Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 181

When Wang Yan came out of the theater, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. This is completely two extremes from when he was dealing with the natives in Kaiping.

The villagers at the bottom of the society are fighting with their lives for a little land and resources needed for life, while the gentry and merchants living in Guangzhou city live a life of spending money like dirt.

Because of the birth of Emperor Taizu, the Ming Dynasty did not pay much attention to merchants. In addition, the economic destruction at the end of the Yuan Dynasty made the country unaware of the role of merchants, and adopted a light tax system of taking one out of thirty for merchants.

This situation did not change until the Wanli period. The imperial court began to increase the proportion of commercial taxes again, but the agricultural tax still accounted for [-]% of the national tax, while the salt tax accounted for [-]%. Huangzhuang and other messy incomes accounted for half of the income, while commercial taxes still accounted for less than [-]%.

Such a huge imperial court is almost entirely operated by land tax. Among the people of such a dynasty, the poorest ordinary people bear more than [-]% of the country's taxes. The court tax was [-]%, which was exactly the opposite of the commercial tax in the Song Dynasty, which was as high as [-]% of the court tax, so the gentry and merchants of the country were simply rich.

In the theater, the gentry and merchants who spent money like water made Wang Yan sigh. When he was worried about the funds for the Northern Expedition, the wealth of the gentry and merchants was so rich that he could invest gold and silver in the land, and he didn't care at all.

At this time, Wang Yan had no intention of attacking the gentry and rich merchants. On the contrary, he still believed that the gentry and wealthy merchants were the important reliance of the court.

In "Song Lun", there is a saying that "big merchants and rich people are the rulers of the country". There is a saying in "Yellow Book" that "the country has no rich people, and the people are not enough to colonize".Even Wang Fuzhi, the brother of Wang Yan's clan who taught Wang Yan since he was a child, once said that he regarded the loss of the rich and helping the poor as a crime, just like cutting the flesh of a fat man and putting the body of a barren man.

In this regard, Wang Yan also has his own ideas. He will not attack rich households for no reason, but now that the country is at stake, the gentry and merchants have to bear the responsibilities they should have.

At this time, Wang Yan already had the idea of ​​reforming the tax system, but he also knew that the implementation would inevitably encounter strong resistance.

Because the collusion between officials and businessmen in this dynasty is unprecedented, as long as the emperor wants to collect business taxes, the public opinion of the whole world will jump out to oppose it.Anything that competes with the people for profit or excessive taxation will become an excuse for the gentry to resist taxes.During the Wanli period, the emperor sent his servants to the southeast to collect taxes on silk and cloth. As a result, riots broke out wherever the taxes were collected.

At this time in Tiannan, although there was no such powerful force as the Donglin Party representing the interests of gentry and merchants, the relationship between merchants in Guangdong and the local gentry and even officials was intricate.

After much deliberation, Wang Yan decided not to affect the existing interests of the gentry and merchants, and not to change the tax rate, but to crack down on tax evasion and tax evasion on the current basis, and gradually improve the tax items.

Of course, this is a very complicated process, and it cannot be completed by Wang Yan alone, and a good opportunity is also needed to prevent the gentry and merchants from rebounding.

When Wang Yan returned to the Duke's Mansion, he was still worried about money. The 1 taels of silver Xu Yanyan donated was only a drop in the bucket for him. At this moment, the imperial edict urging him to go out came again.

It turned out that after Wang Yan released 100 million taels of silver to Fujing, the emperor, who was financially restricted by Zheng Zhilong, suddenly became rich.

Of the 100 taels of silver, 20 taels of Longwu will be reserved for the imperial court, 30 taels will be allocated to Jiangxi governor Wanji, and let him block the Jiangxi Qing army. He ordered him to recruit troops to go out of Xianxia Pass and enter the south of the Yangtze River.

Emperor Longwu regained his ambition. First of all, everyone praised him for releasing the tax money into his trousers. Even the "Dingyue Please Lianfu Bingshu" that had been suppressed for many days and had not been approved was approved, and then Wang Yan was ordered , In cooperation with Zheng Chenggong's dispatch of troops to the south of the Yangtze River, he immediately went north to launch a campaign to attack Jingzhou and Wuchang.

The emperor had an order, and Wang Yan had no choice but to obey, but with 30 taels of silver in hand, he wanted to conquer Hubei, but it was obviously impossible. He was afraid that he would spend all the money just to buy food and supplies.

For a moment, Wang Yan couldn't help being helpless, but at this moment, Hu Weizong, who came south from the south of the Yangtze River, brought him money.

Yangzhou was the most wealthy country in the world. When Wang Yan withdrew, he secretly buried the silver in the Yangzhou government treasury and the donations of the gentry, totaling 300 million taels of silver, under the high slope outside the west city, so that it could be used as military expenses in the future Northern Expedition.

In August, Wang Yan personally went northward to take the risk, but at that time Li Chengdong was ordered by the Qing court to recast Yangzhou City, which made his plan to take silver fail.

When Wang Yan left Fujing, he asked Hu Weizong to go to Yangzhou to get the silver again. He didn't expect to get the silver back when he needed it most.

Of the 300 million taels of silver, Hu Weizong left 100 million taels for the development of Tiandihui, and the remaining 200 million taels were shipped to Guangzhou, which immediately relieved Wang Yan's urgent need.

Overjoyed, Wang Yan talked with Hu Weizong, only to find out that the Tiandihui merged with the Jinyiwei who escaped from Nanjing, and recruited many masters from the rivers and lakes, and established sub-helms in various places in the south of the Yangtze River. After they established contact with Hou Fangyu, Also inquired about a lot of news inside the Qing court.

Wang Yan told Li Xiangjun about Hou Fangyu, and when he heard about it, he couldn't help bursting into tears, but after watching the information Hou Fangyu collected from Hong Chengchou, Wang Yan felt heavy in his heart.

At this time, he already understood Emperor Longwu's urgency to let him send troops.

Although the hair-shaving order was extremely cruel, the Qing court used it to distinguish and kill all the scholars and civilians who were loyal to the Han Dynasty, which solved many hidden dangers and gradually stabilized the areas occupied by the Qing court.

In this way, all the loyal ministers and righteous men with backbone died, and the rest were obedient people. At this time, the Qing government was reducing or exempting land taxes and giving a little favor. In a few years, Jiangnan would be completely ruled.

Wang Yan saw this from the information brought by Hu Weizong, and also saw that Jiangnan's resistance to the Qing Dynasty had entered a trough, so he understood that the Ming army must take action, and there was no delay in sending troops.

Therefore, Wang Yan asked Hu Weizong to leave a capable backbone for easy contact, and then immediately returned to the south of the Yangtze River, and developed the Tiandihui to the Huguang area to cooperate with the arrival of his army.

Wang Yan received the money, and the only condition for restricting the dispatch of troops had been decided. He entrusted Su Guansheng to preside over the civil affairs, and Liu Shun, his confidant, led the Zhongyong Camp to Guangzhou, and left his aide Chen Bangyan to advise him. Battalion, a total of 500 people, sent troops to the north to launch the battle of Jingzhou.

(End of this chapter)