"This is the tax payment method set up by Mr. Fang Xuanling. This method can greatly reduce the burden on us common people. In the past, we had to exchange the harvested grain for silver and then go to the government to pay taxes. The prices for exchanging grain for copper coins and silver were different. Silver was too scarce. Although 100 catties of grain could be sold for four strings of copper coins, which is worth four taels of silver, silver was scarce. We could only exchange four strings of copper coins for three taels and seven qian of silver. Then, the cost of paying taxes to the government was huge."
"And now?"
Liu Laowu stood in front of a small grove of trees and asked the old farmer in front of him a question.
"Now that the Eighth Prince has resolved everything, the price of silver, grain, and copper coins are all equal. We can pay taxes with copper coins, grain, or silver—basically, we can pay taxes with anything. There's no loss in the exchange of silver anymore, which saves us a lot of money."
Upon hearing this, Liu Laowu couldn't help but sigh:
"You can see the whole situation in Liaodong from the details. Lao Ba did a really good job in this regard."
After a moment's thought, Liu Laowu sighed:
"Why didn't we think of this before? We always talk about relieving the pressure on ordinary people, about not letting the rich get rich and let them bleed the people dry. But aren't we just harming these people with our own actions?"
“Father, you can’t say that. Not to mention you, none of us officials could have imagined that such a small matter as tax payment could hide so many opportunities for exploitation and bloodsucking.”
The eldest son-in-law comforted her from the side.
But despite saying that, Liu Laowu still sighed heavily:
"No wonder the common people are getting poorer and poorer, and the taxes collected by the imperial court are decreasing year by year. Let's do the math."
“If a household has three people, and they pay taxes on 100 catties of grain a year, then 100 catties of grain can be sold for four taels of silver in copper coins. However, when the copper coins are exchanged for silver, three qian are deducted, so the people only receive three taels and seven qian. If they don’t have enough silver to pay the taxes, they have to continue selling grain.”
"Who has the most money in the world? Of course, it's those who do business, run money shops, and have a lot of money in their homes."
“If a household comes to them to exchange silver, they will charge them three qian of silver, which is about three hundred wen. If ten households come, it will be three liang of silver, and if one hundred households come, it will be thirty liang of silver.”
“Even if our Later Han Dynasty has a population of ten million and three million three hundred thousand households, if each household takes three qian of silver, that's one million taels! Just from this one item, those wealthy households will take one million taels of silver from these people. And they don't do anything. As long as they have silver at home, the people have worked hard all year to grow this little bit of grain. They just exchange it with them and get one-tenth of the people's harvest.”
"I'm so angry!"
At this moment, Liu Laowu made up his mind and said:
"After we return, we will issue an imperial edict that we should learn from Lao Ba's Liaodong policy and change this system. We should distribute the one million taels of silver back to every citizen of the Later Han Dynasty. Each of them will have an extra coin of silver in savings every year, and their poor lives will gradually become richer."
Liu Laowu was incredibly excited.
That Mr. Zhuge built a reservoir to alleviate the suffering of the people.
The gentleman Xun Yu ordered the soldiers to cultivate the land at home during the off-season and then return to the army. In this way, the problem of the people having difficulty cultivating the land and not having enough able-bodied men was solved.
Mr. Xiao He's land redistribution policy prevented the consolidation of land. If people were ever too poor to make a living, they could simply sell their land back to the government, that is, back to Liu Fu. When they became wealthy, they could buy the land back with a redemption ticket. This cut off the problem of land transfer among the people. In the future, it would be impossible for wealthy families to seize fertile land and for officials to enclose land.
All land was nationalized – well done!
Fang Xuanling abolished the tax payment system, which brought convenience to the people and saved the money that was originally theirs that had been siphoned off by others.
At this moment, Liu Laowu couldn't help but sigh:
"How come there are so many talented people in Liaodong? Yet our entire Later Han Dynasty has no such talents?"
Just as they were about to reach Pingcheng, the barren land that had been abandoned was now planted with mulberry saplings.
"Why plant so many saplings on these rocky grounds when even crops can't be grown?" Liu Laowu asked curiously.
"This is what our Master Zhuge taught us. Master Zhuge said that silk and brocade are loved by people all over the world. If we want to become rich, we must earn money from foreigners. We need to plant these mulberry trees and start raising silkworms two years later. Once the silk is woven, the whole of Liaodong will be rich."
Liu Laowu was taken aback:
"That's a good way to make use of waste, sounds pretty good."
Ancient society always valued agriculture and suppressed commerce, so few people suggested planting mulberry trees to weave silk.
But when Zhuge Liang was in Shu Han, he planted mulberry trees and wove cloth all over the country, sold a large amount of Shu embroidery to Wei and Wu, and then used the money from their purchase of Shu embroidery to buy weapons and then fight against Wei.
Emperor Cao Rui of Wei once considered banning the circulation of Shu embroidery throughout the country, but this was met with unanimous opposition from high-ranking officials and nobles, and he had to abandon the idea in the end.
Because Zhuge Liang had this experience, he is now repeating the same trick, starting the cycle of making money from foreigners and then fighting against them again...
Furthermore, along the way Liu Laowu traveled, schools began to be built one after another in the surrounding areas.
When Liu Laowu heard that Liu Fu was going to provide free education for all the children in Liaodong for three years, he was stunned.
He knew that this was a great thing for the entire Liaodong region, and even for the entire Later Han dynasty!
If there are enough literate people, there will be enough talented people. Why bother using those corrupt officials from the previous dynasty to govern the country?
Sometimes, when Liu Laowu encountered corrupt officials who committed crimes, he had no choice but to turn a blind eye. There was really no other way, because once you killed the person, you couldn't find many suitable candidates to take office, which made things very difficult.
There are still too few people!
At the same time, upon finally entering Pingcheng, the capital of Liaodong, Liu Laowu immediately saw barbarians walking on the main street.
These barbarians walk with a carefree gait, and they are still imitating and learning the etiquette and manners of the Han people. Therefore, the actions and behaviors of many of them look like apes learning from humans, which is full of comical and ridiculousness.
But these barbarians were actually getting along well with the Han people of Pingcheng, trading with each other, and there were even Han men walking side by side with barbarian women. When Liu Laowu went up to inquire, he found out that they were actually husband and wife.
"My goodness! Eighth Brother has even subdued the barbarians? Is this still the same barbarian tribe that used to eat people?"
"The world has changed drastically!"
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