Fu Shanhe

Chapter 379 Thunder
Hall of Supreme Harmony.

The grand court meeting was just halfway through, when the officials were arguing most fiercely, the battle report from the front line suddenly broke the deadlock.

Fu Ni is dead!
The White Lotus Rebellion that had plagued the Dayu Dynasty for many years was coming to an end.

The rich land of Jiangnan once again returned to Dayu's hands.

Faced with this good news, the emperor and all the officials were delighted.

"reward!"

"Ministry of War, verify the battle record as soon as possible and reward the meritorious officials!"

Emperor Yongning issued the order with great pride.

During all his years in office, this time of reward was the time when he spent money most smoothly.

The Ministry of Revenue, which has always been fond of complaining about its poverty, rarely did not jump out and sing a different tune.

Rewards are one-time, but taxes are ongoing.

Now that the government troops have recovered Jiangnan, Dayu’s fiscal revenue will definitely increase significantly next year.

With money in pocket, the Ministry of Revenue can stand up!
"Your Majesty, Jiangnan has just been hit by war, and it is a time of reconstruction.

I beg Your Majesty to exempt Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Nanzhili, Huguang, Fujian, and Guangdong and Guangxi provinces from taxes for the next three years."

Zuodu Yushi Lai Yaohua was the first to propose.

When it comes to tax exemption, Qingliu Group has always been a pioneer.

If he had just ascended the throne, Emperor Yongning would have definitely agreed without hesitation.

Having just experienced a war, exempting taxes and allowing the people to recuperate sounds completely politically correct.

But the court has no money!
The rebels in the Jiangnan region were wiped out, but the world of Dayu was not truly at peace.

Internally, rebels were wreaking havoc in Shu and Shanxi, while externally, Annan was invading and the northern barbarians were eyeing them covetously.

It costs money to solve these problems.

The tax exemption for eight provinces meant that after the recovery of lost territory, the court's finances not only did not improve, but instead increased its burden.

During previous wars, these eight provinces raised funds on their own to cover administrative expenses and military expenditures.

Now that the war is over, the high degree of autonomy we previously enjoyed must be taken back.

If the imperial court exempts taxes, the central government will have to pay for the administrative and military expenses of the eight provinces.

"Master Lai, this is wrong!"

“Now the above eight provinces can all levy taxes on their own to raise funds to suppress the rebellion.

It was with the help of the newly increased taxes that the rebellion was suppressed and hundreds of thousands of troops were supported.

If these taxes were exempted, the imperial court would need to allocate 21 million taels to the eight provinces every year to cover daily expenses.

But apart from these eight provinces, the total revenue of the Ministry of Revenue was less than 21 million taels.

How can we fill the huge fiscal gap?"

Pang Chengjie refuted immediately.

Knowing that the Qingliu people were extremely eloquent, he simply didn't bother to argue and just used the data to make his point.

No matter how good the reasons for tax exemption are, the court now has no money to implement them.

“Why does it cost so much?”

"In the past, the administrative expenses of these eight provinces combined were only three or four million taels!"

Lai Yaohua's questioning resonated with the ministers.

Having just experienced war, it is understandable that administrative expenses increase slightly, but they cannot increase indefinitely.

You have to know that in a bad year, the total tax revenue of the entire Dayu Dynasty would be less than 20 million taels after discount.

"You can ask the Ministry of War about this question."

Pang Chengjie said calmly.

War is the biggest money-eater. The war has just ended, and the biggest expense is naturally military spending.

"The garrisons in various places were so rotten that they were of no use. In order to suppress the rebels, we had no choice but to recruit soldiers.

Six towns in Guangdong and Guangxi, five towns in Huguang, two towns each in Jiangxi and Zhejiang, three towns each in Nanzhili and Fujian, a total of twenty-one towns recruited soldiers.

Including the troops of the governor's flag and the navy, the total number of recruited troops in the eight southern provinces exceeded 300,000.

The annual average cost per person for food, clothing, housing, transportation, and maintenance of weapons and equipment for these more than 300,000 people was about 50 taels, and this part alone cost 16 million taels.

After the war, food prices will gradually drop, and it is expected that future military expenditures can be reduced to less than 15 million taels."

Luo Zefeng immediately said frankly.

The military expenditure of the Dayu Dynasty has always been magical, and the treatment between different troops is very different.

There is no doubt that all these recruited soldiers trained by the nobles were paid in full.

When civil servants are in charge, everyone has to live a hard life. If our own people take over, they will have to live a hard life too. Who would be willing to work for them and risk their lives for them?
Even the newly formed troops have good combat effectiveness, and the most important reason is that the soldiers are well fed.

"I understand the main idea now, and I don't need to explain the rest!

Post-war reconstruction costs money, and an increase in spending is inevitable. We cannot save money on this.”

Pang Chengjie's voice rang out, directly detonating the court.

Officials in the southeast region, in particular, could not accept this.

At the beginning, everyone accepted the additional tax because of the pressure of survival.

On the other hand, several governors promised that all new taxes were temporary and would be canceled by the court at an appropriate time in the future.

But judging from the Ministry of Revenue's statement, it is clear that they are not planning to cancel it.

If they were in the position of Minister of Revenue, they would do the same.

We have finally withstood the pressure and got the money from the local authorities. How can we just not accept it?

Even though the provinces had huge expenditures, the Ministry of Revenue was still able to make a net income of several million taels every year.

What's more, the taxes imposed by several governors were mainly targeted at merchants and did not increase the burden on the people, so they were high-quality tax sources.

As the war ends and trade resumes, these taxes will continue to increase.

“This is competing with the people for profit!”

"This is militarism!"

"Now that the war is over, why do you still have so many troops? It's obvious that you want to keep them for yourself!"

……

For a time, various voices of opposition were heard in the court.

Faced with the fierce reaction of his ministers, Emperor Yongning hesitated for a moment.

"Your Majesty, why don't you let Master Pang introduce the tax composition of the southern provinces?"

Wan Junhui reminded gently.

It is not easy to be the Prime Minister. One is sandwiched between the emperor and his ministers, and has to take into account the interests of both sides.

From the perspective of the imperial court, commercial taxes were collected with great difficulty and certainly could not be cancelled just like that.

But the positions of the officials have to be considered.

These people standing in the court represent the interests of the gentry group.

Merchants are the money bags of the gentry, but for the sake of reputation, they mostly hide behind the scenes.

"allow!"

Emperor Yongning agreed immediately.

He also wanted to find out how the several governors-general from the noble families operated in the South and how severely they exploited the people.

“The taxation systems of the eight southern provinces differ in details, but are consistent in general.

Although it was called lijin, it was essentially a tax.

By category, they include land tax, commercial tax, salt tax, tea tax, customs tax, mining tax, liquor tax, and iron tax. Others such as the adult tax and tooth tax do not account for a large proportion, so we will skip them directly.

Among them, the land tax was converted into silver of about 7 million taels, mainly due to war factors, and it is expected to increase in the future.

However, a large amount of it is levied in kind, and after the price of grain drops, the silver equivalent will be reduced again.

How much it can grow specifically depends on the actual situation.

The salt tax was about 6 million taels, the customs duty was about 6.8 million taels, the commercial tax was about 5 million taels, the mining tax was about 2.3 million taels, the liquor tax and tea tax totaled 1.8 million taels, the iron tax was about 1 million taels, and other miscellaneous taxes totaled 2 million taels.

The total fiscal revenue of the eight provinces was approximately 32 million taels.

For our dynasty, this number is a record, but it is still far behind that of the former Song Dynasty.

Of course, these figures are estimates by the Ministry of Revenue and the actual amounts may differ.

For example, the salt tax was levied directly by the imperial court.

After the war, the newly added salt fields along the coast will also be brought under the jurisdiction of the court.

It needs to be discussed whether the military expenses of the newly formed 21 regiments should be mainly funded by direct appropriations from the imperial court or mainly by subsidies from local government offices.

Once these things are determined, it will be easier to determine the tax distribution between the imperial court and local government offices."

Pang Chengjie said calmly.

Looking at the surprised expressions of the officials, he was very satisfied.

In fact, when he first got the data, he was also shocked by the money-making ability of several noble governors.

However, given the precedent of the Song Dynasty, he did not find it strange.

The Southern Song Dynasty was just a small corner of the country, with a territory not much larger than these eight provinces, but its taxes were much higher.

"My dear ministers, you are truly my backbone!"

While the ministers were still in shock, Emperor Yongning, who was afraid of poverty, expressed his opinion first.

With this financial revenue, he would accept even heavy taxes and extortions.

The new taxes were concentrated on customs duties, commercial taxes, mining taxes, and tea and wine taxes, while the land tax was actually reduced.

Although he intended to slap himself in the face, he abolished the tax supervision after he came to power, and the mining tax and commercial tax were almost reduced to zero.

The high tariffs are clearly contrary to the maritime ban policy.

But in the face of huge tax bills, these small problems are forgivable.

Deep down in his heart, Emperor Yongning couldn't help but sigh that at critical moments, his own family members are still useful.

"Your Majesty, such heavy taxes and levies will only make life miserable for the people!
I beg Your Majesty to remove Marquis Wuyang, Duke Chengguo, and Marquis Zhenyuan from their governorships, and order the Imperial Guards to escort them..."

Before Censor Lu Guoheng could finish his words, Emperor Yongning stood up from the dragon throne.

"Jinyiwei, arrest this traitor and torture him severely!"

Faced with the furious emperor, the ministers who were about to impeach him suddenly stopped.

It's not that everyone is spineless, it's mainly because Lu Guoheng never thinks before speaking.

If you are against taxation, just pick out the reasons for your opposition.

When it comes to political issues, directly attacking meritorious officials with trumped-up charges can easily be interpreted as the court getting rid of them.

For the Dayu Dynasty, Marquis Wuyang, Duke Chengguo and Marquis Zhenyuan were all heroes who turned the tide in times of crisis.

It’s a good thing that the emperor didn’t abandon him. If it had really happened, it would definitely be recorded in great detail in future history books.

No matter how much they try to cover it up, it will be useless. With so many officials present, someone will definitely record it when they return.

There are even more folk records, and it is likely that people will make up a bunch of stories in their imagination.

Whoever dares to join in the fun at this time will be the Qin Hui of the Dayu Dynasty if something happens in the future.

Even officials from the clean class would try to avoid things that would bring eternal infamy.

All officials were afraid of being blamed, and Emperor Yongning was afraid as well.

If we don't respond and the outside world thinks it was his intention, the political consequences will be disastrous.

(End of this chapter)