Seeing Yuan Fang's shocked expression, He Mulan snickered and turned her head. She has been bypassed countless times by His Majesty's ability.
Gu Bi probably had a strong heart and could reply every time he was frightened. At this time, he asked Tuoba Tao while staring at him:
"According to Your Excellency, what do you mean by spending money first?"
Yuan Fang also seemed to be annoyed at how simple it was for him to "admit defeat". Hearing Gu Bi's question, he said with a little energy: "I am in charge of business in the Yuan family, and naturally what I know best is business. During the Battle of Song and Wei, it was once dilapidated, the land was deserted and seized, and the yin households fled one after another, and it was possible to restore prosperity back then, all by doing business properly."
"The problem of Wei now is that the people are too poor, and the country is even poorer. The population is not enough to cultivate, and the goods in various places are poor, but the trade routes have been cut off. Even if everyone is allocated fields, they are not comparable to the rich land in the south. You can only get wealth by fighting."
Yuan Fang saw the expressions of disapproval from everyone, and knew that they looked down on businessmen. Let the son-in-law run the business.
"That's why I've been thinking about 'dividing the fields'. After the people have all the fields, they will naturally not suffer from the lack of food to pay taxes." Tuoba Tao continued.
"Dividing land is just an expedient measure. There are only so many people. In addition, I don't know how much private land is owned by the rich and powerful. The government wants to compete with these forces for 'people', but the results are still too slow." Yuan Fang looked at Gu Bi slantingly. , "So it is best not to shake the fundamental methods of various places. If you can establish 'official merchants', govern hundreds of industries, operate in a proper way, and make profits after trading with various places, you can naturally provide funds and salaries for officials and officials. Officials and merchants are in various places. When doing business, you can pay the 'commercial tax' subsidy, so that the tax on agriculture can be reduced or exempted, and the people have less burden."
"You mean, the city tax is levied?" Gu Bi immediately shook his head after hearing this: "Our people's livelihood is poor, and in order to encourage the people to barter, there is never a city tax. You just said that the tax is reduced or exempted, and now the city tax is levied again. , what's the difference?"
"It can be determined whether or not to levy market tax according to the number of transactions and the income. If it is just private barter, no tax will be charged. But if the transaction is a hundred or a thousand transactions? There is no tax? In my opinion, in Wei Kingdom The merchants in the world are the happiest merchants in the world, and in the Song Dynasty, there was no such rule of not collecting market taxes!"
"But… "
"Master Bi, let him continue!" Tuoba Tao interrupted Gu Bi, "In front of me, anything can be said. It's just my question whether I will accept it or not."
Gu Bi shut his mouth when he heard the words, and Helian Dingze began to think with a thoughtful expression.
Yuan Fang was encouraged and continued: "Actually, the Wei State is in an excellent position. Chang'an and Luoyang were once the most desired places for businessmen, and now they are all owned by my great Wei. Wei State is located in the middle, just because of the perennial war. With the abolition of the commercial way, now all the goods from the east, west, north and west can be gathered here. Merchants communicate with each other, which can stabilize the price of goods in various places, which greatly reduces the cost of survival, and the people have a surplus in their hands, so they don’t have to worry about no tax. Pay, and of course you don't have to go to a 'fake loan'."
"However, businessmen can indeed disrupt the country. This method has the greatest risk..."
He Mulan suddenly interrupted, causing everyone to look at her.
He Mulan rarely intervened in political affairs, so everyone was more cautious when they saw her open their mouths.
"What risk?" Yuan Fang asked her somewhat unconvinced.
He Mulan smiled quietly and spit out four words.
"Official business collusion."
"what?"
"Officials have a long history of doing business in the Wei Dynasty. Since there is no salary in our country, most of them just let them go. Officials from the Han family, because they pay attention to their family's reputation, will never exploit them arbitrarily. It is difficult to guarantee that there will be no collusion between officials and businessmen to make profits together. Once officials are in the interest, they can seek personal gains and defections to seek profits, which will eventually intensify the conflict. In addition, everyone can do business, and the land will be deserted. If other countries are unwilling to sell grain, it is bound to There is a famine."
He Mulan knew that in this era, the modern economy was not yet developed, and any foreign trade export was nonsense. Grain belonged to the country's war reserve resources, and no country would easily sell it.
And the corruption of official governance caused by the harm of "collaboration between officials and businessmen", has she seen less
Tuoba Tao thought about it and knew what He Mulan was worried about. Hearing that, he nodded immediately: "That's true. But this is also simple. I can issue an edict that, except for officials and businessmen, officials who are officials are not allowed to do business, otherwise they will all be dealt with seriously. The most important thing is to solve the problem that the people cannot survive.”
If this matter is left in the Han regime, it may not be a difficult matter, because the integrity of Han people and officials includes "not competing with the people for profit", so it is a very shameful thing for literati to do business. Many people would rather starve to death than go into business for profit.
For those Han people who can be officials, most of them are from big clans. Even the concubines have family support once they become official, so there is no need to be so reckless. They pay more attention to reputation than these common things.
But now the Xianbei people are in power. Many of the officials in various places are Hu people, and some are new gentry who have been ruined and reborn, and have forgotten to persevere. These people are chasing fame and profit, which is really scary.
At this point, the "behavior" of Han officials in Wei's officialdom did not know that they would dump the Xianbei people into a few streets. At least they are "corrupt/corrupt/accepted/bribery" at most, and there are not many who openly and directly convicted others and seized family property like Wang Jin.
He Mulan originally wanted to say, "If you are an official, you can't do business. Can your family do business?" But she was thinking about it, considering the current stagnant business situation, if you want to be rich in society, you don't know where to consider this kind of problem. It's been a year, so I kept my mouth shut.
Since Tuoba Tao is willing to impose laws to restrict officials from doing business, according to the rigidity of the ancients, at least for the sake of their lives, not many people will take risks.
Yuan Fang was also very surprised when he saw that He Mulan was not a warrior who only knew how to fight. It was only at this time that his proud expression subsided, and he said seriously.
"The role of businessmen is more than that. In times of war, businessmen are the best sources of information. Wherever there is a famine and where food is needed, where food and grass are suddenly collected in large quantities, it is a unique skill for businessmen to distinguish the country's trends through these clues. My Yuan family hoarded food and grass several times before the army went on an expedition, and sold it at a high price during the expedition. It is through the amount of food that we can analyze that our country is about to fight and make a fortune."
"Another example is when the army went to Rouran, my Yuan family sold a lot of cattle, sheep and horses before the expedition. Sure enough, the army returned from the northern expedition and brought back a large number of cattle, sheep and horses. Many great shepherds in the north generally suffered heavy losses."
Tuoba Tao had learned everything, except that he knew very little about doing business. At this time, it sounded even more relish. When he heard that there was money to be made, both eyes lit up.
"Then as you see it, what can be sold at a high price in our country, and can quickly accumulate wealth and silk, fill the national treasury, and reduce the people's wealth?"
Tuoba Tao was asking questions, but the foreign officials hurriedly entered the hall and reminded Tuoba Tao in a low voice that it was time for the court.
The Great Chaos Meeting is different from the usual daily ceremonies. It is only once a month, on the first day of the month. The Great Court will summarize all the political affairs that happened last month, so as long as the relevant officials are involved, all of them will participate, and some local officials will also take advantage of the Great Court to come to report their duties.
It was for this reason that He Mulan saw the black crowd at the gate of the palace.
Now when it was time for the great dynasty, there were a bunch of civil and military officials waiting outside the hall, but Ke Tuoba Tao did not appear, nor did Gu Bi, who was the servant, of course, there would be ministers urging him.
Unexpectedly, Tuoba Tao was excited, he just waved his hand willfully and said to the foreign official, "Tell them to wash their ears first!"
The poor foreign minister thought he had misheard, patted his ear first, and then showed an innocent expression, "Uh".
"It's not that my ears are blocked, why can't I hear the voices of the people below all day long? As long as I think that no one has told me about 'fake loans' for so many years, I have been doing the local officials to pay taxes because of their ability. It's a beautiful dream that is accomplished every year! Let them wash their ears, and then they will go to court after washing, this is the imperial order!"
The foreign officials were frightened by Tuoba Tao's indisputable expression, so they could only bow their heads and hurriedly retreated. Seeing this, Gu Bi grabbed the hand of the foreign minister, glared and shouted: "Your Majesty, you are doing this again! You said it was an imperial order, they would really go to wash it, and it would become a laughing stock if it was spread!"
Tuoba Tao waved his hand noncommittally.
The foreign officials looked at Gu Bi, and then at Tuoba Tao, showing a "you are my father" expression to Gu Bi, looking at him eagerly.
"You go out first, and say that His Majesty has something important to deal with, let them wait outside the palace, and the old courtiers will invite them to rest in the palace, and you will leave the others alone."
Gu Bi felt that since he helped Tuoba Tao, his hair would be bald by himself, but he couldn't ignore this "problem child" and could only make a decision first.
When Tuoba Tao saw the foreign officials and ministers looking at him again, he nodded casually. The man immediately said "Thank you, Your Majesty, Long En" and ran away. It seemed that he was afraid that someone would chase him back and say, "Ah, don't wash it." The ears are gone, it’s time for the group to take a bath outside” and other imperial orders.
After a while of Helianding's muffled laughter, Yuan Fang's answer turned Helianding's muffled laughter into a big laugh.
"Although I really want to tell my conscience that I have a vast territory and abundant products, I have to tell Your Majesty..."
Yuan Fang showed uncompromising courage, his expression seemed to be asking, "Ah, Your Majesty, why are you so stupid", although He Mulan felt that Yuan Fang's expression was more of a desire to take revenge on Tuoba Tao used words to force him to show his little angry youth side.
All in all, Yuan Fang showed a very cute smile and shook his head.
"But Wei Guo doesn't have the kind of goods you want."
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
Helianding couldn't hold it any longer, covering his stomach and laughing.
It was probably the first time that Tuoba Tao was so humiliated, because no one had dared to laugh like that before. He stood up for the first time and patted Helianding on the shoulder beside him, causing him to fall back.
However, Helianding leaned against the lamppost behind him and continued to laugh.
"What about the state of Wei? Silk fabrics? They don't have the exquisiteness of the state of Song. Besides, the folks in our country can only produce cotton cloth and some fine silk, such as silk, Luo, brocade, and embroidery, which are all made by the government, and no one even wants to grow mulberry fields."
Yuan Fang began to ask and answer himself.
"Beautiful wine? Oh, I forgot that the wine that is short of food and food in our country is almost gone."
"Pottery? I heard that the Song Dynasty in the southern region already had a special kind of pottery with a light blue glaze, called 'glazed pottery'. Compared with it, these pottery in our country are like broken earthenware pots."
"Gold and silver, jade, lacquer... I'm sorry, these craftsmanship in our country are really crude and can't be regarded as elegant."
Tuoba Tao began to open his mouth, probably because he couldn't stand such a cruel fact. He couldn't accept that the "great country" he ruled would be so disgusted by a businessman.
"Sword Comes"
"In my opinion, the only things that our country can use for business are the war horses captured in large quantities from Rouran and the iron tools forged by the Gaoche people. There are also a lot of copper mines in our country, but it is a pity that the monks control them and use them all to make Buddha statues and Buddhist utensils. Now, you can't use these His Majesty even if you think about it, right?"
Tuoba Tao had to nod his head in agreement.
He also often sent horses to Song to express friendship, but the war horses he sent were all incited and left no descendants. Of course, gelding horses can also be sold in large quantities, but with Tuoba Tao's long-term strategy of fighting with cavalry, it is impossible for too many horses to flow out to the outside world.
Therefore, domestic horses in the Wei Kingdom are common, and even the trailers are pack horses, but there are almost no good horses sold abroad, all of which are in the government-run pastures.
"Then what you said before is all in vain. If you want to make money, you must sell it instead of buying other people's things. Otherwise, the wealth and silk will not flow out of the country and earn it for others!"
Li Shun sneered.
"No, because Hu Xia was annihilated, there is one more thing that can be sold in our country. Besides, if His Majesty can destroy Beiyan, there will only be more things that can be sold."
Tuoba Tao: "What!"
Gu Bi: "Presumptuous!"
Li Shun: "How can you talk about the war!"
He Mulan and Di Yefei suddenly thought of what Cui Hao said before when they heard Beiyan, and suddenly looked at Yuan Fang with shock in their eyes.
Yuan Fang raised his head slightly, neither humble nor arrogant:
"The most profitable business in the world is salt and iron."