Chapter 923 919 [Nuan's Coup]

  The holidays are over, and we are back to work.

   Zhao Han didn't approve many memorials, so he called Liu Ziren to ask: "What's the situation of this Sichuan tea class? Sichuan Zuo Buzheng Chen Zilong, why do you suggest that the imperial court purchase and sell Sichuan tea?"

Liu Ziren explained: "Your Majesty, since the Song Dynasty, tea from Sichuan and Shaanxi has been harvested in two different ways from other places. Sichuan tea is used to trade Tibetan horses, and Shaanxi (Hanzhong) tea is used to trade Qinghai and Mongolian horses. Ming Dynasty The same is true, but due to the corruption of the tea government, the tea farmers cannot make ends meet, so a large number of them fled to waste..."

  During the Song Dynasty, Sichuan-Shanxi tea was very strong, and the output accounted for half of the country.

  In the Ming Dynasty, in order to engage in the mutual market of tea and horses, the imperial court ordered the purchase and sales of Sichuan tea, but there were many twists and turns.

  In order to build the Forbidden City in Beijing, Zhu Di imposed a large number of corvees in Sichuan. Many tea farmers were conscripted to cut trees in the deep mountains, and no one took care of the tea gardens, and large tracts of tea trees died.

   At the same time, the tea horse department was also corrupt, which made merchants reluctant to buy Sichuan tea. In the seventh year of Yongle, Sichuan Tea only traded 70 skinny horses. In the second year after Zhu Di's death, the new emperor checked the situation of Sichuan tea and found that the warehouse was full of unsold old tea. The tea warehouse in Chengdu alone burned 210,000 catties of rotten tea.

  The tea class in the Ming Dynasty charged a "tithe tax", but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, most of the Sichuan-Shanxi tea gardens were occupied by military officials and tyrants. Then, citing the regulations of the Hongwu period, the "ownerless" tea gardens were taken care of by military households, and the guards directly took 80% of the tea income. However, the government is still collecting tea tax, and military households or tenant households have to continue to pay taxes.

  Ming Dynasty officials also tried to reform, taxing many so-called "tea gardens" according to ordinary cultivated land. Some landlords couldn't make ends meet, so they took the opportunity to cut down tea trees and replant food.

  This is also the reason why Zhao Han stopped selling tea after the founding of the country.

  The tea administration in the Ming Dynasty collapsed from the period of Zhu Di, and the bureaucratic monopoly of the market is too unreliable. It is better to issue licenses for merchants to buy and sell.

  Now Sichuan officials suddenly go to the public, requesting that Sichuan tea be re-sold officially.

Liu Ziren continued: "The opening of the tea market in the new dynasty allowed Sichuan and Shanxi tea to be bought and sold freely, and there was no need to forcefully engage in a tea-horse trade. Farmers in central Sichuan were delighted by this, and in the early years of the Republic of China, they began to plant tea again. In recent years, tea farmers in central Sichuan have become more and more The more, the tea production has doubled, but the number of Sichuan tea licenses has not increased.”

   "There are too many teas but few merchants, and someone took the opportunity to monopolize it?" Zhao Han immediately guessed what was going on.

Liu Ziren said: "Those merchants have teamed up to monopolize the market, and then lowered prices to tea farmers. I heard that tea merchants in central Sichuan are divided into regions. A certain firm monopolizes certain counties, and other merchants are not allowed to collect tea even if they have a license. Last year, Sichuan tea With a bumper harvest, merchants once again joined forces to lower the price, and the tax on the tea fields was so heavy that many tea farmers could no longer afford to pay the land tax.”

  Zhao Han was quite angry, and scolded: "This Chen Zilong, why can't he say something? He has to write an obscure secret note, and ask for something to be changed to an official tea monopoly. It's obvious that he won't attract my attention, so he has to be sensational."

  Among the Fushe Scholars, Chen Zilong was also considered to have served earlier, and was promoted to Sichuan Zuobu Political Envoy two years ago.

   It is estimated that the tea merchants in Sichuan could not be suppressed, so they came to secretly present a secret report to the emperor.

  The largest tea merchant in Sichuan is the son of Gan Liangchen.

  And that Gan Liangchen was the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan in the Ming Dynasty. After being dismissed and returned to his hometown, he became a small warlord in Sichuan. He not only helped the Datong Army fight, participated in sending troops to recover Chengdu, but also donated his troops and territory. Finally, he retired and resigned.

  How could Zhao Han not reward such an interesting veteran?

  Now, Gan Liangchen has long since died of illness, and his son has become the largest tea merchant in Sichuan by relying on the franchise license. While making friends with officials, while connecting with merchants, they have semi-monopolized the tea business in Sichuan.

   Without the emperor speaking, even if there were ten Chen Zilongs, they would not be able to control those tea merchants.

  There is no "Anti-Monopoly Law" at the moment, and all the actions of tea merchants are not criminal, at most they do not buy tea according to the government's guide price. When encountering ordinary businessmen, Chen Zilong can fine or revoke his license, but he can't help the descendants of heroes.

  Zhao Han immediately ordered: "Issuing 20 more Sichuan tea licenses, only to non-Sichuan merchants, let these tea merchants fight their own way. In addition, send pedestrians to reprimand the Gan family, so that the Gan family will be more honest in the future!"

   "Follow the order!" Liu Ziren cupped his hands.

  Let Liu Ziren step down, and Zhao Han wrote back to Chen Zilong: If you have something to say, 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 reason why the agricultural tax is so high is that the local withholding tax is also included in the calculation. In addition, for economic crops such as tea and tobacco, the land tax is very high, and it is also included in the agricultural tax.

  Over the past ten years, the planting area of ​​tea and tobacco has continued to expand, and the tea production in Sichuan alone has doubled or tripled.

  The paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River have fully implemented the rotation of cotton and rice, and the land tax has been adjusted accordingly, which is higher than that of pure grain fields and lower than that of pure cotton fields. In Shandong, cotton and rice are rarely planted in rotation, because most of them are dry fields, and the tax on cotton fields is set relatively high.

   After writing the reply letter to Chen Zilong, Zhao Han thought about it and wrote another letter: order the Inspectorate to take the lead, the Ministry of Finance and Datong Bank to follow up, and immediately thoroughly investigate the national tariffs!

  Agricultural tax increases so rapidly, the increase in tariffs is obviously unreasonable. You know, in the past few years, coastal ports have been continuously opened, and the volume of foreign trade has continued to increase, but the growth rate of tariffs has not met Zhao Han's expectations.

  The national tariff last year was 9.01 million taels. Zhao Han estimated that after a thorough investigation by the Procuratorate, it may rise to more than 12 million taels.

   In the past few years, the sea trade was encouraged, but there has been no action. Now it is time to act.

  Tibet and Heilongjiang will usher in another batch of exiles.

   Tariffs will be rectified this year, and industrial and commercial taxes will be rectified next year. Anyway, there will be no shortage of exiles. They are all high-quality people, throwing them to Tibet and Heilongjiang can quickly improve the local cultural and educational level.

  After playing the Shangsi Festival for a few days, the memorials have piled up like a mountain.

  Zhao Han was numb, so he asked the maid to sort out the routine documents. For several hours in a row, he kept signing. This kind of routine official document only needs to be glanced at to know the general content. It only needs the emperor's signature and seal.

   I really don't know where Zhu Yuanzhang got so much energy to take care of everything, big or small. Zhao Han has tried his best to reduce the burden on himself, and the cabinet can make decisions on many things without sending them to the emperor, even if this is exhausting.

   There is no break at noon, the meal is served in front of you, and you eat while reading the memorial.

   Until two o'clock in the afternoon, I finally finished approving the accumulated routine documents.

  Zhao Han closed his eyes and leaned there, asking the female officer to read him a memorial that required brains. After reading a copy, he thought briefly, then opened his eyes to give a reply, and then continued to close his eyes and listen.

  About four o’clock, Zhao Han suddenly sat up straight, but heard the female officer read: “Civil and military officials of Guangnan Province, Guangnan Office of the National Security Council, jointly signed a report, Annan Ruan’s coup, Ruan Phuc was on the verge of being assassinated…”

   "Show it to me." Zhao Han opened his eyes.

  This kind of major event is generally an urgent report.

  But this is a delayed report, because Vietnam is in the rainy season, no matter how urgent the news is, it is impossible to send troops in the rainy season.

  When Zhao Han finished reading the memorial, he almost couldn't laugh out loud.

  Ever since Ruan's brain had a convulsion, he brazenly attacked Bin Tonglong and was beaten up by the Datong army, Ruan Fubin deeply felt that his military strength was not enough.

  Thus, he expanded the standing army to 100,000, which is equivalent to a sudden expansion of the army by 40%, and military expenditures rose sharply. The Ruan family's finances were too much to bear, so they took the idea of ​​Han businessmen, which not only damaged the interests of Han businessmen, but also made it difficult for the Hue gentry to do business.

  Ruan Fubin knows that this is drinking poison to quench thirst, but he has provoked China, and he must expand the army quickly, otherwise he will not be able to bear it at all.

   As a result, China did not send troops the year before last, and China did not send troops last year.

  China does not send troops, but the Ruan family has to keep raising soldiers, and their finances are getting worse day by day. From gentry to merchants, from officials to common people, there are complaints from the ruling and opposition parties.

  Even the two kings of water and fire in Nanpan Kingdom were forced to show signs of rebellion, because Nanpan Kingdom needed to double the tribute tax directly. (Nanpan Kingdom has no king, and is jointly ruled by two chiefs, Water King and Fire King)

  The common people, merchants, and vassals were almost squeezed out. Ruan Fubin focused on those gentry again, and began to investigate the gentry's properties that were concealed and not reported.

   Just at the beginning of this year, Ruan Phuc was dying in a daze.

  Currently, Ruan Fuqin, who is only seven years old, has succeeded Ruan Lord. The Empress Dowager Song supervised the country behind a curtain, and the Empress Dowager's elder brother Song Fukang presided over the government.

  The new army formed by Ruan Fubin is all disbanded!

  Those Hue gentry didn't care whether the Datong army was killed or not, and they didn't care that their land would be divided up. Anyway, their idea is very simple, the Ruan regime can't afford so many standing troops, and they won't spend half a dime to raise soldiers.

  Really, the country is about to be wiped out, and they are still there without a hair, and they don’t even think about what to do if the Datong army kills them.

  The intelligence sent by Guangnan Province also stated that the standing army under the Ruan family is eligible to be exempted from corvee. After Song Fukang became regent, tens of thousands of new troops were dismissed at once, and even the severance pay of sergeants was deducted by 70% to 80%.

  Most of these new troops who were forced to leave the army returned to their hometown obediently, but thousands of people also gathered outside Hue City to fight for pay. Song Fukang recruited the imperial guards to suppress them, captured and killed hundreds of people, and the new army who made a fuss dispersed suddenly. After the rainy season, these new troops are expected to make trouble again.

   Zhao Han felt inexplicable, hey, he killed another enemy, although this enemy died unexpectedly.

  Orphans and widows, foreign relatives are regents, and the new army is struggling for pay. Why can't they take the opportunity to send troops?

  The next day, Zhao Han called the cabinet, the Ministry of War, the Inspectorate, and the National Security Council to a meeting.

  The secret work of the National Security Institute, immediately contact Nanpan Kingdom, let the two kings of water and fire of Nanpan Kingdom belong to the Celestial Dynasty. The king of water and the king of fire can be canonized as chieftains, and Nanpan Kingdom will be changed to Nanpan Military and Civilian Mansion in the future. It's okay to disagree, and after the Ruan family is cleaned up, we will go to conquer Nanpan by force.

  Nanpan Kingdom is the Xiyuan region among the eight major regions of Vietnam. It is currently in the era of tribal alliances, and it is still slash-and-burn and knotting. Five hundred Datong troops are enough to conquer by force.

  Let’s talk about Nguyen, once the rainy season is over, the Guangnan Datong Army will be dispatched immediately!

  (end of this chapter)