If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

"Your Majesty, Zhou Wu has solved a case in Qingzhou involving collusion with pirates to sell stolen goods. All the suspects have been brought back to the capital."

"Oh, not bad, not bad. Zhou Wu is young and promising, and deserves to be commended."

Li Tiancheng only thought that the Crown Prince was praising Zhou Wu, but the Crown Prince's next words made him beam with joy.

"Father, Zhou Wu also seized 100,000 strings of cash, which he also sent back to the capital."

"What! Ten thousand strings of cash? Is that true?"

Li Tiancheng is now overwhelmed by the mountain of memorials he receives every day, and they all revolve around money. Nine out of ten memorials request funds, and the problem is that the Great Dragon is currently short of money. 100,000 is not a lot for a country, but it can solve many urgent problems.

"Yes, Father, the money has been brought in and is ready to be deposited into the national treasury upon your command."

"Hahaha, very good, very good, my good crown prince, my good subject."

Li Tiancheng was overjoyed. This week, Wu went out to provide disaster relief, didn't spend much money, and even brought back several truckloads of supplies. He was truly a lucky star for Dalong.

"Your Highness, is our national treasury currently short of money?"

Seeing the emperor so happy over a mere 100,000 strings of cash, Zhou Wu muttered to the crown prince in confusion. Before the crown prince could reply, Li Tiancheng overheard him.

"Hey Zhou Wu, you have no idea how tough things are for our Great Dragon right now!"

Normally, no subject would dare to say such things in front of the emperor, but Li Tiancheng did not blame Zhou Wu. Instead, he complained, which was quite unusual.

“Zhou Wu, you don’t know the cost of firewood and rice because you’re not in charge of the household. Our Great Dragon relies on a small amount of farmland tax every year, but military affairs, disaster relief, officials’ salaries, and border defense all cost money. Take the palace for example, we’ve almost spent all our money on charcoal for the winter. If you hadn’t built the heated kang, my concubines would probably be sleeping in the cold palace this year.”

Zhou Wu then realized that their Emperor was having such a difficult time.

"Your Majesty, there are actually many ways to make money. We actually..."

"Zhou Wu".

Seeing that Zhou Wu was starting to talk too much, Crown Prince Li Junren quickly stopped him. After all, Zhou Wu was a military general, and financial matters were not so simple. The more he talked, the more mistakes he would make.

“Your Highness, let Zhou Wu speak freely. Whatever he says, I will grant him acquittal.”

Li Tiancheng was probably happy because Zhou Wu had brought back 100,000 strings of cash. Since he had nothing else to do at the moment, he decided to listen to some interesting stories.

"Zhou Wu, then you tell us."

Li Junren gave Zhou Wu a wink, signaling him to watch his words and avoid causing trouble. However, Zhou Wu didn't see it that way. After living in Dalong for so long, he considered himself a member of Dalong. What passionate man doesn't want his country to be strong? But what are the basic conditions for strength? Zhou Wu believed there were only two things: money and population.

Zhou Wu doesn't need to worry about the population of Dalong. As far as he knows, no country in the world has a larger population than Dalong. So Dalong only has one problem left: money.

"Your Majesty, our Great Dragon currently relies mainly on agriculture for tax revenue, which I personally believe is unreasonable."

Zhou Wu's words shocked the emperor and the crown prince, especially the crown prince, who had been giving Zhou Wu meaningful glances, telling him to watch his words. Good heavens, he just unleashed a powerful move.

“Zhou Wu, from ancient times to the present, every dynasty has been based on agriculture. Don’t talk nonsense.”

At this moment, the Crown Prince did not actually blame Zhou Wu; on the contrary, he covered for him. Li Tiancheng listened to Zhou Wu's words but did not say anything. He just waited with interest for Zhou Wu to continue.

"In fact, the policy of governing the country with agriculture as the foundation is correct, but it does not mean that we should put all taxes and burdens on farmers. They work hard all year and do not reap much, but they have to bear most of the country's tax expenditures. This is unfair and unreasonable."

At this moment, Zhou Wu seemed more like a freedom fighter speaking out for the farmers.

"Farmers grow crops and harvest grain. If we don't collect taxes from them, who else can we collect taxes from? Can other people conjure up money out of thin air?"

Li Tiancheng remained silent, but Li Junren couldn't resist starting a game of chess with Zhou Wu.

“That’s right, let’s find people who can conjure money out of thin air.”

Zhou Wu's words completely baffled Li Tiancheng and his son Li Junren.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants—scholars are ranked first in governing the country. Food is the first necessity of the people, so farmers are second. To do something well, you must first have the right tools," so artisans are third. Merchants rely on others for trade and are therefore ranked last. Apart from farmers, the other three categories don't produce anything; how can we collect taxes from them?"

Li Tiancheng spoke up at this moment. In his mind, Zhou Wu was both literate and martial, but in reality, he often subconsciously regarded Zhou Wu as a military general.

"Your Majesty, among the scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, there is actually another major taxpayer besides farmers."

"Oh."

There were only four categories in total, and no matter how much Li Tiancheng and Li Junren guessed, they couldn't figure out who among them was the biggest taxpayer.

"Scholars? No, scholars are mostly bookworms; their best outcome is to become an official in the imperial court, how could they be major taxpayers? Craftsmen? Impossible too; craftsmen earn hard-earned money, barely making ends meet, so they can't be merchants either. Merchants?"

After the process of elimination, only the quotient remains.

"Yes, they are businessmen."

"Haha, that's even more impossible. As I just said, business is about exchanging goods and services, and it can only succeed by relying on others. Only a few can participate. If everyone goes into business and relies on others, then there will be no one to rely on. This method is absolutely unacceptable."

Li Tiancheng waved his hand repeatedly, realizing that Zhou Wu was still too inexperienced.

"Your Majesty, I am not encouraging everyone to go into business, but given the current market size of our Great Dragon, the commercial tax is an astronomical figure."

"Haha, merchants do not engage in production; they are nothing more than speculators, and what they earn is nothing more than petty profits."

Indeed, from ancient times to the present, the class concept of scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants has taken root in the minds of those in power and the general public. Merchants have a low social status, which also leads to a negative perception of this profession.

"Does Your Majesty know who the largest merchant in the Great Dragon Kingdom is?"

"I haven't paid attention to that."

"These are powerful and influential families. Looking around the capital, nine out of ten business people have some kind of powerful family background behind them."

"So what if it is?"

"Your Majesty, they have monopolized the entire business in the capital and made a fortune. To give you a simple example, in other places, rice normally costs about twenty coins per dou (a unit of dry measure), but in the capital, all the rice shops are monopolized by powerful families, so the price of rice in the capital has almost doubled to about forty coins."

"What?! How dare you!"

Food is the most important thing for people. This was the first time Li Tiancheng had ever heard of such an exaggerated price difference. The capital city of the Great Dragon Empire was twice as expensive as rice in other places. How were the people of the capital supposed to survive?