Fenghou

"Your Highness, our main financial revenue is salt tax. The common people use a lot of salt in autumn and winter, especially in winter. Salt tax is also high in autumn and winter. Now it is summer, when the income from salt tax and wine tax is the least. The copper coins were exhausted, and finally [-] taels of silver were released, and millions of copper coins were exchanged from various cabinets to solve the urgent need."

Chen Qing picked up the teacup and said with a smile: "You spent a lot of time and gave me a noon class. Just tell me what the purpose is!"

Zhou Kuan was silent for a moment and said: "Your Highness has brought back [-] million war proceeds from the Central Plains this time. All of them cannot go into the treasury. I hope His Highness will give half of it to the temple treasury."

"Sure enough, it's the weasel who gave the chicken New Year's greetings, it's uneasy and kind!"

Chen Qing couldn't help laughing, pointed at Zhou Kuan and said, "After talking for a long time, you are still asking me for money, old Zhou! You can't calculate the account like this. The government treasury only bears the war part of the expenses, and the normal army expenses are borne by the temple treasury." , Don’t you think you won’t pay your military salaries if you don’t fight? It’s so black-hearted and breaking the rules to take half of the war proceeds as soon as you open your mouth! You sell the land, but the treasury won’t get a penny.”

The essence of the temple treasury and the treasury is the division of interests between the monarchy and the power of the prime minister. Taxes and money from selling land belong to the temple treasury, and the temple treasury bears non-war military expenditures.

Proceeds from the war and government and business income belong to the treasury, and special war expenditures and large-scale project support are borne by the treasury.

Zhou Kuan sighed and said: "The military salary and various military expenditures of the [-] troops are too heavy, it costs [-] guan every year, and now the huge financial burden of Henan Road has been added. Let's do the math. The annual financial gap is between Four million crowns, if His Highness is willing to distribute half of the war bonus to the temple treasury, then it will be able to make up for the five-year financial gap, and we don't have to desperately mint money to make up for the shortfall."

"How many silver coins can be minted in a year now?"

"We can mint millions of silver coins a year, and there are [-] new copper coins. The silver is mainly used to pay salaries."

One silver coin is worth about [-] guan, one million silver coins are equivalent to [-] guan copper coins, plus [-] guan newly minted copper coins, [-] guan coins are minted a year, which is indeed not enough to make up for [-] million guan financial gap.

Chen Qing thought for a while and said: "Follow the rules first, the treasury will bear [-]% of the war expenditure of [-] million yuan this time, and secondly, the price of salt will be increased to [-] yuan per catty. Thirdly, I will order the internal guards to step up efforts to crack down on illegal salt and alcohol, so that the income from salt tax will be greatly increased, if the temple library still has difficulties, please discuss it with us.”

Zhou Kuan also knew that Chen Qing didn't want to easily break the rules, and this was the greatest compromise. He nodded and smiled, "It's been too long, let's go back!"

When Zhou Kuan returned to the official room, Jiang Yanxian and Zhao Kai hurried over and asked, "How are you, have you convinced His Highness?"

Zhou Kuan sighed and said: "He gave in when the land was sold, and he doesn't bother anymore. He only wants to ensure that the rents of the people at the bottom will not rise, and the rents of small shops will not rise. The increase cannot exceed [-]%.

Zhao Kai nodded, "This is more reasonable, one size fits all is really wrong, so what about the [-] million war proceeds this time? Can't all go into the treasury!"

Zhou Kuan shook his head with a wry smile, "Don't think too well, how could he give in easily for such a principled person? He only agreed to pay seven million yuan for the war expenditure, and then figured out how to increase fiscal revenue for us, and finally got vague To put it bluntly, if you have financial difficulties, you can find him.”

"It's only seven million!"

Zhao Kai was very disappointed, "It takes at least nine million guan to balance the income and expenditure this year, and there is still a gap of [-] million guan."

Jiang Yanxian asked: "What move does Your Highness think of?"

"He said that the price of salt could rise to [-] yuan per catty, and then he would cancel the supply of coarse salt in Changping stores outside of Henan Road, and then crack down on illegal salt and alcohol."

Zhao Kai was quite satisfied with this plan, he said with a smile: "I mean, the salt tax is the fairest, everyone has to pay it, without exception, so it is also the mildest, and it is evenly distributed, so most people don't feel it. The pressure of the salt tax, even if it is a hundred coins per catty, is twice as low as the salt price of the imperial court."

Jiang Yan pondered for a while and said: "If the price rises to [-] Wen and the restrictions on private salt are added, it is estimated that this year's fiscal and tax expenditures will be balanced."

Zhao Kai nodded, "Almost, starting from next year, the army's food and meat can be settled by the army itself, and it can save millions of military expenses. I estimate that the final gap will be around one million guan, and we will be much more relaxed. gone."

Chen Qing also returned to his official room. He closed the door, lay on the wide chair and closed his eyes to meditate. He also felt that he had been too impatient these two days and lacked concentration. One size fits all, like those high-end restaurants, earn a lot of money, but the rent is very low, which is unfair to the government.

There is also the land price. I didn’t investigate it in detail, and I took it too seriously. In fact, the price per mu is only a very small number. There are suburbs and poor areas, and the price per mu cannot rise to the sky.

"Your Highness, Wang Hao, the commander of the internal guards, is asking to see you!"

I was about to see him!Chen Qing hurriedly said: "Let him in!"

Wang Hao walked in hurriedly, knelt down on one knee and gave a military salute, "Please refer to Your Highness for humble positions!"

"General please get up!"

Wang Hao got up and presented a report to Chen Qing, "This is the situation of Jin Guo's spies in the past two months. We have been monitoring each other."

"Surveillance for so long, the other party has never found out?"

"We are not tracking and monitoring in the past, but fixed monitoring, and we have not been found."

"Is Lu Wei still in contact with them?"

"I don't have much contact with them, but it seems that Lu Sima has met with them a few times in the past few days, and they have had very unpleasant quarrels."

"why?"

"The other party seems to want another Iron Fire Thunder."

Chen Qing laughed, the other party's research on Tie Huolei had obviously gone astray.

"You came at a good time today. I have an important task for you internal guards. It is to crack down on illegal salt and private brewing. Last year you also cracked down on illegal salt, and the harvest was not satisfactory. This year, you will increase your efforts."

Wang Hao bowed and said: "The private salt dealers are very cunning, they bribed the local government, as soon as we show up, the private salt disappears, especially on Jinghu South Road, the private salt dealers are very well disguised, they are probably a benevolent elder Or, the current private salt dealers in Bashu have been eliminated by us because of the rebellion, and a large number of them have been killed. The trouble is that Jinghu and Jinghu are basically the world of private salt."

"Is it that serious?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, I have been paying attention to the private salt situation, I have already grasped some clues, and the water is very deep here."

"The water is deep?"

Chen Qing smiled lightly: "Tell me about it, how about a deep method?"

"Let's say Jingnan South Road is a humble job! There is no salt production here, and private salt comes from two roads, one is Jingbei North Road, and the other is Jiangnan West Road. Jiangnan West Road is controlled by several big salt lords. The most famous It was Zhang Tai, a water thief from Poyang Lake. He was a fish merchant at first, and later he began to sell illegal salt. However, the imperial court was very strict, so he pickled fish with heavy salt and used fish to transport illegal salt. He sold heavy salt for more than ten years. Yu was finally discovered by the court, and he fled into Poyang Lake to become a water thief.

But he does not rob merchant ships, he still sells private salt, escorted by thieves, and the checkpoints along the way dare not stop him. Now his private salt accounts for [-]% of the private salt on Jingnan South Road, and several other salt lords account for [-]%. "

"go on!"

"There is another way to transport it from Jinghu North Road, but Jinghu North Road does not produce salt. In fact, it is privately transported salt from Jianghuai. This way is deep."

"How deep is the water?" Chen Qing asked lightly.