Chapter 82

You're really too scheming—using Qingxue to buy time; if Uncle Yue accepts you, he naturally won't attack you, and if he doesn't, he'll also hold off because you've already taken Leiming City.

Plus Qingxue will speak well for you; thus Uncle Yue will surely want to see how far your abilities can go. You can just use this time to expand your power, recruit troops and buy horses.

Yang Hongyue's gaze at Shen Tianxing carried a hint of fear; at this point, upon hearing, she realized Shen Tianxing wasn't as simple as she thought, merely an ambitious lecher.

You can think of it, Qingxue surely wants it too; she's chosen to support me—don't you want to support me?

Shen Tianxing asked with a smile. Yang Hongyue was instantly speechless—how could she not support him? If she didn't support him, how could she have come this far?

I haven't said anything, don't speculate wildly—you've already taken Leiming City; what do you plan to do next? Besides, no matter which city you attack next, I can help you!

Using an ox knife to kill a chicken? I certainly know you can help me, but you're better suited for bigger wars; if you keep taking the field for these petty skirmishes, you're just giving the enemy too much face.

If you can be at ease, when I truly need you I won't hold back—you're also my wife, so when I need you you certainly won't be able to run.

Yang Hongyue was quite pleased to hear that—not because Shen Tianxing's flattery was so good, but because the words came from his mouth, making them sound better.

That's about right—you'd better remember what you said, but even if it's just ordinary warfare, I can still go onto the battlefield; after all, it's all about killing the enemy.

Your role is greater—you should know that, whether it's Old Man Yang or you, in the hearts of most people of the Great Zhou you both have sufficient standing; after each battle, we need you and Old Man Yang to pacify the populace.

If you and Old Man Yang don't participate, wouldn't that be better for winning hearts? Then the people would choose to trust us, and we could gather popular support most swiftly.

What Shen Tianxing said was true—the usefulness of Yang Tieqiang and Yang Hongyue is greater than that of going onto the battlefield.

Understood—if we don't participate, killing the enemy is your and the other soldiers' business; thus even if some are the fathers or sons of commoners, they won't blame us.

We'll go persuade them, giving enough benefits; they'll not only feel grateful, but may even have their fathers and sons enlist—you're really skilled at winning hearts.

However, such situations are still rare; generally conscripted soldiers are recruited from towns and villages, and a big city like Leiming City wouldn't enforce conscription unless it faced extreme peril.

Shen Tianxing felt both amused and exasperated—indeed, poverty is the original sin; the gap between city dwellers and villagers is huge.

Afterward, Shen Tianxing chatted with Yang Hongyue for a while, and only then did he realize that most of the Great Zhou's soldiers are actually recruited from villages and towns.

Moreover, if a family has someone serving in the army, their land tax can be halved, and the remaining miscellaneous taxes can also be reduced by half; the key is that they can themselves reclaim wasteland, which is also permitted by the government.

After learning these from Yang Hongyue, Shen Tianxing carried out a series of reforms over the next three days.

First, the defending troops lost twenty thousand men in this battle; Shen Tianxing implemented the plan properly, using a method of winning hearts by giving each family ten taels of silver as condolence money, spending 200,000 taels.

Leizhou's population is relatively small; although Leiming City is a big city, at most it has eighty thousand households, about four hundred thousand people; giving each household a dou of grain amounts to exactly eight thousand dan.

However, the grain distributed was only part of the twenty thousand dan stored in Leiming City itself, and the condolence money was likewise scraped together from the Taishou Fu—neither more nor less, exactly 200,000 taels.

Thus Shen Tianxing both spent others' money and won the people's hearts; even the families of the fallen soldiers, having received the condolence money, felt grateful to him to the point of tears.

Shen Tianxing wasn't surprised by this—after all, in ancient times a life was worth little, and exchanging a life for ten taels of silver could keep many poor families busy for ten years or so.

At the same time Shen Tianxing began planning recruitment; the recruitment notices were posted, treating city and village residents equally: five qian of silver per month, five taels of condolence money if killed in action—this is for ordinary soldiers.

Elite soldiers receive one tael of silver per month, ten taels of condolence money if killed, and additionally their land and miscellaneous taxes are reduced by a remaining third; all are registered, and even if they die on the battlefield, the tax exemption still lasts ten years.

Moreover, recruitment numbers are limited—currently we need forty thousand ordinary soldiers and ten thousand elite troops; calculating the cost would be high, but in reality it's merely less than what would be lost to corruption.

You should know that with a population of four hundred thousand, even the simplest taxes total roughly four hundred thousand taels a year after exemptions; if not exempted and adding some miscellaneous taxes, it would be at least over one million taels.

Shen Tianxing currently does not belong to the imperial court, so he need not remit most of the tax revenue; even if he were under the court and had handed over the bulk of taxes, he could still afford it.

As long as there's no corruption and the population is sufficient, not only 50,000 troops but even 100,000 would be more than enough; the problem is that few officials use tax revenue to support troops—they'd rather embezzle more for feasting and entertainment.

"Young Shen, if you do this, when you truly unify the Great Zhou and continue this way, the tax revenue that actually reaches the state treasury each year will be too little to sustain the nation's construction."

Although Shen Tianxing's approach is good, Yang Tieqiang clearly understands that if implemented this way, policy will have to be changed later, which wouldn't be good for people already accustomed to it.

But if it isn't changed, such annual tax revenue simply cannot support the operation of the whole country.

Shen Tianxing smiled, then shook his head, and patiently explained:

"Old Man Yang, what you say is actually correct, but that's because there are too many corrupt officials both locally and in the court, who line their own pockets, causing the treasury to lack sufficient silver."

"Even if I implement this policy now, once I unify the Great Zhou in the future, as long as we can eradicate corrupt officials at the root as much as possible, the treasury will still have at least tens of millions of taels left each year."

"As Hongyue told me before, the Great Zhou's annual treasury income is only about twenty million taels, but in reality a big city like Leiming City alone yields at least over one million taels in taxes per year!"

"And there are at least forty or fifty such major cities in the Great Zhou, not to mention the wealthy ones; in fact, their combined annual income is at least over fifty million taels."

"If we also count the smaller cities and towns, we could easily have sixty or seventy million taels—so where did all that money go?"

"Moreover, the reason the treasury spends so much is mainly because disasters everywhere become opportunities for officials to embezzle; clearly three million taels would suffice for relief, yet they demand five million."

"By the time it reaches the localities, there might not even be five hundred thousand taels left. Since I've decided to seize the Great Zhou's mandate, I must change the future—and the first step starts from Leiming City."