primitive survival evolution

Chapter 381 Cigarettes and Taxes
Autumn colors are getting thicker, and it is a good time for fish and fruit to ripen. This is a busy season. Many animals are rushing to store food for winter, and many animals are rushing to migrate before the big beasts appear.

The same is true for the people of the Han Empire.

Anxi Protectorate's Mansion is located in the land of two rivers, but this place is a desert and there is no beast tide.

However, the Great Han Empire located on the Pangu Continent was invaded by beast hordes every year. Fortunately, the Han Empire's national power was growing stronger and stronger, and the beast hordes did not have a big impact on it.

"I have sent many soldiers to garrison various counties and towns. This year's beast tide should be fine." Li Yan looked at the blue sky and said silently.

But in front of him, there is a field of big leaf crops. These are tobacco, which Li Yan brought back from the Alabas tribe in the first half of the year to plant, and now he has planted ten mu of land in the valley of the Jiang tribe.

The tobacco had already been harvested half a month ago, and now half of it has been harvested, Li Yan came over to check on the tobacco situation, and he wanted to calculate the tobacco production this year.

"Not bad, it should be enough."

Li Yan nodded in satisfaction, then turned and left with his clansmen, preparing to go back to the cigarette factory.

But when he just walked to the road outside the industrial park, Jiang Baiwu and others came to block his way with ledgers. Jiang Baiwu was Li Yan's mother, and she was also in charge of the finance and affairs of the Han Empire. tax.

"Yan, the Road and Bridge Department is short of money again. It is almost out of money to send to the road construction workers. Should we print more coins?" Jiang Baiwu was also overwhelmed by the empire's finances recently.

It has been less than a year since the establishment of the Great Han Empire, and many things have not been on track. Li Yan and other high-level people in the country are also very busy.

Half a year ago, Li Yan proposed a road construction plan, trying to build roads between every town and county in the empire, which is a road that is convenient for people, beasts, and future cars to pass. Li Yan has not yet planned to invent cars. The reason is that there are all kinds of beasts instead, and the most important thing is that there is no road. Before the road is repaired, the invention of the car is a bit ahead of schedule.

"We can't just print money randomly. This will lead to inflation, that is, it will lead to a decrease in the value of other items in the empire." Li Yan said, "We should collect more taxes from other places."

Bai Wu couldn't understand what Li Yan said, but she believed him very much, so she asked, "What should we do now?"

"Tomorrow should be the day when the heads of the counties and towns come to deliver taxes (tributes). There will be money here. However, I have already thought of a way to increase taxes. Mother, you should go back first. Don't worry too much about this matter. Yes, I have my own solution." Li Yan said.

"Yeah." Bai Wu returned to the palace with peace of mind.

Li Yan led his clansmen and continued to move forward, and soon came to a newly built cigarette factory. The name of this factory was "Huaxia Cigarette Factory", which was the name Li Yan personally mentioned.

And what Li Yan is going to be busy with today is the cigarette factory. Although cigarettes are not good for people's health, this thing is a magical tool for increasing taxes. As long as the cigarettes are sold to people in Hexian Town, or even exported to other alliances, this will help In exchange for a large amount of coins, coins are goods!

The cigarette factory is a factory area consisting of many large sheds, surrounded by a wall. The current factory in the industrial park has achieved large-scale production, and the products produced are exported to the Han Empire and even exported to other alliances.

And this new cigarette factory is also placed high hopes by Li Yan, who intends to make cigarettes a leading product for export and foreign exchange earnings.

Huaxia Cigarette Factory is divided into workshops for cleaning tobacco leaves, drying tobacco leaves, and cutting shredded tobacco, as well as workshops for producing pipes and cigarettes.

"Your Majesty, look at these three cigarettes, are you satisfied?"

When Li Yan came to the office of the cigarette factory, the factory manager here took out the newly-made cigarette products very knowingly.

One is a wooden pipe. When in use, the shredded tobacco is stuffed into the head of the pipe, and it can be smoked directly after being lit.

The other is hand-rolled cigarettes, which have no filters, but a piece of paper, and you have to roll them yourself, commonly known as big-headed cigarettes.

The last type is rolled cigarettes. The filter tip is made of reed core, which is more expensive.

Li Yan tried these three kinds of cigarettes one by one, and he was very satisfied. Although most people may not be able to accept the smell of this kind of smoke at first, once they smoke it, they will not be able to stop, and they will naturally come to buy cigarettes.

"How many tobacco leaves do we have now?" Li Yan asked.

"Return to Your Majesty, this time we harvested more than 100 catties of tobacco leaves." said the tobacco factory manager.

"Okay, prepare it for me, and it won't be long before I can sell it for money." Li Yan said.

"Your Majesty, this food is so unpalatable. I ate a few mouthfuls, but it's just the same. Does anyone still buy it?"

The factory manager was very puzzled. He had tried smoking various cigarettes before, but he just felt that the taste of this stuff was not so good. Now he also smoked occasionally, but he didn't feel any magic.

"You will understand later, this is a commodity that will make our empire stronger in the future." Li Yan said.

A few days later, the heads of various towns and counties came to the imperial city with their taxes.

However, most of the taxes they handed in were food, and a small part was special products from other counties and towns, and most of the food was potatoes and corn, which were durable foods. At the same time, this was what Li Yan asked to do.

"Yes, this batch of potatoes is very fresh, and your town is very good."

"Corn, well, yes, you are also good."

In front of a newly built large granary in the imperial city, many towns and counties were queuing up to hand in public grain. Li Yan, Bai Wu and others also watched from the sidelines, watching the establishment of the Han Empire to receive public grain for the first time.

In fact, this is similar to the method of handing in tribute in the previous tribal alliance period, but now it is under unified management, and even the handed-in food is a unified requirement.

"Yan, we abolished shellfish coins and promoted paper Chinese coins that are easy to circulate. Why do you want them to hand in grain? Isn't it better to hand in coins? And we are issuing coins to other workers, and we don't Isn’t it very troublesome to pay the workers with coins after selling the grain?”

Jiang Baiwu on the side is very puzzled, she manages the finances of the empire, and she manages the income and expenditures instead of Li Yan, and now she is very confused about this.

Li Yan pointed to the tall granary next to him and asked, "Mom, what did you see?"

Bai Wu looked at it, thought for a while, then nodded and said: "That's the granary. Inside the granary is food, that's grain, a lot of grain!"

"That's right, that's food."

Li Yan said: "Coins cannot be eaten, but grain can be eaten. We can make coins at any time, but we cannot produce grain at any time. If we control the grain of the whole country, it is equivalent to controlling the whole country. Everyone needs to eat. If in the future If any county is disobedient, we just need to cut off their source of imports of food and other supplies, and that county will soon be destroyed by itself."

(End of this chapter)