Section 26 Collusion between officials and businessmen
Forcibly suppressing his dissatisfaction, Liu De stretched his muscles and ordered the guards on the left and right: "Let's go in and go to the flag pavilion to take a look!"
After saying that, he walked forward, and the guards quickly followed, guarding him on the left and right.
The so-called flag pavilion refers to the tallest building that must be built in every city according to the laws of the Han Dynasty.
The so-called "five-level flag pavilion, overlooking Baisui".
Its status is roughly equivalent to that of the Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau in later generations. It is the office of the city magistrate and the city magistrate. Standing in the flag pavilion, you can have a panoramic view of everything in the city.
Liu De led a large group of guards and marched straight to the flag pavilion. Naturally, this immediately alerted the officials on duty in Pingxin City.
According to Han law, the rank of each city in Chang'an is six hundred stones, which belongs to the middle-level officials.
But at this time, both the city magistrate and the city chief of Pingxin City had vacancies, so those in charge of power were instead low-ranking petty officials.
Without the supervision of superiors, and because of the national mourning, the court had no time to appoint new officials, so it can be said that these petty officials are all full of food these days, and even have enough money to go shopping in Huajie and Liuxiang.
At this time, they suddenly saw a group of fully armed Imperial Guards walking towards them with murderous intent. They were immediately scared to death. A few of them were timid and even collapsed on the ground, unable to stand up.
"Has this happened to us?" A small official thought tremblingly in his heart: "It's over. Are we going to be taken to Tingwei Prison?"
According to Han law, corruption and bribery were punishable by fines and corporal punishment.
However, something happened during the reign of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen - Tiying saved her father.
After this incident, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen felt that corporal punishment was too inhumane.
Therefore, with a compassionate heart and the nature of a benevolent sage, he abolished many corporal punishments with a wave of his hand, including the ink punishment and nose punishment set up for corruption criminals, and replaced them with whipping and death.
This little official still knew some laws, and he calculated in his mind that the death penalty was not enough for the amount of corruption he had committed, but flogging was more than enough.
Thinking of this, he immediately collapsed on the ground and cried endlessly, wondering if he should settle the matter himself.
As a low-level official, who doesn't know that flogging is 10,000 times crueler than death penalty!
This death penalty can still last until the autumn. If there is a general amnesty by then, then he can be released. Even if he doesn't get it, it will just be a matter of spending some money to atone for his sins.
But this flogging must be carried out immediately!
The most important thing is that the number of whippings usually starts at fifty times.
If a person is in a bad mood or is in a good mood when being executed, he will usually be beaten to death on the spot...
Just when the little official was debating whether to commit suicide immediately to avoid suffering the pain of his flesh, a voice that seemed to come from heaven came to his ears: "Your Highness has been ordered to inspect, why don't you come out to greet him?"
Upon hearing this, the little official's heart, which was originally hanging, finally returned to his stomach.
One by one, they quickly took a deep breath, walked out of the flag pavilion obediently, and knelt down at the door: "The little man is waiting to welcome His Highness..."
"Everyone, get up..." Liu De glanced around the dozen or so minor officials and asked, "Who has been working here the longest?"
"Your Highness, I should be a villain..." A clerk stood up and lowered his head to answer: "The villain's father was a city clerk in Liushi City during his lifetime. The villain inherited his father's business when he was eighteen years old and has already worked as a second-hand worker in Liushi City.
Thirteen years..."
"What's your name?" Liu De asked.
"The villain's base name is Cheng Yong, and I dare not enter His Highness's ears!" said the little official.
"Chengyong, right? Take me upstairs and have a look..." After Liu De finished speaking, he turned to the guards and said, "Just wait at the door. Remember, don't disturb the people!"
"promise!"
Cheng Yong led Liu De to the roof of the flag pavilion. Liu De leaned in front of the window and looked at the entire Pingxin City.
In order to prevent industry and commerce from becoming too big, each mayor was not allowed to exceed 266 steps.
Therefore, the area of Pingxin City is not large.
It looks like it only covers an area of two or three miles, and many workshops are crowded together.
In addition, Liu De also discovered, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that the north side of Liushi was actually the Weishui River, and there was a dock on the bank. There were several small boats parked at the dock, and some workers were carrying people from the boats.
Raw materials such as willow branches transported from upstream.
Workshops of various sizes are now in full swing.
The steam coming out of the cauldron in which the wicker was boiled almost covered the sky in a certain area.
"I see that the business in the shops in Liushi is not very good. Why are these workshops still working?" Liu De couldn't help but ask when he saw it.
"Your Highness does not know, most of the things produced in the workshops in Liushi will not be sold in Liushi. They are usually shipped to the big markets in the east!" Cheng Yongnu pursed his lips and said towards the east.
Liu De looked eastward and said, "Hey guys, the straight-line distance between Liushi and Dongbian Market is really close. There is only the Wei River between them."
Huo Huo, isn't this the common production and marketing dragon that was produced more than two thousand years later?
From this point of view, Liushi can make some money.
So Liu De asked: "How much is the annual tax in Liushi?"
The Han Dynasty is not the Ming Dynasty.
Doing business in the Han Dynasty naturally had to pay taxes. In order to prevent merchants from having their tails raised after paying taxes, they also wanted political rights and were treated equally by the court like farmers. Therefore, the framers of the law played a word game. Han Dynasty
The law unified all industrial and commercial taxes, including business tax, into rent taxes.
"About more than 100,000 yuan..." Cheng Yong recalled a moment and reported a number.
Liu De scoffed after hearing this, what a liar!
Looking at the busy situation in Liushi City, the annual sales are at least tens of millions or even hundreds of millions. In the end, the country only received more than 100,000 yuan in tax revenue, which is not even enough to pay the city's salary.
But there are some things that cannot be said.
Like the great celestial dynasties of later generations, it was very common for Han officials and merchants to collude and even integrate officials and merchants. Sometimes even princes and kings from all over the country would go into battle shirtless.
For example, where does Wu Chu in the east have the confidence to challenge the imperial court?
Isn’t it because Wu Wang Liu Bi monopolized the salt and coinage trade in the entire Wu, Chu, and Qiyue?
In his previous life, Liu De's younger brother, King Zhao Liu Pengzu, also forcibly intervened in business and monopolized some industries.
The local princes are like this, and the central court ministers are not much better.
Liu De remembered that the history books he had read recorded that the later court captain Zhang Tang took advantage of his authority to reveal information about the court's reforms and policy changes to his businessmen friends, and made a lot of money. Han Dynasty
The book says, "Let the people in Jia hear about it first, and they will benefit from its goods" and then "live in the goods and get rich, and share it with the soup".
Do you feel like you are seeing a great celestial dynasty?
Zhang Tang's son Zhang Anshi is not a good bird either.
According to literature records: An Shizun was a prince, and he lived in a city with ten thousand households... There were seven hundred children in his family, all of whom were skilled in doing things, managed the industry internally, and accumulated a small amount, so that he could cultivate his goods and be rich with the glory of a great general.
So in China, no matter what dynasty it is, those who don’t understand the collusion between government and business cannot do anything big or succeed.
To put it bluntly, without official backing, if you become rich, you are just a big fat sheep just waiting to be slaughtered!
Therefore, Liu De didn't have to think about it. A large part of these tens of millions of properties must have ended up in the pockets of noble ministers.
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It's so sad. I almost didn't touch my collection yesterday and today...
It was 350+ the night before yesterday, and now it's actually 385...
35 in two days... I'm a little discouraged... especially tonight, when I barely moved it, one fell out...
