In fact, for Zhang Fei's plan, the tax department arrived a little late. As a result, Zhang Fei did not dare to be too strong on some financial issues and had to accommodate the government everywhere. Because the tax department did not arrive, many tasks could not be done.
After all, he cannot control the finances through the Department of Taxation, nor can he ensure how much the tax can be collected.
It’s easy to spend money, but hard to make money!
But this was not his mistake, but Sima Guang's fault, because it was originally arranged for Zhang Fei to go to Jiangnan, which led to Shi Tingxiu and Feng Nancy being transferred to Jiangnan.
As a result, Zhang Fei made a 180-degree turn, and the Taxation Department also had to redeploy, but it was already infiltrating Hezhong Mansion and recruiting troops everywhere.
However, the officials of Hezhong Prefecture have not yet noticed that the Taxation Department has quietly arrived, and a tax reform is already brewing.
At this moment, everyone's eyes are still focused on the negotiations between the procuratorate and the government.
This is really a very rare operation against gangs and evil since Taizu Taizong.
The key is that all those targeted are related households.
The people really hate these related households, because these related households can not only monopolize resources, but also have extra-legal rights. If you are not a related household, you will not be able to compete with them at all, and you will even be exploited by them.
But this is not based on their ability, and it is difficult to convince people.
As the government capitulated, and after several days of negotiations and mediation by officials, the procuratorate finally reached a settlement with those involved and dropped a total of 98 charges. It can be said that all prosecutions were dropped and 300 were released.
More than 20 people were fined a total of more than 600 guan. In addition, the victims were compensated for a total of more than 1,200 guan.
Imperial Court.
Zhang Fei and Su Che were walking on the stone path wet with autumn frost.
"Is everything going well?"
Zhang Fei asked.
Su Che said with a smile: "It went much smoother than expected. As you might expect, many of them were afraid of being imprisoned and wanted to compromise early on. Later, after reaching an agreement with the government, the others accepted their punishment.
"
After saying this, he paused for a moment: "But there are many people outside who expressed dissatisfaction with this. After all, our procuratorate did not prosecute any of them, but only fined them a small amount of money.
But how did they know that once the old accounts are settled, Hezhong Mansion will immediately fall into chaos, and the cost will be hundreds or even thousands of times."
The reason why the other party is willing to compromise is because the procuratorate will not prosecute. If the procuratorate wants to prosecute, it will never be so simple to understand. After all, the other party is also a powerful person.
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "So we still need to publicize it, which is very important."
"press?"
Su Che said immediately.
Zhang Fei nodded and said: "The movable type printing workshops here have been built. I plan to immediately launch prosecutorial reports, alarms and legal reports. I will try my best to make the entire judicial process public and set this tone first. In this way, even if
In the future, if we leave, no one will take control of our affairs, nor will we be easily destroyed."
"This is a good idea."
Su Che nodded, fully agreeing with this, and then said: "Having said that, this impartial enforcement of the law does make people feel happy, but the source of the confusion still lies in finance.
I heard that Bachelor Yuan will pay full salary to officials starting next year, which should not be lower than that of the Royal Police. Then the annual expenditure for each official may reach 50 guan, plus the compensation to the soldiers, and
Can Hezhong Prefecture’s finances afford the expenditures of our Public Security Bureau?”
Many officials are looking forward to this kind of justice, but only if you can bear the consequences!
Zhang Fei said: "It depends on Bachelor Yuan's methods."
Su Che frowned and said, "But there is only so much money. If there are more officials, there will be fewer people. Why did the government turn a blind eye to the behavior of those people before? It is because the people behind them can make money for the court.
Bachelor Yuan can only find other ways to amass money to meet the government's expenses. The money will still have to be collected from the people, and then the public prosecutor and the law will have no choice but to compromise for this, and things will eventually return to the way they were before."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "It seems that Mr. Su Xiao does not trust Bachelor Wang's financial management skills."
Su Che shook his head and said: "Financial management only distributes wealth, but cannot increase wealth. I am not opposed to financial management, but since ancient times, all financial management techniques have been to distribute more wealth among the people to the court, and also to distribute more wealth among the people to the court.
It is not about distributing the wealth of the court and the rich to the poor, because the person who distributes the wealth is the court.
Academician Wang only talks nice, but if you carefully study his new laws and regulations, it is not difficult to find this point. This kind of allocation is just to drain the river, and it is better to not divide it. "
Zhang Fei said: "The distribution that Mr. Su Xiao mentioned was in the absence of the Public Security Bureau. Once there is the Public Security Bureau, the situation will be different. The Qingmiao Law lawsuit illustrates this point very well."
Su Zhe nodded and said: "To tell you the truth, that lawsuit has indeed eliminated some of my worries about the Youth Law, but it does not mean that I will support the new law. I would rather support the tax department's behavior than support it.
The new law, in short, the court has already collected taxes, so it should no longer compete with the people for profits."
He and his brother Su Shi were very consistent with this idea. They were very opposed to the official system. The court should only be responsible for collecting taxes, and the rest should be left to the people.
However, Wang Anshi believes that decentralizing this wealth will not flow into the hands of the people, but will monopolize it, thus posing a threat to the people and the court. Since it cannot be in the hands of the people, it is better to monopolize it all by the court.
Zhang Fei knew very well. To be honest, he couldn't judge whether it was right or wrong. He just smiled and said: "Actually, there is another way."
Su Che asked: "What can we do?"
"Borrow money!"
Zhang Fei chuckled and said: "No one has an emergency yet. People are like this and so is the court. You can borrow money to meet emergencies."
Su Che was stunned for a while, then said with a wry smile: "Who dares to borrow this? Because no one can guarantee that the court will pay back the money."
Are you crazy to lend money to the court? Can the court pay you back?
If the court doesn't come to steal the money, then it's a good thing that you still send the money to your door.
Zhang Fei said seriously: "The Public Security Bureau can guarantee it. Isn't Hezhong Mansion deeply in debt now? But does Mr. Su Xiao think this has formed a crisis?"
Su Zhe frowned when he heard this and was silent.
Looking back, I realized that the Hezhong Mansion was currently heavily in debt. It had to pay the interest on the salt debt, then it had to pay the arrears of military pay, and now it had to increase the expenses of the officials.
In the past, no matter which government it was in, a financial crisis would have broken out long ago, and the government would definitely find a way to default on its debts, but now no one seems to take it seriously.
The government is still increasing expenditures.
The reason for this is that everyone believes that the government will repay the money, and this trust does not come from the government, but from the public security organs, prosecutors and law.
"But how long can this kind of Yin Eat Mao Liang last?" Su Zhe couldn't help but ask again.
Zhang Fei said: "This is just an emergency need. The purpose is to spend money to re-establish the credibility of the government. If everyone does not trust the government, many problems cannot be solved. Then during this period, we can find ways to eliminate bad government and solve the disaster of three redundancies."
, so that the finances can take a breather, and the court will soon pay off the old debts.
In terms of financial management, it is not a wrong strategy to eat more than you need. We are just betting on a better future. If the people are richer and richer in the future, then tax revenue will increase, and then we will win."
Su Zhe said: "But there are always winners and losers in gambling. We may not win, so what should we do if we lose?"
Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "Then just die early. What else can you do?"
Su Che looked at Zhang Fei in shock.
Zhang Fei said: "Does Mr. Su Xiao want to continue to muddle along like this? In fact, governing the country is like sailing against the current. If we don't advance, we will retreat. We have no choice."
Su Che fell into deep thought.
Although he is talented, like most people, he is still conservative at heart. His ideal society is a peaceful and prosperous age of Confucianism, where corvee is light and wealth is light, and everyone saves money to deal with natural disasters.
This is actually a major flaw of the Song Dynasty civil servant group. Although there are countless geniuses among them, they are extremely lacking in this kind of economic thinking, and they are also opposed to this kind of thinking.
Not to mention Wang Anshi, Xue Xiang was one of the few financial masters in the court. However, in their view, Xue Xiang was an opportunistic and profit-seeking villain who could not be used in a big way.
This is a deep-seated reason for the failure of Wang Anshi's new law. As far as the economic structure of the Song Dynasty is concerned, financial management must be needed because there are too many economic exchanges. However, this kind of thinking has always been regarded as a heresy, so it is difficult to
Injecting political power into it, whether you choose a state-owned economy or a private economy, requires political support.
Yuan Jiang is one of the few officials with this kind of wisdom, so he and Zhang Fei are very compatible. Yuan Jiang agrees with some of Zhang Fei's economic strategies.
For example, Yuan Jiang was very supportive of the strategy of issuing salt bonds and salt banknotes, and regarded this as the main means for the government to deal with expenditures during this period.
Because the Young Crops Law and the exemption tax have not yet been officially implemented, it will take a while to make a profit. However, government expenditures are increasing day by day. How to solve the military salary debt over there and the expenditure of subordinate staff over here?
We can only issue salt bonds and salt banknotes to tide over this difficulty.
The first project of the reorganized Changping Division was not to implement the Young Crops Law, but to issue salt bonds to external parties.
The Transportation Department decided to issue a batch of salt bonds worth one million coins with a term of three years. The interest rate is 6% or 5% per year. If the due principal and interest are settled together, you can get 6%
However, if the interest needs to be settled every year, it is 5%, and the salt bond can be purchased with grain and money.
In addition, customers can choose whether they want salt or coins when purchasing the maturity principal.
The government also hopes that this salt debt can solve their urgent needs.
It is a pity that God did not fulfill his wishes. After the news was released, there was really loud thunder and light rain.
Everyone is talking about it, but no one buys it.
Although this is not the first batch of salt debts, the first batch of salt debts were the salt merchants who were forced by the depreciation of salt banknotes and had no choice but to convert the salt banknotes into salt debts.
Nowadays, everyone still doesn’t dare to ask people to directly spend money to buy it.
Three years!
This... is so outrageous!
This made Cai Yanqing and other officials very worried. If they did not borrow this money, the taxes paid to the court would have to be reduced, which would even affect military pay.
The budget is already in deficit, will the court agree to it?
If they don't agree, how can they fulfill the promise made by the government?
When things reach the final stage, money can no longer be avoided.
This is the source of all evil.
At this moment, the police station issued the first alert, explaining the entire operation of the police station to crack down on crime and eliminate evil during this period, and made it public one by one.
The Public Procuratorate and Procuratorate subsequently released the first issue of the Procuratorate’s Newspaper, making the entire settlement negotiation reasons and reasons public to the public.
These two newspapers were really exciting to the common people.
In the past, the government usually only announced the results they wanted to announce. If there was a behind-the-scenes operation, the government generally did not say anything about it. It was just gossip.
Now the alert has cleared those bullies of their crimes.
However, the procuratorate directly told the people that after negotiations, the 98-article prosecution was withdrawn, and only the victims were required to pay compensation and some fines, and they were all released at the same time.
If you read these two newspapers together, you can see the problem at a glance.
The crime has been convicted, but you don't punish him?
However, the fact was unanimously recognized by the people and they sang praises for the police department and the prosecutor's office.
This article in the procuratorate newspaper was written by Su Che himself. He directly told the people that the Public Security Bureau did not settle old accounts before the Public Security Bureau came, because many of the people were suspected of being forced to break the law, such as tax evasion and private brewing.
Another example is selling private salt, etc.
This sentence alone completely changed people's views on this matter.
Because what Su Zhe said is true. Everyone has done something illegal to some extent. To settle old accounts, many people may face liquidation, not just those related households.
After this incident, the prosecutor's office and the police department have become famous. First of all, the police department has completely established its footing. The people have become aware that when they encounter problems, they should contact the Royal Police.
The Royal Police can easily get rid of even those bullies, so of course they can make decisions for them.
At the same time, the bureaucracy and the landlord class are re-examining the Procuratorate. The power of this department is no less than that of the imperial court, and it is more worthy of their study.
When it comes to criminal cases, the Royal Court can decide whether to give a light sentence or a heavy sentence. This cannot be negotiated. It depends on the evidence. But the Procuratorate can. You can negotiate with the Procuratorate. There is room for maneuver here.
.
After their limelight was over, the imperial court issued its own legal report.
The imperial court is, after all, an imperial court.
As soon as this dharma report came out, everyone immediately realized clearly that dad is still dad and no one can replace him.
The content of this legal report is very simple. In a nutshell, it reiterates the "Business Tax Code" promulgated during the Taizu period, which states that the overtax is 2% and the residence tax is 3%.
As soon as this report came out, the whole city was shocked.
Because there are many problems here, such as commercial tax on many crops and agricultural tools. According to the "Commercial Tax Regulations", these are tax-free products, but now they are also subject to tax.
There are also many exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, such as ship landing tax, which is also called force and money, which are not included in the "Commercial Tax Regulations".
Are these taxes still collected?
This caused chaos in the government.
The government immediately looked for Zhang Fei.
We haven't borrowed the money here yet, and you are trying to cut off our financial resources. You, the public prosecutor, are trying to punish our officials. You are scraping our flesh with knife after knife, which is really endless.
"I have no way."
Zhang Fei spread his hands, "I also very much hope that the government can collect more taxes and give us more bonuses, but now some businessmen have come to the imperial court to complain. The taxes they paid have no basis."
At present, the only commercial tax law in our dynasty is the "Commercial Tax Regulations" set by Taizu. The court has not made any changes to this. If people use Taizu's method to fight this kind of lawsuit, how will the imperial court judge it?
?Are we, the imperial court, allowed to disobey the laws set by Taizu?"
None of the officials said anything.
Who dares to speak out?
This "Commercial Tax Regulations" can be said to have been revised by Taizu Taizong. You may not abide by it, but you cannot speak out. If you speak out, this issue will be very serious. If it is not handled well, you may be punished with death!
The imperial court wants to make a ruling based on the Commercial Tax Regulations. What can you say?
But what about finances?
Zhang Fei added: "Our imperial court has no intention of interfering with finances, but if the government wants to collect more taxes, it must first amend the regulations. Otherwise, our imperial court has no way to follow it, and it can only judge the government to lose."
Yuan Jiang blew his beard and glared: "You really can't stand and talk without pain in your back."
Zhang Fei smiled bitterly and said: "I don't have back pain, but I have a headache!"
Everyone looked at Zhang Fei indifferently, as if to say, do you think you are humorous?
This wave has not subsided, but another wave has arisen. The matter is still being negotiated, and Su Zhe suddenly came with several prosecutors.
"President Zhang is here too?"
When Su Che saw Zhang Fei, he couldn't help but be stunned.
Zhang Fei said: "I'm here to discuss something with Magistrate Cai, Academician Yuan and the others."
When Wei Yingfang saw that they had not made an appointment, he felt even more uneasy. What had happened? So he took the initiative to ask: "Grand Prosecutor Su is here, what do you want me to do?"
Su Zhe said: "That's right. We heard that the Changping Division will issue one million guan of salt bonds, so we came here to investigate. What is your basis for issuing one million guan of salt bonds? Why do you want to issue it?"
After hearing this, Yuan Jiang became even more furious, "What does our Transportation Department's issuance of salt bonds have to do with your Procuratorate? Don't bully others too much."
Zhang Fei hurriedly stood up to clear the relationship and said: "This matter has nothing to do with our imperial court. You talk about it, I will leave first."
"You sit down first."
Yuan Jiang pointed at Zhang Fei and said.
Zhang Fei was startled and sat back down, looking aggrieved.
Su Che replied: "For the government to suddenly issue such a large amount of debt, of course our procuratorate must exercise its procuratorial power. After all, it is not you who pay back the money, but the national treasury. This involves national interests."
"Why do we issue salt bonds? Isn't it all because of you? You want to investigate, right? You go and investigate, go and investigate. I don't care. If we can't pay the salary then, you will bear it."
After saying that, Yuan Jiang waved his sleeves and left angrily.
He Chunlin, Cao Yi and other officials from the Transportation Department also stood up and left, leaving only Cai Yanqing, Wei Yingfang and other government officials.
Zhang Fei touched his nose and said, "It's really unkind to ask me to sit down and run away by myself!"
Cai Yanqing knew it was time for him to take action. He first asked Su Che to sit down, and then said: "Prosecutor Su, we have no choice but to issue salt bonds. The government is really short of money now."
Su Che nodded and said, "How could I not know this...?"
Before he could finish speaking, Wei Yingcong said angrily: "Then you are still here to investigate?"
Su Zhe said: "I'm just following the routine. The government is of course allowed to issue salt debts, but why are so many issued? Is there any evidence and whether the government has a plan to repay it? According to the laws of our ancestors, the matter is
To prevent and control, any system must be carefully considered."
Wei Yingfang was speechless for a moment and couldn't help but glance at Zhang Fei again.
The two of you must have agreed upon it. One is Taizu's "Business and Taxation Regulations", and the other is the ancestor's law.
Can we all still have a good chat in the future?
Are those unwritten rules still useful?
With no other choice, Cai Yanqing could only take out the relevant accounts and hand them over to Su Zhe, and said that their borrowing was based on the recent increase in expenditures, and the entire repayment plan was based on disarmament.
It's just that disarmament will not be effective immediately, and a sum of money will have to be paid. However, it is expected that fiscal expenditures will be significantly reduced in the next year, which will be enough to pay off this sum of money.
It is reasonable and well-founded.
However, Su Zhe still took the relevant accounts back to the procuratorate for study as usual.
However, this greatly angered the government.
You keep saying that politics and law have nothing to do with each other, but in the end, your public security organs, procuratorates, and law interfere in administration everywhere.
After such an investigation by the procuratorate, how many officials there are and how much money should they receive? These officials must be very cautious and cannot randomly set their salaries. Related households will be further supervised.
At this time, news suddenly came from the capital that the imperial court would appoint Han Jiang as the Shaanxi Road Observer, responsible for investigating the prohibition of the Qingmiao Law.
The morale of the government was immediately boosted!
Because according to the system of the Song Dynasty, the envoys had the greatest power. Since Han Jiang was here to investigate this case, his power must be higher than that of the public prosecutor and the law.
"Okay, okay!"
Yuan Jiang was very excited and said: "Let's be patient now and not argue with them. When Mr. Han comes here, we will make them look good."
Wei Yingfang, Cao Yi, He Chunlin and others couldn't help but look at each other with joy on their faces.
Their plan finally succeeded.
Han Jiang belongs to Wang Anshi, and he will definitely come to overthrow the case. As long as the imperial court's judgment can be annulled, the authority of the public prosecutor and the judiciary will be greatly reduced.
This elbow must not be able to twist the thigh.
At this moment, Zhuo Qun suddenly came to the hall quickly and said, "Let me tell you, Magistrate Cai and Bachelor Yuan, that there are some businessmen buying salt bonds today."
"really?"
Cai Yanqing said happily.
Zhuo Qun nodded and said: "It's absolutely true, Tiju Changping Division has sold 10,000 guan of salt bonds."
So much?
When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but be overjoyed!
Is this really a great blessing, a double happiness?
Wei Yingfang suddenly asked out of curiosity: "No one cared about it before. Even the salt bonds for a penny were not sold. Why are so many people coming to buy it now?"
"This is because...because..."
Zhuo Qun seemed to have something to hide and was stammering.
Cai Yanqing was also very curious and asked anxiously: "You can tell me what the reason is!"
Zhuo Qun said: "It is said that it was because they learned that the procuratorate had investigated the issuance of salt bonds that they felt relieved and bought the salt bonds."
"....?"
The entire hall was instantly filled with embarrassment.