Chapter 61: Liu Hang, Wang Mingyu, Peng Feizai

  （0061）

  Hou Shanping shook his head, smiling wryly and said: "I'm not afraid of the imperial court, I'm worried that we've provoked too many powerful enemies at once, and can't withstand it. Fighting is like eating, you can't eat too much at once. Eating too much will give you diarrhea."

  Peng Bo shouted loudly: "What's there to be afraid of? If a thousand come, we'll kill a thousand! If ten thousand come, we'll kill ten thousand! If a hundred thousand come, we'll kill a hundred thousand! Let's see how many people they have! I don't believe the number of government soldiers can surpass ours! Our Floating Mountain Fortress has several thousand men! The Lai State Prefecture doesn't even have that many soldiers!"

  It's like Liu Hang, Wang Mingyu, and Peng Fei, these young people, their cultural level is not high, they may not even recognize half of the big characters. But it's precisely because of this that they don't have so many worries, they won't hesitate or be indecisive. Since they've embarked on this path, they'll just go straight to the end. To be honest, their encounter with Zhang Zhun is their good fortune.

  If there isn't a wise person to guide them, they will recklessly charge forward and the consequences are unthinkable. They won't be able to achieve any decent results either. However, if they receive scientific guidance, their practical spirit can produce an enormous effect. Especially Liu Hang and Wang Mingyu, they were born with the talent for getting things done. The only thing lacking is vision, that is theory. As long as this point is made up for, many things will be manageable for them.

  Peng Fei is similar to Yang Qianqiang, Yang Zhiyuan and Hao Linyong, who are brave but lack strategy, with a heart full of passion. Such young people, if not guided on the path forward, may also end up with their heads broken and bleeding, yet still unable to find direction. However, if someone guides him, his boldness will be extremely valuable. His bravery will greatly inspire the soldiers around him. Isn't that how Gao Yingxiang earned his nickname "Chuang Wang"?

  Hou Shanping shook his head silently, and said with a bitter smile: "You Peng Feizi, don't be stubborn, okay? You must not have read the evil copy, nor thought about the relevant information. Although the number of Shaanxi uprising troops is not small, after entering Henan, they are even more numerous, claiming to be one million strong. However, their combat power compared to the official army still has a gap. The troops of Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting have very strong combat power, and now there's another Lu Xiangsheng who is also skilled in battle. Zhang Xianzhong suffered greatly at the hands of Lu Xiangsheng in Xunyang Prefecture. If the imperial court sends them to attack us, it won't be a joke."

  Liu Hang said in surprise: "Lu Xiangsheng? I've heard of this person's name! Isn't he in Daming Prefecture? How did he end up in Xunyang Prefecture?"

  Hou Shanping said: "The traitor's letter says that Lu Xiangsheng has been transferred to Xunyang Prefecture to deal with the rebel army."

  Liu Hang wanted to speak but hesitated.

  Zhang nodded and said calmly, "San Yuan makes a lot of sense. We do need to prevent the worst from happening. But it's precisely because we want to prevent the worst that we need to redistribute the land. We must make every military household have the determination to fight to the death. Without real benefits, it's definitely not possible. We don't have floating wealth or official positions; all we can offer is the most basic land."

  Hou Shanping said: "I actually agree with the re-allocation of land. Apart from this measure, we really have no other way to keep everyone closely connected. The teachings of Wenxiang's equal distribution of wealth, sharing good fortune and bad, can only stimulate the people for a while. Once the novelty wears off, the people will disperse again, which is also the key reason why Wenxiang's uprisings repeatedly occur but repeatedly fail. Only land is the most long-lasting."

  Liu Hang and Wang Mingyu both nodded in agreement.

  In the feudal era, whether it was a military household or a civilian household, the longing for land was indescribable to outsiders. Land was everyone's **. Especially after losing their land for so long, people felt the preciousness of land even more. For their own land, military households were willing to do anything, including going to war!

  Fushan doesn't lack land, on the contrary, Fushan has more than 30,000 mu of land, but it's all been occupied by military officers and other officials. If we take back this land, we can redistribute it.

  Zhang Jun took the opportunity to put forward the slogan "equal land and exemption from taxation".

  This slogan will be put forward by Li Zicheng several years later, and it will win the support of countless poor people, ultimately creating Li Zicheng's glory. Zhang Zhun naturally wants to plagiarize this extremely attractive and provocative slogan in advance. In the social context at that time, these four words are really a deadly weapon!

  Liu Hang thought for a moment and said cautiously, "Yulin, I don't agree with the idea of exempting taxes. The equal field system is already a very good policy, there's no need to exempt taxes. Otherwise, where will future military expenses come from? Without the protection of the army, how can the equal field system be implemented?"

  Zhang Zhun listened to this and looked at Liu Hang with a few more points of importance.

  Liu Hang is passionate, calm and indeed a rare good seedling.

  Wang Mingyu also said: "I agree with Liu Hang's opinion, equal land is enough, and tax exemption is not feasible. I think it's perfectly fine to implement the original tax rate, collecting two dou of grain per mu."

  Hou Shanping also agrees with this suggestion.

  Peng Fei Zi tilted his head and said: "If we can be exempt from paying taxes, that would be even better."

  That's right, the slogan of equal land and exemption from taxation is indeed very attractive. Land is the dream of every poor household, even if equal land is not exempt from taxation, the attraction is already sufficient. Of course, people's desires are endless, and the poor common people are no exception. If they don't have to pay taxes, that would be even better. However, in a feudal society, where does the state's tax revenue come from if agricultural taxes are not collected?

  Zhang Zhun said in an orderly manner: "Liu Hang, have you studied business tax and industrial tax? For example, let's talk about mining taxes. In fact, the Ming Dynasty has many mines that can be taxed. The current situation is that these taxes cannot be collected, and they are all taken away by others."

  Liu Hang said: "Sorry, I'm inexperienced and don't know much about business tax and industrial tax. Do they understand?"

  Wang Mingyu shook his head, indicating he didn't quite understand either.

  Hou Shanping also shook his head, indicating he didn't understand either.

  "It's not your fault. In fact, business tax and industrial tax are the main sources of national tax revenue... I don't know if everyone understands the situation in Southern Song Dynasty, but at that time, agricultural tax only accounted for a very small part, and most of the country's fiscal revenue actually came from business tax and industrial tax... Our great Ming Dynasty's commercial trade and industrial trade are also very developed, and if taxes are levied, they will definitely not be less than those in Southern Song..."

  In fact, since the lifting of the sea ban by Longqing, the business trade of the Ming Dynasty was actually very developed. The navigation route from the southeastern coast to Manila had large merchant ships coming and going. The southbound merchant ships were loaded with a large amount of porcelain, silk, tea leaves, medicinal materials, raw silk and other goods, while the northbound merchant ships carried a large amount of silver. As a result, a large amount of silver flowed into China from overseas. According to the most conservative estimates, there should be more than 300 million taels of silver within the borders of Ming, and it may even reach 500 million taels.

  The business trade was so developed in the morning, but the business tax was very small. The annual tea trade in Fujian reached tens of millions of taels of silver, and the tea tax was only 30 taels of silver, which is simply a freak. At first, Zhu Yuanzhang set the business tax to be 3% of the total amount, which was basically equivalent to tax-free. In fact, it was completely tax-free later on, and merchants became the people with the most social wealth, but they didn't have to bear any tax burden.

  There are also various mines, which can be taxed. The tax supervisor sent by Emperor Wanli that year, despite being severely criticized for various reasons, still increased the country's fiscal revenue to a certain extent. Otherwise, how could the huge expenditure of Wanli's three major campaigns be supported? That was not entirely due to Zhang Juzheng's credit.

  However, the Chongzhen and Wanli reigns were vastly different. The Chongzhen reign was dominated by the Donglin Party, which represented the interests of large merchants and landowners. They would not voluntarily submit to taxation, and would even ruthlessly suppress any proposals for taxing industry and commerce. As a result, Chongzhen had no choice but to shift the entire burden of increased taxes onto the shoulders of poor farmers, leading to increasingly severe internal unrest and ultimately triggering irreparable consequences.

  With the lesson of Chongzhen in front, Zhang Zhun would certainly not still have the idea of collecting agricultural taxes. In fact, there is another fact that Liu Hang and others do not know: at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was a period of Little Ice Age, with frequent natural disasters, droughts, floods, locust plagues, and cyclical repetitions, resulting in severe crop failures and yields less than 30% of the original.

  In such a situation, continuing to collect high agricultural taxes is obviously impossible, and farmers simply cannot afford it. If only a symbolic amount is collected, it would be better not to collect at all. In fact, the process of collecting agricultural taxes itself incurs huge expenses, if the collected agricultural taxes are not enough to cover the expenses, then it's better to exempt them altogether. This can also be considered as taking a step forward and benefiting the people.

  Of course, the premise of exempting agricultural taxes is to earn enough silver to provide military expenses for the army and salaries for the unemployed. As for this point, Zhang Zhun still has a plan. In addition to the salt business, he also planned other businesses.

  Liu Hang listened to Zhang Zhun's explanation and had no objection, nodding his head: "Since Yu Lin has a way to solve the financial resources, the best is to exempt the land tax."

  Wang Mingyu and Peng Feizai both admired Zhang Zhun's courage very much.

  It can be seen that Zhang Zhun's views on equal land distribution and tax exemption are not just empty talk, but have been thoroughly researched. Regardless of Zhang Zhun's intentions in making such a suggestion, it is an epoch-making progress.

  Hou Shanping still had some concerns and said cautiously: "Yulin, if we levy taxes on merchants, will they agree? Merchants do business in other places without paying taxes, but here they have to pay taxes. Will there be any merchants coming? Moreover, if mining is taxed, who will come to mine?"