Accompanied by Lu Yihao, Zhao Si and his team inspected three sewer pipe renovations, two street expansions and street fire stations, one each built by Huimin.
These are all municipal projects in Kaifeng City, only the first phase. Zhang Shuye is still exploring how to plan and build municipal projects.
The group spent half a day watching and discussing it.
In the afternoon, Lu Yihao left first. Zhao Si saw that it was still early, so he took Ming Zhaoxia, Tan Shiji, Li Gang, Zhao Ding, and Zhu Shengfei to Taixue.
On the road, Zhao Si and Ming Zhaoxia were walking in front, while Tan Shiji and the other four were walking behind and discussing. Not far away, the discussion became a little heated, and Zhao Si couldn't help but turn around.
"What's wrong? What are you arguing about?"
"Official Zhao, Zhao Yuanzhi and Zhu Zangyi were arguing. Such a large-scale construction project would cost a lot of money. Originally, our country had redundant troops, redundant personnel, redundant expenses, and the treasury was in embarrassment. Wouldn't it make things worse? Zhao Yuanzhi said that it was worth it to support the people and build up strength; Zhu Zangyi felt that it was worth it.
Not worth it, taxes should be spent wisely..."
Tan Shiji explained at the side. Then the four of them cast their eyes on Zhao Si's face, full of expectations, like students waiting for the sage's advice.
After examination, selection and practice, they were finally selected into the Minxing Pavilion and became the core group of people in the Secretariat Province.
Since then, they have been able to come into contact with more core things, such as Zhao Si’s many plans, speeches, articles, etc. After reading these including political system, military, economy, foreign affairs, culture, religion, etc., they are full of
A contribution of wisdom and foresight.
Li Gang and others were impressed, marveling and admiring the talents and far-sightedness of the officials. In addition to their insights, they all felt that a new door had been pushed open, and a brand new world appeared in front of them. The old knowledge system in their minds, together with
The outlook on life, values and world view established on this basis have been overturned to pieces.
Three views were shattered.
Then a huge new building with new knowledge as the foundation and new three views as the pillars was gradually formed in their minds. In the process of formation, they were eager to obtain more new knowledge from Zhao Si.
Zhao Si simply stopped, found a teahouse on the side of the road, and told the story in detail.
"Taxation has been around since ancient times. It's just that people used to have a misunderstanding that there were only two items of tax expenditure. The first was official salary and royal support; the second was raising and training troops to defend the country from enemies. In fact, one of the most important items was forgotten.
expenditure, that is public expenditure.”
"What is public expenditure? It is disaster relief. Our Song Dynasty did a good job in this regard. In addition to Changpingcang, which prepares for disasters and famines, there is also the Huimin Bureau, which treats the people, and the 'Guanfang', which treats the poor and sick people,"
Hospitals' and so on. But this is only part of public expenditure. It is far from enough."
"The imperial court should do more. There are fire stations and people's welfare stations all over Kaifeng City, as well as building bridges and paving roads, building water conservancy projects, and renovating rivers..."
Hearing this, Li Gang and the four of them looked at each other, and Li Gang said.
"Official Zhao, what you just said should be referring to the welfare plan. But the sages have said, 'Promoting welfare means levying less corvees, lightening taxes, and not taking away the farming time, so that the people can live a warm life and have sufficient food and clothing, so they can support the people.'
The people's livelihood is good and their food and clothing are abundant, so they should impose less corvees, light taxes, and not take away their farming time. This seems to be contrary to what Zhao Guanren said."
Zhao Si smiled calmly, "That's because they didn't understand the key, so they just focused on spending money to support the people. Let me ask you, did the people of the former Han Dynasty live better or worse than those of the ancient Zhou Dynasty? Think about it carefully,
Don’t listen to those pedantic people’s retro talk.”
After being silent for a while, Zhao Ding said: "The Pre-Han Dynasty should be stronger than the Ancient Zhou Dynasty. Not to mention other things, ancient Zhou bronze wares were still valuable items, and people mostly used wooden plows to cultivate the land. During the Pre-Han Dynasty, iron wares could already be used for farming.
Which one is good and which one is bad is clear at a glance.”
Zhao Ding's answer surprised Zhao Si, who looked at the young man with admiration.
It seems that as long as we help today's students and elites correct their way of thinking, they will do better than themselves who cheated in the future. Especially those who are good at history, they are the ones who really cheated.
Zhao Si continued to ask, "Do the people of the Song Dynasty live better or worse than the people of the Han Dynasty?"
After another pause, Li Gang replied, "Of course the people of the Song Dynasty live better than the people of the former Han Dynasty. Judging from the food, clothing, housing and transportation recorded in the books of the Han Dynasty, the people of the Song Dynasty are much better off than the people of the former Han Dynasty."
"Then you know why this is?"
Several people hesitated for a moment and then answered one after another.
“Advancing with the times?”
"As the population increases, the land becomes larger."
"The tools for farming are better, and the seeds used are better. More ditches and water conservancy projects have been built."
Zhao Si smiled and said: "What Zhu Zangyi said is a bit higher. It's because productivity has improved."
"productive forces?"
Another new term.
"It is the ability to use nature, transform nature, and create wealth." Zhao Si explained simply. "In the past, we used swords and wooden plows to plow, but now we use oxen and iron plows. This is the improvement of productivity. Why is productivity constantly improving? That's it.
Man’s desire for a better life.”
"People always want to have enough food and clothing, so they try every means to cultivate land and weave cloth. After meeting these conditions, they also want to eat well, wear well, and live comfortably, so people start to raise silkworms, draw silk, and frame silkworms.
Bridges are paved, roads are built, lofts are built...it is this desire that drives productivity forward step by step."
Li Gang and the other three couldn't help but nodded, but after thinking about it carefully, they found something was wrong.
"Official Zhao, does the productivity you mentioned have anything to do with the public expenditure we discussed earlier?"
"It's very relevant. Because public expenditures not only include health and welfare, but also have more important responsibilities, such as improving productivity, increasing per-acre yield, and promoting industry and commerce..."
After hearing what Zhao Si said, the three of them were a little confused.
"Guan Zhao, public expenditure still has this function? Isn't it possible to realize it in this way?"
"It's actually very simple, such as using taxes to build bridges, pave roads, and dredge rivers. Transshipment has become fast and convenient, and goods trafficking has become profitable. Merchants are more willing to transport goods from all over the world for sale."
"Use taxes to establish the Gewuyuan, improve agricultural silkworm weaving technology, increase the yield per acre, and make the silk more exquisite. Plant cotton, open factories, spin and weave cloth. Build sea ships, go to sea for trade, and gather wealth from all over the world for support.
China..."
"Public expenditures on taxation can be used as the first investment to start up these industrial and commercial industries, and then they will produce profits and then invest again, thus forming a continuous cycle of continuous innovation and profit."
Hearing this, Zhu Shengfei said with a vague understanding, "Guan Zhao, what you mean is to use taxes to support tax sources, thereby obtaining more new taxes."
Zhao Siyi clapped his hands and said, "Yes, that's the truth."
He was a little speechless.
My mind still has the thinking mode of modern people, and I have many ideas that I want people to understand today. If I want to use their current words to express them clearly, it is really difficult to connect them.
But fortunately, these newly recruited secretaries are all good enough. They can quickly understand the essence from such an unfamiliar and boring narration, and they can make it clear in one sentence.
I talked a lot, but it is not as good as someone else's short sentence: "Taxation to support tax sources!"
I will never think too highly of myself again!
Li Gang and the other three couldn't help but start discussing.
Ming Chao
Doesn't being entitled to enjoy the Ancestral Temple divide and disintegrate these scholars?"
"That's right." Zhao Si looked at the three people who were discussing more and more intensely on the side, and replied in a low voice: "I gave Wang Jinggong a posthumous title posthumously to appease the new party and give them reassurance. Fan Wenzheng was born in a poor family.
He has made great contributions and has a high reputation among ordinary students of the old party and ordinary students. I posthumously gave him a posthumous title in order to win over the many neutral factions among the students and Confucian scholars."
Ming Zhaoxia's eyes lit up, "So many students from Taixue are causing trouble, isn't that a problem?"
"It just gives me a chance to solve the problem. Taixue, there are some useless things in my education reform plan. Why not take advantage of this opportunity and get rid of it."
"Thirteenth Master, I heard that there are still five to six hundred students in the Imperial College." Ming Zhaoxia was a little worried, "If they start a fight, it might not end well." This chapter has been completed!