C194 (1/2)
”Aooo …”
Many women brought their children with them as they rummaged through the corpses for their men and their fathers' corpses. The men were like mountains, and once they fell, the pillars in their hearts would fall as well.
In the palace's Righteous Hall, Hanling Emperor was sitting on the throne of the emperor, beside him were his trusted eunuchs, Zhang Jean and Song Dian, and below them, stood the ministers of the imperial court, with the Grand General Ho Jin, Grand Commandant Deng Sheng, Sikong Yang Ci and Situ Yuanwei standing in front.
During this period of time, the Minister of the Court had been discussing about the Arrowhead's actions in the Youzhou. They had secretly argued many times, but since Hanling Emperor Liu Hong had not come to the meeting, they were unable to release their feelings. After waiting for a long time, Grand Commandant Deng Sheng was the first to sue the rider general, the Arrowhead.
”Your Majesty, ever since Yang Lin entered the Youzhou, he spent everything he had to buy food and compete for food with the people. This caused the price of food to soar, to the point that the price of food rose along with it throughout the country. In order to gather more food, Yang Lin had actually forced the distribution of land taxes, and made it special and original. With more fields as a basis, the land taxes would become heavier, and he had even forced the Wealthy soldiers to donate food at a rate of 10%. He had sealed the border, preventing food from flowing out, in order to suppress the Wealthy soldiers. This subject dares to ask the Emperor to order a reprimand Yang Lin, to stop this kind of illegal act. ”
It turned out that Guang Yang County's squire, Lu Jie, had joined forces with more than twenty other squire, and sent out an initiative to all of the squire in Youzhou, summoning them to donate food to the Youzhou Army, so as to support the Youzhou Army in pacifying the rebellion. When the middle and small landlords who only owned a few thousand mu saw that the big landlords had donated even more, their hearts became more balanced. They voluntarily paid the taxes and donated the food, but those who truly reached several tens of thousands of mu were, after all, a small minority, and those that reached over a hundred thousand mu were even rarer. They had no choice but to pay taxes and donate food under the immense pressure of the cavalry of Youzhou. Each county and county yamen had also issued an order. In addition to donating their rations, they had to sell them at the price of five coins per kilogram. Otherwise, they would be punished for the crime of destabilizing the city.
”Your Majesty, the Arrowhead has hired County Magistrate's History without permission. There are some counties that have two to three thousand people. How is the government going to deal with this? Other than the squire and the Scholars, there were also merchants in the County Magistrate's History. Wasn't this putting the whole plan into reverse? The imperial government had always valued agriculture more than trade. Agriculture was the most important task, those merchants only wanted profits, how could they become a good County Magistrate's History? If farmers go into business when they see merchants eating incense, who will grow grain? ”
Sikong Yang Ci was the second one to stand out as he spoke with incomparable worry. To be honest, Sikong Yang did not have any prejudice towards Yang Lin, but he was very dissatisfied with Yang Lin's two policies. Those merchants were all lowly commoners, how could they let them become County Magistrate's History? He looked at Hanling Emperor Liu Hong and continued:
This subject has also heard that the prices of food in the Youzhou are high and limited. The merchants of the Youzhou have sent a large number of people to all parts of the country to purchase food, causing the price of food in the entire country to skyrocket. If the Youzhou continues to buy food like this year after year, the price of food in the entire country will probably not be enough for the Youzhou.
Seeing that everyone was trying to impeach Yang Lin, Situ Yuanwei could not help but be secretly happy in his heart. Ever since Yang Lin replaced Yuan Shao, he had been feeling extremely uncomfortable in his heart. He had been looking for an opportunity to take revenge for a long time, and now that the opportunity had come, he joined the ranks of those who had impeached Yang Lin:
”Your Majesty, the yellow cloth army captive s are spread out across the various counties and counties of the Youzhou. Although the cavalry of Youzhou had obtained a lot of money from this year's battle to destroy the xanthopanax, they couldn't control it for more than a year. If they didn't have the money and food by then, they might take the risk. Your Majesty, the imperial government should be prepared for this. ”
One reason was because he was born into a butcher's family, and could be considered a merchant. He was already somewhat dissatisfied with these Scholars, but Yang Lin made these Chieftain into a small family, and the money Yang Lin gifted him worked, he immediately said:
”Your Majesty, this subject does not dare agree with the lords. The County Magistrate's History that Yang Lin hired were all amateur, they did not receive any money from the officials. As for the merchants participating in politics, they paid a lot of taxes, so why not enjoy the same treatment as them? Their way of exercising their authority was to vote. It did not affect the affairs of the government, so how could the government respond? However, for those prefectural and prefectural officials who are greedy for money, they will definitely not be able to sit still. ”
”As for the soaring price of food, this subject believes that it was caused by the yellow cloth and the natural disaster, and that the donation was initiated by Guang Yang, Gentleman Lu Jie and the others, these two things should have nothing to do with Yang Lin. As for sealing the border and forbidding the outflow of food, forcing the Wealthy soldiers to sell food at a low price, this official thinks that there is nothing wrong with that. The reason the price of food has skyrocketed is because the Wealthy soldiers does not sell food. This subject is rather interested in Yang Lin's tax rate, I really don't know how he thought of it. ”
Hearing He Jin's words, Hanling Emperor Liu Hong was also amused. Although the ministers were all saying that he was wise, he did not understand this progressive tax rate. However, he understood in his heart that by doing this, Yang Lin had not suffered any losses, but rather, those Wealthy soldiers s.
”Hehe, I am also very interested. Yang Lin has already written a book, explained the progressive tax rate, and also stated that the rich and powerful families would have to use the progressive tax rate to collect the land tax in the areas under their jurisdiction every year.
Deng Sheng knew better than anyone else that if he followed Yang Lin's method, no matter if it was farming or doing business, as long as he had the ability, he could become a new Scholars. And these Scholars s who had inherited from past generations were obviously not their match, so he immediately said to Hanling Emperor Liu Hong:
”Your Majesty, this cannot be done. Wealthy soldiers is the backbone of my Han Dynasty, and all the officials of the Imperial Court are from Scholars, how can they move so easily? For the sake of the King's River and Mountain Country, I hope that the Emperor can order his men to reprimand Yang Lin and stop this kind of behavior. ”
Hanling Emperor Liu Hong was also planning in his heart, if Yang Lin offended the Wealthy soldiers, it would not be a bad thing for the imperial government. Furthermore, dividing all the rich and powerful families into smaller families, making it easier for the imperial government to split them, was exactly what he wanted to do.
”Let Yang Lin give it a try within the jurisdiction of the Youzhou.”
As he wanted to build a dam to store water, Yang Lin immediately thought of the need to burn cement. As a result, he arranged all the affairs of the Youzhou and entrusted all of them to Tian Feng, Mu Hui and the others. He then brought the riders that did not participate in the extermination of the rebellion to the mountains.