Lu Si still couldn't believe it. How could there be so many troops that had been wiped out in the second city center?
"It must be their ghosts. They have no money in the underworld! Butler, go buy some joss paper and burn it for these brothers!”
Looking at the mumbling Lu Si, Qi Qubing, Qin Weiguo, and Lu Qiji walked over.
"Governor, we are the ones His Majesty requested to rebuild the Qi Family's Army, the White Pole Army, and the Great Sky Army.”
Lu Si was trembling in fear. He was in a daze.
"It's really God's blessing on Great Ming, God's blessing on Great Ming!”
Lu Si, who had always been gloomy, suddenly became enlightened.
Previously, he was worried that the Great Ming Empire would be completely destroyed. Now, he was not worried at all.
"Reporting, Your Majesty's messenger pigeon invites the White Pole Soldiers, Qi Family Army, and Sky High Army to set off immediately!”
After receiving the order, they immediately made preparations and set off from the second town center.
In the second town center, Zhu Ciao transferred 10,000 farmers to be used as a supply team.
The Minister of Agriculture continued to recruit 10,000 peasants. In order to ensure the logistics of the Qi Family's Army, the White Pole Army, and the Sky High Army, the Minister of Agriculture had no choice but to let the 5,000 peasants bring 500 carriages filled with food and move with them.
When the second army passed through Leizhou City, the citizens were also shocked.
They had always thought that there was no hope for the Ming Empire.
Now that they saw the three special troops in neat formation, the commoners were filled with tears.
They had long been in despair. They only wanted to live one day at a time. Even if they had to become Slave Jian's slaves in the future, they had no hope.
The eyes of the commoners were filled with hope.
Especially in the second town center, the blacksmith shops, textile shops, etc. produced many high-quality and cheap goods.
There were also various jobs that allowed the people of Leizhou Prefecture to reach the standard of food and clothing in one or two months.
In the Ming Empire, especially at the end of its reign, even in the capital, less than fifty percent of the population could reach the basic level of food and clothing.
At the end of the Ming Empire, every city even organized a special corpse collection team, responsible for transporting the citizens who starved to death in the city every day.
There was no need to mention the countryside. With all kinds of taxes, many farmers who were unwilling to rebel also rebelled.
The governor of Leizhou Prefecture received the imperial edict from Zhu Ciyao. He couldn't believe his eyes as he read the contents of the edict.
Governor Lu Si gathered the officials of Leizhou Prefecture, as well as the state and county officials under the jurisdiction of Leizhou Prefecture, for a meeting.
The governor was also known as the prefect and was the highest official in Leizhou Prefecture. The prefecture was smaller than the prefecture, and the county was smaller than the prefecture. The governors of the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of the Leizhou Prefecture all came to Leizhou City to hold a meeting.
At the meeting, Magistrate Lu Si took out the imperial edict.
"Everyone, His Majesty wishes to carry out tax reform in our Leizhou Prefecture!”
The Zhizhou and county magistrates passed the imperial edict to each other and carefully read the contents.
"Magistrate, His Majesty said to stop collecting agricultural taxes! Then how does our Leizhou Prefecture operate?"
The magistrate pointed at the contents of the imperial edict.
"Are you blind? His Majesty raised the tax on business to 20%, and the salt industry was monopolized! I heard that His Majesty's sea salt factory earned two million taels of silver in a month! A portion of the fine sea salt was even sold to the Wei Nation and other western countries through cargo ships!”
The Zhizhou and county magistrates frowned.
"But our counties are not well-developed in commerce. If we don't collect agricultural taxes, I'm afraid we won't have money!”
"Don't worry, His Majesty said so! In the second town center, the Minister of Commerce would organize people to go to each county to build a small market. At that time, the cheap and high-quality products produced in the town center would be transported to the county cities for sale!”
Hearing what Lui Si said, everyone was relieved.
Most of the Zhizhou and county magistrates had gone to the market in the center of Second Town. There were many businesses there.
However, they were very curious. Some of the businesses had shopping malls written on them, some had supermarkets written on them, and some had salt stores written on them. These names had never appeared in the Ming Empire before.
In order to carry out the contents of the imperial edict left behind by Zhu Ci, the Leizhou Prefecture's counties posted notices announcing the abolition of the agricultural taxes in the Ming Dynasty's laws and the increase of commercial taxes.
The commoners cheered. Because 10,000 landlord households had been eliminated, the tax on businesses had been increased. No one made a scene.
In fact, the business tax of the Ming Empire was very low. As long as the Ming Empire increased the business tax, many merchants would spend money to unite with scholars to oppose increasing the business tax and fighting with the people for profit.
This also caused Emperor Chongzhen to not dare to increase the commercial tax and instead increased the agricultural tax, which directly led to the collapse of the empire.
In Leizhou Prefecture, farmers made up the majority of the population. The announcement of this imperial edict had garnered the support of the people.
The commoners ran around to tell each other, shouting that the Ming Dynasty would last for ten thousand years, and the Emperor would last for ten thousand years.
On the march
Zhu Ci Xin looked extremely haggard.
In ancient times, it was really tiring to march and fight.
Especially the roads, they were all dirt roads. The better roads were paved with some stones and flagstones.
Many roads had been in disrepair for a long time. When marching, they had to repair the roads while marching.
"Damn it, how long has it been since this road was repaired?”
When Zhai Ying heard Zhu Ciyao grumbling, he quickly ran to Zhu Ciyao's side.
"Your Majesty, ever since Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, the national treasury was short of money. The Leizhou government has no longer allocated funds to repair the roads!”
Zhu Ci Xin had a helpless expression. Even if his Chongzhen father ascended the throne and did not care about anything, Da Ming would not have become like this.
"How much silver is needed to maintain the roads every year?”
"Not much. There are so many roads in the Leizhou Prefecture. We need 20,000 taels of silver a year to repair and maintain the roads! If it was the entire Ming Empire, it would probably require two million taels of silver a year!”
Zhu Ci Xin was very calm. Two million taels of silver was equivalent to the income of selling fine salt in the town center for a month.
In the center of each town, there were also all kinds of cattle, pigs, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and even dried fish and wood.
He could earn five million taels of silver in a month, but the money he earned was used to pay the salaries of the officials in Leizhou Prefecture, build roads, and subsidize the wages of the people in Leizhou Prefecture.
What he really got was only two million taels of silver.
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