"If that's the case, will taxes continue to increase in the future?"

Zhao Zhen asked.

"Yes."

Zhao Jun nodded. "For now, we're just taking gentle remedies to slowly heal the patient, the Song Dynasty. Once he's fully recovered, we can then take drastic measures. But before we do that, we must first maintain our dwindling fiscal revenue and increase revenue while reducing expenditure. This is why I'm expanding foreign trade."

"We are still in the open source stage, how can we save money?"

Zhao Zhen asked again.

Zhao Jun looked at Lao Fan, who said in a deep voice, "Once the country gets better and the people's livelihood recovers a little, we can officially start the work of eliminating the three redundant areas and land annexation."

"To eliminate the three redundancies and annex land, I must first defeat the Western Xia and Liao kingdoms, then expand foreign trade and allow a large influx of Japanese silver. I must also rectify the administration of officials, then restore the governance of the people's livelihoods, reduce labor service and taxes, ease the burden on merchants, and finally incorporate all officials into the civil service system."

Zhao Jun sighed and said, "In order to solve the life-saving poison of the Song Dynasty, I have to use other medicine to keep the Song Dynasty alive. After years of treatment, I can finally eradicate the cancer. Tell me, is it easy for me?"

This sigh truly comes from the heart.

Because whether it is the first stage of civil service reform or the second stage of comprehensive reform, the core idea is the same.

Recover first, then talk about development.

The civil service should rectify the bureaucracy and improve administrative efficiency.

The second phase of comprehensive reforms promoted the development of agriculture, commerce, and local affairs at the expense of large amounts of taxation from the imperial court, so that the people and merchants could survive and local governments could make a difference.

In particular, the Audit Bureau has begun measuring land across the country and investigating hidden households and properties.

With the imperial court promising to reduce taxes for landlords, local governments were able to clear out a large amount of surplus land.

In the future, it will be fully implemented, such as policies such as increasing consumption to the public, distributing the tax rate based on the amount of land, unifying taxes and labor service, levying silver based on the amount of land, and raising the tax rates for large landowners and the wealthy class.

This will greatly improve the chaotic agricultural tax system, reduce the burden on the lower-class people, and alleviate land annexation.

The next step is to gradually reduce officials' allowances, with the main sources of income being monthly salaries and performance-based salaries. The number of officials will be strictly controlled, and unqualified officials will be resolutely eliminated, thereby alleviating expenses caused by redundant officials.

The next step is to control the court’s spending, prevent waste of public funds, and reduce unnecessary expenses.

The last one is the big one.

That is the redundant army.

The army is undergoing a major reform, with the old and weak being laid off, and strict investigations into those who draw empty salaries and exploit the blood of soldiers.

From now on, military salaries will no longer be paid by the Ministry of War and military generals, but directly by the national treasury, so that every penny will flow into the pockets of soldiers instead of the hands of greedy generals.

So in a way, both Phase 1 and Phase 2 were just mild improvements.

Even in the second stage, the court had to sacrifice its own interests, causing the national treasury, which had been slightly improving, to run out of money within two years.

But there is no way around this. Simply sucking blood from the local areas will only make the central government strong and the local areas weak.

When the people rose up in rebellion, the Song Dynasty court had money and food to suppress the rebellion, but it was also a fact that the country was weak and poor.

It was a vicious cycle. The more they suppressed the local people, the more blood they would suck from them. The more blood they sucked from the local people, the more uprisings they would have. If this continued, even if there was no foreign invasion, the demise of the Song Dynasty was only a matter of time.

And the third stage is the real major reform.

The resistance encountered is unimaginable.

If it is not handled properly, the entire country may be destroyed if we are not careful!

The viewpoints and policies adopted in this book are all derived from successful reforms in real history, such as the reforms of Zhang Juzheng, the reforms of Emperor Yongzheng, the early reforms of our army in the base areas, and the reforms of early China. As for those who may point out that national conditions are different, such as the Ming and Qing dynasties and the early China, which were different from the Song Dynasty, I have taken this into account and made slight modifications to suit the national conditions of the Song Dynasty. So if anyone has a problem, please go question Zhang Juzheng, question Emperor Yongzheng, and question... Go away, go away, go away!

(End of this chapter)