Chapter 697 Heavenly Punishment
"It's unbelievable." Sheng Zhan raised his eyebrows slightly, "My dear, what do you mean by that?"
Li Junyi's forehead was covered with sweat. He clasped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, the interaction between our main branch and the side branches is not close, but on such important matters, they will still tell me the truth."
"Really?" Sheng Zhan glanced at him with a half-smile, then turned to look at the eunuch beside him who was delivering the imperial edict. "Propagate my decree. This year, farmers only need to pay 10% of their grain tax, but merchants' commercial tax will be doubled, and officials' salaries will be reduced by 20%. The whole country will work together to overcome this difficult time."
After saying that, Sheng Zhan turned around and waved, "Dismiss the court!"
He left, but left behind a group of stunned officials looking at each other.
"Your Majesty, how can you do this?"
“Because he is the emperor.”
Everyone: ""
This is simply chaos!
Even if taxes are to be reduced, the Ministry of Revenue should make the decision based on historical records and harvests during natural disasters!
The business tax on merchants has also been doubled, which is simply forcing merchants to rebel!
Compared with the previous two things, a 20% reduction in officials' salaries is nothing.
Let’s not talk about the chaos in the court for now, and let’s talk about King Zhao’s Jinzhou and the six northwestern states. After it was confirmed that there would be a severe drought this year, the entire King Zhao’s palace became busy.
However, unlike the chaos in the imperial court, King Zhao ordered his officials and staff who were good at calculations to gather together, carefully calculate the income and expenditure of the entire six northwestern states and Jinzhou in previous years, and then formulate countermeasures based on different classifications.
After half a month of such busyness, King Zhao asked about the situation in northern Hubei again.
"The Lanjiang River is about to dry up, and the drought in northern Hubei will be even worse than ours. You don't need to follow up on the salt issue."
When King Zhao heard Zhao Ling say that blocking the trade routes in northern Hubei and refusing the circulation of salt failed to get the person in northern Hubei to come forward, he immediately gave up his previous plan.
If there is a severe drought in the country, northern Hubei will definitely not be spared. So, in the absence of material circulation and not much grain reserves, he doesn't need to do anything at all. Once the drought is over, northern Hubei will naturally collapse on its own.
"But father, are you really going to give up? There are no salt mines in northern Hubei. Today is a drought, and there is a shortage of salt. Maybe they will come to us for help soon. My son thought..." Zhao Ling still wanted to fight for it.
After all, this was one of the most important tasks entrusted to him by King Zhao.
King Zhao waved his hand and said, "No need. If there is trouble in northern Hubei, that person will definitely come forward."
And when Sheng Ze shows up again, don't even think about leaving.
There are many ways to control a person in this world, and King Zhao doesn't think he can't find a way to control Shengze.
A puppet emperor is better than being the emperor himself. He enjoys all the benefits. However, if he fails to manage the country well, Shengze will be cursed for all eternity.
No one knew what King Zhao was planning, but as the drought became more severe, rumors of "divine punishment" spread among the people.
“Do you know why it’s so dry this year?”
"Isn't God in a bad mood?"
"Then why is it in a bad mood? Isn't it because someone took something that doesn't belong to it? This is a punishment from heaven!"
"What do you mean by this?"
"What can I mean? If the person on the throne returns the things, maybe this natural disaster will be over."
Such rumors soon spread like wildfire, reaching not only Sheng Zhan's ears, but also the ears of King Zhao.
Unfortunately, the news was blocked in northern Hubei, and Shen Qingqian and the others were completely unaware of it. They were now speeding up the pace to connect all the rivers in northern Hubei so that rivers that did not originate from Chengjin Mountain could also receive the divine spring water to facilitate people's lives and irrigate the land.
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