A son who doesn't resemble his father? Love you, old man, see you at Xuanwu Gate!

Chapter 221 Wealth Taxes
"In the past, the relocation of imperial tombs was done once a year, but now, only six or seven years have passed since the second year of the Yuanshuo era, and it is being moved again. Perhaps it is a bit too hasty."

Wei Qing spoke up.

The frequent relocation of imperial tombs makes the court appear too blatant and greedy in its plundering of the wealthy.

"Does Your Majesty have ulterior motives in saying this?" Gongsun Hong asked frankly with a smile.

They had even discussed matters of death and burial, so there was nothing they couldn't talk about with Wei Qing and Huo Qubing.

Back then, during the relocation of Maoling, Wei Qing pleaded with the emperor on behalf of the wandering knight Guo Jie.

"Which of your chivalrous friends, Lord Qin, wish to be exempted from this predicament?" Gongsun Hong asked jokingly.

Upon hearing this, Wei Qing showed a rare look of embarrassment and shame. He had never kept retainers, but he had many dealings with chivalrous heroes. This was related to his humble origins and his childhood fantasy of being rescued from dire straits by chivalrous heroes. Even now, as the Grand Marshal and General of the Han Dynasty, and knowing the difference between a true hero and a wandering knight, his fondness for chivalrous heroes still persisted.

"Old Prime Minister, that's not what I meant."

What does "舅舅" mean?

Seeing the subtle change in Wei Qing's expression, Liu Ju knew the scars and soft spots in his uncle's heart. However, this matter concerned national affairs, and the incident involving Guo Jie could not be repeated. He could not help but say, "You may as well speak frankly."

Wei Qing fell silent for a long time before saying, "According to my son, the imperial decrees often punish everyone without consequence. I know this is because the imperial court is powerless. It is better to punish everyone than for the monarch to break his promise and for the decrees to collapse."

The Han Dynasty court was essentially a series of government offices, and meals were still eaten separately. The Han emperor was the "common ruler" who oversaw these separate meals.

No government decree can satisfy all government offices and subjects. Subjects may, unintentionally or intentionally, deviate from the decrees in their execution.

The best way to ensure the implementation of government orders is to set implementation standards, then order the people to follow those standards, and the court to reward or punish the people according to those standards.

However, this method has a drawback: it indiscriminately punishes all subjects who fall below the implementation standards.

"My son, among the wandering knights, there are good and bad. There are many who are chivalrous, public-spirited, righteous, and rob the rich to help the poor. Although wandering knights are considered restless under the laws of the Han Dynasty, I still hope to forgive some of them, so that children who have been suffering since childhood can have a better chance of survival."

Wei Qing's words were almost a plea. The childhood he referred to was more like his own childhood. If he hadn't even dreamed of growing up to be a chivalrous knight back then, he didn't know if he would have survived to adulthood, let alone achieved what he has today.

We can't take away a child's dream of becoming a knight-errant!

Gongsun Hong remained silent.

Huo Qubing was moved. Although he was born into wealth, he had heard the insults from the son of a maid in the Marquis's mansion for twenty years. Everyone was cursing them, uncle and nephew, because they were related by marriage. If he could, he would protect the last bit of goodness in his uncle's heart. His eyes couldn't help but look at Liu Ju.

"uncle."

"Ok?"

"Who caused the 'water and fire' you mentioned?" Liu Ju asked softly.

Many people fail to grasp the true nature of life, knowing only that water and fire are always around them, but completely unaware of where they come from.

Wei Qing was stunned. He and Empress Wei's mother were both Wei Ao. The reason his mother went to the Marquis's mansion as a servant was because the Wei family was poor and sold her there. But why were they poor?

A natural disaster struck; upstream floods destroyed the fertile fields that were about to be harvested, resulting in a complete crop failure. The Marquis of Pingyang bought the fields at an extremely low price, and the people were sold into the Marquis's household for free.

Is there something hidden?
Wei Qing shuddered and looked up at Liu Ju, who nodded slightly.

Zhang Tang and Xiu Yi directly pointed out that the Imperial Censor had thoroughly investigated Princess Pingyang and the Pingyang Marquis's Mansion, uncovering many things. The natural disaster decades ago was man-made. In order to seize land, the Pingyang Marquis's Mansion stored water in the upstream dikes during the dry and normal water periods, and then breached the dikes during the flood season, destroying all the fields on both banks. Afterwards, they took back the land and people without spending a penny.

Wei Qing's eyes were slightly red.

“Uncle, a true chivalrous and righteous hero doesn’t have a million coins,” Liu Ju said softly.

Despite the fact that the imperial court's revenue and expenditure often amounted to hundreds of millions, billions, or even tens of billions of coins, the annual tax revenue of the Han Dynasty during the reigns of the late Emperor Xiaowen and Emperor Xiaojing was only 5 billion coins.

In the second year of Yuanshuo, the order to relocate Maoling required that anyone with three million coins or more be allowed to move their entire family. If we had to make a comparison, that three million coins was no less than that of a billionaire in later generations.

Even if Liu Ju lowered the standard again, limiting it to one million coins, that would still be a considerable fortune, and such people and families accounted for less than one in a thousand in the Han Dynasty!

If a family starts from scratch and wants to accumulate so much wealth, it would take the efforts of ten generations. If, as my uncle said, such a person or family is public-spirited, charitable, and helps the needy, it would be difficult for a hundred generations to have so much money. In the present Han Dynasty, which person or family has survived from the Shang Dynasty to today?
Unless, of course, that first pot of gold wasn't clean!

Wei Qing wavered.

"Uncle, one of the root causes of human suffering is that good is not pure enough and evil is not thorough enough. Purely good people can enjoy themselves but will never become rich and powerful, while those who become rich and powerful must have been evil enough for one or several generations!"

Liu Ju tore open the bloody reality and slowly said, "My Emperor Gaozu of Han was a rebel. The old prime minister flattered the emperor during my father's reign. My uncle and elder brother killed hundreds of thousands of Xiongnu to achieve what we have today. Is this a good thing?"

The reputation of the Han emperors as cruel and ungrateful persists to this day and will be passed down to future generations. It began when Emperor Gaozu kicked his children off the carriage while fleeing for his life, when Xiang Yu threatened to boil Liu Taigong alive and Emperor Gaozu asked for a cup of soup, and after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu executed meritorious officials such as Han Xin and Peng Yue. The Liu family emperors were not inherently kind.

Gongsun Hong was not without his pride in his learning, his arrogance, and his isolation; what was the result?
He was never given an important position during the reigns of Emperor Xiaowen and Emperor Xiaojing. If he hadn't lived a long life, he would have turned to dust long ago, still full of knowledge.

He changed his own learning, flattered the emperor's will, formed cliques and suppressed dissent, and only by annotating the Six Classics for his father did he obtain the position of one of the Three Dukes. Don't you see how late Dong Zhongshu realized this?

Wei Qing and Huo Qubing were even more so, rising to power by stepping on the corpses of hundreds of thousands of Xiongnu people. Countless people inside and outside the Han Dynasty impeached and criticized them for their inhumanity.

The oppressive and terrifying truth made Wei Qing feel suffocated, but it also brought him closer to the thoughts of his nephew, the Crown Prince.

“Uncle, don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you!” Liu Ju said slowly.

Robbery from the rich and giving to the poor?

Only by robbing them can the imperial court help the poor. As for wandering knights, do dogs even deserve to be called knights?

"Ju'er, are you going to take action against the Quanfu family?" Wei Qing asked, his throat bobbing.

"We're just preparing to levy a small amount of wealth tax."

(End of this chapter)