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Text Chapter 342 Shanghai Reform

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    There is still a hint of mist in Shanghai City in the early morning, and the sun on the sea has just revealed its bald head. However, the streets of Shanghai City are already crowded with pedestrians. Workers at work and businessmen talking about business are constantly coming and going, and people are eating nearby.  The stalls shouted hard, trying to seize this golden time to attract more customers.

    "Everyone please be honest with me. Anyone who dares to resist will be killed!"

    Suddenly there was a commotion in the street, and pedestrians on the road hid on both sides. Then a group of guards from Prince Wu's Mansion came from the street, and behind these guards were a row of men with bruised noses and swollen faces. Most of these people looked fierce, even if  Even when he was caught, his face was full of dissatisfaction. One look at him showed that he was usually a domineering person.

    Seeing these arrested men, the pedestrians on both sides of the road were all excited, and many people even cheered loudly, calling His Highness the King of Wu wise and so on.

    The main reason why pedestrians had such a big reaction was that the people who were arrested were all scoundrels in Shanghai City. These people usually bully men and women and do all kinds of evil. They have made Shanghai a mess, and there are even many businessmen who can't stand them.  Due to the oppression, he had to reluctantly leave Shanghai.

    It can be said that these gangsters have become the biggest social problem in Shanghai. If they are allowed to continue, they are likely to have a huge impact on the development of Shanghai city.  Previously, Li Ke was focused on the construction of various projects in Shanghai and did not notice this social problem at all. It was not until he and Li Min met the Sun family by chance that the tip of the iceberg was revealed.

    At that time, facing the Shanghai people in the restaurant, Li Ke made a promise.  That is to give Shanghai a clear sky and prevent gangsters from extorting good people from happening again.  But this is easier said than done.  But when it comes time to do it, it is very troublesome. After all, it is useless to just catch some rogues. The most important thing is to have a complete set of rules and regulations. Otherwise, if you catch the hero today, he may appear again tomorrow.  Here comes a dog man.

    Although Li Min has a reputation as a hero, his experience as a leader is not very good.  For example, as the governor of Suzhou, he has been staying in Chang'an. All matters in Suzhou are left to other people, and he has never taken care of them.  In contrast, although Li Min was lazy, he at least managed Dengzhou in an orderly manner, and even developed an inconspicuous Dengzhou into a big city second only to Chang'an and Luoyang.  It was precisely because of this that Li Ke asked Li Min for help.

    Shanghai is a key part of Li Min's plan, so whether Li Ke asks for his help or not, he has to take care of things here. So after returning to Li Ke's Prince Wu's Mansion, the two immediately summoned the advisers from Prince Wu's Mansion.  Together.  A complete reform plan was quickly put forward.

    Shanghai City is a new city, and the administrative agencies in the city are all temporarily constructed. In addition, this is within Huating County. Li Ke was also somewhat impressed by Magistrate Xie of Huating County, so he asked Magistrate Xie to manage the county.  The government moved to Shanghai.  In charge of the civil affairs of a party, although this magistrate Xie is a talented person.  However, he was also urged by Li Ke to manage project construction matters and was inseparable from civil affairs. This led to a situation where gangsters were rampant in Shanghai. Even the officials in the yamen occasionally committed illegal acts.

    Although the circumstances were excusable, magistrate Xie was responsible for public security after all, so he had nothing to do with it. As a result, he was scolded by Li Ke, and then magistrate Xie was asked to push Li Min to do it.  reform plan.  Magistrate Xie also had the intention of making meritorious deeds, so he was very cooperative from the beginning.

    The first thing to do in the reform is to create a movement in the city, and this movement is to mobilize people to identify the rogues all over Shanghai City, and then go out with the Royal Guards to kill them all, no matter what is behind these rogues.  Such a background, even if it is related to Prince Wu's Mansion, is not enough, so the situation this morning occurred.

    For Li Ke¡¯s move, the people in the city were extremely supportive. Almost everyone was shouting that King Wu was wise and solved a major disaster in the city.  As a result, Li Ke's prestige in the city immediately rose like a rocket, but Li Min was a little dissatisfied with this. He was obviously involved in this matter. Unfortunately, except for a few people such as the Sun family and his wife, no one else knew about it. The result was good.  Li Ke got it all.

    Taking advantage of the huge reputation that had skyrocketed in a short period of time, Li Min immediately officially launched this reform plan in the name of Li Ke. First, all the government officials in the city were reorganized and assessed by the court. The assessment included abilities, moral character, physical strength, etc.  On the other hand, anyone who fails the assessment will be dismissed. Even those who have committed crimes in the past will be punished according to law.  As a result, although there were many fewer government officials in the city, the atmosphere was greatly improved.

    Next, Prince Wu's Mansion came forward again and recruited thousands of good people as yamen servants. These yamen servants were merged with the original yamen servants. After simple training, they immediately began to patrol various parts of the city. At the same time, Li Ke and  Li Min also called all the merchants in the city together. After several days of discussion,After the trial, the plan to charge "security fees" was finally finalized.

    Speaking of taxation in the Tang Dynasty, this was a big issue. In the early Tang Dynasty, rent was mainly based on the mediocre tax system. One man and one wife were the unit, and each ding sent 2 shi of millet to the country as rent every year; 2 Zhang of silk and 3 liang of cotton  (or 2 feet and 4 feet of cloth and 3 kilograms of linen) is called a tune; those who serve for 20 days are called regular servants, and those who do not serve are called 3 feet of silk (or 3.6 feet of cloth) every day, which is called mediocrity.

    Any individual can see the problem with this kind of tax, because this kind of tax does not care about your annual income or occupation. It is all based on this standard. For the imperial court, unless the country's population increases significantly,  , otherwise the annual income will not fluctuate much.

    Of course, this tax system also has a good side. For example, in the early Tang Dynasty, when there were fewer people and more land, renting mediocre taxes was undoubtedly a light tax, which made the people's burden very light and increased the people's ability to reclaim wasteland.  enthusiasm.  Originally, if there had been no variable like Li Min, this tax system could have lasted for more than a hundred years. It was not until the mid-Tang Dynasty that the population increased and many people could not get land. This led to the collapse of the rent-sharing system and the rise of the two-tax system.  .

    ??????????????????????? However, with the arrival of Li Min, the business of the Tang Dynasty was extremely prosperous, and the wealth of the people increased rapidly. If taxes were only collected according to the mediocre method of renting, then the government's finances would not grow at all.  However, as the saying goes, it changes according to the situation. Many varieties of commercial taxes have appeared in many places. For example, when goods pass through checkpoints, they have to pay a certain fee. Merchants who want to avoid trouble in their stores will also give certain taxes to local officials.  Money, in addition to being divided privately by these officials, will also be turned over to the national treasury. This is also a disguised form of tax collection, and has even become an unspoken rule across the country.  It's a pity that this kind of disguised tax collection is very irregular, and the amount of money paid by merchants depends entirely on the wishes of local officials.

    The security fee that Li Ke and Li Min set up in Shanghai is actually to formalize the previously informal business tax. As long as they are merchants in Shanghai, they need to pay 3% of their income every month. This  It is the security fee, and the merchants who have paid the security fee do not have to pay any more fees to anyone. There will be county government officials patrolling the streets every day. You can ask them for help no matter what kind of thing. If these government officials dare to  Regardless, merchants can directly complain to the Complaints Department set up by the Royal Palace. Once verified, the government officials involved will be miserable, ranging from being slapped with a slap on the wrist to being imprisoned at worst.

    Regarding this new security fee, merchants in Shanghai had some doubts at first. It was not that they thought the money was too much. Compared with the money extorted every month, three percent of the income was not much at all. Even  It's less than half, so the security fee isn't much, but the merchants are a little worried, fearing that the Yamen will take the money away without doing anything practical, and they will have to pay whatever they want next.

    Fortunately, the royal guards went around arresting scoundrels, which gave Li Min a huge reputation in Shanghai. Therefore, although these merchants had doubts, they still had some confidence in His Highness King Wu. In addition, Li Min had also come forward with his  His huge reputation in the business community finally dispelled many people's doubts, and the plan to collect security fees was finally passed.

    After a large number of arrests of gangsters, coupled with the newly recruited government officials patrolling everywhere, each area has a fixed government officials in charge, which makes the public security atmosphere in Shanghai city clean up, and the few gangsters who slipped through the net are not allowed to be arrested.  Dare to extort merchants again? After all, the county government has issued regulations. Anyone who dares to extort money from merchants will be arrested and worked as a coolie for at least one year.  Instead, he was directly exiled to a plantation in Taiwan. He first worked hard with the slaves for three years. After that, he could not come back and had to stay in Taiwan for the rest of his life.

    Security fees should be regarded as a type of tax, which is mainly a tax collected from fixed merchants. As for another type of over-tax, Li Min and Li Ke have also made some reforms. Shanghai is a port city, and over-tax is mainly due to the port.  In fact, this kind of tax is already very complete. There are fixed taxes for various ships, so the two people have not changed much.

    In addition, with the development of Shanghai, goods from all over the land are converging to Shanghai, so land taxation has become more and more important. Li Min and his two mainly focus on reforming this kind of taxation.  In fact, it is very simple. The main thing is to charge different tax rates according to different types of goods. For example, the tax rates for silk and grain are completely different. Although this tax collection method seems very simple to Li Min, it was undoubtedly the most common tax method in ancient China.  This is a huge reform, because for a long time, taxes in China were even levied based on the volume of goods.

    After carrying out this series of reforms in Shanghai, Li Ke finally dared to bring Empress Xiao and Concubine Yang to Shanghai. After all, he had devoted too much effort in this city. As a junior, he was  Naturally, I want to show off to my elders when I achieve something.
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