At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 385, Tax Reform and Disagreement
November 7, the eighth year of the Han Dynasty.

Xu Fan's returning team went all the way from Pinglu Fort, Yanmen Army, Yunzhong County to Jiuyuan County, and finally quickly headed towards Guanzhong from the Jiuyuan County track.

Also returning to Chang'an City with Xu Fan were more than 5000 grassroots officers and soldiers who had made meritorious services this time. Some of them would join the Officers Academy and continue to be a member of the Han army, some would join the Administrative College and become Han officials, and most of the rest would join Mozi College, Lu Ban College and other colleges to supplement the official workshops of the Han Dynasty.

Most of these soldiers were from border counties and Hebei, and Xu Fan also attached great importance to them.

In the political landscape of the Han Dynasty, Hebei was an extremely neglected region. Because it joined the Han Dynasty late, it fell behind step by step. There were less than two hands full of high-ranking officials from Hebei. This group of soldiers could effectively improve the stability of the Han Dynasty's political landscape.

Xu Fan often communicated with these soldiers during breaks, asking them where they were from and how they performed on the battlefield.
Li Wei could only say awkwardly: "We didn't encounter a large Xiongnu army, we only captured a tribe of 300 Xiongnu people."

Xu Fan smiled and said, "Merits are not divided into big or small. The victory of a war is also made up of small victories."

Zhao Zhong said excitedly: "I only regret that I am incompetent and cannot cut off Maodun's head for Your Majesty."

Then Xu Fan looked at Zhao Zhong. He was a naturalized Han Chinese. There were more than a hundred naturalized Han Chinese who made great contributions in this Mobei War. According to Deng Zong's report, these naturalized Han Chinese were the bravest and suffered the heaviest casualties in this Mobei War. During the entire Mobei War, the Han army suffered more than 10,000 casualties, but 10% of them were from the Mobei area.

Obviously, the improvement in their lives has made them identify highly with the Han Dynasty. Now the entire desert is occupied by the Han Dynasty, and the number of naturalized Han people living in the entire Han Dynasty has exceeded 300 million. This is an extremely large group, and they must be given channels to express their opinions in the court and the Sages' Council.

If you can't speak out, then you can only be represented. Xu Fan knows all too well the fate of being represented. He has seen too many people in later videos comparing a bottle of mineral water with a bottle of wheat, saying that a bottle of wheat is not as good as a bottle of mineral water. This is the most vivid example.

In the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the people of Xiliang had no channels to speak out, and the Han court often threatened to abandon Xiliang, so Dong Zhuo led the Xiliang army and directly overthrew the Eastern Han court.

Xu Fan said: "You are heroes on the battlefield, and you must also become heroes in the future to build the Han Dynasty. This time coming to Chang'an City to study is your opportunity. You must study hard, make progress every day, and contribute to the construction of the Han Dynasty."

After saying that, Xu Fan also tested the cultural level of Li Wei and others.

The result was very bad. Li Wei only knew a few hundred common characters, could recite the multiplication table, and understood simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, which was roughly the level of a third grader in primary school.

Zhao Zhong could only write his own name and knew a lot of big characters. Since he often communicated with merchants, his math level was not bad, probably around third grade. He could not be said to be illiterate, but he could not know many characters. He could only be said to be semi-literate.

Xu Fan simply ordered someone to find some elementary school books and handed them to them, saying, "Whether you develop in the military or somewhere else in the future, knowledge is the cornerstone of your development. You must learn until you die. It just so happens that you are sitting on the rail carriage during this period of time. You can use this time to strengthen your studies. I will come to check your learning results at night during this period of time."

Li Wei and Zhao Zhong could only frown and smile awkwardly: "As ordered!"

So from the moment they got on the rail carriage, the sound of people reciting poems could often be heard from the carriage team.

The leader of the Hu tribe, who was riding a horse outside the carriage, heard the sound and asked curiously, "What is that sound?"

Liu Bang smiled knowingly and said, "This is the sound of my Han soldiers learning. The soldiers following you are all heroes of this Mobei War. They are going to the academy in Chang'an to study this time. After they finish their studies, they will become the pillars of my Han Dynasty."

Ke Hu was surprised and said, "The warriors of the Han Dynasty are so eager to learn. No wonder the Xiongnu are no match for you."

This time, when taking these tribal leaders to Chang'an City, Xu Fan asked Liu Bang to accompany them in order to reassure them, and took these people to Chang'an City to eat, drink and have fun.

Liu Bang was of course very enthusiastic about such a good thing, so after the meeting of princes ended, he followed Xu Fan to Chang'an City.

Liu Bang smiled and said to Ke Hu and others, "You are blessed. Chang'an is the best city in the world. I want to live in Chang'an all my life, but I can only come here when the princes and the Han Dynasty come. Once you go to Chang'an, you will not want to leave."

Ke Hu didn't believe it and said, "Can Chang'an be as prosperous as Pinglu Fort?"

Pinglu Fort, with a population of over 100,000, has become the largest city on the Great Wall. In Ke Hu's opinion, Pinglu Fort is already the best city in the world. He finds it hard to imagine that there is a city better than Pinglu Fort.

King Xiu Tu Jin Peng couldn't help but laugh when he heard what Ke Hu said. This savage had never even heard of Chang'an City.

Jin Peng is the Chinese name that King Xiutu changed his name to. After the Han Dynasty's meeting of princes, he knew that he would never be able to return to the desert because the Han people had completely swallowed up his tribe.

At this time, he extremely regretted not listening to Maodun's advice. Even if he could not defeat the Han people, fleeing to the Western Regions to seek refuge with Ji Zhou was better than having his tribe completely swallowed up by the Han people.

But there is no medicine for regret in this world. He could only pretend that he had no complaints against the Han Dynasty. He changed his name to a Han Chinese name, excitedly accepted the title of Viscount of the Han Dynasty, and followed the Han emperor back to Chang'an City.

Ke Hu glared at Jin Peng and said, "What qualifications do you, a coward, have to mock me?"

When Jin Peng heard this, his face turned cold and he touched the sword he carried with his hands. He could be humble to the big man, but that didn't mean he could accept the provocation of a small tribe.

Liu Bang immediately stopped him and said, "This is the emperor's camp. It is a serious crime to use force at will."

The two men then stopped.

Liu Bang said to Jin Peng, "The Xiongnu have been incorporated into the Han Dynasty. Don't think too much when you go to Chang'an. The more you think, the more distressed you will be. You might as well think about your future life. The emperor has given you a viscount out of kindness. The annual bounty of a viscount is 10 coins. This money is naturally a fortune for ordinary people, but for a tribal leader like you, it is likely that it is not enough to spend. You should think about your future."

After saying that, Liu Bang took Ke Hu with him.

"The road to the future?" He has lost his tribe and has to go to Chang'an City where he is unfamiliar with the place. Does he still have a future?
November 17th, the eighth year of the Han Dynasty.

Xu Fan's team returned to Chang'an City. The heroes of the Mobei Battle were assigned to various colleges in Chang'an, and Liu Bang also took the tribal leaders who had made contributions to appreciate the prosperity of Chang'an.

Just as Xu Fan was about to take a rest, Prime Minister Zhou Zhang found him and said, "Your Majesty, the finances of the Han Dynasty are extremely tight right now. In order to ease the pressure on the court, we should reform the taxation again."

Xu Fan was surprised and asked, "Change it?"

The Han Dynasty had already changed its tax system three years ago, and it was happening again now. Xu Fan was worried that such frequent tax changes would be detrimental to the stability of the court.

But Zhou Zhang said unhappily, "Your Majesty, you are generous and magnanimous when it comes to spending money. You just assumed Ji Bu's debt of 30 gold and gave them another gold. The Battle of Mobei has emptied the treasury of the court, and there is not even money to accommodate the soldiers.

In the next four years, the court had to spend more than 100,000 gold coins each year to accommodate the soldiers, which was a huge burden for the court.

Now the court has to bear another 60 gold debt. This money was from the Kaifa Bank and belongs to all the people of the Han Dynasty. The court must pay it back."

Xu Fan said, "Of course I will return it. And this is also a good thing for the court. With the additional territory of Hehuang and Hexi, I plan to establish five counties here. This is almost half the size of Guanzhong. It can be obtained with 5 gold. The court will make a profit."

Zhou Zhang said: "I know this, but Your Majesty, you should do what you can. Now the treasury of the court is empty, what can you use to repay?
The debt of 60 gold coins means the interest alone is 12 gold coins per year. If this hole is not filled, the burden on the court will only grow.”

It was because Hexi was too close to Chang'an and was the gateway to Guanzhong that he did not oppose the deal. Being able to directly govern Hexi was like the Han court extending a hand and directly grasping the desert, which was extremely beneficial for the court to rule the desert. Therefore, even under such great financial pressure, he did not oppose the deal.

But the debt of millions of gold was like a mountain pressing down on the Han Dynasty, forcing Zhou Zhang to find a way to deal with it. Wanting to increase revenue was just a means of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure. Tax reform was to increase the revenue of the Han Dynasty.

You have to know that Zhou Zhang's political philosophy is to rule by doing nothing. He hated constantly amending laws like flipping pancakes, but the reality of his Han Dynasty forced him to carry out reforms.

Xu Fan also knew that this was his fault, so he asked, "Prime Minister, how do you want to reform? Now the rich people in the Han Dynasty have gone to develop Mobei, and the people at the bottom don't have much money. If the Prime Minister wants to collect taxes from them, I will not agree."

Xu Fan originally wanted to raise the price of grain throughout the world, but he failed to do so, so that the price of grain in the Han Dynasty was lower than that of guano (50 coins per stone) and cement ( coins per stone).

Seeing this grain price, Xu Fan thought of the situation in the future and could only laugh at his elder brother instead of his second brother. The farmers in the Han Dynasty had already lost part of their economic benefits, and the rapid development of the textile industry had destroyed another source of income for the farmers. Xu Fan would not increase the burden on the farmers in terms of taxation.

Zhou Zhang said: "I know that farmers in the Han Dynasty are burdened with heavy taxes, but there are also rich families in the Han Dynasty. I plan to increase the number of tax collectors and strictly enforce taxes on small landowners with less than 5 acres to 6 acres. These small landowners have accumulated wealth over - years during the heyday of the Han Dynasty. The court has raised fish for so long, and it is time for them to give back to the world."

Those who can go to Mobei are the nobles and wealthy merchants of the Han Dynasty. They have the capital to go to the desert, but within the Han Dynasty there are still some small tyrants and landlords in the counties. Their wealth and connections are not enough to participate in the wealth feast of Mobei.

However, under the low tax rate and rapid development of the Han Dynasty, a certain amount of wealth has been accumulated. These people are not as good as the upper class, but better than the lower class. Zhou Zhang wants to scrape some money from them. Xu Fan thought about the landlords with more than a thousand acres. They are considered rich families in the Han Dynasty. They are not the richest people in the Han Dynasty. They are the cornerstone of the rich pyramid. The general family wealth is hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Strictly enforcing their taxes will not cause unrest in the world.

Xu Fan was still worried, "Will the imperial court's taxes and soldiers be increased?"

In fact, he understood that asking this question meant that there would definitely be more escalation.

Zhou Zhang said: "The court is just strictly enforcing taxes, and what it has received is only the taxes it should have received."

Zhou Zhang also understood that this kind of thing would definitely happen, but the court had to choose the lesser of two evils. Compared with the strategic advantages that obtaining Hexi would bring to the court, the court would definitely have to bear this debt.

However, the huge debt will affect the normal operation of the Han Dynasty court. Expanding tax sources and reducing debts are what the court must do. All Zhou Zhang can do is to let those who bear the taxes take on this responsibility. Some impact is inevitable. No policy of the court can be perfect. In Zhou Zhang's opinion, if he can achieve 5%, he will be considered to have accomplished the task.

Xu Fan thought for a moment and said, "Let's raise the bottom line to 2,000 acres and send the Imperial Censor and the Imperial Court to strictly supervise this matter."

Zhou Zhang thought for a moment and said, "As you wish."

Zhou Zhang continued, "My second idea is to reduce taxes on government-run workshops, increase their competitiveness, and allow them to seize time from private workshops, thereby increasing the court's revenue."

Xu Fan looked at Zhou Zhang in astonishment. He was actually secretly helping the government-run workshop. Was he still the prime minister who advocated rule by doing nothing?
Zhou Zhang looked a little embarrassed, but he still explained: "Just reduce it by three years. According to my calculation, three years is enough for the court to repay all debts."

The reason why Zhou Zhang has such an idea now is because the private textile workshops have grown rapidly in the past two years, and have begun to surpass the official workshops of the Han Dynasty in terms of technology, scale and profit.

However, the market for the Han Dynasty's textile industry was limited. Although it was still expanding, the textile industry had already become saturated in some areas. This led to particularly great competitive pressure in many local textile workshops in counties and prefectures.

This year, Zhou Zhang found that many small workshops in Dahan were losing money. The main reason for this was the folk workshops.

This situation aroused Zhou Zhang's vigilance. The textile industry was the first pillar industry of the Han Dynasty. More than 20% of the Han Dynasty's court's financial revenue came from the textile industry. If there were problems in the textile industry, the entire Han Dynasty's financial system might be in trouble.

That's why Zhou Zhang had such an idea. Although he studied Huang-Lao, he was also a Han official who had experienced the fighting in troubled times. Pragmatism was his nature, and when necessary, he would use some means to help the court's workshops.

Ruling by inaction was only a means to an end, and the goal was still the development of the Han Dynasty. When folk textile workshops touched upon the interests of the court, he could also take ruthless action.

But Xu Fan shook his head and said, "To develop workshops, we need them to compete and fight. Only by using this method of survival of the fittest can we create a group of combat-capable workshops. The Prime Minister is allowing them to develop in such a doting way. There will definitely be problems with our Han Dynasty's official workshops."

He was very sure about this. Although there were some good workshops, it was the norm that they were in a state of shabby condition. The more clever tricks they used, the worse those workshops became.

There is no shortcut to development, and there is no shortcut to competition. Existing history has told Xu Fan that anyone who takes shortcuts will eventually be backfired by this shortcut. This applies to countries, workshops, and even individuals.

Xu Fan continued, "The court should be fair and just in its work. Unless it is absolutely necessary, there should be no discrimination in public. No, it should be that even if it is absolutely necessary, there should be no discrimination.

Lao Zhou, we took over the Qin Dynasty's official workshops through you. You should know how poor the Qin Dynasty's salt and iron were without competition. We must never make the same mistake again."

In the Qin Dynasty, salt and iron were both state-run. By the end of the Qin Dynasty, these state-run salt and iron were not only expensive and in small quantities, but also of poor quality. Not to mention the iron, just one pound of salt could produce two ounces of sand.

Xu Fan mocked, "It's really hard for those Qin officials to mix the sand so evenly. They say it's two ounces of sand, but they definitely don't mix three ounces. It's really genuine."

Zhou Zhang remained silent when he heard Xu Fan's sarcasm. He was an individual who had experienced this incident personally, so he naturally understood that what Xu Fan said was absolutely correct.

He also knew that the State of Qi used the government to monopolize goods and used periodic price increases and decreases to harm the people of Qi.

But the final result was that the Qin army invaded Qi, and Qi, with 30 soldiers, surrendered without a fight.

The nobles of Qi State were complacent and used the weight of the pipes to exploit the people of their country, but in the end they suffered the backlash. The wealth they accumulated by exploiting the people was swept away by the tyrannical Qin State.

Later, the Qin officials also followed suit, and eventually the tyrannical Qin Dynasty was overthrown by them.

Although Zhou Zhang knew that Han officials would not be as corrupt as Qin officials, such things needed to be prevented in the bud. He not only saw Qin officials during the 32nd year of Emperor Qin Shihuang, but also saw Qin officials during the 22nd year of Emperor Qin Shihuang.

Xunzi commented on Qin officials at that time: "All officials are solemn, respectful, frugal, respectful, loyal and honest, just like the officials of ancient times."

"The scholar-officials leave their homes and enter the government; they leave the government and return to their homes, without any private affairs; they do not form cliques or factions, but are always open-minded and impartial. This is what the scholar-officials of ancient times were like."

"Looking at the court, the court is very leisurely, listening to and deciding all matters without delay, and it is as peaceful as if there is no governance. This is the court of ancient times."

Who would have dared to believe that the Qin officials, who were not as powerful as the Zhou officials and had no cliques, and were comparable to the ancient literati and officials, would be so corrupt that corruption became rampant and caused the empire to collapse within 10 years.

In the end, Yu Zhouzhang gave up the idea of ​​subsidizing the court's workshops to give them a competitive advantage.

After Zhou Zhang and Xu Fan had discussed the matter, they gave orders to Zhou Bo to expand the tax collection force and provide training.

Zhou Bo was overjoyed and went to Chen Ping to discuss the matter. He said, "Prime Minister Chen, if I can assist Prime Minister Zhou and complete this tax reform, will I have a chance to become one of the Three Dukes?"

Chen Ping said: "It is very promising, but also extremely dangerous. Collecting taxes is always offensive, not to mention that this time you are offending the foundation of the Han Dynasty. They are different from the nobles of the six countries. The Han Dynasty relies on them to govern the world, and it is impossible to treat them with the same carelessness as the nobles of the six countries. The court is also impossible to clear them out of the Han Dynasty like it did to the nobles of the six countries."

"Even if you succeed this time, Li Si is your role model. He went from being a famous minister to a treacherous minister who was jealous of talented people."

"What if it fails!" Chen Ping shook his head.

Zhou Bo smiled and said, "If I fail, the worst that can happen is that I will withdraw from the Han Dynasty and go to Southeast Asia to establish a vassal state."

Then, his eyes sparkled with gold as he said, "But if it works, I can also try to rule the world."

As the 9th year of the Han calendar is approaching, the upper echelons of the Han Dynasty are about to be renewed. According to the emperor's wishes, the Three Dukes will retire and become consultants, and the new Three Dukes will be selected from the Nine Ministers and the two thousand stone county governors of the Han Dynasty.

The power of the prime minister of the Han Dynasty was greater than that of any prime minister in previous dynasties, and the position also tempted hundreds of thousands of Han officials throughout the Han Dynasty.

Zhou Bo was one of the people closest to this position, so he had no reason not to give it a try.

He sought Chen Ping's advice in order to gain Chen Ping's support.

Chen Ping said: "Start with the pilot program in Chen County and other large counties, and gradually expand it. I will ask the county governors below to support you."

Chen Ping also wanted to maintain his influence in the Han Dynasty. Chen Ping was very unwilling to give up his position because he was not even sixty years old, which was the prime time for a politician.

But His Majesty said that the three ministers should be replaced together, and the nine ministers and local governors also agreed with the emperor. They also wanted to become prime ministers. If the three ministers were replaced together, their chances would be greater. Many of these people had no less experience and merit than him, and he was not as old as Zhou Zhang, so he could only retire with Zhou Zhang. So he chose Zhou Bo as the successor to his political influence, so that he would have a certain influence even if he was not in the Han court.

On January 2000st of the ninth year of the Han Dynasty, the "Han Dynasty Strict Taxation Decree" was promulgated. It required Han officials at all levels to assist the tax supervisors and strictly enforce the taxation of the Han Dynasty. Rich households with more than mu of land were not allowed to evade taxes.
The issuance of this decree caused an uproar throughout the world. Local landlords and powerful people were all dissatisfied, and it even caused great controversy among the Han officials. Because in the Han territory, apart from those nobles with fiefs, the owners of the most land, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of acres, were actually the Han officials. This precise tax increase was a real burden on them.

They were not farmers and had no say at all. On the contrary, they had the loudest voices in the Han Dynasty.

As a result, the Han Dynasty court was full of petitions, saying that such a tax increase would force the people to revolt. Even Zhou Zhang, who had a good reputation for ten years, was now called a traitor.

This even caused a public uproar. A few years ago, the Han Dynasty cracked down on landlords who owned tens of thousands of acres of land, but there was not much response from everyone, because these landlords were basically the ones left over from the Six Kingdoms. The ordinary people thought that cleaning them out had nothing to do with them, and even applauded. The Han officials just thought that this was the court's execution of the campaign to clean up the landlords of the Six Kingdoms. Only by cleaning them out could the landlords of the Han Dynasty come to power, so naturally they would not object.

(End of this chapter)