According to Qin Guben's idea, what Ji Wang Tang Ao wants to hear is how much tax Jizhou can collect in a year? How much is the annual expenditure? How much is the balance, etc. But for these, Tang Ao is just After hearing the result, after knowing that Jizhou could collect 30 million taels of various taxes and silver in a year and spend 20 million taels, he did not ask more about this matter, but asked Qin Gu Ben reported the detailed situation back to the magistrate and chief historian. What Tang Ao wanted to hear more was the detailed situation about the powerful people in Jizhou area.
That's right, Tang Ao is ready to attack the powerful.
Think about it, the reason why Tang Ao came from Daliang City, the economic, cultural, and political center of Daqian, which is also the most prosperous place, to Jizhou, a remote and bitter cold place, wasn't it because the powerful people joined forces to force him?
In his heart, Tang Ao was not interested in these powerful people and had a bad impression of them. Not to mention, from the time when Emperor Qianwen governed the world, he felt that this emperor was aggrieved. He always had to look at the faces of the powerful people when doing things. He would also be hindered by them when issuing orders. Of course he would not make such a mistake.
Tang Ao had a goal, which was to clean up all the powerful people under his rule. Not to mention annihilating them all, which was simply unrealistic and impossible, but it would greatly restrict their power and let them work for them. Use it for yourself, or become honest.
Just like Tang Ao is now the King of Ji, and after taking charge of a state, one of the decrees he issued is: If you want to be an official, your family cannot engage in business? If you want to do business, you cannot be an official. Officials and businessmen cannot interact with each other. With collusion, the power of the powerful can at least be greatly weakened, and the threats will naturally be reduced a lot.
After Qin Guben, who was sitting in front of him, learned what Ji Wang Tang Ao wanted to know, he told everything he knew. To say that this person is indeed very capable, there is very little nonsense in what he said. , According to him, Jizhou is not rich, and even if there are so-called powerful people, their strength is limited, but there are only two families that can really have influence, one is named Mei and the other is Lu.
The Mei family not only monopolizes the rice and grain industry in Jizhou, accounting for 70 to 80% of the share, but also has considerable influence in Jizhou Prefecture and the military. Just like Wen You engaged in Meidu, Wu There is evidence of the presence of General Mei Jilong. What is important is that, according to Qin Guben, the Mei family has a very good relationship with Beidi. If the two of them collude, it will also be a major danger to the development of Jizhou. .
Let’s talk about the Lu family. Although no one is an official in Jizhou Prefecture, the Lu family monopolizes 70% to 80% of the iron business. In the past, all the weapons needed by the Jizhou Army were made by them. There is another very important point. Sang Doubei, the commander-in-chief of Guzhou, was from the Qing family, and his daughter Lu Ruyi married Sang Shihua. With this, he had a powerful foreign aid.
After explaining the situation of the two families, Qin Guben closed his mouth in time, but Tang Ao fell into deep thought.
Tang Ao couldn't underestimate these two powerful men. One could contact Beidi, and the other had such a close relationship with Guzhou, so it was difficult to attack them.
Especially for the Lu family, if the newly built Jizhou Army wants to grow stronger, according to Tang Ao's wishes, it needs to build a cavalry that is invincible in the world. Where will the war horses come from? Of course, it will be with Daman and Bahan who are already able to do business. Buy it from the tribe. Once you do this, Guzhou will become a place that cannot be bypassed. If the relationship with them is not good, the war horse you bought may not be delivered to you at all.
"The Lu family should not move first, then we can only go after the Mei family." After thinking about it for a while, Tang Ao came up with a plan to gradually disintegrate the powerful people in Jizhou.
After having this determination, Chang Shi went to the Mei family and asked them to open warehouses to release grain and lower the price of rice. This was naturally a test by Tang Ao. If the other party did not obey, he would have
That's enough reason to deal with the other party first.
The Mei family was not a freeloader. Faced with Tang Ao's pressing power, they did not choose to bear it, but gave in. However, they only contacted Di Ren in private.
The Mei family gave in. Tang Ao did not do anything to force him. Perhaps he did not want to make too much noise and panic people when he first arrived. The most important thing he needed to do now was to build a strong army.
At the same time, it stabilizes and wins people's hearts.
When the Zhizhou Prefecture made an announcement and gave the soldiers sufficiently generous treatment, the recruitment office was overcrowded every day. Once the number of troops was sufficient, it would only take three to six months of training before a qualified army would appear.
Tang Ao was still very confident. His main focus was on winning people's hearts.
The so-called method of winning people's hearts is very simple. Let everyone have something to do, and everyone can have enough food and clothing. In this way, you will not worry that the people will not obey you and support you.
In order to achieve his goal, Tang Ao issued several political orders as King Ji.
First, building roads, building outer city walls, and building houses effectively solved the work problems of many men.
Second, the comprehensive promotion of horizontal looms has solved the problem of many women sitting idle at home and having no money to earn.
Third, build more drug stores and treat patients at affordable prices. The excess expenses will be paid by King Ji out of his own pocket. This also solves the problem of people having difficulty and affording medical treatment. You must know that the reason why the ancients lived too short was mostly because
It was caused by people being looked down upon when they were sick. There were even cases that were easy to happen and easy to solve in later generations. To be honest, in ancient times, a fever would kill someone.
Fourth, build bathhouses and public toilets. Maintaining good personal hygiene can reduce the chance of illness. The construction of toilets can not only make the city more tidy, prevent the spread of some diseases, and collect feces, it can also become a very
Good fertilizers can increase the yield of farmland.
Fifth, build schools to improve the overall cultural level of the people. The so-called century-old plan is based on education. If a nation wants to truly rise, it is impossible to do it without knowledge and culture.
Sixth, start a newspaper industry. Let newspapers cover the entire Jizhou, so that the people here can know the world's major events and know right and wrong without leaving home. It's just because movable type printing has just been invented by Tang Ao, and the cost is too high.
One issue is scheduled every seven days.
These were the six political decrees to benefit the people, and then Tang Ao announced six further reform decrees.
First, we encourage more children. If a household has more than four children, the state government will give certain rewards. The more children, the greater the rewards.
Secondly, Jizhou is rich in coal mines, but most of them are mined by powerful people. Under this order, all coal mines were taken back to the state capital. This was to increase revenue but also cut off the lifeblood of some powerful people.
Third, the tax on prostitution and gambling houses has been increased from the original 30% tax to the current 60% tax, which has doubled. However, it is still supported by the madams and gambling house owners. There is only one reason.
, there were originally as many as a thousand brothels in Jizhou, but now there are only more than 200, equally divided among ten counties and forty-six counties, which has made their business better. Even if they pay more taxes, they still still make money.
, the same is true for gambling houses.
Fourth, build Daqian Bank again and change it to Jiwang Bank to absorb the surplus silver of the powerful and the common people, provide loans to the powerful and the common people, and minimize the loss of silver transactions. One thing to note is that the Jiwang Bank created by Tang Ao The banknotes are different from the previous banknotes of Daqian Bank. They are issued separately. At this point, Tang Ao does not believe in Daqian Bank in Daliang City and Zhongwang Daqian Bank in Liaozhou. If he does not set up defenses in advance If it doesn't work well, they will come up with a large amount of money and come to him to arbitrage it. In that case, without supervision, they will probably suffer a big loss.
Fifth, encourage people of good origin to do business. If you don't have enough money, you can borrow money from the newly built Jiwang Bank. If you don't have collateral, you can adopt the five-household joint guarantee system.
The sixth and most important point is that any capable person who wants to be an official can come to the magistrate's office to register without recommendation. As long as he passes the examination, he can become an official and obtain an official status recognized by King Ji. This abandonment Recruiting a recommender is considered to be the first of its kind in the world. This not only allows capable and powerless people to get a chance to show off, but more importantly, if no one recommends them, they will naturally follow Tang Ao's lead. , in the future they will naturally be regarded as the disciples of King Ji, and they will be more assured to use.
With the Shuangliu Government Order, Jicheng and even the entire Jizhou became agitated. Especially after the news came out, there were many interested people in nearby Liaozhou and Guzhou. Their lives were not easy. They simply left their hometown and thought of various ways to go straight to Jizhou and Jicheng.
Jizhou's manpower has been greatly supplemented, and its strength has been rapidly expanded and improved.
In this regard, King Zhong, the lord of Liaozhou who was closest to Jizhou, felt great pressure, but he could not stop it. Especially when one thing happened, King Zhong was completely powerless and could only watch Jizhou helplessly. It is developing at a high speed. News came out in Daliang City that the Empress Dowager's body and bones may not be able to survive.
After the former crown prince Tang Xin was killed in rebellion, the Empress Dowager's health became worse and worse day by day. She had high expectations for this grandson whom she had seen since childhood. The Empress Dowager had always thought that Tang Xin would be the future monarch of Daqian, and would also More love is poured into him.
The white-haired person gave the black-haired person a gift, which was extremely uncomfortable psychologically and unacceptable. From then on, the Queen Mother's body and bones became worse and worse day by day. After nearly two years, the time was finally approaching when the oil was exhausted.
As the second son of the Empress Dowager, Prince Zhong had a deep affection for his mother, so he would not feel comfortable. Especially he knew that once his mother was gone, his brother who was the emperor would have no scruples. , when someone might attack him at any time, his mood became even worse. If he would bother Tang Ao at this time, he would be asking for trouble.