After all the powerful officials sat down, Liu Che gave an order to Ji An: "Shang Ling, go and take out the draft of Ping Lv and distribute it to the courtiers who have more than a thousand stones, the princes and nobles, the doctorate officials who have more than 600 stones, and the special Jin.

Elder!"

"No!" Ji An bowed respectfully and slowly stepped back.

The so-called Ping Lv is actually business law with a different vest.

No!

To be more precise, this law is not just a business law.

It is also a normative and guiding law for businessmen.

Tax collection is only a secondary purpose; its main purpose is hidden in the articles and various relevant regulations.

Half a quarter of an hour later, Ji An led dozens of ministers and servants into the palace, holding volumes of bound and printed pamphlets, and then handed them to the noble ministers present in order according to their status, position order and title.

.

Prime Minister Zhou Yafu was the first minister to receive Ping Lv.

Although, as the prime minister, Zhou Yafu had long known that Shang Tai was busy with this matter, and had also read some drafts and opinions sent to him for review.

However, this was the first time Zhou Yafu had a glimpse of the entirety of this brand new law.

Therefore, he sat on the seat and gently opened the book in front of him.

This bound volume is very thin, only about three to five pages, but it is quite wide.

The standard width of three feet is used in the Han Dynasty legal tradition.

So when you gently open the page, you will see a neat little compilation lined up vertically.

"There is actually a preface." Zhou Yafu glanced at it and smiled.

Since modern times, it has become popular for literati and writers to write prefaces to their articles and books, explaining why they wrote this book (fu) and the results they hope to see.

However, as a country, this is the first time that ‘preface’ has been used in the formulation of legal policies.

This is undoubtedly a huge improvement!

Let the people of the world know why the country, the emperor and the court do what they do.

"Hong Fan said: The emperor is the father and mother of the people. He thinks he is the king of the world. This is a sincere statement! When the Han Dynasty was prosperous, the emperor used his talents as a martial artist, practiced generosity and benevolence, and took charge of the heroes. He punished Qin and Xiang. He appointed Xiao and Cao Zhiwen and used Liang.

Ping Zhizhi, Cheng Liu, Li Zhibian, Ming Shusun Tong's etiquette, civil and military affairs match each other. It's a rough introduction.

The world has been established, and the people will live in peace, so the world is allowed to recuperate and live, so that the people can be convenient.

Since Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, the country has prospered, the people have been safe, and the world has become healthy. This is the great virtue of the late emperor and Taizong!

However, in recent years, the imperial censors sent poems and poems to the imperial censors to report to the counties: the world is well and prosperous, merchants are flourishing, the rich are everywhere, and those who travel like princes can be seen everywhere.

The scholar-bureaucrats, ministers, princes, and nobles all felt sad and sick.

In the past, Jia Changsha reported to Emperor Taizong: Unfortunately, there was a drought for two or three thousand miles, and the country's Hu responded with help; but suddenly there was an emergency on the border, and there were tens of millions of people, and the country's Hu responded with troops.

The imperial censor, Chen Cuo, also reported to Taizong: The people are poor, which leads to evil and evil. Poverty is born from insufficiency, and insufficiency is born from not farming. If you don't farm, you will not be able to farm. If you are not farming, you will leave your hometown and neglect your family. The people are like birds and beasts. Although

There are high cities and deep ponds, strict laws and severe punishments, but they cannot be banned.

He also said: Today's law despises merchants, merchants have become rich and noble, and respects farmers, but farmers have become poor and humble.

Since I came to the throne, I have always cared about the world, sympathized with the people, and worried about the suffering of all the people. I have issued an order to the world: Never add more gifts, and use money from the inner treasury to revitalize the Yuan Dynasty.

The internal history officer, the great farmer, and the young government officer are responsible for carrying out the policy of food protection and determining the policy of salt and iron government operations.

This kind of holy government was beyond the reach of the ancient sage kings, and beyond the reach of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

However, in today's world, among the prefectures and states, merchants, wealthy people, and merchants are aggressively annexing.

The rich are surrounded by vast fields, the poor have no place to stand, and the poor people howl and cry. From Guandong to the south, no county exists.

The local prefectures and states are putting the cart before the horse, and the trend of shifting nobles and inferiors is getting stronger day by day.

The scholar-bureaucrats of China and Dynasty frequently wrote memorials saying: Your Majesty, please punish the merchants, control the annexation, bring peace to the world, and alleviate the difficulties of the people.

The ministers Shang Ling An, Shang Cheng Yi and others were ordered by His Majesty to work with the court officials Chen Yu, the imperial censor Chen Cuo and the ministers of the Shaofu to collect the laws and orders from the three kings and the voices of the people in the local prefectures and states.

, is to establish the law of peace, one hundred and seventeen orders, and I hope to use this law to regulate the merchants' travels, set the order of the beginning and the end, and win people's peace."

Reading this preface softly, Zhou Yafu had a smile on his face.

Apart from other things, this preface is really full of modern flavor.

It seems that Ji An and Yan Yi really know what Jin likes and dislikes, so they wrote so much eloquently.

From this preface, it can be seen that Ji An and Yan Yi also know the importance of proportion.

Therefore, in this preface, merchants are threatened, bribed, and intimidated at all costs.

All we have to do is clearly tell the merchants all over the world: You must obey the law of equality. This is the bottom line of tolerance for you by the emperor, the court, and the world. Otherwise, I will let you know the power of the state's violent institutions!

Looking away from the preface, what caught Zhou Yafu's eyes was the first law of Ping Lv: The profits obtained from market registration and business activities are not allowed to be purchased with the people. Instead, it is ordered that the land be rented at five times.

Then, there is the second article: The Jia people should be redeemed for their crimes. The family income is more than one hundred thousand. On top of Zang Ta's order, add two taels of gold. If it is more than one million, add two gold. If it is more than ten million, if it is two hundred gold, the amount is less than ten.

Wan, no need to use this order.

Just looking at these two items, Zhou Yafu immediately stroked his beard and nodded with satisfaction.

This is the attitude that the country should have towards businessmen!

After seeing these two items, the other ministers also nodded, thinking that this is what it should be!

I told you to be rich, I told you to show off your wealth, and I told you to use your money to seize land from me. Now let’s stop it!

Five times the land tax and stricter legal discrimination against merchants made countless business-haters laugh.??

Legalists and Confucians were almost rolling on the ground laughing.

The Huang Lao School has an indifferent attitude.

Only some people who were too involved with businessmen felt a little headache.

But since they have close contacts with businessmen, naturally they will not be the mainstream.

The next dozen or so items are also murderous restrictions on merchants and merchants.

For example, there is a regulation: if the land of a Jia person is more than 100 acres, the land tax will be doubled, for 1,000 acres, three times, for 100 acres, the tax will be ten times. This order does not apply to 100 acres or less.

There is also a stipulation that if there are more than ten Jia servants, they will be levied an additional levy on the basis of the original five. If the number is more than fifty, an additional three will be levied for each person, and if the number is more than 100, an additional five will be levied.

If you are a slave of a Yi, Di or barbarian tribe, you do not need to use this order.

Judging from this one by one, the merchants have almost been bound by these laws and their mouths have been blocked.

Soon, everyone discovered that today's merchants seem to do other things besides continuing to do business. For example, if they want to be full-time manor owners or slave owners, these laws will immediately act like a curse to prevent them from doing so.

Do it.

No one can continue to make a living while bearing double or even several times the taxes of others.

Even if this person's hands and eyes can reach the sky, it won't work!

He can only continue to move forward on the road of merchants.

Of course, he can also choose to pay, become an official or let his descendants take the exams, thus getting rid of his identity as a merchant.

These terms were all tailor-made by Liu Che for the current merchant class.

Its fundamental purpose is to bind businessmen, handicraft owners and factory owners to industry and commerce.

The ultimate goal is to give birth to the Han bourgeoisie.

If we don’t play it this way, the Chinese people’s deep-rooted desire and hysterical pursuit of land will be the reason.

Liu Che worried that merchants, handicrafts, workshops, and factory owners would eventually make money from industry and commerce like their predecessors and descendants, and then go to the countryside to buy and hoard land, eventually completing their degradation from industrial and commercial owners to manor owners and slave owners.

This is unacceptable to Liu Che!

Because, after businessmen become rich, they will buy land and houses one after another, and buy properties on a large scale.

First, they will worsen land annexation and intensify social conflicts. At the same time, they will set back history.

In Chinese history, there were sprouts of capitalism in Song and Ming dynasties, but why were they always sprouts and unable to take root?

The Meng Yuan and Manchu Qing Dynasties are naturally responsible.

But those 'buds' have a greater responsibility.

Almost all of the ‘Ge Ya’ people are thinking about making money through business and buying land for their families.

Most of the profits generated by industry and commerce are not invested in continued expansion and research. Instead, they go to the land, to the countryside, and to the wives and children.

If these 'buds' could grow up, they would be in trouble.

The vast majority of merchants in the Han Dynasty could not keep up with the "buds" of the Song and Ming Dynasty, and their ideological realm was extremely backward. Their enthusiasm and love for the land were unparalleled.

Even Liu Che's two father-in-laws, the Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family in Linqiong, were like this. They had so much land and slaves that they could almost become a separate village.

Since they couldn't hatch the eggs themselves, Liu Che had no choice but to go into battle and take on the job of hatching the eggs himself.

Through legal and administrative measures, businessmen were forced to invest all their wealth, profits, and energy into their own jobs, thereby catalyzing and accelerating the emergence of the Han Dynasty bourgeoisie.
To be continued...