I am the snake demon!

"That's natural. One person's wisdom is limited, but two people's plans are more effective. That's why I'm discussing this with everyone."

Bai Xuan smiled as he looked at the two people who were shocked by him.

"Both methods have their flaws, and most importantly, neither is sustainable; they can only provide temporary relief, not lasting solutions," Xu Yuhua said, frowning.

Upon hearing this, Bai Xuan raised an eyebrow slightly and said, "Then let's think of some other ways. What are the main sources of income for the Prince's Mansion these days? As long as we don't give up, there are always more solutions than problems."

He had a choice, and he didn't want to do it this way, but he had no other choice.

Sugar, soap, cement, salt, distilled spirits, glass...

When he was thinking about making money, he thought of the essential tricks that protagonists in time-travel novels use to get rich.

But as soon as they appeared, he denied them one by one.

The reason is simple: he doesn't know how.

In his previous life, he was just an ordinary person, not really that talented.

He didn't know he would time travel at that time.

Moreover, he was a humanities student and stopped studying science in his senior year of high school. If you think about it, he learned those science subjects more than a hundred years ago.

Now, he has forgotten not only his science knowledge, but also almost all of his humanities knowledge.

Because I wasn't good at physics, chemistry, and biology, I couldn't switch to politics, history, and geography.

And then he thought of Emperor Wu of Han.

A ruthless man who single-handedly exploited the entire Han Dynasty.

Although Bai Xuan didn't remember the specific methods very clearly, he still vaguely remembered a few.

Salt and iron were state monopolies; official positions were sold; and wealth was calculated and reported.

In addition, there was the mining tax from the Ming Dynasty.

The lack of money was exceptionally severe in the late Ming Dynasty.

There was once a joke circulating online that went, "The Ming army was not paid enough, but when paid enough, it was invincible. Where can we find full pay? Huangtai outside the Great Wall." This shows how short of money the Ming army was in the later period. Their problem was not whether they had compensation for those who died in battle, but that they didn't even have their own pay.

Some are lucky enough to receive military pay for a few months of the year, while others are unlucky enough to go one or two years without receiving any pay.

Mining taxes were one of the means by which the emperor increased national revenue.

In addition to the existing salary system of the imperial court, eunuchs were dispatched to collect taxes.

The effect is also good.

However, from the central government to local authorities, all sorts of messy, immoral, and chaotic things are happening everywhere.

Moreover, just because these things worked in the previous life doesn't mean they will work in this world; we need to see how they perform in real life.

"There are always more solutions than problems?"

Xu Yuhua looked at the optimistic Bai Xuan and couldn't help but chuckle. She then had all the necessary account books prepared for Bai Xuan.

She has been troubled by this problem for some time now.

But even a skilled cook can't cook without rice. The most legitimate source of income for the Prince's Palace is taxes, but heavy taxes can drive the people to their deaths. Increasing taxes will inevitably cause suffering for the people and could easily lead to civil unrest.

Bai Xuan took it and examined it carefully, looking at each item one by one. First, the Prince's Mansion was quite wealthy; second, the Prince's Mansion's expenses were even greater.

Especially military spending.

Normal military pay, pre-war preparations, post-war compensation, and meritorious service rewards, all added together, amount to astronomical figures.

In the previous great battle, in addition to compensation, a group of people who won and made meritorious contributions also received rewards that could not be stopped, and were even more urgent.

No wonder the Prince of Zhenbei wanted to marry the daughter of the Xu family of Shanyang.

I have no choice but to marry him.

Speaking of which, does the Xu family have any daughters?

Or should I go and make him a promise, saying I'll marry his daughter in the future?

A nephew is never as close as a grandson.

Xu Yanheng is still unmarried, which is also a potential breakthrough.

Looking at the diligent Bai Xuan, Xu Yuhua felt inexplicably at ease. These days, Bai Xuan was enjoying the warmth and comfort of women, while she was constantly striving. For a moment, she couldn't tell who the real Prince of Zhenbei was.

Although she was initially wary of Bai Xuan because of his identity, she felt that it would be better to let Bai Xuan do it, given his current situation.

Bai Xuan continued flipping through the account books. After a while, he suddenly looked up and said, "That's not right. Why is the Prince's tax revenue so low?"

Although the North is often plagued by war, war does not mean that commerce is underdeveloped.

The bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish.

To the north lies the Northern Wilderness, to the northwest the Demon Kingdom, and to the west the various kingdoms of the Western Regions.

Being bordered by three different countries at the same time means that he can obtain the specialties of the three countries and exchange goods with them.

Things are valued for their rarity. Many items from the Northern Wilderness, the Demon Kingdom, and the Western Regions are worth a fortune when brought to the Central Plains. This income is just too low.

"The commercial tax was set by my father back then. At that time, Liangzhou and Bingzhou were in dire need of reconstruction, so my father chose to impose a tax of one-thirtieth to attract merchants and bring resources to the northern border. Among them, the Xu family of Shanyang made great contributions, so many of them were exempt from taxation," Xu Yuhua said.

"So the tax rate is incredibly low, and a large number of goods such as books, farm tools, fruits and vegetables, and wedding and funeral supplies are exempt from taxes. And it hasn't been changed for almost thirty years?" Bai Xuandao said.

It was one thing to be tax-free before, but is it still tax-free now?

What are you thinking about?

"That's right, Father said that wealth should be stored among the people," Xu Yuhua said.

"Father is right. Now is the time for us to take wealth from the people." Bai Xuan's eyes brightened as he saw the path to wealth.

Commercial tax!

A pig that's been raised for thirty years, why isn't it being slaughtered yet?

Keep them to be buried with you!

"You want to change the commercial tax?" Xu Yuhua immediately understood Bai Xuan's meaning.

"To be precise, I want to significantly increase commercial taxes!" Bai Xuan said.

Without agriculture, there is no stability; without commerce, there is no wealth.

In his limited knowledge of history, commercial taxes were key to a country's wealth.

The Song Dynasty, the wealthiest dynasty in Chinese history, and even the only one that did not suppress land annexation, owed its success to its unprecedented commercial prosperity and high commercial tax revenue.

The Ming Dynasty was the opposite. It was a unified dynasty with a territory twice that of the Song Dynasty, yet it could hardly collect commercial taxes, and its national treasury revenue was less than half that of the Song Dynasty.

Of course, the North cannot be directly compared.

However, the importance of commercial taxes is self-evident.

What kind of ruling class would it be if it didn't exploit the wealth of merchants?

"But if we change the commercial tax right after Father's passing, it will be seen as unfilial. Moreover, if the commercial tax is increased, merchants' income will decrease, which will likely reduce the number of people trading in the northern border, affecting the livelihoods of the common people," Xu Yuhua said, frowning.

"Father's rules are meant to be broken. If Father were so honest, our Xu family would have to farm for the rest of our lives. As for trade, Sister, you can rest assured. As long as there is profit to be made, they will come. If there is no profit, they won't come even if there is no tax. I'm just making them pay the taxes they are supposed to pay," Bai Xuan said without hesitation.

We've already given out policy benefits for nearly thirty years, isn't that enough?

Wealth should be stored among the people; now the country needs you, so give back.

If you dare not pay taxes, you'll lose your life.

What are the military personnel for?

"Since you want to do it, then do it. But collecting taxes is not something that can be done overnight. First, we need to determine the new tax rates and tax categories. The commercial taxes in the Northern Territory have been low in recent years, and reforming them will take time. Secondly, to collect commercial taxes, we need to increase the number of personnel. That is, even before the commercial taxes are collected, we will have to pay for the salaries of officials. In other words, we need to recruit some scholars to serve as officials." Seeing that Bai Xuan's attitude was firm, Xu Yuhua did not object.

"So many steps?" Bai Xuan was slightly taken aback, as he indeed had little practical experience.

"Otherwise, do you think governing a country is easy?" Xu Yuhua rolled her eyes at Bai Xuan.

Many things have good ideas, but putting them into practice is not so simple.

However, if the operation is not done well, even if the idea is good, it may go wrong in practice, and in the end it may not be as good as before.

These are the lessons she learned during this period.

"Governing the country?"

Bai Xuan raised an eyebrow. This touched on his blind spot. In his past life and this life, he had spent most of his time as a lone wolf. He had hardly ever managed people, let alone governed a country. He said, "We two can't come up with a solution for this kind of thing. Let's invite the chief clerks over to discuss it together and come up with a general plan. Then I'll go to Mingde Academy to find the teachers. There should be quite a few poor students in the academy who want to become officials but don't have the connections. Let's help them enter officialdom directly."

In any era, there is no shortage of people who want to become officials.

Being able to enter the academy means that their intelligence is better than that of the vast majority of people in the North, and they will have no problem becoming low-level officials.

As long as a clear promotion system is provided, there will definitely be no shortage of people who want to become officials.

Most importantly, he is a prince, and the Northern Territory has a complete administrative system, so he doesn't have to figure out all the problems on his own.