The whole family of villains criticized her wildly, but the princess treated her with medical treatm

"Qingyuan is back!"

The Empress Dowager Yan was overjoyed, walked up to her daughter, and held her hand, "Have you had enough fun this month? The Woyejiang Salt Transport Envoy is affiliated with the Hubu Yamen, so I still have to consider your opinion. "

I haven’t seen you for a month and I miss you very much.

The mother looked her daughter up and down to make sure she was not bullied by Yan Yang and whether there was any gloom in her eyebrows.

Jing Yugong Li Fan almost spit out a mouthful of old blood.

I originally wanted to take advantage of the fact that the eldest princess was not in the court, reach out to the household department and seize the fat job, but it turned out that the year was unlucky, and the boss of the household department came back.

Cui Shining lowered his head, not daring to look into the eldest princess's eyes.

The position of Zhongshu Ling was snatched from the eldest princess, and now she was seeking the position of salt transport envoy of Woyejiang for the Cui family, but she was caught again.

"I miss you so much, my son and the regent had a great time."

Mu Tingxue knelt down and bowed to her mother, and then nodded to the two prime ministers Zuo Pushe and Zhongshu Ling.

Queen Mother Yan gave her a seat.

After Mu Tingxue sat down, she felt that now was a good time. Both Li Fan and Cui Shining wanted to place cronies in her household department to intervene in the salt affairs. Rounding it all off, they all wanted to benefit from themselves.

"Mother, my son and I have something to report, which is related to the country's finances."

“Just speak up.”

"The departments of the Ministry of Household Affairs have made a detailed inventory of Yunhuang's accumulated debts and deficits over the years. In the fourth year of Yongshun, the annual income was 400 million taels, and the annual expenditure was 700 million taels, resulting in a deficit of 300 million yuan; in the fifth year of Yongshun, the annual income was 550 million taels. , the annual expenditure is 780 million taels, resulting in a deficit of 230 million yuan. In Yongshun for one to three years, the average annual fiscal deficit is also about 300 million taels. The cumulative deficit reaches 680 million taels, seriously unable to make ends meet, and everything is ruined!"

Queen Mother Yan was under great pressure, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

Yongshun is the reign name of the puppet little emperor.

After taking over the mess left by the late emperor, she and the regent failed to save the country that was in danger. Her daughter opened up the annual financial deficit to calculate the general ledger, which made her feel that she was incapable of governing...

Even Li Fan and Cui Shining turned pale after hearing this.

Especially Li Gong, who is the head of the civil service, he dare not say that he has no responsibility for the collapse of the national finances.

Mu Tingxue looked at the expressions of the three people and tore off the last layer of fig leaf: "The rise and fall of a country depends on finance. The civil servants and military attachés who received imperial salary in Yunhuang, Yundu and localities, a total of 3000 people, Zhenbei Army, Southeast Army There are a total of 3 million people in the Navy, Jinwu Guards, and local sergeants in various states, cities, and provinces. According to statistics from the Ministry of Household Affairs, the annual income cannot support such horrific expenditures, even though Erchen has already published the national best-selling "Compendium of Materia Medica" The proceeds from the engraving of "Three Thousand Classical Poems", "Journey to the West", and "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber" totaled 1807 million taels, all of which went to the national treasury, but this huge hole still cannot be plugged."

The three of them lowered their heads in shame.

Queen Mother Yan was even more anxious.

"The current situation is that people are asking for money from the Ministry of Revenue everywhere, but Taicang, the Ministry of Revenue, has no silver to finance it. If we want to fill the fiscal deficit, we can only increase revenue and reduce expenditure. At present, the main sources of taxation are land tax and salt tax, and salt tax is not available for the time being. Table, let’s discuss this land tax. There are only so many fields in Yunhuang. Every time a noble family has more land, the court will have less tax! And these wealthy families continued to purchase it during the 260 years of Guozuo. The total land annexed has reached 900 million acres! Please give me the next decree——"

Mu Tingxue's voice was like a drum in the evening and a bell in the morning, lingering around the main hall, "Order temples, clan members, nobles, chamberlains, foreign relatives, ministers, aristocratic families, and local powerful people to tax three cents of silver per acre of land and hand it over to the state, so that the state treasury can get a few dollars more every year." Millions of silver!"

Empress Dowager Yan was almost ashamed of herself. She was so ashamed that she wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.

When I heard my daughter come up with such a good idea, I immediately felt saved.Anyway, she didn’t have much land to her name, so it was nothing more than paying 3000 taels a year, which was insignificant, so she immediately agreed without hesitation: “It’s fine!”

This made the two leading landowners present extremely anxious.

Li Fan felt ashamed at first, but when he heard that the eldest princess's solution was to have the noble family pay land taxes, his mind felt like thunder and lightning, with thunderbolts and sparks all the way, and his brain stem was burned and smoking. .

They left home and were civil servants for generations!

Civil servants have a very wild way of making money, and a common problem is that they like to convert money into real estate. Generations of Jing Yugong have spent a lot of energy annexing land across the country, especially in the fertile Jiangnan area. Now they have left home. The surface owned land is 120 million acres.

Since there is a surface, there must be something hidden.

It is a routine practice for big bureaucrats to hide the actual number of acres of land. Only a fool would engrave on his forehead that I am the world's best landowner.

But even with this 120 million acres, according to the new taxation law proposed by the eldest princess just now, he would still have to pay 36 yuan in taxes to the court every year when he leaves home!

36 taels of silver a year is not enough to move Li Jia's bones, but it still hurts like a piece of flesh has been lost.

"The Queen Mother, this is a serious matter, and I hope you will consider it again."

Li Fan's heart kept bleeding, "Even though the country's financial deficit is serious, most of the land owned by distinguished ministers from aristocratic families is inherited from their ancestors; many of the land owned by the descendants of the founding heroes were rewards from Emperor Gaozu. How is this... Take a cut from this.”

Cui Shining's cold sweat soaked his clothes, and his breathing became rapid.

As the head of the Five Surnames and Seven Hopes, the Cui family is a large family with a heritage of 700 years. It has witnessed the rise and fall of many dynasties. How can the accumulated land and real estate be compared to the family of heroes who have only accumulated more than 200 years of experience in conquering the world with Emperor Xie's ancestors? ?

The Cui family's fields are no less than those of the Li family.

This tax will cost at least 30 taels per year.

Compared with Cui's terrifying wealth, this 30 yuan was nothing, but Cui Shining still felt that the blood released by the eldest princess's knife made him extremely painful.

This is always the case for rich families. It is harder for them to pay taxes than to pick food from a tiger's mouth;

You think you plucked out a hair from his leg, but they think you cut out a chunk of his heart!

Li Fan's reaction was within Mu Tingxue's expectations.

She pondered, then suddenly smiled: "Master Cui, what do you think?"

Cui Shining shivered with excitement.

How can he see it?

Of course he hoped that the eldest princess would not cause trouble, and that the Queen Mother would take back her decree to levy land tax!

But, he couldn't say that.

Because he got the position of Zhongshu Ling through Yan Dang’s nepotism, and even made the regent dislike him...

Cui Shining suddenly felt a thorn in his back.

He instinctively turned around and found that the Regent was standing at the door of the palace at some point, staring at him with a sharp gaze like a cold sword - that was the look that the Governor of Zhenbei had when he was bloody slaughtering the enemy on the battlefield!

Cui Shining was heartbroken, and he shouted in a trembling voice: "Her Royal Highness, the eldest princess, is as benevolent as heaven, and she plans for the world. I admire you very much, and I am willing to pay the land tax and silver immediately!"

Mu Tingxue's smile deepened and her voice became softer and more frightening: "In that case, I will immediately order the Ministry of Household Affairs to compile the "Fish Scale Atlas", re-measure the land in the country, and list the land and population of each household one by one. Verify, indicate the area of ​​the field, where it belongs, and who cultivates it, and draw a picture. This will prevent nobles from aristocratic families from omitting or concealing the report when paying the field tax."

Li Fan and Cui Shining looked like they had seen a ghost during the day, and almost couldn't breathe.

Re-measure the country’s land?

Doesn't this mean that all the land and people hidden by nobles and bureaucrats from aristocratic families must be traced out?

Then the land tax they have to pay will be doubled!