Chapter 971 Tax Increase

Shuofang.

After staying in the military academy for some time, Yun Zheng and his companions finally returned to Shuofang.

Because the administrative center has been moved to Shuofang, the entire Shuofang is now engaged in a new round of construction, and work has not stopped even in freezing cold.

Construction of new-style schools and medical schools also began.

According to Chen Bu and his team's plan, the entire Shuofang will be more than twice as large as before.

The original city walls of Shuofang formed the inner city walls, and the newly built city walls served as the outer city walls.

A special area was planned between Shuofang and Suqu for building various workshops.

This should be considered a proper industrial area.

Originally, Chen Bu and his team had planned to dig a canal to divert the water from the Baishui River to Shuofang and then build a moat outside the city, but this plan was temporarily rejected by Yun Zheng.

It's freezing cold today, not suitable for doing this kind of thing.

Moreover, it is basically impossible for the enemy to reach Shuofang now, so there is no need to build a moat for the time being.

We will do this slowly when finances are adequate and food is sufficient.

At this moment, they still have to spend their money and food wisely.

Before coming to Shuofang to welcome the emperor, Yun Zheng did not have time to properly stroll around Shuofang.

This time when I came to Shuofang, I deliberately walked around the streets and alleys of Shuofang.

As an important passage leading to the Northwest Protectorate, Shuofang developed very rapidly this year.

There are many more restaurants, inns and brothels in Shuofang City.

Yun Zheng and Zhang Xu stopped in front of a brothel at the same time.

This brothel is obviously newly opened. Just by looking at the outside, you can tell that its class is much higher than the previous brothels in Shuofang.

Yun Zheng and Zhang Xu smiled at each other at the same time.

They all thought of the time when they observed the people's sentiments in the imperial city.

"Why, are you two still planning to go and get to know the people? Do you want me to step aside?"

Miaoyin asked the two people with a playful look on her face.

“There’s no need to avoid it.”

Yun Zheng put his arm around Miaoyin's waist and said with a smile, "When we are free some other day, let's go shopping here together and relive the feeling of how we met each other!"

Talking about how they met, Miaoyin couldn't help but smile.

When she first entered the brothel, she originally wanted to get close to Yun Li.

Unexpectedly, by some strange combination of circumstances, I ended up together with Yun Zheng.

The world is so unpredictable!

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

Just as they were talking and laughing, a joyful call rang in their ears.

Yun Zheng looked in the direction of the sound and saw a person hurriedly running out of the brothel.

Looking closely, isn’t this Hou Shikai?

Yun Zheng smiled and signaled his guards not to stop him.

"I pay my respects to the prince, Madam Miaoyin, and Lord Zhang..."

Hou Shikai ran over and was about to kneel down to salute, but Yun Zheng stopped him.

"You're in a good mood!"

Yun Zheng looked at Hou Shikai with a smile and jokingly asked, "Did you come to the brothel so early in the morning? Or did you stay there last night?"

Hou Shikai apologized and said, "Your Highness, this brothel was opened by me..."

"Oh……"

Yun Zheng suddenly realized, "If that's the case, I really have to go into your brothel to understand the people's sentiments!"

"what?"

Hou Shikai was slightly startled, subconsciously glanced at Miaoyin, and then quickly smiled and said, "It is my honor that Your Majesty is willing to come in and sit down!"

"Then sit down!" Yun Zheng smiled, "It's just right, I want to chat with you too."

"Yes Yes……"

Hou Shikai nodded repeatedly and raised his hand to gesture.

After entering the brothel, I found it was much better than the brothels I had been to before.

Hou Shikai naturally brought Yun Zheng into the best room.

However, Hou Shi was happy to know that Yun Zheng wanted to talk to him about serious matters, so he didn't dare to really ask a few prostitutes to come over and drink with him.

"Sit down, don't be so polite."

Yun Zheng motioned Hou Shikai to sit down.

"Yes Yes……"

Hou Shikai sat down with a smile on his face.

Yun Zheng looked around the room and asked, "How long have you been running this brothel?"

Hou Shikai replied: "Not long, less than a month."

Yun Zheng smiled and asked, "During the process of running your brothel, have any officials taken bribes?"

"No no."

Hou Shikai waved his hands repeatedly, "When I went to the government to handle the necessary procedures for opening a brothel, the government not only did not make things difficult for me, but also helped me a lot..."

Speaking of this, Hou Shikai started talking.

Under Yun Zheng's strict requirements, Shuofang's business environment is still very good.

Of course, he didn't know whether this was because Yun Zheng paid special attention to him.

After all, he still owed Yun Zheng a lot of money. Yun Zheng said a long time ago that as long as he came to Shuobei to invest, he would be given convenience as long as he did not do anything that violated the laws of the court.

Not only did he open a brothel in Shuofang, he also opened a rice shop, a tea shop, a restaurant, an inn, etc.

He does all the common business.

However, except for rice shops and cloth shops, other businesses basically do not make a profit.

But now that Shuobei's administrative center has moved to Shuofang, Hou Shikai believes that all his businesses here will be booming, and it shouldn't take long to pay off the money he owes to Yun Zheng.

Listening to Hou Shikai's words, Yun Zheng couldn't help but nodded slightly.

"By the way, have you encountered any problems here? Or maybe have any suggestions?"

Yun Zheng took a sip of the tea and said with a smile: "Just say whatever you want to say. There's no need to hide it."

"This……"

Hou Shikai laughed dryly, thought for a moment, and replied, "If Your Highness had asked before, I would have some suggestions, but now I don't have any..."

"Oh?"

Yun Zheng was curious, "What suggestions? Why are there no suggestions all of a sudden?"

Hou Shikai smiled along and told Yun Zheng in detail about his previous problems.

The taxes collected by the brothels in Shuobei are too high, almost half more than those in the interior.

If Yun Zheng had asked before, he would definitely have suggested Yun Zheng to reduce taxes.

But when he went home a while ago, he unexpectedly learned that the taxes on brothels inside the country had increased.

It's not just brothels, but also higher-end restaurants and jade shops. In short, any place frequented by rich people will have its tax increased.

He felt that the court was raising taxes, and Yun Zheng was just implementing the court's tax increase policy, so he did not make any suggestions.

Yun Zheng couldn't help but be surprised when he heard Hou Shikai's words.

The imperial court increased taxes on a large scale?

Moreover, the taxes are added on places where rich people often spend their money?

As taxes increase, the prices of those items will naturally go up as well.

This is a typical case of reaping the rich!

I don’t know whether this was the third brother’s idea or my father’s idea.

Could it be that the imperial court is raising taxes like this in order to get money to start building warships on a large scale?

If that's true, that would be great!

However, it is possible that the imperial court raised taxes in order to expand the army to deal with itself!

Hmm, I thought the same thing as you did!

However, why didn’t Fuzhou respond to the court’s large-scale tax increase?

Was it that the imperial court's documents were not delivered to Fuzhou, or did Tuohuan conceal the report?

Or maybe Tuohuan felt that there was no need to report such matters to himself?