The Palace of Billionai.

The emperor sent someone to urge him four times before Ma Zhou finally came.

Because he was a saint with a white body, Ma Zhou was taken to take a shower and change clothes by the eunuch after entering the palace, and specially gave him a white robe.

"The people of the country think that Your Majesty should strictly reward and punish, advocate frugality, rest with the people, restrain the princes, and select good officials. In this way, the world will be safe and the country will last for a long time."

When Luo Cheng saw Ma Zhou, he found that this unruly talented man had an extraordinary demeanor. Facing the God of War, Ma Zhou, who immediately conquered the country, was also very calm. When the report was corrected, he was not anxious or slow, and was very organized, and each one was indeed very insightful.

"In the prosperous era of Kaihuang, the country encountered famine, but a piece of silk was worth a dou of rice, and the world lived and worked in peace. The people knew that the emperor cared for and loved them very much, so everyone was at peace and had no complaints. But in the early years of Daye, there were bumper harvests year after year, and a piece of silk was worth a few stones and millet. The people thought that the emperor did not care about and loved them, and they all complained."

"Although this dynasty has not been established for a long time, now the rice is only twenty or thirty cents, and the piece of silk is only a thousand coins, which can be worth more than five stones of rice. In addition, the special tax on salt law is very high, and the people have already discussed it. I think this is mostly because many of the new things that the court has done today are not the first priority at present, and many are irrelevant matters at present."

"Since ancient times, the rise and fall of a country cannot depend on how much it has been saved, but only on whether the people's lives are bitter or happy. Take modern events to prove that during the Sui Dynasty, the two emperors had only been more than 30 years, but they had accumulated a lot of money. The Luokou Warehouse, which stored grain in the Sui Dynasty, accumulated tens of millions of stones of grain at that time, but countless people died of hunger in the Central Plains. In the end, the Luokou Warehouse was occupied by Li Mi, becoming the source of grain for its anti-Sui Dynasty separatist rule. The granary treasury in other places was also mostly owned by those anti-kings. Until now, the Qin Dynasty was established for several years, and many of the Sui Dynasty's treasury had not been used up."

"The large amount of food and cloth taken from the people of the Sui Dynasty was used by Wang Shichong, Li Mi, Li Yuan and others to accumulate a large number of people."

Luo Cheng asked, "Doesn't the country collect taxes and save money?"

"Your Majesty, storage is a normal matter for the country, but the country cannot be rich and the people are poor. The people should have the spare energy and then collect and store it. How can the people be forced to collect it? As a result, the people are hungry, and the money and food collected are finally used by the bandits? Such storage is not beneficial. Frugality allows the people to rest and recuperate. This is what should be done. The country cannot be rich and the people are poor, but should be rich and rich, so that the country can be stable."

"Since your majesty ascended the throne, he has also revised the tax law system to grant equal land to the people and reduce the burden on the people, but the court has done too much and too urgent in recent years. The world is not safe, but the court has used troops all the time and has not stopped for a moment. I heard that the court has exhausted the treasury in order to conquer the war, and cannot issue bonds. It is a matter of 50 million guan. The interest on borrowing debts in five years will be several million guan. This is an early overdrawal of the court's income in the next few years. This is to eat the food of the emperor. If there is a flood, drought, locust plague, or some epidemic, or an enemy invasion, and illegal people take the opportunity to cause trouble, there will be unpredictable situations."

As a white-bodied person, when the first time he could say such words, Luo Cheng felt that Ma Zhou had already shown the prime minister's talent.

"Ma Zhou, what you said makes sense. All the officials in the court have such knowledge. After the Helong War ended this year, the court has to rest with the people in full. Now I want to select talents. Ma Zhou, how about I give you the Censorate? "

The inspector of the censor is only under the eighth rank, with a low rank, and even no qualification to enter and exit the main gate of the court. He can only enter and exit from the side gate, and he will not be allowed to go to the palace court unless he reports the matter. However, he has the power to supervise the officials inside and outside, and has a wide range of authority, which can make all officials afraid.

The Censorate of the Qin Dynasty changed the three units of the Sui system into one unit, but the Censorate also had three courts, halls and prosecutors. In fact, the Sili, Censors and Evangelists of the Sui Dynasty turned the three departments of the Censors of the Censors of the Sui Dynasty into the Third Court.

The emperor directly appointed the inspector and censor under the eighth rank of Ma Zhouzheng. It seemed to be of low rank, but this was a very important position.

Unexpectedly, Ma Zhou refused directly.

"I do not want to be lucky enough to advance. Your Majesty intends to promote the imperial examination and select scholars. I think I can participate in the imperial examination and pass the right path."

"Hahaha, your confidence is not wrong, okay, I will give you a silver talisman and white robe, and you can receive an edict to enter the palace to report. I hope I can see you next year during the Golden Palace Examination."

Ma Zhou thanked him.

After the waiter sent Ma Zhou out of the palace, Luo Cheng sat in the hall and pondered for a long time.

Even scholars like Ma Zhou knew that Daqin had done many things that were not urgent now, and it was obvious that Daqin was too eager to act, which had caused some instability.

Frequent use of troops and high salt prices are all things that the people are not very satisfied with.

Also, they believed that the royal family and the princes had too much power. Just now, Ma Zhou even thought that there was no need to actually enthrone the princes, and there was no need to rush to expand the territory when the Central Plains was not stable.

Although the imperial court has built many new territory in recent years, even though many criminals, poor people, slaves, etc. from the Central Plains have been removed from these Xinjiang territory, it will take a long time to stabilize it.

And now, the court is exactly the time when it needs rest the most.

The people hated war. After the Sui Dynasty, they were more eager to live a few days of peace earlier.

Foreign wars continue, and although they have always been victories, the expenses are also high, and even the casualties of war horses, livestock and soldiers are also high.

Take the last Helong War, where more than 20,000 soldiers were killed and killed, more than 100,000 dead soldiers, horses and pack horses, etc. The court spent all the national treasury and had to borrow 50 million chunks to deal with the aftermath.

In Kaihuang, salt is ten coins per bucket, which is less than the price of rice.

When the Qin Dynasty was founded, the imperial court increased the price of each bucket of salt by 100 yuan. At the same time, because of the implementation of the implementation of the implementation of the civilian industry, the government collected merchants and transported merchants. The salt produced salt by 100 yuan. In addition to labor costs, the salt people also had good returns. When the imperial court received the salt, it directly increased the price by 100 yuan, and sold it to merchants by 100 yuan. The merchants had to transport it and sell it, so the price of salt had to be increased in the end, and it was already 120 to 30 or even higher in the hands of the people.

Since then, the military has been used frequently, and the court has relied on salt tax more, so the price of salt continues to rise, from an increase of one hundred per bucket at the beginning, to an increase of two hundred later, and now to an increase of three hundred now.

When people buy salt, they often cost three hundred, forty or fifty cents a bucket of salt.

This is actually a disguised tax on salt, a disguised tax on population tax. But now the problem is that after the reform of the two taxes, the two taxes have been greatly reduced, and the court's taxes have been reduced, which relies entirely on taxes such as industrial and commercial market monopoly, especially salt taxes, which have become the largest source of income of the court.

Even if the salt price is reduced by 10% or 20%, there will be a fiscal gap in the court.

However, the high salt prices led to the people's dissatisfaction, and at the same time it also gave birth to a large group of private salt vendors who took risks. Even if the court repeatedly declared that selling private salt one pound and one ounce of pounds would be considered as a crime, and the court punished extremely severely. Once the private salt vendors were arrested, they would be directly exiled to the frontier and exiled to reclaim the land and would never return to the Central Plains.

But salt that costs less than ten texts will cost more than three hundred cents to the people, and it is dozens of times the profit, and there are still a large number of people taking risks and breaking the ban.

In fact, many officials have proposed that when the salt tax is reduced and the profit of selling private salt will decrease, the private salt dealers will naturally be fewer.

But the court could not reduce the salt tax.
Chapter completed!