When he came to the government office, Yu Ruhai was a little surprised when he saw Zhao Feng bringing Sun Peng and Zhou Fei here with him sweating profusely.
"Mr. Zhao, haven't you been busy collecting taxes these two days? Are you encountering difficulties?"
Zhao Feng sat down directly, grabbed the teapot, and poured himself a full bowl of tea.
Yu Ruhai looked at Zhao Feng's actions with some distress. This was the tea he bought for three taels of silver a bag!
After Zhao Feng drank a large bowl of tea, he burped with satisfaction before speaking to Yu Ruhai.
"Master Prefect, it is not only difficult to collect taxes, it is simply as difficult as heaven!"
"We ran around all morning to collect it. 80 taels of silver, plus the hundreds of taels given by the Li family, we can't even collect a thousand taels of silver!"
After hearing Zhao Feng's very complaining words, Yu Ruhai suddenly felt that he didn't feel so distressed anymore, and couldn't help but look at Zhao Feng in a funny way.
"With Mr. Zhao's intelligence, can he still be stumped by this tax?"
Zhao Feng waved his hand directly. It is true that he knew a lot of knowledge, but when it came to wrangling, how could he possibly be better than those businessmen?
What he is doing now is equivalent to picking up the profits from those people's teeth and handing them to the treasury as taxes. How could those businessmen hand over the taxes to him so easily?
So Zhao Feng said to Yu Ruhai.
"So, we can't handle this matter like this. There are still two months left. If we collect taxes by conventional means, it is absolutely impossible to complete the task."
Yu Ruhai was also aware of this matter, but after hearing Zhao Feng's words, Yu Ruhai said a little embarrassed.
"But we can't use the court's disaster relief money to make up for this tax deficit. You must know that all this money must be distributed to the working people!"
Zhao Feng slapped his thigh hard and said to Yu Ruhai.
"Master Prefect, we have thought of something together, and this is what I'm talking about!"
"Although we provide work-for-relief, the wages paid to those workers now only account for 30% of the total amount of silver. If we pay more, we will not be able to control the expenditure."
"The reason why we don't spend so much money now is that there are too few workers coming to work here, so we have to recruit more workers!"
Yu Ruhai suddenly looked at Zhao Feng in shock.
You know, under Zhao Feng's plan, they have now recruited all the people from various counties to work. In addition to making some fertilizers, those people also build some livelihood projects, but only these workers can do this. How much work?
According to the situation of three taels of silver per worker per month, they have now recruited 50,000 people. This is not because they do not want to continue recruiting, but because there is simply not that much work for these people to do!
After all, whether it is building roads, bridges, or other livelihood projects, in addition to paying wages to these people, they also need to use their own money to purchase those materials.
The money to purchase these materials has not yet come out of the disaster relief fund, so this matter is a difficulty.
As a result, many people are just fishing in troubled waters every day, taking the money given by the government for nothing, and there is no work waiting for them to do.
Under such circumstances, Zhao Feng actually wanted to recruit more workers. Isn't this shooting himself in the foot?
So Yu Ruhai said hesitantly.
"Mr. Zhao, isn't this good? What kind of work should we let these people do?"
"And asking them to carry out some construction and the like requires capital, and we don't have that much capital!"
Zhao Feng smiled slightly and said to Yu Ruhai.
"Master Prefect, am I here?"
"Please also ask the magistrate to call all the rich families and businessmen in this mansion together, hold a banquet, and tell them that you want to entertain them."
"At this banquet, I guarantee that we can raise capital, and we can also solve all the problems of people having no work and insufficient taxes!"
Zhao Feng's words made Yu Ruhai take a breath of cold air and look at him in shock.
There is no way, what Zhao Feng said is like a fantasy. Can all these things be solved by just throwing a banquet for these rich families and businessmen?
Even if Zhao Feng wanted to be reasonable and emotional at this banquet and ask these wealthy households and businessmen to pay more taxes, they would not be able to listen to Zhao Feng.
Businessmen have always been responsible for gravity. Even for small businessmen, it is extremely difficult for them to pay taxes. This is especially true for these large businessmen and wealthy businessmen. How can they clearly tell you all their profits? , how about taking out all these taxes?
But looking at Zhao Feng's very confident eyes, Yu Ruhai could only nod his head, sighed and said.
"Since Mr. Zhao said this, then I believe you."
"But Mr. Zhao, I still have to tell you something. If this thing goes wrong, it may be dangerous!"
Zhao Feng patted his chest very confidently and asked Yu Ruhai to just call these people over.
So Yu Ruhai later wrote a letter asking all the wealthy businessmen in the whole city, including those from the following counties, to come to the government office and hold a banquet for them.
The fact that the prefect hosted a banquet for wealthy businessmen was the first of its kind anywhere.
Because of the class influence of scholars, farmers, industry and merchants, the prefect was considered the highest-status person in this place, and these businessmen were also the lowest-status people in the sense.
If this spreads out, wouldn't it make others laugh at him as the prefect?
However, the wealthy households happily agreed after receiving this invitation, because although their families usually have a lot of money, they are never treated well by these officials and literati, who all think that they are covered with copper. Stink.
This time, the magistrate hosted a banquet for them, which simply gave them a lot of face, allowing them to attend the banquet happily.
On the day of the banquet, Yu Ruhai forced a smile and looked at the merchants with an embarrassed face, while Zhao Feng happily stood beside Yu Ruhai and bowed his hands to the merchants.
"Dear merchants, I am the newly appointed treasurer of this government. I believe some of you have already met me, and some have not."
"I asked the prefect to invite everyone here today to give everyone a chance to make a fortune!"
Zhao Feng's words not only confused the wealthy merchants below, but even Yu Ruhai turned his head in shock.
Zhao Feng didn't mention this before asking him to call these merchants here!
