who was half-drunk, suddenly asked Gui Cao: "Brother Zishi, you have been an official in Dantu and other places for many years, and there is no problem in handling civil affairs, but ...... Suzhou is different from those places of Dantu, Brother Zishi, do you know what is the most important thing to be an official in Suzhou? ”

Gui Cao said respectfully: "The lower official is panicked, and he is about to ask the two adults for advice. ”

Duan Fei smiled: "Why are you still so polite, we are old acquaintances, I don't dare to advise, I said casually, you think it is feasible to listen, if it is not feasible, just when I am talking drunk, I think that in a place like Suzhou, the most important thing is to invigorate the economy, Suzhou and Hangzhou have always been the land of fish and rice, and now it is the economic and cultural center of my Ming Dynasty, and taxes account for several percent of the Ming Dynasty, if Suzhou's economy is not good, taxes are reduced, I am afraid that our cabinet six departments will sneeze, Therefore, this economy must be done well. ”

Yang Shen also bowed slightly, although it was difficult for him to accept the idea of commercialization, but Suzhou's taxes were indeed very important, Gui Cao and Rong Wensheng did not make a sound and listened carefully, Duan Fei continued: "How can we invigorate the economy and make Suzhou the premier economic capital of our Ming Dynasty?" This is going to use more brains, the times are different, a lot of old-fashioned things should be thrown away, as long as it can promote economic development and social prosperity, it must be implemented without hesitation, I don't know if Brother Zishi has any ideas in this regard? ”

Gui Cao said in high spirits: "What Lord Duan said made Xiaguan suddenly open, Xiaguan already had some slight thoughts, but not as thoroughly as Lord Duan, there were two Lord Qincha present, and Xiaguan was about to ask for advice." ”

Under the encouragement of Duan Fei and Yang Shen, Gui Cao said energetically: "When the lower officials served as the magistrates of Dantu and other places, they deeply felt that the tax was uneven, and the problem of selfish fraud and land evasion was very serious. When the lower official was appointed as Cheng'an Zhi County, Cheng'an's original official and civilian land was 2,386 hectares, 59 acres and 9 cents, and after the Qing Dynasty, the average amount was 2,781 hectares and 4 cents and 5 cents of the land, and the land was deceived by as much as 20 and a half percent, and it was extended to the whole country, and I don't know how much land was deceived and occupied. ”

Yang Shen calculated in his heart, Huo Ran patted the case and said: "There is such a thing, those corrupt officials and corrupt officials and powerful bullies really deserve to be killed!" ”

Gui Cao smiled bitterly: "This is already an open secret, Lord Yang is young and young, and he won the top prize in the examination at the age of a weak crown, and since then he has been in the court, of course he doesn't know these things underneath, this Qingzhang land is only the first step, the lower officials have been in the place for a long time, and they are familiar with the situation, and the current implementation of the law of equalization and the ten-paragraph book law has accumulated many drawbacks, and the number of entries is jaw-dropping, even I can't understand it, let alone the people?" After the land was cleared, it was imperative to reform the taxation and abolish the old method of assigning annual rotation according to the yellow book, and replace it with the grain of one province for the service of one province. The total grain of the ten jia Ding is in one mile, the total grain of each li is in one state and one county, the total grain of each state and county is in one government, and the total grain of each prefecture is in one political department. The chief secretary of the government will send a province of grain to a province for servitude, except for the number of preferential exemptions, a certain amount of silver for each grain and a stone, and a certain amount of silver for each ding, and consider the complexity and simplicity, accommodate the department, make a register, and order all prefectures, prefectures and counties, and always obey them. ”

After listening to Gui Cao's words, Yang Shen fell into deep thought, Duan Fei didn't know much about governance, so he didn't talk much, but it sounded good, the merger of enslavement and simplification seemed to have been heard in the history class of middle school.

Yang Shen thought for a long time, and suddenly asked: "Lord Gui has thought about it carefully, this method is promising, I wonder if Lord Gui has named it?" ”

Gui Cao saw that he had received Yang Shen's approval, and he said happily: "This law combines all kinds of service items into one, and compiles them according to the grain at one time, and all of them are levied on the autumn grain, so I named it a whip method!" ”

"A whip!" Duan Fei blurted out in surprise, this is a thunderous term, there is an eighty percent chance that it will come out when taking the history test, Duan Fei forgot its content, but the name still remembers, I didn't expect it to be invented by Gui Cao.

Yang Shen, Gui Cao, and Rong Wensheng all looked at each other strangely, Duan Fei laughed dryly, and said: "This name is concise and concise, very good, if there can be a competent candidate to put it forward in the court, it will definitely be approved, this is a good thing for the benefit of the country and the people, I raise my hands in favor!" ”

Yang Shen shook his head and said, "This method is indeed feasible, but it is not appropriate to bring it up at this time, Lord Gui has to endure it for a few years......

Gui Cao nodded knowingly, but Duan Fei was a little puzzled and asked, "Why?" This law can solve the people's suffering, and it should be promoted as soon as possible. ”

Yang Shen just shook his head, Gui Cao was not easy to explain, Rong Wensheng lowered his head and pretended not to hear, Duan Fei was very surprised, and suddenly heard Su Rong's words in his ears, and said: "Son, don't ask again, this law is indeed beneficial to the people, and it is also beneficial to the stability of the court, but it must be vigorously promoted by powerful people in the court. ”

Duan Fei suddenly drank a glass of stuffy wine and said to Gui Cao: "I will bring it up to the emperor if I have the opportunity, if the emperor is interested, this matter will be half done." ”

Gui Cao nodded, but did not speak, Duan Fei smiled: "Lord Gui, a business friend came to see me today, saying that he wanted to open a textile factory in Suzhou, the scale is not small, the reason why he came to me is mainly a little worried, after the textile factory is large, maybe there will be some trouble, is it really like this?" ”

Yang Shen said: "His worries are not unreasonable, in the past two days I have dealt with the government affairs of Suzhou Prefecture, and found that many large merchants have set up workshops with more than 100 looms, which has caused many weavers to be dissatisfied, they besieged the workshop, and even injured people, and sued the yamen." ”

Duan Fei said with a smile: "This is just a conflict of interests, if the things produced by other people's factories are not as good as yours, do you need to argue with others?" Since Lord Yang knew about this, he didn't know whether a workshop with a hundred looms would pay more taxes or a hundred weavers would pay more taxes. ”

Yang Shen frowned and said, "Although the factory pays a lot of taxes, it ......"

Duan Fei laughed and said, "Isn't this over?" People are also serious about doing business and paying taxes, why do these weavers make trouble? Large-scale is a means for people to do business, just like two snack bars, your variety is less and things are slow, and the business is naturally not as good as the variety next door, and the shop with fast food is not enough. This is not like that, Lord Yang, I don't know how that matter was handled? ”

Yang Shen replied: "In order to settle the matter, the Wu Governor's Mansion fined the merchant 10,000 taels of silver and told them to stop work and stand by. ”

Duan Fei said: "That's not right, it seems that Wu Youce is not only a big corrupt official, but also a big stupid official, he is simply conniving at Diao people to make trouble, after this incident came out, did other factories also close down one after another?" ”

Yang Shen nodded slowly, Duan Fei blinked and said: "Look, look, this is a typical case of not understanding the economy, pit businessmen and harming the people, these big businessmen withdrew from Suzhou, which had an extremely bad impact on Suzhou's economy, but unfortunately it was useless, otherwise I would have to give him a few more ear scrapers on his face!" ”

Yang Shen said: "Although there is no innocent plan to die, but I don't think he is at fault in this matter, and it is his credit that this matter was quickly settled, as for the loss of the businessman's interests, it is just a drop in the bucket for him, and he can't damage the interests of so many people because of him alone!" ”