Steel Dynasty - Chapter 564

[Chapter 564 Expiration of tax exemption]

As the saying goes, fire flows in July, which is a sign that the temperature of the year changes from hot to cool.

Three days after the Battle of Tongzhou, news about the Battle of Tongzhou reached Qingzhou, and during this period, the converter steelmaking production line was also being steadily constructed.

“Your Highness, this time Tongzhou was taken by surprise. King Wei will definitely attack in a large scale after he reacts. At this time, Yue Yun should be asked to lead a part of the warships to cruise on the river near Jinling City to scare King Wei. At the same time, Lu Fei should be asked to send cavalry there. Huaizhou feigned an attack to contain King Wei’s troops. “

According to the current military system, the Tongzhou battle report was first sent to Niu Ben, who immediately discussed the matter with Xiao Ming after receiving the battle report.

Hearing this, Xiao Ming nodded.

The location of Tongzhou is modern Nantong, a place facing the sea to the east and the river to the south. From the Yangtze River in the south of Tongzhou to the west is Jinling City, where the palace of the King of Wei is located.

This time he captured Tongzhou in order to retaliate against King Wei for seizing his merchant ship, and in order to smash a nail into the hinterland of Wei, which would cause pain to King Wei all the time.

At the same time, completely mastering Tongzhou also means that he has a stable coastal supply point, and this maritime trade can also be regarded as a transit point.

“When it comes to defending the city, who can be better than my king’s soldiers? This time, I asked Yue Yun to bring five hundred city-defending cannons. These city-defending cannons are regular artillery, not the export-type artillery sold to King Wei. Even if he wants to use the Dengzhou Army’s method of breaking the city, he probably won’t be able to do it.

“Yes, our artillery will kill his artillery right away!” Niu Ben said with a smile, and now he finally understood. Why did Xiao Ming deliberately produce a batch of export-type artillery pieces?

It turns out that he had already considered this situation at that time.

Handing the battle report sent by Ye Qingyun to Niu Ben, Xiao Ming said: “In this case, as the governor said, we can now order the Southern Expedition Army to pretend to attack Huaizhou.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Niu Ben responded. , turned and left.

After watching Niu Ben leave, Xiao Ming looked at the map of Dayu hanging in the main hall. At this time, the fiefdom of King Wei was highlighted by him.

There are a total of thirteen states in Wei, among which Pengzhou is a large state in the north. Now that he controls Pengzhou, he controls one-tenth of the northern territory of Wei.

Now he has occupied Tongzhou, and now there are only eleven states left out of the thirteen states. As for Huaizhou, it is the contemporary Huai’an generation and is closely adjacent to Pengzhou. This is where he plans to attack next.

However, it seems that in view of the failure of the Battle of Pengzhou, King Wei not only increased his troops in Huaizhou this time, but also brought fifty artillery pieces and set them up on the wall of Huaizhou.

Xiao Ming took the reaction of King Wei calmly. After all, no matter how many artillery pieces King Wei brought out, it was not a threat to him.

It can even be said that Xiao Ming is not afraid of any army in Dayu. His army can compete with top armies like the barbarians, so how can he be afraid of these armies that change their color after hearing the barbarians.

The only thing he worries about is that these forces will join forces to attack him. He can fight alone with ease. After all, it has been almost two years since his firearms unit was established.

Neither the soldiers’ thinking nor the regularization of the army can compare with these armies that are still in the cold weapon era and have loose organizational discipline.

On the map, he had already drawn an

While thinking about the next strategy for Wei, Pang Yukun arrived at the main hall after the briefing.

“Your Highness, the supplies brought by Feige’s old men from Pengzhou have arrived, including grain, cloth, salt, tea, raw silk, and porcelain. Although the wealthy families in Pengzhou took away a lot of gold and silver, most of their property was left behind. “In addition to these things, there are tens of thousands of cattle. Fei Ge asked the old minister to ask His Highness whether these cattle should be kept in Pengzhou City or sent to the feudal country.” Pang Yukun said in one breath.

“Of course it is left to the people of Pengzhou. Isn’t Pengzhou now my king’s feudal land?” Xiao Ming asked rhetorically.

Pang Yukun didn’t react for a while, but then he suddenly realized. He smiled bitterly and said: “I am confused, my highness is now merging Pengzhou into the feudal state. How can you favor one over the other now?”

Xiao Ming nodded. , “That’s the reason. When you reply to Mr. Fei Ge, tell him that all affairs in Pengzhou will be handled according to the feudal states and counties, and that the people of Pengzhou should be integrated into the feudal state as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Pang Yukun said.

After a pause, Pang Yukun said again: “Your Highness, now that the three-year period has passed, it is logical that it is time to collect agricultural taxes.”

“At the beginning, I promised that the people in the fiefdom would be exempted from taxes for three years. As you said, the time limit has indeed come. But how is this year’s harvest?”

“Compared to last year’s drought, this year’s food harvest can be considered a bumper harvest. Moreover, this year’s large-scale trial planting of potatoes in the counties near Qingzhou has also yielded a good harvest, so the people have no worries. Eat and drink.” Pang Yukun said with a smile.

In his opinion, the current feudal country is really prosperous. The people have no worries about food and clothing, live and work in peace and contentment, and even have spare money to buy various goods.

Nowadays, the soap, salt, sugar and other supplies sold by the Chamber of Commerce are the most sold in the feudal country. It can be seen that the people of the feudal country still have some money in their hands.

“Let’s start collecting the peasant tax.”

Xiao Ming said in deep thought. Now he can’t be poor and generous. Now the army spends a lot of money to fight in the east and west. The bullets and cannonballs fired are all silver, not to mention the continuous construction. battleship and artillery, muskets.

The innovation of military equipment during this period was rapid, but this was all achieved on the premise that Xiao Ming increased the proportion of military expenditures.

And the most important point is that after the Chang’an Rebellion, prices soared, and the prices of all kinds of materials doubled, which also caused huge military support to become a financial burden for the fiefdom.

What’s more, with the refinement of government affairs, the government expenditures have also increased. At the same time, there are public servants all over the feudal country. In order to popularize education, he has been losing money and making money.

All these factors forced him to collect agricultural taxes. After all, in this social system where farming is the mainstay, agricultural taxes still constitute the bulk of taxes.

However, even if you want to collect agricultural taxes, you can’t use too much force.

The result of his discussion with Pang Yukun was that only one-tenth of each acre of land would be taken, which would be enough to ensure that the people’s lives would not be affected.

“Yes, Your Highness, in that case, I will post a notice and ask Qingzhou Newspaper to publish the matter in the newspaper.” Pang Yukun said after pondering.

Xiao Ming nodded, “Also, this tax must be clarified. The state governments are not allowed to collect taxes indiscriminately, otherwise you will not blame me for taking action.”

(End of Chapter)