Chapter 351 Respect and Love
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Today's Seoul.
The outer city is more than twenty miles in a radius, and the moat is more than twenty feet wide. Willows are planted inside and outside the moat, and red walls are forbidden to travel.
The city gates are all arched and opened on the third floor of the city wall, and they are intimidated.
When he entered the city, he set up a battle shed every 100 steps to set up a command guard, and secretly placed a secret whistle, which was so loud that he looked at it.
In the city, all kinds of willows turn into shade.
The transportation inside and outside the city is very convenient, the rivers inside and outside the city are intertwined, and the water transportation is busy.
The streets are prosperous and there are countless shops, brothels, teahouses, fragrance shops, hooks, pharmacies, boot shops, horse shops, wine shops, and tile markets. It can be said that there are everything, with a prosperous business, prosperous service, and considerate service. There are many public facilities in this era, such as the large school and large medical management specially assigned to build by Li Yan, which is refreshing.
The Andong Protectorate is even more extraordinary, with magnificent magnificent buildings, pavilions, flying dragon painting style, golden nails and red doors, and strict guards.
All government offices are nearby, and the courtyard warehouses are also gathered together, which is very convenient.
Along the way, not only Liang Hongyu was dazzled, but even Li Yan sighed - the changes in Seoul are so big!
In front of the Protectorate, hundreds of civil and military officials from Huanzhang came to welcome Li Yan. Judging from his posture, if Li Yan had not explained in advance, they might have welcomed Li Yan to Incheon Port!
Liang Hongyu, who was behind Li Yan, came to Seoul for the first time and also met the civil and military officials under Li Yan. Therefore, he was a little curious and secretly looked at these people.
After looking at it for a while, Liang Hongyu was surprised to find that all these people's eyes were respect - respect from the heart.
The object they respected was obviously Li Yan.
"Why are officials so respected by them?" Liang Hongyu was puzzled!
It was not until a few days later that Liu Huiniang took the initiative to chat with Liang Hongyu that Liang Hongyu knew the reason.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Andong Protectorate, Li Yan abolished all tax system in the Northern Song Dynasty, including two taxes.
At this time, the largest two taxes were changed by Li Yan to pay only once a year - starting from obtaining the land (including those divided by the government and those who have been reclaimed by themselves), the first year only pays the land area he owned is multiplied by 10% of the average grain production, the second year pays the land area he owned is multiplied by 20% of the average grain production, and from the third year, the land area he owns is multiplied by 30% of the average grain production every year.
At the same time, Li Yan proposed nineteen types of tax, including value-added tax, consumption tax, business tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax, resource tax, urban land use tax, property tax, urban maintenance and construction tax, cultivated land occupation tax, land value-added tax, vehicle purchase tax, stamp tax, deed tax, tobacco leaf tax, customs tax, ship tonnage tax, and fixed asset investment direction adjustment tax, and detailed annotations were made on these nineteen types of tax systems.
The tax system formulated by Li Yan is extremely flexible and clever. Taking stamp duty as an example, the scope of taxation is extremely wide, and people also consciously hand over it, making everyone admire Li Yan!
Not to mention, while the tax system developed by Li Yan greatly reduced the burden on farmers and poor people, the tax revenue was twice as high as before. This was only received at the beginning of the development stage. In the foreseeable future, more will be collected.
The main subjects of taxation (businessmen and wealthy households) do not find it difficult to accept, and they are actively maintaining this tax system.
Why?
Because Li Yan was different from his previous rulers, he strongly encouraged trade and lifted the heavy shackles that had been added to merchants for thousands of years.
Previously, the status of businessmen was very low.
There are four common strata in society, namely scholars, farmers, workers and businessmen.
The literati, officials, juren, scholars and other scholars have the highest status, followed by farmers and landlords, then handicraftsmen, craftsmen, and finally merchants.
Businessmen are discriminated against.
How much discrimination is?
Qin Shihuang said that when he "growing agriculture and expelling the last, Guizhou was rich", it means "to advocate agriculture, to dismiss industry and commerce, and the people are rich as a result". Then, "transfer 120,000 wealthy households in the world to Xianyang" to monitor and supervise the wealthy.
When Qin Ershi was even more ridiculous: he exiled nine types of people with the lowest political status to Lingnan, and four of them were closely related to merchants, namely: he was a businessman, once a businessman, his grandparents were merchants, and his parents were merchants. In other words, once he had been a businessman, all descendants of the three generations were exiled.
After the Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the attitudes and routines of rulers towards merchants were mostly the same, and they could not escape a few words: suppression, attack, smear, and humiliation. Their methods were varied, and some were really incredible. For example, in the Jin Dynasty, the law stipulated that people who did business should wrap their foreheads with white towels and write their names on the white towels. The shoes on their feet must wear white shoes and black shoes on the other. Fu Jian of the Former Qin Dynasty ordered merchants not to wear gold and silver brocades, and violators were beheaded. The laws of the Northern Wei Dynasty stipulated that merchants would never be officials. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was also stipulated that merchants or the sons of merchants were not allowed to take scientific examinations.
(There was once a saying in the Han Dynasty that "donated officials", but in fact it was "buying officials". However, most of the people who could buy officials were gentry and those who studied in farming and studying, and there was no businessman.)
The Song Dynasty was slightly better, and the degree of discrimination by merchants was much lower than before, but it did not mean that there was no discrimination at all.
In short, businessmen were previously discriminated against and there was no guarantee. Once the country was short of money, they began to copy the house with various reasons.
In Li Yan, not only did he introduce many policies to encourage business, but he also abolished all discrimination against merchants - as long as merchants pay taxes stipulated by the government, they enjoy the rights enjoyed by ordinary citizens.
Li Yan's strong support for business directly led to an unprecedented prosperity in Seoul, and the prosperity was rapidly developing towards Li Yan's other territory.
In addition, Li Yan is preparing to launch monetary reforms and money houses to further promote business development.
In addition to reforming himself, Li Yan also allows others to reform.
Unlike the previous rulers, Li Yan either firmly opposes reforms and fears them like a tiger, or firmly supports them without caring about the consequences, or supports them today and will not support changes every day, and will not stick to them. Instead, he proposed the "experimental field system" with great creativity - that is, no matter what reforms, he will first divide a reform area for experiments. If the experiment is successful, he will vigorously promote it. If the experiment fails, he will first summarize the reasons for the failure, and then work together to find remedial measures. Once the reform is confirmed that it cannot be carried out or there are huge loopholes that cannot be filled, he will decisively give up.
The "experimental field system" proposed by Li Yan proposed the most feasible and safest system for reform, giving those reformists the opportunity to show their enthusiasm and allowing conservatives to control these reforms, so that the regime of Shuibou Liangshan would not have the conservative disputes such as Wang Anshi and Sima Guang. The problem that the Song Dynasty had not been solved for decades was easily solved by Li Yan.
In short, although Li Yan takes few moves, every move can make people see Li Yan's cleverness and unparalleled wisdom.
But although Li Yan is very talented, he does not take power. He does not drag on the things he should take and does not delay the situation where he should let go. He is extremely brave to use people, so that most of the civil and military officials can realize their life value.
Let me ask, how could such a Li Yan not be respected and loved by them?
Chapter completed!