Chapter 668: 20% National Strength
Chang'an
In order to support Xiao Qun, officials of Xie Zhan's faction spent a lot of effort to promote and implement the new tax law. With the support of Song Mo, they showed no mercy to the stubborn resistance encountered during the implementation process and directly flattened it.
The result was very good.
By measuring the land, Dali directly gained more than 1.5 million hectares of land!
And the entire treasury revenue in the fifth year of Tianhe was five times that of the fourth year of Tianhe.
Of course, the immediate effect was also related to the fact that 'in the fourth year of Tianhe, Dali's official salt was sniped by Pingzhou, and the salt tax could not be collected'.
Such a great achievement surprised Song Mo. After being surprised, his face was gloomy. It can be imagined how many fields these borers in Dali had hidden, and how much tax revenue had been embezzled in previous years!
As the saying goes, there is no construction without destruction. The wealth brought to Dali by the new tax law has forced Dali to continue a wave of blood.
The new tax law still has other benefits.
Since all taxes and services, except for a small part of grain, are calculated in money, the status of silver in the monetary system is strengthened invisibly.
Money is valuable, that is, silver is valuable, and at the same time, it promotes the circulation and development of commerce.
If Pingzhou had not intervened, the new tax law would indeed bring a new look to Dali and make the old tree of Dali rejuvenate.
Unfortunately, because of Pingzhou, a large amount of silver flowed into Dali, secretly taking away countless materials, and the prices of Dali have been rising. The most intuitive thing is that a pound of eggs has risen directly from twelve coins to thirty-six coins per pound, which has doubled.
In short, money is worthless.
The people of Dali complained.
They sold some materials at high prices before and saved a lot of money. They also thought it was easy to make money this year, thinking that when the farming season is over, they would repair the house for their family or find a wife for their children.
Now, don't think about it, it's good enough to not be hungry, or not starve to death.
The abnormal prices of goods in Dali alarmed Song Mo.
"What's going on?" Song Mo had no idea what was going on.
Damn it, silver can be worthless?
There are tens of millions of taels of silver collected in the treasury. How much can it buy? Thinking of this, Song Mo's face darkened.
Xie Zhan also frowned, "I have asked someone to check."
"Check! Check it out as soon as possible!"
Yanmen
The members of the Xianbei royal court were also dumbfounded at this time.
"What is Dali doing?"
"I don't know, it's suddenly like this, everything is expensive, especially food, it's ridiculously expensive." Things that could be bought with one tael of silver before, now you may not be able to buy them with three taels.
"Things in Dali are expensive, so go to Pingzhou to buy them!"
"The prices of things in Pingzhou haven't risen, but they use Pingzhou treasure notes for transactions!"
The key is that they have to go to Pingzhou money houses to exchange Pingzhou treasure notes. Now three taels of silver can be exchanged for a ten-yuan Pingzhou treasure note, which is not the situation when one tael of silver could be exchanged for a ten-yuan treasure note.
The members of the Xianbei royal court looked at each other in bewilderment. What is the difference between Pingzhou and the price increase in Dali?
At this time, the Xianbei herdsmen regretted selling so many cattle and sheep before. At that time, they felt that the price was high and they had taken a big bargain. Now, they can't buy them back even if they spend double the silver!
At this time, the people of Pingzhou, who responded to the call before and exchanged their silver and copper coins for Pingzhou treasure notes, were extremely fortunate, and at the same time they were more determined to follow Pingzhou's policies in the future.
There were also people who stubbornly did not exchange, or only exchanged part of them, and all of them were crying.
This is equivalent to a shrinkage of family savings or assets.
These people also secretly swore that they would do whatever the Pingzhou government ordered them to do in the future and never be smart again.
In addition, through Pingzhou's overt and covert propaganda, the people of Dali knew the prices in Pingzhou and knew that the lives of the people in Pingzhou were not affected.
Eggs are still 10 cents (10 coins) per catty, and ordinary people can earn about 10 yuan (1 tael) a month.
Among the people of Dali, the smart ones calculated that in Pingzhou, ordinary people can buy 100 catties of eggs after working for a month.
This calculation is very intuitive. In their opinion, the people of Pingzhou are now living a fairy life.
In Dali, they can buy 30 catties of eggs at most after working hard for a month.
This huge gap made many people in Dali excited, and they wanted to go to Pingzhou.
After more than a year of planning, Lu Songli and his subordinates let Song Mo, Xie Zhan and the Xianbei tribe, these bumpkins, see the severity of inflation for the first time.
At this time, Song Mo and Xie Zhan were really having a headache.
Xie Zhan led people to study the reasons for the abnormal surge in prices in Dali, and also asked people to check the relevant information in Pingzhou. He intuitively felt that this matter was related to Pingzhou.
By tracing the source, he knew that Pingzhou merchants had been buying and selling in Dali this year.
At this moment, he finally understood the purpose of Pingzhou issuing Pingzhou Baochao. This Pingzhou Baochao is like a puppet, staying in Pingzhou to stabilize the daily transactions of Pingzhou people, and Pingzhou's silver came out to do things.
What puzzled him was, where did Pingzhou get so much silver?
"Waste, all waste, Pingzhou bought so many things, and no one noticed the abnormality!" Song Mo was very annoyed.
Xie Zhan said objectively, "When the Pingzhou merchants took action, it was after the Juyang negotiations." Dali was forced by Pingzhou's threat to salt tax and agreed to lift the blockade of Pingzhou. It was legal for Pingzhou merchants to come to Dali to do business.
"What happened later? Pingzhou attacked Leling, Zhuozhou and other places, and they were all torn apart and expelled Pingzhou merchants. Why can they still buy so many supplies?"
Xie Zhan was silent. He found out that there was something wrong with the noble families.
"Forget it, it's meaningless to pursue these. Tell me, what should we do now?"
Song Mo could feel the power of Pingzhou's move. Just say that the tens of millions of taels of silver in the treasury have shrunk two or three times, not to mention the entire Dali.
Song Mo's premonition was right. In later generations, some experts estimated that Emperor Lu's move directly took away 20% of the national strength of the Dali Dynasty at that time.
In response to Song Mo's question, Xie Zhan could only reply, "Unless a large amount of grain can be put into the market now, the problem cannot be solved." To put it bluntly, the problem of Dali now is the problem of shortage of supplies.
At this time, the treasury has grain, but the grain collected is strategic materials. In order to cope with the next battle, it is impossible to put it on the market.
The noble families have grain, but they will definitely not be generous now.
The last way is to wait for this year's autumn harvest. In one word, it is to endure.
"Your Majesty, there is grain in the treasury..."
"No!" Song Mo refused without thinking.
"Otherwise, let the people endure, as long as they can hold on during this period, they will be fine when the autumn harvest comes." Xie Zhan said again.
"Don't the noble families have grain?" Song Mo did not allow him to escape.
Xie Zhan, who lowered his head, had a cold light in his eyes. Did the emperor not care about his life or death? He kept forcing the noble families, really thinking that they were soft persimmons?
"Your Majesty, this is probably not appropriate..."
"I don't care, you must solve this problem for me!"
"Yes."