There is still a trace of mist in Shanghai City in the early morning, and the sun on the sea has only revealed its bald head. However, the streets of Shanghai City are already crowded with pedestrians. Workers at work and businessmen talking about business are constantly coming and going, and people are eating nearby.

The stalls shouted hard, hoping to seize this prime time to win over a few more customers.

"Everyone please be honest with me. Anyone who dares to resist will be killed!"

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the street. Pedestrians on the road hid on both sides. Then a group of guards from Prince Wu's Mansion came from the street. Behind these guards were a row of men with bruised noses and swollen faces. Most of these people looked fierce.

Even when he was caught, his face was full of dissatisfaction. One look at him showed that he was usually a domineering person.

Seeing these arrested men, the pedestrians on both sides of the road showed excitement, and many people even cheered loudly, calling His Highness the King of Wu wise and so on.

The main reason why pedestrians had such a big reaction was that the people who were arrested were all rogues in Shanghai City. These people usually bully men, dominate women and do all kinds of evil. They have made Shanghai a mess, and there are even many businessmen who can't stand them.

He was so oppressed that he had to reluctantly leave Shanghai.

It can be said that these hooligans have become the biggest social problem in Shanghai. If they are allowed to continue, they are likely to have a huge impact on the development of Shanghai city. Previously, Li Ke was focused on the construction of various projects in Shanghai and had no plans at all.

I noticed this social problem, and it wasn't until Li Min and I met the Sun couple by chance that we uncovered the tip of the iceberg.

At that time, facing the people of Shanghai in the restaurant, Li Ke made a promise. That was to give Shanghai a clear sky and prevent gangsters from extorting good people from happening again. But this thing is easy to say, but it is really done.

Sometimes, it is very troublesome. After all, it is useless to just catch some rogues. The most important thing is to have a complete set of rules and regulations. Otherwise, if you catch a hero today, another dog master may appear tomorrow.

Although Li Min has a reputation as a hero, his experience in governing is really not that good. For example, as the governor of Suzhou, he has been staying in Chang'an, leaving all matters in Suzhou to others.

, I didn’t take care of anything at all

In contrast, although Li Min was lazy, he at least managed Dengzhou in an orderly manner, and even developed an inconspicuous Dengzhou into a big city second only to Chang'an and Luoyang. It is precisely because of this that Li Ke asked Li

Crying for help.

Shanghai is a key part of Li Min's plan, so whether Li Ke asks for his help or not, he has to take care of things here. So after returning to Li Ke's Prince Wu's Mansion, the two immediately summoned the advisers from Prince Wu's Mansion.

Together, we will soon come up with a complete reform plan.

Shanghai City is a new city, and the administrative agencies in the city are all temporary structures. In addition, this is within Huating County. Li Ke was also somewhat impressed by Magistrate Xie of Huating County, so he asked Magistrate Xie to manage the county.

The government moved to Shanghai. It was in charge of the civil affairs of one side and only

However, although Magistrate Xie was a talented person, he was also urged by Li Ke to manage project construction matters and was inseparable from civil affairs. This led to a situation where gangsters were rampant in the city of Shanghai, and even the people in the yamen

Officials also occasionally do illegal things.

Although the circumstances were excusable, magistrate Xie was responsible for public security after all, so he had nothing to do with it. As a result, he was scolded by Li Ke, and then magistrate Xie was asked to push Li Min to do it.

The reform plan. Magistrate Xie also had the intention of making meritorious deeds, so he cooperated very much from the beginning.

The first thing to do in the reform is to create a movement in the city, and this movement is to mobilize people to identify the rogues all over Shanghai City, and then go out with the Royal Guards to kill them all, no matter what is behind these rogues.

Such a background, even if it is related to Prince Wu's Mansion, is not enough, so the situation this morning occurred.

The people in the city were extremely supportive of Li Ke's move. Almost everyone was shouting that King Wu was wise and had solved a major scourge for the city. As a result, Li Ke's prestige in the city immediately rose like a rocket.

However, Li Min was a little dissatisfied. He was obviously involved in this matter, but unfortunately, except for a few people such as Sun and his wife, no one else knew about it. As a result, all the benefits went to Li Ke.

Taking advantage of the huge reputation that had skyrocketed in a short period of time, Li Min immediately officially launched this reform plan in the name of Li Ke. First, all the government officials in the city were reorganized and assessed by the court. The assessment included ability, character.

Anyone who fails the assessment in terms of morality, physical strength, etc. will be dismissed. Even those who committed crimes before were punished according to law. As a result, although there are many fewer government officials in the city, the atmosphere has been greatly improved.

improve.

Next, Prince Wu's Mansion came forward again and recruited thousands of good people as yamen servants. These yamen servants were merged with the original yamen servants. After simple training, they immediately began to patrol various parts of the city. At the same time, Li Ke and

Li Min also called together all the merchants in the city, and after several days of negotiations, he finally finalized a plan to collect "security fees".

Speaking of taxation in the Tang Dynasty, this was a big issue. In the early Tang Dynasty, it was mainly based on renting. One man and one wife were the unit. Each ding sent 2 shi of millet to the country as rent every year; 20 feet of silk and 3 taels of cotton.

(or 2 feet and 4 feet of cloth and 3 kilograms of linen), which is called the tune; those who serve for 20 days are called regular servants, and those who do not serve are called 3 feet of silk (or 3.6 feet of cloth) every day, which is called mediocrity.

Any individual can see the problem with this kind of tax, because this kind of tax does not care about your annual income or occupation. It is all based on this standard. For the imperial court, unless the country's population increases significantly,

, otherwise the annual income will not fluctuate much.

Of course, this tax system also has a good side. For example, in the early Tang Dynasty, when there were fewer people and more land, renting mediocre taxes was undoubtedly a light tax, which made the people's burden very light and increased the people's ability to reclaim wasteland.

Enthusiasm. Originally, if there was no variable like Li Min, this tax collection system could still be used for more than a hundred years. It was not until the population increased in the mid-Tang Dynasty that many people could not get land. This led to the collapse of the rent-sharing system and the two-tax system.

Start to rise.

However, with the arrival of Li Min, the business of the Tang Dynasty was extremely prosperous, and the wealth of the people increased rapidly. If taxes were only collected according to the mediocre method of renting, then the government's finances would not grow at all. But as the saying goes, it changes with the situation.

Many variations of commercial taxes have appeared in many places. For example, when goods pass through checkpoints, they have to pay a certain fee. Merchants want to

In order to save your own shop from trouble, you will also give a certain amount of money to the local officials. In addition to being divided privately by these officials, part of the money will also be turned over to the national treasury. This is also a disguised form of tax collection, and it has even been implemented throughout the country.

It has become an unspoken rule. Unfortunately, this disguised tax collection is very irregular, and the amount of money paid by merchants depends entirely on the wishes of local officials.

The security fee that Li Ke and Li Min set up in Shanghai is actually to formalize the previously informal business tax. As long as they are merchants in Shanghai, they need to pay 3% of their income every month. This

It is the security fee, and the merchants who have paid the security fee do not have to pay any fees to anyone.

There will be county government officials patrolling the streets every day. You can ask them for help no matter what kind of problem you have. If these government officials dare not ignore it, then the merchants can directly complain to the Complaints Department set up by the palace. Once verified, the person concerned will be punished.

The government servants are in dire straits. At worst, they may be slapped with a slap in the face, or at worst, they may even go to jail.

Regarding this new security fee, merchants in Shanghai had some doubts at first. It’s not that they thought the money was too much. Compared with the money extorted every month, three percent of the income was not much at all. Even

It's less than half, so the security fee is not that much. However, the merchants are a little worried, fearing that the Yamen will take away the money without doing anything practical, and they will have to pay whatever they want next.

Fortunately, the royal guards went around arresting scoundrels, which gave Li Min a huge reputation in Shanghai. Therefore, although these merchants had doubts, they still had some confidence in His Highness King Wu. In addition, Li Min had also come forward with his

His huge reputation in the business community finally dispelled many people's doubts, and the plan to collect security fees was finally passed.

After a large number of arrests of gangsters, coupled with the newly recruited government officials patrolling everywhere, each area has a fixed government officials in charge, which makes the public security atmosphere in Shanghai city clean up, and the few gangsters who slipped through the net are not allowed to be arrested.

If you dare to extort merchants again, after all, the county government has issued regulations. As long as you are found to dare to extort money,

Those who make money from merchants will be arrested and worked as coolies for at least one year. After serving their sentences, if they are found to have committed the crime again, they will no longer be working as coolies, but will be directly exiled to the plantations in Taiwan and have sex with the slaves first.

Not to mention the years of hard work, and you can't come back after you finish it, so you have to stay in Taiwan for the rest of your life.

Security fees should be regarded as a type of tax, which is mainly a tax collected from fixed merchants. As for another type of over-tax, Li Min and Li Ke have also made some reforms. Shanghai is a port city, and over-tax is mainly due to the port.

In fact, this kind of tax is already very complete. There are fixed taxes for various ships, so the two people have not changed much.

In addition, with the development of Shanghai, goods from all over the land are converging to Shanghai, so land taxation has become more and more important. Li Min and his two mainly focus on reforming this kind of taxation. In fact, it is also very important.

It’s simple, the main thing is that the charges are different depending on the type of goods.

Tax rates, such as the tax rates on silk and grain, are completely different. Although this tax collection method seems very simple to Li Min, it was undoubtedly a huge reform in ancient China, because over a long period of time, China

Taxes are even levied based on the volume of goods.

After carrying out this series of reforms in Shanghai, Li Ke finally dared to bring Empress Xiao and Concubine Yang to Shanghai. After all, he had devoted too much effort in this city. As a junior, he was
Chapter completed!