On the issue of the construction progress of the Yongji Canal, Gao Ying's point of view is that if all the people of 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 Zhuo County. Instead of repairing the Yongji Canal, which has recently failed to be repaired and cannot be used, at the cost of boiling public resentment, it is better to pretend that it does not exist. This at least does not turn this project that benefits the people into a project that harms the people.

How could Yang Guang not know about such simple gains and losses? He was more worried that when a war suddenly broke out in the northeast, the Northern Patrol Army would have no food to eat like Yang Ji did when he went to fight the Khitan, and would have to take risks. But when he

After hearing Yang Ji say that ships can sail safely along the coastline, he no longer dwells on this issue to show his approval.

"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 wanted 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 extremely harbored feelings for each other.

Deep hatred, prejudice, misunderstanding, and the fact that southerners do not go north and northerners do not go south, the misunderstanding has never been resolved; so our Sui Dynasty is only geographically unified, but in the hearts of the people, we always have a very heavy heart

The second is that the Sui Dynasty was rich in resources and had a vast territory.

If there is turmoil in the border areas, the court in Daxing or Luoyang is not enough to respond immediately; the land transportation capacity is limited and is not enough to transport troops, weapons and equipment, and grain and grass supplies to the war front in the shortest possible time. The third is the Jianghuai River

Many supplies are never delivered

In the north where resources are scarce, the reason is the lack of land transport capacity and inconvenient transportation. As a result, the materials produced by the people in the south are either rotten in the ground, cannot be sold, or are sold at low prices, without enjoying the benefits of the harvest.

But the north is in dire need of it."

"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 ship can travel freely. The only requirement for the people is that when the court is in urgent need, the people can

Ships must give way; when the imperial court needs large-scale use, private ships must be prohibited from sailing. However, it has been two years since the Tongji Canal was opened to navigation. However, the supplies and business travelers from the Jianghuai River have never moved north on a large scale, and the Tongji Canal has also

There has never been a spectacular scene of thousands of sails competing and hundreds of boats vying for the current. On the canal, 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. He spoke like a knife and said heartbrokenly: "Do you know why? The government and officials along the Tongji Canal secretly set up checkpoints on the canal to collect taxes.

According to the regulations of the imperial court, money was collected 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 not a penny was seen."

"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 the 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 an official of Fuxian County in the north and an official of Linhuan County in the south. However, Helian Heng was actually sitting there.

Dividing the spoils and being suspected of being behind the scenes, He Lianheng and the unscrupulous officials are...

It has been investigated and dealt with now, but I think this is not a common thing. The officials who do this kind of illegal activity are definitely not just Qiao County. And the private confinement is definitely not just happening on the canal.

It is also common in the government, and even in various official channels."

"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 saints and the court. Looking at similar incidents, the root cause is the use of power for personal gain and the lax self-reliance of local officials.

They took advantage of their positions to provide services to the common people and business travelers passing through the border.

Charging various fees is actually a "trivial matter" in the eyes of many local officials. However, it is 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 made some suggestions.

Said: "Since it is unavoidable, the best way is to uniformly levy commercial taxes!"

"We are all citizens of the Sui Dynasty. People who farm have to pay taxes, shippers who run boats have to pay taxes, herdsmen who herd animals have to pay taxes... And businessmen who do business belong to merchants, and their social status is far inferior to that of people with civil registrations.

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 aristocratic families and dignitaries."

"Aristocratic families and dignitaries have raised a large number of merchants and caravans, and the so-called big merchants are actually their slaves. These aristocratic families and wealthy people will not avoid harming their own interests. Whenever the court says that it will levy business taxes, they

Then they unanimously opposed it on the grounds that they "cannot compete with the people for profit"; once the court encouraged

In order to encourage commerce and revitalize the world's economy, they were afraid that private businessmen would spring up like mushrooms after a spring rain, which would affect their income, so they rose up against it on the grounds that "businessmen are only interested in profit, and women are cheating and disloyal." In the end, the world's commerce

Seventy-eight percent of the proceeds flow into the treasury of the noble 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 saying these words, there was silence in the Chengqing Hall. The emperor and his ministers looked at each other in confusion. The emperor and his ministers looked at Yang Ji with strange expressions, 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. Yang Jian and Yang Guang are naturally no exception. But even the Han Dynasty, which launched the salt and iron official camp,

, it only made this system remain on paper, meaning it was nothing; every subsequent dynasty and every local government never really had commercial taxation. The main reason is what Yang Ji said.

Among the two established concepts of "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. Naturally, they serve their own class and their own interests.

They waved their banners and shouted loudly in order to obtain more and more benefits. It was "thanks to" their advocacy and suppression that the social structure of "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" continued 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 now 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 commercial 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 there is no power under such power. Take Yang Ji as an example. After he opened 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

It has become a "free trade zone". In the past, the dazzling array of tolls and customs duties have been integrated into commercial taxes after some sorting and rectification. The commercial taxes collected are no longer anything.

All taxes are collected, but all are converted into cash. This is very similar to the "shared taxes per mu" that replaced the rent-based modulation. After it unifies various taxes into real money and silver, the costs are fairer, more just, clearer, and effectively avoided than before.

Local officials can make illegal profits from it. After all, the local government has to hand over enough money. This cannot be faked. If it is cloth, grain, etc., 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 located in each county, and only obeyed the orders of the officials of the Ministry of Commerce of the state pastoral office, and the governors and county governors who governed the local areas.

Although they have the power to supervise and report officials of the Ministry of Commerce, they cannot touch a penny. As for Chinese and foreign businessmen walking in Liangzhou, they only need to declare customs when entering and leaving Liangzhou and report to the officials of the Ministry of Commerce.

If you pay the required taxes, you can travel freely throughout Liangzhou without having to pay a penny.

When the Liangzhou Prefecture and Mufu Mansion regulated it item by item in detail, and ordinary merchants were protected from being exploited by county officials, the business taxes they needed to pay were actually much less than before. And the business taxes controlled by aristocratic families and dignitaries were

The caravans and merchants suffered heavy losses.

Like their masters, many slaves in their families were not only assigned 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 taken over by Yang Ji, this preferential policy was gone. Moreover, their caravans traveling between China and foreign countries were 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 where the aristocratic families and dignitaries are. When they heard Yang Ji's proposal to also collect business tax at home, these people's faces changed.

Yang Guang watched coldly, feeling very happy. He knew that these people wanted to speak out to object, but unfortunately, Yang Ji made it clear to him what he said. So even if the dignitaries present wanted to jump up and scold and endure it, they couldn't.

Dare to object, dare not scold. After all, no one here has a clean butt. Every family of them, the appointed 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 calls a "big female businessman" who protects the "little female businessman".

However, although Yang Guang wanted to nationalize this piece of fat and put 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 business taxes.

Very good, but after all, Liangzhou is just a state. No matter what you do, it is far simpler and easier than the whole world. Therefore, whether to levy commercial taxes nationwide requires a long and rigorous verification process, which is also the responsibility of the public.

Where. But..."

Yang Guang was talking very 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 about commercial tax? Can it be tried on the canal?"

"Sage, I thought we could try it out." 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 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 together and nodded in agreement.

Gao Jiong thought for a long time and then expressed his position in a deep voice: "I also think we can give it a try."

The servants on the left and right agreed, and Yang Da, Yang Xiu and other royal family members all echoed in agreement. 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 "adhered to 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 as many lice as he needs", and he has already forged deep grudges with the aristocratic families. Even if he doesn't mess with them now, they won't be grateful; even if he reconciles with them, they won't be grateful.

I don’t admit it either. In that case, it’s better to stay dark all the way to the end.

At least it can make his "personality" in the emperor's mind consistent.
Chapter completed!