Great Wei Overlord

Chapter 505
Chapter 509

There was originally a small official from the ninth rank in Zuo Minbu named Li Nanguang, who was also from Ju County, Beihai County, Qingzhou.He is Wang Meng's fellow countryman, and he is very good at observing words and demeanor, and he is dexterous in handling affairs. Wang Meng promoted Li Nanguang from a low-ranking junior official to a fifth-rank Zuomin Transit Department chief.

Up to eight levels in a row.

Li Nanguang knew that Wang Meng came from a poor family, and he didn't have a good impression of those gentry families, so he stepped forward and complimented: "Wang Shangshu, this is not surprising. Those gentry families never pay taxes, and control the real power in the local area. It is not surprising that there is so much wealth!"

"No, it definitely won't work if it goes on like this!" Wang Meng thought for a while and said: "As the Minister of the Zuomin of the Great Wei Dynasty, no one is allowed to evade taxes, and the gentry are no exception, they must pay grain tax!"

When Li Nanguang heard that Wang Meng wanted to collect taxes from the gentry, he was shocked.

You must know that from the noble family, tax exemption is their privilege.In order to avoid heavy tax burdens, ordinary owner farmers often list their land properties under the name of the gentry, thereby evading taxes.At the end of the dynasty, when the government was chaotic, this kind of tax evasion would become more and more common, and the country's fiscal and tax revenue would become smaller and smaller.

Just like the Ming Dynasty, his demise was mainly due to the bankruptcy of the country's finances.It is also due to the tax exemption of the gentry that a large amount of tax revenue is lost, so that the country has no tax available.

Li Nanguang said anxiously: "Master Shangshu, you must not! The gentry clan has long been entrenched, and their influence is intertwined. From the three princes and nine ministers, down to the heads of counties and counties, there are several people who are not from the gentry. If you want to collect taxes, you must Cutting off people's wealth. There is a way to cut off people's wealth, just like killing parents, if adults insist on doing this, I'm afraid there will be no place for adults in the world!"

Wang Meng knew that Li Nanguang was doing it for his own good, so he said calmly: "Rules can be used in a state of order and stability, but rituals must be used in a state of chaos. Our Great Wei was established at the beginning, and Meng, as Zuo Min Shangshu, is in charge of the financial revenue and expenditure of the Great Wei. How can we sit idly by? Those tax evaders are lawless? To be a gentry, the majestic King Jiaodong is a super-rank royal family, you can see that he has evaded a penny of tax and missed a penny of tax?"

Although Wang Meng was born in a humble family, he was talented and learned from others. He was not only proficient in the art of war, but also a capable minister like Zhuge Liang.Speaking of it, it is not necessarily that he cannot read fewer books than Ran Ming, but Ran Ming is in an era of information explosion, and the knowledge he absorbs is more complicated, and the knowledge of later generations is deeper.Ran Ming can see the harm of the noble family to the country, how can Wang Meng not see it?

"My lord, be careful, don't be so reckless!" Li Nanguang's heart was bleeding.Now he has finally tasted the benefits of being an official, but he is one of Wang Meng's confidantes, once Wang Meng falls, he will not be able to be an official anymore.

"The Great Han Dynasty died because of the crazy gentry encroachment, and so did the Three Kingdoms." Wang Meng said solemnly: "I think back then, Emperor Wu of Jin was so wise and high-spirited, but the Great Jin fell into the chaos of the Eight Kings after he was only the second generation. Weak ministers are strong factors, but the most fundamental reason is that the nobles and nobles compete for wealth. Everyone likes luxury. In order to collect money, they frantically enclose land. Half of the country is lost. If there is no skin, how can the hair be attached?"

Wang Meng made every sentence reasonable, but Li Nanguang couldn't find any reason to refute it.But at this moment, his heart was as cold as the cold wind outside the window.

Wang Meng began to write vigorously on New Year's Eve.He, Wang Meng, is not stupid, as long as he dares to submit a memorial to collect taxes on the gentry, even if Ran Ming wants to protect him, he will not be able to protect him.I'm afraid that even if he is saved by the Wanjun, some people will dare to kill him.Wang Meng didn't mention the gentry, but set a trick against the gentry.

"My Majesty, the Great Wei was established at the beginning, and a lot of waste is waiting to be raised. A large number of fields are barren. In order to enrich storage and ensure food production, I am willing to ask my Majesty to enact a land property law, prohibiting the transfer of land to each other. All fields are state-owned and the common people will inherit. , but not to buy or sell!"

If Wang Meng didn't make a move, it would be a black hand.The gentry mainly rely on two things to be proud of the dynasty, that is, they own a large number of fields and have enough talents to shake the country.Then Wang Meng's writing became darker. "Because the Central Plains has lived in war for a long time, the people have been displaced, and there are a lot of wasteland. My emperor created the Great Wei, which should bless the common people in the world. Therefore, His Majesty should issue an order to encourage all citizens of the Great Wei who have Chinese, barbarian and naturalized nationality to reclaim wasteland and exempt from taxes. Three years, five years with half tax."

Although this also did not mention the gentry, but Wang Meng's tricks, now the workshops in various parts of Wei State need a lot of labor, which doubles the originally very cheap labor.If this policy is implemented not only in Qingzhou, but in the whole Wei Kingdom, it is conceivable that the Wei Kingdom will increase countless fertile fields. Although the fiscal and tax revenue will not increase much in three years, what about five years later, ten years later?

Everyone has gone to reclaim the wasteland, who will cultivate the fields of the nobles?In the state of Wei, it is different from the previous period. As long as you have hands and feet and endure hardships, you will not be hungry.It's so easy for you to want to work.No culture, no education, no background, it is easy to find a job, as long as there is no infectious disease, you can start working immediately.

There is no most ruthless, only more ruthless.

Wang Meng went on to write: "Arrogance and extravagance, showing off to each other, and taking pleasure in fighting for wealth are the reasons why the Jin Dynasty lost half of the wall, and the Great Wei should avoid arrogance and extravagance and severely punish extravagance and waste. The most shameful thing about waste is to let the fields Barrenness. The people of the Wei Dynasty, unless the fields are barren due to natural disasters, will not be punished. For other reasons, barrenness should be punished with a half-tax penalty. If barrenness lasts for three consecutive years, the ownership of the land should be abolished immediately, and the land should be returned to the state. It will be distributed separately.”

This kind of behavior should not be explained by ruthlessness, it can be said that it is the last resort of the gentry.Wang Meng's three strategies against the gentry are interlocking and pressing every step of the way, unless the gentry raise their flags to rebel.Otherwise, there is no solution to this problem at all.

However, it is definitely not a wise move to oppose Wei Guo now.Ran Min, the emperor of Wei State, was tough by nature and loved soldiers like a son. He was deeply supported by the people and the generals of the Wei army.An army that can lead more than ten thousand troops, and the whole army would rather die than surrender, not to mention the unprofessional army of Wei State, which serves as soldiers in wartime and serves the people in leisure time, I am afraid that there will be few professional troops in the future. do this.Ran Min is the hope of all the people in Wei State, as if someone wants to destroy their hope, they will definitely stand with Ran Min and fight to the end.

Wang Meng's memorial was completed in the middle of the night. This eloquent and eloquent memorial gave the right medicine to the main cause of Wei's low fiscal revenue and imbalanced revenue and expenditure.However, after Wang Meng wrote it, he didn't let people send it to the palace, but considered handing in the memorial at the right time.

Wang Meng thought for a while, and decided to copy another copy by himself, but after thinking about it, Wang Meng burst out laughing, even if he copied the Ten Thousand Words Memorial, it would take him a long time.Moreover, the content of Wang Meng's memorial was too appalling, and he didn't dare to let the scribes transcribe it.Wang Meng thought for a while, and ordered his servants to prepare a simple gift, and he wanted to talk to Ran Ming in person.

Let Ran Ming decide when to release it.

At the beginning, Wang Meng thought that Ran Ming didn't understand politics and only knew about military affairs and economics. However, when Ran Ming retreated to fight against Ran Zhi's impeachment, Wang Meng discovered that Ran Ming didn't understand politics, but understood politics too much.

When Wang Meng arrived at Jiaodong Palace, Ran Ming had just had breakfast.Ran Ming didn't have the rules of this era. Eight people including Li Shi, Stripe, Liu Wei, Xie Daoyun, Wang Zhilei, Bai Feng, and adopted daughter Ran Jingwen were sitting around a big round table for later generations to have breakfast.

Wang Meng has long been used to Ran Ming's shocking habits.When Ran Ming saw Wang Meng coming, he didn't let his wife and concubine avoid him, and said directly: "If you haven't eaten breakfast, sir, you can just sit down and make do with it."

Wang Meng also sat down happily. Xie Daoyun saw that Wang Meng seemed hesitant to speak, as if there were some things that they couldn't let them know, so she said to Li Shi: "Sister, I heard that you made a suit for Yun'er?"

Li Shi said: "Yes! But it's not done yet!"

Xie Daoyun said: "If I am not a good sister, I will go and have a look. I wonder if my sister can agree!"

Li Shi said: "Since my sister wants to see it, let's go after breakfast!"

It can be said that none of Ran Ming's wives and concubines is a fool, and Liu Wei also saw that Wang Meng must have something important to do with Ran Ming, so he found an excuse to leave.Wang Zhilei and Bai Feng went to the barracks after breakfast. As the chief general and deputy general of the army, although the two of them didn't have to stay overnight in the barracks, they still had to go.

After the girls left, Wang Meng carefully handed the memorial that he had written almost overnight to Ran Ming.

Although Wang Meng wrote it all night, Ran Ming read it very quickly. It took almost a quarter of an hour to browse through it in a hurry!
Seeing Ran Ming remain silent after reading it, Wang Meng said, "Does your Highness think this strategy is feasible?"

Ran Ming said: "It is possible, of course it is possible!"

"only…"

"Just what?"

"It's just very difficult!" Ran Ming said: "More than [-]% of the officials in the court are from various gentry clans, and more than [-]% of the local officials, except for the generals who come from poor families in the army, the whole world is almost dominated by the gentry. .Although this memorial did not propose to target the gentry, it targeted the vital points of the gentry everywhere. They are not fools, and they will definitely fight back. Not to mention being alone, even the emperor father had to back down in the face of the collective attack of the gentry in the world! "

"Should we just let them have fun like this?" Wang Meng said unwillingly: "Meng, I am very angry. These elites are nothing. The food in their granary is almost eaten by moths. They would rather destroy it than give it to the common people. Let the people starve to death. They really pretended to be a scholarly family, a world-class scholar, and the books of the saints were read into the stomachs of dogs by them!"

"Unless the time has to be divided into three steps!" Ran Ming thought for a while, and smiled: "The first strategy is to offer the first strategy to the father, to bless the world and encourage the land reclamation! This is the father's kindness to the world." benevolent government."

(End of this chapter)