In the Heavens

After negotiating a deal, it can be regarded as a small profit, but Li Mu has all kinds of tastes in his heart.

As the lord of the world, the imperial court actually cooperates with the martial arts sect for the logistics of the army. I am afraid that no one will believe it.

This is not the last year of the dynasty. Calculated by the standards of the Kangxi and Qianlong heydays, it is still a peaceful and prosperous age.

However, due to the internal strife in the court, the national strength was empty but could not be used. In order to suppress the rebellion as soon as possible, the commander and the supervisor had no choice but to compromise.

After all, the Huashan faction is just an ordinary Jianghu sect, a good boy who has not carried out large-scale land annexation, and what he seeks is nothing more than some commercial interests that the imperial court has never collected taxes.

But those fellows in the court might kill them. Deliberately delaying the time to suppress the rebellion and let the rebel army continue to grow bigger can certainly force the emperor to cut off Liu Jin's head and give an explanation to the people of the world.

However, as the person in charge of the counter-insurgency army, how can he get away easily if he is charged with the disadvantage of suppressing the rebel army?

The biggest possibility is to go on the road together with Liu Jin, as a victim of this wave of court struggle.

For their own lives and their official careers, it is not surprising that the two chose to make deals with the Huashan faction.

Thinking of this, Li Mu mourned silently for that brat in the Forbidden City. The seemingly understated compromise, but the price behind it is the decline of the imperial court's influence in the arena.

Finally, with the help of the Devil's Cult, the Wulin was in a state of turmoil, taking advantage of the trend to beat all the schools of the Wulin, and this wave returned to the original point.

Frankly speaking, Zhu Houzhao's reform of Liu Jin was also successful to a certain extent.

It was mainly caused by Emperor Jingtai. After he came to the throne, he saw the barren military settlements in the border areas, so he took it for granted that "the officials near the border should be powerful enough to plant the seeds."

On the day when the edict was issued, the whole country celebrated with joy. The royal relatives, feudal bureaucrats, monks, temples, Taoist temples, and local hooligans all ran to occupy the military village and Huangzhuang. Everyone praised Zhu Qiyu as a prosperous and wise king.

The price of being a wise king is the opening of the era of land annexation.

The policy restrictions have been opened, so it would be a disappointment to the emperor's good intentions not to do a big fight. Therefore, everyone wants to grab the unowned land, and everyone still wants to grab the owned land.

In the Zhengde period, it even developed to the point of insanity.

The son of Liang Chu, a world-renowned upright official, clashed with others during a land annexation, and directly mobilized the army to massacre more than 200 people, including hired households, in order to silence them.

No one dared to take care of the Minister of the Ministry of Officials. What's more, similar things happened in the Ming Dynasty, and Shengdou Xiaomin was worthless.

Later, because of the court battle, he was stabbed in front of the emperor by his political opponents. Zhengde gave a verdict and issued a border guard for five years.

Such an understatement of punishment did not come to fruition. It was called exile, but in fact it was an official in a border area.

For this reason, the emperor also gained the reputation of being harsh on his ministers. Now Zhu Houzhao couldn't bear it anymore, and after Liu Jin's instigation, he launched the huge "Liu Jin New Deal".

Li Mu did not study the specific measures carefully. Anyway, the core is to combat land mergers, and the main measures are to rectify military settlements and check hidden acres of land.

Looking at the financial revenue of the imperial court, we can see that it is still effective, and land annexation has been temporarily contained.

It's a pity that this guy has a bad conduct, not to mention corruption and bribery, and he keeps doing all kinds of weird operations. Many policies that are obviously good are turned into policies that harm the country and the people in the end.

Judging from the current situation, the only substantive attempt to reform the Ming Dynasty is about to fail.

There is no way, the composition of the reformists is too bad, the strength of the opposition is too strong, and the strides are too big.

The issue of land annexation has not been completely resolved. A few days ago, an order was issued to check the commercial tax, which once again added a wave of enemies for itself.

Li Mu has the right to speak in this regard. Judging from the business development of the Ming Dynasty, even with the ultra-low tax rate of 30 to 1, it would start with an annual income of tens of millions of taels of silver.

It's a pity that everyone just doesn't want to pay the commercial tax to the court. In addition to the income from the salt and iron franchise in the entire Ming Dynasty, the sum of various other commercial taxes was only more than 20,000 taels.

Whoever dares to raise business tax, the ministers will immediately use it to compete with the people for profit, and attach a thick stack of memorials crying for the poor and selling miserably for the merchants.

On the contrary, it is easier for the martial arts sect to collect protection fees. Taking the Huashan faction as an example, there are four main financial revenues: protection fees for businessmen, industry income in the sect, annual gifts from aristocratic families, and offerings from small and medium-sized martial arts gangs within the sphere of influence.

The biggest income is the merchant's protection fee, which accounts for three-fifths of the sect's income. In a sense, it can also be regarded as commercial tax.

According to the profit of the industry, the charging standard ranges from a few points to a dozen points. Of course, this also depends on the person, and those with good relationships and strong backgrounds usually get discounts.

Li Mu doesn't know if anyone is evading taxes. Anyway, the Huashan faction now occupies Guanzhong, Luoyang, half of Shanxi, and the Great Northwest where its sphere of influence radiates, which together can contribute millions of taels of income every year.

This is because the Northwest region often encounters natural disasters, and the situation is somewhat unstable, which affects the development of commerce and trade. Otherwise, the income can go up two or three layers.

Not to mention ordinary businessmen, even high officials of the court, princes and aristocrats still have to pay the same when they reach the land.

It's not that there is no head iron, but Li Mu rarely hears about it. Perhaps it is because the ancestors have done so well that everyone has developed a good habit of paying protection fees on time.

Of course, the money is not collected in vain. The most important thing in the chaos is loyalty, and taking people's money means eliminating disasters with others.

If there is a problem with the goods on your own land, or if you are harassed by local hooligans, you can come to the Huashan faction for help.

If you accidentally offend someone, such as the gang of plague gods in the yamen, you can also ask the Huashan faction to come forward to make peace. Of course, the business will have to be recalculated.

As long as you can afford to spend money, even if you offend the magistrate or the governor, you can still do business without worrying about being retaliated against.

In the Guanzhong area, when it comes to deterring the subordinate officials in the yamen, the name of the Huashan faction is more useful than any high-ranking official in the court.

The greed of capital is endless, facing a group of murderous warriors, everyone has to choose from the heart.

After all, if you don't pay the protection fee on time, you might be ruined one day, and you will be swallowed with blood and bones in the end.

But the imperial court wants to collect commercial taxes, so it will not work. Since you can reason, why should you be afraid?

Thirty tax one is also money, what if the court becomes addicted to it and continues to levy more?

Perhaps there is no need to wait until later, with bureaucratic integrity, after increasing the price layer by layer, when it comes to specific implementation, it will be a problem if the tax is not doubled.

Originally, merchants had vague connections with the bureaucratic group, and everyone knew their own family's morals very well.

For the sake of the money in their pockets, everyone decisively chose to take the initiative, and used the tax money to feed the officials of the court and central government first, so as not to let themselves become meat on the cutting board.

It has developed to the present, and it is not just a simple bribe.

The smart businessman changed his strategy early on, using the academy as a link to continue to support poor scholars and increase his strength in the court.

In this context, the business tax is even more difficult to collect.

Otherwise, based on commercial taxation alone, the fiscal revenue of the Ming court could increase by at least one-half, and it would not be impossible if the official administration was cleared and doubled.

It is not that the commercial tax revenue is high, but that the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty is low, and the tax in kind is still the main one.

Including rice, wheat, silk, cotton, cloth, salt, copper, cinnabar, lead... They collected a bunch in a mess, not to mention transportation and storage is a big problem, and the discount and fire consumption are terribly high.

On the contrary, the cash is only three to four million taels. Based on the integrity of the court bureaucrats, all these incomes are converted, and it is estimated to be between two to thirty million taels.

There is no need for Li Mu to worry about the court affairs. But for the aftermath, he, the head of the Huashan School, had to think about it in advance.

According to the outbreak rate of natural disasters in recent years, it is obvious that there is a treatment in the last years of the dynasty, and there are signs of more frequent ones.

It's just that the little emperor's skills are not bad, he has repeatedly issued edicts to reduce and exempt taxes, and the ministers he appointed are somewhat capable and know how to organize disaster relief, so there is no catastrophe.

If this situation continues, the Huashan faction in the northwest will be a giant sitting on the powder keg.

Li Mu really envied those senior traversers who were able to develop the Northwest in an era of constant natural disasters. However, my ability is limited, so I can't learn at all.

Not to mention how to solve the traffic problem, the key point is that God doesn't give face, which makes people's livelihood in the Northwest wither.

Up to now, even the aristocratic families in the Northwest have begun to tighten their belts to live. After each major disaster, the purchasing power of the people will shrink sharply.

The Silk Road was interrupted again, and Li Mu could not see any hope of developing the Northwest. If, as in history, the drought lasts for several years, I am afraid that the tragedy of Yizi and cannibalism will be staged again.

Developing to the south is also full of difficulties. After so many years of hard work, it has only extended its tentacles into the south of the Yangtze River.

I didn't dare to move too much, for fear of arousing the vigilance of Shaolin and Wudang, and being under the black hand.

Not to mention overseas trade. It was the private land of the big clans in the southeast and the dignitaries in the court. The emperor wanted to go in and get a share of the pie, but he was beaten back.

According to Li Mu's knowledge, Shaolin Wudang two masters of martial arts have tried more than once.

It's a pity that martial arts masters are only kings on land, and the sea is already the era of giant ships and cannons.

You can hide on land, but with the speed of a martial arts master, it is almost impossible to be locked by artillery. When you are at sea, you will share your fate with the ship.

In case of bad luck, you may be sent to see Hades several kilometers away. It's not easy to train martial arts masters, even if the hit rate is only one in a thousand, it can't afford to lose.

The most tragic thing is that I was tricked by someone, and I still don't know who did it, and I can't even find a target for revenge.

What's more, those who go out to sea for ocean trade these days are only in Korea, Japan, and Jiaozhi, and there are no more Chinese businessmen in Southeast Asia.

Professional smuggling teams can't do it, and a bunch of landlubbers rush in. The Huashan faction can't afford the tuition.

Perhaps before going to sea, the entire army has been wiped out. Li Mu did not forget the tragedies in Southern Shaolin in the past few years.

The famous family is upright, and it is not weaker than the Devil's Cult in the slightest. In addition to participating in necessary martial arts activities, no one of the major sects would dare to wander around the competitor's territory with the main force of the sect.

Secretly rearing thugs is not the exclusive property of the Songshan sect, each major sect has a group of people who specialize in doing shady things.

These people usually operate under the banner of the Devil's Cult, and only activate it when needed. If not, how will the protection fee be collected?

After weighing the pros and cons, and looking at the map of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of Ming Dynasty, Li Mu finally set his sights on the Land of Abundance.

The reality is cruel. Individuals cannot go against the general trend of the world. For the long-term development of the school, going west to Bashu is the best choice for the Huashan School, and it is also the only way to hope for success.

Looking at the various factions in Bashu marked on the map, Li Mu sighed helplessly. Unexpectedly, he would eventually become the most hated person and had to become the mastermind behind the martial arts.

It doesn't matter if it's good or evil to collect awesome names of magical skills. Haiyue's brains are not enough, and the ones she came up with are too rubbish.