All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 111 Chen Xiuzhuan, you are truly a pillar of the country
Qianqing Palace, Yangxin Palace.

The Emperor of the Great Zhou continued to review memorials one after another.

Looking at the memorials from all over the country, either requesting funds for disaster relief or requesting military pay to quell mutinies, the emperor felt a headache.

"Money, money, you only want money. Why do you need to solve the problem that can be solved with money?"

"I am not a cultivator, I cannot conjure up silver!"

Just like what was written on Chen Ran’s paper, the Great Zhou Dynasty was suffering from a serious illness.

The emperor was ambitious and during his reign he either went to the northern border to fight wars or to the south to travel around the Yangtze River.

He favored the royal family, favored the nobles, and appointed people based on personal connections, which caused chaos in the world and even the prince was about to rebel!
Now it is the emperor's turn to clean up the mess. The court is full of either ambitious conspirators or useless people who only know how to pursue romantic interests.

The debts that I have owed over the years have now come to be repaid, and life is becoming extremely difficult.

Thinking of the silver, the emperor glanced at Xia Bingzhong, the eunuch of the six palaces, who was waiting in the distance with his head bowed. "How is the stamp tax going?"

"Return to Your Majesty."

Xia Bingzhong replied modestly, "The Ministry of Revenue has already formulated a complete plan, and is waiting for your Majesty's approval before it is promulgated throughout the country."

He then laughed and said, "The people in the Ministry of Revenue said that after the tax was introduced, we could at least collect 200,000 or 300,000 taels every year. It's still a good tax that is not despised by the people."

A smile finally appeared on the emperor's face.

Two or three hundred thousand taels were just a drop in the bucket in the eyes of the emperor.

However, it is rare to collect taxes well, so that they are not criticized by the people or recorded in history books as exorbitant levies and miscellaneous taxes.

He did not have much pursuit for enjoyment, but he attached great importance to reputation, especially the reputation that could be recorded in history books, which he valued very much.

"Ordinary people can only pay a few times in their lifetime, so they won't complain." The emperor had a clear view of the stamp tax. "As long as the merchants do business and sign contracts, they can save a lot of trouble with the court's endorsement and stand on their own ground."

Xia Bingzhong didn't know what to say, so he could only respond with a smile.

After thinking for a while, the emperor asked, "Has Chen Ran been on duty?"

"Your Majesty, Chen Xiuzhuan is on duty today."

"Call him over."

Not long after, Chen Ran, who had been chatting with his colleagues in the side hall, came to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

The emperor was very straightforward and asked directly, "I am in urgent need of silver. What is the fastest way to get a large sum of silver?"

Chen Ran didn't waste any words and gave the answer directly: "Search the house."

Hearing this, Xia Bingzhong's legs trembled, and his eyes were filled with horror. "How dare you say that!"

The emperor was not angry, but smiled.

He also wanted to confiscate the property of the Zhen family in Jiangnan, the four kings and eight dukes, and all those who were greedy for military honors. It would be best if they all had their property confiscated.

The problem is, now is not the time.

The forces opposing him were powerful, and forceful action would only cause unrest and even endanger his throne.

"I know you are capable of great things." The emperor flattered, then revealed his true intention, "Do you have any other ideas for a good tax like stamp duty?"

Xia Bingzhong, who was watching closely from a distance, was complaining in his heart, "Your Majesty is really good at making things difficult for people. The whole court of civil and military officials couldn't find such a good tax, and Chen Xiuzhuan finally came up with a good tax, but you still want it? Do you really think that money is so easy to make?"

He heard Chen Ran respond, "Your Majesty, do you want good taxes or silver?"

The emperor stroked his beard and squinted his eyes. "The best tax is the one that can get silver."

"Yes." Chen Ran nodded. "You can impose an inheritance tax. If a person's family property is worth more than 10,000 yuan, his descendants will have to pay half of the property as inheritance tax after his death. The people will definitely applaud this."

Xia Bingzhong looked up in astonishment without paying attention to the rules, his eyes wide open.

How dare you say that!
"The people will indeed applaud." After thinking for a while, the emperor shook his head, "The opposition is too strong."

Those who can own a fortune of millions are naturally not ordinary people.

How could they possibly agree to this kind of thing, where they would just hand over half of their wealth in taxes?

If it were really implemented, it would immediately cause a fierce wave of opposition across the country.

The emperor wanted to levy inheritance tax, but unfortunately he knew he couldn't.

But even so, it was enough to make him look at Chen Ran differently.

Anyone who can think of this method is definitely a talented person.

After a moment of silence, the emperor lowered his request and said, "How about just silver?"

"Row."

Chen Ran had no intention of being modest at all, and directly took on the responsibility, "I do have an idea here. I dare not say more, but I am sure that I can earn one million taels a year."

"One million taels?" The emperor's breathing was a little rapid.

This is a truly huge sum of money, enough to pay for the work of dredging the river.

He asked in a deep voice, "Have you ever taken advantage of others or oppressed the people?"

"That's absolutely not the case." Chen Ran simply shook his head. "It was definitely the people of the Great Zhou who volunteered to pay. No one forced them."

"How can it be?!"

The emperor was a little out of control.

The people willingly took out money and raised millions of silver to give to the court?

Could this person have gone mad? What nonsense is he talking about here?

If Chen Ran had not previously raised the issues of stamp tax and inheritance tax, the emperor would have ordered him to be expelled from the palace.

"How to do it?"

Chen Ran spread his hands. “Once the news gets out, someone will imitate it right away. Then there will be nothing we can do.”

"That makes sense." The emperor nodded in approval. Although the palace had been reorganized, it was still the fastest place for information transmission in the world.

If you really have an idea that can make a lot of money, it's really not good to talk about it here.

The emperor solemnly ordered, "Everyone get out."

The eunuchs and palace maids who were serving bowed and took their leave.

Chen Ran could feel that there was someone who had not left, behind the screen behind the emperor. If nothing unexpected happened, it was the emperor's guard.

He didn't care, and took a step forward and said, "If your majesty just wants money, I have a solution, that is, issuing lottery tickets?"

The emperor was very interested. "Lottery? What is this?"

"This is a scam, cough cough." Chen Ran coughed and described the lottery issuance in detail.

Of course, numbers and other things are replaced by the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

"You can't lose money or be cheated by buying something that costs ten cents a piece."

"If you win the first prize, thousands of taels of silver are enough to provide you with food and clothing for the rest of your life."

“In addition to the first prize as a gimmick to attract customers, there should also be a large number of small prizes to make them feel that they have not spent much and can continue to buy again and again.”

"The most important thing here is credibility. If you win a prize, you must cash it out, otherwise the business will be ruined."

"I can't say anything else, but it's not hard to make a million or eight hundred thousand taels a year."

"If your majesty despises this little money, just pretend I didn't say anything."

"Small amount of money?" The emperor blew his beard and glared. "How much is the annual income of the court? Moreover, this is all cash!"

It was obvious that the emperor was moved.

"You should find someone you can trust to handle this matter. Otherwise, it will be ruined in a few times if someone tries to manipulate it." Chen Ran kindly reminded, "Your Majesty, you must insist that it can only be managed by the court. Anyone who does this privately will be beaten and treated as selling illegal salt."

"Well, your worry is correct." The emperor stood up and walked around with his hands behind his back. After thinking for a moment, he made up his mind, "Let the King of Qi handle this matter. You go and assist him."

The King of Qi is the third prince. He is good at managing wealth, so it is appropriate for him to do this.

After all, this identity can withstand pressure from multiple parties.

Chen Ran was well prepared and had written down all the relevant procedures in detail. He even made a few lottery tickets for King Qi to refer to.

"Chen Xiuzhuan." The young King of Qi had a round face and small eyes and loved to laugh. He looked at the lottery ticket from left to right and said, "How can this be prevented from being counterfeited? If a big prize is drawn and someone takes out hundreds or thousands of first prize tickets, won't the compensation be enough?"

"First, we need to set up a prize pool. Each period has a prize pool cap, which is determined by a percentage of the current period's sales. No matter how many jackpots are won, the prize pool can only be divided equally."

The King of Qi's eyes lit up. "This is a good idea. This way the court's income will be guaranteed."

Chen Ran nodded. "Secondly, each ticket is in duplicate, and the square root is sealed in lead. The square root will be compared when the prize is drawn."

The King of Qi raised the question again, "Wouldn't that be too much trouble? There are so many tickets, check them one by one."

"So we have to sell at designated locations." Chen Ran also gave a solution. "For example, in Wannian County, we have 10 sales locations, and the square root is stored in each sales location. Anyone who buys here can come here to redeem the winnings."

The King of Qi still had doubts: "If someone colluded with others inside and outside and cooperated with each other to forge the system?"

Chen Ran smiled but said nothing. He didn't care how to deal with this matter.

"Chen Xiuzhuan." The King of Qi suddenly realized and praised with a smile, "You are really a pillar of the country~~~"

It was a huge sum of money, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of taels. God knows how much trouble it would cause.

But this has nothing to do with Chen Ran. He is only responsible for giving advice and does not interfere with the specific operations.

On this day, Chen Ran came to Rongguo Mansion for a banquet as scheduled.

Jia Zheng was very polite to him and said frankly that he could never repay him for saving his life and invited him to have a drink to express his gratitude.

"You won't repay me if you can't repay me? You have a daughter!"

Chen Ran dealt with it calmly on the surface, but he was complaining in his heart, "It's all fake, can't you be more practical?"

There really isn't anything real going on, I just gained some favorability.

Not only did he not give any benefits, he even wanted to ask him to do things for him.

Halfway through the banquet, Jia Zheng took the initiative to say, "My children and grandchildren are ignorant and unskilled, and I am extremely worried. Zihou is a top scholar. If he could come to my house to teach me a few things, it would be a blessing from heaven. The whole family would be grateful~~~"

The Jia family was a family of military nobility, but unfortunately by Jia Zheng's generation, no one had the ability to pursue a military career, so they started studying and taking the imperial examinations instead.

Jia Zheng's generation was pretty good. Jia Jing from Ningguo Mansion even passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi.

But going down to Jia Baoyu's generation, it was really like a weasel giving birth to a rat, with each generation being worse than the previous one.

Jia Zhu, the only one who had a promising future, died early.

Jia Zheng was also very troubled by this matter.

After learning that Chen Ran was the top scorer in high school, he immediately became interested.

If you can invite the top scholar to be your teacher, he will be the best teacher in the world.

"You are really good at selecting people." Chen Ran smiled inwardly, "I am the top scholar, but I don't have any real talent or knowledge."

Under normal circumstances, such things are avoided because they are too troublesome.

But Chen Ran readily agreed.

The biggest advantage of teaching in Rongguo Mansion is that you can get close to the Twelve Beauties.

Seeing that Chen Ran really agreed, Jia Zheng was overjoyed and quickly called everyone in the family to meet him.

The first one to come out was Mrs. Wang. Her son and grandson all wanted to take the top scholar as their teacher, so naturally they wanted to meet him and express their gratitude.

Just after a few polite words were spoken, two lines of subtitles floated before Chen Ran's eyes.

(End of this chapter)