Chapter 199

"Of course. The vessels we use for eating and drinking are all made of copper. Using them constantly allows copper residue and the like to enter the body, which is naturally harmful!"

"If they do not believe you, have them place the copper vessels in water and scrub them with their hands to see if copper rust, residue, and other substances form!"

"And if one eats using such things, it will surely affect the human body!"

As he spoke, he took out a copper bowl and scrubbed it constantly in the water; moments later, his hand actually turned black!

This sight made Li Si turn pale with shock.

"Does doing this constantly affect human lifespan?"

Ying Su nodded: "It is inevitable. In the future, you should try not to use copper for eating and the like either. For cooking, try to use iron pots, and for eating, use porcelain bowls!"

"This is beneficial to the body!"

"As for pricing!"

"I plan to use it to gradually replace paper!"

"You arrange it as you see fit!"

"Once the acceptance of this item begins to spread widely, then the price of paper can be reduced significantly!"

"Ten sheets of paper for one coin; this is the final low price!"

As Ying Su spoke, Li Si was covered in sweat!

Ten sheets of paper for one coin!

What a terrifying price that is!

Of course, all of this must proceed slowly!

Nothing can be rushed!

If one rushes, one will lose a great deal of money!"

He pondered and calculated constantly in his mind!

Next, Ying Su inspected cannons, steelmaking, papermaking, printing, and everything else.

With these, it is no exaggeration to say that he currently lacks no money.

Even with the entire nation's army supported and all the imperial court's various expenses, calculations show that the imperial court can still save over sixty million coins annually!

Plus the grain and other things seized from the nobles, he is now so rich he is dripping with oil!

And at this very moment, he also needs to enter the second phase!

Give back to the people!

Through various national construction projects and institutional schemes, return these things to the people of Great Qin!

When the people have money, they will pay taxes!

The state will then use these taxes to train armies, build projects, and so on to develop the nation!

Thus, a virtuous cycle is formed, making the nation increasingly powerful and the people increasingly wealthy!

This is the so-called rich country and strong people!

At this very moment, Ying Su has already begun to plan and think about these things in his mind!

Meanwhile, Princess Yu Shu, watching everything before her, was shocked.

Utterly shocked!

She was shocked by the production of paper and by the printing of books!

And the manufacturing of steel knives, as well as cannons and the like.

Although she still does not understand what impact these things will have on Great Qin's future!

Yet... merely seeing them makes her feel utterly shocked!

Especially those porcelain vessels!

Those porcelain vessels are truly too exquisite!

So exquisite that she cannot help but want to reach out and touch them!

Now, she truly wants to stay here a little longer and see more of these things.

On the streets of Xianyang City, today's Xianyang City is simply bustling with activity!

Everyone is crowding around the prisoner carts, running about and looking!

Several days ago, Zhang Liang's proclamation had already reached Xianyang City!

Immediately after, Ying Su issued another proclamation!

Informing the public of the evil deeds of the nobles in Handan Commandery!

To resist paying taxes, they actually organized private armies to openly oppose the imperial court!

They even incited the common people to serve as their weapons!

A series of crimes, simply unforgivable.

Now, watching helplessly as so many nobles are escorted into Xianyang City, all the common people are cheering and leaping for joy!

"Putting nobles in prisoner carts like this means that from now on, all nobles must start paying taxes just like us!"

"If the nobles pay taxes, then we won't have to pay taxes!"

"Because... all the land is in the hands of the nobles; we have no land at all!"

"If the nobles want to avoid paying taxes, they must divide the land among us; from now on, we will have our own fields!"

"Excellent!"

"Truly excellent!"

At that moment, all the common people cheered and leaped for joy.

Everyone was extremely excited!

But some nobles sneered: "Do you think this is a good thing? You will still have to pay fifty percent of your taxes to the imperial court!"

The common people laughed and said, "Before, when we leased land, we had to pay nearly seventy percent of our harvest in taxes to both the nobles and the imperial court!"

"Now, we only need to pay fifty percent. Long live the new Emperor! The new Emperor far surpasses the First Emperor!"

At that moment, common people were shouting!

The nobles furiously cursed them as stubborn and old-fashioned.

"We have to give half of our own grain to others, yet they still shout that the new Emperor far surpasses the First Emperor?"

But at the same time, some nobles were privately discussing that they would absolutely never lease land to commoners in the future!

They would even less distribute land to the common people!

"Yes! I will let it lie fallow! I will let the fields be overgrown with weeds, but I will absolutely never hand the land over to the common people!"

"Those people want to farm, they want to eat, so they can only sign a contract of indenture and become my slaves!"

Many nobles shouted viciously.

But at the same time, some nobles shook their heads: "This is merely a small tactic. The rebellious son Facing Ying Su making the nobles pay taxes is only the first step of testing; the second step might be to distribute land! To return the world to the state before Xia Qi!"

"Distribute land?"

"Return to the state before Xia Qi?"

"Let every person have their own land?"

"Would the rebellious son dare?"

"Would he dare to touch our land?"

"Would he dare to do this?"

Another noble grew furious!

While the other nobles shook their heads:

"He could even come up with such a foolish move as making the nobles pay taxes; he is even unafraid of the nobles rebelling and weapons rising everywhere. What is there he would not dare?"

"The most direct method is to overthrow him and support a new Emperor!"

"Prince Prince Fusu is more obedient than him, Seeing Ying Zheng could also do it, but this position simply cannot be occupied by him!"

"In his eyes, there are only common people; there is absolutely no place for us nobles!"

"Therefore, we absolutely cannot let him continue to act recklessly!"

"If we let him continue to act recklessly, let alone the hatred of the six states' nobles toward Great Qin, even my descendants of Shang Yang will hate Great Qin!"

"To touch the nobles' interests is like killing the nobles' parents!"

"Those who kill my parents cannot share the same sky!"

"We must overthrow Facing Ying Su!"

At this very moment, many nobles were speaking viciously!

Similarly, some nobles sighed: