In the house.
Sang Hongyang sat at the top and smiled at the King of Jiaodong and others below: "Your Majesty, I have been ordered to come to Qidi to check the business taxes. I found some trivial matters about the palace a few days ago, so I came to inquire. "
After saying that, he handed some evidence to the King of Jiaodong. The queen sitting next to him took it and hurriedly turned over it and said in a hateful voice: "What a traitor. He actually deceived the palace. If it weren't for the inspection by Da Sinong, he would be caught by these traitors." Being deceived to this extent is really a failure of the divine grace.”
Sang Hongyang was startled when he heard this, and then asked: "What the queen said, does it mean that the palace does not know what these cunning people are doing?"
The queen raised her brows and asked in a cold voice: "Did Sinong suspect that the palace deliberately evaded royal taxes and escaped responsibility here?
You can eat food indiscriminately, but you can't talk indiscriminately. To drive a wedge between the brothers of the Tian family, and to sow discord between the vassal state and the imperial court. What does Da Sinong want to do?
Do you want to eradicate the clan members of the Han Dynasty and go back to the old path of violent Qin Dynasty?
One day the world will fall. If we don’t rely on our clan to save the world, how can we rely on officials like you who are from the Legalist family? "
A series of hats were directly slapped on Sang Hongyang. The first sentence was quite reasonable, but the last sentence directly angered Sang Hongyang.
Legalists are really being discriminated against everywhere now. Many Legalist disciples have changed schools, learned the doctrines of other schools, and become core disciples of other schools. They are truly worthy of being called the stars in the sky.
But what should the sages of Legalism do?
Until now, there has been no place for the Legalist sages in the temple of scholars. From the emergence of Legalist theory to its gradual demise, this school has never been recognized by the mainstream academic circles.
In other words, Luo Shi has always disliked it, but what makes Sang Hongyang feel very aggrieved is that it is obvious that various schools of thought are plagiarizing many classics of Legalism!
At most, it's not as extreme as the Legalist theory.
Sang Hongyang said coldly: "Queen of Jiaodong, the great Han relies on the sword in my hand and the Han laws in my hand, not on your few sharp words.
Whether the King of Jiaodong is involved or not will be determined by the results of the investigation. Since the King of Jiaodong is unwilling to cooperate, please take him back.
You are His Majesty's brother and a nobleman of the Heavenly Family. Can I imprison you here in vain, considering your superiority and inferiority? "
The Queen of Jiaodong felt a thump in her heart. After Sang Hongyang came to Qidi, many people were trembling with fear, but she didn't care at all. A minister was not qualified to participate in the affairs of the Tian family. What she was worried about was the emperor's attitude. Her attitude towards Sang Hongyang was to test Sang Hongyang's confidence.
If it is insufficient, it proves that the emperor has no idea, but if Sang Hongyang is particularly strong and dares to respond directly, it means that the emperor wants to take action.
Now Sang Hongyang's attitude set off alarm bells in her heart. She was sure that the emperor must have told Sang Hongyang secretly, or at least hinted at it!
She turned around and left here, her face as dark as water. King Jiaodong was even more frightened when he saw the expression on the always strong queen, and said in a trembling voice: "Queen, why don't you go back to Sang Hongyang to discuss it carefully? You can understand our difficulties.”
Seeing King Jiaodong's appearance, the queen frowned and said coldly: "What does this have to do with Sang Hongyang? Jiaodong is a large country with a single county, one of the few kings in the world. Is this a mere kingdom?" Can a minister shake it?"
The King of Jiaodong was just a coward, but he was not stupid. He understood the tone of the Queen's words immediately, and was even more frightened. He was dumbfounded and said, "What should I do?"
The queen closed her eyes slightly and said in a cold voice: "What else can be done?
If you can bear it, bear it, if you can't bear it, commit suicide. As long as you and I die, the palace can survive.
In the past, the fifth brother made a big mistake, which was just to change the status of princes from princes to princes. If the emperor dared to kill or exile princes for indirect tax evasion, everyone in the world would be in danger. "
There is a principle in the punishment of the law that determines the punishment for each crime. For example, a murderer is punished by death, a thief cannot be punished by death, and a slanderer cannot be punished by death. If both sins and crimes are punishable by death, then the law would become a joke.
The same is true for the laws against princes and kings. If you evade taxes, your whole family will be killed, and if you rebel, your whole family will be killed. So why not rebel?
But even so, King Jiaodong still looked at his wife in shock, and suicide seemed insignificant in her mouth. Queen Jiaodong seemed to know what her husband was thinking, and said lightly: "Being born in a prince's family, this is Our destiny, apart from the Luo family, there is no one who is always open and undefeated. Do you have an ancestor of the Supreme God?
Have you accomplished enough to take refuge in Zhaocheng?
Is your blood flowing in your body?
Since there is no such thing, then face everything calmly. Even if the emperor wants to kill us, it is not that simple. Who dares to say that he will definitely win until the light is extinguished?
It's a pity that I was born a girl, otherwise I would have to travel to Chang'an. "
The queen's open-mindedness is completely unmatched by others. For an outstanding woman like her, if she was in the Zhou Dynasty, she would most likely be the Queen of Zhou or marry into the Luo Kingdom. Sometimes when reading the history books, she would feel a little regretful. I was born at the wrong time, but this emotion was quickly suppressed. People always have to look forward.
In this slightly dull atmosphere, the convoy of Jiaodong Prince's Palace slowly left Beihai County.
Sang Hongyang's eyes were full of murderous intent. Just as Queen Jiaodong had guessed, he had wanted to catch King Jiaodong from the beginning, but he didn't expect that Queen Jiaodong would directly expose these things. This made him Very angry.
He originally planned to fulfill the emperor's hint without leaving a trace and let King Jiaodong commit suicide. However, after being disturbed by the queen, even if King Jiaodong committed suicide, the Han clan would blame him for the incident.
Thinking of this, Sang Hongyang rubbed his head. He was not afraid. Legalist students were never afraid of many enemies. They only cared about being in power when they should be in power and enjoying when they should be enjoying it.
Back then, Shang Yang offended so many old nobles in the Qin State, but he still implemented his new laws. The worst he could do was die!
It doesn't matter if you die and eat the five tripods. The most terrifying thing is that you can't eat the five tripods while alive. This is Sang Hongyang's creed.
A large-scale search began, Sang Hongyang ordered.
…
Chang'an.
The emperor received a letter from Sang Hongyang, which roughly described the harvest of the trip. Even though Liu Dan had been prepared, he was still extremely shocked to see so much money, food, cloth and silk.
His first reaction was that these businessmen in Qidi were really rich!
When he was the vassal king of the Northern Yan Kingdom, he had seen so much money and food there. Compared with the merchants in the Northern Territory and those in the Qi Territory, there was a huge difference.
"This is just the counties and counties in Qi. If dozens or hundreds of counties in the world are checking taxes, how much money and food can be obtained?"
No one could resist the temptation of a sudden windfall, so Liu Dan immediately sent someone to encourage Sang Hongyang, and then sent another copy to the big businessman to encourage him.
Sang Hongyang not only told about the collection of commercial taxes, but also wrote: "Your Majesty, I suggest that taxes be paid according to the assets of the wealthy households in the world. For every two thousand dollars, an asset tax of one hundred to two hundred dollars can be collected. This amount of money is not much for wealthy households, but when accumulated, it can greatly enrich the treasury."
As a master of making money, Sang Hongyang said that when collecting taxes, he must collect taxes from businessmen. How much money can farmers have?
The previous Han Dynasty only had transaction tax, but no asset tax. Sang Hongyang felt that this was not feasible. Asset tax was the biggest problem because many wealthy households held many valuable items that had not been traded for many years. It was impossible to pay tax on these items. .
Liu Dan was unlearned and unskilled, so naturally he didn't understand the twists and turns of economics, but Sang Hongyang said in the letter that this policy would be beneficial a hundred times, and he could still understand it, whether it was fighting a war or building a palace. He needed a lot of money, and Liu Dan would not refuse anyone who came.
So he wrote a lot, "You will implement it in Qi first, and then spread it throughout the world after returning to Chang'an."
At the end of the letter, Sang Hongyang wrote about the things that King Jiaodong might be involved in, and specifically pointed out that King Jiaodong was unwilling to admit it. I hope your majesty will forgive me."
Liu Dan replied silently: "The national law is the most important thing, and the country is the most important thing. You can do as you please."
The messenger rushed back to Beihai County with this letter. Sang Hongyang opened it and felt at ease. He called his subordinates and said: "Take out all the evidence about the Jiaodong Palace that has been collected over the past few days. The businessmen working in the Jiaodong Kingdom will take it."
These subordinate officials brought from Chang'an will not be merciful. These people are all descendants of Guanzhong. They have raided merchants' homes and made a lot of money. Now that they heard that they were going to take action against the King of Jiaodong, they were all excited.
Jiaodong Kingdom.
Sang Hongyang's actions made Queen Jiaodong understand that the emperor had made up his mind. She informed her husband about the matter. King Jiaodong cried bitterly: "Queen, what should I do?"
When the queen saw this, she said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, cheer up, you are the heir of Emperor Xiaowu.
Emperor Xiaowu is a great hero, how could you be so cowardly?
It’s just a matter of life and death!
With your current posture, no wonder the late emperor doesn’t like you, I’m really..."
"My father is the reincarnation of the Holy King, no one can compare with him."
The Queen said coldly: "At this time, there is no other way. You are absolutely lifeless. If you hang yourself, you can still leave some dignity.
The emperor is so rebellious, I want to see how long he can last? Let's see how long the righteous people in this world can tolerate him. "
————
In the first year of Yuanzheng, the king of Jiaodong was enthroned, but Hongyang rebuked him. The king was worried and hanged himself in the country. People were so angry that he asked Hongyang to be killed, but the superiors refused. He gave the king the posthumous title of "Mourning" and took five counties of the kingdom to build Jiaobei County. Jiaodong The country still follows the old system.
People at that time said: "The blood of the King of Jiaodong is as precious as the sheep."
I also heard about the old song of King Li of Jiujiang. He was so angry that he killed dozens of people who slandered him, but he stopped and became more intimate with Hongyang. ——"Hanshu Biography of Sang Hongyang"
(End of chapter)
