Late Tang

(Thanks for the fearless so-called reward)

After the summer tax was over, Li Jing opened the summer tax report that Li Rang handed over, looked at the rows of Arabic numerals on it, and couldn't help laughing.

Now all the states and counties under Li Jing's rule are saying that the king of Andong County loves the people like a son, and has changed a new tax law that is extremely kind and loving the people. Only thirty Wen was charged.If there is only ten mu of land, then only three hundred yuan is required. Even those big landlords with ten thousand mu of fertile land only need to pay 30 yuan, which is only three hundred yuan when converted.For these big landlords, three hundred guan is just a set of high-quality glass ornaments.

Even in several newspapers, magazines and weekly magazines published in Dengzhou recently, countless literati rushed to write poems to praise Li Jing, which made Li Jing feel a little proud every day when he read the newspaper.

Everyone thought that Li Jing vomited blood and lost a lot of money, but in fact Li Jing didn't lose money at all.Before this year, Li Jing had never collected taxes on those immigrants, and this year was the first time he collected taxes.As for the common tax increases and miscellaneous taxes that the common people of the Central Plains have, Li Jing's rule has never done this at all.

Everyone only saw that Li Jing ruled ten prefectures and 55 counties, with more than three million people, and only received a summer tax of 30 yuan, and because of this, he had to promise the people that they would no longer be collected for free as Yao labor, forced labor, etc.

But who knows, in fact, the 30 guan was earned by Li Jingbai.At least, in the past few years, Li Jing never received a penny in taxes.

Of course, this refers to the land tax.

Li Jing still collected a lot of business taxes in the past few years.Even the commercial tax of [-]% tax announced now is only superficial.In fact, there are still quite a few complete business taxes. On the territory of Zhen [***], checkpoints have been set up in Jishui, Yellow River, Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and various ports and supply points along the coast of the jurisdiction.Caravan passing by, this is to pay taxes.In addition, in various states and counties, caravans entering the city also have to pay taxes.In addition, all shops and caravans in the town [***] have to apply for a business license, which is also subject to tax.There is a shop to operate, but also to pay taxes.

After paying all kinds of taxes, there will never be less, but compared with the profits of the merchants, they are nothing.The town [***] is very well in control of the number of taxes collected.What's more, there are many special commodities in the town [***], such as salt, tea, iron, armor, weapons, wine, perfume, glass, rock sugar, etc., which are all included in the special commodities.Without exception, these commodities are heavily taxed.

The Dengzhou salt in Zhen [***] has a huge output and is sold all over the country. It has almost reached the level of dumping. No salt pool or salt factory can compare with Dengzhou salt. Dengzhou salt is of better quality and cheaper than sand like.But no matter how cheap it is, it can't stop the sales volume of the huge market owned by Zhen[***], under the model of small profits but quick turnover, Dengzhou salt kills Huai salt, which is also sea salt, and surpasses the solution salt of lake salt. It even impacted Qingyan in the northwest.

The business of sun-drying salt, which has no investment and is purely profitable, can bring a lot of profits to Li Jing every month.

Now Li Jing doesn't need to sell salt by himself at all. Dozens of salt factories only focus on producing salt, and then ship it directly to Hong Kong [***] to those salt merchants.After paying a heavy tax, those salt merchants can buy the Dengzhou salt they want at a low price.As much as you want, unlimited.

Dengzhou Port has now surpassed Guangzhou and has become the largest port in Datang.Dengzhou City now has 50 residents, making it one of the top ten cities in the Tang Dynasty.The new Dengzhou city built by Li Jing has been expanded twice. It has three walls and countless neighborhoods inside. It is the city that never sleeps in the north.

The summer tax and land tax only collected 30 guan, but the commercial tax collected more than 1000 million guan.

Li Jing counted many times before finally confirming that it wasn't that he was wrong, it was indeed more than 1000 million.This number is simply unbelievable.

However, this is not Li Jing's biggest income. Li Jing's biggest source of income is not taxes, but all the workshops, caravans, and sea fleets owned by the town [***].The entire town [***] has countless workshops, and there are also countless workshops and shops that are jointly operated by those merchants and big clans.

The profits brought to Li Jing by the three monopoly commodities of glass, liquor and salt alone are astonishing.

In the first half of the fourth year of Qianfu, the report submitted by Li Rang to Li Jing clearly stated that the town [***] now has more than 300 million guan in stock, and the grain has more than 200 million shi of rice. , wheat, millet, soybeans, and more than 1000 million shi of potato powder, taro powder and lotus root powder.

The storehouse in the town [***] is extremely rich, enough to last five years.

Although yam and taro are coarse grains and omnivores, they are not very tasty.But for those immigrant people who are frightened of hunger, these high-yield foods are simply treasures.Especially after Li Jing established flour mills in various counties and towns, this year attracted more people to plant yams and taro.Last year, the town [***] planted a total of about 200 million mu of yams and taro, and the harvest was gratifying, with an average of 500 catties per mu, and a total of 500 million catties were harvested.About five catties of potato medicine and taro can produce one catty of flour, and more than [-] million catties of flour.

I heard that last year, a family of people who fled from the Central Plains used potato powder, taro powder, lotus root powder, and radish to make pink bricks in winter, and built a pink brick wall at home.It is said that this is a method passed down from the elders, and the brick wall made in this way will not be broken for decades.In the year of great hunger, you can directly remove the bricks and soak them in water, and then cook to satisfy your hunger.

I heard that many people's homes now have more or less a section of pink brick wall.

It's funny and sad to hear these things.Those who have not experienced that kind of pain will never understand the value of food.The grass roots and leaves are eaten up, even the soil, and even people.Although the life in the town [***] has made them have enough food and clothing, although everyone is not short of food, when they can farm, they still plant a lot of potato and taro, and they often make bacon, dried fish, salted Eggs, preserved eggs, etc.No matter who's home he went to, although the family still had enough rations after paying the purchased grain, they still had to eat coarse grains for every meal.

However, although there was already a surplus of grain, Li Jing did not stop buying grain from the southeast of Lingnan.Every month, a fleet of ships transports food from the sea, and then deposits it in Duli Town, Beisha City, Jian'an City, Anshi City, Niangniang City, Jiankou City, Black Bone City, Pyongyang City and many other cities in Liaodong. among.In addition, in Shanhaiguan, Lulongsai, Dengzhou, Laizhou and other places, Li Jing also continued to store grain.

Many officials feel that under the current situation, even if the town [***] no longer buys grain, they don’t have to worry about the grain problem, and there is no need to spend so much effort and price to buy grain, but Jing not only did not stop buying grain, but ordered to increase Big buying volume.

The time has come to the fourth year of Qianfu, and Li Jing knows very well that the Huangchao Rebellion is about to enter a new wave of chaos, and the towns will start to be chaotic.When the world is in chaos, food is the most important material.Li Jing needs to store more food, otherwise it will be difficult to buy food until then.With food, more things can be done.

As long as money is in circulation, it is truly useful.

After the summer planting, Li Jing also began to send the people who bought and transported from various places to Liaodong by boats and boats, bringing many farm tools made by various workshops, and stored in Liaodong. Many cattle and horses were distributed to various states and counties to carry out a large-scale land reclamation operation in full swing.At the same time, the various armies that took turns to attack and rob in actual combat also continuously sent the robbed people and livestock back to the rear.

For those people from Khitan, Goguryeo, and Dongying who were robbed, Li Jing asked them to go to Liaodong first to build roads.

In the Liaodong Peninsula, from Duli Township to the southern apex, a line runs along the west coast, passing through Jizhou, Jianzhou, and finally Anzhou at the mouth of the Liaohe River.At the same time, another main road runs along the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula, passing through the Biliu River and Zhuang River, passing through Shicheng and Shirenwang, then to Dahang City, and finally to Jiankou City and Hushan City.Then it divides into three roads, heading north to Black Bone City and Lijiabao City.Cross the Yalu River to the south and go directly to Pyongyang.The other one continues all the way east to the inner city.

At the same time, an east-west trunk road will be built from Anshi to Lijiabao to Guoguocheng, and an east-west trunk road will be built from Jian'an to Jiankou City through Niangniang City.

By widening the roads, the cities in the Liaodong Peninsula will be more closely connected.At the same time, some large iron mines, copper mines, and coal mines in Liaodong began to be mined.

The development of Liaodong is in full swing, but there is always a shortage of manpower.There are so many cities, so many fields, so many mines, what is lacking is people.

At this time, it was difficult for the Tang army to attack and grab people. Both the Goguryeo people and the Khitan people began to gather the tribal people and rely on various tight cities.If there are fewer people in the town [***], you can't get cheap. If there are too many people, it may lead to a war.But right now, Li Jing was unwilling to fight them so early. The newly-occupied prefectures in Liaodong had not yet been consolidated.

While busy with stabilizing the development of the states and counties in Eastern Liaodong, Li Jing also paid close attention to the movements of the Central Plains and grasslands.

After the Khan of Khende formed a secret alliance with Khan Li Jing, Khan of Li Jing sent troops from Pingzhou Shanhaiguan, Lulongsai and Liaoshui of Anshi to harass the Khitans, Khan Khan of Khende also began to fight more and more fiercely with Diela.

At the same time, after Gao Pian arrived in Zhenhai, Huang Chao, who was attacking Runzhou, the headquarters of Zhenhai, fled after hearing the news. He went all the way south, captured Hangzhou in July, captured Yuezhou, the headquarters of eastern Zhejiang in August, and captured Cui Jiao, the observation envoy of eastern Zhejiang.

In less than two months, the land of Hangyue, known as "cocoon tax, fish salt, half the world food and clothing" with its wealth, fell into the hands of Huang Chao, but he had not had time to taste the delicious fruits of his victory, and he had just taken office in Runzhou. Gao Pian had already commanded the army to catch up.

Gao Pian used his two most powerful generals, Zhang Lin and Liang Zuan, as the forwards, to attack Hangzhou and Yue in separate lanes.Gao Pian's name is not in vain, Huang Chao mustered up the courage to fight against him, but lost again and again.

His generals Qin Yan, Bi Shiduo, Li Hanzhi, Xu Qing and dozens of other generals were defeated and surrendered to Gao Pian one after another.

Under heavy setbacks, Huang Chao had to give up Hangzhou and Yuezhou again, escaped into the deep mountains and old forests, turned to Xianxialing, split the mountain and opened a road for [-] miles, and fled to Fujian, which is poor and bad.

After World War I, Gao Pian became more famous.

Li Jing led the town[***] to sweep Liaodong, Gao Pian but the township's navy was powerful in the southeast, and the two most brave generals in the Tang Dynasty today echoed each other from the north and the south! (To be continued.)