Zhuge Liang said sternly: "Although Cao Cao has gone through the defeat of Chibi, it can be seen from the battle of Tongguan that he has come out of the defeat of Chibi. Moreover, he controls all the land north of Jiangbei, and most of the world is under his control."

In his hands, he is no longer the same as Dong Zhuo back then!"

From Zhuge Liang's words, Liu Chan could clearly feel Zhuge Liang's deep worries, Cao Cao's power, and their time crunch!

Liu Chan said: "That's why I wanted to go to the military camp to have a look."

Zhuge Liang said in confusion: "Oh? Master, please elaborate."

Liu Chan said seriously: "The military advisor just now said that Cao Cao is now very powerful and has been coveting our Han Dynasty's foundation for a long time. If we want to stop Cao Cao, we can only stop him from usurping the throne by constantly defeating him. And now our

Compared with Cao Cao, the military strength is far behind! So I want to go to the military camp and think about ways to expand the army."

"Army expansion?"

Zhuge Liang frowned, as if he was not at all interested in what Liu Chan said before.

Liu Chan said: "Yes, expand the army! If we want to win in the battle of heroes, we don't have enough troops..."

Zhuge Liang knew better than anyone else what Liu Chan was going to say, and that was not what he wanted to hear.

He interrupted: "Young Master, do you have any good ideas?"

Liu Chan said: "I have been thinking about this problem for the past twenty days. I don't have a complete feasible solution for a while, but I think we can try to recruit the people under our rule who are willing to join the army first?"

"Recruitment? How to recruit?"

Zhuge Liang's brows relaxed a little. At least he now knew that Liu Chan had not really relaxed these days, and he was still concerned about the Liu family's career.

Liu Chan said seriously: "It's nothing more than paying the military and reducing tax burdens. If we can offer conditions that the people find profitable, we might be able to get a group of people willing to join the army."

Zhuge Liang asked again: "Reducing the tax burden? How to reduce the tax burden?"

Liu Chan said: "It's actually very simple. Let's take a family as an example. Assume that there are two men in this family and one of them joins the army. Then based on the tax burden that this family needs to pay every year, one male will be subtracted.

The tax that should be paid on the income from farming in a year."

When Zhuge Liang heard this, he couldn't help but smile and said: "Young Master, do you know what the people's taxes are now composed of?"

These days, Liu Chan read the official documents handled by Zhuge Liang every day, but he did not see anything about taxes in them.

But in his personal opinion, he believed that there would not be such a big gap between the current taxes and the taxes of future generations, so he made this suggestion.

However, Zhuge Liang's question suddenly made him interested.

He said seriously: "Please give me some advice, sir."

Zhuge Liang said: "Since Emperor Gaozu established the business, the Han family's taxes include oral tax, calculation tax and field tax. Among them, the oral tax is paid by all common people's children aged seven to fifteen years old. The calculation tax is paid by all common people.

Those who are above fifteen are considered adults and are levied according to the law. As for the land tax, it is based on one-thirty of the land tax, and there is no fixed calculation."

"this……"

Hearing Zhuge Liang's explanation, Liu Chan was speechless. He didn't expect that the current tax law is like this. Even children between the ages of seven and fifteen have to pay taxes!

As for the field tax, it felt a bit strange, but he couldn't tell what was strange!

Zhuge Liang saw the strange look on Liu Chan's face and asked: "Why, young master, do you think there is anything wrong with it?"

Liu Chan said: "The common people who are not yet minors have to pay taxes. Isn't it too..."

"What about other than that?"

Zhuge Liang seemed to be looking forward to it.

Seeing Zhuge Liang's look of expectation, Liu Chan became bolder.

“Will this model of tax collection based on headcount cause some people to evade taxes?”

When Zhuge Liang heard this, his expression suddenly changed and he asked: "Why do you think so, young master?"

Liu Chan said: "I can't tell clearly, I just think it's possible."

Zhuge Liang said: "My young master is unaware of something. Since the time of Huan Ling, the imperial laws have been weakened, and the aristocratic families have been entrenched in one area. They often annexed ordinary households, turning the common people into private tribes, and the imperial tax revenue has also been reduced."

"Today, this situation has become even worse, especially after the war, countless people have become vassals of aristocratic families."

"That's why today's Nanjun only has 20,000 registered residents!"

This time, it was Liu Chan's turn to be surprised. He had never expected that Nanjun's population had dropped to 20,000 households not because of wars and plunder, but because of the merger of aristocratic families.

"Sir, since you already knew about this shortcoming, is there any way to remedy it?"

Liu Chan thought to himself: "Since Zhuge Liang has such a deep understanding of this, he must know how to stop it."

Zhuge Liang shook his head and said: "These aristocratic families are all well-connected and have many years of management to achieve their current status."

He suddenly sighed and said: "And we are able to establish ourselves in Jingzhou now because of the strong support of these aristocratic families. Otherwise, I am afraid that our foundation in this state will not be stable!"

Liu Chan never expected that Zhuge Liang would give such an answer, and he suddenly fell into deep thought!

Although he has not studied the consequences of annexing land and population, he knows what will happen if they cannot collect taxes and recruit troops.

Liu Chan said angrily: "No, we must not let this situation continue!"

Although Zhuge Liang hated this situation very much, he could not find an effective method.

After all, given the current situation, if Liu Bei leaves the aristocratic family, he may not be able to support his army in Jingzhou.

"Young Master, what can you do?"

Zhuge Liang hoped that Liu Chan could really surprise him this time.

Liu Chan said: "As I just said, as long as there is a strong enough and loyal enough army, these so-called aristocratic families will always defeat themselves!"

"This..." Zhuge Liang was speechless.

Liu Chan paused and then said: "So, I would like to ask you, sir, to plan something."

"What's the matter?" Zhuge Liang's eyes suddenly lit up.

Liu Chan said seriously: "I would like to ask you, sir, to come up with an effective tax law reform method!"

"Tax law reform?" Zhuge Liang was still a little confused.

Liu Chan said: "I hope that this reform of the tax law may seem to be beneficial to the common people and the aristocratic families, but in fact it is more beneficial to the common people and will cause the so-called aristocratic families to collapse."

"Collapse?" Zhuge Liang was even more shocked.

Liu Chan said: "Of course, what's the point of keeping such a country as a worm!"

He paused again and said with a smile: "However, at this critical time, we can give them a taste of the sweetness..."
Chapter completed!