Chapter 668: 20% National Strength
Chang'an
In order to support Xiao Qun, officials from Xie Zhan's faction put a lot of effort into promoting and implementing the new tax law. In addition, with the support of Song Mo, they showed no mercy to those who resisted during the implementation process and directly suppressed them.
The results are very good.
Through land surveying, Dali gained over 1.5 million hectares of land! In addition, it also released nearly 3 million hidden populations!
These newly added fields and population directly increased the total treasury revenue in the fifth year of Tianhe to five times that of the fourth year of Tianhe.
Of course, the reason why it had an immediate effect was also related to the fact that "in the fourth year of Tianhe, the official salt of Dali was sniped by Pingzhou, and the salt tax revenue could not be collected."
Song Mo was shocked by such a great achievement. After being surprised, his face was gloomy. It was conceivable how much land these Dali termites had hidden, and how much tax revenue had been embezzled in previous years!
As the saying goes, there is no construction without destruction. The wealth brought to Dali by the new tax law has forced Dali to continue its development.
The new tax law has other benefits.
Since all taxes and levies were calculated in money except for a small part collected in the form of grain, the status of silver in the monetary system was invisibly strengthened.
Money became valuable, that is, silver became valuable, and at the same time it promoted the circulation and development of commerce.
If Pingzhou had not interfered, the new tax law would indeed have brought a new look to Dali, allowing the old tree of Dali to sprout new buds.
Unfortunately, because of Pingzhou, a large amount of silver flowed into Dali, secretly taking away countless supplies. The prices in Dali have been rising. The most obvious thing is that the price of a pound of eggs has increased directly from twelve cents to thirty-six cents per pound, which has doubled.
In short, money is no longer worth it.
The people of Dali complained bitterly.
They had previously sold some supplies at high prices and saved a lot of money. They also thought that making money would be easy this year, and they thought that when the farming season was over, they would repair their house or find wives for their children.
Now, don’t think about it. It’s good enough if you can avoid going hungry, or even starve to death.
The abnormal prices among the people alarmed Song Mo.
"What's going on?" Song Mo had no idea what was happening.
Damn it, silver can be worthless?
There are tens of millions of taels of silver lying in the national treasury. How much can be bought with this money? Thinking of this, Song Mo's face darkened.
Xie Zhan also frowned, "I have already sent someone to investigate."
"Investigate! Investigate as soon as possible!"
Yanmen
At this time, the members of the Xianbei royal court were also dumbfounded.
"What is Dali doing?"
"I don't know. It just happened suddenly. Everything has become more expensive, especially food, which is ridiculously expensive." Things that could be bought with one or two taels of silver before may not be available for three or two taels now.
"Things in Dali are expensive, so go buy them in Pingzhou!"
"Over in Pingzhou, the prices haven't gone up, but people are using Pingzhou treasure notes for transactions!"
The key is the Pingzhou treasure note. They have to go to the Pingzhou money house to exchange it. Now three taels of silver can be exchanged for a ten-yuan Pingzhou treasure note, which is not the original situation where one tael of silver could be exchanged for a ten-yuan Pingzhou treasure note.
The members of the Xianbei royal court looked at each other in confusion. What was the difference between the price increase in Pingzhou and that in Dali?
At this time, the Xianbei herdsmen deeply regretted selling so many cattle and sheep before. They thought the prices were high at the time and they got a great bargain. But now, they can't buy them back even if they spend double the silver!
At this time, the people of Pingzhou who had responded to the call and exchanged their silver and copper coins for Pingzhou treasure notes were extremely grateful. At the same time, they became more determined to follow Pingzhou's policies in the future.
There were also people who were stubborn and did not exchange their money, or who only exchanged part of it. At this time, they all had sad faces.
This is equivalent to a reduction in household savings or assets.
These people also secretly vowed that they would do whatever the Pingzhou government ordered them to do and would never act smart again.
In addition, through Pingzhou's overt and covert propaganda, the people of Dali learned about the prices in Pingzhou and also knew that the lives of the people in Pingzhou were not affected.
Eggs still cost ten cents (10 wen) per pound, and the average person can earn about ten yuan (one liang) per month.
Among the people of Dali, the smart ones figured out that in Pingzhou, ordinary people could buy 100 kilograms of eggs after working for a month.
This way of calculation is very intuitive. In their view, the people of Pingzhou are now living a life like gods.
In Dali, they work hard for a month and can buy 30 kilograms of eggs at most.
This huge gap attracted many people in Dali, and they wanted to go to Pingzhou.
After more than a year of planning, Lu Songli and his subordinates made Song Mo, Xie Zhan and other Xianbei people, the country bumpkins, experience the severity of inflation for the first time.
At this time, Song Mo and Xie Zhan were really having a headache.
Xie Zhan led people to study the reasons for the abnormal surge in prices in Dali, and also asked people to check relevant information about Pingzhou. He intuitively felt that this matter was related to Pingzhou.
By tracing the source, he learned that Pingzhou merchants had been shopping in Dali that year.
At this moment, he finally understood the purpose of Pingzhou's issuance of Pingzhou Treasure Notes. This Pingzhou Treasure Note was like a puppet, staying in Pingzhou to stabilize the daily transactions of Pingzhou people, while Pingzhou's silver was used to do things.
What puzzled him was where Pingzhou got so much silver?
"Waste, all waste. Pingzhou bought so many things, but no one noticed anything unusual!" Song Mo was very annoyed.
Xie Zhan said objectively, "The Pingzhou merchants took action just after the Juyang negotiations." Dali was forced to agree to lift the blockade of Pingzhou under the threat of Pingzhou's salt tax. It was legal for Pingzhou merchants to come to Dali to do business.
"Then what happened? Pingzhou attacked Leling, Zhuozhou, and other places, and they broke off relations and expelled Pingzhou merchants. Why were they still able to buy so many supplies?"
Xie Zhan was silent. He had found out that there was something involved from the aristocratic families.
"Forget it, there's no point in pursuing this. Tell me, what should we do now?"
Song Mo could feel the power of Pingzhou's move. Just the tens of millions of taels of silver in the national treasury had shrunk two or three times, not to mention the entire Dali.
Song Mo's premonition was correct. Later, some experts estimated that Emperor Lu's move directly took away 20% of the Dali Dynasty's national strength at the time.
In response to Song Mo's question, Xie Zhan could only say, "Unless a large amount of grain can be put on the market now, the problem cannot be solved." To put it bluntly, Dali's current problem is a shortage of supplies.
There is grain in the national treasury at this time, but the collected grain is strategic material. In order to cope with the next battle, it is impossible to put it on the market.
The wealthy families have food, but they will definitely not be generous now.
The last resort is to wait until this year's autumn harvest. In a word, it means to endure.
"Your Majesty, there is grain in the treasury..."
"No!" Song Mo refused without thinking.
"Otherwise, let the people endure it. As long as they can hold on through this period, they will be fine after the autumn harvest." Xie Zhan said again.
"Don't the noble families have food?" Song Mo didn't allow him to escape.
Xie Zhan lowered his head, a cold light flashing in his eyes. Did the emperor not care about his life or death? He repeatedly pressured the noble families, really thinking they were soft persimmons?
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is inappropriate..."
"I don't care, you have to solve this problem for me!"
"yes."
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