The news that the Ministry of Revenue was going to increase taxes had spread everywhere! It had even sparked public resentment!
Look, when an official from the Ministry of Revenue was sitting in a sedan chair on his way to court, some people hiding in the dark secretly hit him with rotten eggs!
The strange thing is that these rotten eggs were thrown so accurately.
It doesn't feel like it was thrown by ordinary people!
Ordinary people don’t have the courage to do this!
It's impossible for them to escape so quickly! Even the guards and constables couldn't catch up with them!
Ha ha!
This was also done by Baili Tang. He had to let the officials of the Ministry of Revenue feel in advance what the consequences would be if the taxes were increased.
You can just resign. You've earned enough over the years anyway, so you don't care about this little salary. So what about Baili Tang? Will he abdicate?
The tax rate in Jing State has reached a critical point. If it increases further, it will inevitably exacerbate social contradictions. By then, there will be "Liangshan heroes" everywhere!
The "literati" of Jingguo didn't have to pay taxes. Amazing, isn't it? Yet, they controlled the vast majority of the country's social wealth. Living a shameless life of luxury, never once did they consider the suffering of the people?
Taxes must be paid!
However, Baili Tang will no longer extend his hand to the poor people at the bottom of society, but to these people!
It means that he is about to do something extremely dangerous!
To affect the interests of the "scholar-officials," he hoped for the support of the people, but this was a hollow promise. He could only seek the support of the Ye and Hu families, along with his imperial legion and imperial guards. Even if the Yang, Han, and Guo families all sided with the Lin family, he wouldn't have to worry!
Plus, he had to create a sense of panic!
Therefore, he invited the Queen Mother to this morning's court session.
"Emperor, now that you've returned, it would be against protocol for me to interfere in the affairs of the court. All matters will be decided by you after consultation with all the officials!"
"What the Queen Mother said is absolutely right. However, today's matter is of great importance, and I need the Queen Mother's approval before proceeding!"
Baili Tang was supporting the Queen Mother as they went to court together. Seeing the loving mother and filial son, he asked, "Did you hear about how I dealt with those concubines yesterday?"
"It's not a problem for you to handle it that way. After all, Qiuyu is a rare and extraordinary woman! I have already issued an order that no one in the harem should disturb her unless it's urgent. It's you, the emperor, who is so busy with state affairs. It's better to leave the affairs of the harem to the Harem Master."
The implication was that Baili Tang should quickly establish a queen and stop getting mad at her over petty jealousies among the concubines. The head of the harem, of course, referred to the queen.
"Your Majesty is right. Do you have a suitable candidate in mind?" Are you trying to push your niece to be the queen?
"This matter cannot be taken lightly." I don't care about your matter!
"What kind of incense does mother use? It smells so good?" Baili Tang praised.
"It was prepared by the Imperial Hospital specially for me. Who does the Emperor want to give it to? Miss Qiuyu?"
"Her? She's usually only interested in those smelly things. If she weren't so accomplished in agriculture... let's not talk about her..."
We’re in the temple!
When the civil and military officials saw Empress Dowager Lin, they couldn't help but think: I'm afraid that today's morning court will be another bloody storm!
The factional disputes in Jing State can be divided into four major factions according to their power: Lin and Liang each form one faction; some military generals such as Ye, Hu, Yang, and Meng form one faction; the two prime ministers, Zhang Dongzheng and others have no faction.
The Ministry of Revenue, which managed household registration, also oversaw land, currency, various taxes, and official salaries. It was the equivalent of the modern Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Civil Affairs. It was the most lucrative department, controlling the economic lifeline of the Jing Kingdom.
Most of the officials in the Ministry of Revenue are from the Lin family!
Why can't Baili Tang send Cobra to assassinate the boss of the Lin family like he did to the Xue family?
To use a simple analogy, the Xue family is like a small nest of bamboo wasps, while the Lin family is a giant hornet. If Baili Tang is unsure of his ability to eliminate the entire nest, he can use a bamboo pole to gently shake it nearby, testing the waters but never poking it.
Once he calls his friends together and they stab together, the damage to him will naturally be reduced... There are so many "bee pupae" inside, who wouldn't be "greedy" when seeing them?
For some reason, Zhang Dong was thinking that His Majesty might try to provoke a hornet today. Suddenly, his eyelids began to twitch violently!
"Master Zhang? What are you thinking about?"
"I was just thinking about General Meng!"
"Hahaha." Meng Fang was no fool. He could see that this morning's court session was going to cause a big stir! The Royal Legion already had 200,000 soldiers. Who were we afraid of?
The Imperial Army that followed them back to the capital was naturally stationed in the capital, and the Imperial Guards were only a few dozen miles away.
The Imperial Guards were supposed to obey His Majesty, and ostensibly they did, but who could guarantee who the current commander of the Imperial Guards actually favored? After Baili Tang returned to the capital, he only attended court once, then excused himself from attending due to illness. That's pretty impressive!
The next level below the commander of the imperial guards is the commander-in-chief, and there are several of them.
The Imperial Guards are the biggest variable!
From the current perspective, Empress Dowager Lin should not be able to fully control the imperial guards!
Otherwise, with 200,000 imperial guards and 300,000 Lin family troops, even if the Ye family, Hu family, Han family, Yang family, Guo family, and Meng family were added together, the number of people would be basically the same!
Of course, the focus of today's discussion is not the Imperial Guards!
But taxes!
Taxes that concern the lives of all people and the country!
Tax: from 禾, duì (exchange). Original meaning: land tax, levied on agricultural products.
In feudal society, the main source of income was naturally taxes from farmers. Today, Baili Tang will change everyone's thinking.
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