After Prime Minister Zhao left after staying in the Manlu Hall for more than half an hour, His Majesty the Emperor suddenly touched his chin and said these words.
At this moment, Eunuch Gao happened to send Zhao Changping back. When he heard these words, he stood next to the emperor's desk. While cleaning up the already somewhat messy royal desk, he asked with a smile: "What's a pity, Your Majesty?"
The emperor rubbed his temples.
"It's a pity that Zhao Zhi is also from Ganquan Academy."
After saying this, he leaned back on the chair, closed his eyes to rest, and said no more.
But with Eunuch Gao's intelligence, he could naturally understand what he meant by saying "It's a pity."
It is a pity that both Prime Minister Zhao and Shen Zhongcheng came from Ganquan Academy.
In this way, while the imperial court fully emphasized Shen Yi's Northern Expedition, Zhao Xianggong was not suitable for one person to be inferior to ten thousand people.
In other words, he is not suitable to be in charge of the council.
Otherwise, given the political compatibility between Mr. Zhao and His Majesty the Emperor, the Emperor will probably use him as Prime Minister to implement the subsequent increase in business taxes or even a subsequent whipping law.
After all, Lao Zhao has decades of experience in the household department and is suitable for this task.
But now, everything can only be put on hold.
After His Majesty the Emperor closed his eyes and rested for a while, he suddenly heard: "Then... Lu... Lu Zhizhong's academy, how is it going?"
Eunuch Gao quickly replied: "Your Majesty, we will start to admit students at the beginning of this year, but it seems that we will only accept children and students, and we do not plan to admit students to school for the time being."
The emperor nodded and asked, "Does Mr. Lu teach in person?"
"yes."
Eunuch Gao replied: "There are not many people in the academy this year. Master Lu personally brought a group of students."
The emperor nodded and suddenly smiled: "Tell me, if I ask Mr. Lu to teach Wang'er, will I be a generation older than him?"
Eunuch Gao also smiled: "Unless the master and apprentice are determined, the seniority may not be long."
Although it was a joke, Gao Ming still felt a little emotional in his heart.
What kind of existence is His Majesty the Emperor like today?
If we say that in the sixth year of Hong De's reign, His Majesty the Emperor, who had just taken over the throne, was still a slightly immature young master with some mascot attributes.
Today's Emperor Hongde is already the serious ruler of the country.
Moreover, regardless of the degree of control over the court, political performance, prestige, and other aspects, he was the British master who killed the late emperor in an instant!
Up to now, even if he is the Prime Minister of Zhongshu, it is only a matter of a moment's thought for him to change.
Emperor Hongde has long been the true controller.
In this position, there are very few people who can make His Majesty the Emperor interested in joking with him.
Especially this kind of seniority joke.
It was obvious that subconsciously, His Majesty the Emperor still regarded his peer far north as someone of the same class as himself.
Someone who can cheer him up and make him laugh.
Gao Ming has been with the Holy Spirit for a long time, and this feeling is particularly strong.
At least in recent years, even among the important ministers in the imperial court, few can make His Majesty the Emperor express such interest.
The emperor touched his chin with his hand, considered it carefully for a while, and then smiled: "When spring comes next year, the emperor will be sent to Mr. Lu for education."
Eunuch Gao was stunned and asked in a low voice: "Your Majesty, if the prince wants to learn, he should invite Mr. Lu to teach in the palace..."
"It is too unsafe for His Highness to leave the capital."
"There's no need to go every day."
The emperor yawned and said, "It's enough to go there for a day or two every ten days."
Eunuch Gao was thoughtful, but he still lowered his head and said yes.
…………
In the next few days, the emperor summoned five prime ministers respectively and even held a small meeting to discuss increasing commercial taxes.
Because maintaining stability is the top priority, in the face of the big reason of stabilizing people's hearts, other prime ministers could not refute this suggestion, so they could only nod their heads in agreement.
However, several prime ministers still had differences.
The disagreement lies in how long this policy should be implemented.
What Emperor Hongde meant was that if there were no problems, taxation could be made easier, that is to say, it could be implemented permanently.
The five prime ministers are all different in this aspect.
Chen Jing advocated a temporary five-year period.
Cui Yu means three years.
Xianggong Zhao was more kind and gave him a ten-year deadline.
Because for ten years, the annual income was reduced by 30%, which was basically equivalent to being exempted from taxes for three years, and the treatment was the same as that of the people in the north.
After several days of discussion, we finally decided to implement this method temporarily to see the effects.
If the effect is good, you can continue to use it like this. If the effect is not good, you can stop it after three years.
At the court meeting three days later, His Majesty the Emperor formally proposed this plan. Not surprisingly, it encountered strong opposition from many civil servants.
Fortunately, several prime ministers remained silent, so those who opposed it were only a minority.
In the end, His Majesty the Emperor became furious and dismissed several officials who had the biggest objections, and the policy was successfully implemented.
That is to say, starting from the 16th year of Hongde, 30% of the national land tax was reduced, and the commercial tax was increased from 30 tax 1 to 30 tax 3.
That is to say, the increase has increased from 3.3% to 10%.
Moreover, because it is not clear whether the gap in land tax can be made up, this business tax collection method will only be implemented next year, and will continue to be determined in the year after that.
At the same time, the Ministry of Revenue will send officials to various provinces next year to start clearing land and supervising the implementation of new taxes.
The policy was forcibly implemented by Emperor Hongde.
The imperial list is also being posted to Huainan provinces at an accelerated speed of 600 miles.
Wherever the imperial list went, the people who might have been a little resentful immediately stopped.
However, the local merchants and landowners were naturally unhappy. After seeing the imperial list, they immediately began to instigate officials overtly and covertly, requesting the imperial court to change the new law.
But all this is currently happening south of the Huaihe River.
After all, Mr. Shen is in charge of the area north of the Huaihe River.
At this time, the autumn harvest in Yanzhou has basically ended.
The people in Yanzhou and Xuzhou put every grain into their bags, but the court and local government officials did not ask for a single grain from them.
Some people even went to the government offices carrying bags of grain to repay the seeds that the government offices distributed to them free of charge in the spring. They were rejected by the local government offices in Yanzhou and Xuzhou, saying that the seeds at the beginning of the year were given to them free of charge by Da Chen.
Ask the people to repay.
This made the people of Yanzhou and Xuzhou even more overjoyed.
As a result, it spread to ten people and hundreds of people, and the reputation of the Chen court north of the Huaihe River became better and better day by day.
At this time, Su Ding's troops had finished cleaning up the periphery of the battlefield and surrounded Tai'an City.
With the flag of the Huai'an army and a large flag with the word "Su" raised high outside Tai'an City, the attack on Tai'an City officially began.
However, before this tough battle began, some soldiers hurriedly came to report to Su Ding, lowering their heads and saying: "General, there is someone outside the tent who wants to see you!"
Su Ding had just set up his tent and deployed his troops. He frowned slightly and said, "Who wants to see me?"
The soldier lowered his head and replied: "They seem to be locals from Tai'an, with some outsiders mixed in."
"Most of them carry weapons, and the weapons are all kinds of strange."
Su Ding thought for a while, and then said: "Ask their leaders to come and see me."
"yes."
A moment later, a tall, bearded man about forty years old stood in front of Su Ding. He was dressed in commoner clothes. Although he did not take off his clothes, he could feel that he was very strong and muscular.
After meeting Su Ding, the man bowed his head respectfully and said, "Guo Xing, a humble citizen, has met General Su!"
Su Ding waved his hand, saying there was no need to be polite.
He looked at the man in front of him and asked, "Where is Brother Guo from? Why do you come to see me?"
Guo Xing grinned and said: "General, I am from Dongchangfu, Shandong."
"I used to run a escort agency in Jinan. I have been working there for more than ten years, and I have made some friends in the world of martial arts."
"Thanks to the support of my brothers, I promoted Xiaomin and became a leader."
Guo Xing patted his chest and said: "Now in Jinan Mansion, ordinary people can make four or five hundred people move!"
"I heard that the King of the Han family has arrived, so I came here to pay homage to the general!"
Guo Xing bowed his head and saluted: "General, as long as you are driving, the common people and others will go through fire and water, even if they die, they will not give up!"
Su Ding glanced at this man.
He was a Qianhu in his early years, and he also knew some things in the wild. He knew that the so-called Jianghu in Guo Xing's mouth actually meant the green forest.
As for Guo Xing, the bodyguard, being elected as the leader, it can basically be understood that this person is the leader of Shandong Lulin, or Shandong Wulin.
In other words, these people may have originally been political figures who opposed the Northern Qi court and were destroyers of order in the Northern Qi Dynasty.
Now to the Huai'an Army, they are civilian heroes.
"It turns out to be escort chief Guo."
Su Ding narrowed his eyes and chuckled softly: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"Don't dare."
Guo Xing said with a serious face: "General Su, the common people have heard about what happened in Yanzhou and Xuzhou. Wherever Master Wang goes, he not only does not bully the people, but also allocates land and distributes crops to the people."
"These are our own officers and soldiers! They are infinitely better than those bullshit officers and soldiers from superior clans!"
His eyes were bright and he said in a deep voice: "General Su, there are many of our people in Tai'an City."
"I know that General Su is a big shot and may look down on us roughnecks like us."
"But you give the order."
He patted his chest again and said loudly: "We are risking our lives to take Tai'an City for General Su and King Chen!"