On the issue of the construction progress of the Yongji Canal, Gao Ying's point of view is that if all the people in Jizhou and Youzhou are mobilized to repair it at this moment, it will not be repaired in the near future. Even if it is repaired, the court will not have enough large ships to transport troops and weapons and equipment. , grain and grass supplies were transported to Zhuojun. Rather than building the Yongji Canal, which cannot be repaired or used in the near future, at the cost of boiling public discontent, it would be better to pretend that it does not exist. This will at least not turn this project that benefits the people into a project that harms the people.
How could Yang Guang not know such a simple gain or loss of interests? He was more worried that when a war suddenly broke out in the northeast, the Northern Patrol Army would have no food to eat and would have to take risks like Yang Ji did when he went to fight the Khitans. However, when he heard Yang Ji say that ships could sail safely along the coastline, he no longer dwelled on this issue in order to show his passage.
"I want to say a few more words about the canal." Yang Guang said to the civil and military ministers in the palace: "I said at the beginning that the reason why I want to build the North-South Grand Canal with Luoyang as the center running through the north and the south is because for hundreds of years , the North and the South had very little exchanges, and had deep hatred, prejudice, and misunderstandings between them. The fact that southerners did not go north and northerners did not go south made the misunderstanding never be resolved; so our Sui Dynasty is now only geographically The unity of the people, but in the hearts of people, there is always a very heavy gap. Secondly, the Sui Dynasty was rich in resources and vast in territory. If turmoil occurred in the border areas, the court in Daxing or Luoyang would not be able to respond immediately; the land route The limited transportation capacity is not enough to transport troops, weapons and equipment, and grain and grass materials to the war front in the shortest time. Third, many materials in the Jianghuai River cannot be transported to the north where materials are scarce. The reason is the lack of land transportation capacity and inconvenient transportation, which makes the people in the south suffer. The materials produced through hard work are either rotting in the ground, or cannot be sold, or are sold at low prices, without enjoying the benefits of a bumper harvest, while the north is in dire need and shortage."
"In order to solve the above problems, the imperial court and I decided to dig the North-South Grand Canal. Although the imperial court spent countless financial and material resources on the canal, the real intention of the imperial court and me in digging the canal was to benefit the people, and we never thought of taking it back from the people. One penny, so anyone can enjoy the convenience of the canal, and anyone's boat can travel freely. The requirement for the private sector is only that when the court urgently needs it, private ships must give way; when the court needs large-scale use, private ships must be banned. Navigation. However, it has been two years since the Tongji Canal was opened to navigation. However, materials and business travel from the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers have never moved northward on a large scale, and the Tongji Canal has never seen a spectacular situation of thousands of sails competing to sail and hundreds of boats competing for the water. The canal Above, apart from official ships and some large merchant fleets, there are very few private passenger ships and private merchant ships."
At this point, Yang Guang's earnest voice and tone suddenly changed. His words were like a knife's edge, and he said heartbrokenly: "Do you know why? It's the government and officials along the Tongji Canal who secretly set up checkpoints on the canal to collect taxes. The money was collected in accordance with the regulations of the imperial court and in the name of the imperial court, and the reason was that the imperial court wanted to recover the cost. But in fact, there was no such order, and there was not a penny in sight."
"If a private ship takes a trip to the Tongji Canal, it will have to pay various taxes in almost any county. In the final calculation, the cost is much higher than traveling by sea. If there are some people who understand the laws of the imperial court, If people resist and refuse to cooperate, they will be charged with various crimes. In the end, even people and belongings will fall into the hands of unscrupulous officials. In this case, who dares to use Tongji Canal? Gentlemen, what is this called? This is called tyranny. Stronger than the storm!"
"The governor of Xuzhou, Xiao Ju, impeached He Lianheng, the prefect of Qiao County, for setting up a private detention center in Tongji Canal to obtain illegal profits. It was nominally the officials of Fuxian County in the north and Linhuan County officials in the south. However, Helian Heng was actually sitting there. He Lianheng and illegal officials have now been investigated and dealt with on suspicion of sharing the spoils and instigating behind the scenes. However, I think this is not a common thing. Officials who engage in such illegal activities are definitely not just Qiao County. And private relations Forbidden matters do not only happen on canals, but also on various official roads."
"In view of this, I think that if the imperial court only digs canals and official roads without rectifying and sorting out the officialdom, no matter how many canals and official roads the imperial court digs, it will only be a waste of time and money. , it simply cannot solve the deep intention and deep meaning of digging the canal mentioned before.”
"In addition to clearing up the officialdom, the imperial court must come up with an effective method to prevent the local government from endlessly exploiting business travelers."
"Some local officials set up private checkpoints
Excessive taxation and indiscriminate apportionment under clever names ultimately squandered the people's trust in the court and damaged the image of the saint and the court. Looking at similar incidents, the root cause is the use of power for personal gain and local officials' lax self-reliance. They take advantage of their positions to collect various fees from the people and transit business travelers. In fact, in the eyes of many local officials, it is just a "trivial matter." However, it is precisely this kind of unhealthy trend that seems to be a trivial matter that can most easily become a "big disaster." Yang Ji said this and suggested: "Since it is unavoidable, the best way is to uniformly levy commercial taxes!"
"We are all citizens of the Sui Dynasty. The people who farm have to pay taxes, the boat captains have to pay taxes, the herdsmen who graze have to pay taxes... And the merchants who do business belong to the merchants, and their social status is far inferior to that of the people with civil registration. They are one or two grades higher than slaves, but why don't many big businessmen pay taxes? Why don't they pay various tolls? Why can they walk freely in the world? The reason is that they are supported by noble families and dignitaries. "
"Aristocratic families and dignitaries raised a large number of merchants and caravans, and the so-called big merchants were actually their slaves. These aristocratic families and wealthy people would harm their own interests. Whenever the court said it would levy a business tax, they They unanimously opposed the government on the grounds that they "cannot compete with the people for profit". Once the imperial court encouraged commerce and revitalized the world economy, they were afraid that private businessmen would spring up like mushrooms after a rain, thus affecting their profits, so they also argued that " The merchants were only interested in profit, and the women were cheating and unfaithful." They all came to oppose him. In the end, seventy-eight percent of the income from the world's commerce flowed into the treasury of this aristocratic family and dignitaries. "
"In my opinion, the biggest female businessmen are actually the aristocratic family members and dignitaries who have countless businessmen on their hands."
After these words, there was silence in the Chengqing Hall, and the emperor and his ministers looked at each other in confusion. The emperor and his ministers looked at Yang Ji with strange eyes, as if they were looking at monsters.
In fact, since Guan Zhong of Qi State, the ruling classes of all dynasties have known that commercial tax is a huge piece of fat and have coveted it, and Yang Jian and Yang Guang are no exception. However, even the Han Dynasty, which launched the salt and iron official business, only made this system remain on paper and became insignificant; every subsequent dynasty and every local government never really obtained commercial tax. The main reason is what Yang Ji said.
Among the two established concepts of "You cannot compete with the people for profit" and "Businessmen are only interested in profit, and women cheat and disloyal businessmen", aristocratic families and high-ranking officials are all vested interests, and they naturally serve their own class and their own interests. Wave the flag and shout loudly to get more and more benefits. It is precisely "thanks to" their advocacy and suppression that the social structure of "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" will continue unwaveringly.
Of course, Yang Ji, who "tells the truth with one word", is actually one of the huge beneficiaries. However, this bastard-like prodigal son not only makes the matter clear in public, but also encourages the collection of business taxes.
Does your mother know about this? Aren't you afraid that your mother will beat you to death first if she finds out?
"King Wei, how do you think the business tax should be collected?" Yang Guang raised his eyebrows and asked first, "Do you think it's possible to collect it?"
Yang Ji said: "Sage, business taxes are actually very easy to collect. Anyone who dares not to pay can only be served with swords and guns."
Everyone: "..."
In fact, it is true that under such power, no one has power. Take Yang Ji for example. After he opened up the Silk Road, he immediately established a "Commerce Department" in charge of Liangzhou's commerce, and followed Guan Zhong's example to build Liangzhou into a "free trade zone." In the past, the dazzling array of tolls and customs duties were integrated into commercial taxes after some reorganization. The commercial taxes collected were no longer collected on everything, but were all converted into cash. This is very similar to the "share a small amount into an acre" system that replaced the tax system. After unifying various taxes into real money, the fees are fairer, more just and clearer than before, and it effectively prevents local officials from making illegal profits. After all, The local government must hand over enough money, and this cannot be faked. If cloth, grain, etc. are all collected, the local officials will have more places to operate.
After the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce, the fees of all Chinese and foreign merchants entering and leaving the country were uniformly collected by the officials of the Ministry of Commerce in each county who only obeyed the orders of the state pastoral office, and the governors and county governors who governed the local areas were
Although local officials such as the prime minister and county magistrate have the power to supervise and report officials of the Ministry of Commerce, they cannot touch a penny. As for Chinese and foreign businessmen traveling in Liangzhou, as long as they go through customs when entering and leaving Liangzhou and pay the required taxes to officials of the Ministry of Commerce, they can travel freely throughout Liangzhou without having to pay a penny.
When the Liangzhou Prefecture and Mufu Bureau regulated it item by item in detail, and ordinary merchants were protected from being exploited by officials in various counties, the business taxes they needed to pay were actually much less than before. But the caravans and merchants controlled by aristocratic families and dignitaries suffered heavy losses.
Like their masters, many slaves in their families were not only allocated fields, but also enjoyed tax-free policies. When they were ordered to do business in various places, they could also rely on the vouchers of preferential policies in their hands to reduce or reduce all taxes, no matter how many goods they brought across the border, No need to pay a penny.
However, after Liangzhou was manipulated by Yang Ji, this preferential policy was gone. Moreover, the scale of their caravans traveling between China and foreign countries was huge; and the more goods passed through the border, the more commercial taxes they had to pay.
The caravans of the aristocratic families lost their privileges and were no different from ordinary merchants. Of course the master behind them made a fuss, but as Yang Ji said, with Yang Guang's tacit approval, he paid no attention to the children of the aristocratic families in the court. The dignitary came directly to the caravan and "waited with swords and guns" and confiscated the goods.
They suffered huge losses, but they could not sue Yang Ji, and each of them was greedy for the huge dividends from the Silk Road. In the end, they had no choice but to obey Liangzhou's policies and pay business taxes honestly.
However, compared with the extremely time-consuming foreign trade business, the domestic business all over the world is the root of the aristocratic families and dignitaries. When they heard Yang Ji's proposal to collect business tax in the country, the faces of these people changed.
Yang Guang watched with cold eyes, feeling very happy. He knew that these people wanted to speak out to object, but unfortunately, Yang Ji made everything clear to him. Therefore, even if the dignitaries present wanted to jump up and scold and endure it, they did not dare to object or scold. After all, no one here has a clean butt. Every family and clan has its own caravan. The only difference is the size.
At this moment, anyone who dares to stand up and object will become what Yang Ji said is a "big female businessman" protecting the "little female businessman".
However, although Yang Guang wanted to nationalize this piece of fat and collect it into the national treasury, he also knew that leveraging this benefit would be tantamount to snatching food from the tiger's mouth. Seeing that the scene suddenly cooled down, he said slowly: "I know that Liangzhou has done a very good job in collecting commercial taxes. However, Liangzhou is only a state after all. No matter what it does, it is far simpler and easier than the whole world. So whether to collect commercial taxes nationwide? It requires a long and rigorous verification process, which is also the responsibility of the public. But..."
Yang Guang spoke well, but suddenly he changed his tone and said: "The problems existing along the canal must be solved. Now I just want to ask, what do you think of commercial tax? Can it be tried on the canal?"
"Sage, I think it can be tried." Su Wei, as Zuopushe of Shangshu Province and the first person under Yang Ji, naturally had to be the first to express his position. Moreover, as a top official of the Sui Dynasty, his personal interests were closely related to the Sui Dynasty. The interests are closely related, so he also attaches great importance to the canal that can slowly resolve the gap between the north and the south.
Now that there are many big problems that are difficult to solve on the canal, Yang Ji's unified tax collection method can not only make the canal prosperous as expected, but also avoid the breeding of corrupt officials. What's more, the one who offended people in the end is mainly Yang. This advocate gathered, so he nodded in agreement.
Gao Jiong pondered for a long time and then expressed his position in a deep voice: "I also think we can give it a try."
The left and right servants agreed, and Yang Da, Yang Xiu and other royal family members also echoed. Yang Guang suddenly glanced at the ministers with foreign surnames in high spirits and said lightly: "Everyone, please express your stance!"
"I second the proposal!"
"I second the proposal!"
"The general seconded the proposal!"
"The general seconded the proposal!"
"..."
After Yang Guang asked this question, Yang Ji was deeply shocked by the result of his statement. Most of the generals present agreed, while those who disapproved just remained silent to express resistance or abstained from voting.
This made Yang Ji sigh that he was
They were still too young, lacked experience, and were easily fooled by appearances. These people obviously wanted to object, but at this time they were neither reasonable nor wanted to confront the emperor, so they all "agreeed with Yang Ji's suggestion."
When they go back, they must tell their family and faction officials, "It's all Yang Ji's fault. The saint's support is not that I don't want to oppose it, but that our opposition is ineffective."
And all the final consequences will be borne by him, Yang Ji, they are all powerful old foxes!
But Yang Ji didn't care.
After all, he is a person who "doesn't have to worry about having too many lice and itching", and he has already forged deep grudges with the aristocratic family members. Even if you don't mess with them now, they won't be grateful; even if you reconcile with them, they won't recognize it. In this case, it is better to go all the way to the bottom.
At least it can make his "personality" in the emperor's mind consistent.
This is enough!
