Zhao Han didn't approve many memorials, so he called Liu Ziren and asked, "What's going on with the Sichuan tea class? How could Chen Zilong, the left-in-chief of Sichuan, suggest that the imperial court monopolize the purchase and sale of Sichuan tea?"
Liu Ziren explained: "Your Majesty, the tea from Sichuan and Shaanxi has been collected in two ways since the Song Dynasty. Sichuan tea was used to trade Tibetan horses, and Shaanxi-Hanzhong tea was used to trade Qinghai and Mongolian horses. The same was true in the Ming Dynasty.
In this way, due to the corruption of the tea policy, tea farmers could not make ends meet, so they fled in large numbers and abandoned their land.
During the Song Dynasty, Sichuan-Shaanxi tea was very powerful, accounting for half of the country's tea production. In the Ming Dynasty, in order to promote the tea-horse trade, the imperial court monopolized the purchase and sale of Sichuan tea, but there were many twists and turns during the process.
In order to build the Forbidden City in Beijing, Zhu Di recruited a large number of corvees in Sichuan. Many tea farmers were forced to go to the mountains to cut down trees. There was no one to take care of the tea gardens, and large areas of tea trees withered.
At the same time, the tea and horse department was also corrupt, which made merchants reluctant to buy Sichuan tea. In the seventh year of Yongle, Sichuan tea only bought 70 thin horses. In the second year after Zhu Di died, the new emperor inspected the situation of Sichuan tea and found that all the Sichuan tea was in the warehouse.
It was old tea that had not been sold. The tea warehouses in Chengdu alone burned 210,000 kilograms of rotten tea.
The tea classes in the Ming Dynasty collected "tithes", but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, most of the Sichuan Gorge tea gardens were occupied by military attachés and powerful men. Then the regulations of the Hongwu period were quoted, and the "ownerless" tea gardens were taken care of by military households, and the guards directly took away 80% of the tea.
Income. While the government is still levying tea taxes, military households or tenant households must continue to pay taxes.
Officials of the Ming Dynasty also tried to reform and taxed many so-called "tea gardens" according to ordinary cultivated land. Some landowners could not make ends meet, so they took the opportunity to cut down tea trees and replant grain. This was also the reason why Zhao Han no longer closed the land for sale after the founding of the country.
The reason for tea.
The tea policy of the Ming Dynasty collapsed since the time of Zhu Di. The bureaucratic monopoly on the market was too unreliable. It was better to issue licenses to merchants to buy and sell. Now Sichuan officials suddenly went to court and requested that Sichuan tea be officially sold again.
Liu Ziren continued: "The new dynasty opened the tea market; tea from Sichuan and Shaanxi can be bought and sold freely, and there is no need to force a tea-horse trade. Farmers in central Sichuan were so happy that they began to plant tea again in the early years of the Republic of China. In recent years, tea farmers in central Sichuan have become more and more popular.
The tea output has doubled several times, but the number of Sichuan Tea licenses has not increased." "There are too many tea shops and few businesses, so someone is taking the opportunity to monopolize it?" Zhao Han immediately guessed what was going on.{
Liu Ziren said: "Those businessmen join forces to monopolize the market and then lower prices to tea farmers. I heard that tea merchants in central Sichuan are also divided into areas. A certain company monopolizes certain states and counties, and other merchants cannot collect tea even if they have licenses. Last year, Sichuan Tea
After a bumper harvest, merchants once again joined forces to lower prices, and the taxes on tea fields were heavy, and many tea farmers could no longer afford to pay the taxes."
Zhao Han was quite angry and said, "Chen Zilong, why can't he say something clearly? He has to write a secret memorandum that doesn't explain anything, and he also requests that it be changed to official tea. It's obvious that he's afraid that he won't attract my attention, so he has to grandstand.'
Among the scholars who restored society, Chen Zilong was also considered one of the early ones. He was promoted to Sichuan's Left Chief Envoy two years ago. He probably couldn't suppress the Sichuan tea merchants, so he came to secretly submit a secret report to the emperor. The largest in Sichuan
The tea merchant is the son of Gan Liangchen.
And Gan Liangchen served as the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan in the Ming Dynasty. After he was dismissed and returned home, he became a small warlord in Sichuan. He not only helped the Datong Army fight, participated in sending troops to regain Chengdu, but also dedicated his troops and territory, and finally became a successful man.
Resign the old man and resign. How could Zhao Han not reward such a sensible veteran?…
Now, Gan Liangchen has long since died of illness. His son has become the largest tea merchant in Sichuan by relying on the franchise license. While making friends with officials and connecting with merchants, he has achieved a semi-monopoly on Sichuan's tea business.
Without the emperor speaking up, even ten Chen Zilongs could not control those tea merchants.
There is no "Anti-Monopoly Law" at this time, and all the actions of tea merchants are not criminal. At most, they do not purchase tea according to the government's guide price. When encountering ordinary merchants, Chen Zilong can fine or revoke his license, but there is nothing he can do when encountering the descendants of heroes.
Already.
Zhao Han immediately ordered, "Twenty additional Sichuan tea licenses will be issued, only to merchants who are not from Sichuan, and let these tea merchants fight among themselves. In addition, send pedestrians to reprimand the Gan family so that the descendants of the Gan family will be more honest in the future!"
"I obey!" Liu Ziren handed over his hand.
After asking Liu Ziren to step aside, Zhao Han wrote back to Chen Zilong: If you have something to say clearly, don't ask me to guess riddles again. Last year's annual income was 53 million taels, and the agricultural tax was 32.86 million taels.
The main reason why agricultural taxes are so high is that local withheld taxes are also included in the calculation. In addition, the tax on cash crops such as tea and tobacco is very high, and they are also included in agricultural taxes.
In the past ten years or so, the planting area of tea and tobacco has continued to expand, and the tea production in Sichuan alone has doubled or tripled.
In the paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River, cotton-rice rotation has been fully implemented, and the field tax has been adjusted accordingly. It is higher than that of pure grain fields, but lower than that of pure cotton fields. In Shandong, there is very little cotton-rice rotation, because most of them are dry fields and cotton fields.
The taxes are set relatively high.
After writing his reply to Chen Zilong, Zhao Han thought about it and wrote another letter: Ordering the Supervisory Office to take the lead, and the Ministry of Finance and Datong Bank to follow up, to immediately conduct a thorough investigation of the national tariff!
Agricultural taxes have increased so rapidly, and the increase in tariffs is obviously unreasonable. You must know that in recent years, coastal ports have been continuously opened and foreign trade volume has continued to increase, but the growth rate of tariffs has not reached Zhao Han's expectations.
Last year's national tariff was 9.01 million taels. Zhao Han estimates that after a thorough investigation by the Supervisory Office, it may rise to more than 12 million taels. In the past few years, sea trade was encouraged, but no action was taken. Now it is time to take action. Tibet and Heilongjiang have also
There will be a group of prisoners.
Tariffs will be rectified this year, and industrial and commercial taxes will be rectified next year. Anyway, there will be no shortage of prisoners. They are still high-quality people. Throwing them to Tibet and Heilongjiang can quickly improve the local cultural and educational level. I have played in the Shangsi Festival for a few days, and the memorial has been
Piles like mountains.
Zhao Han was so numb that he asked the female official to sort out a routine document. For several hours, he kept signing. This kind of routine document could be understood roughly at just one glance. It only needed the emperor's signature and seal.
Just print it.
I really don’t know where Zhu Yuanzhang got so much energy, and he had to take care of everything no matter how big or small. Zhao Han has tried his best to reduce his burden. Many things can be decided by the cabinet without being sent to the emperor. Even so, he is very tired.
There was no break at noon. The meal was served in front of me, and I ate while reading the memorial. It was not until two o'clock in the afternoon that I finally finished approving the accumulated routine documents.
Zhao Han closed his eyes and leaned there, asking the female official to read to him a memorial that required a lot of thinking. After reading a memorial, he thought briefly, then opened his eyes and gave his approval, and then continued to listen with his eyes closed.
At about four o'clock, Zhao Han suddenly sat upright and heard the female official read: "The civil and military officials of Guangnan Province and the Guangnan Office of the National Security Agency jointly reported that Nguyen Phuc was assassinated in the Annan coup and Nguyen Phuc was assassinated!!!"
Show me." Zhao Han opened his eyes. This kind of big event is usually an urgent report...
But the report in front of me is a delayed report, because Vietnam is in the rainy season, and no matter how urgent the news is, it is impossible to send troops during the rainy season. When Zhao Han finished reading Qin Zhang, he almost stopped laughing.
Ever since Nguyen had a brain attack and brazenly attacked Bin Tong Long and was beaten by the Datong army, Nguyen Phuc Bin felt deeply that his military strength was insufficient.
Therefore, he expanded the standing army to 100,000, which was equivalent to a sudden 40% expansion of the army, and military expenditures rose sharply. The Nguyen family was unable to bear the financial burden, so they took advantage of the Han merchants, which not only harmed the interests of the Han merchants, but also caused bad business for the Hue local gentry.
It was done. Nguyen Phuc Bin knew that this was just drinking poison to quench his thirst, but he provoked China and had to expand the military quickly, otherwise he would not be able to withstand it. As a result, China did not send troops the year before last, and China did not send troops last year.
China did not send troops, but the Ruan family had to keep raising them, and the finances became more and more difficult day by day. From the gentry to the merchants, from officials to the common people, there were complaints from both the government and the public.
Even the two kings of Water and Fire in the Nanpan Kingdom were forced to rebel because the taxes that the Nanpan Kingdom needed to pay were doubled. (The Nanpan Kingdom has no king and is jointly ruled by the two chiefs, the Water King and the Fire King.)
The common people, merchants and vassal states had been squeezed out of their fortunes. Nguyen Phuc Bin once again focused on the gentry and began to investigate the gentry's property that had been concealed and not reported. At the beginning of this year, Nguyen Phuc Bin died in a daze.
At present, Nguyen Phuc Chin, who is only seven years old, has succeeded to the position of Lord Nguyen. The Empress Dowager Song supervises the country behind the curtain, and the Queen Mother's brother Song Fuk Kang presides over the government. All the new troops compiled and trained by Ruan Phuc Bin have been disbanded.
Those Hue local gentry don't care whether the Datong army comes to kill them, or whether their land is going to be divided. Anyway, their idea is very simple. The Nguyen regime cannot afford to support so many standing armies, and they will not spend even half a dime.
Raise troops.
Really, the country was about to be destroyed, and they were still living there without any thought of the Datong Army coming to kill them. The intelligence sent by Guangnan Province also said that the standing army under the Wan family was eligible to be exempted from corvee. After Song Fukang became the regent,
Tens of thousands of new troops were dismissed at once, and even the sergeants' severance pay was deducted by 70 to 80%.
Most of these new troops who were forced to retire returned to their hometowns obediently, but thousands of people gathered outside Hue City to fight for pay. Song Fukang called in the imperial guards to suppress them, and arrested and killed hundreds of people.
After the rainy season, these new troops are expected to cause trouble.
Zhao Han felt incomprehensible, hey, he had killed another enemy, although this enemy died unexpectedly. 8 Orphans and widowed mothers, relatives regent, and the new army was in trouble for pay, how could they not take the opportunity to send troops? The next day, Zhao Han took the cabinet
, the Ministry of War, the Inspectorate, and the National Security Agency called for a meeting.
The Ministry of National Security will immediately contact the Nanpan Kingdom and ask the two water and fire kings of the Nanpan Kingdom to join the Celestial Dynasty. The Water King and the Fire King can delete the chieftains, and the Nanpan Kingdom will be changed to the Nanpan Military and Civilian Government in the future. If you don’t agree, you can wait.
After taking care of the Ruan family, we went to conquer Nanpan by force.
The Nam Phan Kingdom is the Taiyuan region among the eight major regions in Vietnam. It is currently in the era of tribal alliances. It is still slashing and burning and tying ropes to record events. Five hundred Datong troops are enough to conquer it by force. As for the Nguyen family, once the rainy season is over, the Quangnan Datong army