Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1055 Desperation is only for profit
Hall of Billion Years.

The emperor sent people to urge him four times before Ma Zhou finally came.

Because he is a saint with a white body and face, after entering the palace, Ma Zhou was taken to take a bath and change clothes by his servants, and he was specially given a white robe.

"The grassroots believe that His Majesty should strictly enforce rewards and punishments, advocate thrift, rest with the people, restrain the princes, and select good officials. In this way, the world will be safe and the country will last forever."

After Luo Cheng met Ma Zhou, he found that this bohemian talented man had an extraordinary bearing. Facing the Emperor of War who was about to conquer the country, Ma Zhou was also very calm.When the performance is correct, there is no rush, it is very organized, and each item is really insightful.

"In the past, when the emperor was in prosperity, the country suffered from a famine, but a piece of silk was only worth a bucket of rice, and the world lived and worked in peace and contentment. The people knew that the emperor cared for them very much, so everyone was at ease and there was no complaint. In the early years of Daye, year after year A bountiful harvest, but a piece of silk is worth a few grains of grain, and the common people think that the emperor doesn’t care about them, and they all complain.”

"Although this dynasty has not been established for a long time, a bucket of rice costs only twenty or thirty renminbi, and a piece of silk costs more than a thousand renminbi, worth more than five shimi. In addition to the special tax of the salt law, the price of salt is extremely high, and the people have already discussed it. I think that this is mostly because of the new things that the imperial court is doing now, many of them are not the current top priority, and many of them are currently irrelevant things."

"Since ancient times, the rise and fall of a country cannot depend on the amount of savings, but only on whether the people's life is bitter or happy. Take modern events to prove that in the Sui Dynasty, the two generations of emperors only had more than [-] years, but they could save a lot. The Luokou warehouse where grain was stored in the Sui Dynasty accumulated tens of millions of stones at that time, but countless people died of hunger in the Central Plains. In the end, the Luokou warehouse was occupied by Li Mi and became the source of grain and grass for his anti-Sui separatist regime. The granaries in other places Most of the government treasuries are also owned by those anti-kings, until now the Great Qin has established the country for several years, and many treasuries of the Sui Dynasty have not been used up."

"The Sui Dynasty took a large amount of food and cloth from the common people, but in the end it was used by Wang Shichong, Li Mi, Li Yuan, etc., and accumulated a large number of people."

Luo Cheng asked, "Shouldn't the country levy taxes to store savings?"

"Your Majesty, stockpiling is originally a normal business of the country, but the country cannot be made rich and the people poor. The people should have enough energy and then expropriate the hoard. How can the people be labored and forced to collect, and the people will starve as a result? What about being used by thieves? There is no benefit in such storage, and thrift allows the people to recuperate and live. This is what should be done. The country should not be rich and the people poor, but the wealth should be hidden among the people, so that the country will be stable."

"Since His Majesty ascended the throne, although he has also amended the tax law system and granted the common land to the people to reduce the burden on the people, the imperial court has done too many things in a hurry. The world is not safe, and the imperial court employs troops all the time. After a while, the minister heard that the imperial treasury had been exhausted in order to fight the war, so it was not possible to issue bonds. It borrowed 5000 million guan, and the interest on the loan for five years would be several million guan. If there are floods, droughts, locust plagues, or some kind of epidemic or plague, or the enemy invades, lawless people take the opportunity to make chaos, and unpredictable situations will appear."

As a white body, it was the first time that the face-to-face Sheng could say such words, Luo Cheng felt that Ma Zhou had already shown his talent as a prime minister.

"Ma Zhou, what you said is very reasonable, and all the princes in the court have the same insight. After the Helong battle this year, the court will have a full rest with the people. Now I want to recruit talented people. Ma Zhou , how about I grant you to inspect the censor at the censor platform?"

The inspector censor is only under the eighth rank, and his grade is low. He is not even qualified to enter and exit the main entrance of the court.However, both internal and external officials have the right to supervise, and the authority is very wide, which can make all officials fearful.

The Yushi Terrace of the Great Qin Dynasty was changed from the three units made in the Sui Dynasty to one, but the Yushi Terrace was further divided into the Taiyuan, Dianyuan, and Chayuan. It became the third courtyard of Yushitai.

The emperor directly appointed Ma Zhouzheng as the inspector censor under the eighth rank. It seemed that the rank was low, but it was an extremely important position.

Who knows, Ma Zhou directly refused.

"I don't want to get lucky, Your Majesty intends to promote the imperial examination to select scholars. I think I can participate in the imperial examination and get it, and I have a good background."

"Hahaha, your self-confidence is not wrong. No matter what, I will give you a silver talisman and a white robe, and you will be ordered to enter the palace. I hope that next year I can see you in the Golden Palace examination."

Thank you Ma Zhou.

After the waiter sent Ma Zhou out of the palace, Luo Cheng sat in the palace and meditated for a long time.

Even a scholar like Ma Zhou knows that Daqin has done many things that are not very urgent. He can see that Daqin's actions are too hasty, which has caused some instability.

The frequent use of troops and the high price of salt are all things that the people are not satisfied with.

In addition, they believed that the clan and the princes had too much power. Just now Ma Zhou even thought that there was no need to seal the princes at all, and there was no need to rush to expand the territory when the Central Plains was not stable.

Although in the past few years, the imperial court has established many new territories, even if many criminals, poor people, slaves, etc. from the Central Plains have been removed from these new territories, it will take a long time for them to stabilize.

But now, the imperial court is precisely the time when it needs rest most.

The common people hate war. After experiencing the chaos of the Sui Dynasty, they eagerly look forward to a few days of peace sooner.

Foreign wars continued, although they were victorious all the time, but the expenses were high, and even horses, livestock, and soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

For example, in the last Helong War, more than 5000 soldiers were killed and more than [-] horses and horses were killed. The imperial court used up the treasury for this, and had to borrow [-] million yuan to deal with the aftermath.

In Kaihuang, the price of salt is ten cents per bucket, which is less than the price of rice.

When the Great Qin Dynasty was founded, the imperial court increased the price by a hundred dollars for each bucket of salt. At the same time, because of the implementation of private production, the government collected and sold it, and the salt people produced salt, they sold it to the court for ten dollars per bucket. Excluding labor costs, the salt people still had a good income.When the imperial court received the salt, it directly increased the price by one hundred, and sold it to merchants at one hundred and one for one bucket.

Since then, the use of troops has been frequent, and the imperial court has become more dependent on the salt tax, so the price of salt has continued to rise. From the beginning, the price increased by [-] per bucket, then the price increased by [-], and now it increases by [-].

People often buy salt at three hundred and forty or fifty renminbi a bucket.

This is actually a disguised form of taxation in salt, a disguised form of population tax, but the problem now is that after the reform of the two taxes, the two taxes have been greatly reduced, and the court tax has been reduced. , Has become the court's largest source of income.

Even if the price of salt is reduced by [-] to [-] percent, there will be a financial gap on the court's side.

However, the high salt price caused the people to become dissatisfied, and at the same time gave birth to a large group of private salt traders who took risks. Salt dealers were all directly sent to the frontiers to exile to cultivate fields, and they would never return to the Central Plains.

But salt that costs less than ten pennies costs more than 300 pennies in the hands of the common people, which is dozens of times the profit, and there are still a large number of people who risk breaking the ban.

In fact, many officials pointed out that after the salt tax is lowered and the profit from smuggling salt decreases, there will naturally be fewer smugglers.

But the court was unable to lower the salt tax.

"Even a folk scholar like Ma Zhou can see the problem, but no one in the Manchu Dynasty can solve it!" Luo Cheng lamented.

(End of this chapter)