The world of rebirth

Tianshou’s 24-year southern tour is Wen Zhen’s second trip to the south since he ascended the throne for so many years. After more than half a year of planning, the itinerary has already been arranged. The group of them will first walk along the Grand Canal by water until the trading port that was just built last year. ——Shanghai, and inspected the navy there, then took a sea boat to Ningbo Port, Fujian, and then returned to the capital by land along the official road that was repaired earlier this year.

Although Ning Yunjin has not shown up in the court these few years, as long as he can influence Wen Zhen, he can do as much as when he was in the court.The first series of measures he promoted after hiding behind the scenes were to increase foreign trade, reform tariffs and commercial taxes.

After Wen Zhen ascended the throne, there have been some reforms to the tax system, but most of the tax system of this dynasty follows the previous one. In the early years, the country had just recovered its vitality, and commercial activities were not prosperous. The proportion of commercial tax in the national fiscal revenue It was not much, and what Wenzhen did at that time was to make it strict and standardized, so as not to allow each customs to set tax rates indiscriminately and fill their own pockets.

However, the appearance of the textile machine made by Ning Yunjin has greatly promoted the development of the textile industry in the south of the Yangtze River. The germs of capitalism that had been suppressed in the previous dynasty have quietly emerged. The huge benefits have caused some landless farmers to turn to Worker.

In fact, only a small part of the handmade high-quality goods produced by these cloths were sold domestically, while most of the cloth made by machines were dumped to neighboring small countries and foreign businessmen who heard the news.The huge trading volume of the four major ports every year made Wen Zhen envious, but with the tax system of this dynasty, the treasury could not receive any money at all. More than 14 million taels a year, also let Wenzhen see the huge benefits.

Since Ning Yunjin got to know Wenzhen, he has been trying to instill in him a concept that if the country wants to develop commerce and agriculture, it must develop in tandem. The agricultural tax should be reduced, and the commercial tax should be increased. Make a metaphor.

Wen Zhen was not a person who sticks to the rules, such a subtle influence, coupled with the iron-like facts, made him gradually agree with this concept.So when Ning Yunjin came up with a detailed tax reform plan, he didn't think much about it, and immediately summoned the cabinet to finalize the detailed rules.

In the 21st year of Tianshou, Wen Zhen has been busy with this matter since he returned to Beijing from Rehe.The tax system that Ning Yunjin came up with is a collection of the thinking of later generations. Unlike the current customs tax, which does not distinguish between imports and exports, has less regular taxes, and more miscellaneous taxes that fall into the pockets of officials, it can ensure that tax money can be received by the national treasury to the greatest extent. , and then use the additional levied consumption silver as the honesty silver to subsidize the customs agency.

When the new tax system was officially implemented the following year under the strong promotion of Wen Zhen, the treasury received more income than the previous year in just half a year.This immediate reform made Wen Zhen overjoyed. He is not a blunt person. From the matter of spending money to subsidize and maintain integrity, he has seen the way to combat corruption and government officials. The confidant handed over the brochure for returning to the public.

The person who handed the booklet was from the Ministry of Finance, with a very upright and lonely personality. He was only a doctor in his 30s, not a particularly eye-catching person, but as soon as the booklet came out, he became famous all over the world.

Ning Yunjin doesn't envy him at all for his beauty. If you want him to say something from his heart, he doesn't think the method of "returning fire consumption to the public and high salary to support honesty" really can't be seen by people with a discerning eye, but whoever proposes it must do it well To prepare to be an enemy of the world's officials, he dragged his family along, and he really didn't have that interest in being that early bird.

With money in the treasury, Ning Yunjin began to encourage Wen Zhen to start building roads.He remembered a very famous slogan in later generations - build roads first if you want to get rich.If you spread out a copy of Daxia's latest map, you can clearly see that the official road he plans to repair is almost built along the Beijing-Guangzhou line of later generations, and it is a main road running from north to south.

Since two years ago, construction started in various places. As of this year, the Beijing-Guangzhou line has now taken shape. The road from Beijing to Hebei and Henan was originally good, so it was the first batch to be completed. It is said that the new road is very smooth, and the horse-drawn carriage runs It doesn't feel bumpy on top.

Wenzhen is the emperor, not a living Lei Feng, who has worked hard to govern the country well. It would be a pity if he couldn't take a look at it with his own eyes!He moved his mind to go south this time, firstly because he wanted to experience this road for himself, and secondly because he wanted to experience the new trading port opened by the imperial court with huge sums of money.

In the past, the four most important external ports of Daxia were Songjiang, Quanzhou, Ningbo, and Guangzhou. Later, Tianjin was added. With the increase of foreign trade volume, these five ports gradually became insufficient. Ning Yunjin's express hints that Shanghai Port has been newly built.

On May [-], the mighty Emperor Yujia left the capital.Not long after leaving the city, Wen Zhen couldn't sit still in the carriage, so he asked someone to bring the horse over, and invited Zong Zhengruoqi and Ning Yunjin to accompany him—they were the two with the highest titles in the team this time, and their age The smallest one is not eye-catching.

Both Wenzhen and Ning Yunjin knew that this trip would not be smooth sailing, and worried that it would not be easy to protect people, so he simply did not bring a single prince with him, and most of the officials selected to go south with him were physically strong. Then there will be damage.But this is not to say that there are no old people in the team, but those people are not Wen Zhen's confidants anyway, even if something happens to him, he doesn't feel bad.

The roads that radiate from the capital city to the surrounding cities are all newly paved. Today's official roads are filled with a layer of cement on the compacted ground, which is much cheaper than roads paved with stone slabs. But there will be no mud.

Ning Yunjin only knows that cement is made by mixing lime and clay in a ratio of [-]:[-]. He doesn't know how to mix it, but Wenzhen has a special royal construction team under his command, and there are countless skilled craftsmen. Someone will figure out how to do it soon. , Now the newly built cement factories in various places have also become the place where the Ministry of Internal Affairs lays golden eggs.

Official roads generally have two lanes, allowing two carriages to travel side by side, and so are the newly built ones.However, there are too many dignitaries and dignitaries in the suburbs of the capital, and there is a large flow of people. They are all built with four lanes, and it does not narrow until they leave the capital.

Ning Yunjin knows that there is no doubt that this kind of main road will be expanded in the future. Although there is no need to worry about demolition these days-the world is the largest land, but in order to avoid trouble, it is simply stipulated that the official road can only be planted within a foot of the official road. Trees and stone benches for resting feet are not allowed to be built.

On the gray and flat avenue, there are grasslands on both sides, with unknown flowers blooming. There are stone benches placed under the shade of trees every [-] feet, and there is a large rain shelter every [-] feet, which is quite humane.There will always be a crisp sound when the horseshoe hits the ground, giving people a sense of vitality. Accompanied by the shadows of the trees, there is a kind of indescribable comfort between movement and stillness.

If it wasn't for the running carriage, Ning Yunjin would have the feeling that he has traveled back to later generations.

Even if Ning Yunjin is like this, people like Wen Zhen who seldom walk on the newly built official roads will always be amazed in their hearts. After all, compared with the previous roads where the soil is compacted and paved with gravel at most, It is completely incomparable with the way it is today.

All the way Wenzhen kept novelty and interest, chatting with Ruoqi and Ning Yunjin on both sides from time to time.Most of the time, it was Wen Zhen who was talking rather than Ruo Qi, while Ning Yunjin just smiled and listened, not talking much, looking a little shy, which fits his current role as a junior.

The road is good, and the speed of the carriage is naturally fast. It only took two-thirds of the time before the army arrived at Tongzhou Wharf.Ning Yunjin was taken by the emperor to Yu Zhou logically, and lived with Ruoqi in Wenzhen's downstairs.If you look closely at the structure of Yuzhou, you will find that the windows of his room are parallel to the viewing platform on Wenzhen's floor, and those with good lightness skills can easily climb up.

From the first night of his departure, he never slept in his own room. Once it was nightfall and he was sure that there were no outsiders upstairs, Ning Yunjin went directly upstairs to Wenzhen's room.But he runs so hard every night, not for the sake of having fun, but for practicing kung fu with Wen Zhen.

The combination of the two of them's skills is really fast, and now Ning Yunjin is only a little short of being able to advance, and Wen Zhen has once again recovered to the level of a master.

Such an achievement at the age of the two of them is far beyond ordinary people, and it is really helpless to be so nervous.

Although the two of them haven't fully discovered the forces behind Chen De in the past three years, they have already confirmed that not only people from the royal family are involved behind him, but there are also shadows of big merchants and rebel forces. The same purpose of overthrowing Wenzhen was all colluded together - because they didn't want to see an overly strong emperor.

The assassination of Ning Yunjin and Hong Ming touched Wenzhen's bottom line.He can be ruthless to himself, but he is even more ruthless to those who offend him.Ning Yunjin was his favorite person, and Hong Ming was his most valued son. No matter which Wenzhen could let them have trouble, their assassination made Wenzhen furious.

Using that incident as an excuse, internally, the court was cleaned up and down. The spies of the great merchants who were captured were killed; those who were close to the rest of the Great Zhou family were withdrawn;After such a toss, everyone could see how tough the emperor was. The new replacements were a lot more honest, and not many people dared to use their brains anymore. Wenzhen's control over the court officials had reached an unprecedented height.

Externally, Wen Zhen got stuck in the trade of cloth, tea and salt with big merchants. These three things are necessities for human life, and they are also in short supply on the grasslands. They have always relied on the supply of Daxia.With such a card from him, they can only be smuggled or purchased from other countries, and the cost is more than several times higher. As a result, even the nobles of the big merchants have lived a tight life in the past two years, and their quality of life has declined. Quite a lot.

Moreover, Wen Zhen never wanted to be in such a stalemate with the big merchants. In the past three years, he has been increasing the garrison on the frontier, training troops, replacing equipment, and purchasing horses. Since this year, a large amount of grain has been shipped outside the customs. In his eyes, it was undoubtedly preparations for war, and people from big merchants couldn't help being nervous.

Seeing that Daxia is becoming more and more prosperous and powerful in Wenzhen's hands, the army is getting stronger and stronger, and the court is becoming more and more stable. Even the disputes between the parties can't cause waves. It only takes five to ten years, and Daxia is bound to be destroyed. will enter into a prosperous age.Such a situation, neither Da Shang, Da Zhou, nor the Da Xia royal family who were peeping at the throne, didn't want to see it, so they couldn't blame them for uniting.

For Wenzhen and Ning Yunjin, this sweeping plan has been prepared for three years, and it can be said that they have a well-thought-out plan. The only thing they worry about is the two great masters who have been struggling to track their whereabouts.They have already suffered enough losses in front of that heaven-defying force, so they can't wait to improve as soon as possible. As long as they have a great master on their side, they can be sure that they will be invincible.

Along the way, in order to buy more time to practice and avoid accidents after docking, the mighty fleet never went ashore, but went to Tianjin, Linqing, and Taierzhuang for supplies.

The fleet went all the way south, sailed to the Li Canal, and soon approached Yangzhou.The so-called Li Canal refers to the section from Huaiyin to Guazhou. As Yangzhou is a famous city on the Li Canal, it is really unreasonable for Wen Zhen not to go ashore again.

Seeing that he could reach Yangzhou tomorrow morning, Ning Yunjin slipped into Wenzhen's room again this night. After the two sat face to face, he said firmly, "Whether I can break through today or not, I will go ashore tomorrow. Otherwise, I have to rush Already!"

The letter Chen De brought back promised that as long as there was a commotion in the team in Zhejiang Province and Wen Zhen's blood was obtained, he would meet with him and confess blood in front of all his collaborators.

Wen Zhen knew that it would be impossible to procrastinate any longer, even if he was worried about the danger of Ning Yunjin going to the banquet alone, he could only nod his head in agreement.He stretched out his hand to grab Ning Yunjin's hand, and clasped his fingers together. With a thought, he closed his eyes slightly, and the internal force naturally circulated in his body.