Chapter 0045: Yi Province in Distress, Common Folk Rallying from All Directions
The so-called checkpoint tax refers to the toll merchants pay when passing through official road checkpoints while conducting business in other regions. Each time they cross a prefectural checkpoint, they must pay one checkpoint tax.
As for the commercial tax, it is a proportional levy on the profits merchants earn from selling goods, typically collected by relevant officials in the government office through regular audits. The more profit a merchant makes, the higher the tax they pay.
These two taxes should not be underestimated. Anyone involved in commerce knows that the percentage of checkpoint and commercial taxes depends entirely on the mood of the officials in charge. With bad luck or deliberate targeting, one might face bankruptcy even before entering the city. However, with a government pass personally stamped by the prefect as backing, not just in Yi Province but even in other prefectures, people would show you respect upon seeing this pass.
Because they would assume you have “influential backing”!
If selling grain during a famine is speculative profiteering, then a tax-reduction government pass is a merchant’s license to operate freely everywhere—practically priceless and impossible to find on the market!
Even if Liang Wan Da were to fall from power someday, this government pass represents the credential of Yi Province’s government office and never expires!
The merchant bosses exchanged glances, each seeing desire and competition in the others’ eyes.
“What are you all hesitating for?” Seeing them still calculating gains and losses, Liang Wan Da reminded them indifferently, “What you’ve brought must be old stored grain, right? Here in Yi Province, summers bring nothing if not abundant rainfall. We just had a flash flood recently, and who knows if a third one might come.”
“If your old stored grain ends up rotting in the shops, don’t say I didn’t warn you~” Liang Wan Da shook his head and sighed.
The merchant bosses: …
This Lord Liang truly hits the nail on the head.
They had indeed brought old stored grain, aiming to quickly offload these aging goods in famine-stricken areas. Clearing inventory while making huge profits—only fools wouldn’t take such an opportunity!
After brief consideration, the merchants quoted their acceptable prices, but Liang Wan Da remained unsatisfied. “It seems you gentlemen still lack sincerity. Originally, I thought the better your rice and the lower your price, the greater the tax reduction and the longer its duration would be in this government pass…”
“Oh, and this pass isn’t personalized. If any of you go bankrupt someday, you might even resell it at a high price… Not that I’m cursing you to bankruptcy, but when unforeseen storms arise, this serves as an insurance policy…” Liang Wan Da said casually. “Miss this chance, and it’s gone forever—”
The merchant bosses: …
Enough! You’ve said enough!
This Lord Liang, don’t abuse your power just because you have some authority! It’s a damn shame you didn’t go into business!!!
Gritting their teeth, the merchant bosses had no choice but to lower their grain prices again, especially the northern merchants. Their journey here hadn’t been easy, and if they could obtain this tax-reduction government pass, even if they failed to establish trade routes between north and south, they could still sell it to wealthy southern merchants—earning far more than by selling old grain.
In the end, Liang Wan Da purchased all the grain along with grain carts and horses at prices only slightly above market rates.
As promised, he retrieved the official seal and wrote a tax reduction permit for the merchants, specifying the extent and duration of the tax relief before stamping it with the government seal.
After the transaction concluded, the merchants finally asked, “Lord Liang, what is this major project about to commence in Yi Province?”
Liang Wan Da smiled faintly, “Over the next few years, all manpower in Yi Province will be dedicated to excavating through Yu Ji Mountain and digging numerous channels for the Min River. This will ensure our people have precisely regulated river water for irrigating fertile fields throughout all four seasons.”
The merchants: !!!
Good heavens, this truly is a monumental project!
During their journey, they had gained some understanding of Yi Province’s circumstances. Particularly since the Emperor had issued an Open-book Examination to scholars nationwide concerning Yi Province’s long-standing flood control challenges, it was clear this opportunity was intended to thoroughly resolve the water management issues here.
What they hadn’t anticipated was that His Majesty actually planned to devote years to manually excavating artificial river channels—
Many merchants immediately detected countless business opportunities, while the quicker-witted southern merchants recognized the deeper implications.
Once these channels were completed, Yi Province would inevitably become an extremely prosperous region. Therefore, establishing businesses here earlier would grant greater advantage in capturing future market share, potentially making them leading magnates in Yi Province and throughout the southern region.
The permits they now held would become even more precious and rare commodities!
Merchants who grasped this concept immediately cherished the permits stored in their chests more dearly, feeling they had made an exceptionally valuable deal.
“Who would have thought His Majesty possessed such vision! We are truly impressed!” another merchant exclaimed in admiration. “But this must require millions of taels of silver, no? Does this mean the imperial treasury remains quite substantial?”
Liang Wan Da, standing nearby, chuckled, “Where would the court obtain such funds?”
“Oh?” The merchants grew puzzled. “What do you mean by that?”
Could it be that the silver notes he had produced earlier weren’t disaster relief funds from the court? Indeed, court-issued relief funds typically came as official silver, not silver notes—and certainly not silver notes from different regions…
“If you gentlemen are truly curious,” Liang Wan Da said mysteriously, “you may stay a few more days. Once I finish inventorying the grain carts and open the city gates, you’ll understand where these funds originated from.”
The merchants exchanged glances, their curiosity growing stronger.
Three days later.
During these three days, the government office had been counting grain carts and transporting rice into the city to address the refugees’ hunger. Meanwhile, people within the city actively spread the word, to the extent that even toddlers who had just learned to speak could utter the words “excavate mountains.”
However, mountain excavation being physically demanding work, the Yamen Runners prioritized organizing strong men, recording their names and places of origin in registration ledgers for future reference.
When everything was ready, the city gates finally opened.
Yamen Runners maintaining order waved and shouted, “People from Danyang County, Dongyang County, Longyang County… come forward first to receive disaster relief grain. After properly settling your families, pack your belongings and assemble at the city gate, preparing to depart for Yu Ji Mountain.”
Villagers from the eastern counties queued obediently but excitedly gazed beyond the city walls. When they saw the endless line of grain carts, expressions of relief washed over their faces.
Excellent, they’ve truly waited for the relief grain!
Everyone is saved!
The merchants stood aside, watching this scene while silently pondering Liang Wanda’s words from three days ago.
Where exactly did the money to buy the grain come from?
As the first villager stepped forward to receive a grain bag from the cart, they suddenly saw a tall, burly government soldier step onto a high stone, holding up a document and shouting in a clear, resonant voice:
“For a drop of water’s kindness, one should repay with a bubbling spring. When Yi Province faces difficulties, aid comes from all directions. To help the people of Yi Province overcome this disaster, the residents of Zhuolu County in Jizhou have collectively donated over 250,000 taels of silver; the people of Cangfu County have donated over 200,000 taels; the residents of Shangqing County in Yuzhou have donated 103,000 taels; the people of Ning’an County have donated over 80,000 taels; the residents of Xinyuan County in Jinzhou have donated 137,000 taels…”
The staggering numbers echoed in the merchants’ ears, overwhelming their minds, and left the people of Yi Province wide-eyed and stunned in place.
None of them had expected that for this flash flood disaster in Yi Province, so many residents from distant counties would willingly donate such vast sums of silver to help them through this crisis!
Hundreds of thousands of taels—what that meant, they as common people understood all too well. It was almost their entire wealth!
But… surviving itself must have been difficult enough for them!
The people of Yi Province were all red-eyed and tearful. Some, after receiving their rice, knelt and kowtowed to the government soldier reading the donation list, firmly committing these county names to memory.
Just as this official said: for a drop of water’s kindness, one should repay with a bubbling spring!
If other regions face difficulties in the future, the people of Yi Province would surely spare no effort to help!
…
On the city wall, Shen Yuan watched the scenes below, his eyes also reddening, his heart filled with complex emotions.
He couldn’t help but glance sideways at Xie Chengze, who was leaning against the wall with his chin propped up, leisurely enjoying the midday breeze.
He had never imagined that Xie Chengze would use the silver notes here, nor that he would attribute the embezzled funds seized from corrupt officials as donations from the people, tightly connecting the residents of Yi Province with those from other provinces.
If Yi Province could truly become the Land of Abundance in the future, it would undoubtedly reciprocate and support these counties without hesitation. Over time, the entire Jian’an Dynasty might develop this cohesion of “when one place is in trouble, aid comes from all sides,” overcoming difficulties together.
By then, the imperial treasury would also face less pressure.
This was a path even the Crown Prince had never envisioned. Shen Yuan couldn’t fathom what kind of compassionate heart and mind a person must possess to conceive such a shocking solution.
Xie Chengze… what have you experienced in the time I didn’t know you, to become such a person?
Shen Yuan couldn’t see through whether the person before him was truly Xie Chengze. He seemed like Xie Chengze, yet not like him. His actions were entirely different from that “Xie Chengze,” yet he knew the events of the previous life as if he had lived through them himself.
What made Shen Yuan most uneasy and bewildered was that he even felt that this Xie Chengze… made him more willing to follow and pledge loyalty to than the Crown Prince.
“Second Prince.” Clinging to this absurd thought he dared not examine too closely, Shen Yuan remained completely unaware of how tightly his palms were clenched from tension. He gazed deeply at this longtime political rival he had contended with for ten years and asked:
“When one place is in trouble, aid comes from all directions—is this your way of governing the country?”
If this truly was his approach to governance, then perhaps he couldn’t…
Xie Chengze looked up at the sound, giving him a puzzled glance.
“What are you thinking? The premise of ‘when one place is in trouble, aid comes from all directions’ is that every bit of charitable silver donated by common people here can reach the pockets of common people elsewhere without any deduction. But do you really think that’s possible?”
Even modern societies with advanced information networks couldn’t achieve this. How could county magistrates and prefects possibly miss such golden opportunities for embezzlement?
Since when had Shen Yuan become so naive? Could it be that he wasn’t reborn? Was he perhaps some ancient soul that had transmigrated???
Xie Chengze’s suspicious and distrustful eyes repeatedly scanned and assessed Shen Yuan, beginning to doubt whether his initial judgment had been mistaken.
The questioned Shen Yuan: …
Shen Yuan once again wanted to strangle his earlier self.
How could he have thought that Xie Chengze actually possessed that kind of intelligence? He must be sick himself to have almost been led astray by him!!!