The History of the Song Dynasty records that "all three departments of the Commercial Tax Office employed civil officials, with no fixed salary. Each official received 300 taels of silver."

So to sum up.

The severity of tax exploitation stems from policy issues at the top. This cannot be solved by simply cracking down on a few corrupt officials; it requires national tax law reform.

Zhao Jun actually knew about this all along. This time he went to the grassroots level, first of all, to take a look at the situation in Huainan and see if there was any hidden story behind the drought in Huainan.

The second is to investigate the local agricultural situation and understand how heavy the current burden on grassroots farmers in Song Dynasty is.

The third is to personally look at the business tax situation and see if changes can be sought.

As for punishing corrupt officials, we just deal with it when we see them. It is not the main problem to be solved.

The problem Tian Chang mentioned is serious, but he needs to understand it in depth and slowly change this drawback.

"To put it more clearly, the imperial court needs to collect such high taxes and oppress the people and merchants to maintain the country."

Zhao Jun didn't hold back and said bluntly, "To solve this problem, we need to change the tax collection method through imperial decree. However, changing the tax collection method is impossible, at least for now, because the court also needs money to maintain a large army to defend the border."

This is the root of the problem.

Tian Chang finally understood the reason, but he was not disappointed. He just smiled bitterly and said, "I see. Then I understand."

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. The country needs to maintain stability."

Tian Chang nodded slightly.

At this moment, the boat turned five or six miles away from Yingtian Prefecture, slowly sailed towards a tributary, and then stopped at a small fishing boat pier on the tributary.

As soon as they stopped the boat, a group of ferocious tax collectors rushed out from the lower slope of the river bank and shouted at them, "Another group of tax evaders has come! Brothers, come out and surround them."

Zhao Jun frowned.

I think in order to prevent people from bringing goods into Yingtian Prefecture from small roads to sell, the people from the Commercial Tax Office sent a large number of tax collectors to ambush in the surrounding rivers and small roads. No wonder the Song Dynasty was able to collect commercial taxes.

But this tax is collected too frequently. It was just collected in Ningling, and now it is collected again. It is just like leaving the skin of an animal when it leaves, and plucking the feathers of a passing goose.

I'm afraid that even the dogs in the village would have to pay a two-cent tax before they could pass by.

Zhao Jun waved his hand.

Jiang Dalang went up to negotiate.

It’s the same old story.

It is said that the imperial guards who were going to Huainan to change shifts had the imperial approval documents and waist badges to deal with it.

But even though they were imperial guards, they still had to pay taxes.

Another two strings of cash were spent.

They were also unable to dock their ship here, and were still ordered by the tax collectors to dock at the Yingtianfu Wharf.

As a last resort, they were asked to return to Yingtian Prefecture.

It was already past six in the afternoon when we arrived at Yingtian Prefecture, more than an hour later than the originally scheduled five o'clock. It was still light outside the sky, and there were fewer people in the busy area of ​​the dock outside the city.

A large number of ships traveling back and forth from the south and north stopped at the dock outside Yingtianfu City. These were just passing ships. If they were merchant ships coming into the city to do business, they would follow the canal into the city and stop at the dock inside the city.

Zhao Jun and his companions did not enter the city. If they had not been stopped twice by tax collectors to pay taxes, and if Tian Chang's fleet had not blocked their way, he would probably have appeared in a village outside Yingtian Prefecture more than two hours ago to conduct grassroots inspections.

Zhao Jun actually knew the main situation in Jingji Road and its surrounding areas. He had gone out of the city many times to investigate the farmland outside the city. After he took charge of the Imperial City Bureau, the Imperial City Bureau began to expand in Jingji Road, and its authority spread throughout the entire Jingji Road. The investigation report has been handed over to his desk.

He also had some understanding of the situation in Yingtian Prefecture, but he still needed to see it in person first.

But it's late today, so it's obviously not the right time.

Zhao Jun asked Tian Chang, "Master Tian, ​​it's getting late today. We plan to spend the night on the boat. We have to stay in Yingtian Prefecture tomorrow, and we don't know how many days we'll stay. If you have anything else to do, you can leave first."

Tian Chang said hurriedly, "I am willing to follow the governor. I happened to come to Yingtian Prefecture to do some business, but I have a son on the boat, so I will let him do it."

Zhao Jun thought about it and guessed that Tian Chang might have something to say to him, so he said, "Okay, you can stay on the boat with me today."

As he spoke, he looked ahead at the Tian family's merchant ship in the distance and said with some confusion, "Master Tian, ​​I have some doubts."

"yes."

Tian Chang responded.

Zhao Jun asked, "I've also heard about these large merchant ships. They can carry over 100,000 jin (approximately 100,000 kg) of tea. The tea we're sending to Bianliang can only carry 120,000 jin (approximately 120,000 kg). Do we need so many ships?"

Tian Chang laughed and said, "Your Excellency, you may not know this. This ship going to Bianliang can only carry 120,000 catties. But we can go to other places, such as Yingtian Prefecture, which can also carry 100,000 catties. In addition to tea, we also need to carry grain to Bianliang. The grain purchased from the south is cheaper. We can then hire people from Bianliang to come to the central government and obtain tea permits."

"I see."

Only then did Zhao Jun understand why the Tian family had so many large ships. It seemed that their business was indeed very big.

Tian Chang continued, "Besides tea and grain, there are also copper coins. Actually, our profit from each trip isn't much, only a few tens of thousands of strings of cash, so our annual profit shouldn't exceed 150,000 strings of cash. But to do business north and south, we must have a lot of copper coins. That ship ahead of us has 90,000 strings of cash on board, weighing over 500,000 kilograms."

"All right."

Zhao Jun smiled bitterly and said, "It seems that it would be more convenient for you if the South opened Jiaozi as soon as possible."

Tian Chang smiled bitterly.

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