In fact, statistics were not unfamiliar to officials of the Northern Song Dynasty. For example, through observation, Wang Anshi learned how much interest landlords paid and the financial situation of the people, and then designed the Qingmiao Law.
Another example is Fan Xiang's salt method. He also learned through statistics that he should buy salt when the price is lower than 35 cents per catty, and when the price is higher than 40 cents per catty, he would sell salt from the warehouse in large quantities to suppress merchants' profits.
It’s just that Wang Anshi and his colleagues’ statistics were quite rough.
When the Qingmiao Law was implemented in Jingdong East Road, it was also being promoted in Jiangnan. However, Jiangnan did not encounter the problems that occurred in Jingdong East Road. This was because the land in Jiangnan was fertile and two crops could be grown a year, so most people repaid their debts on time.
Wang Anshi's investigation into the Qingmiao Law was limited to the situation in the south of the Yangtze River, without taking into account the fact that the north and the south were actually different.
Sima Guang and Su Che both questioned this, but Wang Anshi ignored them.
Moreover, the statistics of Wang Anshi and others are limited to their own observations. There is no specific standard. Without a standard, it is impossible to convince the public. You have your observations, I have mine. China is so big that everyone sees something different.
The most crucial thing is that their kind of statistics is unpopular in the court because it goes against the current mainstream values.
Including Fan Xiang and Xue Xiang, these officials with great economic talents had no prestige in the court and were impeached every day.
Because everyone is discussing economics from a moral perspective, and you insist on talking about interests, then you seem out of place.
...
...
Zhang Fei has obviously learned their lessons. He always bases his interests on fairness, justice and integrity, and his main focus is actually morality.
This is actually very different from Wang Anshi, Xue Xiang and others.
Wang Anshi did not do a good job of hiding his purpose of making money for the country.
It’s still the Qingmiao method.
Collecting 2% interest, and paying it in two installments a year, is only slightly better than those landlords who take advantage of others' misfortunes, but it has nothing to do with morality.
Whether it is Sima Guang, Su Shi or Su Zhe, they all think that your interest rate is too high and they won't believe you if you say you are not a dog who is making money for the country.
Zhang Fei doesn’t do that. I will first exempt your transaction tax and then collect your warehouse tax, with the main goal of fairness.
He was often able to occupy the moral high ground, while Wang Anshi never did.
Wang Anshi's explanation of the Qingmiao Law was always: The landlords charge so much, but I only charge two cents. Am I not thinking about the people?
But this reason does not stand up to scrutiny, because not every landlord charges such a high fee. Many landlords charge 1% or 1.5%, and some even charge no interest.
Many people criticized him for this.
Not detailed enough.
But Zhang Fei also focuses on details.
When Fu Bi and others saw the investigation report presented by Zhang Fei, they were dumbfounded and didn't know how to respond.
Even more detailed than they imagined.
Although the above is just a comparison of liquor taxes, it is clear at a glance and allows people to intuitively feel the living standards of the people in the two places.
After a while, Fu Bi suddenly raised his head and asked Zhang Fei: "According to the evidence you submitted, the adjustment of the liquor tax also involves the difference in liquor types."
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "That's right. The adjustment of liquor tax is mainly to regulate grain. For the sake of fairness, liquor brewed from non-grain products should not be taxed more.
The grains required for various types of wine on the market are different. The most typical one is fruit wine. As we all know, the grain required for fruit wine is very little or even non-existent.
It would be obviously unfair to increase taxes on fruit wine in order to regulate grain.
In the second year after Hezhong Prefecture adjusted the liquor tax, its revenue immediately recovered. The reason was that wine producers began to brew fruit wine on a large scale to avoid the higher liquor tax.
The benefit is that it stabilized grain prices and allowed the government to buy more grain. At the same time, the revenue from liquor taxes did not continue to decline, but remained at an average level.
This is just one example. There are many subdivisions in between. Different taxes are set based on the grains needed for brewing wine.”
Fu Bi glanced outside the courtyard and saw that the businessmen kept nodding, seeming very satisfied with this.
That's very fair indeed.
Since you said that the purpose of increasing liquor tax is to regulate grain, then what does that have to do with my fruit wine? If I increase the tax on fruit wine, this obviously doesn't make sense. A complete bill must be logically sound.
This is also Wang Anshi's shortcoming. He would never make a subdivision and would definitely impose taxes on all liquor. Sima Guang would definitely criticize his policy for this point.
The only one who can defeat Sima Guang is someone more meticulous than him.
Now Sima Guang was looking at the data and was immersed in studying it. This data opened a window for him, and he could see from which angles he could refute Wang Anshi's new policies in the future.
Zhao Yan suddenly asked, "In this bill of your procuratorate, although the restrictions on koji are lifted, wine producers still need to obtain winemaking qualifications from the government?"
"Yes."
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Because relaxing the restrictions on winemaking does not mean relaxing the regulations, we must guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of our customers.
The government should place responsibility on the quality of the wine and ensure that customers do not drink diluted or poisonous wine.
Moreover, when such an incident occurs, the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs can accurately find the person responsible, so as to seek justice for those clients and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
Of course, this will also make management easier, as at least the tax commissioner won’t have to check every household to see if they are brewing wine.”
Zhao Yan asked again: "Will someone take advantage of this restriction to blackmail the wine sellers?"
Zhang Fei shook his head and said, “We are not actually worried that someone will use this to blackmail the wine dealers, because it will contain detailed application regulations.
If you comply with the regulations but still cannot obtain the qualifications, you can file a lawsuit. This is what I have repeatedly emphasized: do not be afraid of the public security, procuratorate and courts. Litigation is to defend your legitimate rights and interests. This is very different from the past. I have also talked about this in the classroom of the Imperial College, and it is now being realized step by step.
The only thing worth worrying about is that some people cheat and grant winemakers who are not qualified the right to make wine. In this regard, the procuratorate and the police will conduct relevant spot checks, and winemakers will also supervise each other. There are winemakers in Hezhong Prefecture who have reported other winemakers.
If someone cheats, it will harm the rights and interests of legitimate wine consumers.”
Zhao Yan nodded slightly and thought, this guy is more thoughtful than we thought.
Fu Bi continued, "Prosecutor Zhang, have you considered that the liquor monopoly system and the qu monopoly system also involve the rights and interests of many people, such as the winemakers in the quyuan. If the liquor tax system is changed to a liquor tax system, what should these people do?"
Zhang Fei said: "Regarding this point, I think the court can refer to some of the policies of Hezhong Prefecture. Hezhong Prefecture also encountered this situation at that time. Because the court has long implemented the Ququ system, many restaurants lack winemakers who are familiar with brewing Qu.
Therefore, when the Hezhong Prefecture reformed the liquor tax, it split up the local Quyuan, and the Ministry of Revenue established Quyuan through the Jieku Shop, cooperating with local merchants to set up qu brewing workshops.
The local winemakers did not lose their livelihoods, but earned more than before, and their wages at least doubled. "
Fu Bi asked, "But this is not mentioned in your bill."
Zhang Fei replied: "Because this is entirely an administrative policy, I can only provide some evidence and some suggestions, but it cannot be written into the bill."
Fu Bi pondered for a moment, thinking that it seemed that he was the only one who could truly achieve the separation of politics and law. He then said, "You just mentioned that the Ministry of Revenue cooperated with local merchants through the Jiekupu. How is this different from the Ququ system?"
Zhang Fei replied: "One is administrative and judicial regulations, which follow the imperial decree. The other is a commercial contract agreement, which follows the contract principle.
"Even so, why doesn't the Ministry of Revenue cooperate directly with merchants?" Fu Bi asked again.
Zhang Fei replied: "Because if one party is the government and the other party is a private workshop, if they cooperate directly, it will make the merchants feel uneasy because the status of both parties is unequal, and it will be difficult to succeed.
However, through the cooperation between Jiekupu and merchants, the relationship becomes a relationship between merchants, and everything will comply with the contractual agreement, and the public security, procuratorate and courts will be able to intervene better.
In this agreement, the Changping Division has no decision-making and management rights, but only enjoys the profits. The merchants are the ones who actually operate the workshop, and other merchants are allowed to compete with it. "
Fu Bi asked again: "Since you believe that the court should mainly collect taxes on wine, why do you want to let the Ministry of Grain and Oil get involved?"
Zhang Fei replied: "Mr. Fu seems to have misunderstood this. It is not my permission or not. I do not have the power to do so. The reason why the Ministry of Revenue does not cooperate directly with merchants is that they themselves think it is impossible and no merchant dares to cooperate with them, not that our public security, procuratorate and court do not allow them to do so. Although I am the chief judge of Hezhong Prefecture, I do not have the power in this regard.
To put it simply, the specific process at that time was that there were many problems with the liquor tax in Hezhong Prefecture, which was very corrupt, causing losses to the interests of the people and the country. Therefore, the lower officials defended the interests of the country, the monarch and the people based on the rule of law, thereby standardizing the principles of contract and commercial tax regulations.
Then, the Ministry of Revenue was appointed to make adjustments in this regard based on the laws promulgated by the imperial court.
At that time, the government had to consider the livelihoods of the winemakers while hoping for continued financial growth. Of course, if everyone here thinks that the government did this because it was unwilling to give up the profits from the wine koji, it cannot be said to be wrong.
In short, based on these reasons, they decided to cooperate with merchants through Jiekupu.
We, the Hezhong Prefecture Imperial Court, have no intention of interfering with how the government operates. Back to this bill, the Procuratorate only requested a change to the tax system, but Lord Fu just raised this issue, and I just took Hezhong Prefecture as an example because Hezhong Prefecture has very good performance.
If the imperial court has a better solution, it is also feasible, but these are two different things. "
Everyone present suddenly realized that it was Wang Anshi who was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, and that Yuan Jiang had no choice but to adjust the policy based on the situation in the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs.
Thinking of Wang Anshi, Sima Guang suddenly had an idea and said, "But as a prosecutor, do you think it is fair to other merchants for the Ministry of Revenue to do business through the Jieku Shop?"
All the businessmen present nodded frequently.
After all, it is a business of the imperial court, it is unfair to us!
Moreover, many of them knew that the distiller's yeast in Hezhong Prefecture was still monopolized by the government. Competition was allowed, but others could not compete!
Zhang Fei said: "Based on the situation at the time, I think it is fair. If the court had left it alone and directly changed to a tax system, it would not only be unfair to those winemakers, but would also cause panic due to the lack of wine yeast. It is very correct for the court to take the lead and slowly change it."
Sima Guang asked, "But you didn't answer directly. Is this fair to those merchants? Or is this just a transitional period, and the court will hand over everything to the merchants?"
Zhang Fei said: "I don't know whether it is a transition period or not, because this is not something that the chief judge or prosecutor can lead, but in my personal opinion, for businessmen, I think it is relatively fair.
Under the Ququ system, wine merchants could not make their own wine koji and had to buy it from the government. However, the Ministry of Revenue cooperated with merchants to make wine koji through the Jiekupu, which did not mean that wine merchants had to buy it from this workshop.
If a certain winemaker brews good and cheap koji, all restaurants in Beijing will buy from him. This is very fair and not mandatory.
After the last adjustment of liquor tax, workshops specializing in brewing fruit wine koji have emerged among the people.
This is also why the Director of the Ministry of Revenue did not control the operation of the winery, but only shared the profits, for fear that he would not do a good job.
It can be seen that doing so is not a sure win for the country. Once the operation is not good or stagnant, it will also close down. This is why the wages of those winemakers have doubled quickly. Because if you want to make a profit, you must have better technology to attract others to buy from you, and the winemaker becomes very important. "
Sima Guang said: "So you think fairness lies in allowing other merchants to compete, and that this winery is just like ordinary wineries, with profits and losses."
Zhang Fei nodded, "Yes."
Wang Anshi rolled his eyes and said coldly: "This old man can't even distinguish between judicial and administrative affairs."
Sima Guang was obviously making a veiled criticism of Wang Anshi. But Wang Anshi was very disdainful of this. His new policy was to allow others to compete, but they would definitely not be able to compete, so who could he blame?
Feng Jing suddenly asked, "What if the wine shop in charge of the Changping Division loses money?"
Zhang Fei scratched his forehead in frustration and said with a smile, "It was the Ministry of Revenue who decided to do this. They thought there was money to be made. If there is a loss, then the Ministry of Revenue should be held responsible. This has nothing to do with the public security, procuratorate or courts."
Feng Jing said: "But as Prosecutor Zhang just said, the promotion of Changpingsi was an adjustment made because of the precedents that Prosecutor Zhang ruled at the time. The law of the legal system first protects the interests of the country and the monarch, so at that time, did Prosecutor Zhang consider fairness first, or did he consider the interests of the country and the monarch first?"
The implication is that your precedents are fair, but may also harm national interests.
It is a state monopoly, but you insist on abolishing this monopoly law. Is this in the interest of the state or is it fair?
Fu Bi and the others also nodded slightly and looked at Zhang Fei with expectation.
It's the question of having your cake and eating it too.
"Of course the interests of the country and the monarch come first, there is no doubt about that."
Zhang Fei's tone was very firm. "Let's put it this way. Even if the court does nothing, the new liquor tax system will bring much more revenue to the court than the purchase system. I just said that the liquor tax in Hezhong Prefecture will increase by at most twice, but that does not include the profits that the wine shops bring to the court.
I have said before that the reason why I gave this precedent at that time was because the old liquor system seriously damaged the interests of the country, the monarch and the people, not because of fairness.
Because the liquor monopoly system is a policy, it is actually the same for every merchant. It can only be evaluated in terms of good or bad, but not in terms of fairness. It has little to do with fairness.
However, some drawbacks of the old wine system did stem from unfairness. It was precisely because they were not allowed to brew koji and could only buy it from the government that the government became very negative and did not seek progress, which led to the breeding of many drawbacks.
The reason why the Director of the Changping Division of Hezhong Prefecture did this was, firstly, to make a profit, secondly, to protect the livelihoods of the winemakers, and finally, to ensure that there would be no chaos in a short period of time.
But if the Ministry of Revenue did not do so and left it alone, causing the winemakers to lose their livelihoods and causing a short period of chaos, then it is not the responsibility of the public security, procuratorate and courts, but the officials' dereliction of duty. It is not that our public security, procuratorate and courts are unwilling to take responsibility, but that they have no right to manage these matters.
This is also a major advantage of the rule of law and the separation of politics and law, which is that it can expose the true colors of officials who are incompetent. When the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs defend the interests of the country, the monarch and the people based on the rule of law, and when officials can also show outstanding political achievements, they are the real pillars of the country and are worthy of trust.
If one wants to achieve outstanding political achievements by harming the interests of any party, I think most people can do it.”
When many officials heard this, they cursed Zhang Fei for being shameless in their hearts. You are the ones who have to make changes, but if there are any problems, we will take the responsibility. You are really a "little cutie".
But Fu Bi and others felt that what Zhang Fei said made a lot of sense. It is true that most people can compete with the people for profit, and bend the law for personal gain to achieve political achievements. However, if this continues for a long time, it will seriously damage the interests of the country and the monarch.
The public security, procuratorial and judicial organs are there to ensure that you cannot do this.
On this basis, you can also achieve political achievements, which will of course be much more valuable!
Sima Guang nodded and said, "That's very well said. I agree with that!"
Wang Anshi saw that the old man was making innuendos again, and he immediately applauded, "Well said!"
Deng Wan and the others also reacted immediately and started applauding.
Liu Shu and others couldn't help but look at Wang Anshi in surprise. How dare you cheer?
But the reformers were all very confident.
Because according to this statement, the political achievements of Hezhong Prefecture are all the credit of Yuan Jiang and others, and your public security, procuratorial and judicial organs are only there to protect their interests and can only come second.
The audience outside the theater didn't understand their little thoughts. The key point was that they really thought it was well said. Anyway, with someone taking the lead, thunderous applause and cheers broke out outside.
Those powerful people know things clearly. Brothers and sisters, you have misunderstood. They just want to use Zhang Fei to ridicule the other party. Why are you making a fuss?
What a nice chicken.
Fu Bi was also laughing and crying, and let Zhang Fei take advantage of him. He said to Zhao Yan and Feng Jing: "It's not early yet, let's take a rest first and continue in the afternoon."
Several people agreed.
After they finished cheering, Fu Bi immediately announced a recess and continued the meeting in the afternoon.
Many powerful people collapsed in their chairs like deflated balls. This hearing made them feel suffocated. Their brains didn't work properly and they didn't know what to do. They just wanted to oppose, oppose, and they must oppose.
really.
There is too much content, so everyone should calm down and carefully weigh the pros and cons.
Fu Bi and the others also have to think carefully about how to deal with it.
The five of them returned to the back hall and hastily finished their lunch. Xu Zun then went to the side room to rest under the pretext of taking a nap.
As soon as he left, the other four immediately started a heated discussion.
"Although what Zhang San said makes sense, who doesn't know these principles? When Fan Gong carried out the reform, he actually wanted to solve this kind of problem, but what was the result? Moreover, this warehouse tax is very radical. It is strictly forbidden to store more than 500 dan of grain at home. How is this possible? It will definitely be opposed by many people."
Feng Jing waved his hands and said, "I don't think this will work."
Zhao Yan and Sima Guang also remained silent.
Everyone understands the principle, but the question is, can it be done?
Is it really their Legislative Council that has the final say?
They don't believe it themselves.
Fu Bi suddenly sighed, "What the world said is right. Everyone understands the truth. If it could be done, it would have been done long ago. Why wait until today?"
But at this point, he changed the subject and said, "But we are now in a difficult situation. We must find a reason to refute Zhang San. Otherwise, how can we give a reply to His Majesty?"
Feng Jing sighed, "That guy is really as difficult as the rumors say!"
Things have been said to that point. If you can't find a reason to refute it, then every rebellion and uprising among the people may be related to them.
But for the time being, they really couldn't find any reason to refute it.
Fu Bi then asked Sima Guang: "Jun Shi, what do you think?"
Sima Guang said: "In my opinion, the brat is still targeting the harm that land annexation brings to the country, but he changed his approach. He did not ban land annexation, but banned the hoarding of grain. This is actually a concession! If he bans land annexation, I am afraid it will cause more dissatisfaction."
Zhao Yan said: "I agree with what Junshi said. Compared with the means by which those landlords annexed the land of the people, this bill is not excessive. As Zhang San said, if you think this bill will make growing crops unprofitable, then you can sell the land. Unless this bill causes most people to think that growing crops is unprofitable, then you can say that this bill is wrong. But I don't think this bill will harm the interests of farmers."
Fu Bi nodded slightly, and after thinking for a while, he said, "How about this, Dangshi, Junshi, you talk to those officials again. If they can't provide sufficient reasons, then we can only act according to the rules."
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