Great Qin Shi Empress

==·Tax Reform·==

Juzi didn't understand why the topic suddenly jumped to track construction.

Today's Daqin is not without tracks, and there are even quite a few, but most of them are used to transport coal mines, whether it is mine cars or tracks, they are still the same as in the past——

Basically it's made of wood.

At most, the wood on which the track is laid is replaced by a harder type.

But the track His Majesty mentioned doesn't look like this.

Juzi couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty wants the track to be laid by Wei Chen. What is it for? To transport coal mines or to carry people? Are the mine cars that need to run on it the old ones, or have they been improved and speeded up?"

Ying Zheng looked at Juzi like he was looking at a fool: "What do you think, Ai Qing?"

Juzi: "..."

He showed an awkward yet polite smile: "Then, of course it is this kind of mine cart that has been improved and is faster than a horse-drawn cart."

Ying Zheng turned his head and didn't answer.

But in Juzi's eyes, this is almost the same as the default.

Juzi endured and endured, but in the end he couldn't hold back: "But if you want to use this faster mine car, you must use a large amount of steel for the body and track materials."

Ying Zheng nodded: "I know."

Juzi was a little anxious: "Before, it was just laying wooden rails in the suburbs, and some people went to dismantle the wooden rails and take them home. If it was replaced with rails, many people might take risks and take down the rails in the future. , steal it home and sell it..."

Once a section of rail is removed, the entire train is in danger of tipping over.

Ying Zheng looked at Juzi, and didn't understand why he reacted so strongly: "Because someone might steal the rails, so you can't use something good after researching it? When did Juzi become so choked up?"

"If you're really worried, just send someone to patrol near the track. If you find someone stealing the track, you'll cut it in half after you catch it."

Cut in half?

Juzi opened his mouth wide in astonishment, unable to speak for a while.

[His Majesty who appeared with Gu Fenghou has a much milder temper, I almost thought he had such a temper...]

He has a mild temper?

Yingzheng took a look at Juzi: "Didn't Juzi say that the mine cart is easy to roll over when the rail is missing a section? Since the mine cart is for people to ride, it should be as far as possible to prevent danger. If you sit on it Wouldn’t it be wrong for the mine cart to overturn and lose its life when it was full of people because of some people’s greed? Isn’t that person a heinous crime?”

"It's Weichen who wants to go wrong!" Juzi shook his head, and immediately promised, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, if there are enough people, we can guarantee that the distance of a hundred miles can be completed within ten days."

Ying Zheng frowned. If it takes ten days for a hundred miles, it seems a bit too slow.

Juzi's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly explained: "Weichen didn't aim for nothing, but because before laying the track, a layer of small stones must be laid on the ground first, then soft pillows should be placed, and the track should be installed last."

"Small stones need to be found and transported. The size of the soft pillow and the track and the distance between them need to be strictly measured. The error should not be too large, and...

Juzi told all the details of the track laying, and said frankly: "Weichen said that a hundred miles of track can be laid in ten days, which is the limit under very smooth conditions, but in fact, Weichen has no way to guarantee You can keep that speed the whole time.”

Ying Zheng wanted to frown again.

but……

Even if you feel that this time is too long, it is necessary to build such a railway.

After all, Lin Qian took away so many drawings and materials of water conservancy projects. Unless it was during the Chinese New Year, the current transportation conditions are not convenient.

He sighed: "Then you should prepare now, and when you enter the palace tomorrow, the widow will entrust you with the route of this track."

Juzi responded quickly.

Yingzheng turned around to leave, and when he finished, he looked back at Juzi: "By the way, since this mine cart that is about to be put into use has been changed to carry people, it is not appropriate to call it a mine cart, let's change it to a train. "

Juzi was stunned, seeing Ying Zheng turned and left, he raised his foot to see him off before he had time to think.

……

Relying on his good memory, Ying Zheng marked all the places Lin Qian would go to next on the map.So when Juzi came to the door, what he received was a road map with only the location.

Seeing Juzi's doubts, Ying Zheng said calmly: "Since I don't know the conditions required for the laying of this track, I won't give any pointers. You just need to ensure that the track can pass or pass near these cities."

Juzi suddenly felt moved: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will definitely complete the task successfully."

But after leaving Xianyang Palace, Juzi suddenly realized——

Why do these places look familiar?

At first, when Yingzheng proposed to build such a railway in the court, he was almost opposed by civil and military officials, but after Yingzheng personally took people to the Mojia workshop to see the speed of the train, a small half of them fell down. To Ying Zheng.

After looking at the map again, I found that the places where the railway might pass were some not-so-famous cities. After these cities had never built concrete roads, most of the courtiers defected.

The remaining ministers still feel that building trains is a waste of money, time-consuming and labor-intensive, and is of little use.

Even Ying Zheng couldn't convince them.

If it was just some humble officials, Ying Zheng would probably not care about their thoughts, but this small group of people not only included Li Si Wang Wan, but also Feng Quji, Zhang Liang and others.

The two prime ministers and many ministers couldn't tolerate Ying Zheng's indifference.

Among them, especially Li Si, who knew where Lin Qian would go this time, opposed the most fiercely.

[Although some of these places are not where Gu Fenghou went, most of them are places where Gu Fenghou will build water conservancy projects! 】

[I'm blind again, how could I not notice it? 】

[Although I sympathize with Your Majesty for not being able to see Marquis Gu Feng for several months, it is not enough to use the money from the treasury to build a useless railway. How is this different from building a large-scale construction project just to make a beautiful woman laugh?Even if Marquis Gu Feng is still in Xianyang, he would refuse if he thinks about it. 】

Ying Zheng looked at Li Si with serious eyes, his heart skipped a beat, filled with endless anger.

He is not a fool, how could he spend countless money to build a railway just to meet Lin Qian?He would be willing to build the railway, naturally because the railway is profitable and beneficial to the country and the people!

But Li Si just said that he opposed it, but he only murmured the reasons for his objection in his heart, and he couldn't say a word. It made people want to refute and had nowhere to say, which was really depressing.

He was thinking about how to speak, but he didn't want a completely unexpected figure to stand up at this moment.

After Huaiqing, the widow of Ba, knew the route of the railway and that Linqian would build water conservancy projects in most of the locations, she immediately became excited.

The same is true of other big businessmen who have gained the opportunity to go to court.

Therefore, they were also the first to turn to Yingzheng.

But it may be because they were too low-key in the past, they kept silent every time they needed to express their own accidents, and they would only mindlessly stand on His Majesty's side when they needed to vote, so this time it is necessary to build such a When they were on the railway, after discovering that they were also on Ying Zheng's side for the first time, everyone ignored them.

No one even took their opinions into their hearts, and only regarded their words as deaf ears.

Even Ying Zheng is the same.

But Ba widow Huaiqing stood up: "Caomin thinks that this railway can be repaired, and it must be repaired. Even if this railway is going to cost a lot of money to build, please believe Caomin, this railway will be built well." In the end, the benefits you get are definitely dozens or even hundreds of times what you paid for.”

Ying Zheng turned to look at Huai Qing: "Tell me your reason."

Li Si and the others froze for a moment, then turned their heads to look.

Being watched by so many ministers, Huaiqing was unavoidably nervous, but fortunately she had gone through the storm, so she quickly calmed down: "Because the speed of this railway is twice as fast as that of a horse-drawn carriage, and also because Marquis Gu Feng is here. Construct water conservancy projects near many cities along the railway."

"You don't do business, so you may not know how important time is to us businessmen. When many businessmen present are traveling north and south to do business, they will often find a very good and obvious one in a certain place. Things that make money, but because they will spend too much time on the road, they can only watch the good business slip away from their own hands."

"And most of these things are food."

"It's not that the people in many places can't live well. They have crafts, the ability to make money and recipes, but often they can only live in poverty because they can't sell their things to other places."

"If this railway is repaired, at least the city that this railway passes through and the people near the city will have another way out."

"Moreover, after Gu Fenghou built the water conservancy projects in various places, the food production of the people in these cities and the people nearby will inevitably increase. People have a surplus of food, so they are willing to spend money to buy things that they didn't use before. The more people there are, the more merchants are willing to go; the more merchants, the more popular the place will be, and gradually the richer it will be.”

Huaiqing took a careful look at Yingzheng, and said, "The appearance of this railway will speed up this process. Maybe in a few years, these places will become as prosperous as Chengdu, where Dujiangyan is located, and Guanzhong, where Zheng Guoqu is located?"

Dujiangyan and Zhengguo Canal are the two major water conservancy projects of the Qin State, while the Chengdu Plain and Guanzhong are the two major granaries of the Qin State. Without Dujiangyan and the Zhengguo Canal, Qin State might not be able to rule the world.

Li Si and the others were stunned, and couldn't help but fell into deep thought.

They considered the possibility of building this railway from various aspects, and all they got were negative answers, but they never thought that they could also consider the rationality of this railway from an economic point of view.

Li Si couldn't help looking at Ying Zheng: "Your Majesty, do you think so too?"

Ying Zheng glanced at Li Si and snorted coldly, "Otherwise?"

How fast the Chengdu Plain and Guanzhong have developed after Dujiangyan and Zhengguoqu, doesn't he, the King of Qin, know?

On the business side...

Ying Zheng looked at Widow Ba Huaiqing and frowned.

If the repair of the railway increases the scope of businessmen's mobility, I'm afraid it will be bad.

So in the end, a strange situation appeared: Li Si and others agreed to build the railway, but it was Ying Zheng who wavered in his original idea after Huaiqing spoke.

However, preparations for the construction of the railway are still being done——

Even if the plan to build the railway is aborted, it will be built in other places sooner or later, and there will be no mistakes in preparing the materials for the construction of the railway.

……

After returning to the palace, Ying Zheng wrote a letter to Lin Qian, telling her about the matter and his concerns.

After Lin Qian received the letter, she couldn't help but write in the letter——

"Now that the world has been settled, there are actually not many battles to be fought except at the border. In fact, there is no need for the imperial court to collect too much grain from the farmers."

"Farmers guard the one-third of an acre of land and dig food in the soil. They really can't earn much money all year round. On the contrary, after the world is peaceful, the threat of corvee service and military service in the Qin law has been greatly reduced. In order to curb the proliferation of merchants, In fact, it is better to increase the tax rate for businessmen.”

"And separate the big businessmen from the small ones."

"Big businessmen may have a bad impact on the stability of the country. The monopoly they are good at can make more money for themselves, but it does not benefit the country itself. But middle-level businessmen and ordinary small traders are one country It is an essential component, the former plays a very important role in economic prosperity and market circulation, and the latter is closely related to the lives of ordinary people.”

"and also……"

Lin Qian was worried that her suggestion was not rigorous enough, so she deliberately handed over the letter to the modern host for revision by his experts.

So what Yingzheng got was a very rigorous and extremely feasible letter.

Although, Ying Zheng was a little disappointed.

He sighed, and was about to put away the letter when he realized that there was another envelope inside the envelope. He took it out and opened it. Looking at the daily trivial things recorded on it, Ying Zheng had a smile on his face. .

==·acting·==

Soon, Yingzheng recruited Li Si and others.

After telling them the suggestions made by Lin Qian and those modern experts, he asked them for their opinions.

It's not that Lin Qian and the others don't believe it, it's just that the change of the law always needs the consent of the important ministers in the court.

Furthermore, no matter how good the opinion is, it must be in line with the current situation.

After reading the law, Li Si nodded without hesitation: "The idea of ​​reducing farmers' taxes and increasing businessmen's taxes, especially big businessmen's taxes, I think is quite good. And the idea of ​​stepped taxation is also quite admirable. Strictly follow this method to collect taxes, and the chances of big merchants appearing in the future should be greatly reduced."

Except for Li Si, no one else had any objections.

Upon seeing this, Ying Zheng immediately decided to implement the step-wise tax collection mentioned in Lin Qian's letter.

Ba widow Huaiqing soon learned about the court's tax reform, which changed the tax requirement that all businessmen, regardless of size, be treated equally, into a tax regulation that the more money you make, the more taxes you pay.

To be honest, she wasn't surprised.

After all, Qin used to suppress businessmen, especially big businessmen, with confidence and blatantly, and never concealed it. It is really not surprising that it is now increasing tax collection on big businessmen.

Even Huaiqing was quite happy after knowing this.

After her children and grandchildren heard the news, they were so anxious that they almost went crazy. They didn't see anyone from morning to night all day long, and they all went to find someone to intercede.

but……

Under the strict laws of Qin State, officials dare not collect things indiscriminately.

Therefore, every time Huaiqing's descendants go out, they can only return disappointed.

But at this moment, they found that Huaiqing was not in a hurry but was full of joy, and everyone was confused about this, and they didn't know the reason at all.

Huaiqing smiled and said, "Why worry? It's a good thing for us to be uncertain."

Huaiqing's children and grandchildren are all dumbfounded——

They will pay more than half of their hard-earned money to the court in the future, how can this be considered a good thing?Grandmother/mother is probably confused, right?

Huaiqing explained with a smile: "It's better to suppress big businessmen by increasing the tax rate than covertly blocking big businessmen from doing business. At least when you do business abroad in the future, you can go to the local government office if you encounter any problems. "

It is true that they did not pay as much tax in the past as they do now, but at that time they not only had to run the risk of being robbed on the road when they were doing business, but if something happened to them while doing business in the city, the government office was not willing to help.

If it's true what my grandmother/mother said...

Huaiqing smiled and pointed out: "Remember to pay attention to the railway built by the imperial court. Once the railway is opened, you will immediately bring your goods to the city where the train passes to buy shops and do business."

How could Huaiqing not have any bad emotions after paying a few percent more tax?

But compared to the business that is about to appear, the extra tax of several percent is really nothing.

Now that the tax has been changed, should the railway be built?

As Huaiqing expected, after changing the taxation standard for businessmen, Yingzheng directly ordered the construction of the railway.

The Mohist Juzi led people to the outskirts of Xianyang City to build a railway station, and then led all the Mohist disciples who were free to build a section of the railway, and then ordered other disciples to go to the cities to survey the local terrain, and then handed over to the Mohist Juzi gathered together to finalize the train route, and then the Mohist disciples led the prisoners to build the railway section by section.

It is not so easy to lay a railway under the current conditions.

Even if the Mohist giant has hundreds of thousands of manpower at his disposal——

Prisoners who need to be reformed through labor for violating the Qin law.

There are also a lot of technicians——

All the Mohists who participated in the train transformation.

There is no need to even consider the cost of building this railway-

The imperial court fully supported it, and the treasury paid for it.

Even so, it would take a year or two to build such a railway.

……

Before the railway was built, Seventh Princess and others were sent to the border city by Ying Zheng.

The seventh princess was sent to Jiuyuan County.

Along with her, there are two princes and a princess.

If you carefully calculate your age, you will know that the Seventh Princess and her group of princesses are already the last batch of heirs who need to be assessed——

In view of the fact that none of the princesses and sons who participated in the assessment were qualified, and after returning, the father who had no affection for them became even more displeased, so many people who thought they were not good enough in ability, learning and character all gave up participating in the assessment.

And as the last batch of princesses and princes to participate in the assessment, the attention they received...

Almost zero.

It's not that Yingzheng's secrecy measures are good, and it's not that no one cares about Daqin's heir. They lost much confidence.

No one thought at all that any of them would pass the test.

but……

After three months passed, although most of the princesses and sons who were sent for assessment were still sent back due to various reasons, there were still two princesses and one son who persisted. At that time, he was sent back to Xianyang.

One of the princesses even succeeded in being promoted from a small official to an official official position.

But before the news could reach Xianyang, the only son who persisted and the much-anticipated Seventh Princess who had been running errands with Lin Qian for a while were sent back to Xianyang because their identities were exposed.

The only reason why his son's identity was exposed was because he was implicated by the Seventh Princess.

And the Seventh Princess will be exposed because...

Met her classmates when she was studying in Xianyang.

Whether it was when Seventh Princess was studying in Xianyang's school, or when she went to Jiuyuan County to take part in the assessment, Ying Zheng arranged for her to be a poor girl in Xianyang.

But from Xianyang to Jiuyuan County, she always wore silk fabrics.

As early as in Xianyang, her identity was exposed.

When I went to Jiuyuan County, many people actually doubted her identity, but because there had been a situation in Jiuyuan County where the princess and son came to the assessment before, many people did not say anything even if they guessed it, and even provided her with a lot of money. less help.

It's a pity that a classmate from Xianyang broke her identity.

And because the other son got close to the seventh princess, he was naturally suspected, and his identity was revealed.

The other princess was spared because she was not in Jiuyuan County.

So far, there is only one single seedling left among these princesses who are still persisting.

But no one knows how long this princess can last.

It was a long time after the incident that Lin Qian learned about it from Ying Zheng's letter.

And arriving with this letter, there is also a Seventh Princess who has lost all energy.

The Seventh Princess has always been a little too lively, but the Seventh Princess who appeared in front of Lin Qian had a gray complexion and dull eyes, like a person who has lost her dreams and goals and is confused.

After getting along for several years, it is impossible for Lin Qian to be indifferent to such a seventh princess.

but……

What to say?

Some people may think that she is an afterthought, but the fact is that when the seventh princess was running errands beside Lin Qian, she had already guessed the ending.

Because Princess Seven is a princess who really grew up in a greenhouse.

Her mother is still alive, with a mild temper and regards the seventh princess as the only one, and she will rely on her for the rest of her life. When all the concubines remarried after the children grew up, the mother of the seventh princess did not show the slightest intention, but still wholeheartedly. Take care of my daughter.

The seventh princess is a little naive and ignorant of the world.

But this kind of personality is okay if it is pampered. If it becomes the heir or even the emperor, it will be a disaster for a country.

Lin Qian thought about mentioning the Seventh Princess, but her suggestion didn't help much.

It belongs to the kind of situation that can be managed for a while, but not for a lifetime.

and so……

Lin Qian sighed for a long time, and after speaking with the local officials, he took Princess Seven back to his residence.

When ordering someone to tidy up her resting room, Lin Qian pulled Princess Seven and prepared to release her.

however……

Seventh Princess turned her back directly to her, as if she did not intend to communicate with Lin Qian.

Lin Qian frowned subconsciously: "The seventh princess..."

As soon as she opened her mouth, Seventh Princess jumped up and was about to go to the next room.

"Can't you hear me talking to you?" Lin Qian looked at Seventh Princess and sensed her resistance to him, but she was completely confused about it.

The two just met, but she didn't do anything!

Seventh Princess paused, but never looked back.

Lin Qian was a little impatient, so she simply walked up to the Seventh Princess, wanting to ask the reason.

But I don't want to, the seventh princess's face is covered with tears.

Lin Qian was stunned: "You..."

"I just can't figure it out," Princess Seven said with a choked voice, "Ma'am, why did you let me go to school first? If I didn't go, I might not be called out at all."

Lin Qian was stunned in place, and it took a long time before she said: "Do you think that I let you go to school is the reason why you were called out?"

The Seventh Princess wept silently and did not answer Lin Qian's question.

Lin Qian waited for a while, then stood up resolutely: "If you feel unhappy seeing me, the soldier who delivered the letter should have not left yet, you can go back with me tomorrow."

Seventh Princess suddenly raised her head: "I didn't!"

Lin Qian turned her head and found that her eyes were astonishingly bright, exactly the same as before they parted.

She lowered her face: "Are you acting with me?"