Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

While increasing land productivity cannot be achieved overnight, some things need to be done, such as organizing people to build water conservancy projects and searching for phosphate and potash mines to produce fertilizer.

Sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and cassava have also been introduced to China and are being cultivated on a small scale in coastal areas. Li Chengming has also commissioned a caravan to purchase seeds in Fujian.

Many things have already begun, but seeing results will not happen overnight.

In order to increase revenue, Li Chengming did several things: standardize tax collection!

The current sources of tax revenue for the Restoration Army are: land tax, mining tax, and commercial tax.

Land tax: the land tax for ordinary people was generally five percent, while the land tax for landlords ranged from five percent to twenty percent.

If someone owned a thousand acres of land, the tax rate would be as high as one-third, but there weren't many landowners in Xinzhou Prefecture who owned a thousand acres of land.

The first land tax was collected by the new policy work team, which recorded the details of the first land tax collection as a reference for future tax collection.

The collection of land tax was one aspect of implementing the new policy and a key focus for Li Chengming, so there were no major problems.

Regarding mining taxes, after the Xingfu Army took control of the entire Xinzhou Prefecture, they conducted a general survey of all mineral resources and found that Xinzhou Prefecture was indeed rich in resources, including coal, iron, limestone, gold, silver, lead, and phosphate mines.

However, most mineral deposits are located deep in the mountains, where roads are impassable and mining is inconvenient. Some mineral deposits have not been mined for hundreds of years.

In any case, it's always good to have mineral resources. Regardless of whether they can be mined or not, they should be registered first. If someone has already started mining, taxes should be collected, and if no one is mining, they should organize their own manpower to mine.

A third of the mining tax is still quite considerable.

Most importantly, there is the commercial tax. Currently, the Restoration Army simply and crudely collects a 10% business tax from merchants without distinguishing between value-added tax, turnover tax, and business tax, or differentiating between different types of goods.

Therefore, Li Chengming also sent people to conduct a market survey this time, and took the opportunity to regulate various taxes. Businesses that open shops and sell goods will be subject to business tax, middlemen will be subject to turnover tax, the tax rate for grain and other daily necessities will be low, and the tax rate for luxury goods such as porcelain will be high, and the overall commercial tax will be controlled at around 10%.

Houses are also a commodity. You don't have to pay taxes if you live in them yourself, but you have to pay taxes if you rent them or buy and sell them. The tax rate for renting and selling houses is five percent.

Seeing the booming housing market in Xinzhou City recently, Li Chengming is even planning to expand Xinzhou City and develop the real estate industry on a large scale.

Once cement is produced in large quantities, it's worth considering developing real estate. Houses are unaffordable for the poor, so we can specifically target businessmen and the wealthy to make money.

Just as Li Chengming was racking his brains about how to amass wealth, Manager Huang from the Jiangyou Merchants Group came to see him.

During this period, many of the supplies for the Restoration Army were procured through Manager Huang, including military supplies such as copper, lead, saltpeter, and sulfur.

Seeing the Xingfu Army achieve victory after victory, Manager Huang's attitude became more and more humble.

Because he wanted to build a good relationship and long-term cooperation with the Xingfu Army, Manager Huang offered increasingly lower prices for procurement and also did his best to fulfill the tasks assigned by Li Chengming.

Upon seeing Li Chengming, Manager Huang bowed deeply and said, "Congratulations, General! Congratulations on another great victory! Your fame has spread throughout Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang!"

Li Chengming said to Manager Huang, "Please have a seat. Manager Huang looks radiant today. What brings you here?"

Manager Huang knew Li Chengming's personality; he didn't like to beat around the bush. For example, when he met Li Chengming for the second time, he wanted to kneel down to greet him, but after being scolded by Li Chengming, he understood that Li Chengming disliked so many formalities and roundabout ways.

Manager Huang said, "The general asked me to inquire about the mineral resources last time, and I've already made some progress."

"Oh?" Li Chengming exclaimed in surprise, "Tell me about it!"

The commandos' tablets contained various maps, including detailed terrain maps, but none of them had maps showing the distribution of mineral resources.

The map on the tablet couldn't find any mineral deposits using the place name index; it could only find the locations of mining companies, which greatly annoyed Li Chengming.

Therefore, the quickest way to find mineral resources is to ask around. As a businessman, Manager Huang has traveled all over the country and is very knowledgeable, so asking him is the most suitable option.

Manager Huang said, "General, you may not know this, but Qianshan has not only lead mines, but also coal mines, iron mines and copper mines."

Li Chengming shook his head and said, "We already have coal and iron mines, and we have also organized manpower to mine lead mines. As for copper mines, there are copper mines in Xinzhou Prefecture, but the roads are impassable, and they are located deep in the mountains and forests, so it is difficult to mine them in the short term."

The copper mines in Xinzhou Prefecture are of relatively low quality. After calculating, Li Chengming realized that the cost of mining copper was not much different from the price of purchasing it from Manager Huang. If no other copper mines could be found, then they would consider mining the ones that were registered.

Manager Huang said, "General, please don't worry. I have already found out the most suitable copper mine for you to mine. It is not far from Xinzhou City and the quality is also high."

Manager Huang didn't let Li Chengming ask further questions, and said directly, "This place is Fujiawu in Dexing County, Raozhou Prefecture. The copper concentrate produced here is of very high quality!"

"Dexing County!" Li Chengming knew that Dexing County was next to Xinzhou Prefecture, only fifty or sixty kilometers away from Xinzhou City. In later generations, Dexing County and Xinzhou Prefecture belonged to the same city: Shangrao City, but in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Dexing County belonged to Raozhou Prefecture.

Li Chengming pondered that if Dexing County really had high-quality copper mines, then sending troops to occupy them would be worth considering.

Then Manager Huang took out a rough map, which marked the location of Dexing Copper Mine and the surrounding roads and villages, showing that Manager Huang was very meticulous.

In fact, Manager Huang even personally made a trip to Fujiawu in Dexing County, which shows how much effort he put into it.

Next, Manager Huang told Li Chengming all the information he had learned.

After listening quietly to Manager Huang finish speaking, Li Chengming smiled and said, "Thank you, Manager Huang. I will remember your kindness."

"Not at all," Manager Huang said, flattered. "It is my honor to be able to contribute to your army."

The strength of the Xingfu Army is now vastly different from what it used to be; anyone with eyes can see that the Xingfu Army has a great chance of becoming the dominant force in Jiangxi!

At that time, Huang and his businessmen would still need to do business in the territory under the jurisdiction of the Xingfu Army, so they should try to befriend the Xingfu Army as much as possible and make the Xingfu Army owe them a favor.

Li Chengming was well aware of Manager Huang's thoughts, but he still had to accept the favor. Besides, Manager Huang was quite proactive in paying taxes when he came to Xinzhou City to do business.

Manager Huang is pragmatic and self-aware. He is not unscrupulous in business, at least not towards the Restoration Army. Therefore, Li Chengming has a good impression of him.

After seeing Manager Huang off, Li Chengming took out his tablet computer and opened the electronic map to look at it.

The route from Dexing County to Xinzhou Prefecture, while not particularly mountainous or densely forested, is still a rugged mountain road, making it impractical to bring back mined copper.

Therefore, the only option is to build a factory locally, refine the copper locally, and then transport it back.

Fortunately, there were also many coal mines nearby. With both copper and coal mines available, the basic conditions for building a copper smelter were met.

Alternatively, the "copper immersion method" can be used directly, replacing the copper with iron sheets.

The key now is to take over Dexing County.

Li Chengming had not planned to expand his influence recently, but after learning that there were copper mines in Dexing County, his desire to occupy Dexing County grew stronger.

After studying the map for a long time, Li Chengming finally decided to send troops to Dexing County!