Judge of the Song Dynasty Chapter 601: Commercial and Tax Regulations

Actually, for Zhang Fei's plan, the tax department came a bit late, which caused Zhang Fei not to be too aggressive about some financial issues, and had to accommodate the government everywhere, because the tax department did not arrive, and there was a lot of work Neither can it be developed, and he can't control the finances through the tax department, and he can't ensure how much the tax can be collected.

It is easy to spend money, but difficult to make money!

But it was not his mistake, but Sima Guang's reason, because Zhang Fei was originally arranged to go to Jiangnan, so Shi Tingxiu and Feng Nanxi were transferred to Jiangnan.

As a result, Zhang Fei made a 180-degree turn, so the tax department had to be redeployed, but it has already infiltrated Hezhong Mansion and is recruiting everywhere.

However, the officials of the Hezhong Mansion have not yet noticed that the tax department has quietly attacked, and a tax reform is already brewing.

At this moment, everyone's eyes are still focused on the negotiation between the procuratorate and the government.

This is really a very rare anti-crime operation since Taizu Taizong.

The key point is that all those who are attacked are related households.

The common people really hate these relationship households, because these relationship households can not only monopolize resources, but also have extrajudicial rights. If you are not a relationship household, you will not be able to compete with them, and you will even be exploited by them.

But it's not because of their ability, it's hard to be convincing.

Following the government's submission, and after several days of negotiations and the mediation of officials, the procuratorate finally reached a settlement with those related households, and a total of 98 charges were withdrawn. It can be said that all prosecutions were withdrawn. More than 320 people were released, and a total of more than 600 guan was fined. In addition, more than 1,200 guan were compensated to the victims.

Imperial Court.

Zhang Fei and Su Zhe walked on the stone road wet by autumn frost.

"Is everything going well?"

Zhang Fei asked.

Su Zhe said with a smile: "It was much smoother than expected. As you expected, many of them were afraid of being imprisoned and wanted to compromise early on. After negotiating with the government, the rest of them also They all accepted the punishment."

At this point, he paused for a while: "However, there are many people outside who expressed dissatisfaction with this. After all, our procuratorate did not prosecute any of them, but only fined them a little money.

But how did they know that once the old accounts were settled, the Hezhong Mansion would immediately fall into chaos, and the cost would be hundreds, or even thousands of times. "

The reason why the other party is willing to compromise is because the procuratorate does not prosecute. If the procuratorate wants to prosecute, it is impossible to understand this matter so simply. After all, the other party is also a powerful person.

Zhang Fei said with a smile: "So we still need publicity, which is very important."

"Newspaper?"

Su Zhe said immediately.

Zhang Fei nodded and said: "The movable type printing workshop here has been completed. I plan to launch the prosecutor's report, alarm and legal report immediately, and try to make the entire judicial process as public as possible. First, set the tone. Come on, even if we leave in the future, no one will leave the government, nor will we be easily destroyed."

"This is a good idea."

Su Zhe nodded, deeply agreeing with this, and then said: "Speaking of which, this impartial law enforcement really makes people feel refreshed, but the source of the chaos lies in finances.

I heard that Bachelor Yuan will pay out the officials' salaries in full starting next year, which should not be lower than that of the Royal Police. Then the annual expenditure for each official may reach 50 yuan, plus the soldiers' salaries Compensation, as well as the expenditure of our public security law, can the Hezhong government's finances afford it? "

Many officials look forward to this kind of fair pleasure, but the premise is that you can bear the consequences!

Zhang Fei said: "It depends on the means of Bachelor Yuan."

Su Zhe frowned and said, "But there's only so much money. If there are many officials, there are few people. Why did the government turn a blind eye to the behavior of those people before? It's because the people behind them can collect money for the court.

Bachelor Yuan can only use another method to collect money to meet the government's expenditures. The money still has to be collected from the people. At that time, the public, prosecutors and law can only compromise for this, and things will eventually return to the original state. "

Zhang Fei smiled and said: "It seems that Mr. Su Xiao doesn't trust Wang Xueshi's financial management skills."

Su Zhe shook his head and said, "Financial management is just about distributing wealth, not increasing wealth. The imperial court does not distribute the wealth of the imperial court and the rich to the poor, because the one who distributes the wealth is the imperial court.

Xueshi Wang is just talking nicely, but if you study his new laws and regulations carefully, it is not difficult to find this point. "

Zhang Fei said: "The distribution that Mr. Su Xiao mentioned is in the absence of the Public Prosecution Law. Once there is a Public Prosecution Law, the situation will be different. The case of the Young Crop Law is a good illustration of this point."

Su Zhe nodded and said: "To tell you the truth, that lawsuit did eliminate some of my worries about the Young Crop Law, but it doesn't mean that I will support the new law. I would rather support the behavior of the tax department than I don’t want to support the new law. In short, the imperial court has already collected taxes, so we should no longer compete with the people for profit.”

He and his elder brother Su Shi are very consistent in this proposition. They are very opposed to the official system. The court should only be responsible for collecting taxes, and the rest should be handed over to the people.

However, Wang Anshi believes that decentralizing these wealth will not flow into the hands of the people, but will be monopolized by strong people, thus forming a threat to the people and the court.

Zhang Fei knew very well in his heart, to be honest, he couldn't judge which was right and which was wrong, so he just smiled and said: "Actually, there is another way."

Su Zhe asked: "What way?"

"Borrow money!"

Zhang Fei hehe said: "Whoever has no emergency time, people are like this, so is the court. You can borrow money to meet the emergency."

Su Zhe was stunned for a while, and smiled bitterly: "Who would dare to borrow this? Because no one can guarantee that the court will pay back the money."

Lending money to the court, are you crazy? Can the court pay you back?

It's lucky that the imperial court doesn't come to grab the money, and you will send the money to your door.

Zhang Fei said solemnly: "The public prosecution law can guarantee it. Isn't the Hezhong government deeply in debt now, but does Mr. Su Xiao think this has formed a crisis?"

Su Zhe frowned when he heard this, and fell silent.

Looking back, the Hezhong government is really heavily in debt at present. It has to pay the interest on the salt debt, and then it has to pay the military salary in arrears. Now it has to increase the expenditure of the officials.

In the past, no matter which government it was, the financial crisis would have broken out long ago, and the government would definitely find a way to renege on its debts, but now no one seems to take it seriously.

The government is still increasing spending.

The reason for this is that everyone believes that the government will pay back the money, and this trust does not come from the government, but from their public prosecutors.

"But how long can this kind of extra food last?" Su Zhe couldn't help asking again.

Zhang Fei said: "This is just an emergency need. The purpose is to spend money to rebuild the government's credit. If everyone doesn't trust the government, many problems cannot be solved. Then during this period, we can find a way to eliminate the bad government and solve the three problems. The calamity of redundancy will make the finances breathe, and the court will soon pay off the old debts.

From the perspective of financial management, eating more than enough is not a wrong strategy. We are only betting on a better future. If the people in the future are richer and richer, then tax revenue will increase, then we will win. "

Su Zhe said: "But there is always a winner or loser in gambling. We may not win, so what if we lose?"

Zhang Fei laughed and said, "Then die early, what else can I do?"

Su Zhe looked at Zhang Fei in astonishment.

Zhang Fei said: "Does Mr. Su want to continue to muddle along like this? In fact, governing the country is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat. We have no choice."

Su Zhe fell into deep thought.

Although he is talented, like most people, he is still conservative in his heart. His ideal society is the peaceful and prosperous Confucian world, where everyone saves money and saves money to deal with natural disasters.

This is actually a major defect of the Great Song Wenchen Tiantuan. Although there are countless geniuses among them, they are extremely lacking in this kind of economic thinking, and they are still opposed to this kind of thinking.

Don't talk about Wang Anshi, like Xue Xiang, he is one of the few financial masters in the court, but in their view, Xue Xiang is just an opportunistic, profit-seeking villain, and he is useless.

This is a deep-seated reason for the failure of Wang Anshi's new law. As far as the economic structure of the Song Dynasty is concerned, financial management must be necessary, because there are too many economic exchanges, but this kind of thinking has always been regarded as a kind of heresy, so It is difficult to inject political power into it. Whether you choose a state-owned economy or a private economy, you need political support.

Yuan Jiang is also one of the few officials with this kind of wisdom, so he and Zhang Fei are very compatible, and Yuan Jiang agrees with some of Zhang Fei's economic strategies.

For example, Yuan Jiang is very supportive of the strategy of issuing salt bonds and salt banknotes, and also regards this as the main means for the government to deal with expenditures during this period.

Because the young crop law and the exemption tax have not yet been officially implemented, it will take a while to make a profit, but government expenditures are increasing day by day.

The only way to overcome this difficulty is to issue salt bonds and salt banknotes.

The first project of the Changping Division after the reorganization is not to implement the Young Crop Law, but to issue salt bonds to the outside world.

The transshipment department decided to issue a batch of salt bonds worth one million pennies for a period of three years. The interest rate is 6% or 5% per year. Six percent of the interest, but if the interest needs to be settled every year, it is 5 percent, and grain and coins can be used to buy salt bonds.

In addition, the customer can choose whether to ask for salt or coins when purchasing the due principal.

The whole government also hopes that this salt debt can solve the urgent need.

It's a pity that the sky didn't fulfill people's wishes. After the news was released, there was really loud thunder and little rain.

Everyone is talking about it, but no one is buying it.

Although this is not the first batch of salt debts, the first batch of salt debts is the salt banknotes that the salt merchants were forced to depreciate.

Nowadays, we still don't dare to ask everyone to spend money directly to buy it.

Three years!

This...is too out of line!

This made Cai Yanqing and other officials very worried. If they did not borrow this sum of money, they would have to reduce the taxes paid to the court, and even affect the military pay.

The budget is already in deficit, will the imperial court agree?

If you don't agree, how will the promise made by the government be fulfilled?

When things come to the last step, money can no longer be avoided.

This is the root of all evil.

At this moment, the police station issued the first alert, explaining that the entire police station's anti-crime and evil operations during this period were announced to the public one by one.

The Public Procuratorate then released the first procuratorial report, announcing the reasons and reasons for the entire settlement negotiation to the public.

These two newspapers are really popular for the common people.

In the past, the government usually only announced the results they wanted to announce. If there was a black box operation, the government usually didn't say it, and it was just some gossip outside.

Now the alarm has already ignored the crimes of those bullies.

The Procuratorate directly told the people that after negotiations, the Article 98 prosecution was revoked, only for the victims to pay compensation and some fines, and they were all released at the same time.

If you look at these two newspapers together, you can see the problem at a glance.

The crime has been convicted, but you are not punished?

However, the fact is that it has been unanimously recognized by the people, singing praises for the police station and the procuratorate.

This article on the Procuratorate was written by Su Zhe himself. He just told the people directly that the public prosecutor's law does not settle the old accounts before the public prosecutor's law came, because many of the people are suspected of being forced to break the law, such as tax evasion, for example Making wine without permission, or selling private salt, etc.

This sentence alone completely reversed the people's views on this matter.

Because what Su Zhe said is true, everyone has more or less violated the law, and to settle old accounts, many people may face liquidation, not just those related households.

After this incident, the procuratorate and the police station have become famous. First of all, the police station has completely established its foothold.

The Royal Police can easily take down the bullies, and of course they can call the shots for them.

At the same time, the bureaucratic group and the landlord class are re-examining the procuratorate. The power of this department is no less than that of the imperial court, and it is more worthy of their study.

When it comes to criminal cases, the imperial court can decide whether to give a light sentence or a heavy sentence. This cannot be negotiated, it depends on the evidence, but the procuratorate can. You can negotiate with the procuratorate. operating space.

The imperial court did not publish its own law report until they were out of the limelight.

The imperial court is the imperial court after all.

As soon as this law report came out, everyone immediately realized clearly that father is still father and no one can replace him.

The content of this legal report is very simple. In a word, it is to reiterate the "Commercial Tax List" promulgated during the Taizu period, with 2% tax and 3% residential tax.

As soon as this report came out, the whole city was shocked.

Because there are many problems here, such as commercial tax on many crops and agricultural implements, according to the "Commercial Tax Regulations", these are tax-free products, but now these are also taxed.

There are also many exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes, such as ship landing tax, that is, power money, which are not included in the "Commercial Tax Regulations".

Are these taxes still collected?

This messed up the government.

The government immediately sent Zhang Fei to him.

We haven’t even borrowed any money here yet, and you are going to cut off our financial resources here. Your public prosecutors are giving us a long time to go to the government.

"I can't help it."

Zhang Fei spread his hands, "I also very much hope that the government can collect more taxes and give us more bonuses, but now some businessmen have come to the imperial court to sue, and the taxes they pay cannot be relied on.

At present, the commercial tax law of our dynasty is only the "Commercial Tax Regulations" set by Taizu. The court has not made any changes to this. How will the court judge? Could it be that our royal court does not abide by the laws set by Taizu? "

None of the officials said anything.

Who dares to speak out?

The "Commercial Tax Regulations" can be said to have been revised and completed by Taizu Taizong. You may not abide by it, but you can't say it out. If you say it out, this problem is very big. If you don't handle it well, you may be sentenced to death!

The imperial court wants to judge according to the "Commercial Tax Regulations", what can you say.

But what about finances?

Zhang Fei said again: "Our imperial court has no intention of interfering with finances, but if the government wants to collect more taxes, it must first amend the regulations. Otherwise, our imperial court has no way to follow, and the government can only be judged to lose."

Yuan Jiang blew his beard and stared: "You really don't have back pain when you stand and talk."

Zhang Fei smiled bitterly: "It's not a backache, but a headache!"

Everyone looked at Zhang Fei indifferently, as if saying, do you think you are very humorous?

This wave has not settled down, and another wave has arisen. This matter is still being negotiated, and Su Zhe suddenly came with several prosecutors.

"President Zhang is here?"

Su Zhe was taken aback when he saw Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei said: "I'm here to talk to Zhifu Cai and Bachelor Yuan."

When Wei Yingfang saw that they had not made an appointment, he felt even more uneasy. What happened, so he took the initiative to ask: "The chief prosecutor of Su University is here, what's your business?"

Su Zhe said: "That's right. We heard that Changping Secretary is going to issue one million salt bonds, so we came here to investigate. What is your basis for issuing one million salt bonds? Why do you want to issue them?" ?”

When Yuan Jiang heard this, she became even more furious, "What does our Transshipment Department have to do with your procuratorate's issue of salt bonds? Don't deceive people too much."

Zhang Fei hurriedly got up and put aside the relationship and said: "This matter has nothing to do with our imperial court, you talk about it, I will go first."

"You sit down first."

Yuan Jiang pointed to Zhang Fei and said.

Zhang Fei was taken aback with fright, and sat back awkwardly, looking aggrieved.

Su Zhe replied: "For the sudden issuance of such a large amount of debt by the government, our procuratorate must of course exercise its procuratorial power. After all, it is not you who pay back the money, but the national treasury. This involves national interests."

"Aren't you forcing us to issue salt bonds? You want to investigate, you go and investigate, I don't care about it. If you can't pay the salary at that time, you will bear it."

After finishing speaking, Yuan Jiang waved her sleeves and left angrily.

He Chunlin, Cao Yi and other officials from the Transportation Department also got up and left one after another, leaving only Cai Yanqing, Wei Yingfang and other government officials.

Zhang Fei rubbed his nose and said, "It's not kind to let me sit down and run away by myself!"

Cai Yanqing knew that it was time for him to act. He asked Su Zhe to sit down first, and then said: "Procurator Su, we have no choice but to issue salt bonds. The government is really short of money now."

Su Zhe nodded and said, "How can I not know...?"

Before he finished speaking, Wei Ying said angrily: "Then you still come to investigate?"

Su Zhe said: "I'm just following the rules. Of course, the government is allowed to issue salt bonds, but why are there so many issued? Is there any proof, and whether the government has a plan for repayment? According to the law of our ancestors , to prevent things, to control them, any system must be considered carefully."

Wei Yingfang was speechless for a moment, and couldn't help but glance at Zhang Fei again.

The two of you have discussed it, one is Taizu's "Commercial Tax Regulations", and the other is the law of the ancestors.

Can we all chat in the future?

Are those unwritten rules still useful?

There is no way, Cai Yanqing can only take out the relevant accounts and hand them over to Su Zhe, and say that their debt is based on the recent increase in expenditure, and the entire repayment plan is based on disarmament.

It's just because the disarmament will not be effective immediately, and a sum of money has to be paid out, but it is expected that the fiscal expenditure will be reduced on a large scale in the next year, and it will be enough to pay off the sum of money by then.

It is well-founded.

But Su Zhe took the relevant accounts back to the procuratorate for research as usual.

However, this greatly angered the government.

You keep saying that politics and law have nothing to do with each other, but as a result, your public security, procuratorate and law are interfering in administration everywhere.

After the procuratorate's investigation, how many officials there are and how much money they should get, these officials have to be very cautious, they can't randomly set salaries, and the related households are further supervised.

Just at this moment, news suddenly came from the capital that the imperial court would appoint Han Jiang as the observer envoy of Shaanxi Road, responsible for investigating the ban on young crops.

The morale of the government suddenly boosted!

Because according to the system of the Song Dynasty, envoys are the most powerful. Since Han Jiang came to investigate this case, his power must be above the public security.

"Good good!"

Yuan Jiang was very excited and said: "Let's bear with it now and don't care about them. When Mr. Han comes here, we want them to look good."

Wei Yingfang, Cao Yi, He Chunlin and the others couldn't help but look at each other, all of them beaming with joy.

Their plan finally succeeded.

Han Jiang is Wang Anshi's man, and he must come to overturn the case. As long as the imperial court's judgment can be abolished, the authority of the public prosecutor's law will inevitably be greatly reduced.

This elbow must not be able to twist the thigh.

Just at this time, Zhuo Qun suddenly walked into the hall, "I would like to report to Cai Zhifu, Bachelor Yuan, some merchants are buying salt bonds today."

"Really?"

Cai Yanqing said happily.

Zhuo Qun nodded and said: "It's absolutely true, Tiju Changping Division has sold 10,000 salt bonds."

So much?

When everyone heard the words, they couldn't help but be overjoyed!

Is this really a blessing? Double happiness!

Wei Yingfang suddenly asked curiously: "Before, no one paid any attention to it, even the salt debt of a penny was not sold. Why are so many people coming to buy it today?"

"This is because...because...."

Zhuo Qun seemed to have something difficult to say and stammered.

Cai Yanqing was also very curious, and asked anxiously: "What is the reason, you said it!"

Zhuo Qun said: "It is said that they are relieved to buy salt bonds because they learned that the procuratorate had investigated the issuance of salt bonds."

"...?"

The entire hall was instantly filled with embarrassment.