Position determines ideas.

To put it simply, the butt determines the head. Where a person sits often determines the angle and range of thinking.

When Liu Jun was just a village squad leader, he considered how to get the support of local gentry in Macheng to expand and strengthen his Jiutou Niao Township. When Liu Jun became the general of the bandit, he considered how to defeat the bandits and use it as his promotion level and stand at a higher position.

When Liu Jun sent troops to Taiwan, he thought about how to seize the Dutch and Spanish re-export trade rights in Taiwan. For this reason, he did not hesitate to go to war with the Dutch, Spain, Britain and Portuguese. When Liu Jun established the East India Company, when he controlled Taiwan and Macau and the southeast coast, he no longer considered continuing to fight with these Western barbarians, but to sign a peace agreement and start a port to trade with each other.

Now, Liu Jun has entered the center and controlled the government. At this time, although the Qing Dynasty and the bandits were also the target of his elimination, the gentry class he once wooed him to support was actually gradually put on his opposite side by him.

Liu Jun wanted to control the Ming Dynasty. Those gentry landlords, the privileged classes that had always enjoyed privileges and sucked the blood of the Ming Dynasty, became the next targets Liu Jun would deal with.

The gentry and landlords of the Ming Dynasty enjoyed various privileges, especially the annexation of land. They controlled the vast majority of the land, and most of the people became their tenants.

The landlords charge high tenant rent, which makes the tenants' lives extremely difficult. When they encounter famine and are not accepted, they have to borrow money, and then profit and money will be profitable. In the end, they have to sell their children, daughters, or even wives and houses. Some even have to resell the right to rent, and in the end they have nothing to do. Do you want to read? Book?

The ancestors have long said that those who have constant property have perseverance. This is the words of Mencius. It is actually the same as Guanzi's knowledge of etiquette when he has enough food and clothing.

Only when the people live and work in peace can society be stable.

Liu Jun needs stability very much. People do not have food to cover their belly and clothes to cover their bodies. How can they talk about stability?

Moreover, the land was concentrated in the hands of the landlords. They exploited the tenant farmers and set high rents. The people became their tenants, and they could not eat enough and had no remaining money. How could they pay taxes to the court? However, these landlords, relying on their privileges, possessed a large amount of land and a lot of food and money, but on the other hand, they tried their best to evade taxes, making it difficult for the court to collect taxes.

From some perspectives, officials, gentry and landlords always enjoy some privileges, and it is much more difficult to collect taxes from these people than to collect taxes from ordinary people.

However, Liu Jun could not have been as simple as a bandit, and was as simple as a tycoon, fighting the local tycoons and dividing the land. Such brutal means would not work, but were just the root of the turmoil.

"Is this rent reduction really the prince's intention?" Cai Yuan asked, who had just arrived.

"Well, the plan implemented by the prince himself, in addition to reducing rent and interest rates, there are also cleaning up military camps and reducing various tax levies. The prince implemented these policies to alleviate the unstable situation in various places, the resentment of many military households and the people. This is a plan to remove the firewood from the bottom of the pot. Suppressing bandits is just a symptom, and those are the root cause. Otherwise, if we wipe out the people here and the people there will be risen because they cannot survive. What's the point?"

"The prince mentioned the troubled times in the end of the Sui Dynasty, and talked about the rise of rebellious kings in the Central Plains. At that time, Zhang Xutuo, a powerful general in the Sui Dynasty, was very brave and suppressed bandits again and again. He even defeated 20,000 bandits with five cavalry and hundreds of thousands of bandits. But in the end, the bandits were suppressed more and more. He led Qin Shubao, Cheng Yaojin, Luo Shixin and other powerful generals to suppress them, but in the end they were themselves. Why? Because the people at that time were forced by Emperor Yang of Sui and had no way to survive, they could only wait for death except rebellion."

"It turns out that Qin Shubao and Cheng Yaojin are actually Zhang Xutuo's generals. Zhang Xutuo must be a powerful general, which is a pity." Cai Yuan knew about Qin and Cheng's two generals, but he didn't know Zhang Xutuo. This was the first time he heard it.

"However, these plans of the prince are also subject to great resistance in the court. The prince hopes that we will take advantage of the opportunity to suppress bandits this time and take the lead in implementing the policy of reducing rent and interest rates in Henan."

Cai Yuan nodded, "How many landlords are willing to reduce rent and interest rates. The landlords are up to 35% of the landlords and a half cent of the interest, which has touched their interests."

"That's why the prince asked us to implement it in Henan first. Taking advantage of this bandit suppression, we can implement this plan."

"But this is a matter of civil servants' jurisdiction, not of our military generals." Cai Yuan hesitated a little. Although he was the admiral of the Central Plains and a second-rank high-ranking official, the rights of military generals are still not as good as those of civil servants, especially such things as rent and interest reduction, which obviously belongs to civil affairs.

Zhang Shan smiled, took out a silver cigarette box, pulled out two cigarettes from it, threw them to Cai Yuan, and then picked up one by himself. Cai Yuan hurriedly took out a lighter from his body.

This kind of lighter using flint fire is also a fresh thing. It is made by Jiangnan Manufacturing Factory. It has a shell with a small oil tank inside, which is stuffed with cotton and is connected to a stamen. Pour the vegetable oil into the oil cotton in advance, and then rub the flint wheel when used, and rub the fire wheel to create a fire and ignite the fire stamen.

This is a by-product of the flintstone, a very novel thing, but it is just a thing for rich people. Ordinary people will not buy this for a lot of money just to light a spark.

Cai Yuan hit a few times, and Mars flashed, but he didn't nod.

When Zhang Shan saw this, he picked up a box of matches from the table, "Although this lighter looks good, it is sometimes not as reliable as this match." Matches are also produced by Jiangnan Manufacturing Factory and are a by-product of the gunpowder factory.

As soon as the match head was rubbed, a ball of flames rose.

Cai Yuan put down the lighter and came closer to light a cigarette.

"I heard that cigarettes, matches, and lighters are all very popular now. It is said that these things have become tight sales products of Jiangnan Manufacturing Factory. The match factory makes no less money than the ammunition factory makes."

"One is military industry and the other is people's livelihood, it is always different."

Zhang Shan took a deep breath of cigarette, looking satisfied.

Cigarettes were introduced to China as early as Wanli. Now, the Ming Dynasty has a tendency to smoke for the whole nation. Regardless of men, women, young and old, there seems to be a misunderstanding of cognition. It regards this cigarette as a omnipotent medicine. It seems that cigarettes are a herb, and can cure any headache and fever.

After the establishment of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Factory, it also targeted this industry and quickly developed and produced several brands of cigarettes. The cigarettes produced by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Factory include both cigarettes and cigarette ratios. Especially after they improved some processes, they manufactured multiple brands of cigarettes of different prices for different customer groups, and even specially developed women's cigarettes for women to smoke.

With the influence of Jiangnan Manufacturing Factory, the various brands of cigarettes produced by Jiangnan Manufacturing Factory now occupy a large share of the Daming Tobacco market.

Even in the Chu army, cigarettes became a kind of military supplies, just like tea and sugar, and became a supplement.

Senior generals like Zhang Shan and Cai Yuan smoked special cigarettes from Jiangnan Cigarette Factory, and added a lot of precious medicinal materials to them.

"The more this is why the prince asked us to do this. Don't forget that it is wartime, and this is a war zone. So everything is mainly military. Of course, we have the right to deal with these things. After all, special matters are handled in wartime." Zhang Shan smiled, "It is inevitable that the gentry opposes, but it is easier to deal with them. The prince is still very polite to them. The rent reduction has not been reduced much. It is a blow to those cruel and unkind evil gentry, with 35% of the land rent and a half cent of the interest rate. This has not been reduced much for the vast majority of landlords."

Normal land rent is usually half. But in most cases, it is half of the year. If you plant beans, wheat, etc. for another season, the average landlord will not collect rent anymore. After all, the output of this season will not be very high, which is equivalent to reducing some land rent in disguise, which is equivalent to actually about 40% of farmers' land output per year.

Now it has been reduced to 35% and not much has been reduced.

As for the interest rate of one and a half cents, that is 18% annual interest rate. After this interest rate, it is actually considered high interest. In order to avoid the profit of profit, the interest rate must not exceed one-time.

Nowadays, the annual interest rate for short-term loans in Sihai Bank is 7%, and the medium- and long-term loans reach 10% for more than five years. The deposit current is 1.5% for an annual interest rate, and the fixed-term loan is 6%.

Compared with the beginning of Sihai Bank opening, the annual loan interest rate of 10% for a year, the annual loan interest rate of 15% for a five-year period, and the annual interest rate of current deposits and 10% for a five-year period, the deposit and loan interest rate of Sihai Bank has dropped a lot in recent years.

But even when the interest rate on loans in Sihai Bank is at the highest, it is only a 15% cap for a long period of more than five years.

Now the interest rate for short-term loans of Sihai Bank is only 7% and the interest rate for long-term loans is only 10%. The court allows private lending to be 18%, which is already relatively high.

Of course, this is the surface boundary. In actual operation, it will definitely be adjusted upwards on this line, but the highest red line is thirty, and the interest rate can be double the principal.

"We don't have to worry about whether these gentry are satisfied or not. In fact, even if we do not reduce rent and interest rates, they will still be dissatisfied. It's still the old way. Whoever dares to sing a counter-argument with us and who dares to oppose rent and interest rates, then we will do it as a gangster. I want to see if they have a hard neck or my knife is fast."

"When will we send troops to Luoyang?" Cai Yuan asked.

"I was about to tell you about this matter, and the plan changed." Zhang Shan lowered his voice, "The prince secretly ordered the army to abandon the original plan of the battle. We must make steady progress next time."

"If that happens, I'm afraid the thief will run away by then." Cai Yuan said in surprise.

"Run? Just as he was about to run, we would chase him all the way, and at the same time we would promote the reduction of rent and interest rates and clear the military farm."

"Oh!" Cai Yuan nodded with a long tail tone, and he suddenly realized. (To be continued.)

ps: Thank you Shan Qingying, Stupid Little Fish, A Swimming Fish 5. I feel heartbroken when I am tired. Mu Yuchen, after listening to the song, it’s the end of the month again, and the brothers with monthly tickets will support you!
Chapter completed!