On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 498
Minister Zhao Yuanshu of the Ministry of Civil Affairs responded to Cui Che's call and rushed to Xiangguo's mansion to report to him.

Zhao Yuanshu, who was over forty years old, already had a little frost on his temples, while Cui Che, who was only three years younger than him, still had black hair.

Cui Che clearly remembered that Zhao Yuanshu's hair was still black at the beginning of the army.

After listening to his report on the arrangements for spring plowing, Cui Che said with emotion:
"In the past few years, you have worked hard to sort out my finances for me."

Zhao Yuanshu smiled wryly when he heard the words. Every gray hair on his head was worried about the financial constraints of the state treasury.

Even if Cui Che suppresses Buddhism and Taoism and collects commercial taxes, the sum of residential tax and overtaxes in the commercial tax is only 5.00%, and double taxation is not allowed. Although it is long-term income, in the short term, it is negligible.

As for plundering Buddhism and Taoism, it is a one-off deal. This kind of windfall does not happen every year.

In the past, the two most important treasury revenues were salt profits. However, because Yang Guang was drying salt in the south of the Yangtze River, the price of salt continued to fall and the income dropped sharply.

The other is the household rent adjustment.

However, after Cui Che reformed the rent adjustment system, it has been changed from a unified standard of 140 mu of land grant to a floating rent adjustment based on the amount of land granted and graded.

By doing so, of course, the poor people can get benefits, and they will not use 140 acres of public land to bear the rent adjustment of [-] acres.

But for Zhao Yuanshu, Shangshu of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, it is undoubtedly bad news.

In particular, Cui Che supported 20 warriors, among which there were not a few cavalry horses, and the treasury had to support them all.

Zhao Yuanshu said seriously:

"Eating the king's salary, being loyal to the king, serving the king, Yuan Shu dare not say it.

"However, Duke Boling (Cui Yanqing) traded military horses with Khitan without following the king's order. This move cannot be taken lightly.

"Otherwise, it will become a common practice and there will be no dignity at all."

Cui Che was dumbfounded, he could intuitively feel Zhao Yuanshu's resentment towards Cui Yanqing's private trading of military horses.

The news came back a few days ago, Cui Yanqing thought that he had done a great job in buying [-] army horses from the Khitan people at a premium price of salt for Cui Che, so naturally he sent people on the road in advance to announce the good news to Cui Che.

However, he didn't know that Cui Che didn't know that the Khitan people had military horses available.

The reason why the horses were bought from Kumoxi instead of Khitan was to weaken Kumoxi without weakening Khitan too much.

After all, the Khitan people have been pumped badly by him over the years.

From Zhao Yuanshu's point of view, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. Even if the price of salt drops sharply, selling salt in Khitan Babu is still a fortune.

Now sea salt is used to buy military horses at a premium, which reduces the income of the sea salt trade in Khitan, and the [-] military horses obtained at the same time are an additional expense for daily consumption.

After all, with Cui Che's redesign of the cavalry, only [-] cavalry were retained for long-distance raids, and domestic military horses were enough.

The [-] military horses purchased from Kumo Xi were only used as strategic reserves.

Once Guanlong is confiscated and the loss of military horses is caused, it can be replenished immediately.

Unexpectedly, Cui Yanqing actually made his own claim and overfulfilled the task, bringing back [-] military horses.

Now it's all right, Khitan has obtained enough sea salt through the military horse trade, the country's foreign trade income has decreased, and there are [-] more military horses to raise. Zhao Yuanshu, who is the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, deeply hates Cui Yanqing's actions.

Therefore, even though Cui Yanqing was Cui Che's legitimate son, Zhao Yuanshu still unequivocally asked Cui Che to punish this matter severely.

He was Cui Che's old brother when he was the governor of Qingzhou, and he dared to stand firm.

After all, the opponent was Cui Yanqing, not Cui Qiji.

If Cui Qiji were to be replaced, Zhao Yuanshu could only swallow his anger for the sake of his descendants.

Cui Che can be regarded as decisive, but this matter is really difficult for him to deal with.

Although Cui Yanqing made a mistake, Cui Che also knew that Cui Yanqing did this only to relieve her worries.

Moreover, Cui Che sent the eyeliner in the mission to send all Cui Yanqing's words and deeds to Jinyang.

Cui Yanqing's private life was a bit dissolute, but she didn't take the opportunity to win over Dahe to be loyal, and to get in touch with dignitaries of the Xi clan and Khitan in private.

Cui Che is generally quite satisfied with the mission of his second son.

Cui Yanqing is talented in the end, when she needs encouragement and recognition most.

If he was punished for this matter, Cui Che was also worried that his enthusiasm would be dampened, and since then he had a negative attitude and gave up on himself.

He made it clear to Zhao Yuanshu about his difficulties, and there is nothing to hide from our friendship for so many years.

After all, Cui Che comforted him:

"Although I don't want to punish Yanqing, I will never take credit for him buying [-] military horses. Naturally, no one will follow suit. I hope Yuanshu can understand Cui's difficulties."

After hearing this, Zhao Yuanshu could only reluctantly nod in agreement.

After all, in the final analysis, he is just a housekeeper, and the family business belongs to Cui Che in the final analysis.

He couldn't insist on beating and killing Cui Yanqing when Cui Che was unwilling to deal with it.

After seeing off Zhao Yuanshu, Cui Che helplessly shook his head.

There is no perfect thing in this world, just like reducing the burden on the people, although it won the hearts of the people, it also increased the pressure on the national treasury.

Cui Yanqing was able to return from the wrong path and give up competing with her brother for the position of son, Cui Che was already satisfied, as long as the principles were not violated, there was no need to be too demanding on him.

What's more, this time, Cui Yanqing also did bad things with good intentions, and when she came back, she would explain the truth clearly to Cui Yanqing, so that he could take it as a warning.

On the seventh day of February in the third year of Zhenyuan (AD 608), when spring farming was in full swing everywhere, Cui Yanqing finally returned to Jinyang.

The [-] soldiers who escorted him on the mission had reaped a lot, bringing a large amount of grassland specialties such as fur and wild ginseng.

The profits that come and go make them a lot of money.

No wonder since ancient times, even if the grassland is extremely dangerous, it can't stop the enthusiasm of the caravans.

This also inspired Cui Che. After the unification of the north, he decided to set up a national firm and specialize in foreign trade, and all the profits he got would go to the national treasury.

The two thousand silver saddle Khitan has been disbanded on the spot.

After going out for half a year, they missed their wives and children very much.

Cui Che will definitely recruit them for the Western Expedition in the near future. Naturally, they have to be given a vacation so that they can dispose of the goods they brought back and at the same time be able to accompany their families.

However, the most urgent matter at the moment is Cui Yanqing's decision to trade with Khitan without authorization.

Facing the enthusiastic Cui Yanqing, Cui Che didn't open his mouth to reprimand, but praised:
"You can take the initiative to share my worries, and I feel very comforted for my father."

Cui Yanqing was full of joy, he smiled and said:
"It's just a trivial matter. This is what a son should do, and the son also relies on his father's prestige."

　There are two more chapters, the next chapter is around twelve o'clock, and Chapter 4 is before three o'clock

　　
　
(End of this chapter)