In Jiangdu City, Yangzhou Prefecture, the main forces of both sides gathered together. The sound of artillery was rumbling all day long, and the battle situation attracted the attention of many people in the surrounding area.
Li Xuan and many ministers in Jinling City were paying attention, and the gentry and even ordinary people in many areas south and north of the Yangtze River were paying attention to the victory or defeat of the Yangzhou Battle.
Even Emperor Zhengde, who was far away in the Forbidden City, received the five-hundred-mile expedited message sent earlier from Yangzhou City at this time. He learned that the puppet Tang rebels had crossed the river in large numbers, and had successively captured Tongzhou and Taizhou, and were trying to invade.
Jiangdu, Yangzhou.
However, due to the long distance, Emperor Zhengde is still unable to know the specific battle situation in Yangzhou. He also does not know that the puppet Tang rebels are currently only using a large number of artillery to bombard Yangzhou, and the infantry attack has not yet been launched.
But no matter what, Emperor Zhengde knew that the situation was not optimistic!
It has become a consensus among the emperors and ministers of the Ming Dynasty that the puppet Tang rebel army can fight. Therefore, even if there are more than 100,000 troops in Yangzhou waiting for them, Emperor Zhengde and others are still worried.
But it is useless to worry now. The only thing Emperor Zhengde can hope for now is that the Yangzhou garrison can hold on and inflict heavy casualties on the puppet Tang rebels under Yangzhou City.
Only in this way can we change the current crisis!
Although others did not dare to say it, or pretended not to know, Emperor Zhengde knew very well that the Ming Dynasty had reached its most dangerous moment. This danger was more serious than the Mongol barbarians' southward invasion in the past.
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Even the last Tumu Fort Incident was far less dangerous than today!
Because of the Tumubao Incident that year, at most hundreds of thousands of troops were lost. It was incredible to have another emperor, but the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty was intact. There were still some combatable soldiers in the capital and in various border towns, which were enough to defeat Ola.
The army was blocked, and in the later period King Qin's army from various places arrived one after another. Although the battle was a disastrous defeat, the foundation of the Ming Dynasty would not be cut off.
But now, it is different!
The puppet army of the Tang Dynasty is neither Oara nor Tatar. What they want is more than trading, money, etc. They don't dare to go deep into the hinterland and will leave. After they come to rob a vote, they will leave after all.
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But the puppet Tang bandits are different. What they want is not just money, they want the entire Ming Dynasty!
Moreover, after the puppet Tang thief army occupied the southern provinces, they would quickly digest and use the population and wealth of these provinces to arm more armies. The whole process was like a snowball, making the puppet Tang thief army more and more numerous.
stronger.
Moreover, the puppet Tang rebel army has now occupied the south of the Yangtze River. This not only greatly increased the strength of the puppet Tang rebel army, but also directly cut off the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and cut off water transportation.
Since the water transportation was cut off last year, the price of food in the capital has increased several times. Even though the Ming Dynasty searched for food from Shandong, Henan and other northern provinces, it was absolutely impossible to alleviate the food shortage problem.
If the cutoff of water transportation and the shortage of food can be tolerated for a while, then the rebel army's current Northern Expedition is clearly heading towards the northern provinces and towards the capital.
Emperor Zhengde knew very well that once Yangzhou fell, thousands of miles to the north, it would be difficult for the Ming army to assemble a main force to resist the puppet Tang rebel army's march north.
The Ming Dynasty naturally had an army, and there were many of them. There were now many garrison soldiers in the northern provinces, but now everyone knows that the way of war has long changed.
The fight with swords in the past has long turned into a fight with guns.
The Ming Dynasty spent all its last copper, and if the more than 100,000 troops it finally armed were defeated, then except for Zhang Yue's Supervisor and Huguang Army Training, the entire Ming Dynasty would almost have no new troops.
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As for Zhang Yue's supervision and military training in Huguang, although they are large in number and have first-class combat effectiveness among the Ming army, they have to defend the First Army of the Tang Army in Huguang, and at the same time they have to take care of the defense of Yunnan and Sichuan.
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If troops could be mobilized to march eastward to provide assistance, it goes without saying that Zhang Yue would have mobilized troops himself.
However, even though it was more difficult, Zhang Yue actually relieved some of the pressure on the Ming army in the Jiangbei area. At the junction of Huguang and South Zhili opposite Jiujiang, the supervisor sent by Zhang Yue had already taken over from the Ming army here.
Defence, garrison here, and maintain a confrontation with the Tang Army in the direction of Jiujiang, so that Yu Dayou can concentrate his forces to defend the Anqing and Luzhou lines.
At this time, Zhang Yue said that he would mobilize his troops to go eastward or northward for rescue. His own Huguang defense line would be broken through first, but the First Army in Hunan would not just watch the Ming army on the other side withdraw.
Even if Zhang Yue's supervisor wanted to go north to rescue the capital, it would be too late for him at such a long distance.
You don't need to think about Zhengde to know what will happen when the time comes. He, the emperor of tomorrow, will probably become the king of subjugation.
Zhengde was worried about the war in Yangzhou, but Li Xuan in Jinling City was in a good mood.
Although there has been no breakthrough in the Northern Expedition across the Yangtze River and Yangzhou has not been captured yet, everything is proceeding according to the previously formulated plan. It is only a matter of time before Yangzhou is captured.
He is very clear about Hao Bainian's ability. Hao Bainian is not a general like Li Chunjing who is good at surprise attacks and likes taking risks, but a general who likes to fight steadily. Such a person is best suited to attack a strong city like Yangzhou.
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As long as it takes a certain amount of time, no matter how hard the tortoise shell of Yangzhou City is, it can be broken. To say the least, even if it cannot be attacked, there are so many Ming troops gathered in Yangzhou City, and there are already many people.
The amount of food these hundreds of thousands of people eat every day is not a small amount.
Even if the Ming army reserves food in advance, how long can it last?
Three months?
Half a year?
Li Xuan can afford to wait!
So instead of urging Hao Bainian, he focused his attention on other aspects!
The Jiangbei War will be a battle that will last for several months or even more than a year. For a while, Li Xuan was in a hurry. After paying more attention in the early stage, Li Xuan stopped watching every day and only listened to the daily briefings.
Most of the time is still spent on government affairs.
As the Tang Dynasty took control of Jiangnan, Li Xuan gradually became busier.
Not only did the changes in the ruling area lead to changes in things, but also because the Tang Dynasty was now in a formal state, and all the rules and regulations needed to be improved one by one.
Many of the temporary and transitional policies in the past need to be improved one by one, and then the specific policies must be determined.
The Tang Dynasty, which was founded in the mountains and valleys, had some inherent shortcomings, and Li Xuan did not formulate various systems according to the traditional dynasty, but almost created a new ruling system.
New things will always have many problems, and these problems will become more obvious as time goes by and the control area increases.
For example, in the tax system, Li Xuan created a new tax system and adopted a unified agricultural tax and commercial tax policy. Although this can cut the knot quickly, various problems will arise in the actual implementation.
Especially the one-size-fits-all commercial tax is currently seriously unsuitable for the development needs of the Tang Dynasty.
The Ministry of Taxation has reported many times that the unified commercial tax is too problematic. Specifically, except for a few industries, the tax rate is the same for most industries, which is actually very unfair.
Because some industries have low profits to begin with, imposing excessive taxes will make it difficult for businesses to operate, which will lead to difficulties in the development of the industry.
Some industries are high-profit industries, but the unified tax levied is too low, causing the country to lose a lot of tax revenue.
In addition, there are some industries that need to be supported, and some industries that need to be suppressed. However, the current one-size-fits-all taxation has greatly affected the development of industry and commerce and taxation.
To this end, at the beginning of the year, Li Xuan had already asked the Ministry of Taxation, the Ministry of Commerce and other cabinet departments to hold consultations and solicit extensive opinions to formulate a new commercial tax collection standard.
Now, after more than half a year of debate, the tax department has submitted a brand new commercial tax collection plan.
This plan is much more complicated than the one-size-fits-all taxation plan of the year. It has separate regulations for each industry, and the details of taxation have also been redesigned.
The new commercial tax will generally consist of three major taxes: business tax, value-added tax, and income tax, as well as more than ten additional small taxes of various types.
At the same time, there are different taxation details for various business activities of small vendors, ordinary merchants, enterprises, and factories.
The core goal of the new tax system is to obtain as much tax revenue as possible without affecting the development of industry and commerce.
At the same time, in terms of taxation, tariffs are still not included in the ranks of ordinary industrial and commercial taxes, and different tax rates are implemented separately.
Naturally, it was impossible for Li Xuan to read the new tax system one by one. There were thousands of them. Li Xuan didn't have time to read them one by one. He only looked at the general outline.
According to the general outline, the tax system this time is generally more in line with the tax system in his mind, and the tax system in Li Xuan's mind is naturally a direct copy of the modern tax system of later generations.
When it comes to tax collection, no feudal dynasty can compare to the modern countries of later generations!
The tax rate in many modern countries is more than half, which means that the price of a commodity contains at least half or more of the tax. Moreover, this kind of taxation is not directly levied, but on production.
, Collection is carried out in the transportation and sales links. For example, if you buy a cotton coat, the garment factory will have to pay taxes on the garment, then the transportation company will also have to pay taxes, and the sales company will also have to pay taxes.
Not to mention, the manufacturing of clothes requires raw materials and equipment, and raw materials and equipment are also taxed during the production, transportation, and sales processes.
In the modern tax system, taxes are levied in almost all aspects and are invisible. Because consumers generally do not pay taxes directly, the public's resistance is naturally not so great.
The tax system that Li Xuan wanted to implement in the Tang Dynasty was the same semi-invisible tax system. Except for agricultural taxes, it avoided taxing ordinary people directly as much as possible, and instead levied taxes on the circulation of goods.
This way you can collect more money and won’t arouse any public resentment!