Dong Lun is different from Xie Jin. Apart from Dong Lun, Xie Jin only has a good relationship with a few fellow villagers in Ganxi and has no friends with the others. Dong Lun has a wide circle of friends and knows many people, many of whom he has good relations with.
Several Zhongshushe people have friendships, so they don't necessarily have to come to see Xie Jin. After all, there are many things going on with Xie Jin. Under normal circumstances, Xie Jin knows about this matter, but he probably doesn't know the details.
But Dong Lun somehow felt that Xie Jin should know about this, so he came to ask him.
Xie Jin smiled proudly and said: "An Chang (Dong Lun), if you ask others, even Yang Zirong and others may not know it clearly. But I know this matter very well."
Dong Lun knew that although Xie Jin liked to brag and enjoyed the envious looks of others, he would never talk nonsense out of nothing. He must know something. So he asked: "Brother Da Shen (zi Jie Jin),
What the hell is going on?"
"Your Majesty, you not only want to praise Guan Zhong's achievements, but you really want to implement Guan Zhong's policies." Xie Jin said.
Dong Lun was stunned for a moment, then he said after careful consideration: "Brother Gentleman, of course we know about this matter, but what exactly does your Majesty want to implement Guan Zhong's policies?"
He is not a fool. Of course he knows what policies Yunxi intends to implement when he calls on everyone to learn from Guan Zhong. What he wants to ask is actually which policy Yunxi wants to implement; Guan Zhong implemented many policies at that time.
Xie Jin patted his head and said with a smile: "I think it's wrong." He paused and then said: "Your Majesty, what you want to implement is Guan Zhong's tax policy."
"Tax policy?" Dong Lun wondered.
"Yes, tax policy." Xie Jin said again. "Your Majesty, you are not very satisfied with the current tax formulation."
"Could it be that your Majesty wants to raise taxes?" Dong Lun was shocked.
"Your Majesty feels that the commercial tax in the city is slightly lower now, and the agricultural tax also wants to be more flexible."
"In those days, Guan Zhong was very flexible in the collection of agricultural taxes. In good years, he levied 15% of the agricultural tax, in normal years, he levied 10% of the tax, and in the next year, he levied half of the tax. In disaster years, there was no tax."
"Commercial taxes are more flexible. Taxes on different goods are different, some are very low, some are very high, and some goods are not taxed," Xie Jin said.
"This," Dong Lun didn't know what to say. According to Mencius's point of view, the agricultural tax of ten taxes and one is an iron line. If it exceeds ten taxes and one, it is tyranny, and the opposite is benevolent government. If your majesty wants to raise the agricultural tax to more than ten taxes and one, of course they will
They must firmly oppose it. In their eyes, Guan Zhong is still inferior to Mencius.
But commercial taxes are different. Confucianism despises merchants and allows Xi to raise commercial taxes or tax some things that were not taxed before, and cites the example of Guan Zhong - of course he has also carefully studied the "Collected Commentary of "Guanzi" these days.
Knowing the commercial tax and tariff system of Guan Zhong's time, it was difficult for Confucian scholars to argue with it.
"However, this is contrary to the tradition of light corvee and low tax, even if it only increases business taxes." Dong Lun finally said.
"Haha, in all the dynasties, how many people have really done little corvee and low taxes? Especially businessmen, aren't they all fat sheep exploited by the government? Guan Zhong's policy is already the best for businessmen in all dynasties." Xie Jin said.
The meager commercial taxes in the late Ming Dynasty were beyond his imagination now.
"Hey, since His Majesty thinks so, then we can only accept it." Dong Lun said. But he immediately said to Xie Jin: "Brother Dashen, you clearly revealed His Majesty's intention to me, I'm afraid you will get
You must obtain His Majesty's permission, otherwise you will probably just say some ambiguous words."
"Brother An Chang is indeed smart. It is indeed His Majesty who asked us to reveal it when friends asked about His Majesty's intentions." Xie Jin said. Yunxi still attaches great importance to confidentiality and will emphasize to them anything he wants to keep secret.
I dare not violate it.
In fact, Yunxi not only wanted to implement Guan Zhong's tax policy, but also had other policy strategies. Although he did not say it explicitly, Xie Jin probably guessed it. But he would never dare to tell others.
However, Xie Jin said: "Even if Your Majesty does not give permission, I will not tell others, but I will definitely tell Brother An Chang."
Dong Lun smiled, not sure whether he believed Xie Jin's words.
Since Dong Lun already knew what he wanted to know and saw that Xie Jin seemed very tired, he said goodbye and left. Xie Jin didn't stay either, and it seemed that he was really tired.
Not only Dong Lun, but also many other officials who were familiar with people around Yunxi asked what Yunxi meant, so the real purpose of Yunxi's inability to speak out in person spread out.
Like Dong Lun, most people ended up with the idea of "If His Majesty raises the agricultural tax, they will give full support to the government; if it is just to raise the agricultural tax, they will not say anything when the commercial tax is levied."
Therefore, when Yunxi formally proposed a tax on brothels at the court and made public Li Guan's memorial, except for expressing contempt for Li Guan's character after the meeting, no one had any objections to the tax.
The custom tax was passed in this way. His proposal to increase the tax rate for merchants in the city was also passed.
Yunxi would not raise the agricultural tax now. The agricultural tax rate in the Ming Dynasty is now very low. In most places, it is only 10% to 15% tax. On the surface, it seems that there is nothing wrong with raising it.
But the actual situation in rural areas is very complicated and not that simple. Although Yunxi abolished the tax-free privileges of officials and gentry in the last few years of Zhu Yuanzhang's lifetime, the gentry, just like the Qing Dynasty in history, 'invented' the long-short price, which will be more
Too many taxes have fallen on ordinary farmers. In addition, there is corruption in rural areas such as grain chiefs who collect taxes. The actual taxes paid by farmers are much higher than the official taxes. Yunxi has no choice but to leave it like this for the time being.
.
After this matter was known to all the brothels, everyone immediately thought that the "changing customs" a while ago was to make the brothels pay taxes obediently. So although the high tax rates made the owners behind them gnash their teeth, everyone paid the taxes honestly.
Taxed.
Then, just as they expected, the police patrolled the brothel a little lighter. They couldn't help but secretly thought: "In order to collect taxes, we might as well say it before we change the customs. How dare we not pay taxes?"
"
But in fact, the lack of inspections of brothels was not Yunxi’s order. Yunxi actually told Huang Huai to ‘pay attention to the inspection of brothels as always’.
But the patrol police at the grassroots level involuntarily reduced their inspections of brothels on both sides of the Qinhuai River. Yunxi had a lot of tasks assigned to him. He also had to track down prostitutes and accurately collect custom taxes. These patrol police were really busy.
Everyone has the idea of being lazy, and the patrol police are no exception. When they discovered that the officials of Yingtian Mansion did not pay much attention to the "changing customs" in the brothels on both sides of the Qinhuai River, they immediately started to be lazy.
