In his first sentence, Fang Yun was talking about collecting taxes from the rich, but in his second sentence he turned to tax reductions and exemptions, which left many people confused.
Fang Yun continued, "I was wondering if we should reduce or exempt some people's land tax, head tax or business tax? However, the treasury is already empty. If there is a shortage of money, where can we fill the deficit? I couldn't figure it out, so I was worried."
"Then Li Zhixiao asked, since the imperial court has a monopoly on salt, iron, tea, etc., can we raise the price? Of course I disagreed and criticized him, saying that ordinary people and rich people consume about the same amount of salt a day. If the price is raised, it will be a burden for ordinary people, but it will have no effect on the rich. Isn't this still treating the people harshly?"
Dong Yueqian and Xu Changgeng placed their hands on Li Zhixiao's left and right shoulders respectively.
Li Zhixiao smiled bitterly.
Fang Yun finally said: "However, what the three people said inspired me. I wondered whether we should impose commercial taxes on luxury goods that ordinary people cannot afford? In this way, ordinary people will not be affected, and since the rich can afford luxury goods, they naturally don't care about those taxes. Apart from this, I can't think of any other way to fill the treasury, so I have no intention of attending the literary gathering. Therefore, Fang apologizes to everyone here for disrupting the literary gathering. Alas... Never mind, Fang is really not in the mood to attend the literary gathering. Goodbye, you can continue."
Fang Yun said this and left with a sigh, as if he had aged ten years in an instant.
The heads of each family had blank expressions on their faces.
After Fang Yun left, the literary meeting ended quickly.
Some family heads who were on good terms with each other gathered together to discuss this literary gathering.
This matter soon reached the ears of Jing State officials.
Everyone then understood Fang Yun's intention of holding the literary meeting, which was to increase taxes. On the surface, it seemed that he was only raising taxes on luxury items, but if nothing unexpected happened, the tax rates on some items would be gradually increased.
The major families have different views on the tax increase.
Some families are not involved in the operation of luxury goods and neither oppose nor support it. Some families, even if they are involved but not their main business, do not care too much. It is nothing more than spending a little more money in the future and it does not affect their core interests.
Some families who mainly deal in luxury goods are very opposed to it. Although this is not a direct tax on them, but only a tax increase on the goods, if the goods are too expensive, some people will inevitably give up buying them, resulting in a reduction in their own income.
However, their opposition was not particularly resolute, because the reduction in income would not cause any major damage. It would be not worth it to go against Fang Yun or even the imperial court for this little income.
However, they did not want to sit idly by, so they ran around looking for senior officials in the hope of stopping Fang Yun from raising taxes on luxury goods.
A few days later, the Directorate General of Taxation drew up a list of tax increases, and any industry dealing in items on the list would have its taxes increased by between 10 and 30 percent.
The related industries were in mourning, but since they were not industries with a big impact, they did not cause any chaos.
The sun rises as usual in Jingguo.
Unknowingly, Jingguo had made two great strides, one called judicial reform and the other called tax reform.
Slowly, the innovation entered the deep water zone.
Before the summer was over, a piece of great news shocked the entire human race.
The demon world announced that as long as Fang Yun and the stone fetus blood egg were handed over, the demon world would withdraw its troops completely and sign a thousand-year non-war agreement with the human race again. If Fang Yun was not handed over, the demon world would not only increase its troops in the Liangjie Mountain, but also invade the ancient lands of the human race and start an all-out war.
Even during the first battle between the two worlds, the demon world did not fully invade all the ancient lands of the human race.
Afterwards, some information was disclosed by the Holy Academy one after another, and everyone knew that Fang Yun had done so many things in the Holy Burial Valley, killing the Demon King's clone, snatching the stone fetus blood egg, and disrupting the layout of the demon world. The blow to the demon world was even greater than the loss of several semi-saints.
In particular, the Lord of Plague, who could have easily been promoted to a Great Sage, has already issued a high bounty to Fang Yun, and is willing to kill Fang Yun at all costs to take back the stone fetus blood egg.
Fang Yun was once again pushed to the forefront and became a great hero admired by all human beings.
Most humans don't care about the demon world's request to hand over Fang Yun, because no one believes in the demon world. What's more, Fang Yun is the pillar of the human race. If even Fang Yun is handed over to the demon world, the human race will not be worthy of being called human.
In the first three days, the mainstream voice overwhelmed everything. Whether it was the casual chat among the people in the streets or the exchanges among scholars on the discussion list, everyone was in unison and regarded Fang Yun as a great hero.
However, a piece of news on the fourth day changed the situation.
The demon world once again issued a statement, concluding that Fang Yun had encountered a divine punishment in the Burial Sacred Valley, had survived a near-death experience, had his foundation destroyed, had problems with his cultivation, could not be promoted to a higher position, and would soon die. Fang Yun would even face the wrath of the Burial Sacred Valley's will, and the Burial Sacred Valley would probably send a powerful force to hunt Fang Yun down. Therefore, if the human race handed over Fang Yun now, it would be like exchanging a piece of trash for a thousand years of peace.
This news shocked countless human beings.
Although there were rumors that Fang Yun was seriously injured before, most people thought that his foundation would not be seriously damaged. Moreover, Fang Yun appeared frequently afterwards, and although he looked seriously ill, it did not seem that his foundation was destroyed.
It was just a rumor before, but now it has been confirmed by the demon world.
So countless scholars sent letters to Fang Yun to comfort and encourage him.
Fang Yun was very touched and continued to serve as his left prime minister.
It was also on this day that discordant voices appeared on the discussion board.
"If Fang Xusheng really cares about the human race, he should tie his arms and go to the demon world to buy a thousand years of peace for the human race."
"In that case, the demon world has launched an all-out war against the human race, and Fang Xusheng cannot escape blame."
"Since Fang Xusheng's foundation has been completely destroyed and he won't live long, there is no need to hold on. It is better to devote the last bit of his time to the human race."
"If nothing unexpected happens, Saint Fangxu will agree to the conditions of the demon world. After all, compared with a thousand years of peace for the human race, the life of any person, including a semi-saint, is insignificant. If the demon world uses my life in exchange for a thousand years of peace for the human race, I will definitely agree. After all, from now on, my name will go down in history, and my descendants will also enjoy wealth and glory."
"Next, we will know whether Fang Xusheng is a true villain or a true gentleman."
"Fang Xusheng, for the sake of the human race, please agree to the demon world."
In just one day, tens of thousands of scholars came out and hoped that Fang Yun would go to the demon world.
Their remarks made many scholars furious. Many scholars would rather be banned from the discussion list than curse those who wanted Fang Yun to die.
For almost every comment that calls for Fang Yunyun to die, there are hundreds of thousands of people opposing, criticizing, scolding or ridiculing.
Especially the scholars of Jingguo, they could not bear to see the hope of Jingguo being treated like this. They even felt betrayed and desperately posted articles or replied on the discussion board to fight back against those people and continued to support Fang Yun.
Some people who usually don't like to participate in debates finally couldn't hold back.