Chapter 201

"So... I have been away for nearly two months?"

Wu Pifu, Daphne (human form), and Jiu Jiu (bird form) are sitting at a large round table eating.

Beside him, Zhao Fubao is dressed elegantly and luxuriously, smiling happily while watching Wu Pifu eat.

There is also An standing by the side, respectfully reporting: "Yes, the Immortal has been away for two months and three days. Returning today, it is right to report the property of this mansion."

Wu Pifu originally wanted to refuse, but on second thought, he is considered to have transcended in this world, but the palace maids and eunuchs in this mansion, and Zhao Fubao, need to live and need dignity, all of which depend on the property income of this mansion. For them, this is a huge matter, so he cannot be so willful and arbitrary.

At the moment, he nodded and said: "Okay, let's hear it."

An was a bit uneasy in her heart, but was overjoyed upon hearing this, and immediately reported the property income in the mansion together.

As long as Wu Pifu knows and nods, these properties cannot be taken away even by the Emperor, having a legal basis, and her young lady can truly be considered to have this great power.

This mansion is not just a set of houses. When the Emperor bestowed it before, it also included two shops outside the street.

This Dongjing Bianliang is the top-level modernized metropolis of this era, none other. This is the world's number one combined with the whole East and West, so the land price in the city is very expensive. Even if the two shops outside the street do nothing, just collecting rent, there are nearly a thousand guan of copper coins a year, and these two shops are located in a prosperous area, so there are 1,500 guan of copper coins a year.

Besides that, there is a royal manor outside the city, which is a place to provide agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits for the mansion. Counting it, there is also an income of 500 guan a year.

This is 2,000 guan of copper coins a year.

And according to the income of officials in the Northern Song Dynasty, a first-rank official, such as Zongze, who is the Pingzhang Military and State Affairs, is actually equivalent to a prime minister. The official salary is about 1,200 guan a year.

So this annual income of 2,000 guan is not small.

It's just that the mansion currently has 120 palace maids, 80 eunuchs, and more chefs, craftsmen, dancers, technicians... totaling 150 people. This adds up to 350 people. Plus Zhao Fubao is a princess, naturally needing dignity and good care, so these 2,000 guan are actually not enough.

Of course, this is a conventional situation. If it is an ordinary person, they basically have to accept the offerings of foreign officials (relative to Beijing officials), corruption, or do business with power. This point is unavoidable even for Zongze, because if you don't do this, you can't even afford to raise staff, so what kind of prime minister are you, what kind of official are you?

This is actually the unspoken rule of the Song Dynasty.

However, Wu Pifu naturally doesn't need to do this.

Since Zhao Gou ascended the throne, especially after Zhao Fubao entered the mansion, the rewards almost never stopped. Every three days, he found opportunities to reward. Just the property rewarded in these two months is as much as 5,000 guan.

Then the royal family rewarded three manors outside the city, connected into one piece, and then Confucian scholars from all over the country, as well as academies, and wealthy merchants in the south tried their best to stuff money. What An wants to report now is actually these.

Wu Pifu listened patiently to everything, thought for a while and said: "It's not okay to refuse everything, so accept a part of the property from the Gongyang faction, the Zhang Zai faction, and the Mencius faction. How about this, accept two shops outside the street from each family, totaling?"

An was overjoyed and immediately knelt down and said: "Enough, enough, it's definitely enough."

Just a rough calculation, you can know that these add up to more than 10,000 guan a year. Just one mansion plus the princess's dignity, this is definitely enough.

You know, when Zhao Fubao was still a princess in the palace, she only had 30 guan a month. Although she didn't have to worry about food and drink in the palace, she also had to make friends with some noble ladies in the palace, or deal with servants. In fact, just talking about glory, it is far less than one ten-thousandth of what it is now.

Although Zhao Fubao is young, she also knows these economic ways.

Or rather, the Song Dynasty actually doesn't discriminate against economic ways. This is a field familiar to everyone from the Emperor to the ministers to the people, so she looks at Wu Pifu with even more watery eyes.

Wu Pifu was embarrassed by being looked at. He coughed and said: "I will stay for five days when I return this time, and then I will go out to kill demons and demons. I will leave this mansion to you."

Zhao Fubao also bowed solemnly.

In the following time, Wu Pifu took Daphne (human form) and Jiu Jiu to wander around the city, actually to show his face, so as to avoid some inertia that he had finally corrected, and suddenly returned to the past, then he would have to kill again.

In fact, Wu Pifu thought carefully, there are still many things for him in the Song Dynasty, such as inspecting the rich areas in the south, which is estimated to be a bloody road.

Kill! Only kill!

Kill until this world is completely terrified, let those high-ranking power holders choose for themselves whether they want wealth or life!

And he is not trying to engage in any wealth equalization, just hoping that these power holders will at least act like people, and treat those civilians as people. But even if it is just this, it needs to be killed until there are corpses everywhere to be able to do it.

Besides that, there is that monk called Ba, who seems to be from the Mi Sect. It's fine that he came to attack him before and was beaten to death, but the magic tools he had made him angry. Thinking of the Mi Sect he knows, then shouldn't he go in the direction of the Mi Sect?

There are even the remnants of the folding and harvesting, the remnants of the northern alien civilization, the remnants of the Jin people, and even where his magic conch came from... all these things are things he needs to explore or do. I am afraid that it will not be completed in a year or two if all of them are done.

But in fact, he should have had enough time.

This world is already a fifth-rank shelter, there will be no new Nightmares born, and his strength in this 0.7 Dream World can also be considered supreme. Spending a year or two, or even five or six years, it doesn't matter. This is the base camp for him and his future team members.

Not to mention his current physical fitness, just the technology of the 29th century, letting him live for hundreds of years is like playing. So he should have a lot, a lot of time... It should have been like this...

But unfortunately, he carries three "attentions" on his back, all of which want to drag him into a deeper Dream World, plus his mental negative backlash, which forces him to keep becoming stronger. Not to mention...

He still has revenge to take!

Wu Pifu took the bird and the dog to stroll on the street, buying a piece of pastry here, a bottle of drink there, and it was quite carefree along the way.

And the news of his return was immediately passed to the imperial court. In less than an hour, Zongze, Qin Gui, and more than a dozen Zhu-robed officials ran to find Wu Pifu.

"Taxation? What does it have to do with me?" Wu Pifu said in surprise to Zongze and others while eating and drinking in a private room of a restaurant.

Other officials didn't dare to look into Wu Pifu's eyes. Qin Gui was a standard dog-legged look. Only Zongze looked seventy or eighty, but his breath was full, and he was the only one who dared to argue with Wu Pifu.

He smiled bitterly: "The Immortal said to treat the common people well. Now our dynasty has stopped various civil taxes and agricultural taxes, but if we really do this, the imperial court will fall apart next year. By then, the world will be in chaos, and there will be countless casualties. But because of the Immortal's previous behavior, no one dares to propose taxation now, and the officials originally in charge of taxation are all resigning, and they have to send the army to the north... I really have no way. Either the Immortal takes my head today, or the Immortal allows the imperial court to open taxation."

Wu Pifu said inexplicably: "Why not open taxation? It is natural for a country to open taxation."

!

Many officials looked at each other inexplicably. Zongze immediately said: "But in this way, isn't it contrary to what the Immortal said about treating the people well?"

Wu Pifu shook his head and said: "What are you thinking? Can what I said and this be the same meaning? What I have always said about treating the people well refers to treating them as people, not as livestock... I will give an example. For example, agricultural tax. If a family has one acre of land, collect 10%... that is, one-tenth of the grain tax. For ten acres, collect 20%. For one hundred acres, collect 30%. For one thousand acres, collect 40%. For ten thousand acres, collect 70% directly, and so on."

"Then there is personal income tax. Those with a monthly income of less than one guan are not taxed. Those with five guan are taxed 10%, and still push up. Then those with ten thousand guan are taxed 50%, and those with one hundred thousand guan are taxed 70%."

"The richer you are, the higher the tax rate. So why oppress the poor? The rich are already flowing with oil. If you don't collect more taxes from the rich, what are you thinking? Take my mansion as an example. Counting it, the annual income is more than ten thousand guan, so just pay 50% tax according to the proportion."

Many officials were inexplicable. Zongze's eyes had light, and he asked in a deep voice: "But wealthy merchants and great gentry, they will only pass it down. Originally, the imperial court collected thin taxes, and the tenants who rented their land had a way to live. But once heavy taxes are collected from them, then these tenants will really have no way to live."

Wu Pifu waved his hand and said: "Then check the population and measure the land. The country stipulates that all tenants only pay 10% grain tax to the landlord. If they pay more, kill the landlord. Kill one household if there is one, kill ten thousand households if there are ten thousand. As for them saying that the land rent is low, and they won't rent it, okay, kill, continue to kill. I still say that people cannot be suffocated by urine. You say how many percent of wealthy merchants and great gentry I have to kill before they will understand the sentence that living is very good?"

These words were murderous, and the officials present were all terrified, because... they and their families were all wealthy merchants and great gentry!!

Wu Pifu didn't care, he chuckled and said: "I don't know how to govern a country, but I know that survival is the first driving force of all life. Perhaps one or two will not want their lives for power and wealth, but when converted to the whole group, they will inevitably change their way of survival... Qin Gui."

Qin Gui was stunned and immediately bowed: "The minister is here!"

Wu Pifu shook his head and said: "You are not my minister, but I hope you can become the minister of all the people... You come to check the national population and measure the national land. I will let Zongze send five thousand fully armed elite soldiers to protect you. If you die in Xuzhou, I will let all the officials, gentry, scholars, and landlords in Xuzhou be buried with you. If you die in Yanzhou, it will be the same... I will protect your life and your family's life. I don't want anything else, just check the population and land clearly. Is it feasible?"

Qin Gui was stunned, and immediately overjoyed, and immediately knelt down: "The minister obeys the decree!"

Wu Pifu was too lazy to correct him, just looked at Zongze and said: "If anyone rebels, you send troops to kill, kill, kill. If you can't do it, I will go to the local area. If one village rebels, kill all the landlords and village gentry in this village. If one township rebels, one place rebels, it is all the same."

Many officials were all trembling. Zongze said with a hoarse voice: "If the whole world rebels, what should be done!?"

Wu Pifu lowered his eyes and said softly: "That's simple, isn't it? Just let the wealthy merchants and great gentry, officials and scholars..."

"All send into history."

Zongze asked again: "But people have wisdom and stupidity, there will always be people becoming new wealthy merchants and great gentry!"

"No."

Wu Pifu smiled, poured a glass of wine, and poured a glass of wine for Zongze.

"As long as you kill for fifty years in a row, let everyone know that if you become a wealthy merchant and great gentry, if you become an official and scholar and oppress the common people, you will die, the whole family will die, then they won't."

"I firmly believe."

(End of chapter)