Chapter 47
Was that even possible?
None of the officials could answer Li Shiming because they also wanted to know if there was such a possibility, so everyone's eyes unconsciously fell on Lin Fei.
At this moment, Lin Fei calmly cupped his hands at Li Shiming and said,"Emperor, how much of the tax revenue does the business tax take up?”
"Thirty percent!" This data had already been imprinted in Li Shiming's mind, so he didn't even need to recall it.
"Then what percentage of the population are merchants now?”
Li Shiming suddenly thought of something, but he didn't grasp it. He said to Lin Fei hopefully,"One percent!"
"Alright, now everyone understands what I mean! One percent of the population pays 30 percent of the tax. If the merchants account for 10 percent of the population, have you ever thought about how much the tax will be?”Lin Fei glanced at everyone and said calmly.
His words caused a thousand waves. As soon as Lin Fei's words landed, an uproar suddenly broke out in the throne room.
In the past, no one had calculated this number, and no one had thought of doing so. It was like there was a veil on it, and no one was willing to lift it. Now that Lin Fei had suddenly lifted this veil and placed the real problem in front of everyone, everyone suddenly realized that it did not seem impossible.
"Does everyone still think that it's impossible?”
Fang Xuanling pondered for a moment and said," It's possible. But the number of people farming has decreased. There's already not enough food now. If the number of people farming continues to decrease, won't the food produced be even less?”
Lin Fei smiled and said to Li Shiming,"Your Majesty, the potatoes that I offered three months ago should be almost ripe now. Although they haven't ripened yet, there should be quite a number of fruits. I believe that Your Majesty has already seen them. If this kind of food was to spread throughout the Great Tang, it would be enough to feed even more people, let alone a tenth of the population.”
"What?"
Fang Xuanling was shocked, and so were the other officials. Other than Cheng Yaojin and the others, they all looked at Li Shiming in shock, hoping that Li Shiming could tell them the answer in their hearts.
"Emperor, is what County Duke Lin said true?”Fang Xuanling's voice was trembling from his excitement.
"It's true." Although Li Shiming answered Fang Xuanling's question, his eyes fell on Lin Fei. When Lin Fei told him for the first time, he didn't believe it, so he went to see the potatoes planted in the palace every day.
However, after three months, he still hadn't seen any fruits. In the end, Li Shiming made up his mind and pulled out a plant. He found that the roots were full of fruits. Only then did he know that potatoes grew underground, unlike other crops that hung above. However, because they hadn't matured yet, they weren't too big. However, Li Shiming already believed what Lin Fei said. One mu of this kind of grain could yield more than 20 catties.
"Haha, the heavens truly bless the Great Tang. From now on, the commoners will never have to go hungry again.”Fang Xuanling was laughing crazily in the throne room. He did not care about his image, but no one stood up to blame him because those people were similar. Even Cheng Yaojin and the others knew about the existence of this thing in advance, but when they really confirmed that it was as Lin Fei had said, they could not help but be excited.
After Fang Xuanling calmed down, he cupped his hands and said to Li Shiming,"Your Majesty, to be able to obtain this is the blessing of the people of the Great Tang. I hope that Your Majesty can quickly promote this grain.”
" Don't worry, I've already thought it through. When the potatoes in the palace are ripe, I'll take out all the harvest first and let the people around Chang 'an plant them for free. I'll slowly promote them to remote areas next year.”Li Shi Min said the plan that he had been preparing for a long time.
"Your Majesty is wise!"
Fang Xuanling naturally wouldn't object to Li Shiming's decision, and would only bow and suck up to him.
"Haha, this is Lin Fei's credit. If it wasn't for Lin Fei taking the initiative to reveal this grain, We wouldn't have known that our Great Tang actually had such a thing.”Li Shiming was in a good mood, so he didn't mind giving some of the credit to Lin Fei.
If Li Shiming said this, the officials would congratulate Lin Fei and thank him for everything he had done for the Great Tang.
Zhangsun Wuji, who was standing among the officials, saw Lin Fei smiling as he accepted the congratulations of the officials. His face darkened. He had thought that after Lin Fei's limelight died down, he would seek revenge on him, but now there was no chance. As long as he dared to make a move, the people of the Great Tang would definitely drown him in their saliva.
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