The court has been very lively in recent days.
This was because the Minister of Revenue suddenly proposed to collect taxes on traveling merchants in the capital.
It not only increased tax revenue for the imperial court, but also provided convenience for small vendors throughout the country, allowing them to openly sell their goods and set up stalls without fear of being driven away or arrested by yamen runners.
Because of this matter, the court was about to burst into quarrel.
All the civil and military officials in the court were in unison, a rare occurrence, and concentrated their firepower to bombard the Ministry of Revenue.
They were scolded for being obsessed with money and becoming more and more mercenary, even doing such despicable things as competing with the common people for profit.
The peddling tax is only a few cents. For that little money, even the integrity and moral integrity of a scholar are discarded. How shameless!
What's more, some people even made personal attacks on Mr. Zhao, the Minister of Revenue.
The Minister of Revenue looked bitter and resentful in the face of his colleagues' accusations.
"Why should I explain the Ministry of Revenue's actions to you?"
These words were like stirring up a hornet's nest.
Buzz buzz buzz, countless wasps are flying around my ears, and if I'm not careful I'll get stung. Even if I don't die, I'll still feel pain for several days.
From the Minister of Revenue down, almost everyone in the Ministry of Revenue was on the verge of collapse. Only the Minister of Revenue remained resolute.
"You oppose the collection of the itinerant merchant tax, but you simply want to continue using harsh fines to squeeze the last bit of wealth out of the common people. If you force them to the point of ruining their families, that would satisfy your desires."
"slander!"
"absurd!"
"What nonsense!"
Minister of Revenue: Haha!
"Should we collect the peddler tax, harming the interests of the common people? Or should we follow the old rules, harming the interests of the common people? In this matter, anyone with a conscience would know which decision to make. However, you, like despicable men, are engaging in such despicable activities, just to arrest more people and extort more money. You have thrown away the integrity and moral integrity of scholars. Do you have any shame?"
"You are slandering me!"
"For a small profit, they're confusing right and wrong. The peddling tax is only a few cents, and the Ministry of Revenue's behavior is shameless."
The Minister of Revenue fought against a group of people alone.
The two sides argued back and forth for more than ten days.
During this period, Emperor Wende did not say a word.
You guys can argue as you please, and I will listen to you while I deal with the memorials.
Yes.
Emperor Wende was such a weirdo.
There was a huge quarrel in the court. At one point, someone took off his smelly shoes and threw them at someone else, triggering the biggest fight among court officials since the new emperor ascended the throne.
All the officials were fighting, but Emperor Wende was still sitting on the dragon throne, writing memorials with a pen.
Emperor Wende said cheerfully, "Fight them all with all your might. Beat them until they're dead."
Is this what a great emperor should say?
As the Son of Heaven, shouldn't he have sternly rebuked the absurdity and disrespected the conduct, and then walked out of the court?
This is what the late emperor did.
But when it came to Emperor Wende, he did not play by the rules at all.
All the civil and military officials were very depressed.
After all the quarreling, Emperor Wende didn't even give a decent response. Is there any point in continuing this quarrel?
"Are you not arguing anymore?"
Emperor Wende looked at the courtiers who had quieted down and asked with a smile.
"Your Majesty, please decide."
The court officials have learned their lesson. Since they can't make any progress through the argument, they let the emperor make the decision.
Emperor Wende pressed his hands against the edge of the table. "How rare! You've finally bothered to ask for my opinion. I thought I was just a shill. You argued about the rules, and I just had to put my stamp on them. As for my opinion, it's not as important as yours."
"Your Majesty, forgive me!"
"Not guilty, not guilty. You are just saying that the law doesn't punish everyone, and you are throwing me aside like a stamp."
Emperor Wende was extremely harsh and forced all civil and military officials to kneel down and apologize.
Emperor Wende would never let these people off easily. He ridiculed them for a whole cup of tea and only stopped talking when he felt thirsty.
After drinking half a bowl of tea, Emperor Wende asked casually, "How much revenue do you think the capital can generate in a month from the peddling tax?"
The officials looked at each other in confusion.
Finally, an old man stepped forward tremblingly and said, "It's only about 10,000 or 20,000 taels. For such a small amount of money, the court has thrown away its dignity. It's outrageous."
Emperor Wende laughed heartily and asked the Minister of Revenue, Lord Zhao, "According to your Ministry of Revenue's estimate, how much money can you earn in a month?"
In fact, the Minister of Revenue did not have much hope for the tax on traveling merchants.
These days, he was fighting against everyone alone, and he persisted only because he was fighting with all his might, not giving up, and determined not to let anyone interfere in the Ministry of Revenue's political affairs.
He gave a higher estimate, "About fifty thousand taels."
In fact, he probably only had about 20,000 or 30,000 taels in his heart.
But a small piece of meat is still meat, no matter how small it is. As long as it is meat, it must not be let go. This is the unshakable belief of the Minister of Revenue who has been in charge of the Ministry of Revenue for so many years.
Emperor Wende, like his father, was also a money-obsessed person.
Who says the country is poor?
To build the three main halls, the late emperor even asked his daughter-in-law to help him raise funds.
No matter whether it is 10,000 or 20,000 taels, or 30,000 or 50,000 taels, it will be hundreds of thousands of taels in a year.
What's this?
It's all money.
Plenty of silver.
Emperor Wende, who was short of money and crazy, supported the imposition of a tax on traveling merchants from the very beginning.
But he did not express his opinion. He let the court officials argue with each other first, and then he would make the final decision in the end, and then things would go smoothly.
It can be seen that Emperor Wende’s governing methods were completely different from those of his father.
The previous emperor established his imperial majesty by killing countless people, suppressing all officials and making arbitrary decisions about the world.
Emperor Wende was not so murderous, nor did he have the same imperial majesty as his predecessor, so he used the water mill method to grind all the officials on the millstone.
In the past, all civil and military officials regarded Emperor Wende as a scoundrel, a rogue, and a shameless person.
Now they realize that they were narrow-minded in the past.
Emperor Wende was not only shameless, but also extremely patient.
It can be said that according to historical records, Emperor Wende's meticulousness and skill in polishing the work of the emperors can at least be ranked in the top five. In time, it may even be ranked in the top three.
Encountering such an emperor with a strange temper, all the officials suddenly felt a chill and had a bad feeling about the future.
Emperor Wende decisively made the decision, "Since you have all sought my advice and hope that I will make the decision on this matter, I will naturally not let you down.
Well, Ministry of Revenue, let's try out the itinerant merchant tax for a month to see the results. If there are any inappropriate areas, we'll make some adjustments. We'll discuss this matter again after a month.
During this period, anyone who dares to speak nonsense, stir up trouble, and waste the time of me and my courtiers will be treated with no mercy. "
The implication was that during the trial period, if anyone dared to talk nonsense, Emperor Wende would not mind killing a few people at Caishikou to get a good start for his ascension to the throne.
When others look for good luck, they are looking for auspicious things and auspicious words.
Emperors are all weird. They use human heads as prizes, which is unique in the world.
The Ministry of Revenue all accepted the order in unison.
Civil and military officials also temporarily ceased fighting.
Let's wait and see the results after a month of trial.
From beginning to end, the Minister of Revenue never mentioned the road construction. Neither did the Minister of the Household.
As the saying goes, eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time.
Let’s first solve the traveling merchant tax and see if the tax collection system planned by Gu Jiu can work. It’s not too late to talk about road construction later.
At one time, we cannot give too much stimulation to civil and military officials, and be careful not to over-stimulate them, which will be counterproductive.
After all, people are older and their acceptance of new things is not as quick as that of young people.
However, the youngest person standing in the court was in his thirties or nearly forty.
People in their fifties, sixties, and seventies are everywhere.
If you ask these people to accept both tourism taxes and road construction, be careful that they will rebound and deny everything.
Is it good to build roads?
OK!
But not everyone agrees to build that cement road.
Moreover, if Gu Jiu comes forward to build the road, it will definitely affect the interests of some people.
If you affect other people's interests, they will fight to the death.
Even if Gu Jiu was the prince's wife, those people would not show mercy.
The Minister of Revenue and the Minister of the Imperial Household were both experienced and steady people. They knew that if they wanted to push something forward, they couldn't be impatient and had to have enough patience.
The itinerant merchant tax is a good breakthrough.
…
A few days later, the streets of the capital changed quietly.
Early in the morning, peddler Zhao A Liu went out to sell his goods with his shoulder pole on his shoulder.
Zhao Aliu sells soybean paste and vinegar.
He has been doing this business for seven or eight years.
Originally he was a waiter in a restaurant. One time he offended an important person and caused his boss to pay a large sum of money, so he could no longer be a waiter.
It wasn't a big deal in Beijing, but it wasn't a small deal either. His little incident spread throughout the Beijing catering industry within two days.
He wanted to continue working as a waiter, but unfortunately no one was willing to hire him.
Any waiter who causes his boss to pay a large sum of money is not a good waiter and will be put on the industry blacklist.
He had lost his job, his income, his wife was pregnant, and he had several children to support. His brothers and sisters were all poor, and he had done his best by helping them once, so he didn't have the face to ask for help again.
Later, he was left with no other options and had to go from street to street selling things.
The soybean paste and vinegar are all bought from local shops.
After seven or eight years, I managed to support my family.
But the hawking business was sometimes good and sometimes bad. Occasionally, I would be caught by yamen runners and thrown into the yamen jail, and a month's work would be wasted.
But that's all old news.
It’s different now!
Zhao Ah Liu came to the street carrying his load. A yamen runner came up to him and said, "Bamboo sticks."
Zhao A Liu handed over yesterday's bamboo stick and exchanged it for a new one with five cents.
The yamen runner put the copper coins into the cloth bag hanging on the left side of his waist, and took back the bamboo sticks from yesterday and put them into the cloth bag on the right side.
Then he took out a charcoal stick and carefully drew a circle on the cardboard hanging around his waist.
These are related to the bonus at the end of the month, so you must not be careless.
After doing all this, the yamen runner nodded at him and said, "Okay."
Zhao A Liu carefully put away the bamboo sticks and sold them on the street.
Whenever he encountered a yamen runner checking for bamboo sticks, he would take out the new bamboo sticks he had received that day.
The yamen runner compared the bamboo sticks hanging on his waist with Zhao A Liu's bamboo sticks, and confirmed that they were today's bamboo sticks and were not fake. He waved his hand and let him go.
Zhao A Liu hawked his wares from morning to afternoon, then carried his load to the market outside the South City Gate.
The migrant craftsmen will be off work soon, so this is the perfect time to set up stalls at the market outside the South City Gate.
When we arrived outside the South City Gate, we put our load on the big locust tree dam and finally had a chance to rest.
A yamen runner came forward and said, "Bamboo sticks."
Zhao A Liu took out the bamboo sticks he had received in the morning. The yamen runner compared the patterns on them and confirmed that they were new ones received today and that the traveling merchant tax had been paid, so he returned the bamboo sticks to Zhao A Liu.
That’s all. No yamen runners will come to check the bamboo sticks today.
At the end of the day, Zhao A Liu encountered no less than ten people checking bamboo sticks.
Every yamen runner would compare the bamboo stick in his hand with the bamboo stick hanging around his waist, and if they were sure that the tax had been paid, they would not make things difficult for him.
In this way, except for the imperial city, he could go to any market or any street in the capital to peddle his wares without fear of being driven away or arrested by the yamen runners.
Although one has to pay five cents of traveling merchant tax every day, compared with the profit of dozens of cents a day, five cents is completely acceptable.
As long as the government office continued to do this, Zhao Ah Liu wiped the sweat from his forehead and grinned. Good days were not far off. Perhaps one day, he could buy a house outside the South City Gate.
On the second day, Zhao A Liu repeated his life of yesterday.
The bamboo sticks you receive every day have different colors and patterns.
I heard that no one else knows what pattern or pattern of bamboo sticks are used to collect taxes every day.
It was always early in the morning, before the market opened, that several officials from the Ministry of Revenue decided on the bamboo sticks for the day, and then the yamen runners received the bamboo sticks and started working.
This method has greatly and effectively blocked the possibility of tax evasion by using counterfeit bamboo sticks.
I heard that the bamboo sticks specially made by the Ministry of Revenue have some anti-counterfeiting function.
Ordinary people can’t imitate it at all.
Even if you imitate it, you don’t know what pattern of bamboo sticks the government uses to collect taxes today.
The collection and distribution of bamboo sticks was related to the income of the yamen runners, so the yamen runners were also very vigilant against counterfeit bamboo sticks.
After the itinerant merchant tax was piloted for a month, the court once again focused its attention on this matter.
Everyone wants to know how much itinerant merchant tax the Ministry of Revenue collects in a month.
They were waiting to slap the Ministry of Revenue in the face.
"Don't just accept a few thousand taels. From now on, let's see how the Ministry of Revenue can face people."
"Even if I accepted 10,000 or 20,000 taels, I would still be embarrassed."
At the morning court session, Emperor Wende was full of bad taste and refused to ask about the Ministry of Revenue's results for the past month.
All the miscellaneous and trivial government affairs were dealt with. As the sun rose high in the sky and Emperor Wende had not yet asked about the Ministry of Revenue, some people became anxious.
"Your Majesty, the one-month trial period for the itinerant merchant tax has expired. Lord Zhao, please tell us how much tax revenue we collected during this trial period."
Emperor Wende laughed it off, as he already knew the exact number.
When asked about his mood, there is only one word: awesome!
He was so happy that he ate an extra bowl of rice last night and even had sex with a new beauty.
It feels so good.
Emperor Wende nodded towards the Minister of Revenue, as if to say: Sir Zhao, come out quickly and slap the faces of all the officials, and make sure they slap them loudly. I am counting on you.
The Minister of Revenue, Lord Zhao, stepped forward and did not disappoint Emperor Wende. "Your Majesty, the merchant tax has been in operation for one month, and the total amount collected is 300,451 taels and 7 qian of silver."
"What?"
"Three hundred thousand taels?"
"impossible!"
"How could a mere traveling merchant possibly pay so much tax? Could it be that the Ministry of Revenue is cooking the books?"
"As far as I know, it's impossible for the merchants in the capital to collect 300,000 taels of tax in a month."
The Minister of Revenue chuckled, "That's because many sedentary merchants rely on their powerful backers and don't pay taxes at all. Eighty percent of the sedentary merchants in the capital don't pay taxes. And this 80% is still profitable. However, those itinerant merchants, as long as they go out to hawk their goods, must pay taxes, without exception."
Therefore, the monthly taxes paid by merchants in the capital are actually less than those paid by traveling merchants. My lords, have your shops paid taxes yet?
"absurd!"
"Officials in Beijing have low salaries and have to support large families. How can a servant open a shop to earn a little money to support his family and pay taxes?"
"Don't traveling merchants earn enough to support their families? How come they can pay taxes but you can't?"
Asking all civil and military officials to pay taxes would be equivalent to affecting the interests of all officials and aristocrats in the world. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Be careful that this group of people unite to rebel.
Even the previous emperor didn't dare to touch this area, and Emperor Wende was even less likely to do so.
"Alright, alright, stop arguing. My dear ministers, do you have any objections to the itinerant merchant tax?"
"No objection."
"The Ministry of Revenue has an extra 300,000 taels of tax silver each month. Should we allocate the money and grain to our government office as soon as possible?"
"And the money and grain from our government office."
"The Ministry of War is short of money and grain. The monthly 300,000 taels of merchant tax must be paid to our Ministry of War first."
"Bullshit! The Ministry of War, get out of here!
These court officials began to argue again about how to distribute the extra 300,000 taels.
They were not satisfied with the quarrel and started fighting in the throne room.
Fight, fight.
Emperor Wende didn't care at all and started to review the memorials.
Well, reviewing memorials and watching fights at the same time, these days are really enjoyable. Emperor Wende suddenly felt that being an emperor was not so hard after all.
The itinerant merchant tax made it easier for vendors to get by, preventing them from being driven away or arrested. At the same time, it also brought in an additional 300,000 taels of silver per month to the Ministry of Revenue.
No one would object to such a good thing.
Not only do they not oppose it, but they even praise it.
After the praises were over, the people from the various government offices continued to quarrel. They were willing to fight to the point of bloodshed for the extra money.
Just when the officials were busy quarreling and fighting, the salaries that had been owed for nearly half a year were all paid out.
The broken desks and chairs in various government offices were also replaced with new ones.
There is money to repair the leaky government office.
Even the daily work meal had two more slices of meat.
Oh, oh, oh!
Everyone in the Ministry of Revenue is a good person!
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