At this time, Chongqing was also in a tight situation outside and inside. Qiao Yu was very worried that people from the Tongmenghui would take advantage of the people's demonstrations to sneak in and develop their power. However, it seemed that the control was quite effective, and the miscellaneous people had not caused any waves yet.
However, with the development of the road protection movement, Qiao Yu also had to unify the thoughts of his subordinates and focus their efforts in one direction. Therefore, he recruited Han Yong, Wang Huai, Shi Yi and other military personnel as well as several major businessmen from the chamber of commerce.
After being invited to the White House, everyone sat around and began to discuss how to deal with it.
Han Yong and others still had some suspicions about Qiao Yu's thoughts, but Wang Dongcheng and others were different. Their first priority was to protect the current family business and avoid losses in the turmoil, so Wang Gui asked first.
: "Shun Qing, now that the trend of road protection is sweeping across Sichuan, we can't stay out of it. We must have a plan to deal with it. I don't know what you plan to do?"
"Boss Wang is right. Now it is said that the Revolutionary Party is making a lot of noise in Xichuan, and the court does not know how to suppress it. I am afraid that the Revolutionary Party will really succeed. Where should we place our bets? Mr. Shun, please give everyone an idea.
Idea!" Xue Shan also said on the side that these big businessmen are different from officials and have no loyalty to the Qing Dynasty. What they pursue is just maximizing interests. In this regard, there is no difference from later generations. As long as they have enough
The interests of the Qing Dynasty can be abandoned at any time.
Qiao Yu calmly took a sip of tea and said slowly: "Everyone, if we want to find a way to deal with it, we have to solve two problems. One is how far the current situation will evolve, and the second is
What kind of society do we want? Regarding the first point, I want to say that with the road protection movement, Sichuan was boiling like soup. Most of Sichuan's new army was taken to Yunnan and Guizhou by Xiliang. The current military strength is very weak and there is no
The strength of suppression, and once the troops from other provinces are used, it will inevitably lead to revolutionary party uprisings elsewhere. Now the minds of the people in the world have changed, especially the gentry has begun to abandon the Qing court. As long as one uprising succeeds, it will cause the entire Qing Dynasty to collapse.
It is said that the Qing Dynasty is already in a state of turmoil, and I will see the outcome within the next year."
Although the people present had suspected that the Qing Dynasty was about to fall, they were not as clear as Qiao Yu said, so they all lowered their heads and thought, and no longer paid attention. After a while, Wang Dongcheng said: "Shun Qing, you said that this revolutionary party will succeed. Let's
Do you want to support the Revolutionary Party?"
"What Boss Wang is asking is my second question, what kind of country do we want? You have been running factories for a while. I think you should also realize the gap between us and foreign capitalists. We don't need to rely on
Rather than any force, we should let the world revolve around us. Industrial society is completely different from agricultural society. If we want to break through the blockade and suppression of foreign powers and develop industry, we cannot do without the support of the government. I want to ask everyone how
Can the chaotic organization of the Revolutionary Party and the style of the Jianghu Gang really protect the development of industry and commerce? In addition, many leaders of the Tongmenghui are entangled with Japan. The Japanese have always regarded China as a piece of fat. Will they be willing to develop Chinese industry?
In my opinion, they cannot protect everyone's interests when they are in power. If nothing else, now that the Xichuan Revolutionary Party is booming, so many merchants and shops are being forced to pay money, and everyone is just a treasury in their eyes."
Wang Gui carefully pondered Qiao Yu's words and murmured: "Then the Qing court is going to be over, and the revolutionary party can't support it, so we have the only way to stand on our own?"
"Yes, it is necessary to be independent, control the political power, formulate laws and regulations that are in line with the interests of industry and commerce, and protect industrial development. Since ancient times, Chinese businessmen have chosen the path of collusion between government and businessmen to develop themselves, such as the famous Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants
, It seems like this is a shortcut, but in fact we have to endure the endless blackmail from the court, and we have no ability to resist the influx of Western goods. This road is no longer feasible. Now is the time for this kind of change.
We should rise up and give it a try. Don't underestimate yourself. The capital we control already exceeds tens of millions, and we also have a new army. If we want to compete for the world, it is not enough, but there is still hope for controlling Sichuan, so why do it in a low voice?
It’s so small!”….
Xue Shan suddenly trembled and looked very excited: "Shun Qing is right. In the past, everything you did was punished by those dog officials first, and most of them were given to those gangsters. Now Shun Qing leads everyone to gain the power to control taxation."
, our profits have increased by nearly 20%, but we are still bound to be helpless. We should be bolder. In troubled times, heroes are rising everywhere, and we can conquer the world with just our power!"
Zhang Fuxiang also spoke in support: "Boss Xue is right, but I don't think we need to kill all parties like in the past. The revolutionary party is not trying to establish the Republic of China. We can achieve our goal as long as we control the parliament!"
Qiao Yu was very happy when he saw that the ambitions of these big businessmen were aroused. After all, with their support, it would be very convenient to get things done. However, simply controlling the parliament is obviously not enough. Neither the Beiyang nor the Revolutionary Party
He didn't take the parliament into consideration. It was just a toy. The most important thing was to have military power, so he said: "Everyone is right, but just controlling the parliament is not enough. What if others don't abide by the law?"
Then we need to have the army and local administrative power in our hands. If anyone dares to break the rules, we will oppose him!"
Everyone discussed again and finally came to a consensus. Wang Dongcheng said with a smile: "Shun Qing, I'm afraid you have seen this step a long time ago, and every step of the way has been part of your plan. Now we are all tied to it."
You are on top of your chariot, and you still want to make plans based on you, we will definitely support you with all our strength!"
"Thank you for your trust. We have a few things to do now. One is that the original merchant group armed forces have been incorporated into the new army. Now we still need to expand them again. We will officially form the army when the time is right. In addition, we have to
Taking local administrative power into our hands, it is definitely not enough to just send a few tax inspectors. We must completely cut off the claws of those dog officials and not give them the opportunity to exploit them. In addition, we must remove some unnecessary checkpoints!"
Lijin was originally a tax imposed by the Qing Dynasty due to the rise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The original tax revenue was not enough, so it had to increase the exploitation of the people and levy an additional tax. Because it adopted the method of drawing one out of a hundred, it was called Lijin. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the taxation had become even more
It's heavy. The tax rate has reached 5% or even 10%, and it's all levied at the place of origin, transshipment, and sales. There are also many privately added likin checkpoints. On average, there are even dozens of miles.
There are four or five tax cards in the absurd situation. On the one hand, the tax burden is extremely heavy, which restricts commodity trafficking and drives up prices. On the other hand, too many checkpoints also seriously affect the circulation speed of goods. For the newly developed commodity economy,
It is a kind of ruthless destruction,
Especially after Chongqing became a commodity manufacturing base, this restriction became more obvious. Cloths, matches, etc. are all department stores, and the cost of exporting them often increases by more than double, or even more, seriously weakening the quality of the products.
Due to the price advantage, most of the tax supervision rights that Qiao Yu obtained previously were aimed at this situation of arbitrary collection of fees. Some checkpoints were cancelled, but there were still tax cards scattered all over the place. When everyone heard that Qiao Yu was planning to take action against fees,
, naturally they were very happy and cheered one after another.
At this moment, Wang Tianhe suddenly walked in and handed a piece of information to Qiao Yu. Qiao Yu opened it and frowned immediately. He was about to take action against Lijin, but unexpectedly someone bumped into the gun.
If you say it, you are giving yourself the opportunity to kill chickens and scare monkeys.
Qiao Yu shook the note in his hand: "Everyone, the tax supervisor we sent to Dazu County was killed, and tax supervisors from several other counties were injured. This is a provocation to the Chongqing Chamber of Commerce. It will definitely make people angry.
