The Heavens Begin with Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 39: Bad News Spreads Far and Wide

In fact, there is something wrong with what Ambassador Song said.

Zhan Ershisi and Xue Pan are not officials, so why does he call himself a humble official?
However, the capital city is a place with many officials, worthless people, and many powerful people. There is nothing wrong with him calling himself a humble official without any moral integrity.

Isn’t it strange that there are so many people?

Although Zhan Ershisi and the other man were not officials, they were relatives of the rich and powerful. Their behavior was more like that of an official than Ambassador Song. When they saw him coming over to say hello, they just bowed slightly and said casually:

"We are here to pay taxes. The accounts are all here. Everything is true. Ambassador Song, please calculate how much we should pay."

Someone then brought the account to Ambassador Song.

Ambassador Song looked down but didn't dare touch it. Instead, he waved his hand to dismiss the people around him, then smiled and asked:
"My two lords, is there anything behind this?"

"How should we collect this tax?"

"Can you two give me some pointers?"

Zhan Ershisi found it absurd to see that the tax-collecting official didn't even dare to collect the tax from someone who came to pay the tax.

Privileges are such a good thing!

If he had no other purpose, he would certainly be willing not to pay taxes. He smiled and said:
"Don't think too much about it, Ambassador. This matter has nothing to do with you, so don't think too much about it."

"We come to pay taxes, and you just follow the law and collect the taxes you should."

"After collecting taxes, you should record them as you should and report to whoever you should report to."

"We will come to pay taxes every month from now on. If we don't come, you can send someone to collect it."

"You just need to do everything in a fair and just manner, neither charging more nor less, and naturally nothing will happen."

"If you're worried, you can just appoint one of your men to handle this matter."

Ambassador Song was relieved, and called a confidant in, saying:
"Call the accountant to come and calculate how much tax should be collected from these two young masters' families."

"Also, from now on, you will be responsible for following up on the taxes of these two young masters. Take the initiative to collect them at their homes, and don't wait for the nobles to deliver them to you."

"Remember, don't charge a penny more!"

Zhan Ershi was listening nearby, so he interrupted and said, "Don't take even a penny less!"

Ambassador Song thought about the conversation between the two and added:
"That's right, we must calculate it accurately and collect as much as we should!"

The confidant didn't know what was going on, and didn't dare to ask, so he just obediently followed the instructions, went out to call people in, and started calculating the taxes.

The tax rate in the Daqing Dynasty was, in principle, one in thirty, which was very low, but in practice it would fluctuate according to different industries.

The tax on luxury goods is relatively high, such as the pawnshop industry and the jewelry industry, while the tax rate on daily necessities is relatively low, such as food.

The business income recorded in the accounts mainly comes from two sources. One is from the sale of ironware such as ovens and carts, which has a higher tax rate and belongs to the Xue family's blacksmith shop. The other is from the sale of grains such as sweet potatoes and chestnuts, which has a relatively low tax rate and belongs to the Zhan family's grain store.

The accounts provided by Zhan Ershi were very clear and the calculation was done quickly.

Ambassador Song took the paper with the tax amount written on it and handed it to Zhan Ershisi, saying with a smile:

"This is the calculated tax. Please take a look and see if there is anything wrong with it." "In addition, Master Xue's family is in charge of the duties of the imperial merchant, so this part of the tax can actually be exempted."

Xue Pan had already received the instructions, so he immediately waved his hand and said seriously:
"That's not right. Although my Xue family is an imperial merchant, only the goods purchased for the palace are tax-free. Other goods are not within the tax-free range!"

"The ironware sold this time has nothing to do with the palace's purchases and should not be tax-exempt."

"Everything must be done according to the rules. Not a penny less!"

Seeing Master Xue's righteous words, Ambassador Song also hurriedly echoed:
"Yes, Master Xue, rest assured, I will definitely not take a penny less!"

The two parties confirmed the agreement on the spot and paid the taxes. Ambassador Song then respectfully escorted the two men out the door. He watched them mount their horses and ride away before wiping the sweat from his forehead and hurriedly sending someone to inform his backstage staff of the news.

Officials think a lot, but ordinary tax collectors don't have such flexible brains.

They only know that these days there are still people who don’t have to pay taxes, but still come to pay taxes on their own initiative.

To put it in a good way, this is the behavior of a gentleman; to put it in a bad way, this is the behavior of a fool.

Ordinary people in this era are still somewhat different from those in the future.

In the future, if people knew which company was eager to pay taxes in full, they would certainly not hesitate to offer all kinds of praise, praising the company for its sense of social responsibility.

After all, a lot of these taxes will eventually fall on the people, improving the quality of life of ordinary people. It doesn't cost money to say a few nice words, so what's the harm?

But the people of this era were not well-informed and did not understand these principles at all. So when they heard about someone doing such a stupid thing, most people would laugh at them.

As the saying goes, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles. The news that the Zhan and Xue families had two idiot young masters who were eager to pay taxes soon spread throughout the capital.

Everyone loves to gossip about important people, especially the gossip about the idiot young master, which is so popular that everyone enjoys talking about it.

Even Jia Zhen, who was in Ningguo Mansion, heard the news from his servants and was so happy that he smiled foolishly for the whole afternoon, as if he had found some kind of psychological balance.

For this matter, he even got a pot of wine, sat alone in the room, drinking by himself, and began to ponder over random things in his mind.

It’s not my fault that I didn’t get any benefits from Mr. Zhan. It’s not that Mr. Zhen is bad at handling things. It’s just that Mr. Zhan is too stupid!
After all, he is a country bumpkin from a small place!
This person who comes from a small family doesn't know how to count at all, doesn't understand the distance between relatives and friends, and doesn't know how to get the most benefit!
If that's the case, you might as well continue to interact with him, coax him first, and then cheat the silly boy out of his money.

To deal with such a fool who cannot distinguish between good and evil, you should just go along with him and use inducements. You will surely not suffer any loss. Just like the Shi family, didn’t they get a great advantage?
After thinking about this, Jia Zhen asked someone to call Qin Keqing and asked:
"Have you been to the Zhan Mansion in the past few days?"

"What about the sweet potato thing?"

Qin Keqing had noticed before that there was something wrong with the way Zhan Ershi looked at her, so every time she went to Zhan's house to find Xiangling, she would bring a group of people with her and never out of other people's sight, so naturally there was no progress.

She couldn't bring up her suspicions with her father-in-law, so she just evaded the question by saying:

"Aunt Xiangling promised to talk to her, but she has never responded."

Jia Zhen nodded slightly, thought for a moment, then called Youshi over and said with a smile:
"Brother Zhan Xian led us to do business this time and gained a lot. I am thinking of inviting Brother Zhan Xian to come to my house in a few days to have a drink and deepen our relationship."

"You guys get ready. This is a family dinner. We are just having a meal together as a family. You have to attend as well."

Yu Shi didn't know her place in the court and thought what he said was true, so she agreed with a smile and took people to prepare.

Thanks to the apprentice “Laomao71255” for the reward of 500 coins!
Thanks to book friends "Haohuan Chenyu" and "Denghuolanshan555" for the reward of 100 coins!
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(End of this chapter)