The little princess' mind was read, and the court and harem were eating melons

The prince rarely felt a bit embarrassed, but he quickly adjusted his mood and looked at the emperor: "Father, since the Marquis of Wuning has been alarmed, this matter may not be that simple."

The emperor nodded slightly: "Continue."

The prince continued, "I remember that a county magistrate had reported that he had discovered the so-called God Seed. Father had also said that he would arrange for someone to go to the local area to confirm it. If the so-called God Seed is true, he would also need to arrange for someone to verify it. If I remember correctly, that place is not far from where Marquis Wuning is. Why don't we..."

----------

One Li Ru fell down, and Li Qingyi began to think again about what Wang Xuan had said before.

She was still waiting to see what was going on with the divine seed, but why did it seem like nothing happened after so many days?

Just when Li Qingyi began to think about whether he should try his luck and eat some spectators, he might bump into the person involved.

Well, it should be said that she has started to try her luck, for example, every day she randomly picks a melon that is farthest away from her and eats it to see if she has luck.

As a result, I didn't encounter any melons related to the so-called divine species, but I did eat a lot of bloody stories from the outside world about you love me, I love him, and he loves her.

Li Qingyi: The ancients really knew how to have fun.

The good news is that Li Qingyi does not always release these melons on the public channel, so she indirectly keeps a fig leaf for some people - well, although they themselves do not know that the biggest secret hidden in them will be exposed in this way in front of a little princess.

The bad news is that the account balance has dropped from over a thousand to over nine hundred. The single-digit decrease in the account balance has caused a sense of urgency to rise again.

Li Qingyi thought: "This won't work. Although my daily expenses don't seem to be very large at the moment, my balance will get smaller and smaller over time!"

Then, that day Li Qingyi was taken to court by the emperor again.

The commotion caused by Li Ru and his followers seemed to be quickly calmed down with the tacit cooperation of the emperor and the officials in the court. The key topic in the court that day was: the war in the north was suspended, should some troops be recalled? If not, what about the food and grass?

Those who advocate reducing the number of soldiers on the border may not necessarily have bad intentions, and those who advocate maintaining the status quo may not necessarily have good intentions. In any case, the final result is that the troops previously mobilized to the border will not be moved for the time being to see if there will be any unusual movements from the Oirat or Tatar.

Then, the focus of the problem turns to food and fodder.

These officials argued over everything from how to collect food and fodder to whether to increase taxes.

The argument hasn't ended yet, and some people are trying to shift the issue to other directions, for example, if taxes are to be increased, how should they be increased?

At present, Daning’s tax requirements for the people are relatively low. During the Taizu period, the tax rate was one in thirty. The previous emperor’s reign was too short, and in this era, the default mourning period did not change the father’s will, so there were no changes in this regard.

When the emperor ascended the throne, he did not change the tax rate in the first few years. In the fifth year of his reign, under the rule of Taizu, the former emperor and the emperor, decades of recuperation allowed this land that had experienced war to recover most of its vitality. So the emperor found a reason to adjust the tax rate to twenty-one.

What does that mean?

The so-called "one in thirty" means that farmers need to pay one-thirtieth of their annual harvest to the state treasury. Specifically, this is a land rent tax rate, and farmers need to pay one-thirtieth of the total land harvest.

For ancient times, this kind of tax was considered very light.

Of course, this is just one type of tax, namely land tax.

In comparison, the tax rate of 20% seems to have increased a lot, but in fact, for the common people, it is still a good deal.

After all, there was a period when the tax rate reached as high as one-third, and that was less than a hundred years ago. When the old farmers talk to each other and reminisce about the past, they can all remember how they struggled to survive back then.

Compare it to now, where the tax rate is only 1% on a 20% basis, is that too much?

well enough.

As for these officials, they sit in spacious and bright houses to work all year round and are actually far away from the farmers. In their view, the tax rate of 20% is actually very low, and the national treasury is short of money. Shouldn't these people do their part for the country?

Even if the tax rate is 15%, the people can still live a good life, right?

This naturally does not include those officials who actually come from farming families, and it is these people who are most enthusiastic about this on the field - they understand better than those so-called noble sons from humble backgrounds and officials from aristocratic families that the lives of the people are never as simple as they think.

After listening for a long time, Li Qingyi had a general understanding of the camps - of course, she was not that smart. In this respect, Li Qingyi was just an ordinary person, and time travel did not improve her IQ much.

She could tell them apart because the officials had taken sides in the midst of the argument. It might not have been so obvious when viewed from below, but when viewed from above, the distinction was quite clear.

Li Qingyi looked at his brother the prince who rarely smiled, then turned to look at his father the emperor who had been listening to the noise below which was like a vegetable market, with an expression that was hard to tell whether he was happy or angry. He pursed his lips and said nothing.

Even she could actually tell that the focus of some people's arguments was no longer on the matter itself, and that some of them came out with personal grudges.

System: [Host, they are arguing so fiercely, will they fight? If they fight, will it be considered as a breach of etiquette in front of the emperor?]

The people who were arguing fiercely: "..."

As soon as this familiar voice came out, some of the people in high spirits suddenly became more clear-headed, but...

Facing the sharp gazes from their colleagues and even their superiors, the few people who had regained consciousness could not stop abruptly and had to bite the bullet and continue speaking as they had just said.

In fact, the cold sweat on his back was almost soaking his official robe.

Li Qingyi: [I don't think they will fight. These are civil servants. They are good at talking, but their fighting skills are probably not that good.]

System: [Eh? But in the history I've read...]

Li Qingyi: [If a fight really happened in such an occasion, then the person who did it was either hopelessly stupid or had other calculations. In any case, it is impossible that he really acted on impulse. Let's not even think about this kind of complicated officialdom calculations.]

The system is well behaved: [Oh. ]

System: [Speaking of which, if they really want to fill the treasury, instead of thinking about taking things from the people, it would be better to catch a corrupt official and confiscate his property as before, and they can take out a lot of things at once.]

Li Qingyi: [Are you talking about Liu Yankang? ]

System: [Yeah, although there are no more officials like Liu Yankang, there are still similar officials. If you pick any corrupt officials or local tyrants and beat them up, you can get enough food and grass to meet your food needs. You can also rescue the people who are directly or indirectly persecuted. It's really killing two birds with one stone! ]

Li Qingyi became interested: [Oh? Then let’s eat the melon of a corrupt official! ]

Baiguan:! ! !