In the following months of the seventh year of Chengshun, the Chu Empire was peaceful externally, and there were no major events internally. Although some places were affected by natural disasters, there were also rebellions by chieftains or powerful people in some places.

But it’s all harmless!

Small-scale local rebellions are normal for a new dynasty, especially since many border areas were newly recovered. At the same time, the Chu Empire also implemented a relatively fierce land policy and a policy of returning land to locals.

The land policy will cause a large number of big landowners and powerful people to resist. There have always been landlords and powerful powerful people who have resisted in recent years, but the number of people who have resisted has become smaller and smaller. It is estimated that they will not appear again in a few years.

To reform the policy of returning natives to the countryside, it is to completely abolish the so-called hereditary chieftains and to abolish the so-called chieftain aristocracy. At most, it will only give you an official title to let you serve as an official in another place. No more will be impossible.

Accept it or die!

As a result, some chieftains accepted it and some chieftains did not accept it. Therefore, although the southwestern provinces of the Chu Empire were recovered and included in the empire's territory, in fact they have been unrest in the past few years, with chieftain rebellions occurring one after another.

This is also the reason why the Chu army continues to station heavy troops in the southwestern provinces, mainly in Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, and continues to fight every day, just to suppress the ongoing chieftain rebellion.

Regarding the rebellion of these chieftains, the thoughts of the empire's senior officials and the military were still simple and straightforward: Kill them all!

Kill all the chieftains who dare to rebel, and naturally there will be no more chieftains to rebel.

According to the estimates of the empire's top officials, the situation in several provinces in the southwest is expected to remain chaotic for a few more years. After the imperial military has dealt with all the chieftains one by one and captured all the hard-nosed ones, it will be able to calm down.

At that time, several provinces in the southwest can truly be considered to be under the direct jurisdiction of the central dynasty.

Some local rebellions will not affect the overall situation of the empire, and some natural disasters will have little impact.

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The Great Chu Empire was so large that it spanned more than 2,000 kilometers from Liaodong in the north to Qiongzhou Island in the south.

From Jiayuguan in the northwest to Dajuan Island in the east, it is more than 3,000 kilometers.

In such a huge territory, some places will always be affected by disasters every year, whether large or small.

For these natural disasters, the Chu Empire also has a complete set of response measures. For example, for droughts, the government basically allocates funds and organizes the construction of emergency infrastructure. For example, for droughts, it means digging wells, digging canals to divert water, etc.

If it is a flood, various flood control facilities will be built to relocate the victims.

In addition to these emergency infrastructure and personnel transfers, there will also be assistance for the restoration of agricultural production, reduction and exemption of agricultural taxes, etc.

In addition, the construction of these infrastructures, in addition to responding to the disaster itself, is also a form of work-for-relief, which can prevent a large number of people from fleeing due to natural disasters, thereby causing large-scale displacement.

When responding to disasters, the Dachu Empire officials have always liked to adopt the work-for-relief method. Although the money is not wasted, the effect is very effective. It can not only provide relief, but also build various infrastructures and control the epidemic.

The emergence of large-scale refugees is a good thing that achieves multiple goals with one stone.

Well, apart from spending money, there are basically no disadvantages.

But the matter of money may be extremely difficult to solve for the Ming Dynasty and even other feudal dynasties, but it is not a difficult problem for the Da Chu Empire. In the seven years of Chengshun, the central fiscal revenue of the Da Chu Empire

It has exceeded the 80 million mark.

Note that this is only central fiscal revenue, and does not include local fiscal revenue reserved for local finance at all levels, and local fiscal revenue is also a considerable part.

In terms of taxation, basically no feudal dynasty can compete with the Chu Empire, not even the Song Dynasty!

The economic system of the Song Dynasty was unique among the feudal dynasties of the past, mainly due to its focus on business.

But it should be noted that the business mentioned here does not mean that the government supports private business, but that the government monopolizes business... Basically, the government does whatever makes money, and it is a monopoly...

Therefore, the Song Dynasty had a lot of taxes from business. At its peak, the proportion of business revenue reached more than 70% of the fiscal revenue.

It adopts an economic model in which the country is rich and the people are poor.

The Ming Dynasty went to the other extreme. Perhaps it learned from the Song Dynasty's lesson of competing with the people for profits. The Ming Dynasty did not compete with the people for profits, but this benefit was not really given to the people.

It was given to the gentry.

Of course, according to the saying at the time, the gentry were the common people... As for the people at the bottom, they were no different from cattle and sheep and were not considered common people...

Therefore, the wealth of the world was taken away by the gentry, and more importantly, they did not pay taxes.

In the Ming Dynasty, commercial tax accounted for a very small proportion of fiscal revenue. In most years, it was a single-digit percentage, and it was almost impossible to see a proportion exceeding 10%.

It's okay if all kinds of businesses don't pay taxes, and the gentry don't even pay land taxes... As a result, the finances of the Ming Dynasty were completely ruined, and it can be called the worst economic and tax system in history...

…

In the ancient clan period, if the clans did not pay taxes, they would organize armies to help defend their homes from foreign enemies, but the gentry of the Ming Dynasty knelt down when they saw anyone...

Why?

Because the clans have something to protect, these clans can basically be regarded as warlords. If foreign enemies come to claim their territory, they will naturally resist.

But the gentry, especially those who are mainly scholars, are not warlords, and they have no territory to protect, so there is no psychological burden at all when they kneel down.

Returning to the Song Dynasty, its special economic model and taxation system turned the Song Dynasty into a dynasty with extremely high fiscal revenue.

However, when the Song Dynasty faced various natural disasters, it did not use work-for-relief, but directly recruited young victims into the army.

Although they both spend money, the starting points of providing work-for-relief and directly recruiting young victims into the army are different.

The purpose of providing relief for work is to help the affected people tide over the difficulties. At the same time, the infrastructure built can also be an important help for them to resume production after the disaster. Restoring subsequent production is a very important part of it.

The main purpose of directly recruiting young people to join the army is to prevent rebellion. As the saying goes, there is no rebellion but no rebellion. As long as the military pay is sufficient, there will generally be no chaos in the army, unless the generals plot rebellion, but that is another topic.

As for resuming production, this is not their main focus.

It's just that the army composed of disaster victims in the Song Dynasty basically had no combat effectiveness, and they maintained the army for a long time as soon as they were recruited, which eventually led to the financial collapse of the Song Dynasty.

This point does not exist in the Dachu Empire. The Dachu Empire invests in disaster relief, essentially to restore production. Therefore, once the disaster is over, the affected areas can quickly resume normal production. Not only can the people in the disaster area survive, but also

It can also continue to contribute to the empire's tax revenue.

It was like this before, and it’s still like this now!

Thanks to the vigorous relief efforts and various other measures from the Chu Empire, although many places were affected by disasters in the seventh year of Chengshun, they did not cause much turmoil.

There has been no large-scale famine or large-scale displacement. Generally speaking, the negative impact has been controlled in the local counties. After the difficulties are overcome, production will be resumed in the future. When the weather is good next year, we will be a hero again!

It's just that disasters occur frequently in various places. In order to provide disaster relief and reduce the burden on farmers, the empire will reduce or reduce agricultural taxes in disaster-stricken areas. Therefore, the agricultural taxes in the seven years of Chengshun did not increase much. On the contrary, this year, there were many disasters in the Yellow River-Yellow River Basin.

Minor floods have declined.

However, the economic system and taxation system of the Chu Empire were different from those of traditional feudal dynasties. Like the Song Dynasty, the Chu Empire was also a dynasty that valued industry and commerce.

Unlike the Ming Dynasty, where the government personally controlled and monopolized whatever industry made money, the Chu Empire supported private capital investment through official guidance.

Although there are many government-run enterprises, they are only involved in national defense and people's livelihood industries. Not to mention national defense, people's livelihood is basically only involved in two industries, one is grain and the other is salt industry.

There is not even a monopoly on steel, let alone industries such as tea, porcelain, and textiles.

For some light industries, the government not only does not have a monopoly, but also vigorously supports and encourages private capital to invest. The large number of new textile industries that are emerging in the Dachu Empire are a typical example.

Nowadays, the machine-made cloth of the Dachu Empire has become not only a best-selling domestic product, but also a leading export product, relying on its low price and good quality.

A large number of ships came to the Chu Empire for trade. In addition to purchasing traditional Chinese export commodities such as porcelain, silk, and tea, machine-made fabrics also became a commodity they purchased and sold in large quantities.

In addition, as the Chu Empire gradually controlled the northwest region, that is, the Shaanxi-Gansu region, it gained a large amount of wool sources. Therefore, the woolen textile industry also emerged rapidly, and its high-end woolen materials also became one of the export commodities.

How should I put it? The industrial and commercial model of the Chu Empire was based on government-run enterprises controlling and specializing in the three major industries of national defense, salt industry, and grain industry. These three major industries did not allow private capital investment, nor local financial investment.

, only the Ministry of Industry can invest on its own.

Important industries, such as heavy industries such as steel, mining, machinery, and shipbuilding, as well as a small amount of light industries related to people's livelihood, are dominated by official investment, but official capital will not monopolize... If private capital wants to invest, the government is quite welcome, as long as

However, investment in heavy industry involves large investments and relatively slow returns, so there are not many private capital involved for the time being. Most of them are small mines, small ironworks, small machinery factories, etc., so the impact is not big for the time being.

In the light industry, especially those industries that do not affect national defense security and people's livelihood, a small amount of official investment is guided, and private investment is mainly supported and encouraged. The rapid development of Suqin Textile Company in Suzhou Prefecture, Jiangnan Province is a typical product of this policy.<

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At the same time, it leads and guides private capital to invest in other industries, such as light industry and even heavy industries such as steel, coal, machinery, and shipbuilding.

Even in some industries that appear to be very profitable, the government will not seek to establish monopolies, but will allow private capital to invest and compete on their own.

Here, it also involves the financial revenue system of the Chu Empire. The financial revenue from industry and commerce is not mainly based on the profits of government-run enterprises.

In fact, among the government-run enterprises of the Dachu Empire, except for the Dachu Empire Salt Service Company, the others basically did not turn over much profit. They either did not make any money, or they invested it in production after making money.

As for the Salt Service Company, this is an exception. This thing is used to make money to subsidize the finance. Even after paying taxes, there are still profits of several million taels a year. However, it is estimated that the Salt Service's profits will be reduced starting next year.

It's so high because the empire's senior officials feel that the profits from the salt industry are too high and taxes must be increased...

It is estimated that the total revenue from the salt industry will not change much next year. It will still be about 15 million taels of silver, but most of it will be turned into salt tax and turned over to the national treasury, instead of leaving a considerable part as before.

Turn it over in the name of profits.

After all, the commercial revenue of the Da Chu Empire is mainly based on industrial and commercial taxes. Regardless of whether it is a government-run enterprise or a private enterprise, you have to pay taxes... Just because you are a salt company does not make you special.

Not to mention the Salt Company, even the several mints under the Mint directly under the Ministry of Finance have to pay taxes!

In the Dachu Empire, paying taxes is a very serious matter and cannot be taken carelessly.

Taxation is the basis of finance, and finance is the basis for maintaining rule.

Therefore, the Chu Empire has always attached great importance to taxation, even in the newly recovered Liaodong.

By the way, starting in late September, the Third Army of the Chu Army in Liaodong launched a new round of offensive. Hundreds of thousands of troops set off from Jinzhou, Yingkou and other places to fight towards Shenyang.

In addition to the headquarters of the Third Group Army, there were also more than 40,000 cavalrymen in the Third Cavalry Army composed of dozens of young men from Monan Mongolia who had surrendered to the army. They fought from the direction of Monan Mongolia into the last part of Monan controlled by the Eastern captives.

The area controlled by the Mongolian tribes is the Liaohetao area.

Just half a month later, the Chu Third Army captured Shenyang, a few days later captured Tieling, and then recaptured Liaohai.
To be continued...