Judge of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 49: Black eats black

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Having said that, Xu Zun is not easy to socialize with, but Wang Anshi is not so easy to invite either. Now that he is at the peak of his career, there are many people who want to invite him to dinner. In terms of personality, he is more stubborn than Xu Zun. If the other party was not Zhang Fei, he might not agree.

Although he had only met Zhang Fei once and hadn't even spoken a word to him, he had to admit that Zhang Fei left a very deep impression on him.

Sima Guang was particularly silent. Wang Anshi remembered that scene in his heart and thought about amusing himself when he went to the toilet.

Suddenly hearing that Zhang Fei wanted to offer him advice, he felt quite curious and expectant.

When Wang Anshi and Xu Zun arrived at Xu's house, Zhang Fei and Xu Zhiqian were already waiting for them.

After the ceremony, Wang Anshi teased Zhang Fei, "I have seen many of these people, but I have never seen someone as noisy as you. You don't know how to restrain yourself. No wonder the court wants to restrain you people."

Fortunately Sima Guang was not here. If he was, I would have retorted to him, "You are more noisy than him. How dare you criticize him?"

Zhang Fei said, "Master Wang, what you said is wrong. It's not that I like to make trouble. It's just that some problems have overflowed to the point where they can be seen everywhere. Therefore, even if I don't stand up, someone else will. If I really did something wrong, it's because I'm too humble and too weak."

The implication is that the common people are not at fault, but the adults are at fault.

Xu Zhiqian looked at Zhang Fei in shock.

Wow! He is indeed a man who dares to confront Sima Junshi. His words are extraordinary!

Wang Anshi did not expect that his casual joke would be retorted by Zhang Fei, but instead of being annoyed, he burst into laughter.

Xu Zun on the side smiled but said nothing.

Zhang Fei's words may seem rude, but they actually hit the nail on the head for Wang Anshi.

Wang Anshi is the one who needs to stand up!

Because he also believed that these problems must be solved immediately, otherwise the country would be in danger.

Just in time, the food arrived.

When he saw the food, Zhang Fei felt extremely honored. It turned out that he was on the same level as Wang Anshi.

There are really two more home-cooked dishes than usual.

Zhang Fei finally understood why Wang Ye came here and brought his own wine and food.

Wang Anshi didn't care about it, and didn't even look at it. He asked Zhang Fei: "I heard that you want to give me some advice?"

"Yes."

Zhang Fei nodded.

Wang Anshi asked, "I wonder if you have any suggestions for me?"

Zhang Fei did not answer but asked, "Does Grand Secretary Wang know about the housing prices in Bianjing?"

House prices? Wang Anshi was slightly stunned, then smiled and said, "Do you need to know about the house prices in Bianjing? Didn't you see that Xu Shisi and I both rent houses?"

Zhang Fei asked again: "Does Mr. Wang want to buy a house?"

Wang Anshi shook his head very simply and said, "I haven't thought about this question."

Given his situation, buying a house

That's a complete waste of time.

Meaningless.

Mr. Dongpo was far inferior to Wang Anshi in this regard. Wang Anshi had truly reached the realm of pacifying the world. He had this in mind and took action for it. This is extremely important. Many people think of governing the world, but they act like a nagging woman, complaining about themselves.

Zhang Fei hesitated for a moment and asked, "If the house price is very cheap, will Mr. Wang buy a house?"

"Maybe." Wang Anshi said casually, and then asked curiously, "Aren't you going to offer some advice? Why are you asking this?"

Zhang Fei replied: "This is because the advice I offer is closely related to housing prices."

After hearing this, Wang Anshi suddenly lost interest.

As I said, the pattern is too small.

As far as the economic structure of the Northern Song Dynasty is concerned, no matter how high or low the housing prices are, it will not affect the overall situation.

But you're here anyway, so just listen.

Zhang Fei waited for a moment, and when he saw that Wang Anshi did not ask any more questions, he knew that Wang Anshi must be very disappointed, but he was not discouraged, so he continued: "I heard that in the early days of the founding of the country, Mr. Pan once collected house taxes from the people to supplement military expenses because of the war against Southern Han."

Mr. Pan is Pan Mei, a famous general in the early Song Dynasty. It was Xu Zhiqian who told Zhang Fei about this news. After all, Zhang Fei was not a history major, and he was generally unaware of such details that were irrelevant to the law.

Wang Anshi nodded slightly.

Zhang Fei added: "From this, it can be seen that the house tax is still very considerable. The deed tax levied on land and houses in our dynasty is the same, which is 4 out of 100. However, the price of ordinary land near Bianjing is about 5 guan, and the most expensive is no more than 10 guan.

But a very ordinary small house costs about 5,000 guan. In terms of deed tax alone, the two are incomparable. "

Wang Anshi smiled and said, "That being said, the volume of house sales is far less than that of land, and those big landlords buy thousands of acres of land. In comparison, the deed tax for land is much higher."

Zhang Fei said: "What Wang Daxueshi said is true, but if the court can stimulate the sale of houses, then the income tax revenue will also be very considerable!"

Wang Anshi asked, "The proposal you want to offer today is this house tax?"

Zhang Fei nodded and said, "That's right. I have a plan that can greatly stimulate housing transactions and increase a considerable amount of income for the court."

After saying that, he looked at Xu Zhiqian who was standing beside him.

Xu Zhiqian immediately handed over the document that she had prepared long ago, "Please take a look at it, Uncle Wang."

Wang Anshi took it and joked to Xu Zhiqian, "Qian'er, you have a share too!"

Xu Zhiqian was stunned for a moment, not knowing whether to nod or shake her head.

She was worried whether this would affect Xu Zun.

Zhang Fei knew what she was worried about, so he said, "Because I am not good at writing, I can only ask Madam Xu to write for me."

Wang Anshi frowned upon hearing this, "If you lack writing skills, then you should practice more. It's really not right to always have someone write for you."

As a great writer, he still cares about these things.

In fact, Xu Zhiqian's writing style is not even to his liking. What can I do if yours is even worse than hers

Of course, this may also be because Wang Anshi had high expectations for Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei said awkwardly: "Why haven't I practiced, but... but I don't have enough talent, so I can't practice it."

"No future!"

Wang Anshi looked at Zhang Fei with contempt. It was so simple, how could he not be able to practice it? He was just lazy...

But despite his contempt, he still took it and read it carefully. After a while, he said in surprise: "The annual interest rate is only 7%? It can be repaid in 10 years at most."

This simple sentence immediately overturned Wang Anshi's view on borrowing.

The annual interest rate is 7%, which is 7 percent, but now the annual interest rate starts at double the interest, and the monthly interest rate has reached 8 or 9 percent.

This is too big a difference!

And it can be divided into ten years.

It’s terribly low!

Zhang Fei explained: "Although the interest rate is very low, due to the huge amount, the overall profit is still very considerable. Take the current ordinary house as an example. The total price of an ordinary house in Bianjing is about 6,000 guan.

Assuming a down payment of one third, the amount borrowed is 4,000 guan, and with a ten-year repayment period, the total interest will be 1,500 guan."

Wang Anshi couldn't help but take a deep breath.

The interest is more than one thousand strings of cash.

That sounds like a lot!

"wrong!"

Wang Anshi suddenly said, "Your interest rate is not right. It should be more than this."

Zhang Fei smiled and said, "That's all, because I have provided a very fair calculation method, which is written below."

A fair calculation method? Wang Anshi quickly read it, but after reading it for a long time, he looked embarrassed.

Xu Zhiqian knew very well Wang Anshi's mentality at the moment, because she had also experienced it, and she winked at Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei pretended not to see it and waited silently.

He remained silent, and Xu Zhiqian didn't want to interrupt. After all, Zhang Fei only told her the whole plan, but didn't tell her how to fool people.

Wang Anshi glanced at him several times, and seeing that Zhang Fei was not interested, he coughed and said, "What's the point of your algorithm?"

Simply put, I don’t understand.

Zhang Fei adopts the algorithm of equal principal and interest. In this way, the monthly repayment amount is the same, which is more convenient, but the algorithm is more complicated and the interest is also higher.

But overall, the interest rate is much lower than what Wang Anshi had in mind. One of the key reasons is that the principal is reduced every month.

Because nowadays, when lending, the total interest is calculated. For example, if the interest rate is 10%, and you borrow 100 strings of cash, the annual interest is 10 strings of cash. Even if you pay it back monthly, you still have to pay that much.

However, Zhang Fei's calculation formula is to repay on a monthly basis, but he has to deduct the principal that has already been repaid.

Zhang Fei then began to explain to Wang Anshi.

"I see!"

Wang Anshi nodded and said, "This is indeed much fairer than the current interest calculation method."

Then, he asked Zhang Fei in surprise, "Did you come up with this?"

Zhang Fei nodded and said, "My talent is all in this."

Wang Anshi was slightly stunned, then he realized that this guy did it on purpose, and glared at him: "You can see it!"

Xu Zhiqian pursed her lips and thought to herself, this person is really vindictive.

The reason why Zhang Fei didn't take the initiative to explain just now was actually because he wanted to avenge his poor writing skills.

My writing skills are not good, but yours are at the same level as mine.

Xu Zun just smiled and shook his head.

However, Wang Anshi did not care about it. Instead, he admired it more. He thought it was indeed a capable person. Although the interest calculation method was complicated, every word made sense and there was nothing wrong with it. The formula was extremely cleverly designed and was worthy of reference by the court.

Zhang Fei also stopped there and said, "Although the total interest is high, due to the very long term, the burden on the borrower is not great. With this amount, the monthly repayment is only a little over 46 strings of cash. For those who can afford this house, I believe they can definitely pay it back and it will not affect their lives."

This sincerity has nothing to do with the common people. Li Si's life is only worth ten strings of coins.

This is mainly aimed at officials.

He also calculated the interest based on the officials' salaries, but since the benefits of officials in the Northern Song Dynasty were greater than their salaries, it was not easy to state it clearly. In fact, there was no need to state it clearly, as Wang Anshi knew it better than him.

For an official who could live in a mansion worth 6,000 guan, it was very easy for him to pay 46 guan every month.

"It's not much if you calculate it this way." Wang Anshi nodded slightly and suddenly said, "That being said, with such a low interest rate, such a long term, and such a large amount of money, who would dare to borrow this much money?"

Zhang Fei said: "This is why I offered advice to Grand Secretary Wang. If the court can legislate to ensure that once the debtor is unable to repay, the house will be sold at a loss to protect the interests of the creditors, then there will naturally be no such concerns."

After fully considering Xu Zhiqian's opinion, he finally chose to auction the house to repay the debt instead of directly confiscating the house, although the former seemed to be more beneficial to Ma Tianhao and others.

But don't forget that there must be many officials among the buyers of the houses. If this is done, as long as there is a case of default, it will arouse the resentment and worry of the officials. Moreover, in this era, people don't use mobile phones to operate, and repaying the money is also very cumbersome. Over time, various problems will arise.

Since the people who buy houses are people of status and power, fairness must of course be the most important thing.

Wang Anshi was not an ordinary scholar. Although arithmetic was not his strong point, he was very smart in finance. Unless the capital was moved, the housing prices in Bianjing would only rise and not fall. He would pay 30% first. If he could not pay it back, he would use the house to repay the debt. The creditors would not lose money in any case.

But there must be legal guarantees.

Yes! If we can ensure that we can get the house back, then this business is a sure win, and the income is not small. In this case... Wang Anshi thought for a while, and suddenly said: "Why bother with so much trouble? Can't the court do it itself, just like renting public housing?"

"ah?"

Zhang Fei was stunned.

A feeling of sending a sheep into the tiger's mouth arises spontaneously.