After Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, arguably the most important city in Guangdong, also changed dynasties!
Naturally, those who feel the most profound changes in dynasties are not ordinary citizens. For ordinary citizens in Guangzhou, it does not matter whether the Ming Dynasty or the Tang Dynasty heads the city.
The only thing that affected them was the shortage of supplies caused by the siege of Guangzhou that lasted for several months. Although the previous blockade in Guangzhou was only a land blockade, the soldiers and civilians in the city could get supplies from the Pearl River, but these supplies were sufficient for military needs.
There is more than enough, but it is still not enough to meet the needs of the people in the city.
So we won't starve to death, but there will be a shortage of supplies and the price of rice will definitely rise.
Now that the war is over, the business exchanges inside and outside the city have returned to normal, and they have resumed their daily lives. At most, they are discussing the puppet Tang rebels. No, it should be said about every bit of the Tang Dynasty king's division.
The people who were most affected by the change of dynasties in Guangzhou were the surrendered officials and wealthy families in the city!
Although Wang Yue took a large number of officials and family members with him when he withdrew from Guangzhou City, and also took a large number of wealthy families with him, not everyone could take them away, and not everyone was willing to follow Wang Yue.
left.
As in previous siege battles, after the city was broken, there were not many Ming army officials who surrendered, and their grades were not high. Most of them were middle and low-level officials.
Even if the big families leave, they will still leave some people behind. In Guangzhou, you can't just throw away your family property, so some people will always be left to look after it.
Therefore, when Deng Guan summoned the Ming army to demote officials, he saw that there was not a single high-ranking official demoted in the Ming Dynasty. The highest-ranking official was a Tongzhi who was in the sixth grade.
These demoted officials who were able to appear in the Guangzhou magistrate's office not only surrendered, but also surrendered. As for the Ming Dynasty officials who were finally captured because they failed to escape, there were actually some Ming Dynasty officials, including several fourth-rank and fifth-rank officials.
officials of high quality, but those high-ranking officials refused to surrender, life or death.
Those officials who refused to surrender were either imprisoned or even beheaded.
As for the mid-level and low-level officials who had surrendered in front of him, Deng Guan followed the old rules of the Tang Dynasty, first intimidating them, then encouraging them, and finally randomly assigning them some positions, asking them to do their jobs attentively and not to do anything.
Random thoughts and the like.
It is naturally the easiest thing to appease the surrendering officials. These surrendering officials are of little use anyway. They are not needed to manage Deng Guan in Guangzhou.
Before entering Guangzhou City, Deng Guan had already organized the entire Guangzhou Prefectural Prefecture's Yamen and even the administrative teams of the subordinate counties under the arrangements of the Ministry of Officials.
In other words, although Guangzhou City had not been captured before, Deng Guan had already been the prefect of Guangzhou for two full months, and now he just moved to Guangzhou City with his administrative team.
Administrative matters were easy to solve, but many subsequent matters gave Deng Guan some headaches.
When entering the city, His Majesty Li Xuan was still in the city, and summoned Deng Guan, listened to Deng Guan's plan for the future governance of Guangzhou, and also made several demands.
What's the requirement?
It is very simple, that is, to allow Deng Guan to restore and even develop Guangzhou's agriculture and commerce as soon as possible, so as to provide the Tang Dynasty with a large amount of food and at the same time provide abundant tax revenue.
After all, the Pearl River Delta region these days is actually a traditional and quite fertile grain production area, and its grain output is no less than that of Wuzhou and Guilin, or even more.
And Guangzhou is still a commercial center!
At that time, Deng Guan was so excited that he boasted to Li Xuan, saying that this year the Guangzhou government would definitely provide the state treasury with at least 500,000 taels of tax revenue, and next year it would double to one million taels!
In fact, he regretted it as soon as he said it. Five hundred thousand taels of silver this year, one million taels of silver next year? This is a huge task.
Although Wuzhou, under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, had already set a tax task of hundreds of thousands of taels, Guangzhou was richer, so logically speaking, the tax should be more.
But now that Guangzhou Prefecture has just gone through a fierce war, it is not that easy to restore people's livelihood and business.
In addition, it is already May, and almost half a year has passed this year. It is unlikely that half a million taels of silver tax will be collected in a little more than half a year.
As for doubling next year, it will be even more difficult.
Although the Tang Dynasty has long been established and will vigorously develop sea trade after taking Guangzhou, developing sea trade also takes time. In addition, the strength of the Tang Navy is scummy. Today, the Pearl River Estuary is still occupied by the Ming Navy.
Under the control of Guangzhou, how many people can be bold enough to come to Guangzhou for trade?
But regrets are regrets. Now that we have gone to Haikou, we obviously know that this is difficult to do, but we still have to bite the bullet and do it!
So on the one hand, he asked his colleagues in the tax department to collect taxes efficiently and actively, and on the other hand, he was also preparing to summon the gentry and wealthy households in the city to discuss industrial and commercial matters.
In Guangzhou, it is impossible to collect one million taels of silver a year through agricultural taxes alone. We must rely on industry and commerce, especially sea trade.
As for maritime trade, it was not something that the Tang Dynasty officials could organize on their own. It had to rely on maritime merchants. Deng Guan planned to organize these big merchants to reopen maritime trade, and it would be a large-scale maritime trade, re-opening the sea trade from Guangzhou to various places in Southeast Asia.
route.
If this sea trade is done well, the profit of a medium-sized fleet will be tens of thousands of dollars, and then there is the supplement of customs tax. These two items combined will make more money than collecting agricultural taxes.
However, when he met the wealthy gentry, he was quite disappointed, because although these wealthy gentry appeared to be respectful on the surface, they also expressed their agreement on the spot with various new policies of the Tang Dynasty, especially the tax policy.
But there was a lack of interest in what Deng Guan said about developing industry and commerce, cooperating in maritime trade, etc.
Deng Guan also knew what they were worried about. On the one hand, industry and commerce are easy to say, but it is not that easy to develop them. As for sea trade, it is even more difficult.
You think the Ming Navy is lying. Now the Ming Navy has blocked the Pearl River Estuary. It will not be easy for you, the puppet Tang Dynasty, to organize your own merchant fleets to get in and out.
And who knows how long the Tang Dynasty can stay in Guangzhou City. If the imperial officers and soldiers return to Guangzhou in a few months, these big families who actively cooperate with the puppet Tang rebels will be liquidated by the imperial court.
So their plan was very simple. Since the puppet Tang rebels had occupied the city of Guangzhou, people had to bow their heads under the eaves. They had to pay taxes, even if the puppet Tang rebels asked for donations.
But they won't get involved in other matters. They all have big families and big businesses, so they still plan to take a look at the limelight first and avoid direct contact with the puppet Tang rebels as much as possible.
To put it bluntly, they just want to protect themselves!
You pseudo-Tang thieves can do whatever they like, and we won’t get involved anyway.
Deng Guan, who originally planned to do a big job in this matter, directly intervened in maritime trade as a government official, and even organized a merchant fleet, was quite disappointed!
The reason why he wanted to win over these big business owners was naturally not just because of their money, but because these big business owners were also simple people. During the war, these people were able to organize fleets to travel between Guangzhou and overseas trade. None of them were ordinary people.
There are simple characters, silver bullet offensives, big figures from the Ming Dynasty standing behind them, and so on.
The Tang Dynasty wanted to build an official fleet to conduct sea trade and make a lot of money. If they were involved, it would be much easier to enter and exit Guangzhou.
The Tang Dynasty King's own official power alone could not break through the interception of the Ming Navy at the Pearl River Estuary, but these merchants were there!
However, since the official fleet cannot be built, the next best thing is to support the private fleet. As for how the private fleet can enter and exit Guangzhou through the interception of the Ming Navy, this is not a problem that Deng Guan himself has to worry about. These merchants have their own
There is no need to worry about them because of their methods and methods.
So in the end, Deng Guan gave up the idea of high official sea trade, and then began to introduce a series of industrial and commercial policies.
Moreover, this move has been supported by the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Taxation and other departments, and a series of policies to encourage industry and commerce have been introduced.
The most important one is an imperial edict issued by Li Xuan personally to encourage the development of industry and commerce. The outside world regards this edict as a political statement of the Tang Dynasty to open up industry and commerce and open up sea restrictions. The outside world even calls it 'Xuan Ping Kai Hai'
Purpose'
This is a very important political statement, more direct than tax cuts, because businessmen these days are actually very politically sensitive.
An imperial edict expressing support for the development of industry and commerce represented the attitude of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and everyone knew that the emperor had no jokes, even if the emperor was a rebel emperor.
In addition to expressing political support, various supporting industrial and commercial policies will naturally not be left behind!
First of all, the Tang Dynasty officially identified two trading ports, namely Lianzhou and Guangzhou in Guangdong. Businessmen from home and abroad are welcome to trade!
Then, tariffs, the third largest type of tax after agricultural taxes and commercial taxes, were formulated and clarified.
The tariff rate is not calculated based on the weight of the ship, but based on the value of the goods. It is divided into two categories: export tax and import tax, and the tax rates for various goods in these two categories are also different.
Among them, for various strategic materials urgently needed by the Tang Dynasty, the import tax will be exempted or the tax rate will be reduced, including saltpeter, sulfur, etc. However, some materials that are not of great use to the country's people's livelihood, especially luxury goods, are subject to high prices.
Amount tax rate.
As for export taxes, encourage the export of specialty agricultural products, such as tea, silk, etc., as well as various industrial products, and provide tax reduction and exemption policies!
While some encourage exports, there are naturally others that discourage or even ban exports!