Scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants

When Feng Bingwen, who was participating in the clothing examination, opened his answer sheet and saw the essay questions for this year's academy examination written in his hand, he was struck by a feeling that the questions were tailor-made for him.

In the last prefectural examination, he also wrote a sharp and incisive policy essay, criticizing all the officials in the style of a keyboard warrior, and attacking each of the three dukes and nine ministers one by one.

Unfortunately, it had little effect. Even though he did such a thing during the imperial examination, no one dared to bother him after the exam.

Now, with his thoughts flowing freely during the provincial examination, he was ready to write another policy essay to provoke the wealthy and powerful families. He refused to believe that these guys would still be able to sit still after he finished writing this essay.

Feng Bingwen had long considered this policy essay. The reason why his first policy essay prompted the powerful clans to take action was that his suggestions to investigate land and conduct a census touched the foundation of these powerful families and would infringe on their interests.

If he wants to provoke them again this time, he will naturally have to continue to offer suggestions that would allow them to bleed out their flesh.

tax system!

This is the focus of Feng Bingwen's policy discussion: the current national policy of Dagan is to prioritize agriculture and suppress commerce, because the country's tax revenue basically depends on farmers who make a living from the land.

It is a time of peace and prosperity, and the current emperor is considered wise. As for the administration, it seems to be relatively clean and efficient due to several purges. Therefore, ordinary people are living a fairly good life.

Even so, most of the annual income of ordinary people is taken away by the government, leaving them with very little.

In Feng Bingwen's view, this was undoubtedly unacceptable. The taxes that ordinary farmers had to bear were simply too heavy. And this was in a prosperous era. If the world were to be even slightly worse off, and if natural disasters were added, wouldn't there be widespread famine? If some man-made disasters were added as well, then the land would be barren for miles.

Therefore, Feng Bingwen's policy essay begins with a proposal to reduce agricultural taxes. However, since the operation of all government agencies depends on tax revenue, reducing agricultural taxes would lead to a deficit in the national treasury, which could cause major chaos.

Therefore, Feng Bingwen proposed in his policy essay that while many restrictions on merchants could be lifted, the collection of commercial taxes should be increased accordingly.

As he wrote this, Feng Bingwen felt a sudden jolt of energy and a profound sense of unease. He thought of the mechanical horse his father had bought for a fortune, and suddenly it dawned on him.

If the content he wrote in his policy essay is adopted by the court, even if only a part of it is adopted, he will have immeasurable merit. However, that is not enough.

"Tiered taxation!"

Feng Bingwen suddenly recalled his past life and picked up his pen to continue writing.

The current state of agriculture is limited by productivity, so taxes must be levied on farmers. However, if mechanical arts could be used on a large scale at extremely low cost, then the productivity of agriculture would be elevated to a higher level.

The people will have enough to eat and wear and will not have to worry about food and shelter. Once productivity reaches this level, the tax system can be further reformed, and agricultural taxes can be reduced or even abolished.

Taxes can be levied in tiers based on the income of ordinary people. A standard can be set, and those whose monthly income is below this standard will not be taxed. Those whose income is above this standard will be taxed accordingly, with the higher the income, the more taxes they need to pay.

Feng Bingwen was thoroughly enjoying himself when he wrote this, but he also knew that such a proposal was not feasible at present, as the productivity of the Great Leap Forward had not developed to that extent.

However, his main purpose at this time was merely to provoke the powerful clans, because the core of his policy essay was to suggest that the tax collection target be changed from poor farmers to high-income wealthy families.

Therefore, Feng Bingwen only touched on the point and didn't write too much, mainly because he didn't have much experience to draw on, but the content he provided was already sufficient.

After he finished writing his answer sheet, which was already halfway through the provincial examination, Feng Bingwen checked it and handed it directly to the examiner before confidently walking out.

"It's only the second day, how come someone's already out?"

"They probably handed in their papers early!"

"Isn't this way too early!"

"Judging from the age of this candidate, he is probably not very old, just a child. He probably just came here to broaden his horizons and didn't expect to pass the exam."

"I suppose so. But being able to participate in the academy examination already makes one a student of the preliminary examination. It's truly rare to be a student of the preliminary examination at such a young age. Their future is limitless!"

When Feng Bingwen walked out of the examination hall, the eyes of the many family members of the candidates waiting at the entrance all fell on his face.

This moment truly drew everyone's attention, but these gazes were neither particularly kind nor malicious; they were merely expressions of surprise and astonishment, occasionally tinged with disdain and contempt.

Feng Bingwen naturally didn't care about the opinions of others. After passing this exam, he didn't want to continue taking the exams. There was no need for it. After obtaining the title of Xiucai, he would tell his grandfather that he would travel to various places, even neighboring countries, under the guise of studying abroad. Staying at home all the time was not a good idea.

"Wen'er, why are you out so early?"

Feng Bingwen was still standing at the entrance of the examination hall, looking around, when a young wealthy merchant dressed in fine silks and satins, with a white jade pendant at his waist, came over with a group of servants, looking anxious.

"I'm done writing, I'm too lazy to wait."

Feng Bingwen answered calmly.

"So fast?"

Feng Zichuan looked surprised and somewhat disbelieving. He had participated in the academy examinations three times and knew how exhausting they were. The imperial examinations not only tested literary talent but also the physical condition and mental fortitude of the candidates.

"Um!"

"Let's go then!"

Feng Zichuan looked around and, unwilling to linger at the entrance of the examination hall, pulled Feng Bingwen, boarded a puppet carriage, and left.

The next day, the gates of the examination hall opened wide, and after the exams were over, a large number of students, some exhausted and some excited, walked out of the gates in a bustling manner.

At this moment, Feng Bingwen, the first person to walk out of the examination hall, immediately became known to all the scholars. His appearance was so distinctive that a thirteen-year-old candidate was not only extremely rare, but also exceptionally rare.

However, Feng Bingwen was not well-known before. Although some people said that he had won first place in the prefectural and county examinations, not many people cared. It was just a preliminary examination for students, so what did it matter?

However, when the list of academicians was announced, many candidates who came to see the results couldn't help but feel upset when they saw the name of the first candidate to walk out of the examination hall appear at the top of the list.

"Who exactly is this Feng Bingwen? I've never heard of him before. How did he manage to rank first in our Jinglin region in this imperial examination?"

"Yes, why? I've studied hard for thirty years, while Feng Bingwen is just a thirteen-year-old child. When I took the imperial examination, he was still just learning to speak."

"I refuse to accept this! Why should a mere child be on the list?"

"I heard that this person handed in his paper and left the examination hall on his second attempt. How could he possibly have finished all the questions in such a short time? He must have cheated."

"That's right, it must be cheating. I've heard that the person is extremely wealthy, so they must have bribed the examiner."

"I want to see the governor!"

...At the results announcement site, when many candidates saw that the top spot on the list belonged to an unknown, thirteen-year-old child, many of the unsuccessful candidates couldn't help but start making a fuss.

This commotion quickly attracted the attention of the chief examiner of the provincial examination. This examiner, who was also a man of strong character, directly copied the essays of the examinee onto Xuan paper and posted them around the place where the results were posted.

"This is the policy essay written by Feng Bingwen, the top candidate in this year's provincial examination, from Qingshan County. If you are not convinced, you are welcome to come forward and take a look. If anyone claims that they can write an essay comparable to his, they are welcome to go to the governor's mansion and beat the drum!"

The clerk, who was ordered by the chief examiner to post the notices, said in a deep voice to the vast number of hundreds of candidates who had come to see the results, "It is normal for some of them to harbor resentment after the first round of the provincial examination has eliminated more than 95% of the candidates."

"First place in policy essay? I'd like to see what kind of astonishing article a thirteen-year-old child can write?"

Some candidates who failed the exam naturally scoffed at what the official said; given their age, what could they possibly write?

"Gah..."

The first candidate who stepped forward to read the essay felt as if his neck had been grabbed, let out a strange scream, widened his eyes, and showed an expression of disbelief.

"Brother Qingsong, what's wrong with you...?"

Someone who knew this person well took two steps forward and patted him on the shoulder. Just as he was wondering about it, his eyes also fell on the contents of the policy essay. He was also shocked, his face contorted, and he made a "ho ho" sound.

However, no one cared about their disgraceful behavior anymore, because there were countless candidates with similar behavior at this place where the results were posted, and every candidate who saw Feng Bingwen's policy essay was stunned.

None of the candidates who were able to participate in the provincial examination were fools. By the time they reached this point, their reading volume had already surpassed that of 90% of the scholars. Even the most slow-witted person could realize just how shocking and unconventional the content of this policy essay was.

"This...this was really written by a thirteen-year-old child?"

"That's probably it. Only a child as ignorant and arrogant as this would dare to write such an audacious article. Even if Wu and the others had such thoughts, how many of them would dare to put them on paper?"

"Abolish agricultural taxes? Absurd, laughable! Such childish and ignorant words deserve to be ranked first?"

"With such a kind heart and great talent, how could he not deserve first place? The agricultural tax has been abolished, but based on what he said, it can be completely replaced by a commercial tax."

"Commercial tax? According to the text, to collect commercial tax, we must encourage merchants. Such lowly people are already being merciful by not suppressing them. How can we encourage people to engage in commerce? Merchants do not engage in production and value profit over righteousness. If we encourage the common people to engage in commerce, wouldn't that be encouraging them to pursue profit? If so, the collapse of morality and social order will not be far off!"