The Empress came ashore and beheaded the meritorious officials, forcing me to wear the yellow robe

Of course……

Did the wise and powerful empress really not know or was she pretending not to know? Or did she know she was wrong but would never admit it?

How could the emperor be wrong?

The emperor is a saint! He is the son of God!

"Gao Banban!"

"The old slave is here!"

When Eunuch Gao heard the emperor's call, he immediately agreed.

"I have decided to donate again to support the war. What do you think?"

"..."

The master's words made Eunuch Gao's face twitch. He even donated money to support the military? He hadn't been fooled before, had he?

"Everyone, I think... I'm afraid this time will be the same as last time, with little effect. Besides..."

"Besides what?"

Seeing that Eunuch Gao seemed to be hesitant to speak, the empress frowned and asked further.

This put Eunuch Gao in a difficult position.

Hmm? How do you say that?

He couldn't tell the emperor, and besides, these civil and military officials are now as clean-handed as you, right? You're not the only one who was deceived by that bastard named Zhang.

If the emperor asked how much they had been cheated, how would they answer?

Lying! That is the crime of deceiving the emperor.

To be honest, the emperor would be furious. How could an official have so much silver? How much was his monthly salary? Where did the silver come from?

As the empress's close companion and the eunuch in charge of the intelligence organization Dongchang, why didn't Eunuch Gao tell the truth?

The answer is very simple, because he also received money!

The Great Qi Dynasty had entered its final period. The entire officialdom was filthy, with officials protecting each other and colluding with businessmen. No one refused to take money.

In such an environment, if you insist on standing out and not charging any money, you will be excluded everywhere, and in serious cases you may even be eliminated by them.

Secondly...

That's because the empress is poor!

Many places can't pay salaries anymore, and the East Depot has long been in name only. How can they still have any monitoring capabilities? Especially now, with the civil service clique in power at court, who dares to monitor them...?

Haha! Eunuch Gao is not stupid.

Even Li Jize, the empress's fiancé, could be abandoned after his time was up, so he didn't think his companion could survive the impeachment of the civil service. So, facing his master's question, Eunuch Gao could only awkwardly reply, "Besides, the court hasn't paid salaries in a long time, and the officials don't have any extra money!"

In a word...

The empress blushed. The soldiers who defended the country and guarded the borders could have their food and wages withheld, so it was naturally impossible for the civil servants in the court to be paid.

Of course, this also shows that the emperor, who thought he was the smartest, obviously didn't know what kind of life the officials outside were living?

A cabinet minister, his family and students could scrape together three million taels of silver. Then think about it: the imperial treasury was empty, the emperor's treasury was also empty, and the people were starving, even having to trade their children for food.

So……

Where did all this money go?

Could it be that they all disappeared from the face of the earth?

But the empress is just a woman. She can be petty and engage in palace fighting, but it is not certain how much political vision she can have or how far she can see.

Secondly, she was just a concubine, not a prince!

How can one become an emperor without systematic training, and how can one have political skills and vision?

After thinking it over, the empress said no more, but walked to the stone table beside her and picked up a memorial.

"In this case, it seems that we have no choice but to levy the Three Taxes according to the cabinet's law!"

……

Collect three taxes?

When Li Jize heard the cabinet's proposal to increase the suppression pay, training pay, and cooling pay in order to relieve the financial pressure of Da Qi, his face twitched.

Ha ha!

History is so strikingly similar.

The suppression pay refers to the increased taxes levied to suppress the rebels!

Training pay refers to the increased taxes used to train the army to deal with internal and external threats!

Liangxiang refers to the increased taxes used to deal with barbarian invasions and the war in Northern Liang.

The collection of these three taxes is called the Three Taxes Collection.

This money is an additional levy on the common people!

According to statistics from the Ministry of Revenue and the Cabinet, once these three taxes were implemented, the cooling tax could collect 5.25 million taels of silver each year, the suppression tax could collect 3.3 million taels of silver, and the training tax could collect 7.3 million taels of silver.

Gee...

According to their statistics, if this policy is continued, these three taxes can earn the Great Qi court nearly 20 million taels of silver every year.

As for whether the people will be burdened too much?

nonexistent!

Because according to the calculations of the Cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue, the common people were only required to pay an additional two or three cents of silver per mu.

Three cents! Can this be called money?

The empress thought this plan was brilliant!

Therefore, today's court meeting not only summoned all civil and military officials, but also called Li Jize, who was about to go on the expedition as deputy commander.

after all……

Three taxes are levied, and the Liang tax is for the Beiliang Wolf Cavalry, so that they can fight the barbarians, right?

Li Jize listened from beginning to end!

When the ministers promoted the benefits of the three taxes and how they could collect tens of millions of taels of silver, their eyes lit up and their saliva flew.

The empress nodded from time to time as she listened, and when she heard something wonderful, she couldn't help but clap her hands and sigh.

Regarding this…

Li Jize's inner evaluation was just one sentence, "A pig-like empress! A shameless civil servant!"

It seems that the officials have gone crazy because of poverty, and they have set their bad ideas on the common people. Why did they suddenly propose to impose three additional taxes?

On the surface, they are all loyal ministers! Everything is for the court, for His Majesty!

But in reality...

The advantage of taxation is that it allows for exploitation at every level.

It seems that the additional 9 cents per mu is very little.

but in fact……

These officials are the biggest landlords!

Their land will not pay taxes, but instead the three taxes levied by the court will be imposed on the people.

By then, no matter how much tax was originally planned to be collected in this area, if they don't collect a single cent, the rest will be the people's business.

Then 9 cents is not enough.

The empress behaved very much like a gold digger of Li Jize's era. Her eyes lit up when she saw money. She didn't care about getting the money. What price did she have to pay?

The Great Qi is already in danger, and she's actually doing the opposite... She feels like she's not dying fast enough! I have to give it another push!

She felt that the number of people rebelling was not large enough, so she put a tight ring on the people, making it impossible for more people to survive so that they would rebel against her!

of course……

The empress euphemistically said, "Let the people suffer for another year!"

Li Jize: “???”

Just like that, the empress who was crazy about poverty and the officials who were "crazy about poverty" hit it off, and a court meeting that concerned the life and death of the people and the life and death of the Great Qi was held, and the levy of three additional taxes was finalized!

Li Jize listened from beginning to end without saying a word.

He just wants to stay in sixth place!

But the opponent is too weak and destroyed his own highland tower. What should I do?

"King Qin! What do you think of the Three Revenues Plan?"

But just when Li Jize was about to leave the court, the empress called him and threw the "death problem" back to him in front of all the civil and military officials in the court.

Agree! The Three Taxes Policy will surely become infamous, and the King of Qin will surely be tortured by the people in the future!

If he disagrees, it means he is opposing the officials and the emperor, and he, Li Jize, may be killed by everyone now!