Spoiling History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

"The more you do, the more people will criticize you. Who doesn't understand this?"

Cao Cao sneered twice, but the laughter seemed a little empty in the hall, and no one echoed it.

For him, after listening to Zhang Fei's confusing talk for a while, he realized that this was a matter hundreds of years later. He had no interest in it and only wanted to listen to it briefly, but when the voice mentioned "powerful prime minister", Prime Minister Cao had to pay attention.

Even if he excluded those nouns that he didn't understand, he understood the general direction and reason, so he sighed.

The hall was silent for a while, and then a voice sounded:

"The prime minister has done a lot, so he is angry with the world! However, the slander and criticism cannot cover up the prime minister's achievements!"

Zhang Fei immediately slammed the table:

"Liu Ye, are you done yet?!"

This made Liu Ye's face flushed: "How dare a man..."

But under Zhang Fei's cold gaze, Liu Ye finally didn't say the rest of the words.

So Zhang Fei sat down again, changed his expression and patted Cao Cao's thigh and said:

"That's right...but your Cao family has done a lot."

"A few years ago, I remember you said that if there was no old Cao, I don't know how many people would be emperors and how many would be kings."

"As a result, you, Cao, were the first to be king, and your son was the first to be emperor, and you were given the title of Emperor Wu of Wei."

In the corner, Xun Yu's expression moved, and his eyebrows and eyes added a bit of worry, but he felt a lot more relaxed in his heart.

The expression on Prime Minister Cao's face was very wonderful.

If the matter of the early death of children and grandchildren can be refuted, then what Zhang Fei said at this time is really a bit difficult to argue.

After all, family members know their own affairs. If it weren't for the changes in Jingxiang, he would probably have really called himself the King of Wei at this moment.

He called himself the king, his son usurped the throne, and finally died in three generations. Could this be what Zhang Fei said, the original history without the light curtain?

With a trembling hand, Cao Cao subconsciously grabbed Zhang Fei's arm:

"My history..."

"Why are you in such a hurry? There will be a time to read it. If you don't read it then, I will force you to read it!"

Cao Cao was speechless and became more and more uneasy.

At this point, Zhang Fei suddenly felt a little regretful:

"It's a pity that I couldn't invite Brother Shiwan to attend, otherwise..."

Cao Cao pondered this sigh and realized that it was Sun Quan, after all, he was qualified to be present. Look at Zhang Fei's character who is afraid of chaos in the world... But Cao Cao couldn't stand Zhang Fei's attitude, so he still had to say a few words:

"You remember Wenyuan's achievements clearly."

Cao Cao saw that Zhang Fei's face looked a lot strange, and finally shook his head and said:

"This title was not given by me, but by future generations."

...

In Guangzheng Hall, Zhao Dezhao looked at the light curtain while listening to his father slowly telling him about the changes in the two Song dynasties in a complex and tangled tone.

The voice in the light curtain sounded about the same age as him, but Zhao Dezhao was still a little suspicious after hearing the final sigh:

"It sounds like praising the emperor for his generosity and magnanimity to say that you can offend Mongolia or the emperor in the Southern Song Dynasty."

"But why can't you offend the powerful and the literati? If you can't suppress the powerful, how can you suppress annexation? And the literati..."

Zhao Kuangyin hesitated again and again, and finally sighed and stood with his hands behind his back and said:

"Dezhao, do you know how you died in the history books?"

Zhao Dezhao didn't know, but seeing his father's lonely attitude, he guessed a little, and comforted him:

"Dad, don't think about those things, I'm still alive and well."

Shaking his head, Zhao Kuangyin said calmly:

"You committed suicide after being reprimanded for asking for rewards from your soldiers. It's not just you. Defang's death is also strange."

"The historian can write in a distorted way because of the sword and the weapon, and can also write in a hidden way because of personal likes and dislikes."

"A sharp knife can cut off a person's head, and a distorted pen can destroy a person's name. Both are sharp weapons."

Seeing that his father was a little silent because of this, Zhao Dezhao simply put his mood in order and pretended to be curious:

"This man named Hai Rui can be mentioned by this person, which shows that he is a very good person. I wonder which king is lucky enough to have such a capable minister."

And Zhao Guangyi, who was standing next to him, saw that his nephew had adjusted his position slightly and had completely turned his back to him, and his mood was complicated for a while.

[Speaking of the "Public Land Law", we have to mention that the last years of most dynasties were basically accompanied by financial crises.

Therefore, the primary purpose of seeking change in the last years of most dynasties was to make money.

Let's take the Ming Dynasty as an example.

In order to increase revenue during the reign of Emperor Wanli, the land tax was increased by 9 cents. However, when Emperor Tianqi ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty still had a deficit of more than 2 million taels in tax revenue, so several non-agricultural taxes were imposed from the beginning of his reign.

In the first year of Emperor Tianqi, miscellaneous silver, salt tax and customs tax silver totaled 1.27 million taels, and by the third year of Emperor Tianqi, the salt tax, reed tax and customs tax totaled 410,000 taels, and miscellaneous silver had increased to 2.3 million taels, which not only filled the gap in the fiscal revenue, but also generated some revenue.

However, Emperor Tianqi could be so leisurely because the commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty was too simple, and the subject of taxation was erratic, so there was a lot of room for operation.

The collapsed house tax, wine and vinegar tax, deed tax, fishery tax and market stall tax basically covered all commercial taxes. Except for wine, they were basically taxes that could not make much money just by hearing the name.

The miscellaneous silver added by Ming Muzong was basically related to commercial taxes, but in order to avoid the interference of the vassal kings, it was not collected through the tax bureau. Therefore, these commercial taxes became miscellaneous items on the surface.

It is a pity that if the Ming Dynasty could have taken more drastic measures to take back the salt permits of the royal family and relatives, rectify the salt administration, and then take alcohol out of the commercial tax and collect taxes on it, the Ming Dynasty might have died more gracefully.

After all, salt is something that everyone eats, no matter how expensive or cheap it is. As a result, the previous dynasties had to increase the salt tax again and again in order to make money, which not only caused public resentment, but also gave rise to private salt dealers like Huang Chao, which was not worth the loss.

On the contrary, alcohol is something that tends to be enjoyed, and its attributes as a necessity are relatively weak. In modern times, tobacco and alcohol are the major tax items in many countries. Even the Song Dynasty could collect tens of millions of guan in alcohol tax. The Ming Dynasty was larger in size, but the alcohol tax collected was almost negligible, which was very strange.

Of course, this is a far-fetched topic again, and it is really because the complexity of the Ming Dynasty's taxation cannot be explained in a few words. After we finish talking about the Song and Yuan Dynasties in this issue, we will definitely talk about it in detail later.

After all, Li Zicheng once sighed that he was the emperor, but he only had 200,000 in savings. How could he not perish!

Among all the great unified dynasties in history, the Ming Dynasty was the only one that died of poverty. 】

The originally peaceful atmosphere in the Huagai Palace was cleared, and Zhu Biao clearly heard that his father's voice beside him had become hoarse.

"Die of poverty?"

"Not because of the exiles?"

After a moment of silence, the hoarse voice roared:

"How could he die of poverty?!"

The anger in the voice was clearly revealed, but Zhu Biao also knew that his father's original words to him about being killed by the old enemy in the north were already unacceptable, so why did he say this now?

No, not to mention the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he, the crown prince, could not accept it either.

At this moment, Zhu Biao was even confused:

Could it be that in order to adapt to the so-called window period, the emperor must also understand wealth?