Chapter 112: I Can’t Waste My Father’s Talent

Su Wen did not expect Ji Yuchen to be so vicious to himself.

He waited at the entrance for an entire night. The next morning, he was still standing by the entrance.

However, at this moment, the old fellow’s face was already pale.

He was already tottering unsteadily.

Su Wen came out of his house and turned to look at Zhao Jin. “He didn’t pee here last night?”

Zhao Jin came over and said in a low voice, “No, he brought my own chamber pot. The servant went to pour it from afar.”

Su Wen gave the old man a smile and gave him a thumbs up. “Not bad! Keep it up!”

Ji Yuchen hurried forward and said with a trembling voice, “Lord… Lord Su, it’s my fault! I’ve wronged you! Don’t be angry. As long as you answer the questions in my heart, this Old Ji can atone for my sins in any way you wish!”

Looking at the trembling Ji Yuchen, Su Wen sighed.

“Get in!”

How should he put it? Su Wen couldn’t stand seeing such a person that so wholeheartedly served the masses.

In his previous life, he admired such people the most.

Perhaps Ji Yuchen’s actions made him unhappy, but in the end, Su Wen still couldn’t bear to see him like this.

He knew that this kind of person represented the noble existence of human nature.

He might never become such a person even with his two lifespans.

The two of them got on the carriage. Su Wen looked at Ji Yuchen and shook his head with a sigh. “Why must you do this?”

“For the people of Great Zhou, I can die without regrets!” Ji Yuchen sighed. “The people… are suffering too much!”

He looked at Su Wen and said, “The commoners of the Great Zhou lead bitter lives. They eat while looking at the sky and even have to forage for food in the ground. Many families don’t even get a bite of meat every year!”

(TL Note: The author probably is trying to say how their food is so little that they can just throw the entire portion into their mouths in one go, hence looking up at the sky as they eat.)

Su Wen knew that he was speaking the truth. The difference between the rich and poor in Great Zhou had already reached an unparalleled level.

Ji Yuchen solemnly continued, “This old man had previously thought about how to lead the commoners to live a good life,”

“this can be done through reducing taxes and splitting the land equally. But no matter how hard I work, a natural disaster is enough to change everything!”

“The commoners are always the first to be internally displaced. In order to live, they have to sell their fields, houses, children, and even sell their bodies as slaves. All of these are commonplace. Humans cannot defeat the heavens!” Ji Yuchen lamented loudly.

“But after hearing Lord Su’s words that day, this old man finally understood that the problem wasn’t that the commoners were too poor, but that the nobles were too rich! Their wealth allowed them to take over the land at will, manipulate the prices, and control the lives and deaths of the commoners!”

Su Wen looked out of the car window at the royal capital, which was already bustling with business early in the morning. He echoed in agreement, “Aristocratic families, martial sects, officials of the royal court, and rich merchants are all living off the citizens! They have power, wealth, and status that can completely suppress the commoners, so they can easily exploit these poor people with their own privileges. Only by dividing their wealth with the citizens and giving them a stronger ability to resist natural disasters can the citizens truly become rich. This is also the role that the royal court should play.”

Upon hearing Su Wen’s words, Ji Yuchen’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! Lord Su, your words that day were extremely ingenious. Tax grading is definitely a feasible national policy in my eyes. However, there are many things that I can’t figure out. For example, how do I manage to regulate everything? If there’s no rules, many people will definitely think of ways to avoid taxes!”

“I don’t know!”

Su Wen gave the answer directly. In reality, even in the highly developed modern society of his previous life, this problem had not been completely cut off.

Let alone the Great Zhou in such a backward age.

Su Wen said, “However, it’s not important. The current Great Zhou tax collection system is already extremely mature under the current system. What we need to do is to purge the government officials and make it even stricter to prevent corrupt officials and merchants.”

Su Wen’s words made sense. The Great Zhou currently still had its own regulatory approach to both commercial and agricultural taxes.

For example, trade taxes could be obtained by setting tariffs.

This was because regardless of the various cities, there were checkpoints set up by the Great Zhou Empire that taxed passing goods.

That’s how the 3% business tax came about.[1]

Ji Yuchen frowned. “But if that’s the case, the taxes of the merchants still cannot be properly accounted for!”

Su Wen smiled and said, “So what? Why do we have to calculate everything clearly? As long as we can do it to the best of our abilities, it’s better than the current tax! Furthermore, we can utilize other methods!”

“Other methods?” Ji Yuchen murmured.

“For example… Business property taxes! Estate taxes! Inheritance taxes! Land taxes! Mining taxes!”

Su Wen listed out the type of taxes in his previous world one by one.

He explained each of them carefully, “The business property tax is to carefully inspect one’s ownership of properties. When the number of properties under a person reaches a certain level, we can collect property tax, estate tax, and land tax. They can then register the property, residential estates, and land under their name.

The properties, residences and fields will all have to be taxed. Each person is only entitled to one property, and the fields they own will have twenty acres as the base. Those who exceed it will be taxed even more. All land that belongs to an ownerless farm will be held by the country instead. The mining tax is specifically to target the current aristocrats who are able to mine for mineral resources, hence it must be a heavy tax.”

“It must be known that these people are harvesting the state-owned assets of Great Zhou. As for the inheritance tax, after the death of a person, the children will inherit the property. If the inheritance exceeds a certain amount, they will also have to be taxed! In this way, our Great Zhou’s treasury will definitely be filled to the brim. With this money, we will be able to feed the commoners and give them benefits. In this way, the wealth gap can be reduced.”

Of course, Su Wen was also very clear that even if he did this, he would not be able to completely change the fact that wealth was gathered in the hands of a small number of people. He could only say that it would alleviate the current situation a little and make the commoners richer!

However, Su Wen’s words had already stunned Ji Yuchen.

What kind of words were these? These tax systems with all sorts of names were simply akin to reaping the lives of wealthy merchants!

Ji Yuchen could not believe how chaotic the tax system would be once it was enacted.

“That’s… that’s too much, isn’t it?”

Even he was somewhat hesitant.

Su Wen smiled and said, “It’s naturally too much to give out all of them at once. However, these taxes can be slowly implemented through 10, 20, or even 30 years! Starting from a certain tax system, we’ll slowly cut them down one by one! As long as they don’t have the determination to wreck all their previous efforts, they can only compromise in the end. Believe me, most of them don’t have such determination!”

Ji Yuchen looked at Su Wen with admiration.

This fellow was simply a genius!

Could it be because he had followed Su Changqing, so he had learned the ability to plunder money?

All sorts of clever taxation against rich merchants opened a new door for Ji Yuchen.

He couldn’t help but ask, “Since Lord Su is so talented, why aren’t you focusing on government affairs? Why are your actions so extravagant, such as squandering… your family wealth?” His last sentence was a bold question.

Su Wen glanced at him and said, “If I don’t squander, wouldn’t it be a waste of my father’s talent? He has so many assets and he can’t even spend all of them. If I don’t help him, my old man will get angry. One look at your son and I know he won’t help you spend money. Otherwise, how would you have the money to share with the commoners?”

[1] Actual phrasing is 1:30 but I’ve decided to convert to percentages to make the numbers clearer