Tibet

After coming out of the refugee camp, Cui Guangyuan, who had been silent all this time, finally found an opportunity and said to Li Ye with a smile: "There is something I don't understand in my humble position, and I would like to ask your highness!"

Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "Cui Shijun, please tell me!"

Cui Guangyuan pondered for a moment and said: "Two years ago, I heard that His Highness resettled immigrants and granted them tax-free treatment for ten years. Today, Your Highness once again promised to give these refugees land and tax-free treatment for ten years. I really can't figure it out. Generally, tax-free for one or two years." That’s pretty much it, why should I be exempted for ten years?”

Li Ye nodded, "This is a good question. Many officials said that I was too tolerant to the refugees. I actually gave so much land and was tax-free for ten years. Everyone couldn't figure it out and thought it was unfair and too generous to the refugees.

The key here is, in what capacity do you look at this issue? If you look at the problem from the perspective of an official, it is a bit generous. If you look at the problem from the perspective of ordinary farmers, it is simply unfair. Why give them tax exemption? Not to me, but if you look at it from the ruler's perspective, you can understand. "

"Your Highness, could you please elaborate?"

Li Ye said calmly: "First of all, not all refugees receive this treatment. There are only three places that have ten years of tax exemption, one is Fengzhou, one is Hexi, and one is Hehuang Valley. Refugees assigned to Qinzhou do not have ten years of tax exemption. , Unless you join the army to fight for me, you will still be taxed like other farmers, thirty to one tax.

I have proposed the tax-free policy for farm allocation in Hexi for several years, but no one is willing to go, and no one is willing to go to Fengzhou. The same is true for Hehuang. What is the problem?

They are both bitter and cold frontier places and are unsafe. Only the refugees did not understand the situation. When they heard that the land allocation was tax-free, they all went there happily. Even so, hundreds of thousands of refugees who were allocated to Hexi fled. The land allocation was not good. ? Isn’t tax exemption bad? Why run away?

The number of Han people in the Hexi Corridor has actually been on a downward trend from the Tianbao period to before refugee resettlement. More and more Han people fled the Hexi Corridor. There were only less than a hundred Han households left in Fengzhou, which was basically abandoned.

If there are no Han people in these places, we will lose them sooner or later. From the perspective of ruling the world, what does that little land and taxes mean? As long as it benefits the people and allows them to settle down with ten years of tax exemption, they will not leave easily if they have a feeling for their homeland. "

Cui Guangyuan sighed: "His Highness's vision of the world, I really can't keep up with it. Now I'm enlightened. Thanks to His Highness for your teachings, I've learned a lesson!"

Cui Guangyuan said these words sincerely. It was also the first time that he looked at this issue from the perspective of a ruler, instead of worrying about the gains and losses of land and taxes.

Li Ye smiled and said: "In fact, we are not tax-free?"

"Your Highness, are you referring to the salt tax?"

Cui Guangyuan knew the salt tax very well. Every time the people bought a pound of salt, they had to pay eighty cents of salt tax to the government. However, it was not that the government was exploiting the people. In fact, it was just converting the money earned by the salt dealers in each link into the government. Just the tax money.

Li Ye nodded, "Including salt tax, but not only salt tax, but also coinage tax!"

"Coin tax?"

Cui Guangyuan heard this word for the first time. Li Ye explained with a smile: "These immigrants have grown wheat, but they can't eat it themselves. They still have to sell it to the government in large quantities. The government uses copper coins to buy it, but where does the copper coin come from? We mint it ourselves, and use the minted copper coins to buy farmers' grain, and then subtract the cost of the copper coins. The difference in price is the mint tax, which is about 30% of the mint tax."

Cui Guangyuan thought for a while and said: "But this coinage tax is not a burden on farmers. They can also use copper coins to buy other things."

Li Ye said calmly: "It doesn't matter to us who bears the tax, but we did purchase grain, and the minted money played a role. This is the minted money tax, also called the ruling tax. Only rulers are eligible. Casting copper coins, this is why I strictly prohibit private coin making, it is the same as selling private salt, it is a capital crime!"

"It seems that there is still a lot to learn from the humble post. The humble post is accustomed to looking at things from the perspective of a local official. It needs to be changed as soon as possible."

"Just get used to it!"

Li Ye chuckled and speeded up his horse. He did not stay in Qinzhou for a long time and returned directly to Jincheng.

Shouchun is the seat of the Huaixi Jiedu Mansion. The current Huaixi Jiedushi is Prince Ji Li Huan, who was the prince who was intercepted halfway when he was appointed as the Jingxiang Jiedushi.

Later, he was transferred to Qingxu Jiedushi and Huaixi Jiedushi. The key to his continued success was that he was able to curry favor with Li Fuguo and donated a large amount of money every year.

Although Li Huan did not want to give up his post as Jiedushi, he did not attach great importance to military power. He valued financial power more. The more than 40,000 troops were always commanded by deputy Jiedushi.

At present, his deputy military governor is Li Xilie. Li Xilie was originally the nephew of Dong Qin, the military governor of Pinglu, also surnamed Dong. He followed Dong Qin to the south, conquered the south and the north, made great achievements many times, and gradually became Dong Qin's number one subordinate. general.

After the Anshi Rebellion, Dong Qin was granted the title of Huaixi Jiedu Envoy and was given the name Li Zhongchen. Li Xilie also changed his name to his current name and served as the Military Envoy.

Li Zhongchen was more similar to Tian Shengong, and did not have the obvious intention of separatism like Tian Chengsi. Li Xilie repeatedly advised his uncle to establish a vassal town, but Li Zhongchen did not adopt it. Soon Li Zhongchen was recalled to Chang'an by the court to serve as the general of Zuowei, and was granted the title of Shouchun. The prince.

Logically speaking, Li Xilie should have taken over the post of Huaixi Jiedushi, but to his disappointment, Qingxu Jiedushi Li Huan was changed to Huaixi Jiedushi, and Li Xilie served as deputy envoy.

Although Li Huan did not care about military power, which was firmly controlled by Li Xilie, Li Xilie was still extremely unhappy. Li Huan's existence was like a huge stone blocking the road, preventing him from becoming a vassal.

As Liang Chongyi became a vassal town, Li Xilie's ambition grew stronger and stronger, and he wanted to kill King Ji Li Huan with one knife.

That afternoon, a middle-aged female Taoist priest and two female apprentices entered Shouchun City in a carriage.

The middle-aged female Taoist priest is Gongsun Auntie. She is now the guest of Qi King Li Ye, which is equivalent to Liefeng's status beside Li Longji back then.

Aunt Gongsun practiced Taoism in Baiyun Temple during the day and lived in Prince Qi's Mansion at night. She was responsible for protecting the safety of Prince Qi's family. Sometimes she was secretly dispatched by Li Ye to complete some difficult tasks.

This time she came to Shouchun, her target was Li Huan, and Li Ye wanted to remove Li Xilie's biggest obstacle to becoming a feudal town.

Only with enough rebellion and vassal towns can Li Ye become famous.

Aunt Gongsun stayed at a Wanfu Inn. The inn was small and close to the city wall. This inn was also an intelligence point just established by the Intelligence Department in Shouchun. The supervisor was Zheng Wei, who was also the shopkeeper of the Wanfu Inn.

The important reason why they bought this inn was that it was close to the city wall and the city wall was in the yard, making it very convenient to get out and enter the city at night.

Aunt Gongsun asked for two upper rooms to stay in the inn, and they did not go out. All meals were provided by the inn.

In the evening, Zheng Wei found Aunt Gongsun. He spread a map of Shouchun City on the table and explained to Aunt Gongsun: "Prince Ji's Mansion is here!"

He drew a circle on a building with a pen, "It is about one mile away from us, located in the northeast of us, covering an area of ​​eighty acres, and the courtyard wall is very high. You can tell it at a glance, but we can see the situation inside the palace." We are not familiar at all, we have only been in Shouchun for a month, please forgive me!"

Aunt Gongsun nodded, "Where is Director Zheng?"

"My humble position was originally the deputy director of the Xiangyang Intelligence Station."

Aunt Gongsun asked with a smile: "Where is the military camp? Where is Li Xilie's mansion?"

"This is here!" Zheng Wei circled two more buildings with his pen.

Aunt Gongsun looked at it and said, "It seems to be far away from the palace!"

"Exactly, it is said that Li Xilie stayed away from Li Huan because he was afraid of Li Huan's interference in the military power. In fact, it should be a coincidence. The military camp has always been there, and it is impossible to change it temporarily."

Aunt Gongsun pondered for a moment and asked: "Are there patrols or curfews at night?"

Zheng Wei shook his head, "There is no curfew, but there are night patrols. But you can go through the small streets and alleys, and you won't encounter patrol soldiers."

Zheng Wei carefully marked the route of a small street on the map with a pen.

Aunt Gongsun smiled slightly and said, "Thank you very much!"