Late Tang

Li Jing regained Liaodong and Liaoxi, first defeated Goguryeo and Bohai, then defeated Khitan, and surrendered Tatar and Xi. In the fifth year of Qianfu, Li Jing's prestige reached a height that all Tang people looked up to.

Although Gao Pian is known as a famous general, his greatest achievement was defeating 20 Nanman in Annan, and then retreating from Nanzhao in Xichuan. Compared with Li Jing's achievements in regaining a large area of ​​territory, it suddenly paled in comparison.

However, when Li Jing's reputation reached a peak in the court and the public, it had already made Tian Lingzi, Lu Xie, Gao Pian and others fearful.

The wood is beautiful in the forest, and the wind will destroy it!

Up to now, Li Jing, who bears the seal of commander-in-chief of the five towns, is named the king of Andong County, governs sixteen states, has 500 million people, and commands 20 soldiers, is like the hot sun that day, even if he wants to keep a low profile and hide his power , is already impossible.

"Send him to Anzhou, emigrate to build roads, farm land to reclaim wasteland, and build water conservancy. He has done a great job, and he has made great contributions."

"I don't dare to take credit for my job. Above it is the commander-in-chief, and below it is the command of the army and the people. Inside, there are the public raising funds, and outside, the people are working hard. I just fulfilled my duties and did some things. That's all..."

"You don't have to be too modest in sending it." Li Jing waved his hand and said: "A certain country governs sixteen prefectures, but lives in the front line like Anzhou, and manages local affairs so well, but there are not many. Having been the governor of Dengzhou, I naturally know that it is difficult to manage the civil affairs of a state. Especially in Anzhou, which is still in the front line, it is even more difficult. Ji's ability is really excellent. I also know that Ji is modest and mature, and he is a capable official , that's why I came here to talk to Jizhi about a few important things."

"Listen to the teaching of the county king!" Gai Yu said respectfully.

Li Jing nodded, and said slowly: "A few days ago, someone outside the city welcomed Mr. Cui, his family teacher, into Dengzhou. Do you know that it is not only Mr. Cui, Song Wen and other generals who came here. Huainan is also here. Gao Pian's envoy, the tax envoys sent by the officials of Zhengshitang, and the eunuch sent by Tian Lingzi to Dengzhou Jianshi Bosi?"

When Gai Yu heard this, although he had already read it in the newspaper, he pretended to be a little moved.

During the Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, a city envoy was set up in Guangzhou, and eunuchs acted as the city envoy. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, a city envoy was set up in Annan. The city envoy was in charge of maritime trade and collected customs duties.Although Dengzhou has always been a big port in the north, it has never set up a city ship envoy.For one thing, although Dengzhou Port was one of the four major ports in Tang Dynasty in the early days, it was not as good as Guangzhou.Secondly, Dengzhou's maritime trade developed mainly after Li Jing took control of Dengzhou. Because of the closeness between Li Jing and the emperor, no one mentioned this matter.

But now, Tian Lingzi suddenly sent someone to Dengzhou to be a market envoy, no doubt they came straight to Li Jing.

But on the other hand, Dengzhou has now become the most prosperous sea trade port in the Tang Dynasty. If the imperial court wants to set up a shipping department, it can be regarded as the past.

However, the imperial court sent people to collect taxes, which is a bit out of line.

After the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, the tax system was reformed and became a two-tax system.The two taxes collected by the local government were not all handed over to the imperial court, but formed a system of two taxes and three points for offering, sending envoys, and staying in the state.According to the tax system of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court lived within its means.

Taxation is based on the tax amount of a year in previous years, and the states share it equally.There is a quota for these two taxes.And after this fixed amount of tax comes up, it has to be divided into three parts: offering, sending envoys, and staying in the state.

The upper offering is naturally supplied to the central government, and this part accounts for one-third of some feudal towns, while others account for one-fifth.For example, in Ziqing Town, the history of offering sacrifices accounts for one-fifth of the history. .

The remaining two parts, sending envoys, are to be handed over to the commander-in-chief of the feudal town, and staying in the state is to stay in the subordinate state.

It turns out that the five prefectures of Ziqing Town, after Emperor Xianzong pacified the Li family of Ziqing and divided the eleven prefectures of Ziqing into three towns of Ziqing, Tianping, and Taining, the first two taxes levied on the five prefectures of Ziqing were 19 yuan. Thousands of 980 guan, millet 15 stone.The Tianping Army has [-] guan and [-] millet in the three states.The three states of the Taining Army have [-] guan of money and [-] shi of millet.

For a long time, Ziqing Town has paid 20 yuan and 60 stone millet to the court every year according to this standard.The Shuai Mansion left 21 guan and 20 shi, and the following five states kept [-] guan and [-] shi.

However, although the imperial court has reiterated that no other money can be collected in addition to the two taxes, the feudal towns generally collect additional taxes in order to support soldiers.Use the money from the levy to raise soldiers.

Li Jing is now in charge of sixteen prefectures. If two taxes are to be levied on all of them, the average total amount of the two taxes per prefecture is 25 guan and 400 shi.The total amount of the two taxes in the sixteen states should be 130 million yuan, [-] million stone millet.

According to the old system of these two taxes, Li Jing had to pay one-fifth of it to the imperial court as an offering, so it was 80 yuan and 26 stone millet.

This amount of money and food is not too much, but Li Jing has not paid the two taxes to the court, and has not.However, Li Jing handed over 100 million guan of property to the court every month.Although the 100 million guan is full of water, many tributes are worth more than the price, but even if it is calculated in half, there are at least 50 guan, and there are 600 million guan in a year.The court's two taxes are worth at most 200 million.After all the calculations, in fact, Li Jing gave the court an extra 400 million yuan every year.

In addition, in addition to the two taxes collected by the imperial court, salt, tea and iron were monopolized, and this income accounted for a large part of the imperial court's income.Li Jing served as the salt and iron transport envoy. In order to cheat Li Jing, Tian Lingzi directly set a fixed figure of 200 million yuan a year for the salt and iron tea tax to Li Jing.

At present, the imperial court receives at least 800 million guan from Dengzhou for offerings and salt, iron and tea taxes every year.This amount of money is already quite a lot.

"Could it be that the imperial court is aggressive because of the two taxes of 80 guan a year and 26 guan, so isn't it afraid that we will stop the monthly contribution of 100 million guan?"

Li Jing stared at Gai Yu, shook his head, and sighed: "The emperor is a young son of heaven. He ascended the throne at the age of 12, and he is only 16 years old now. Besides, the emperor was seduced by the old thief Tian Lingzi. He only knows how to play. It's not all up to Tian Lingzi to make a decision."

Gai Yu snorted coldly: "Xianzong's Zhongxing and Xuanzong's accumulated wealth have all been wiped out by Yizong and the current father and son. That Tian Lingtian is not a capable person. The imperial court fought with Nanzhao earlier. They kept on going, finally stopped their troops, and they fought non-stop with Sha Tuo and grass bandits in the past few years. They raised troops year after year, coupled with extravagance in the palace, the treasury was already empty."

"Indeed." Li Jing also said with a sneer: "The treasury of the imperial court has long been empty, and now even the southeast, which has been supplying blood to the imperial court, is in chaos due to grass thieves. The money is sent to Guanzhong. The court has no money for the army, and the emperor has no money to play, so Tian Lingzi came to our side."

Although it is said that the Tang Dynasty adopted the law of two taxes, in fact, some local feudal towns or state capitals changed the tax system.However, the imperial court has no power to restrain the localities, so the local governments collect local taxes. As long as the local governments can pay the part of the donation according to the quota of the two taxes, the imperial court will turn a blind eye and turn a blind eye.

Ruzhen [***] has comprehensively reformed the tax system, changing the two-tax system to a system of sharing the income per mu. The court naturally knew about it, but no one cares about it.After all, the money that Li Jing handed over to the imperial court in a year is not a small amount.

But now, Tian Lingzi has become poor and crazy, or after seeing Li Jing's current momentum, he is already terrified, so he sent a tax collector to test it out.

"Tian Lingzi's tax collector Ben Shuai has already met, and he conveyed Tian Lingzi's meaning. I ruled the sixteen prefectures, and one-third of the annual tax revenue should be handed over to the court. In addition, in Dengzhou Port, Duli Port, Qingnipu Port, Qinhuangdao Port, Qingdao Port, and Shirenwang Port all have to set up officials from the Maritime Department to uniformly collect maritime trade and commercial taxes. Two-thirds and one-third will be given to us. In addition, the tax on salt, iron and tea has also been changed, with a tax of one hundred cash per bucket of salt."

"Tian Lingzi is really poor and crazy!" Gai Yu couldn't help shaking his head when he heard this detailed content.Previously, the town [***] handed over 800 million yuan to the imperial court a year, which is already a huge sum.But now, Tian Lingzi obviously sees the prosperity of the town [***], and knows that one year's tax must be more than two taxes.In particular, the sea trade in Zhen[***] is prosperous, and the salt industry in Zhen[***] is extremely developed, almost monopolizing half of the Datang area.

They are now proposing tax reform, no longer collecting taxes according to a fixed amount, but directly taking one-third of Li Jing's tax revenue after the new tax law.In addition, we need to establish a shipping department to take away two-thirds of the interests of the maritime trade side, and even refuse to let go of the profits of the salt industry.

"Tian Lingzi is not only here to grab money, he is still testing us. If we agree, then he will naturally grab a lot of money, and if we are taken away by him, it will be difficult for us to develop in the future. If we If you refuse to agree, Tian Lingzi probably knows that we are not willing to compromise, and it is inevitable that we will never stop, and the secret fight will become an open one." Gai Yu said, feeling a little excited in his heart.If Tian Lingzi and the imperial court were really pressing on like this, with Li Jing's character, maybe they would fight back vigorously.He felt the blood boil all over his body, and he kept shouting in his heart, turn it back, turn it back!

"Everything has a bottom line. In the past, I have been patient with Tian Lingzi and Gao Pian, but it was because we still needed time. But now, Tian Lingzi is trying to steal money from the town [***], and Gao Pian is coming to mobilize troops again. Do you think I'm easy to deceive?" Li Jing couldn't bear the provocations of Tian Lingzi and Gao Pian, and now Bohai, Goguryeo, and Khitan were all defeated by Zhen[***], and Tatar and Xi were all attached.

Although Goguryeo has not been completely wiped out, Li Jing has managed a stable and peaceful rear.It can be said that the foundation has been established, and the hegemony has just begun.

Moreover, after Tian Lingzi made such a request, Li Jing had no choice but to retreat.

He came to Gai Yu because he knew that Gai Yu was not loyal to the Tang Dynasty.What he is hesitating now is how far he should fight back.

"Delicious and delicious, keep Tian Lingzi's envoys under house arrest, and at the same time, directly stop the monthly tribute to the emperor." Gai Yu really wanted to speak loudly to persuade Li Jing to directly pull the flag against Tang, but this idea was just in his head It's just a moment.

He is no longer the Gai Yu he was when he was in Daibei. Following Li Jing in the past few years has made him mature a lot.There is one interest in everything, and it is not a good time to raise the flag to rebel, and the early citrons will rot first.

The imperial court can neither make progress, nor can it cut itself off.

"Let's procrastinate like this first, arguing with the court. After we destroy Goguryeo, we will have no worries at that time. No matter what the court thinks, we will be invincible." Gai Yu thought about it several times Afterwards, he proposed his own countermeasures. (To be continued.)