After three years of enfeoffment, the waste prince shocked the court boss

"It's no wonder that King An's guard can wield that saber, and it's no wonder Li Su can afford such a cavalry guard."

……

Questioning scenes like this also took place in various parts of the capital. Not only did Emperor Qian send spies to Lingnan Mansion, but other interested people also received tips from Lingnan Mansion one after another.

A plan against Li Su is also quietly preparing to debut.

Early Dynasty, Chengyun Hall.

"If you have something to play early, if you have nothing to do, retreat!"

Emperor Qian sat upright, waiting for the report from his courtiers.

"I have a statement that the Lingnan Mansion has not paid taxes since the ground dragon turned over and blocked the road three years ago.

According to regulations, the land where the prince holds the vassal has to pay [-]% of the tax to the national treasury every year.

Now it has been three years in arrears, please ask the court to recover it! "

It was Jiang Siwen, the household servant who spoke.

Jiang Siwen is a member of the prince's family, and everyone in the court knows it.

Emperor Qian also turned a blind eye to the fact that the ministers took refuge in the prince. This was also a way for him to train the prince's team.

Today, Jiang Siwen appeared on the scene to pursue the tax payment of Lingnan Mansion. Many people thought of the incident that the crown prince framed Li Su a while ago.

"Master Jiang doesn't know that the Lingnan Mansion has never paid taxes, and the imperial court has to transfer money and food to Lingnan every year to help the people.

Why did His Royal Highness King An go to Lingnan, but instead start to collect taxes for Lingnan Mansion? "

Pan Feng, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, came out and said.

No matter how Li Su is also his future son-in-law, he must stand up and speak out for him on such occasions.

Lingnan has always been a place of hardship, and the imperial court allocates special funds to it every year to transport food to the local mountain people to prevent them from rebelling.

This matter is well known to the government and the public, and this is also the reason why no one objected to enfeoffing Li Su to Lingnan Mansion in the first place.

Such a tasteless place, which is a pity to abandon it, is given to him. No one thought that one day someone would want to collect taxes from there.

"Master Pan, this statement is absurd. Lingnan is my territory. It is no different from other state capitals. Why can't I collect taxes? Could it be that King An is more noble than other vassals?

How does this make other princes think?How do people from all over the world view the imperial court? "

This time it was the crown prince Li Yan who stood up. Facing the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, Jiang Siwen was obviously not enough for a servant, so he had to go out in person.

Chapter 22

These words undoubtedly kidnapped the vassal kings and common people from all over Dagan, and put Lingnan Mansion on the opposite side of other places in Dagan.

Hard work is not evil.

Once Pan Feng continues to speak out for Lingnan and refuses to collect taxes, he will be labeled as a king who thinks that An Wang is superior to other vassal kings.

It means that people who support Lingnan should enjoy more privileges than people in other places.

As a heavenly official of the official department of the court, Pan Feng knew that he could never object to this matter at this time.

After all, the crown prince has the righteousness and reason. According to the regulations, Lingnan Prefecture is indeed required to collect taxes like other state capitals.

"Lingnan is very difficult. Even if taxes are collected, nothing can be collected. The collected money may have been exhausted on the way before being transported to the capital. Why bother?"

Seeing that the direct objection to the tax collection was unsuccessful, Pan Feng hoped to change things up and prevent the imperial court from letting Lingnan Mansion pay the tax in a disguised way.

"Master Pan may not know it yet, but now that the outside world has spread the news, there are so many merchants in Lingnan Prefecture every day, and there are long queues of carriages entering and leaving the city of Lingnan Prefecture every day, so how can they bear the hardships of Master Pan? ?”

The prince countered.

"Yes, I can testify to this point. A few days ago, a distant relative came from the direction of Lingnan, proving that what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said is true. The Lingnan Mansion is already rich as an enemy."

The person who spoke was Jiang Siwen, the minister of the household department. In order to get the court to agree to levy taxes on Lingnan, he already used the words "wealthy and enemy country" to attract people's attention.

"Before the imperial court did not collect taxes on Lingnan Prefecture, it was because, as Mr. Pan said, Lingnan was suffering and there was no tax to collect.

Now that Lingnan Prefecture has undergone changes under the governance of His Highness King An, it is reasonable to levy taxes on Lingnan.

Now that the national treasury is empty, if there is no income, it will be difficult for the minister to cook without rice. "

This time it was Zheng Kun, Minister of the Household Department, who spoke.

He is not a member of the prince, and the reason why he stood up to advocate taxation on Lingnan is purely out of public interest.

Dagan's treasury was barely able to maintain a balance, but because the Tatars committed a border siege a while ago, they took out a large sum of money to pay for the casualties and restore the destroyed city.

Today's national treasury is already empty, and the next summer harvest will take half a year. How to maintain the financial operation of Daqian in this half year has already made Zheng Kun's hair gray.

Now that the Lingnan Mansion has changed a lot, if the tax arrears in the past three years can be made up, then maybe the operation of the court can last until summer.

Seeing that Zheng Kun had said so, all the officials in the court hall also bowed down to Emperor Qian.

"Your Majesty, please order Lingnan to pay taxes."

Seeing that the crown prince was threatening the general situation, Pan Feng also knew that this matter must not be violated, so she retreated without saying a word.

"Let's declare King An to enter the palace first, and ask King An's opinion on this matter." Emperor Qian also wanted to tax Lingnan Mansion in his heart, and he also knew the current situation of the treasury in his heart.

But today's Li Su is not the dandy prince of the past after all, so it is still necessary to inform him about such an important matter as paying taxes, otherwise it is not a good thing for the vassal king who is outside to have a rift with the court.

As a feudal lord, Li Su didn't have to participate in the early court. When the eunuch in the palace hurriedly called him out of bed, he hadn't woken up yet.

After washing up for a while, after procrastinating for half an hour, the eunuch begged and dragged her to the palace.

"This bad habit of going to court before the sun comes out really needs to be changed."

Li Su dozed off while riding on the horse, and complained in his heart.

Carrier Hall.

"King Xuan'an has an audience!"

"My son sees my father!"

Li Su walked into the Chengyun Hall and bowed down.

"Be flat!"

Looking at this sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, the important courtiers on both sides couldn't help feeling that three years ago he was just a dandy prince who was hated by everyone in the capital.

Now the entire court is actually working to discuss the taxation of Lingnan Prefecture under its governance.

It's really three days away from Shishi, so we should treat each other with admiration.

"King An, just now the court was discussing whether to levy taxes on your Lingnan Mansion.

All the courtiers agree that you Lingnan Mansion should make up for the taxes of the past three years. What do you think? "

Qiandi opened his mouth and said.

All the people below rolled their eyes in their hearts.

Obviously you want to levy taxes on Lingnan, but you turned the blame on us as soon as you opened your mouth. You are as stupid as ever.

"Do you want to pay the tax? Oh, then it will be paid."

Li Su yawned and said indifferently.

"His Royal Highness An, it is my ancestral system to pay [-]% of the tax in the feudal land. The tax was not levied before because the imperial court sympathized with your hardship in Lingnan.

Now that you refuse to pay taxes, is it because you openly despise my ancestral system? "

When Jiang Siwen opened his mouth, he just lashed out at Li Su, intending to use the ancestral system to suppress Li Su, but as soon as he finished speaking, he realized that something was wrong.

"What, you don't object! How can you not object?"

Jiang Siwen fell into confusion for a while, and spoke incoherently.

This kind of feeling that people who have prepared a lot of reasons to use righteousness to oppose their opinions, but they don't want to oppose you at all, makes Jiang Siwen feel ashamed to punch the air.

Why did Li Su agree directly?

How can you agree? This is a tax on your domain. Are you out of your mind?

"Oh? Does this lord still want me to oppose the tax payment?

Taxing feudal lands is a grand ancestral system. Does this lord want me to violate the ancestral system? "

Li Su glanced at Jiang Siwen with a smile and asked back.

He didn't know who Jiang Siwen was, but there was no need to be polite to someone who sprayed him as soon as he came up.

Jiang Siwen was speechless by what Li Su had said, his old face flushed red.

"His Royal Highness Prince An, I wonder if the Lingnan Mansion's annual taxes have been registered?

Xiaguanhao sent someone to check the number and calculate how much tax Lingnan Mansion needs to pay. "

Zheng Kun, Minister of the Household Department, heard that King An agreed to pay the tax so readily, so he hurried out of the line and bowed to Li Su.

Getting the tax from Lingnan Mansion sooner will relieve the urgent need of the national treasury. If things change, it will be too late to regret.

"Oh, it is indeed registered and compiled, but the account books are all in Lingnan Mansion, so you don't know how many days it will take you to go back and forth.

What's more, if the settlement is made with grain and other materials and cash, it will cost countless people to pull things from Lingnan thousands of miles away.

Why don't Master Zheng estimate the number.

Our Lingnan Prefecture has a population of 70, a permanent population of 10, and a floating population of 7. How about taxing Lingnan according to the average standard of upper-level prefectures?

I sent someone to report to Lingnan, and Kuai Ma asked someone to change the money into bank notes nearby and send it over. "

Li Su pondered and thought of a way to save trouble, this is his consistent style, if it doesn't bother him, he won't bother him.

"Are you sure, Your Highness, that you want to tax Lingnan according to the standards of the superior government? Seriously!"

Zheng Kun said excitedly.

According to what Li Su said, the Lingnan Mansion is a middle-class mansion if it is exhausted, and since King An voluntarily pays taxes according to the upper-class mansion, the court has taken advantage of it.

You must know that the annual tax of the entire prefecture under the jurisdiction of a general middle-level prefecture is about 30 taels.

And the upper-class mansion is about 50 taels a year, which is a full difference of 20 taels of silver!

According to the three-year supplementary taxes paid by Lingnan Prefecture, even if it is 18%, the treasury will have an extra [-] taels of silver. Although this amount of money is not much compared to the whole big work, it can still be achieved through careful planning until the summer harvest. .

"According to the standards of the superior government, 45% of the tax is paid every year. I wonder if His Highness may take out [-] taels of silver?"

Zheng Kun tentatively said a number, and looked at Li Sudao with hopeful eyes.

From that point of view, if Li Su can't get it out, it's really not good, the amount of money can still be discussed.

Chapter 23

"45 taels? Hmm..." Li Su hesitated.

"Your Highness, if you really can't get it out, you can give 40 taels first, no, 30 taels is fine, and the rest can be made up slowly."

Zheng Kun hurriedly said, if it really makes Wang An feel that it is too much work to take it out, and in the end he simply doesn't give the money according to the superior government, then it will be a big loss.

The difference between the taxes paid by the middle-level government and the upper-level government is a full 18 taels, and paying in installments is better than not paying at all.

"The annual tax of the high-level government in Dagan is 50 taels? Is it so little?" Li Su asked with a puzzled face.

"Ah? Yes." This sudden question made Zheng Kun feel baffled.

"I thought it would be at least 100 million taels, but the productivity in the feudal society was really low." Li Su muttered to himself.

Li Su, who had never cared about government affairs before, naturally didn't know Dagan's financial situation, nor did he know the tax revenue of various places.

In his perception, no matter how bad the upper-class mansion in Daqian is, it will not be much worse than the current Lingnan mansion.

Unexpectedly, according to Zheng Kun's calculation method, the upper-class government only pays 50 taels of tax per year.

For the state capitals where there is no vassal king, although most of the local taxes have to be handed over to the imperial court, [-]% are still reserved for local use.

So if you calculate it this way, the annual financial income of Daqian is not enough.

"Then I'll give the imperial court 100 million taels, let's make it up." Li Su said.

This is also the result of his careful consideration.

Lingnan Mansion is not short of money, except that the tax revenue in the first two years of development period was relatively small, and now the annual business tax alone is more than 100 million taels of silver.

Due to Li Su's layout in the past few years, several neighboring countries and even some small overseas countries in further afield are trading with Lingnan Prefecture.